4th of July in Xi'an

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.

Today was also our last drawing class as our teacher will be returning to see her family in the far west of China. We were sad to say good-bye, especially as all the kids really enjoyed the 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. :)

We had one other out-of-the-ordinary activity when we celebrated Keith's birthday (really tomorrow, but we won't be together tomorrow) with a cake and drinks. Keith even had a crown to mark the important day.