Updates from Winchester Students: Alex Saich

Hi Everyone,
This is my second year going on the trip now, and so far there have been a lot of changes at the Dandelion school. We're now teaching the 8th grade and a completely new set of kids this year, so I won't have the chance to see all of the students that I taught last year. There are several other groups of foreigners at the school who are contributing and teaching the kids. This speaks a lot towards Principal Hong and the administration for being able to attract so much help from other countries. The school has grown a lot; they've instituted showers at the school and made the area much more hospitable and inviting with colorful art. Our schedule seems much more chaotic than last year's. Our itinerary last year was very structured and we knew everything that we were going to be doing and when. This year, things are slightly different so it is a little confusing. It's only the first full day at the school though so hopefully we can teach all of the lessons that we've prepared.

Updates from Winchester Students: Michael Stern

The Great Wall is one of China's most famous monuments, and is one of the greatest feats of human engineering. We had the chance to visit this wonderful structure. It was a lot of work climbing up, but luckily it was a clear day so we had an amazing view of the wall and the area surrounding it. At the top of where tourists were allowed, we saw two horses. It turns out that there were some guys up there letting people take photos on the horses with a sword for 20 yuan. I was the only one from our group who wanted to do it, but we have some good photos of me on a horse on top of the Great Wall with a sword. It was pretty funny. Then to avoid the steps on the way back down from the wall to the road, we took the slide. They had this half-pipe like chute going through the trees and over bridges down to the parking lot that you could ride a little cart with a brake down. It got going pretty fast and was a lot of fun. Our Great Wall adventure was really fun. We got to see some great views, I got to ride a horse, and we got to go for a nice slide down a mountain.

Updates from Winchester Students: Ariana Albanese

Yesterday we went to Jingshan Park in Beijing. It was a really cool experience! There were many people there all doing various activities. There was dancing, singing, accordion playing, to name a few. There was also a "Competitive Shuttlecock Kicking" tournament (which is in fact, exactly what it sounds like, it's like badminton that you play with your feet. We bought one of them the other day and we have all been practicing. I wouldn't say we are quite "good" at it--there were people in the park taking pictures of us attempting to play and laughing--but we are definitely getting some practice in.) There is also a path that you can take at the park which goes up to these ornate buildings, one of which houses this huge golden statue of Buddha. There is also a beautiful view of the Forbidden City from there. It was fascinating at the park to see so much group activity. There were people gathered in groups doing various things everywhere you looked. It is so different from an American park where every activity is individual or in small groups. It seemed a little awkward at first to join in the activity, but it became comfortable surprisingly quickly.

Saturday 06/18/2010

The flight from Newark to Beijing was 13 hours! Some of us were really jet-lagged and so yesterday we didn’t do too much. Today was the first day of touring sights.

First we went to the Temple of Heaven, which is where, beginning in the Ming dynasty, the emperor would go to pray three times a year for most importantly, a good harvest. Our second sight was the Forbidden City. It was very hot in the afternoon and the Forbidden City is huge so many of us were wiped out. But we slowly managed our way through the seven enclosures of the emperor’s beautiful palace. This evening out tour guide took us to the night market, which I recognized from an episode of “No Reservations” with Anthony Bourdain. There, locals sell a huge assortment of food on a stick, everything from beef or strawberries to scorpions, beetles and snake. Perhaps, not the best place to stop right before dinner!