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| Making my 10th presentation to ten more agents. . . |
Today is a three meeting day! Today I am set to meet with different agencies who may be able to help me find students. I put on my coat and tie, pack my rollaway bag with materials, fuel up on a splendiferous international buffet, and walk with my colleagues Clyde, Mark, and Tomas to our first meeting. The morning city bustles, and I crane my neck straining to take in all the skyscrapers.
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| Clyde, Mark, and Me |
The agent meetings today are of a kind. We ascend skyscrapers into offices abundant with flags, maps, conference rooms, reception desks, and lists of the bests schools in the world (Princeton is #1!). Clyde and Mark deliver their 30 min. presentation about the French-American School of New York, and I deliver my 25 min. presentation about Maui Preparatory Academy. We’re such different schools that we’re not really competitors, which is ideal. Anywhere between 3 and 10 agents show up for these presentations. We always exchange cards and pleasantries. It’s interesting, fun, and potentially useful, and the more I present, the smoother I am.
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| Golden Highrise |
After the first meeting we taxi to an older part of town, but it doesn't look it. Commerce still explodes from every building. I purchase some discount Apple chargers and a battery pack at a street stall. Mark and I stroll through a seven story super mall, absorbing the rampant and fearless commercialism of a rising city racing to feed the demands of tens of millions of nouveaux-riche. I take a wrong turn and end up on a top story karaoke club with marble walls and sharks swimming in aquariums. The shark tanks upset me, but the glamour and glitter are undeniable.
We eat a steaming white fish doused in ginger, scallions, garlic, bamboo shoots, watercress, and spices, which we order simply by pointing to another table, as the menu is pure Chinese characters, which I can’t read at all.
We lose our way to the meeting, and then we all struggle in Chinese to figure out that we’re in the wrong part of town. We remedy that.
We have another meeting, and then another meeting. I feel like I’m casting bait all over the place, unsure of where I’ll get a bite, or when. Will it be tomorrow? In a week? In a month? In six months? All are possibilities. .
5 PM on Friday and we’re fairly drained by the final meeting. So are the Chinese agents with whom we meet, as they sneak some texts mid-presentation. It’s a strange business, these Chinese agents in their twenties and thirties selling schools they’ve never seen to unknown teenagers, when in fact many of these agents would like to travel to these places as well. The rising youth in China have it better than any generation in Chinese history, and I wonder sometimes if there is some envy by agents of these young princelings.
The Friday commute has the city in gridlock, so Mark, Clyde, Tomas and I enjoy an al fresco setting instead of trying to navigate through the city. After sunset we taxi to a central restaurant street with hundreds of options. We opt for a Muslim Turkish restaurant, and proceed to feast on lamb, seasoned chicken kebab, tabouli, breads, falafel. It’s a veritable feast.
Around us hundreds of residents, tourists, and vagrants stroll the streets, eating and enjoying the warm Spring evening. We take it all in, but eventually sleep beckons. .
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| International Financial Center Illuminated. |
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| The most luxe hotel in Asia. . .? |
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| Floors 90-110 beckon you. . . |
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| Pearl River Delta from the Four Seasons Hotel. . . |
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| Thanks for the offer, but I'm taken. . . |
We eat a steaming white fish doused in ginger, scallions, garlic, bamboo shoots, watercress, and spices, which we order simply by pointing to another table, as the menu is pure Chinese characters, which I can’t read at all.
We lose our way to the meeting, and then we all struggle in Chinese to figure out that we’re in the wrong part of town. We remedy that.
We have another meeting, and then another meeting. I feel like I’m casting bait all over the place, unsure of where I’ll get a bite, or when. Will it be tomorrow? In a week? In a month? In six months? All are possibilities. . 
5 PM on Friday and we’re fairly drained by the final meeting. So are the Chinese agents with whom we meet, as they sneak some texts mid-presentation. It’s a strange business, these Chinese agents in their twenties and thirties selling schools they’ve never seen to unknown teenagers, when in fact many of these agents would like to travel to these places as well. The rising youth in China have it better than any generation in Chinese history, and I wonder sometimes if there is some envy by agents of these young princelings.
Around us hundreds of residents, tourists, and vagrants stroll the streets, eating and enjoying the warm Spring evening. We take it all in, but eventually sleep beckons. . 
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