The last time I blogged was from the Holiday Inn Golden Mile in Hong Kong. Today, I am seated in the Computer Lab at Jinan University-Zhuhai. I cannot access my google blog or the COB blog from here; so I've asked a friend to input this blog for me.

The attendant in the room just made an announcement, and my two buddies translated. There will be a class in the computer lab at 2:30 pm; so we will need to leave. So having classes in computer labs appears to happen around the world, not just UW-Eau Claire.My scheduling colleagues in the Registrar's Office will appreciate this thought.

We arrived in Zhuhai after a ferry ride from Hong Kong on Wednesday afternoon. We met our buddies that afternoon and headed to a market. My buddies are fantastic: Rainey and Teresa. They prefer I use their American names. Photos will need to come after the trip due to the fact that my buddies and I tried to download photos from my camera in the the computer lab, and it has not been working, and I don't want to risk losing the photos entirely.

The welcoming ceremony on Thursday was amazing! They consider our group lucky and prosperous because there are 8 students, and 8 is a lucky number in China. All the Chinese officials and the American officials spoke, including Dr. Tim Vaughan, Dr. Jean Pratt, and Dr. Scott Swanson. Then Sam, one of our students, did an awesome job of sharing the feelings of our groupin English. His BCOM teachers would be SO proud! Robbie, a Chinese student, did an excellent job of expressing himself in English. Maybe someday our students will be able to express themselves in Chinese. After the welcoming ceremony, we had the pleasure of a superb Cantonese banquet, where as the Chinese say we eat anything on four legs except tables and anything that flies except planes.

Thursday afternoon was a bike ride to the fish girl statue, which is a landmark of Zhuhai along with a bike ride around an island. Some of the Chinese students had never done that before, including riding a tandem bicycle.

Today is Friday! Classes so far have been in conversational Chinese and culture. I'm going to an English class in Investment Finance right now with a couple of my buddies. I want to see what their classes are like here. Thank God the class will be in English!