We have just finished our first week of China-Vietnam Pre-Departure orientation at the SBCC Wake Center Campus. The week went very well and I think we’re off to a solid start. On Monday Study Abroad Director Carola Smith introduced the program and answered logistical questions, Ingrid Bowman (above) began her TEFL training workshop for those students taking the conversational English internship scheduled for Shandong University (as of Wednesday almost every student had decided to sign up for the internship), and SBCC Professor Peter Haslund – founder of the China-Vietnam Study Abroad program (back in 1984!) – shared some of his experiences in Asia with us. We finished with a brief presentation from Monica Jones of the international peace and travel organization Servas (http://www.servas.org/). On Tuesday and Wednesday Ingrid Bowman returned (she was with us through Thursday), cross-cultural trainer Michael Landers (http://www.culturecrossing.net/) arrived to help prepare us for China, and Dr. Mooney and Dr. Yonemura began to introduce their classes. Finally, on Thursday we began working with Dr. Yongjin Park of UCSB on the basics of Mandarin Chinese. We’ve got one more week of Pre-Departure and then a week off before we all meet up at LAX on the 6th of September for an early morning departure on the 7th for Shanghai via Seoul.
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