Orientation in Ann Arbor

So I'm here in Ann Arbor!

I flew from St. Louis to Detroit in the early afternoon. There was some confusion in regards to our housing situation, but we ended up settling down in Markley housing. For the past couple of days we have been doing a variety of orientation activities. These activities were designed to help us get to know each other better as a group and get a sense of what to expect once we're in China.

The first day, we had a casual get-to-know each other session with Dr. Coppola and our language instructor Liu Nian. Dr. Coppola briefed us on the main goals of the orientation-program in Ann Arbor as well as the UM/PKU program and how we were expected to contribute to the continuation of this program.

The main goals for the orientation program in Ann Arbor are: 1) for the participants to get to know each other and establish a support network 2) for the participants to learn how it's like to conduct research in a foreign country 3) for the participants to get comfortable with the idea of living in a foreign country.

After having lunch with the participants from last year's program (Justin, Brian, Tiffany), we participated in a small "group-relations" activity. The main purpose was to make the students aware of potential problems that could arise within a group of people and how to ensure that everyone's opinion is heard.

On the second day, we had two intense language sessions with our instructor Liu Nian, who will be accompanying us for the first 10 days in China. It was very interesting because Nian gave everyone a Chinese version of their own name which everyone was supposed to memorize. Then we had a very expensive.....haha....yea....($369) lunch at a Chinese restaurant and tasted a variety of delicious and "weird" dishes such as pigs intestines and pigs blood (......Allison!), spicy frog legs (Go Spencer!), duck tongue (Allison again!).....etc. In the afternoon, we had some more language instructions on basic Chinese phrases.

The third day, we had another group activity. The purpose of this activity was to promote a multicultural perspective on different situations and withholding judgment of a situation until the whole story in known. In the afternoon, we had a panel discussion with some Chinese students about Chinese culture.

Overall, I found this pre-program orientation very useful and effective (especially the language lessons and the group discussions) because they helped the students be aware of different issues that they may encounter in China. And on top of that, we were given plenty free-time to explore Ann Arbor and further get to know each other. Some things that we did in our spare time include touring the campus, watching the Finals of the Champions league's game between ManU and Chelsea, going the Natural Science Museum, pick-up basketball, etc. I think this pre-program orientation is something that should definitely be continued in future programs.