Tuesday Morning

Ni Hao! It is 7:30am Tuesday morning, 6:30pm on Monday night for you oh-so-behind Westerners.

Yesterday we went to the Olympic Committee. It was awesome! Did you know that tickets to the games will only cost about $12???? And they are reserving 14% of tickets for Chinese students, who will pay 5 yuen, or less than $1! The buildings are crazy. The birds nest is the main building, the pic is on my myspace account. Then they have this water cube where all the aquatics will take place. I couldn't get a picture of that. But the disconnect in this city is insane. See my pics, we saw the olympic countdown clock, and then on the road underneath it, there was a homeless man sleeping. Things are so off kilter here. The technology in some buildings is far more advanced than in the U.S. But then you realize how poor the vast majority of these people are.

After the Olympic Committee, our group had a meeting with an investment banking company who has a specialty in energy saving projects. A little boring, but the guy we met with was really nice. He was actually American and wants to apply to Kellogg next year.

After our 2nd meeting, our group went off to the market. We each had at least one suit tailor made. They were about $100. We get them delivered to our hotel tonight, I'm very curious to see how they turn out! The tailor has a great reputation from our dean. When we were waiting for our last team member to get measured, some of us went upstairs to the food court. INSANE. You have to haggle for everything in this country! They run up to you and want to sell you food. And everyone is wearing those masks on their nose and mouth which is very creepy. I know, its more sanitary, but it was still a little weird! So we finally went to dinner at the Pink Loft. Its a Tai place. It was really good, but everyone was exhausted so we finished up and went back to the hotel for some R&R.

Today we are getting breakfast at the hotel and then heading over to a meeting with Lenovo. Lenovo is IBM in China. Should be very interested. Then I think we have lunch and, drumroll please.....FREE TIME! We haven't had much, so everyone is excited.

OK, will post more tomorrow. Hope everything is well in the U.S. I hope Karla is keeping my cats alive. :)