The First Meal

While stretching your legs on the plane, shuttle hops, and other periods of waiting, you spend time trying to meet the other students from the other MBA programs in Babcock. You see for the International Trips the programs are merged, so you find yourself surrounded by several new faces and some familiar ones.

So after I met my roommate and got settled I set out to find some dinner. I ended up joining a group of four very gracious evening students Carrie, Matt, Mark, and James. We were destined for the Castle Jade Restaurant recommended by Michael Lord.

Armed with a small card from the hotel that said %u21CPlease take me here:%u21D in both English and Chinese and the name of the restaurant the five of us crammed into a taxi about the size of an old VW Jetta. As we weaved along the rainy streets of Shanghai I could not help but notice that driving is slightly more chaotic than what I was used to back home, but to my amazement cabbie dropped us off without a major traffic incident.

As he drove off we looked around and noticed that we did not see the restaurant, here begins a search in a foreign land where the language barrier soon became evident. After about 15 minutes of searching, a fair amount of rain, one new umbrella, locating our first Chinese Starbucks, and finally the consultation of a map we found the restaurant and sat down to an excellent Chinese meal family style. Mark filled us in that family style meals in China were the norm and for some one like me raised on county dinners at my grandmother%u219s table that just made me feel somewhat at home.

After finishing a filling dinner, I think the day%u219s travels started to catch-up with us all. You could see the need for sleep start to drift over our all of our faces and Matt summed it up best by saying that it was time for a %u21CFood Coma.%u21D So with my appetite satiated and Matt%u219s statement in mind I think it is time to call it a day.

Tomorrow: -Shanghai Trading Floor -Lowe%u219s Sourcing