Part II: Random Shots from Chinese Dorm Life

Since most of my blog updates will focus on the various trips that I have taken, I thought I would include a few funny pictures and anecdotes from my stay here.

Here is a picture of my Chinese roomate, his name is Ganghui and he is currently studying to apply to Chinese graduate school - I think he wants to be a lawyer or a judge in the Chinese judicial system - apparently he also doesn't like to have his picture taken. Living with Ganghui has been great so far, he speaks awesome English and he is always trying to help teach me new Chinese sayings and phrases - he also helps me with my homework sometimes - which is a real life saver.

All of the girls in our program also have Chinese roommates - the girls are a bit more shy than the male Chinese roommates, while the guys will often party with us and hang out with us, most of the girls are much more reserved and tend to keep to themselves. However, sometimes they do tend to get a little crazy - I'm still not sure what was going on in this picture.

Sometimes we get a little crazy in our dorm as well. Here is a pretty silly picture of me at our friend Ping Ping's apartment. Ping Ping is a 26 year old Chinese girl who is the assistant director of CIEE Nanjing, but she loves to spend most of her time hanging out and partying with us.

One of my favorite parts about living in China is the fact that many Chinese people don't really know what to expect from foreigners, or 老外 (lao wai). The end result of that is that we can usually get away with doing some pretty ridiculous stuff. The following picture was taken at Hunan Lu - one of Nanjing's most upscale dining and shopping districts. My friends and I had just finished a birthday dinner at an expensive Japanese restaurant and we decided some antics were in order. While something like this would certainly get you in big trouble back in the states, I merely caught a few strange glances from the nearby security guards and then went on my way. The next picture is one of my personal favorites. For those of you that don't know, drinking, for a variety of reasons, is often a very important to the Chinese business culture. As of now, I have been working for a little over 2 months at a private Chinese IT Consulting firm (AOKY Consulting), and I have slowly become more ingrained in the Chinese business culture. Each month, around the 15th, my company holds a dinner party for the entire staff (about 45 people) that often results in somewhat heavy drinking. The following picture was taken at one of our previous dinner parties, please note: the man waving his arms strangely in the middle/back of the picture is my supervisor! Not only was nearly everyone at the party fairly drunk, but I even engaged in several chugging contests with the companies CEO and various other key executive members! I must say, I do like the way they do business here.