Having Some Class

The "blog" for me is a fundamentally frustrating form of expression,
which is probably why I don't do it much. I find myself bursting with
observations and stories, humorous and otherwise, that I
simultaneously want to share, but would not be comfortable with
everyone in my life reading. I don't keep a regular blog for the
same reason that I don't keep a diary - it can only come back to haunt
you.

So anyway, one of the things that I enjoyed most about traveling alone
last week was a freeing ability to express to you (the folks back
home) what I was thinking in a moderately unfiltered way. It was
exceedingly unlikely that the chef who served me tacos instead of
quesadillas will ever know that he was exposed as a mexican-culinary
fraud on my webpage, especially since it's banned in China.

Now that I'm back where I belong, as one member in a herd of awkward
and befuddled Americans instead of an isolated case, my postings must
necessarily become a little more reporting and a little less
reflective. Why am I typing all this? Probably because it's nearly
midnight and my stomach is doing backflips after a delicious but
exotic chinese meal, and also because I don't really plan these
writings, they mostly just spill out of my brain when I sit down at
the computer. Pretty much like writing a term paper, now that I think
about it.

So anyway, today was our first day of class, in Guangzhou. As
required, a humorous english/chinese miscue leads off the day:

After a morning of lecture on supply chain basics, we headed off to
tour one of Guangzhou's major ports, which while interesting, was a
lot smaller than I thought it would be:

Ha!

Ok, visual gags aside, here is my roommate Rajeev and me out by the
container-crane-lifting things at the full size version.

Finally, here's a portion of the herd as we take in the city from a
nighttime harbor cruise.

The students I've met have been very nice. The course work is
enlightening and practical. The resulting blogs are quite bland.

PKT