As we mentioned, today marks the debut of what we hope will be some very worthwhile daily guest posting by Paige Bromen, who is in China. This is her inaugural post, and she’s taken the liberty of writing her own introduction. We’ll get out of the way and let her go:

My name is Paige Bromen, and I am a junior on the golf team at the University of Minnesota double majoring in Marketing and Entrepreneurship Management. Throughout my life I have been somewhat of a sports fanatic, playing three sports at Stillwater Area High School (basketball, golf, and tennis) and traveling around the country to various competitions. So when I heard that the “U” was going to host a 3 week program to China titled, “Beijing Olympics: Sports Globalization,” I jumped at the opportunity. There is a wide range of knowledge on this trip, a dichotomy between those who know sports and those who don’t. I’m afraid I was a little taken a back when one of my fellow classmates asked me what the NCAA was! No worries, though — I’m sure that within a few days everyone will be caught up to speed.

This morning we woke up early and went to the Beijing Planning Commission. At first our professors did not think we would be able to access the government planning agency; however, Mr. Ma, the deputy director of the research department, studied for four months at the University of Minnesota. In China, I guess it’s not who you know, it’s what you know. The presentation was spectacular although a little high on the propaganda side. The sheer mass of work to be done is ambitious, but without any party opposition the feat seems likely to be completed in time.

This entry was posted on Monday, May 21st, 2007 at 10:01 am and is filed under Dispatches from China, Main. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.