Monday, July 23, 2007

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!

Monday, June 25, 2007

Less than 2 months!

Only 59 days left until I leave for China. I don't know which is more unbelievable...that I'll be in a country that is so foreign to me, or that I'll be off from work for two whole weeks. It seems like the trip is SO far away until I look at my countdown calendar and I realize it's coming up much faster than I realized.

I'm in a group with three pretty cool people and our China project will be on the environmental impact on business in China. Did you know that 16 of the 20 most polluted cities are in China? My group is 2 women, 2 men so hopefully I will have a roommate in my new female group member. Pretty good luck that we ended up in the same group considering there are only 5 women in the group of over 20! We're hoping to get the bulk of our project completed before we travel. Then, we'll only have to complete our in-country interviews. We hope to do these all in Beijing (home of the Olympics next summer, so very focused on cutting pollution) so that the rest of our trip can be pretty relaxing!

59 days and ticking.....tick.......tick...............tick

Sunday, June 17, 2007

The Details

Here are some of the places I'll be visiting (its not just China!). We're not allowed to say *when* we'll be where due to a lot of Anti-American thoughts out there nowadays. But this should hold you over! :) I listed each place we're going to and a few great links in case you're interested in checking it out. I can't believe I'm going to these places!!!

Hong Kong
www.discoverhongkong.com

Shanghai
http://www.travelchinaguide.com/cityguides/shanghai.htm
http://www.thebeijingguide.com/shanghai_yuyuan/
(great pictures on this website!)

Beijing (the Great Wall!)
http://www.beijingpage.com/
http://www.travelchinaguide.com/cityguides/beijing.htm

Lhasa (Tibet)
http://www.travelchinaguide.com/cityguides/tibet/lhasa/index.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lhasa

Chengdu
http://www.travelchinaguide.com/cityguides/chengdu.htm
http://www.cnto.org/chengdu.asp

Welcome to my blog!

Hello all! I'm starting a blog that will track my trip to China in August. I'll (hopefully) be able to post pictures and details of places I've been so everyone can enjoy my trip. See you all soon! Only 68 more days until I leave, EEEEEKKKKK!