Finally a free morning and night here in Jinan (City of the Springs)! Jon (the man with the money…the PI of the project funding this experience) came yesterday while I was out in the city, but we met up for breakfast. He came in yesterday, and apparently had time to read information about our hotel. It is funded by ShanDong’s Ministry of Prison Management, which explains all the police cars in the parking lot…I didn’t really know if seeing all of them was a good thing or a bad thing. I also learned that you can buy a China Police Jacket at the hotel’s gift shop!

For lunch, we met up with our Chinese hosts and spent the day learning about the city (with the Chinese) and American University politics/practices (with Jon)! Just what I needed! And, as there have been some rumblings that folks don’t actually believe I’m here in China because I don’t put myself in pictures, I did today. I will save you from seeing me eat lunch (we had a delicacy that is a furry animal folks from the US keep as pets). I know I can’t believe I did it, but I did—tastes like pork.
A Picture with Me in It
Grace, me, Jon, and Song

It really was a gorgeous day, if you were in the sun, and outside of the Wal-Mart incident, things went well. After visiting the springs, Wal-Mart was near, so we thought we’d go looking for gifts made from China (kidding Mom—your Xmas gift was Target), but what we really got was quite an experience. There were these people sleeping on in front of the TV. About 6 rows, with ~3 people per row, just knocked out sleeping. So, I took a picture, and usually I ask, but this time I didn’t. In short, that didn’t go over so well. I think someone thought I was going to report back to his boss, so he and my Chinese host got into a fit about it and deleted the picture. Oops—live and learn!

Post-Wal-Mart, we headed back to campus. I had said to Jon earlier in the day that I haven’t actually seen their lab, so we did a tour of all their sports facilities—again, not a lab tour. All I’ve seen is their offices and department. They are building a new lab, which should be move-in ready in a ~6 months, so I don’t know if they don’t want
"Health Foods"
This is from Wal-Mart...we're in the wine section. Grace said there are added benefits in this wine, but she didn't know what exactly (more alcohol perhaps!).to show me their old stuff or what the deal is—maybe next week. I am ready to go home, but I’m also eager to keep learning about their culture/life/“University” and to discuss how to set up future collaborative work between our labs, allowing us to partner on projects.

Anyway, back to sports…In China, an athlete trains at their province’s training site for their sport. When an athlete is chosen, s/he moves to the province’s Sports Institute and lives, trains, and goes to school there. In our Institute, there is swimming, volleyball (court, but beach in the summer), gymnastics, track and field, judo, tae kwon do, basketball, wrestling, and weightlifting—I have pictures some, and yes, I did ask first.

From a very young age (it is true, age 3 for gymnastics) these athletes start training for the National and Olympic Games. The discussion came up about what do athletes do post-athletic career, and Grace readily admitted that was a problem in her country. She said some become coaches (the really good athletes), some become body guards or join the police/fire, but many do not have very high skills to get well-paying positions. She said that there has been a
Weight Room Facilities
recent push to ensure that athletes are getting good schooling, but in general, it’s not being greatly enforced. I asked, if the student had good English skills and good athletic ability, would the country allow the athlete to come to the US to train or be a part of a University team, and she didn’t think it would be possible. The athlete becomes “property” of the province, which means that the athlete will stay in the province for the duration of his/her career. For a select number of sports (gymnastics and diving for individual sports, and team sports like basketball, volleyball, etc) there are national training centers, but most athletic training is held at the province level, and athletes live, train and work by their rules, which are handed down by the national sports center. As a former athlete I think that would be hard to have so many other people making decisions for you, but if you know no other system, I guess it would just seem normal.

I really want my hosts to visit and see the US, just to see and experience a different way of life. The professor said on Day 1 when met him
A cute little Gymnast
that he wanted his students to see the blue skies—I want them to see it as well, just to see it. Not to compare, not to say things are better or worse, be just to see how others live. One thing that bothers me here is that many Chinese people say that things are better in the US, and my response typically is: It is just different. We (the US) are not better, but we do have a different way of life. I know that China is still, in many areas, the developing country, but they also have a lot of things going for them. It is actually frustrating and discouraging in some ways (to me) to see blonde mannequins and ads with Caucasian blondes in the photos. I realize they are trying to raise their country’s standards, but I don’t know that promoting things like “being white” or “being blonde” actually helps anyone. There were students in Wuxi saying they needed to diet to be thin, which, obviously, there are issues in the US tied to this as well, and I don’t know that it actually makes a person better or builds up a country—I think they should to take pride in what they do have going for them. So, with that, I am going to learn Mahjong tomorrow (an ancient Chinese game) and go KTV-ing (a China favorite…karaoke—ugh!).