I got mugged!

Yes indeed...but you'll have to read it all to find out the details. First, more catching up....

Wednesday, June 6th: We woke up at 6am today, got ready and took a cab with Patton and Carlson to meet up with the rest of the UND group at their hotel. From there, we took a bus to Suzhou, a city about an hour/hour and a half outside of Shanghai. David, a student from USST who is now at UND to get his Master's, had his father invite us to visit his factory. Vicwood Industries is a factory that takes lumber and manufactures many different products including solid wood flooring, veniers, furniture, etc... We rode in the tour bus through the factory, that's how big it was. Then, David's dad took us to eat in this really fancy hotel...it was delicious. After lunch, we went to the Humble Administrator's Garden. That was fun because we got to hang out with the rest of the people from UND who we really haven't seen much. Pretty much everyone slept on the way back to Shanghai. When we got back to their hotel, Elizabeth and Carlson headed home and I stayed and hung out with everyone. I ended up going to supper with my teachers Victoria Beard and Mary Loyland, Victoria's husband Michael, Eric, Dave E, and Jill. I had a really good steak salad. We all sat around and talked for a while then headed back to their hotel. I took a cab back to the Bund and caught the last bus home.

Thursday, June 7th: We went to class from 8am to 11:40 and grabbed a bite to eat in the cafeteria. Then, we went to the Bund and took a cab to Xintiandi. We met with Spencer Wong, a partner with PriceWaterhouseCoopers. He talked with us for a while about his career path, accounting in China versus US, and other topics. When I asked him if I would need to know Chinese to work in Shanghai, he said definitely yes. I thought this was interesting since Deloitte said no. Mr. Wong said that 10 years ago he would have said no, 5 years ago maybe, but now yes for sure. We went on a quick office tour too. PWC currently occupies the whole building (about 11 floors or so) and is looking to expand. One side of the building overlooks a pond/pool area. In China, water represents money or fortune or something like that, so he said that all the partners want offices on that side of the building! After that, we walked over to the UND people's hotel and hung out there. We all went out to supper together since it was Eric's last night with the group. We ate at a restaurant called 'Heaven on Earth.' It was really good. After that, we went back to the hotel. Everyone pretty much went to bed or started packing or whatnot. Dave E and Eric both had gotten white suits made and wanted to take some pictures. Elizabeth and I had to go back to the Bund anyway to ride the bus, so we all went together and bummed around there. We got some rather strange looks from people...I'm used to it by now. We walked by a lady selling some ornaments with jasmine in them. I bought 3 for 10 yuan ($1.25 or so). They wouldn't fit in my purse, so I just had them tied around my finger as I was walking along. I stopped to take a picture and all of a sudden I felt this tugging on my hand. I looked down and there was this 4 year old girl looking up at me and saying 'shie-shie' (thank you) over and over tugging at one of the ornaments in my hand. I tried to pull it away from her and then a whole family of beggars came over to us. I was trying to make her let go so I could reach in my pocket a pull out a few coins, but she had a death grip on it. Finally, she just pulled the string and broke it off. Before I could react, her brother (maybe 5 years old) came over and broke off another one! I was mugged I tell you! Eventually they went away. So now I have one lonely ornament. *sigh* We took a few more pics then hopped on the bus to go home.

Friday, June 8th: Class in the morning, lunch at the cafeteria, class in the afternoon. After class, we quickly packed our things and took a cab to the Railway Station to get on the night train to Beijing. A girl from USST was there to help us get on the right train. Elizabeth, Carlson, and I had a soft sleeper car. Elizabeth and I played some cards, did some Sudoku, and went to bed. We woke up the next morning and there we were in Beijing. We left at around 7:15pm Friday and arrived at 6:45 am on Saturday.

Beijing will require a long entry in itself, so that will follow shortly.

News from the homefront: I talked with mom over MSN last night and she informed me that my Grandma Ginny took a tumble while getting the mail. Luckily, she only cut her top lip and hit the back of her head. How she managed to hit both the front and back of her head is still a mystery to all. She also sent the mail flying in all directions and blew two shoes into the flowerbed. Now Grandma: I've managed to fly halfway around the world and live in one of the biggest cities with no problems, and you're the one who gets hurt?! Good grief...maybe I should be worrying about you and not the other way around! :) While she was getting stitched up at the doctor's office, she asked the doctor, "will these stitches hurt my beauty?" Now you know where Shanna and I get it from!