Day 2: LEGIT!

That's the word we taught Vivian, OSU staff member and Chinese translator, today after going to the World Expo since that was the best word we can use to describe today's experience. 

We started today off with breakfast at the hotel in their "Western Style Resturant" they had a mix of chinese food and american food and it was quite tasty. We then headed off to Fudan University for our first speaking engagements. On the way we had to stop at Starbucks so everyone could get their caffine fix in true American fashion. Once arriving at Fudan University we had a special waiting room for us with the best leather chairs. We thought about taking one of the chairs home with us but they were too big for our carry-on luggage.

Shortly after that, Dr. Bird and Dr. Ehlers spoke without translation because the group understood English. The hosts also had tracked down some iced tea for Dr. Bird so now her tea addiction is known on two continents, now that's friendship! After speaking we took a tour of the campus and it was so beautiful. We also lucked out having great weather today with blue skies for most of the day which isn't always the case in Shanghai. We then had a meeting at the Career Services Center where Dr. Ehlers exchanged stories with their director and we found out that once again we are more the same than different. We had a lovely lunch after that with various people from their student affairs division. One of the highlights being that Brian was telling our guests how much he loved one of the dishes and they giggled and told him it was pork.... only later did we find out it was pig's ear. The food has been great so far but we aren't very good with chopsticks yet, maybe by the end of our trip we will be experts. 

After lunch we went to Fudan's new campus which has their law school and it was breathe-taking; the architecture here is unbelievable. We learned that in Chinese building that when you see a square that represents the ground and the circle above represents the sky, it makes sense. After our tour, we headed back to the hotel to change and get ready for the World Expo. When we arrived Lena told us that it was one of her life long dreams to go to the World Expo so there it is, dreams do come true :). 

Thanks to Fudan University we had VIP passes which means we got to cut all the lines and have special VIP hallways. There are no words to describe the expo other than LEGIT. There were so many cool things to see and their mission for China is to make a greener and cleaner tomorrow. We only got to see the China pavilian because of the lines and it was the only VIP access we could have but really that was enough. We also took a bus to the USA pavilian and had "traditional" american food. I know we are in China eating American and we are so lame but it didn't really taste like home; it just looked like it, which is sometimes enough. We also got to drive by and see all the other countries. It made us realize that we really are one world. 

Well, that's about it for today it was action packed and we are totally in love with Shanghai. We have lots of shopping to do tomorrow and sight seeing so we need to get some sleep. We love and miss you all! more updates to come....


-Abby