SMU Update 3/18/10

Things continue to go well with classes this week. Today we had more classes for the first time and all the professors seem to have great backgrounds. I heard from one of the Chinese students that the majority of our professors are the best in the school and many of them teach at other top universities in China. I really liked the class we had today and the professor was likely the best for the IMB cadets. After classes, we were all invited to go plant trees for the Chinese Arbor day. We all met up near the one park area on campus and went to where the trees would be planted. All of the international students and the Chinese roommates showed up for the event. I think we planted about 30 trees and we also dug a place for a sign that said “International Forest”. We got a big group picture with everyone and many of us threw the football around for a while outside.

It was finally sunny outside so we decided to play a little American football on the the turf. We had a great game going between the international students for a couple of hours and it was really nice. It wasn't long before a whole group of Chinese students showed up and wanted to learn how to play. We gladly started a new game and split up the teams. It took them a little bit to figure out how to play but they certainly caught on fast. One of the Chinese kids actually intercepted one of my passes so I think they might have seen the game before.

I made plans to go to the city for the weekend because my roommate from last spring will be flying up tomorrow. I left in the afternoon and took a bus to Longyang road subway station where I took a subway into the city. I met up with Renee, one of the exchange students from last spring, and we went around the city for a while. I got a hotel room for the weekend and then proceeded to have dinner with one of Renee's friends who works for Phoenix Logistics in Shanghai. This was a great opportunity for me to talk about possible job opportunities in Shanghai.

I had plans for lunch with a managing ship broker at ACM shipping in Shanghai. I was able to talk with him about the company and the maritime industry in Shanghai. He spoke English quite well and it was interesting to hear his views on the shipping market right now. It is really amazing how large the industry is here. It seems like everywhere I turn I see a logistics or shipping companies. I left from there to go with Renee to the airport on the Maglev train. This train is truly amazing and it doesn't actually touch the track or run on rails. It kind of just floats above the tracks and moves at an incredibly fast speed. I think the fastest speed we hit on the way to the airport was 432 km/h. After we picked up my roommate from the airport we went shopping for the day.