Behind the Scenes of the Visit of the First Ladies

Many of you have probably read articles in the paper about the visit of Michelle Obama to China.  It has been touted as "soft diplomacy," in that the First Lady would not talk about issues of Human Rights or Economics, but instead focus on Education and Culture.  So, taking advantage of when her daughters were on Spring Break (oh, turns out they weren't exactly thrilled at having to go on this trip given their facial expressions), Obama came to visit Beijing, Xian and Chengdu.  The following article from NDTV (which I think is New Delhi television) as well as an article from the New York Times (this one actually mentions SYA by name!) were the most through I found when reading the coverage.  But what did it look like from behind the scenes?  

First off, the visit happened on Friday March 21st, 2014.  We were informed on Monday March 10th.  We were told, EXPLICITLY, by those planning the visit to keep it under wraps.  Students were told to keep it off of social media, not talk about it in public and even refrain from mentioning it to their host families.  Ok, I broke down and told my parents, my sister and our WhatsApp group and of course, Onions.  You all know I can't keep a secret!  The visit lasted an one hour and fifteen minute, but the amount of planning and work that went in was phenomenal.

From my desk on the sixth floor of the classroom building, two days before the visit, I started seeing men on rooftops around campus.

6 of our students were selected to be in a calligraphy class with the Obama's and Peng, the rest of them were the welcoming committee.  Here are our students practicing the day before.

Practice lasted an hour and a half.  The 6 calligraphy students had a four hour rehearsal in which they coached in everything from what to say and how many steps to take.

The morning of the visit.  From my desk, I see this tent on the building.

EVERY manhole cover on campus looked like this.  Why?  I have no idea.

At 9:15 our welcoming students were prepped in China red to head down stairs and greet our guests!

What about me you ask?  Totally a non-player in the whole event.  I simply got to watch from the sixth floor window.  You'll seen in the reflection that I'm standing on the ledge to get the best view possible.

Black suits everywhere.  They spotted me, and called up to someone on the roof who came down and told me to GET OFF the ledge and stand at least two feet from the window, lest I want to be potentially mistaken.....

....and shot

The entourage arrives.  Right on time.  They said 9:30AM.  The first of 20 cars rolled on to campus at 9:30AM.

Two black suburbans...and the REAL event begins!

So now everyone is on campus.  Our student greeters are sequestered in a room on the first floor.  Peng and Obama, now that I've seen reports, played ping-pong, played with robots and wrote calligraphy.

At this point, I have my one chance to see the stars of the day. The right side of the red carpet is the north side and the left is the south side. We American faculty were allowed to join the students in saying good-bye. Everyone entered from the north/right side. Being at the end of the line, I remained on the right/north side. Our students got an opportunity to talk with (briefly) and take photos with Mrs. Obama.  I WAS ON THE WRONG SIDE. But I did see her, the girls and Peng Liyuan in person. Mrs. Obama is as glamorous and radiant as you imagine her to be.  I was star struck!  

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So this photo, taken from the news, was shot with the north as the background. Therefore, this is the closest I got to being in a public photo.  I'm off to the left in the back.

Mrs. Obama and our kids on CCTV!

And one more!

And just as quick as the group came, they left.  The black cars and suburbans RACED down the walkway to Xinjiekouwai and they were gone.  Twenty minutes later, I was teaching infinite series in BC Calculus!