Today was a relaxing day. We traveled an hour and half to see a DNA lab pretty much completely empty. It was odd, but they were really proud of their genome project. I haven’t been impressed by the amount of traffic. It literally takes us an hour to go anywhere. Man, sure reminds me how much I enjoy the small town living.
I asked my Chinese counterpart Rose to join me in a shopping adventure tomorrow. Hopefully that ends up good. I will update you tomorrow about the adventure. It is always nice to have someone who knows the language with you. Just makes it so much easier. Today I bought some bread at a local bakery next to campus and they were trying to give me something free. I did not want what they were giving me, even if it was free. This dialog was played out with a bunch a charades and loud slow talking by both sides still not understanding the other fully. It is really interesting working out the language barrier. A fellow student bought a cold Coca-Cola and sat on a bench. A older Chinese woman did the same. The student said it was like they were talking without saying anything because they were both sitting on a hot day enjoying a cola. I thought that was really interesting. If you put a smile on your face, you can get pretty far with pointing and hand movements. The universal language of facial expressions and hand movements has saved me many times.
School is going well. Not too much time to read the materials when there is so much playing to engage in outside. However, I am getting a lot out of the class lectures which are interesting. We talked about foreign investment law, comparative judicial systems, comparative criminal law, and intellectual property rights. I like comparing the systems and seeing the similarities and differences in the two systems. It is hard not to compare everything to the US. Mostly, I am just enjoying being here, thinking about my next visit, and taking in all the differences.
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