White-Knuckling It to Shaxi

(Michael)

Our journey to ShaXi was a lot like the first World War; it consisted of long periods of serenity punctured intermittently with brief moments of pure terror. We left DaLi right after a Chinese buffet style breakfast in a van with a driver who both spoke no English and did not know the word ‘fear’ in any language and ended up in ShaXi within a few hours.

Trains and Temples

(Veronica Moy - teacher at Dover-Sherborn Middle School)

Picking up where Deanna left off, we waited as patiently as possible for our train to board. This proved to be difficult since each new and exciting day has been so physically and mentally demanding - which is good, as it challenges us to reach beyond our comfort zone and learn about the culture we are immersed in. By 10p, we were all desperately looking forward to a good night’s sleep.

News from Kunming

[Ed. note - other posts arrived later than Randy posted this first one, but it appears here to preserve the sense of itinerary] 

(Randy Hoover - 2004 D-S China Exchange teacher currently on leave, living in Kunming)  

Hi all,

The group hasn’t been able to get internet access long enough to upload their blog posts yet, so I’m sending this quick update and a few photos from Kunming, where I just had the pleasure of spending a few hours with them before they had to catch their overnight sleeper train to Dali. Everyone is in good humor and enjoying their adventure!

Valentine's Day in Guilin

(Deanna Biddy - senior at Dover-Sherborn High School)

Hello all!

Today is Valentine’s Day and we all rose early from our beds at 06:45 to encounter an early breakfast accompanied with much food. Our food spanned from vanilla yogurt with Rice Krispies, Croissants to Fried Eggs with Sausage, generally the meals kept coming and we tried to aim to finish one whole plate but to no avail. Afterwards, we went back to our rooms to quickly pack our belongings to get into the van to go see Elephant Trunk Hill and Reed Flute Cave.

Yangshuo Impressions

(Brandon Wu - senior at Dover-Sherborn High School)

Hey ya'll,

This is our second day in Yangshuo. We had much of the day off today to relax and explore. Mike and I went for an early breakfast and then for a walk through a nearby park. It was fascinating to see all of the activities that people were doing. We saw people doing tai-chi, a lady practicing with a sword (or what appeared to be), many kids running around under the watchful eye of their parents, and groups of men sitting around stone tables playing checkers or cards.

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.