As mentioned in the previous note, I’ve been spending my summer at the East China Normal University in Shanghai. I picked this place because I thought it would be a great environment to focus on my senior seminar research; it was a good choice:) Every day I have the chance to interact with Dr. Melissa Butler and Dr. Ethan Hollander from our political science department. Moreover, I met quite a few students in the ECNU summer school (most of them are Chinese who study in the U.S.) who provided help with some of the most difficult aspects of researching the 2008 fiscal stimulus in China.

Apart from working together (going to their classes was a great review for the upcoming comps), I also spent much of my free time with the Wabash professors. We caught up on what happened at Wabash last semester, saw a lot of Shanghai together (The Bund, Pudong, French Concession, St. Ignatius Cathedral of Shanghai, World Expo, Fudan University, you name it:)), and met with our alumni.

There’s one more week ahead of us in Shanghai. On Tuesday, we will meet with Chris Beebe’79 who spent many years working in Asia. I am really looking forward to finally meeting Mr. Beebe in person. I will take my time to say bye to this fascinating Chinese metropolis and leave for Beijing after the weekend. I will spend about five days there networking (including a meeting to discuss my research with a political science scholar who I met during the winter) and on the 23rd of this month I will board my returning flight to Indiana.

Dear Wabash community, it’s been an amazing experience, which I can’t wait to share with you in person. Thank you for everything.