Bye

I’m sitting in the food court of Minneapolis-St. Paul International airport, the same place I departed the US from more than a month ago. I’m eating the first burrito I’ve had in a long time, although it doesn’t taste that great. My last post left off with the group arriving in Shanghai, the most modern city in China. There was a definite difference in the feel of the place compared to Tianjin. English was more prevalent, more foreigners were around so we didn’t get as much stares, and amenities were more geared towards Westerners. The first thing we did upon our arrival was tour the city on a bus; the most developed areas are full of modern skyscrapers and reminded me of large cities back in the US. We then went to a school and got to sit in on an English class; the students' control over the language was very good and made me feel a little bit embarassed about my poor Chinese. Next, we visited a temple that housed a famous jade statue of Buddha, which was very beautiful. Unfortunately, pictures were not allowed so I have no way to show it. For dinner, I ate at Pizza Hut, which is a fairly fancy restaurant in China. It tasted pretty much the same as it does in the US, but it was still a nice reminder of home.

The next day, we traveled to Hangzhou to visit the factory of Dr. Liu’s brother. It was a nice break after seeing numerous temples during our excursions and it was interesting in itself to see the production of a product sold in the US. After the tour, he treated us to a very nice dinner at a nearby restaurant; it was probably the best meal I had in China (there were all sorts of exotic foods, such as duck tongue and donkey meat). During the afternoon we took a boat ride around the West Lake, the biggest lake in China, and had one last dinner together in the hotel restaurant. Afterwards, we went downtown to visit a riverside area with a great view of the Shanghai skyline. It was an awesome sight and I wish I had some good pictures of it, but my camera sucks at taking night pictures. I stayed up the rest of the night and as a result, got up pretty late our flight out of China the next morning (it was worth it though, considering that it was our last time together as a group).

Instead of heading straight back home, I decided to stay in Tokyo for a couple days with a few other classmates. It’s probably one of the coolest and cleanest cities I’ve been to, but instead of describing its wonders, I’ll talk about it in relation to our book so it has some relation to the class. I witnessed many of the qualities of Japanese society that Reid describes, but they were still surprising despite my prior knowledge of them. Little kids (maybe 3rd grade?) walk home alone after school alone, easily identifiable by their yellow hats. Bikes are left unlocked and women walk the streets alone late at night. The people are incredibly polite (I heard almost no car horns and I would get numerous thank yous as I walked out of McDonalds). This is very different from what I’ve experienced during the program, but even if China isn’t the cleanest place in the world, or filled with the most polite people, it has its own charms and allures.