Yesterday it was hot and humid! Today is about to rain...
See you soon!!
You can see how energetic the students looked!
We got back to the hotel by 2:30, got all the rooms, moved the suitcases from our room to the appropriate location and then had a rest and/or showers until dinner. We will leave to eat in a little while.
Tang Paradise - with 3 "friends"
This week began a new stage in our schooling here. Since all but the incoming seniors (called senior 3 here) finished school last week (except for a few taking special extra classes), our students had no regular class to report to at 7:30. As a result the school invited a small group of incoming 10th graders to meet with us from 8 - 10 a.m. each day. It is a really great group whose English is excellent. All week we did various activites designed to help our students with their Chinese and also to help the Chinese students with their English. The kids made introductions, talked about their families, played a few games and discussed their daily lives in each country. Also the Chinese students helped our group with some difficult homework and to study for this weeks' tests.
(above) and some of our partner groups (below)
Yesterday we all met the new group of Saugus-bound students. They all seem very nice. This is my second time to meet Guo Hongmei - the teacher - and she is really friendly and nice. Above and to the left you see the new host sisters and brother. I met with the new group for two hours and explained as much as possible as to what they might expect. I am looking forward to working with this group! :)
Though the distance is not far we were delayed by road construction and endless trucks carrying building materials to Sichuan to help rebuild from the May 12 earthquake that killed so many and destroyed whole villages. We climbed into the Qingling mountains where we visited the Qingling Geopark. It is a place of incredible beauty! We took a long trail to see a waterfall. The trail had many stairs and followed, for much of the way, a stream. Along the way there were smaller waterfalls and beautiful bridges. Signs along the way explained the Chinese myths that "explain" the scenery - including a drunk dragon who caused mischief... Due to my food poisoning I couldn't travel far without stops, so Mrs. Fan and Mrs. Li stayed with me while the others continued to the top. We met them about 2/3 of the way up and all came down together. Other than one westerner (from Oregon) who spoke Chinese Careese and I were the only foreigners on the trail. I think tourists who miss this spot are really missing something extraordinary.
Today was a busy day. This morning the Olympic flame arrived in Xi'an. I was able to see it on television and took a couple of pictures. It is interesting that each "runner" only took about 15-20 steps before passing off the flame - but then we are in a country of well over one billion people! (The government didn't want too many people in town for the run, so all elementay school students in our area - maybe elsewhere, but I don't know - were called back to spend the morning in school, even though last week was the end of the semester. Officials felt it would be safer for the kids.) In any case the run was well organized and went smootly.
This morning both of our Chinese teachers came together - wearing Beijing Olympic shirts and carrying Chinese and Olympics flags. After our first lesson the two had planned a singing program, but few of the students were willing to sing... Amanda, Careese and Kim all sang something, however. Then our two teachers each sang a song. They have excellent voices! Then just before the end of class we saw the the Beijing Olympics song - Forever Friends on the computer. Then we saw the Chinese version sung by a host of Chinese stars - including Jackie Chan!
For our students this was their last day of regular Chinese classes. Many of the Chinese kids were very sad to say goodbye to them and Kimi was given gifts by her deskmate, classmates and the teacher! Our group was hoping that they could start coming to school later now, but instead they will return to our classroom at the regular start of school Monday and we will meet with groups of GaoXin students so that the combined group can increase their language skills - our students in Chinese and the Chinese students in English. In past years this was always a very popular part of the program.
class. All have learned a great deal from "Lucy". Each of the kids made her a small thank you card which Careese and Kim put together into a nice poster which we hung one the board before our teacher arrived. She was very pleased. :)
A none-too-clear photo of one of the "outdoor" parts of the tunnel.
On Sunday I took a journey to the past via 10-mile long tunnel through the Qinling Mountains. Most things in 21st century China are quite modern - meaning built within the last 30 years (except a few old monuments). As older Chinese construction was mostly in wood many older houses burned down. Today's construction seems to be primarily of concrete with some steel in high rises. (For example all of the apartments where I have stayed here have thick concrete walls making mounting paintings difficult, but also meaning that even though there are always neighbors above, below or next to one apartment, one never hears anything from them - as is common in apartments in California.) I have wondered if there were any of the older houses left in this area. On Sunday I found out that there are.
