News from XI'an

Sunday was a good day of rest and settling in for our small team. Each spent time with his or her host family having a variety of experiences - visiting Xi'an by night, eating out etc. On Monday morning the students met me at school by 7:30. Everyone knew that we were to give short speeches at the Flag raising ceremony and I think we all practiced the night before. My main help was my little host niece who is 8 years old. She was a very patient teacher! But when we arrived the sky was gray and it looked like rain. After a short wait outside we were ushered into an office while everything was arranged. Then each student was assigned a class on the 2nd floor of the teaching building in "Senior One" (10th grade). For those of you who have read this blog or been here in earlier years there have been big changes - now each student has a chair instead of a stool though they still manage to fit 55-60 students into each room. Each was introduced, assigned a seat mate and was applauded by the class. By the time of the flag raising ceremony it was raining - so our speeches were canceled for now. It is still raining today, so we'll see when the ceremony will occur.

Yesterday our students attended classes ranging from art to physics to math. In China students remain in one classroom the entire day - and the entire year. The teachers rotate to the rooms on a varying schedule. (Most teachers at this school teach from 2-3 forty-five minute classes per day while the students are in class from 7:30 to 6:00 with two hours off at lunch for eating, sports and a mandatory sleep time.) Our group will attend the daily reading period and two other classes each morning before reporting to our classroom (on the 5th floor) for our special classes. We have two young Chinese teachers who give us lessons for two periods before lunch and one after. (They take turns teaching.) Yesterday we had a kind of placement test so that they would know the level of each student in order to plan a program.

Lunch begins at 11:50. As "foreign guests" we are allowed to eat in the cafeteria reserved for teachers and seniors, however as yesterday and today were "special days" we ate in the teacher section. During and after lunch yesterday we met with several host brothers and sisters as well as some of our former Saugus students. It was wonderful to see Junyi, Elizabeth, Allen, Bill, Gary, Derek and Holly!

The "special days" of yesterday and today are the days of the National College Entrance Exam. This is a very high-stakes test which will decide the future of each young person. Depending upon the score they earn over these two days the students may attend a top ranked university - a virtual guarantee of success in life, a lesser university from which they may get a good education but without a guarantee of a job in the future, or if they fail they may redo their senior year in hopes for doing better. The school and the students' families do whatever they can to help these young people to excel. The results will be out before the end of June.

After lunch is sleep time. (GaoXin students who live close to school, or the students who live in the dorm often go home at lunchtime or "sleeping time" while the other students put their heads down on their desks in their classrooms.) Since we don't have sleep time at 1:00 we have our group meeting or discuss the novel that I have assigned. At 2:00 we begin our third Chinese language and/or culture lesson. After that we have an hour and one half of some kind of activity class. These classes may be calligraphy, paper cutting, art, cooking etc. Yesterday was Kong Fu. You will see below a picture of the students during their first lesson. They did incredibly well! Our teacher is a tiny but very strong woman who does all her teaching in Chinese. I was amazed at how well they did - even the two students who are left-handed and are not used to putting their right arms in such activities.

Today we were supposed to have cooking,class but due to the special nature of the day it didn't take place. Instead the students have extra time to start homework or read their novels. At 4:30 when the students normally go home we will be picked up to have dinner with Madame Wang, the person in charge of the middle school and all international exchanges. This school has several different exchanges. Our classroom is in the new "international wing". Here students prepare for U.S., UK, Singapore, Australian or other foreign universities. In the fall they will begin offering AP classes.

All the students are doing very well. I am proud of their hard work and enthusiasm! They all seem to be bonding with their host families and adjusting to the new life at GaoXin.