Last Days at No. 1 High School Part 2

This morning's good-bye ceremony began at 9:30 today. We were taken to big multi-purpose room where we were greeted by a speech of welcome from the "Principal" of all the GaoXin schools (more like a superintendant) Madame Jiao. She commended the leadership of the Wm. S. Hart District (Mr. Castellanos and the members of the Wm. S. Hart School Board) and Mr. Bolde for their vision in participating in this type of exchange. She commented on how it changes lives in both countries. She also commended our students for the progress they have made over the last 6 weeks. She said that perhaps in 10-20 years some of these students will come back to China as teachers, ambassadors and businessmen. She then presented each of our students with gifts and a certificate of completion of their studies here.

Following Madame Jiao I gave a "speech" in Chinese. Although I don't know that I believe it all, supposedly they all understood me... (I wrote it but read the translation). That was followed by short speeches by our students. Then we saw several performances by the 10th grade students - dancing, singing, kung-fu, etc. It was a great show! At the end our students performed some classic poems from the Tang Dynasty and then sang a good-bye song. The audience of host families and students seemed to enjoy the show. Then after many group and family pictures outside, we were treated to a delicious lunch in the teacher's lunchroom. Last year's Chinese group at Saugus was invited and Yao gave a very nice speech about our exchange. At the end of the meal the students and their families headed home - or off to finish last minute shopping! We will all meet at school at 9 a.m. tomorrow to ship our big suitcases to Beijing, and then will meet again at 5:30 to take the bus to the train station for our overnight train trip to Beijing. We will again be staying in the Taiwan Hotel. It is well-located only 10 minutes by foot from TienAnMen Square and the Forbidden City. We will arrive early on Saturday morning and after check-in will eat breakfast and begin our tour at the Beijing Zoo to see a special giant panda exhibit prepared especially for the Olympics.

There were many more pictures taken by my host brother, Li, but I'l have to get them later tonight and will try to post more tomorrow.