We left Xi’an at 9:30 driving along a new toll-road which at that hour was nearly deserted. Soon we went through a couple of short tunnels and then the long one which by-passed miles of poor roads often blocked by snow in winter. At intervals through the tunnel were short patches of illuminated blue “sky” with trees along the edges – giving the appearance of being “outside”. The speed limit on the road is just over 40 miles per hour. (In Xi’an the speed limit is just over 20 miles per hour – a good thing considering the driving habits here which include making one’s own lane if the one wanted is clogged, or even driving on the wrong side of the road for a short distance if traffic is slow. Furthermore most people make left turns out of driveways without hesitation expecting cross traffic to yield. There are frequent fender-benders but most aren’t serious due to low speeds.) When we exited the tunnel we were in the mountains (so we must have been climbing in the tunnel – though this wasn’t obvious to me) with th
e road following a winding river. There were numerous small villages along the road.
When we exited the toll-road we took small, partially unpaved bumpy roads (most in the process of being redone with heavy equipment in the area) through small towns and villages. Eventually we arrived at a small cave called “Zha Shui Yong Dong” located in a cliff above the river. It was opened in the 1980’s after being explored, through there were apparently Taoist monks living there earlier. The cool temperature in the cave was a welcome break from the heat outside. Inside we saw only two other people over a period of about 90 minutes. There were numerous beautiful formations – some resembling a European castles, others looking like melted cakes, organs etc. Unlike the caves we visited near Guilin this cave is still growing with lots of dripping water and clear pools. I will try to attach a picture or two. 
Then we drove along miles of winding mountain roads (stopping from time to time to ask local people how to get to where we were heading). We passed what appeared to be a coal mine and many small villages. Every inch of land not otherwise used is being farmed – as we also noticed in the south. However in northern China the typical crops are not rice, but rather wheat and corn plus various kinds of fruit and nut trees. Finally at about 2:00 we arrived at “Feng Huang Gu Zhen” or Phoenix Ancient Town. There is typical “modern” part of the village, and then the part that dates from the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911). There were old stone and wooden buildings – most of only one or two floors (while modern China is nearly all high-rise). We passed small shops with old-style wooden fronts where the street side is made of planks of dark wood which are fit together to form a wall. In the center there is usually a smaller door 
mounted with a wooden dowel so that only that part can be opened when desired. Once the planks are in place the wall/door is secure. It was a clever system in the days when there were few metal parts – especially in a mountain region. We could see that the center of the narrow street was once a running sewer/drain system, now covered over with cement blocks. We finally entered an old-style courtyard house which used to be inhabited by one larger family made of several generations. When young a young man married he brought his bride home to live with the parents, grandparents and all of his brother’s families. This home is now used as a restaurant (once featured in a film by a famous Chinese filmmaker). There we ate a delicious lunch consisting of multiple dishes which were all new to me. (The town is know for its famous tofu including dry tofu which looks and tastes slightly like cheese.) We had sliced cold dried tofu with vegetable, a kind of small bean 
(resembling lentils but not tasting like them) with smoked pork, then more traditional tofu in a delicious spicy sauce, and finally eggs with a kind of spicy vegetable resembling spinach – but not spinach. It was an outstanding menu – decided after long talks with the owner. We were also able to visit the kitchen and look into a couple of rooms being redone to be used as a “hotel”. (And I even had the “chance” to visit the “bathroom” outside along a long path behind the house – also typical of another time.) Yanli and Li convinced me to put on a Qing dress (not made for a western body) in order to be photographed. I can’t imagine wearing such warm clothes in the summer and was happy to remove them as soon as possible.
Along the streets I noticed large bunches of corn drying in the rafters or mounted on walls. I learned that they are used for “firewood” in cooking as China now restricts the removal of trees in order to improve the environment.
