New Experience

Besides a quick trip across the Ambassador Bridge into Windsor, Canada when I was a kid, I finally had the opportunity visit a foreign country without carrying a weapon. I left on September 2 for a 12 day trip with my MBA cohort to China, Thailand, and Vietnam. It was an incredible trip which exceeded my expectations, and I hope was worth every tax dollar you spent to send the 13 LOGTECH MBA students on this international study. While there was more education than site seeing on this trip, the educational stuff doesn't fit well into a blog post. Below are some of the photos from the far east.

Beijing, China

So, 1.2 billion people take up a lot of space. If we were supposed to learn something about logistics and efficiency, I think we learned something about transportation efficiency on day one. There's a joke in the Marine Corps that goes like this. "How many Marines can you fit in the back of a 7-ton (truck)?" Answer: "One more." The Chinese equivalent apparently is "How many Chinese can you fit into a Beijing subway car?" Answer: "10 more. We're smaller than Marines." Can you find the Americans in this picture?

Beijing had some very interesting architecture. I honestly was not expecting so much vertical development in the form of sky scrapers in their cities. I defintely wasn't expecting to see the creativity in their architecture that they displayed everywhere. These guys are communist, right? Isn't creativity supposed to be stifled?

Eating was quite the experience throughout the trip. Best diet trick ever: eat with chopsticks for 2 weeks. You eat slower, get frustrated sooner, and thereby, eat less. Just about every meal throughout the trip was served "family style."

So speaking of food and architecture, here is the beautiful facade of a restaurant we ate at for lunch. Very nice, traditional Chinese restaurant.

Of course, it was in the same strip as that very nice, traditional American restaurant, too.



Alright. Finally. Proof that I didn't just download these pictures from someone else's far east trip. This is me at the Temple of Heaven.

Did anyone know that China had this really big wall? Did anyone know that despite 10%+ growth the last few years, the Chinese still haven't installed escalators on this thing?

Get goin', Marine. We're not paying you to take pictures at the bottom of the wall.

Ah, success. First LOGTECH-er to the top.

Eventually, some of the rest joined me for a group photo.

Many more photos from Beijing, Shanghai, Bangkok, and Ho Chi Minh City, just not tonight.

Go Cats!! 5-0