This place is HUGE

George and I got the privilege to stay with one of the wealthiest families in Hubei provence. Our student's name is Noctis Chow and he was one of the only students that doesn't live on their high school campus. His classmate and friend Eric also stayed with us at the house. Noctis' father owns a factory where they make machines and parts of ships, George and I were lucky to get an early morning tour of the factory which was a truly special experience.

In front of the factory

(left to right: Eric, Mother, Father, Noctis, Me, George)

Walking around the factory was unreal. There were six MASSIVE buildings with 6000 workers total. This tour was something very unique to George and my experience because we were the only ones that got to see what we saw.

After we left the factory it was time to meet up with the rest of the class at their high school. When we met our families the night before it was dark out so we couldn't really see much of the school, but in the daylight the place was HUGE. It must be about ten times bigger than any high school I have ever seen.

Once we got to the school, we went into Steve's classroom and got to know the students a little better. After the class period was over, the students assembled in the courtyard for their flag raising ceremony and some announcements. We were put up in on top of the stairs next to the guy doing the announcements so we were pretty much the center of attention for all 4000 students. thats 8000 eyes burning into us, it was quite a feeling. 

Initially, we were supposed to go down the line and introduce ourselves to all of the students but luckily we didn't end up having to do that. After the flag ceremony, Steve took us on a tour of the rest of the campus so we could see how the rest of the school looked. 

After the high school, we went and toured the College of International Culture Exchange where we sat in on a mandarin class with students from all over the world.  The University was cool but we had a meeting with some students and it felt like they were trying to recruit us and that was not something we really wanted to be doing so it turned a few of us off to it. After that it was time for a bus ride back to the high school to meet back up with our hosts and have an evening out on the town.