½ School ½ Green Tea

(Dareus)

If you’ve read the previous posts then you probably know what our average “school day” is. Regardless, I will tell you how today started. Four knocks on my bedroom door woke me up and initiated the daily routine of choosing my clothes which usually includes the blue and white school uniform jacket that I was given a few days after arriving here at Hangzhou. A shower later I hopped in my host dad’s car with breakfast in hand and then fell asleep for the one hour and ten minutes it takes us to get there. We usually take the back gate into school grounds. Since this high school is obviously a city there are always two students with red sashes standing on either side of the gate to help filter out people who aren’t students and are trying to enter the campus.

Hangzhou High School! (HangGao)

(Caitlin)

The last week has been, well, crazy. We arrived a little more than a week ago, and since then, we’ve all settled into a rhythm. Wake up early, have breakfast (which is delicious, by the way, but I’ll get to that later), and head out into the crazy traffic jam on our way to school. In the mornings, we all go to class with our host siblings first thing, for the first two classes. It’s kinda cool, seeing a class that I might have already taken at home, like physics, but in a different language. I can’t exactly understand what the teacher may be saying, but I can understand what’s on the board, so I can still pretty much follow along.

The ABC’s of China!

(Heather)

Below, in alphabetical order, you can find some of my thoughts on China thus far!

A: Attention Span:
I’ve only been “teaching” for two days thus far, but American students take note—students here listen to EVERY WORD you say with rapt attention. In fact, I’m reasonably certain I could read straight from an IRS tax manual to the Chinese students, and they’d listen quietly, avidly, and respectfully. I’m chalking this up to the vast differences in pedagogy between our two countries—in China, the teacher is the expert, and classes are conducted as such. The teacher presents material, and students listen, absorb, and retain. There are few questions, and the concept of “tell me your thoughts about this poem or story” is completely foreign. In fact, I spoke with a student today who is likely spending a year at a high school in Canada, and her biggest fear revolved around this difference—she was terrified at the thought of having to put forth her own thoughts about class material.

West Lake & Plum Blossoms

(Heather)

My apologies to those of you reading this blog post—there’s no creative title this time round. There’s a reason for this, however. You see, as a group we spent Saturday at the infamous West Lake in Hangzhou, and on Sunday I had the opportunity to see the stunningly lovely peach and plum blossoms at the Hangzhou Botanical Gardens. As everything I’ve seen over the past two days has been so, well, just so lovely, I feel that trying to force creativity or compose a saccharine metaphor would inevitably fall flat and detract from the actual beauty of what we’ve (I’ve!) seen.

“Oooh, Kill ‘em” at Ping Pong

(Timmy)

Student’s log. Day 3. It has been 3 days since the group has infiltrated the high school. We have begun to gain the student’s trust. Actually the first few days have been a little awkward for us, but only because most of us don’t understand what they are saying. Today was much better because over the last few days, I have been able to make more friends. At the end of second period today, two girls came up to me and gave me what I think are postcards. We talked for a little bit in broken English and Chinese until I went to meet the rest of the group in room 209, our base of operations. I thought I was doing alright socially, but apparently Max has an entourage of students that always visit him. They are all nice people, but they took the last cookie from our snack bowl.

First Days in Hangzhou

(Max)

So it has been a couple of days now since our last post as a result of my not having a computer charger so the blame falls on me. We have finally arrived in Hangzhou after what has seemed like a lifetime of traveling but actually only been a little less than three weeks. Our arrival to Hangzhou High School was quite prestigious with the administration here making us feel like celebrities.

Japan or China?

(Dareus)

The morning started like you would expect it to with the three of us in a room. We woke up late, kinda showered, ran to breakfast and then realized the time we had set was a half hour earlier than we thought it was. Other than the crazed start to the day the rest of it was relatively relaxed and calm. After a drive that I didn’t see because I was asleep, we arrived at Hong Cun village. If any of you have been to the Peabody Essex Museum you’ve probably seen the old Chinese house that was rebuilt inside of the museum. That house was disassembled in this village and reassembled at the Peabody Essex Museum. The good majority of the houses look like that one. 

Huang Shan Day Two

(Caitlin) 

On our second day in Huang Shan (if you count the day we arrived from Xi’an), we got up pretty early to begin our day, and after a quick breakfast in the hotel, we met up with our guide, Phillip, to leave for the mountains. And so, around eight-thirty, after some hurried Wi-Fi using and phone checking, we piled into the van and took off.

Hup, two three four, hup two three four…

(Heather)

No, we didn’t really march, trek, or sojourn the other day. We did, however, spend our last day in Xi’an visiting what was, to me, the highlight of our time there—the terracotta warriors. I’ve wanted to see the warriors ever since I was little, and, in particular, have been looking forward to them since I realized I’d be traveling with this year’s group.

Chinese Culture, and American Appetites

(Timmy)

Today was a long day for the group, but it was also one of the more memorable days. We started by visiting Pangliu village on the outskirts of Xi’an. The drive to Pangliu village was short, but exciting because we finally met Richard Wang, a friend of Mrs. Viz and the tour guide who we owe a great deal of gratitude to for this exchange.

Last Day in Lijiang and First Day in Xi’an

(Max)

On our last day in Lijiang we got an early start with our guide Evan and set out to visit the Black Dragon Pools. It was quite nice to have an activity close enough to our hotel that we could just walk. The pools were amazingly clear and the scenery of the overall park was picturesque. A bridge stretched over one of the pools and we had an absolutely beautiful view of Lijiang’s snow mountain, which we had ascended a day earlier. Oh, and before I forget, on our walk to the pools we passed by a kind gentleman with a monkey, with whom Timmy and I took our picture. I’m really not sure of the type of monkey, but the little thing was dressed up like a tiny bellhop and as the picture was taken he was sitting in my hand, rubbing his cheek against mine; it was adorable.

“How is that even silk? It looks like a picture.”

(Dareus)

I woke up in my own private room at the guesthouse in Shaxi Village with the Korean drama still on the TV from the previous night. After a breakfast of noodles black with spice, we boarded our little bus and began our trek to Lijiang. Our first stop in Lijiang was Baisha village where the most intricate embroideries were hand crafted by the Naxi minority people. The girl who showed us around told us the mind blowing fact that her trade master could separate a silk strand the width of a hair into 250 separate strands. After that she showed us an art gallery of embroideries that was far more modern than you would expect for a village so small. The thin strands of silk were melded together so well by the artisans that the color gradients challenged those of digital pictures. After that our tour guide brought us to see Naxi murals that were about the mixing of cultures and religions in the local regions. It seemed like the ideal environment where all the different religions just kept to themselves and didn’t bother each other.