Written by Griffin Cece

We woke up.

Well Technically Cameron woke me up. It was a slightly rough start to an exciting day. The feeling of impending doom surrounded us like smog around the city. Today was the day that we would meet our exchange students. Ai yo! The taste of chicken nuggets, pumpkin dumplings, and toast with strawberry marmalade put most of our fears to rest for the time being.

As we descended into the lobby, more stress emerged. Cameron, Aryan, and I lost our second room key. In China, this was a major faux pas. We handed them our one and only room key and nothing happened so we just ran with it. We then traveled to the train station with a slight disadvantage given the late start (thanks Rosie).

After a relatively short bus ride we arrived at the train station. With a couple of heart attacks due to the misconception that we had lost our phones or passports and slightly intrusive security checks we all gallantly strode towards the train. Since our bags were too large we got the VIP treatment and emerged into the train early. Everyone got comfortable in the train as we waited for it to start. To be honest, I can’t give you the greatest summary of the train ride because I was asleep for most of it.

After we got off the train we took another short bus ride and arrived at Henan Experimental Day School. Our exchange students met us there as we all tried to diminish our fears. Once everyone was with their students, everyone had their own unique experience.

I, Griffin Cece, went with Kim and Rosie to have a sort of hibachi lunch. It was great. Then most of the group went to KTV. KTV is the name for these crazy over the top karaoke bar places. I’m sure you can only imagine how that went. After that it was dinner with the family and, personally speaking, I went to bed after a long exciting day in Zheng Zhou.

I’d like to apologize for the delay in the blog.