July 18th-DAY 5
It's been a while...
Dajia Hao! (Hello everyone!)
Sorry it's been a while since we've updated the blog posts, but we've been pretty busy these past few days. Yesterday night, we all returned from two nights away at our homestay family's homes. Everyone spent the weekend differently; some of us went to the Summer Palace and Temple of Heaven, some of us went shopping, some of us slept alot and ate ice cream, and others did a relaxing balance of everything.
Sorry it's been a while since we've updated the blog posts, but we've been pretty busy these past few days. Yesterday night, we all returned from two nights away at our homestay family's homes. Everyone spent the weekend differently; some of us went to the Summer Palace and Temple of Heaven, some of us went shopping, some of us slept alot and ate ice cream, and others did a relaxing balance of everything.
This morning, we woke up early to attend a "very official" opening ceremony held by the "Hanban, Office of Chinese Language Consul International" (whatever that means.) Our entire group gathered at Tiananmen Square in the pouring rain wearing matching turquoise polo shirts. We were joined by over 1,000 other students and teachers from five different continents as well as a few special guests of honor such as the distinguished vice-mayor of Beijing (we didn’t know they had vice-mayors.) Despite being in the presence of such high-ranking officials, however, I think the highlight of the ceremony was a performance by Angola-born Rodrick, who sang (in Chinese) a Jay Chou song. He was actually really good.
After returning from the ceremony, Ms. Chung agreed to chaperone a large group of 14 students to take the subway to the Silk Market, a large five-story shopping mall full of tourists, bargaining shopkeepers, souvenirs, and fake luxury items. With the exception of Matt, we all got something and, at a good price too! Tired from shopping and haggling, we then had a traditional Chinese lunch…no, actually we went to Subway. Not what you’d want your kids to be eating in a major Chinese hub, but it was convenient, okay?
The day wasn’t over because the second we returned to the school, we had to hop on our charter bus to tour the Lama and Confucian Temples. Both were very nice and housed many spectacular sculptures and exhibitions of Chinese architectures. Ms. Chung even suggested we pray for good grades this upcoming school year, which we all did of course.
We just finished dinner, and the boys are all already playing basketball with their Chinese friends…again. Shortly, we will head to the high school auditorium for a play about ancient China starring our very own Beijing No. 4 friends.
So yes, we are all just as tired as you might think we are. And, with the exception of itchy mosquito bites, we will all sleep soundly tonight.
Mackenzie
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