Tuesday, August 30, 2005
And We're Off!
Over the weekend and Monday, the other 120 students descended onto campus. As if learning the names of 60 people in a month wasn't hard enough, there are now another 120 people's faces who now require that I learn there names.
The first orientation day consisted of a registration in the morning, then a introduction to the administration, then a couple of speeches, followed by "cocktails."
The speech, paraphrased, went something like this, "You are the best in China, work hard, don't cheat, set an example for the rest of the country."
The "cocktails," as they were labeled, were not really cocktails at all but more like finger foods & soda. We were all expecting at least some beer and wine and were quite disappointed to find only the non-alcoholic type drinks. This was remedied by a trip to the canteen for 8RMB Tsingtaos.
We've also gotten a lot material, the most interesting of which is a student profile book that has a picture and background submitted by each student. The school had previously requested we submit 200 words and a "non-portrait" photo. But I assumed a non-portrait photo was supposed to be a fun one. So yeah, now I'm the idiot in the hat who looks like a lunatic.
This morning we had our statistics and calculus assessment test. Really not that bad at all, I thought, and so I don't expect to be taking the "remedial" course (that's that they called it! Remedial! Probably the main reason I don't want to take the course).
I'll give some more detail on the makeup of our class later. But for starters we have people from China, US, Luxembourg, Belgium, France, Germany, Spain, Italy, North & South Korea (Yes! North! Seriously), Taiwan, Hong Kong, Guatemala, Canada, India, Ireland, Australia, and Thailand. Although, as expected, the Chinese number around 140 of our 180 person class.
The first orientation day consisted of a registration in the morning, then a introduction to the administration, then a couple of speeches, followed by "cocktails."
The speech, paraphrased, went something like this, "You are the best in China, work hard, don't cheat, set an example for the rest of the country."
The "cocktails," as they were labeled, were not really cocktails at all but more like finger foods & soda. We were all expecting at least some beer and wine and were quite disappointed to find only the non-alcoholic type drinks. This was remedied by a trip to the canteen for 8RMB Tsingtaos.
We've also gotten a lot material, the most interesting of which is a student profile book that has a picture and background submitted by each student. The school had previously requested we submit 200 words and a "non-portrait" photo. But I assumed a non-portrait photo was supposed to be a fun one. So yeah, now I'm the idiot in the hat who looks like a lunatic.
This morning we had our statistics and calculus assessment test. Really not that bad at all, I thought, and so I don't expect to be taking the "remedial" course (that's that they called it! Remedial! Probably the main reason I don't want to take the course).
I'll give some more detail on the makeup of our class later. But for starters we have people from China, US, Luxembourg, Belgium, France, Germany, Spain, Italy, North & South Korea (Yes! North! Seriously), Taiwan, Hong Kong, Guatemala, Canada, India, Ireland, Australia, and Thailand. Although, as expected, the Chinese number around 140 of our 180 person class.
