Coming back home - Brian Reinke and Michael Nemmetz

I thought that it may be interesting to talk about how I've felt since coming home and some of my first impressions coming back to the States after having spent time in China.

I will say that one of the first things I noticed is how dated some of our buildings look.  We learned that most of the urban development in both Hong Kong and Shanghai has taken place in the past 15-20 years.  As such, everything looks so new and futuristic.  I mentioned this to Maria Heide and she made a good point that our infrastructure in America doesn't look so new because we've put so much money into infrastructure over decades of time and it is far too expensive to just knock down "dated" buildings to build new, shiny ones.  For China, when an influx of money came into the country starting two decades ago, it was easy to build new buildings in spaces where the current buildings weren't relatively very valuable.  Look at this picture - you definitely don't see anything very historical looking on the skyline.  For those of you who know Madison, you don't see any Red Gyms, Science Halls, or Liz Waters (obviously this are all beautiful, but old buildings).

The expanses of open space (even in the city of Madison) and the emptiness of streets and sidewalks is also something I've noticed.  Obviously, China is very populated and the cities get especially crowded.  I will say, though, that it creates a great energy and whenever you're walking the streets you feel the liveliness and spirit of the city.

The pace of China was very fast.  I liked Biddy Martin's comment about how everyone in China seems to be so opportunistic and hard-working.  There is an excitement in China knowing that they really are on the precipice of a new frontier.  It's hard to argue that China will someday be one of the superpowers, if not THE superpower of the world.  The people know this and they are working to make it happen.  Life here in Madison (granted it's a much smaller city that the ones we visited) seems a little sluggish.  Obviously, I'm not saying anything against Madison - I love this city and I think it's just a different culture.  I think I may get lost and too overwhelmed if I spent too much time in a city like Shanghai.  Or maybe I'd love it.