Today we visited the first companies on the trip, starting with Huawei, a major telecom firm, and VIP Kid, an online education startup that connects kids in China with English teachers in America. Before we even left the bus, Huawei set the bar for our future company visits extremely high. Beijing is an arid region…
Tag: Summer 2019
5/7 CUFE Visit
Today we visited the Central University of Finance and Economics in Beijing. The campus was beautiful, it held much more green space than any other university Iʼve seen. We started the visit off with a short lecture from a professor about big data and data analytics. We learned about the many ways data is collected…
Blog #11: A Reflection
My time in China was a once in a lifetime experience that I would never be able to recreate if I wanted to recreate it. We were all told that the two weeks we were going to spend in China weren’t supposed to be a vacation. Going in I took those words to heart. I…
Blog #10: Judgement Day
Today, unfortunately, was going to be our last day in China. That was such a bittersweet thing to think about while eating breakfast because I had so much fun in China, and I’ve made a lot of new friends that I would have to say goodbye to for the summer, and I learned so much;…
Blog #9: I am Dead
Today was Day 11, and that means it’s almost time for us to go home which is pretty bittersweet to think about. Today we were going to be visiting Yang Shan Port which handles a very large amount of China’s sea shipping. I had a rough night the night before, so I slept basically the…
Blog #8: Best Day Ever
Day 10 was going to be our second full day in Shanghai, and it was a packed one because we had two company visits planned. The first visit was the American Chamber of Commerce (AmCham) and the second was going to be Horiba which is an engineering and research and development firm. After the typical…
Blog #7: Getting Frisky at the Acrobatics Show
Day 8 was our travel day to Shanghai. We traveled by bullet train and it took us about 5 hours to get there. We arrived around 2 or 3, I can’t really remember. After getting there, we settled into our hotel. This was by far the best hotel of the trip and arguably one of…
Blog #6: Dusty Boys
Day 7 started just like every other day before it; I woke up, got a shower, and ate a huge breakfast. Today we were going to be seeing the Terracotta Warriors and biking on the Xi’an city walls. I was really excited for today because I’ve heard that the Terracotta Warriors were absolutely insane! We…
Blog #5: Teaching to Dap
Day 6 was our first day in Xi’an! I didn’t write a post for day 5 because it was basically just a travel day. On day 5, we took the bullet train from Beijing to Xi’an and it took us about 6 hours to get there. That was a way longer travel time than I…
Blog #3: Chinese Apple
Day 3 started like any other day. I woke up around 7:00, got a shower, and went down to get some breakfast. Breakfast is always fantastic, by the way. Today we were going to be going on our first company visits of the trip and everyone was especially excited because we were going to be…
Day 12: A Real-Life Fairytale
I had been looking forward to visiting the Neuschwanstein castle since the first Plus3 lecture, and today did not disappoint! The day began with a traditional Bavarian breakfast, which I had also been very excited about, as Dr. Feick and some of the German students had told us how delicious the food was. Since we…
Blog #2: My boy Richard
After going to the Great Wall and Summer Palace the day before, I was pretty much beat and fell asleep around 10 that night, so I woke up after about 8 and half hours of sleep ready to take on the day. Today we were going to visit the Central University of Finance and Economics…
Thank You South Korea!
This Plus3 trip to South Korea has been an absolute blessing. I couldn’t have imagined all the amazing things that would happen on this trip. I have learned so much about Korean history and their culture professionally and socially. Every visit we had, whether it be cultural or professional taught us something unique to Korean…
Summary: I Got Some Words
Before we left for China Dr. Li gave us a somewhat stern warning that our two weeks in China were not a vacation, and now being done I do somewhat agree with his warning. Yes, I did love my time seeing China, exploring the cities, and experiencing the nightlife, but I also learned a lot…
Day 11
Our Wednesday morning started off with a visit to Trainor, a safety certification company. This was another company that I didn’t think had much to do with smart systems, so I could not sense the engineering aspect of it. It was still a pleasant visit, and afterwards we were able to explore Korea’s largest shopping…
40 Hours and 8 Delays Later
Today was a rough one. We all work up early and were sad we had to leave. We packed the bus and left for Seoul at 7:30 AM. We had a six-hour drive ahead of us to the Seoul airport. Thankfully, I slept most of the bus ride and it went by quick. At the…
The Day Before Departure :(
Today was a very sad day. It was our last full day in South Korea and none of us wanted to leave. I got up early and my friend Dylan and I decided to head to Haeundae Beach, one of the nicest in Korea. During popular beach times, there can be over a million people…
PNU
Today was our last scheduled day of the trip. Many of us were sad because today was the beginning of the end. Our first visit was to the United States Consulate because our originally company visit was canceled. However, the US Consulate was very interesting. We went into a classroom and the US diplomat talked…
A Port of the Future
Our day started off with a company visit to Trainor. Trainor is a company that specializes in training and certifying workers mainly in electrical engineering. The manager of the Busan branch gave us a brief overview of what the company does and why it is so important. Busan is a huge port city with many…
Hyundai Motors
Today our group toured Hyundai Motors. It was very similar to our Hyundai’s automobile tour. We first went inside to watch a short film about their company and then we were able to get inside some of their show cars. One of their cars is very interesting because it uses hydrogen fuel cells and oxygen…