My favorite part of today was having time to sit down and talk to some middle school students. I met a 13 year old girl that loves reading/writing English and Chinese. Compared to the Amerfun yican school system, the school we visited in Zhangbei was more intense. They wake up everyday at 5:30am and are … Continue reading 5/18: Day 2 in Zhangjiakou →

Today proved to be a hodge-podge kind of day: we went dairy factory -> old people home -> wind farm -> middle school -> elementary school -> Mongolian restaurant -> hotel -> spa. My favorite part of the day was the post-dinner karaoke that even got JQ to let us stick around and order more … Continue reading China Day 5! →

The visits at the senior home and middle school made today one of the most humbling experiences I've had in all of my time in China. At the senior home, right when we arrived, they were extremely happy to see us. We brought snacks, and talked to them for a bit. I talked a little … Continue reading 18 May- Zhangjiajou/Zhangbei →

Today was incredibly memorable. One of my favorite moments of the day was interacting with Chinese students at the private middle school. It was so much fun to learn about the students' lives and their hopes. The boy I was paired with was at first very nervous to speak with me. He did not like … Continue reading May 18 Blog Post →

Today may have been one of my favorite days so far. It started with a really interesting tour of a milk far, an elderly home visit, and a stop at a wind far. However, by far my favorite part of today was the middle school visit. I thought the kids were so sweet and cute … Continue reading Cultural Immersion! →

On the 6th day of our trip, we got to experience a lot of the Chinese culture. I have really loved being in Zhangjiakou because it is a lot more calm and authentic than Beijing. Our first stop today was the top milk factory in China. We got a tour of the facilities and got … Continue reading 5/18 – Blog #5 →

One of my favorite experiences of today was to visit the Middle School and meet with the English school in a town square. Interacting with the kids was incredible! The students were so smart and well-behaved! The girl I sat next to spoke very good English and was so nice to talk to. One of … Continue reading Day 6: Zhanjiakou – YiLi // Nursing Home // Windfarm // Zhangbeidezhi Middle School // Mongolian Hot Pot →

The YiLi milk factory was surprisingly cool: the building displayed each step of the refinement process to go from raw milk imports to shelf-ready dairy products. Senior homes in China are where the elderly go if their children cannot take care of them because they need to work, generally poor village people. The highlight was … Continue reading 5/18: Zhang Jia Kou →

After accidentally falling asleep in all my clothes at 9pm last night, I was ready to rock and roll today. The milk factory we visited reminded me of the cows we have back home in Champaign, and the yogurt drink was surprisingly tasty so the day started out pretty great. As an avid environmentalist, the … Continue reading Next stop after this post: the spa →

As we’ve learned in Professor Michael’s class, companies need a separate space for their employees to explore their creativity and imagination such that they can use the resources available to them to come up with innovative products and solutions. Microsoft’s Garage emulates this separate space as they encourage employees to work on individual projects during … Continue reading Microsoft Visit- Reflection Post →