Saved by the Bell!

(Ola)

Dear readers, it has recently come to my attention that Ms. Alighieri and Ms. Viz have been encouraging their students to read our blogs and comment. Although the blog itself is blocked in China (why?!?), we receive email notifications informing us of your contributions. We are all very glad to hear from you and greatly appreciate you taking the time to read about our activities. Life at Hanggao is fun but if you'd like to hear about slightly more raucous and exciting adventures, we would highly recommend that you also check out older blog posts from the month when we were traveling. There, you shall find tales regarding "The Time I Flooded the Bathroom while Showering" (<-- this actually occurred more than once) as well as "The Time I Yakked in The Tour Van."

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Every day after lunch, we have English Corner, time reserved for kids to come and practice their English with us. We've met many different personalities and have had some interesting discussions. The variety of questions ranges from such complex topics such as "What do you think of the Cultural Revolution, China's government and treatment of domestic and world issues?" to "Do you have a boyfriend?" and "Are American parties as crazy as the ones in the movies?" At times, the questions are so intense that we simply turn the tables.

Today in music class, we learned about the classification of Chinese folk songs. The first grouping, "labor songs" are what one would expect. Described as having call and response characteristics as well as a a melody that goes along with the body motions, the purpose of the tunes is very similar to that of the songs that were sung on plantations. The teacher showed us a video in which a labor song was being sung while people danced around as if though working. We all observed that it was very reminiscent of Les Mis' opening scene.

After lunch, Ms. Li went to go take a bike ride around West Lake and left us with instructions to read Hamlet and take some notes. It was about 70 degrees and very sunny so we decided to carry out our AP Lit curriculum outside on the grass. After reading about Hamlet's troubles, we languished in the sun for about an hour hoping to develop a glowing tan.

The day culminated in a very merry class party thrown in honor of Nik's eighteenth birthday. We were treated to song and dance as well as forced to sing and dance. There was cake and sparkling grape juice and presents for all of us. Upon losing to the Chinese during a game of reciting tongue twisters, we were told we had to receive "punishment." We were told we would each have to pick a victim to flirt with as the whole class looked on. Considering all these children were mere 15-year-old youths, we tried to get out of it and were miraculously saved by the bell.