Daydreaming of relaxing in the sunshine of Shanghai

---

Check out again early this morning and a short taxi ride to our visit at the ICRO agency. These counselors have a very good understanding of Victorian government education as their manager Richard lives in Melbourne and has an office in Collins Street. Another counselor Raymond completed his tertiary education in Sydney and has also visited Melbourne. Both Raymond and Angela were very interested in our school presentations. Angela even suggested we send her more brochures to show potential students. Quite a positive sign. I really needed to bring more brochures along but considering I could barely fit in any clothes for myself, I think posting ahead of time to the hotels is expensive but an absolute must for future marketing.

Next stop finds us at the ISES agency. The counselors Sindy, Jessie and Crystal were all very attentive and took full opportunity of the training provided about Victorian government schools. They had many questions but by quarter to 11 it’s hard to not close your eyes for a little sleep when they close the seven of us into a tiny, airless room. Be great to go back to the hotel and have a little sleep but no rest for the wicked, or those on marketing trips! I’m a bit distracted by the view outside the window. Tall office buildings, parks with masses of trees, avenues lined with plain trees, a gorgeous roof top café (a coffee would be just perfect right now and the sunshine looks really inviting) and a variety of apartment buildings in various architectural styles. Crystal is easily able to explain to the others about Australian education as she studied her tertiary course in Adelaide.

Our final visit for the day before our flight to Guangzhou is to the IAE Shanghai agency. Wow A teleconference with about 25 of their satellite agencies. Yonghong was great in providing training about Victorian education and then we provided a brief snapshot of the strengths of each of our schools.

Off to catch our plane to Guongzhou. Looking forward to catching up with Rex hopefully in his home town. Our group has grown quite substantially as we have met up with Team 2. It was great to share yet another delicious dinner with Michael, Greg and Alistair and the lovely red wine made for an interesting walk back to the hotel. Looking forward to hitting my king sized bed with the eight pillows tonight!!

---