I have started adding pictures to my first posts, more will come soon!! Enjoy!
Dragon Statue in The Forbidden City
March 23, 2008
Goodbye China!
So, I made my final purchases Saturday morning before boarding the bus to the airport.
Shanghai airport was not as crazy as the one in Beijing. We got to the gate with time for lunch. Our flight was delayed an hour, we were flying to Chicago, and then from Chicago to Philadelphia. I had a quick scare, I thought I lost my passport and boarding pass for a good 10 minutes, luckily, I found it in my sister, Nicole’s bag. I don’t think I mentioned I’m a twin. My twin sister who also went to PhilaU for her undergraduate, chose to continue here and get her MBA, was on the trip as well.
Thankfully, I slept through a majority of the 14 hour flight, since I didn’t sleep on the way to China. When we landed in Chicago, we found out that we had less than 40 minutes to get off the plane, go through customs, then to baggage claim, recheck our bags, go through security, and sprint to the gate…don’t forget there were almost 40 of us. After running through customs, and getting our bags, we found out our flight wasn’t leaving for another hour, so we didn’t have to rush to the gate. Our original arrival time in Philadelphia was around 9:00pm, after delays we didn’t land until around 11:00pm, but I didn’t care, as long as we got home that night.
I really enjoyed the business trip. I was able to take away something different from each visit: the cultural aspects of doing business in China at TCS; marketing an American product in China at Anheuser-Busch; how a company connects with the community at SAP; and promoting U.S. business interests from the U.S. Embassy. I’m happy I had the opportunity to experience China through both the tours, and the corporate visits.
1) My sister and I with the faculty at The Bund. A big thank you for everything to MarySheila, Dean Mariotz, D.K., and Dr. Senese!
