We are winding down our first full day in Zhaoqing. We arrived yesterday afternoon at about 12:30 PM. We spent five nights and four days in Hong Kong, which is now part of the People's Republic of China (one country, two systems).

What a place Hong Kong is! So much wealth! So much poverty! The whole reason for Hong Kong's existence was that it was seized by the British in 1840 to be used as a base by the navy to protect British opium dealers who wanted to sell opium to the Chinese (against the emperor's wishes). In 1860 the British seized the peninsula opposite the island (Kowloon Peninsula) and in 1898 the signed a 99-year lease with China for the land beyond the peninsula known as the New Territories. In 1984 Britain agreed to give the whole thing back to China when the lease expired.

We stayed at a very nice hotel on Kowloon Peninsula called the Kimberley Hotel. It did not take us long to learn to navigate around, and by the end of our stay, everyone knew enough about Kowloon to be able to give directions!

That leads me to the group of students, and I want to say something about each of them now:

Matthew Hillestad--gotta love him! Master of both the Mandarin and Cantonese phrase book, and not afraid to engage anyone in a dialogue to learn proper pronunciation.

Robert Stachowski--gotta love him! Blazer of Trails! The quiet leader who, while one of the youngest, seems to be our best, and most experienced, foreign traveler. He packed the lightest and the smartest of all of us.

Scott Johnston--gotta love him! Always stopping to take a picture. And, while this often times slows us down, the rest of us will soon be asking him for reprints for the shots we were to much in a hurry for to stop.

Collectively, we affectionately refer to these three as "Da Boys!"

Rita Andert--gotta love her! Curious and eager to learn. Even takes notes listening to the guide on the tour bus--the rest of us will want to borrow those notes someday.

Pamala (spelt with 3 a's) Trowbridge--gotta love her! Works at a medical clinic, so she is our traveling pharmacy. But, her maturity and sense of humor helps to keep our souls healthy too.

Jen Lockerby--gotta love her! Quiet and shy and sneaky at cribbage! Her personality fits well with the Chinese (she is not your typical loud and abrasive American), and she is quickly becoming a favorite with the Chinese students.

Rachel Halsey--gotta love her! She is our ringer. She is the only one of us who has studied Chinese in the classroom (she took a whole year of it last year at ARCC). She represents all that is good and noble with this program--that a community college student can make an impact on the world because of what they learn in college. Who knows, maybe someday the entire group of students we send to China will be taking intermediate level Chinese!

These are my traveling and living companions until December 20! Now what have we learned. We learned that Hong Kong is virtually culturally barren! Except, of course, the money culture ("Want to buy a genuine Rolex watch for $20?") And, they were ready to come to Zhaoqing by Wednesday (we came Saturday).

These students came to learn, and they want to make even the fun stuff a learning experience (gotta love them)!!!!

My neighbor gave me the phone number of someone she went to college with who now works in Hong Kong. I gave him a call, and he (Jim Chen) invited me to the American Club at the Exchange Building for Happy Hour on our last night in Hong Kong. I told him I didn't feel right leaving my students, so he said, "Bring them all along!" So we went to the Exchange Building (Hong Kong's "Twin Towers" where the stock exchange is located) for Happy Hour. We sat on the 49th floor with a beautiful view of Hong Kong.

Jim was very gracious--he paid for everyone's refreshments, and then took us out on two different balconies to give us a better view of Hong Kong at night! I had never met this person before, but you would have thought that I was the one who went to college with him! So, let the record show that Jim Chen is a very nice person!!!!!!!!!

As I mentioned above, we arrived in Zhaoqing yesterday (Saturday, September 5). We came by ferry, which was an adventure. First, the travel agent that arranged our transfer from the airport to the hotel was also arranging for our transfer (a bus) from the hotel to the ferry terminal. The bus came to pick us up at 6:30 AM. However, it was not the same sort of bus that picked us up at the airport. This bus had no room for our luggage! Fortunately, I was able to get a hold of our travel agent that managed to get us another bus which got us to the ferry just in time before the ferry left for Zhaoqing. We had way too much luggage than what the ferry allows you to check so, we ended up carrying most of our luggage onto the boat rather than pay roughly$30 a bag to have it checked. We had a beautiful four-hour boat ride up to Zhaoqing. And once we got on the boat, everyone was able to relax and enjoy it.

In my ten plus years of teaching at Anoka Ramsey, I had never given any thought for the need for business cards, but Dave Hellmich (my dean) offered to have some made for all of us to distribute in China. Little did I know how helpful they would be!!!!

When we got off the boat we were greeted by customs agents, many of which were more than helpful in helping us unload all the luggage we had carried on to the boat. When we got inside, they had all of our checked baggage on a cart, except for one. One of my suitcases was sitting out in the middle of the floor, and when I went to grab it, they asked me if it was mine, and if I would open it for them. My immediate thought was that this was the suitcase with the presents (gift-wrapped) that Marks Widdel and Plenke asked me to take to China for them. I thought what if there are drugs in those things I'm a goner!

But, alas, it was not the presents they were after, but I brought a VCR (which Sears Brookdale kindly donated to the program) along to use in one of my classes and that is what they were after. They asked me to take it out (I had it packed in among cloths), and while I was unpacking it, they became curious about my videotapes and all the books I had in there as well. Then one of the agents noticed my stack of business cards that were banded together. She asked, "Are you a teacher?" When I said yes, she immediately told me, apologetically, to pack everything back up, and be on my way.

That evening we were taken to a hotel and we ate dinner, buffet style at a place called "The Western Restaurant." But, don't let names fool you, there wasn't much in the buffet line that would've (not would of) been recognizable to a westerner (you'll hear more about the food later). President Zhu of the college was the host of this dinner, so all the students got to meet him. Mr. Wei was also there. He thinks I look more Chinese than Mark Widdel does; he made many references to my height (without it being a joke!) Is it possible that I found a land where there are no short jokes!!!!!!!!! Afterwards Mr. Lu, Mrs. Guo, Mrs. Krim, and Forest took us for a walk down the main street of Zhaoqing where I got pickpocketed! Fortunately, the only thing in my pocket was a folded copy of our itinerary for the week. I felt this hand in my pocket, and grabbed it as it came out, but alas, he pulled free and disappeared. I did manage to recover my paper though!

We are getting settled in and meeting lots of people. Saturday evening "Vicky" interviewed me. She was the helper for the teachers who were here this summer. She was taking notes, and getting the scoop on all the American students. Yesterday I was visited by a retired priest (Larry Dugas) who, through the Maryknoll program of the Catholic Church, teaches English to the Chinese as his missionary work. They must sign a contract with the government saying they won't talk about religion, but they feel that doing this is good enough for now. Larry brought with him a special guest, Cathy Fredrick, who just graduated from St. Benedicts and is from Foley, Minnesota. She has been here a week longer than us, but volunteered to come and teach as part of the Maryknoll program.

Mr. Lu has an interview today (Monday) at the US consulate in Guangzhou. Depending on how this goes, Mr. Lu could be in the Twin Cities by September 15! You will like Mr. Lu, and we will miss him here!

That's all for now. 'Til next time.