Today we had our second full day of lessons at school. It was very fun. First we had art class for 2 hours. We learned about Beijing Opera masks and then we made a t-shirt with an opera mask on it. Everybody's looked very good by the end. I like this class, it was fun. After that, we went to an English class again. This was such a great experience! It is so amazing how these kids are so interested in America and thirsty for knowledge and eager to practice their English. And they were all so generous-by the end of the class i had a whole armful of gifts. Some of the questions I got asked were about how much homework i have, what my favorite food is, how long school is for me, if I watched the Olympics and who my favorite NBA star is. All the students were so nice and many swarmed around eagerly in line waiting to get my email address. After English class we had lunch. We got to pick what we wanted today. It's amazing how they have chicken patties and popcorn chicken here, I wouldn't expect to find that in a school cafeteria in China. After lunch Anna and I decided to go mingle with the Chinese students eating their lunch. It was an unforgettable experience. We walked up to random people's tables and first asked if they spoke english, and if they said yes we would sit down to talk to them. We mostly asked them their names, favorite colors, and how old they are. We talked to many students. Some looked eager to talk to us, although one kid picked up his food and walked away, which was pretty funny. We met a girl whose English name is Green but her favorite color is blue. And then there was the boy who said his name was evil-until we asked him to spell it and we found out it was Yvonne. Some girls would come up to us after we were finished talking to them and ask for our email adresses. We talked to another boy who was extremely nice and talked with us about how he wanted to improve his English. Our advice was to come to America as part of the exchange program, but apparently it's hard to get into that select group. Overall the point is, mingling with the Chinese students was a great experience and hopefully they'll have a nicer impression of what American people are like.
After lunch i went to art class again with my new chinese friend. She's very nice and was very informative. Art class was boring because it was all in chinese and when i was asked to explain what a picture of peasants toiling in the field was about, I was supposedly wrong, although I was pretty sure it was a European picture about peasants toiling in the field...
I also got to do a little shoppong on the streets near the school. I bought a ring for 5 yuan, which would be about 75 cents. I dunno about you, but I'd call that a good deal, even if it is poor quality. Who cares when it's 75 cents? (Reading back on this in January 2008, I still wear that ring! And it hasn't turned my finger green or anything)
After school, it took half an hour to find a taxi and then another hour and ten minutes to get home by taxi when it should be just 30 minutes. My explanation is that since this is a 3 day weekend for the moon festival, many people are out and about and trying to go home after a long week at work, since many people don't live at home during the week due to work.
When I finally got home, I saw a Starbucks so I made Lisa stop so I could compare the price to the price at home. Well, one small coffee was 15 yuan, which I think is about 2 dollars something cents. I think the American Starbucks is cheaper.
Now I'm at home and was just reflecting on how I should comment on how crazy the traffic is here. As someone said earlier today, the street rules are pretty much just suggestions on how people should drive. If a 16 year old here would try to drive here, it would be a suicide attempt. There's cars everywhere and some cars go in the opposite direction of the correct direction. There' s lots of people walking in between the cars and in the middle of the road even if you're not supposed to. But i think this driving system is pretty amusing. I'm suprised I haven't seen a car crash yet
After lunch i went to art class again with my new chinese friend. She's very nice and was very informative. Art class was boring because it was all in chinese and when i was asked to explain what a picture of peasants toiling in the field was about, I was supposedly wrong, although I was pretty sure it was a European picture about peasants toiling in the field...
I also got to do a little shoppong on the streets near the school. I bought a ring for 5 yuan, which would be about 75 cents. I dunno about you, but I'd call that a good deal, even if it is poor quality. Who cares when it's 75 cents? (Reading back on this in January 2008, I still wear that ring! And it hasn't turned my finger green or anything)
After school, it took half an hour to find a taxi and then another hour and ten minutes to get home by taxi when it should be just 30 minutes. My explanation is that since this is a 3 day weekend for the moon festival, many people are out and about and trying to go home after a long week at work, since many people don't live at home during the week due to work.
When I finally got home, I saw a Starbucks so I made Lisa stop so I could compare the price to the price at home. Well, one small coffee was 15 yuan, which I think is about 2 dollars something cents. I think the American Starbucks is cheaper.
Now I'm at home and was just reflecting on how I should comment on how crazy the traffic is here. As someone said earlier today, the street rules are pretty much just suggestions on how people should drive. If a 16 year old here would try to drive here, it would be a suicide attempt. There's cars everywhere and some cars go in the opposite direction of the correct direction. There' s lots of people walking in between the cars and in the middle of the road even if you're not supposed to. But i think this driving system is pretty amusing. I'm suprised I haven't seen a car crash yet
1 comment:
"I dunno about you, but I'd call that a good deal, even if it is poor quality. Who cares when it's 75 cents?"
It seems to me that this attitude might have something to do with why America has such a massive trade deficit with China... 75 cents at a time, several hundred billion times over! What do you think, Jewels?
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