9/2

We woke up around 6:30 and got ready. The train ride got to Jinan at a little after 7:00. The city is a lot cooler (temperature wise ) and a lot smaller (even though it is around 3 million in population). We went on a short city tour and then to our dorms.
The dorms really aren’t too bad. At least not as bad as I expected them to be. Their better than the dorm I had in Bean but a little worse than a typical hotel bedroom. And I only have to share the room with one other person, Drew.
For lunch we were served a fiasco of food of all sorts. There was so much! We must have had almost three plates of food per person. When the meal had ended there was close to a half dozen plates of food that hadn’t barely been touched if touched at all.
We were all really exhausted from the semi restless train ride but still we were sent out to go see the market. I really didn’t feel like it at the time but I’m glad we went. The market was much cooler than the markets we had been to previously in Shanghai. There was a lot bigger variety of different things (including soccer balls and swords and I took some interesting in). The merchants were also a lot more polite and not in your face trying to sell stuff. I did well in bartering for a nice Adidas soccer ball, the man wanted 180 Yuan and I got it for 105 ($14).
Walked around for a while longer and then we caught cabs back to our rooms.
Not long after we got back we headed for dinner. We were unaware of what was in store for us. We entered the Shark King Hotel which is by far the nicest hotel I’ve ever set foot in. Huge halls with marble everything. Our room was a huge luxurious banquet hall with the largest “lazy Susan” (a round platter for food to be set upon that can be rotated around the table for everyone to get to all the food items). We all sat around a gigantic circular table. Some of the Shandong University of Art and Design professors were there and some other higher ups to welcome us to their city. It was really something.