Today is the last day in Jiang Yin and we all are very sad to leave. Time really has flown for us for it felt like we just arrived and got to know the area. Today we had to say good-bye to the grateful students of the ABC summer camp. The end-of-camp presentation went very well and it was a wonderful way to end the trip. Once everyone said their good-byes we headed for a fulfilling lunch at the International Trade Mansion. The lunch was fancy and we were able to thank everyone for helping us teach. As we said our final good-byes to the principles we made out a plan of what to do next. We needed to pack and get ready for tomorrow. So all the boys went straight to their rooms and started to get ready. Once we were all done the boys decided to watch a movie because it was our last day in Jiang Yin. We finished our last night here with a lovely dinner at the hotel with lovely desserts from our local bakery. We are looking forward to coming home but we are sad to leave our second home here in Jiang Yin. We will see you all on Saturday.
James and Patrick
Friday, July 30, 2010
Wednesday, July 28th
Today was the third to last day of school and things are starting to wind down. The kids are all preparing for their closing ceremony performances on Friday. The performances all look very good. This afternoon we went to ping pong. It was our last ping pong class and we have improved very much in this sport. We also had another Chinese lesson, which was very educational.
Megan's class treated us to dinner at the Jiangyin International Hotel. They have a giant revolving buffet restaurant at the top and it was delicious. The restaurant had sashimi, steak (yum!), cheesecake, and chocolate fondue. We stayed from 5:45 to 9:00 talking and drinking tea and coffee. We also had a chance to talk with former principal Hu, and Leo, a high school student who speaks fluent English. It was a very good evening.
Ned and Mark
Megan's class treated us to dinner at the Jiangyin International Hotel. They have a giant revolving buffet restaurant at the top and it was delicious. The restaurant had sashimi, steak (yum!), cheesecake, and chocolate fondue. We stayed from 5:45 to 9:00 talking and drinking tea and coffee. We also had a chance to talk with former principal Hu, and Leo, a high school student who speaks fluent English. It was a very good evening.
Ned and Mark
Monday, July 26, 2010
The Begining of the End
I realize how unoriginal the name of today's post is. Although unauthentic, the title seemes to appropriately describe today's feeling. Most of us feel the full impact of the final stretch; as some of us were kept up by an unknown group of people. At midnight, Alex and I specifically were woken up by banging on the walls and shouting from the neighbor room (608.) This continued on for 2 hours, also waking up Patrick Wong in the other neighboring room. (612.) Now we know how the rest of the hotel feels for one month every year.
On a lighter note, today we started practicing for the final performance. Our class (Molly and I's) began to memorize lines of an adaptation of Dr. Seus' "Are You my Mother?" They prepared construction paper costumes, to assist their adoption of animal roles.
To end our day, we visited the Museum/Memorial of Xuxiake; the man responsible for modern knowledge of China's geography. When he was young, Xuxiake traveled China using his father's money. His community viewed him as selfish. However, Xuxiake's travels eventually provided China with a rough map, which was later refined to form what we now recognize as China's geography.
Our day ended with dinner ordered by Ms. Hayden, the other Ms. Hayden, Ned, Mark, and Patrick.
~Max Fong
On a lighter note, today we started practicing for the final performance. Our class (Molly and I's) began to memorize lines of an adaptation of Dr. Seus' "Are You my Mother?" They prepared construction paper costumes, to assist their adoption of animal roles.
To end our day, we visited the Museum/Memorial of Xuxiake; the man responsible for modern knowledge of China's geography. When he was young, Xuxiake traveled China using his father's money. His community viewed him as selfish. However, Xuxiake's travels eventually provided China with a rough map, which was later refined to form what we now recognize as China's geography.
Our day ended with dinner ordered by Ms. Hayden, the other Ms. Hayden, Ned, Mark, and Patrick.
~Max Fong
Sunday, July 25, 2010
Our last weekend - Huaxi, Shopping and Hot Pot
We had a very active last weekend here in Jiangyin and the weather was hot and sunny! On Saturday, we traveled less than an hour from Jiangyin to tour the "small" village of Huaxi. The village was founded in 1961 and at that time was only one kilometer in size and contained small thatch hut dwellings, but over the last 50 years has thrived and grown to 60,000 people and now covers 35 kilometers. The "village" is also in the process of building the second largest building in the world which will have a five star hotel and a revolving restaurant on the top. Things are good for the village of Huaxi!
Some other interesting aspects about the village were it contained small scale replicas of the Great Wall and Tiananmen Square complete with a cable car as well as the Sydney Opera house, Statue of Liberty, Arc de Triomphe and several other famous monuments. The homes in this village, fully furnished, are given out to the residents with one small catch- they can't lock the doors and anyone can come in and have a look, which we did.
We had a lovely tour guide who we called Lin. She explained, in very good English, that the people of Huaxi all love the Secretary (Hu Ren Bao) and she toured us through hall after hall with his photos, writings, family photos, etc.... Then, she took us to an auditorium where we had third row seats to hear Hu Ren Bao, the Secretary, give a speech. Karen found his speech very funny, he said he met with the Chairman and the Chairman thanked him not just once which is a formality, but twice which means he was really thankful for his work on the village. He also said people from this village don't need to travel since they have replicas from around the world, but no one has a replica of Huaxi!
On Sunday we had the option of taking a local bus to a temple area in the city that has many small shops with nice traditional gifts. Karen and Anita found the area and were kind enough to work out the bus route and take us all back there. It was very fun bargaining for treasures and some people explored a great Chinese bookstore on the way back.
