By Jordan Delp

Jordan Delp is a men’s basketball player at Augustana. He is blogging about the team’s trip to China. For more posts about the Vikings’ journey, click here.

Fourteen days, eight flights, and 17,840 miles later, and we’re finally back home in the states carrying with us a 4-0 record to go along with a slough of unforgettable memories. The anticipation for us kept growing and growing, especially as we came to closer to the end of our 11-hour flight, and I think everyone was happy and relieved to be back with family and friends.

Our trip, in which we made two stops in Tokyo, stops in Hong Kong, Dongguan, Guangzhou, Wuhan, two in Beijing, and another in Hohhot, the capital city of Inner Mongolia has definitely helped bring our team together, and we were able to achieve the goals we set for ourselves at the beginning of our trip.

We have also been able to gain a great perspective on what our peers will experience in the fall foreign term to China. A total of 81 Augustana students will spend roughly 10 weeks in and around China, going through many of the same things we went through on our trip. Things like language barriers, different food and a still developing Asian society are just a few of the things they will have to adapt to. Our hats go off to them, as none of us could imagine how hard it would be to be that far from home for that long.

This trip was an unbelievable chance for all of us to learn about a culture different from our own, and I think we took full advantage. We saw first hand the widening gap between the modernizing parts of China and rural China, witnessed the strong work ethic and motivation of their culture, saw numerous glimpses into Chinese culture (from bargaining in the markets to the people’s polite nature, and so on) and even were able to sample some of the Chinese social life.

It was just an amazing adventure that none of us will ever forget.

To end this blog, I want to take this opportunity to thank some of the more influential people with our trip. First and foremost, we would like to thank all of our parents for allowing us to take this once in a lifetime trip. Without you, we realize none of this could have been possible. Next, thank you to our coaching staff for dreaming up this trip and allowing us to have a great balance of basketball and “down time” for these two weeks. To all of our family and friends that helped out leading up to the trip, and those of you who stayed in contact while we were gone, thanks to you as well. Thanks next to Augustana College, most notably Dave Wrath who helped start this blog from square one, and President Steven Bahls whose endorsement and recognition of this great opportunity were vital to us.

Also, I would like to thank the Rock Island Argus/Dispatch, most especially Mark Nesseler and Tom Johnston, for providing the medium for the blog and offering encouragement along the way. Lastly, let me thank Dr. Moline and his wife, Janet for offering their expertise on the trip, and without whom this trip could not have happened.

I hope this blog was interesting for everyone to read, offered some insight into our experience, and was as much fun to read as it was to write. I also hope to see you this winter in the Carver Center when my teammates and I will be playing a little bit closer to home.