CHICKEN FOOT! Thanks to Jason, I can now re-live the gag moment over and over...
What was last week’s sad realization has now become this week’s triumph. Finals ended last night, and at this point, I don’t even care how I did. I’m sure I will in a week or so, when I see those two SP’s on the finals staring back at me on the Duke registrar website in my Inbox:)
In my mind, this semester easily stands out from the prior three; the residency was such an eye-opening experience (in a good way), the distance portion workload was the most intense, and I’ve feel like my overall learning and appreciation of China (or just Shanghai for you sticklers) is just so much higher relative to the other countries we visited. Going into the semester, I was ‘warned’ by Dan from the admission’s office that Shanghai would open my eyes to how the U.S. is in decline relative to the modern look, feel, and technology on display in Shanghai. When I arrived and rode the maglev train from the airport into Shanghai, I knew that ‘warning’ would be fulfilled in spades.
There’s no rest for the weary, though, as we’ll be heading to Russia at the end of the month to start the whirlwind experience all over again. I don’t want to knock St. Petersburg, but I just can’t see how it can compare to all of the amazing Shanghai experiences. A big thanks one last time to Ian, who organized one hell of an experience. From the dinner when I arrived to the karaoke to see us off, I couldn’t have asked for a better time in the magnificence that is Shanghai.
Also, a big thanks once again to Section 2, Team 2! Thanks for all of the hard work you all put in to close up the semester, what seemed insurmountable last week now seems like it was never an issue.
I captured this footage during my first morning in Yangshuo, April 14, when I decided to take a walk around town because I couldn’t sleep. This early morning tour of Yangshuo is also when the pictures from my prior Yangshuo post were taken, using the same Canon HF200 camcorder/camera.
Although I did use some filters during editing of the video, and my video camera might have added some color bias, Yangshuo really does look this amazingly beautiful and colorful. Of course, had I known the video would turn out as it did, I would’ve paid more attention to the camera settings to capture the most natural look as possible. I guess I’ll need to return back to China to validate my camera settings ;)
Here’s what I used in the making of this video:
Canon HF200 1080p HD camcorder, recording 30 fps at 24 Mbps
Sunpak PlatinumPlus flexible mini-tripod
Apple Final Cut Express – Filters: Basic Border, Vignette, Dazzle
Traditional Chinese guzheng music (from Baidu, of course!)
One of the many purposes of having the residency experiences overseas, beyond just exposing the students to business climates around the world, is the immersion experience. Leaving behind work and our regular day-to-day lives has the effect of improving focus on the school tasks at hand, but it’s not without a price. Being +12 hours has made communication with my wife difficult, emails that are sent to me from home tend to get answered about 12 hours from when they are sent, and when I get around to reading my favorite news and entertainment websites, the content has already become stale.
When I’m at a residency, I almost never read the local newspaper, nor do I watch television. Our schedules are generally so tight that there really isn’t time. However, I couldn’t help but notice the headline on the newspaper this morning: National Mourning Day.
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