April 29, 2013

Upon our arrival at the Shanghai Airport we were greeted by a familiar face, Mandy from the International Cooperation Office at Sanda University. Sanda provided us with a university bus to take us to the university.  Along the way the entire group was in awe as drove past residential areas – the houses were in such close proximity to each other and many were is various stages of construction or renovation.  Our first order of business was lunch; our first real Asian experience with food was awesome!   After lunch we were introduced to five “student buddies” (Sophie, Tony, Doris, Serena, and Clairy) that will be attending Lander in the Fall!  After our tour we attended a presentation by Sanda students where they shared things such as Chinese cultures, foods, festivals, etc…  We were all pleasantly surprised at how well the students spoke English!  After their presentation we shared our presentation about Lander and were then treated to entertainment by two of their students in the form of traditional Chinese guitar-harp-like instrument and also a marvelous piano piece.  We learned that this week is the beginning of “Labor Day” in China which means a six day break for the University and a three day break for most others.  Because of this students on campus are scarce.  We then had another great meal and retired for the night about 6:30.  It was along 48 hours or so but the delegation pushed through like real troopers!