Well, this is the last 6 hours before I leave for the airport. I guess my take-aways would be:
1) great food, I am quite adept at chop sticks now and of all the food I have been offered, I like all except chicken feet and dove heads. Even the Pig stomach wasn't bad. You have to try the octopus on a stick. I have had it twice so far.
2) friendly people from the co-teachers, vice deans and deans to the two families that Wangping had me meet.
3) The students are hard workers once they understand what to study. My final test grades averaged 80% in Materials with 3 students failing and one got a 100. That is they get one more chance to take a similar final next semester and if they fail again they retake the class. In my Geometric Dimensioning and Tolerancing class everyone passed with a 88% overall average. One person got a 100.
4) The extreme contrast between China and America will have a lasting impression. There are no grossly overweight people that I have seen. In fact 98% are trim. Most women dress very stylishly and the guys too to a lesser degree. Few people own their own home and even fewer have a vehicle. When they ask about my living and I say a 3,000 ft^2 home and 3 cars, I am humbled. Many chinese men and young men smoke.
I didn't get this sent off in Shanghai because I lost the connection. Actually I am in the Portland airport at the moment waiting to get the last leg home and the internet connection and speed are amazing. Here are some misc. pictures and movies that are downloading extremely well. One movie is a great picture of the octopus tenticles, the other a pet store I stumbled on. Pictures are of a bike rack and my last dinner with the co-teachers. It was a Chinese Muslim restaurant. They said this type of food was eaten mainly in western China. The beer was dark (they called black beer). I would campare it to a US micro brew versus the other stuff I have had here. The most popular beers here are similar to coors, or bud.
I'll have to think about some other stuff. So long, it has been a blast doing this. I will have to print it out and keep it for prosperity.