Settling into Qingdao (SUST)

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I arrived on the campus of Shandong University of Science and Technology (SUST) in Qingdao City, along with four other CIEE participants, on Sunday, August 29, 2010. We had just spent a week in Shanghai at teacher training orientation, along with about 45 others. Mr. Peter Li, the FAO (Foreign Affairs Officer) picked us up at the Qingdao airport and brought us to our apartment building, which is near the north edge of the campus and in the midst of student housing. He assigned two students, Chou and Deng, to drive us into town to shop for various household products. I lucked out and found the Starbucks, and have been enjoying my usual morning cup of Cafe Verona ever since. Black, since the dairy products are elusive at best. We meet tomorrow with the department which oversees our teaching assignments. All five CIEE teachers will apparently be teaching graduate students, and classes start next week. We have no further information. This seems to be the way it goes here.
The campus is quite new, with lots of brick buildings about six stories tall. Residences are at this end and classrooms at the other. It is a bit isolated, and consequently rather peaceful and not frantic/chaotic, which is frequently the case elsewhere. More about that another time. We are settling in nicely and have found a few great places to eat. So this particular article is just to set the stage, and I hope to entertain more in subsequent posts.

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