Later that same evening we all walked to a local Hot Pot restaurant and enjoyed cooking our own meat, fish and vegetables in a delicious broth.
It was a wonderful last weekend here in Jiangyin!
Michelle and Connor Stauffer
Some other interesting aspects about the village were it contained small scale replicas of the Great Wall and Tiananmen Square complete with a cable car as well as the Sydney Opera house, Statue of Liberty, Arc de Triomphe and several other famous monuments. The homes in this village, fully furnished, are given out to the residents with one small catch- they can't lock the doors and anyone can come in and have a look, which we did.
We had a lovely tour guide who we called Lin. She explained, in very good English, that the people of Huaxi all love the Secretary (Hu Ren Bao) and she toured us through hall after hall with his photos, writings, family photos, etc.... Then, she took us to an auditorium where we had third row seats to hear Hu Ren Bao, the Secretary, give a speech. Karen found his speech very funny, he said he met with the Chairman and the Chairman thanked him not just once which is a formality, but twice which means he was really thankful for his work on the village. He also said people from this village don't need to travel since they have replicas from around the world, but no one has a replica of Huaxi!
On Sunday we had the option of taking a local bus to a temple area in the city that has many small shops with nice traditional gifts. Karen and Anita found the area and were kind enough to work out the bus route and take us all back there. It was very fun bargaining for treasures and some people explored a great Chinese bookstore on the way back.
Later that same evening we all walked to a local Hot Pot restaurant and enjoyed cooking our own meat, fish and vegetables in a delicious broth.
It was a wonderful last weekend here in Jiangyin!
Michelle and Connor Stauffer
Friday, July 23, 2010
Last Week in China
Yesterday, (Thursday) was picture day! We had the experience of wearing our new ABC T-shirts for the first time. We got to take pictures with the kids at the camp. Kung Fu class was sadly canceled because of the teacher's absence. Mrs. Chu made the special arrangement for us to make dumplings instead of Kung Fu. The dumpling making process was interesting to learn and an interesting skill to master. Today （being Friday), started out with the usual school day process in the morning. We were specially treated to an all you can eat buffet near the hotel. We the boys were happy to learn that we could buy ourselves dinner and were given money to do so. With this money, the we chose to buy three whole watermelons and split them among 6 people. It was a healthy and fulfilling end to the day. We are sad to realize the trip is 3/4th finished, but we are still happy for the weekend.
Patrick and James
Patrick and James
Wednesday, July 21, 2010
Dinner with Qiao Qi Teachers
Today was a very eventful day. We had a great day of school, followed by ping
pong and intensive Chinese. Ping pong is becoming one of our favorite
activities, and we are learning many Mandarin phrases. Then, we went to a
shopping center. Most of the items were clothing, and we decided not to buy
anything, but we had the chance to explore a different area of Jiangyin. There
were many electronics stores on the way back and we saw lots of computers
running Windows XP in the "Apple" store. After that, we had a very pleasant
surprise. One of the English teachers at the school decided to take us out to
dinner. The food was delicious. The store manager visited with us a bit and
cooked a delicious beef dish in front of us. He was very friendly and spoke both
Mandarin and Cantonese. Among the other dishes there was beef jelly, fish balls
and liver soup, and, of course, watermelon. It is hard to believe the trip is
over half finished. Next week are performances and we expect they will be great.
Mark and Ned
pong and intensive Chinese. Ping pong is becoming one of our favorite
activities, and we are learning many Mandarin phrases. Then, we went to a
shopping center. Most of the items were clothing, and we decided not to buy
anything, but we had the chance to explore a different area of Jiangyin. There
were many electronics stores on the way back and we saw lots of computers
running Windows XP in the "Apple" store. After that, we had a very pleasant
surprise. One of the English teachers at the school decided to take us out to
dinner. The food was delicious. The store manager visited with us a bit and
cooked a delicious beef dish in front of us. He was very friendly and spoke both
Mandarin and Cantonese. Among the other dishes there was beef jelly, fish balls
and liver soup, and, of course, watermelon. It is hard to believe the trip is
over half finished. Next week are performances and we expect they will be great.
Mark and Ned
Monday, July 19, 2010
Second Half of Summer Camp!
Today marked the beginning of the second half of the 2010 America Bridges china summer camp. We went through the normal morning routine, and headed off to Qiao Qi. To our surprise, several classes had new students, who had not been present for the previous two weeks. As far as I could tell, the teachers made the necessary changes and helped make the new kids feel welcome. Upon approaching the final week, each group started to think about the final project. Every year, each class puts on a song, skit, or other type of performance to demonstrate the progress they have made learning English. As it usually takes at least a week to rehearse this, we are starting to think about what kind of show we want to put on.
After school, we went to a local farm and ate lunch. Some of us went fishing while others rested. Nobody caught any fish. We returned to the hotel, and some of us went shopping at a new bakery we found several blocks from the hotel. At 6 PM, we ate a filling dinner, ordered by Max, Megan and Molly. We then returned to our respective rooms, where we will soon head off to sleep and rest up for another day of teaching.
-Alex Hillan
After school, we went to a local farm and ate lunch. Some of us went fishing while others rested. Nobody caught any fish. We returned to the hotel, and some of us went shopping at a new bakery we found several blocks from the hotel. At 6 PM, we ate a filling dinner, ordered by Max, Megan and Molly. We then returned to our respective rooms, where we will soon head off to sleep and rest up for another day of teaching.
-Alex Hillan
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