Shanghai- Day 1

Julie,


Ok so Lesson number 1 in Shanghai, they block A LOT of sites on the
internet! Facebook, all blogspot blogs, and many other normal everyday
sites aren't allowed by the Chinese government so that means I won't
be able to post my letter to the blog this time. Would you please
forward my emails on to my family and let them know why I won't be
posting on the blog. Hopefully I will then be able to go back and post
them based on the emails I create.

Today was quite an adventure and a good thing it was because I am SO
TIRED! Jet Lag is really kicking in and I am struggling to stay awake
to finish what I need to finish before my classes start tomorrow.
Hopefully one good night's rest will kick it and not make the next
couple of days so torturous. :)

To recap, the trip here went well. I flew to Seattle and then through
Tokyo and into Shanghai. Both layovers were fairly short and my seats
on all my flights were pretty good considering I was in coach (I was
reminded about how inferior coach is by those classmates that have
status with certain airlines and raved about how great first class).
When we arrived in Shanghai, I was amazed at the efficiency and
cleanliness of the airport. I got through customs really easily and at
baggage claim I got both my bags within 4 or 5 bags of one another.
This amazed me since I usually get my big black bag first and then I
have to wait what seems like years for my blue duffle bag to come
truckin around.

On our flight from Tokyo to Shanghai, there was a group of 7 of us
(Duke students) so we all caught cabs together to the hotel. It was
about an hour ride and so after we checked in and finally got to our
rooms it was past midnight. After talking to you on Skype, I unpacked
my bags and went straight to bed.

The best part was finding my "China Survival Kit" in my suitcase. You
are so amazing to go through all that trouble to do little things like
that for me and I LOVE IT every time. I especially loved the gum (I
was kicking myself for not bringing any) and the AWESOME family
picture of the three of you. I have it propped up on my desk so I can
look over at it whenever I want. I love you so much babe!

View 1 of my room

My bathroom

View 2 of my room

This morning my alarm went off at 7am and I got dressed and went to
breakfast and then headed to our first class. It was our CCL class
which is not an intense class and we didn't have to have any
preparation for. Also, because of the team activities we had in the
afternoon they told us to show up in our casual clothes which was
really nice not to have to iron my shirt this morning.

After CCL we organized into our new teams for "new team orientation."
We also sat with our old teams and reviewed what we did well and
didn't do well. I thought that discussion was very helpful and
insightful. For me particularly I found that I am even more of an
introvert than I knew and sometimes that comes across to my team as me
being disengaged or mad. So because I know that now, I just need to be
better at communicating that to people in my team so they realize it
is more because I am thinking and pondering.

I'm excited for my new team. I think we will have some kinks to work
through since by our personality tests that we did for Duke, none of
us are aggressive crack the whip type people. It will be interesting
to see how we develop as a team over the next week and then into our
distance period.

After lunch, we boarded buses to do our team building "cooking"
activity. Our job was first to go to the market and buy some of the
items we would need to cook. The market was really cool and in some
ways reminded me of shopping in the street markets on my mission. We
left all the buying to our Chinese teammate, Kyle, so all of this part
was fairly easy for us. Come to find out he bought the wrong type of
"spring onions" and the wrong cut of cantonese barbequed pork which is
just ironically funny since he lives here in Shanghai so we figured it
would be a piece of cake for him.

The vegetable market from the entrance

Kyle and the rest of the team bartering for vegetables.

This was really cool. Kyle explained to us that this was

a new business (a hair salon) that had just opened and all the flowers

were the owners friends wishing him luck with the new business. It

certainly is an eye catcher and I am sure it doesn't hurt in the

recruitment of new customers.

After shopping we got back on our bus and headed to the cooking
school. At the school, we first had a professional chef walk us
through how to make the dish we would be making and it was our job to
follow the instructions and the duplicate it and then he would judge
our dishes.

For the most part our team did pretty good. Again, no one really took
the lead aggressively so we ended up leading by committee which could
end up being a common theme for our team if we don't work on it. I was
in charge of frying the chicken (we made lemon chicken and fried rice)
and we did pretty well. Our critique said that our chicken was a
little overfried (too dark) which was true, but I blame it on not
being familiar with the stove as opposed to not knowing how to cook
it. :)

Check out our cool hats and aprons.

This is the master chef doing his demonstration.

More of the same.

Yasmin on my team cutting up the chicken while James

behind her works on the pork (for the friend rice).

In the middle of our assignment, I was in the middle of frying the
chicken with my team's help, when all the sudden there was a huge pop
and explosion behind us. I immediately felt burningin on the back of
my neck and arms. The team behind us had trapped some water below
their oil so when it heated up, it expanded and exploded the oil all
over us. So now I am down one shirt, but plus 1 on things I won't
forget from this trip. The very last picture shows what my shirt looks
like now.

After our little "distraction" we were able to put that all aside and
finish our dish. All in all I think it looked pretty good. We didn't
get the greatest rating from the Master Chef, but that's ok.

Our finished dishes

Me and my lemon chicken

When our cooking challenge ended, we came back to the hotel, had
dinner, had orientation, did a small team assignment for class
tomorrow and now here I am ready for bed.

Tomorrow should be another very interesting day as the morning is
slated for classes and then we have the culture dash in the afternoon.

It was great to talk to you today and I love you very much!

Love,

Brock

This shirt has seen it final day, it went out with a

bang! (Ha, I couldn't resist!)