Happy Birthday Sam! The big 21 occured for him while we were here and as can be expected...it was an all day party for everyone's favorite midshipman. The plan for the day was to head downtown at aroundd 5 PM for some cocktails at a swanky bar at the top of the Shangri-la but upon arrival we found out that they weren't open until 6 PM. After some aimless wandering we decided to get some cigars and head to Laris, another swanky bar on the other side of the river. The Chinese ferry was an experience. Say the word ferry, and imagine it in your mind...a nice boat, a breeze, some seats out on the bow maybe? Not here....it wasn't so much a ferry as a floating platform that transported people. It was almost as if ... read more

The next day we got up early for a full day downtown. After a delicious pancake-like breakfast from a street vendor, we took the subway to People’s square. The day was very cold and foggy causing the skyscrapers to fade off into the distance. However, as we exited the subway we were immediately awe-struck by the 1,000 foot high Marriott Executive Apartments building in front of us, part of "Tomorrow Square". A towering building, it can best be described as something straight out of the pages of Lord of the Rings. I just found out that the top floors of the building are the highest apartments in Shanghai. On our way to the Shanghai Art Museum we were intercepted by three Chinese tourists on vacation. They were awed at the fact that I was wea... read more

A few thoughts, in no particular order: - It's crazy to be completely dropped into a language and culture of which you have absolutely no prior knowledge. When we landed, all I knew how to say was thank you. Four days later, I'm not much better, but there are certain things that you begin to notice. Phrases, tones, certain characters, basic sentence structure - it all starts to make sense, and any semblance of progress is exciting when you start with nothing. I've always said that if I couldn't do engineering, I would try and get the hang of a couple languages other than Spanish. The feeling you get when you can order your meal, or get somewhere in a taxi, or ask how someone is doing, instead of looking blank-faced at your waiter or cab ... read more

First: a quick back-story of my travel to this wonderful country. My flights were the same as Kevin and Raf's, except two days later. Unfortunately, I could not fly out until then because of a final I had Friday morning. Ironically, the professor of the class was from China (even more ironically, teaching an international trade class), and yet he still wouldn't let me take the final early so that I could have more time exploring his country. I had a very interesting taxi ride to the Townsville Airport with a driver who might as well have been a case study for the classes I took this semester. He used to own a fish company that exported live cod to the states with 6 branches along the Queensland coast. He complained about the ridiculous import tariffs ... read more

So we woke up the next morning, laughing at ourselves and ready for bright new day in China. Since Piech was arriving that day, we took the subway out to where we were going to pick up really early (you have to go west to go east here) and walked around under the Pearl Tower and and watched all of the buildings light up while smoking some cigars. Very strange cigar experience...we all felt like they'd been laced with PCP or something by the end...very strange. After that we picked Dan up from the Maglev and headed back to Tyler's appartment. Dan was very keen to go out but as Tyler, Kevin, and I were still...laughing at ourselves from the night before...we just went out to dinner with Sam and Anne and went to bed. The ... read more

Hey everyone. So after getting on the MagLev train that can reach 500 km/hr, we were zoomed over to downtown Shanghai where Tyler met us at the station. It was great to see one of our other Duke friends, and it was even crazier to realize how ridiculously different China was from Australia. I mean, I really don't know how to describe it. Initial culture impressions: - Spitting. Thought it was only for hillbillies that chew tobacco? Nope. Everyone does. Everyone. If the President of China walked by, I would be floored if he didn't judge it necessary to make the "HAAAAAAAWWWWKKK" noise and discharge whatever happened to be in his mouth. One of the first things I saw as people got off the plane was everyone spit their brains out at the general direction of ... read more

After finishing our last final, Kevin and I departed Townsville armed with clothes, high spirits, and a bottle of spirits purchased with money obtained by the last minute sell of my bike. We arrived in Brisbane and had a short dinner before boarding our short flight to Sydney. On our flight, we met a girl who is auditioning for the title roll in Mel Gibson's newest movie (think Apocolypto but Celtish/Gaelic) who bought us some juice on the plane because we were dirt poor. We were hoping she'd offer accomodation, but sensing this she ran off the plane with not even a goodbye... After milling about the domestic terminal, we managed to convince a shuttle bus driver to drop us off halway to the international terminal. We walked most of the rest of the way and ... read more