Day 1 in Yangshuo

(Patty Williamson - senior at Dover-Sherborn High School)

Hi everyone!

After finally getting to our Guilin hotel at 130AM, it was quite difficult for the 5 of us to be excited about a 630 wake up call, but after an early breakfast in the hotel (an interesting western-eastern fusion--I'd recommend the watermelon juice) and some encouragement for, our guide, Lily, we got in the van and headed for Fubo hill. Let me tell you, this is the biggest hill, ever. Lily was in much better shape than the rest of us, and seemingly much less afraid of falling up or down the 325 steep steps to the top, so she made her way around the hill insanely quickly. From the top, we could see most of the city of Guilin, and the hundreds of peaks along the Li river which makes Guilin so famous.

Ants and Gods

(Michael Vaughan - senior at Dover-Sherborn High School)

The most empowering and humbling experiences of my life thus far happened simultaneously on our thirteen hour fight from Toronto to Beijing over Siberia. I was absent mindedly looking out of our plane window when the sun rose to me for the second time today and the land we were flying over crept into view through the dissolving canvas of the cloud layer.

(FIRST POST OF 2013 EXCHANGE) Great Timing, Don't You Think?

(Mr Viz - husband of Rebecca Vizulis and China Exchange tech support!)

For those of you who look forward to following the China Exchange Blog when it revs up around Chinese New Year each year, you must be wondering why nothing has appeared given that the departure date of February 8 (yesterday) has come and gone.  Well, wouldn't you know it, the 5th biggest snowstorm in Massachusetts history had to hit us at exactly the right (wrong) time, cancelling Friday 10am flight to Newark/Hong Kong.  Why it was cancelled, and so soon, is beyond me.  The forecast called for the storm to start in earnest around Friday noon, and in fact on Friday morning things weren't too bad.  But United had already cancelled all its flights on Thursday evening.  Are the airlines getting soft?

(FINAL POST of 2012 Exchange) Last Stop Beijing

(Mel)

Hey!

So here we are in Beijing, the last stop on our two month long journey through China, and I for one can not believe I’m typing this sentence- the time really flew by. Making the switch from Hangzhou back into tourist-mode was not an easy one. Leaving Hangzhou to begin with was not something anyone enjoyed but I think we spent our final days in the city the right way. Thursday night was the banquet where we got the opportunity to thank everyone for everything they’ve done for us during our time in Hangzhou and we really could never have thanked everyone enough. I’m not sure how they all managed to make us feel so at home when we were really twelve timezones away from everything that we’re used to. Friday night we went to do some Karaoke again with all of the host siblings and Swan (from last year’s exchange group who my family hosted) which was a great final gathering of all of the hosts. Saturday we spent the entire day with our translator friends (the year three students who have applied to go to college in the US next year so they got to be our translators). Then sunday we were with our host families (I hiked up a mountain for some sight-seeing), and got on the train at 6:30 PM - leaving Hangzhou behind.

Goodbye Hangzhou, KTV and Tennis

(Allen)

If I had to sum up the second half of this Hangzhou experience, it would only consist of two words: KTV (karaoke) and tennis. KTV has become the go-to group event, while tennis has become the go-to family event. In the past week alone, we braved the KTV rooms twice and each time I discovered something new. Slowly and slowly, Jim (Andrew’s first host sibling) has gained notoriety for his femaleness. There are some duets where he can single-handedly tackle both the male and female roles, and often times singing the female lines better.

Inside the (Chinese) Classroom

(Mel)

For the past four and a half (crazy how much time its been!) weeks we’ve all been attending classes with our host siblings whenever we don’t have classes of our own. Before coming to China I’d heard about how focused the kids are in a Chinese classroom and how well behaved they are and while that is a fine observation the factors that create such a dynamic are what’s really interesting. But- before I go any further I’d like to clarify that just because I say the students are well behaved does not mean that I feel like I’m sitting in a classroom full of robots. Highschoolers are still highschoolers wherever they live so in class here kids do still crack jokes, or text discretely under the desk or even fall asleep but overall the class seems to be a lot more orderly than I would expect a room full of 46 sixteen year olds to be. While it’s hard to pinpoint exactly, in my opinion, it seems that there are three main reasons for this different class atmosphere.

Lots of Drama in Hangzhou …

(Joseph)

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times. I think someone already took that line, but I’ll steal it briefly to summarize the past week of my experience at Hangzhou.

Let’s get the “worst” out of the way first.

Kung Fu and Chinese Culture

(Andrew)

It has taken me a while to fully grasp the immense culture that China presents. Prior to my participation in the China Exchange, I had always thought America’s two hundred thirty five year old history had been unique. And, that America, a nation that heavily influences those developing, could pride itself on its rich culture. This was assumed after many years of US history lessons of course, and obviously I had been wrong. The fascinating five thousand year old Chinese culture extends its roots so deep into the man’s history that I have often caught myself wondering throughout this trip why people don’t learn more about it.

Senior Privileges

(Allen)

Back again in Hangzhou, hellooooo rain and also hello new host family. Everything with my new host family is going along fine, except for one catastrophic downfall—stairs. They live on the top floor of a six-story apartment complex with no elevator, so making it down every morning is a downhill roller coaster and conversely climbing back up every evening is like comparable to scaling Mt. Everest, just kidding. All jokes aside, my new host family is pretty awesome; they even have an adorable dog, Dudu, that looks like a bear cub. When I first walked into the apartment, Dudu barked relentlessly at the presence of a stranger, but after ten minutes he was getting all cozy in my lap and on my arm. It’s definitely taken some time, but after a week, Dudu considers me a part of the family.

English Corner at Hanggao

(Mel)

One of the best parts of this trip is without a doubt our daily English Corner sessions. I’m sure they’ve already been mentioned in the blog but just in case you’re reading this and don’t know English Corner is a 30 minute block of time during the lunch break every day when we hang out in a room of the school and any kids who want to practice their english or learn about American culture can come to chat with us. In past years English Corner has been held outside but since we’ve only had 3 or so sunny days the whole time we’ve been in Hangzhou we’ve been inside for it but we’ve taken advantage of having a classroom by writing a few American slang words (with definitions) on the board every day. At first we weren’t sure if the kids would like it but most of the kids check out the slang words of the day first thing when they get to English Corner.

School in America?

(Emily)

Students who wish to go to school in America really have to take the initiative--its a lot of extra work. They must teach themselves the TOEFL and SAT vocabulary (although most get tutors). Also, the SAT is not administered in mainland China, so students must fly to Hong Kong multiple times. Our translator friends tell us that when they took their SAT’s they were surrounded by other mainland students at the airport, at hotels, and at the shopping malls. The test taking center they were at held 3000 people--and there were only five bathrooms, and they had only five minute breaks to use them. Not as much fun as our SAT’s, in short. Most students just take the GaoKao though--I think our perspective is a bit skewed because our guides and many of the kids we meet at English corner have more to do with us precisely because they want to practice their English.

Exploring the Creative World of American Film…Chinese style!

(Joseph)

Last week I embarked on a somewhat challenging and intimidating task: teaching the famous American film Citizen Kane to junior-level Chinese students with no experience studying film at all…and all this in less than 45 minutes. Of course, I did not really teach as much of the film as I would have liked, but we covered an amazing amount of film in our limited time.