Anshan Hotel

... The high point was when Mr. Wilson was asked what he had learned in China and he gave a detailed descripton of how to make Chinese dumplings. When we had our farewell ceremony Wednesday afternoon, both sets of students were quite emotional. Everyone was moved deeply and pledged to meet again. Our students were overwhelmed by the gifts they received both large and small. We each received a Haicheng Senior High School uniform. The Chinese seemed to appreciate our gifts: a ...

... and I played table tennis with our hosts. Later, I taught an English class on common pronunciation mistakes. At the end of the day, we had a cultural exchange. We had been warned ahead of time to prepare a performance, so we sang Frere Jacques in four languages including Chinese. Aaron and Katie both sang solos. We sang the school song and taught the Colonial shuffle ...

... later. We met the Secretary of the town and toured his elegant home. Next stop was a visit to a "typical" farmer's home. We didn't think it was that typical since it was a beautiful home, newly constructed. Then we took a walk up the mountain to look at the pear orchard. Citizens came out of their homes to look at the parade of Americans. A group of students asked to have their pictures taken with us. Back to the Mayor's office for a sumptious lunch. We feel that all we do is eat ...

... group, so I must be brief. We are convening for a sightseeing trip. When we arrived at the school, it was full of students, on a Sunday. Our students were open-mouthed. The Chinese students were studying for upcoming exams. Music sounded (The Pachelbel Canon) to change classes. Katie asked me if I would change the bells to music. I responded, "If students come to school on Sunday I will."

... point of today's lecture class....Yesterday I had a headache. A very uncomfortable sinus headache, wear laying down hurts but standing up or moving around is ten times worse. One of those headaches where medicine doesn't really help and all you can really do is lie around all day and try to move as little as possible. Needless to say I didn't really feel up to dinner with the family. So I called the house and told Shuang Shuang I had a headache ...

Well, I know i've been bad about keeping up with the blog, but I've been pretty busy this week. I finally started back with all my classes after almost two weeks of no middle school. With the national day holiday starting up, I had to work over the weekend, which was sort of a surprise, it was fun, but tiring. I've been adopted by a Chinese family, which is great but means that i've been busy not ...

... actually could not get out my first day here and when Fairy and Lulu came to pick me up Fairy had to use her key to get in and show me. Here's a good time for me to stop and point out a few other things that I might otherwise not mention....Fairy then gave me a tour of my apartment with instructions for how to use everything. I learned that my water heater had been unplugged my first day, explaining the ice cold shower. Then I was shown the washing ...

... problem yesterday morning and both went to different bus stops....so we were a few minutes late for my first kindergarten class yesterday....oh well, i guess it happens, but I did feel bad, I swear I went to the place she told me to, we will see tomorrow when she comes to my house to pick me up. The trip to the middle school is not bad, just a 15 minute bus ride away, but at the end of the day it seems to take forever, as my feet are ...

... which was the cause of the bug bites), as i was on my way to the escalator to leave the basement grocery store in the 5 story shopping center when i caught the eye of a *gasp* black man, definitely a foreigner. He waited at the top of the escalator and asked if i was a foreigner, i told him I'd only been here about a day and he was shocked to find out i didn't' have a cell phone, instantly taking me under his wing, Dixon, or deco as his friends call him showed me ...

... or taxi. The boarding students arrive at school at 6:00 am with the teachers and help clean the school or have morning study sessions. Teachers also live in dormitories. Sometimes they go check on their students in the evening. The school has 2800 students in grades 1-3 (10-12). We arrived in time for morning exercises. As at the other schools we visit, the students line up on the sports filed (artificial turf) and are led by a student in rythym to marching music ...