The right decision

Josephine arrived! It was so wonderful to see her pop into the office Friday between my two classes. (She is the Director of the International Education Studies program at Saint Martin's University.) After my students completed their first exam (they confessed to being scared of it...more later) we hailed a cab and took off to her hotel.

The Mayflower hotel is a Best Western (although it seemed like a Hilton) and as we entered the doorway I started to feel a little culture shock. That feeling continued as we arrived at Josephine's room and she ordered coffee—my first since leaving America—via room service.

Standing on the 10th floor looking down from this hotel room I saw Wuhan, China. Turning around looking at Josephine's hotel room, we could have been anywhere in the Western world. I thought to myself, "You made the right decision."

This decision was whether to live on campus and walk to class or stay in this hotel and take a taxi to and from school. As I told Josephine as we sipped our wonderful coffee my experience here in Wuhan would have been totally different. With my campus apartment I know I'm living in China, or as Josephine put it, "Central China is very Chinese!" After flying all this way, I'd rather know I'm in China!