One Month!

In exactly one month, I'll be boarding a plane with 27 of my closest new buddies for the trip of a lifetime.

Jen is my roommate, say hi to Jen:

Jen is one smart cookie! She works at the Federal Reserve Bank in Chicago as a Senior Project Manager. I think she fully understands every single thing in the world that I just cannot figure out!


The other members of my group are:

Darren: attending Kellogg for several years now, one class at a time since his work is not helping out with tuition! Darren has been in my group before and we survived! You learn to hold onto good group members. Also one of the student leaders of our class.

Bryan: I've been in classes with Bryan before but never had any conversations with him. I've learned now that he is originally from Boston, is balancing work (a wind energy firm), school and a long-distance relationships, and is a pretty cool guy overall!

Lakisha: I've never met Lakisha before this class. She is actually in the school of engineering, but was able to join the school of management for this trip. She is raising a little girl all by herself, going to school and working (Com-Ed)! Sorry, no pic since she does not formally attend Kellogg.

Want more details on the trip? Read on!

If you want more than what is here, let me know. I cannot post too much information due to security restrictions at Kellogg.

In Beijing, we'll be meeting with the Olympics Committee. As you probably know, the summer Olympics will be held in Beijing next year, so the city is busy planning! We'll also have lunch with local citizens and of course, see the Great Wall!! On our last evening, we have a Peking Duck dinner (a local favorite). We'll spend four full days in Beijing, leaving lots of time for business meetings for our group (we're doing research on businesses who are becoming environmentally-friendly in China), and hopefully a good amount of time for sightseeing (Forbidden City, Tian'anmen Square, temples). To the left is the hotel we are staying at - cool, huh?!

In Chengdu (a short trip), we'll get to hang out with the Pandas! They have research bases here and giant panda reserves.

Did I mention we get to see Tibet? We'll be in Lhasa for two full days. There won't be any business meetings since Tibet is not really a business-inclined country! Mostly we'll be doing sightseeing and resting. Resting is stressed here because the altitude is extremely high (12,000 feet), so it is very easy to become sick for the remainder of the trip. Tibet is very religous and we have tips on certain ways to walk and dress for this portion of our trip in order to avoid offending the locals.

We're in Shanghai for three days. More business meetings here! But we'll leave time to see an Acrobats show and have a couple of special dinners. Lots of fun nightlife and shopping on the waterfront here!

And the remaining city that we will visit is Hong Kong. I'm very excited about

HK! We're there for two days and will (of course) have several meetings. Look at the awesome pool at the hotel we're staying at!

That's about it. Lots of exciting new things to see and do on this trip! And only one month to go!