Last week in Xi'an and RAIN!

I didn't have much time to talk with the students today since I was invited to participate in the second GaoXin No. 1 High School International Education Conference. Principal Bill Bolde attended the first of these in the fall of 2005 following GaoXin No. 1 High School's 10th year anniversary. Once again the moderator was a man from Singapore who gave us his English name of Moses. He was a terrific moderator due to his intimate knowledge of both Chinese and western education systems.

The goal of the conference was to give some ideas to our host school on how to give GaoXin students – who are already outstanding – more opportunities to study abroad; and how to help our host school to develop a system of not only Chinese, but also a global education. The participants were from the United Kingdom, Kenya, Singapore, the U.S. and China. Most of the U.S. representatives were a group of educators and administrators who have been here to train the Chinese teachers in American styles of education. A number of GaoXin administrators and English teachers also attended. A key member of the panel was Dr. Huajing Maske from Boston, who grew up in China but who has lived in the U.S. for many years. Her expertise along with our moderator made the whole meeting progress well. Following our 3 hours discussion all the international participants were invited to a delicious luncheon prepared for us by the school cooks. The meal was outstanding with many new and delicious dishes. At the end of the luncheon the U.S. guests were taken to a local museum while I returned to class.

This is our last week in Xi’an. We had classes today, but only have two days left. Tomorrow we will meet with Chinese friends from 8-10, and then our group will have their final examination in Chinese. On Wednesday morning we will have some kind of small “party” with the students who meet with us every morning since the end of regular classes, and then after lunch our group will have their final exam on the book we have been reading all summer – Three Kingdoms – which is one of the 4 classics of Chinese literature.

After the final exams most of our time will be spent preparing for the presentation that our students are to give Thursday. On that day there will be a celebration where our students will sing a song and then recite two classic Chinese poems. The GaoXin students will also entertain us with various acts. Following this celebration there will be a “Good-bye Banquet” which will also be attended by the host families. At the end of this event our students will leave the high school to have a few hours of free time. On Friday morning they will bring their big suitcases to school to be shipped to our hotel in Beijing. That evening we will take the train at 8 p.m. on the first leg of our trip home….

It has been raining constantly since last night! And this is not a California drizzle, but rather continuous rain. The Chinese tell us that this is not “natural” rain, but comes as a result of cloud seeding. I would imagine that it has rained more in the last day than we have in an average California “rainy” season. It also rained on Saturday, and yesterday when I accompanied my host family to the countryside many of the roads were impassible or nearly impassable with large amounts of water. I can imagine that those roads are certainly closed after today. However it is not cold, but just comfortable outside.

I took some new pictures today but am having some trouble down-loading them. I will try again tomorrow.