What is takes to be a good host

Living in big US cities such as NYC, LA, and Washington DC, you will experience the fast pace life of lots of people, cars, and sensory overload. Shanghai, just like all big cities around the world, fall into this category. With this fast pace life, you inevitably encounter people from all walks of life. This includes rude and impatience people. I have my share of folks shouting at me , giving me bad customer service, or laughing at me at my poor mandarin speaking skills. But my impression of China and the people is that you know someone, even if its through 2-3 degrees of separation, people are willing to help you out in many ways.

For example, my classmates Jane and Gemma agreeable to take time to give me some Chinese tutoring lessons to improve my vocabulary and pronunciation. In addition, Jane was able to take my friends (who were in town visiting me) to a club last week, the night before she was leaving for vacation.

At SJTU, the program office teamed us up with China MBA students as local host buddies. Mine is Bruce Du. He is a 1st yr evening MBA student. He works full time as a data analyst at a US based company. He has class twice a week during the weekday and class all day on Sunday. He decided to get together this past Sunday right after class. He brought Jeri, Matt, and myself to a billiards place where we met up with a few of his classmates. Bruce made every attempt to introduce and integrate us to his classmates. We played pool and ate dinner there. It was a great experience as we would never gone there since it was a real local hang out. He made us feel very at home and comfortable. I felt bad b/c he lives 1.5hr away and he's hosting us right after an all day class and now he'll probably need to take a taxi home b/c the subway closes around 9pm. I really appreciate his efforts to be a good host. This is in addition to the help he gave me earlier in the week when he gave me some good information on how and where to buy bus tickets to the local water towns around Shanghai. I would never have found the right place if it wasn't for Bruce making a few phone calls and recommendations.

Thanks Bruce, Jane, and Gemma!