We just left GuangZhou and now we are on our way to Chendu. It was such a short day in Guang Zhou but we were able to cram a lot into the trip. We started our stay off with a bang with having a loving lunch while overlooking the Pearl River with the Student Affairs Administrators from Sun Yet Son University. We had lovely Cantonese food and Lena had been talking about this Coconut Jello that she loves and low and behold if it didn’t show up on the table by pure dumb luck.
We also surprised Lena with a birthday cake and it included Lechi nuts which is also Lena’s favorite fruit. Turns out having your birthday in 10-10-10 in China means that you get your wish with food. We also had the pleasure of meeting Dr. Di’s son whom is 15 and has better English then most American students of his age. He told us a lot about GuangZho and about the city’s preparations for the Asian Games which they will be hosting in a couple weeks.
We made a quick change of clothes and headed over to campus to meet some of the students in the 2+2 program in which students in the HRAD program do two years of study in China and then they do two years of study at OSU. All the male students sat on one side of the room and all the female students sat on the other side of the room which is something you would never see in an American classroom but surely leads to less distractions from learning. The students were very bright and asked us lots of great questions about coming to Oklahoma State. They were very curious about living on campus, part-time employment in America, and how they could connect with local students. Afterwards Dr. Bird and Dr. Ehlers were presented with coins from the Asian Games and the rest of us were given goats which are the little mascots of the games. The students gave us the mascots and explained each of their names to us and what they meant.
The weather in Guang Zho is very tropical and humid which means that it is very green but also that rains at the drop of a hat so when we went to take a group picture in front of the lovely banner they made for us we had to use umbrellas until it was picture time. After pictures we went on a short campus bus tour and then they took us shopping. We went to a flea market in which we were able to use our bargaining skills and we able to get a lot of fun trinkets to bring home. We didn’t have much time before it was time to go on a river dinner cruise. We had a buffet dinner which was a first for our trip in China and we were able to city all the city lights which were so beautiful.
We were exhausted by the time we got back to the hotel and our eyes were closed before we could hit the pillow. We have to be up early to check out of our hotel and head to the new campus of Sun Yet Son which is on an island. We were able to see our friend George one more time for breakfast before we loaded the bus and we told him to make sure to come and visit us soon in Oklahoma.
Once arriving at the university Dr. Bird and Dr. Ehlers spoke first to the province as Sun Yet Son had made our speaking series into a one day Student Affairs Symposium. While they were speaking the rest of us were treated to lovely While they were speaking the rest of us were treated to lovely tea, bananas, and green mandarin oranges. In China mandarin oranges are not just orange and these ones were much bigger than the ones in the US and very tasty. At the end of their speeches we went to lunch at a restaurant that translates to The Boat. It was so beautiful and the whole restaurant was on stilts.
We also had our first experience today with Eastern Toilets and you can see why It Is more sanitary but it causes you to be glad that you do yoga on a regular basis as Dr. Ehlers has been doing the whole trip.
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