Sunday, July 12:
Our day started early with Chinese breakfast. My dad always said that the Chinese had the worst breakfasts but I never really appreciated it until this China trip. They had different steamed buns that didn't taste right, cold noodles, and cold fried rice. Not the best way to start the day. We met the entire group that was representing Taiwan and I noticed there were not too many students and lots of adults (apparently 4 kids were not allowed to board the plane because they were sick). We traveled to Central South University for some type of meeting. We (the students) were seated as well as other students from Central South. The administration was in front and spoke a lot, but I have no idea what the meeting was about. It seemed the meeting was very diplomatic and used to show good Chinese-Taiwanese relations. Everybody clapped about every 45 seconds and lots of pictures were taken, but I was happy because we got pens for gifts afterwards.

After the meeting we toured their campus, which seemed alright, but I don't think they are as concerned about campus-looks as US schools are. After lunch we went to Hansu University and toured an ancient school, maybe one of the oldest in China but I can't be sure. It was the middle of the afternoon, so hot and miserable, and we were walking around. I could tell that the rest of the kids, like me, didn't want to be touring a boring old building. Under different circumstances maybe it would have been different but I wanted to be anywhere with air conditioning. Later in the afternoon we were taken to a classroom where a professor would talk about the history of the building we just looked at. Luckily the room was cool and had water. He started talking about history I assume, then started a slide show. Seeing the actions of the everybody around me left me stunned. When the slide show started about half of the people in the room fell asleep. I kind of expected it from the students but a lot of adults were sleeping too. People were talking without disregard to the speaker. Other didn't put their phone on silent so their phone would loudly ring. Not only did they not silence their phones and quietly leave the room, but they would answer the phone in the room and start talking. I couldn't even understand what the speaker was saying but I tried to look interested and was in shock about what I was seeing. I'm not really sure if it's just different cultures, but it was an experience nonetheless. After this we went to dinner and then straight to a Chinese cultural event. We were scheduled to get some rest at the hotel but skipped it. I was not happy because I was really tired and wanted some free time.

After a not very enjoyable day full of meeting and sightseeing, a Chinese cultural event from 8-10:30 was the last thing I wanted to do. But once I arrived my attitude immediately changed. The event they set up was the Beijing Olympics opening ceremony of cultural camps. We were in a huge room full of about 100 round tables. A huge stage in front and decorations everywhere. We were assigned tables and I was at a table with my cousins and Annie. Already at the tables were Changsha students to entertain us. The night opened with a symphony consisting only of Chinese instruments and sounded amazing, it was very upbeat and set up a good atmosphere for the rest of the night. Following that was some traditional Chinese dancing and singing. I'm not really sure if I like Chinese singing, it's very different than in Western cultures. The singing sounds good, but really high-pitched and maybe even a bit whiny. There were a few routines that had audience members get up on stage and dance, but I did not participate in these. There was also the typical magic show, juggler, comedy, etc. The highlight of my night would be that I got interviewed a few times by news crews about what I think about Chinese culture, of Changsha, and the event. I responded about how great China was and what a great experience I was having. Later I heard that I was on TV so that was cool.