Saturday, June 27, 2009
Wednesday, June 24, 2009
Day 10-Spreading joy in the form of Biotechnology
Day 10
Today was pretty hard to get up. I’ve been trying out the fitness room for the past few days and still feel kind of sore. When I was ready to go to breakfast, I found out I had thirty minutes to eat. I ended up being late, my roommate was also late but it was all good. We arrived at Bodi Boarding School safe and on time. We made it on time because our bus driver is super awesome. When we arrived at the school we were told to go into a room for a rest. Basically we were early and the students in the class were taking a test. After an early morning rest, we were invited to an English class and were asked to sit next to the Chinese students. We then started to watch Kung Fu Panda. The teacher paused the video once in a while for us to talk about what happened in the movie. This was our chance to help the students learn and understand more English. Then we headed over to another classroom in a different building to start our Biotechnology experiments. Today we did the Fruit DNA extraction. The fruit we chose were bananas. It was a success. The Chinese students were amazed to see the DNA. From what the students told me is that they only read about biology and do bookwork. They rarely ever get hands-on experiments that are not mandatory. After the experiment we headed to lunch. The food was good. Anthony ate a lot, but not at his will, he had to keep eating food as to not be rude to the Chinese hospitality. We also celebrated Pedro’s birthday with a birthday cake and a traditional Chinese bowl of noodles that signifies longevity of life. Pedro sadly did not make it through lunch without icing being spread all over his face. Then we went to a Chinese class after lunch. It was a painting class, where we learned how to paint sea animals. It was cool. I drew DNA, a fish, and a smiley face. Then we departed for the hotel then an hour later we headed for dinner. Like what Donny said last time… “A repeated dinner”. After dinner we went swimming and had to use a swimming cap. It is a Chinese law to use a swimming cap in a public pool. Then we fell asleep.
Fernando Otero
Today was pretty hard to get up. I’ve been trying out the fitness room for the past few days and still feel kind of sore. When I was ready to go to breakfast, I found out I had thirty minutes to eat. I ended up being late, my roommate was also late but it was all good. We arrived at Bodi Boarding School safe and on time. We made it on time because our bus driver is super awesome. When we arrived at the school we were told to go into a room for a rest. Basically we were early and the students in the class were taking a test. After an early morning rest, we were invited to an English class and were asked to sit next to the Chinese students. We then started to watch Kung Fu Panda. The teacher paused the video once in a while for us to talk about what happened in the movie. This was our chance to help the students learn and understand more English. Then we headed over to another classroom in a different building to start our Biotechnology experiments. Today we did the Fruit DNA extraction. The fruit we chose were bananas. It was a success. The Chinese students were amazed to see the DNA. From what the students told me is that they only read about biology and do bookwork. They rarely ever get hands-on experiments that are not mandatory. After the experiment we headed to lunch. The food was good. Anthony ate a lot, but not at his will, he had to keep eating food as to not be rude to the Chinese hospitality. We also celebrated Pedro’s birthday with a birthday cake and a traditional Chinese bowl of noodles that signifies longevity of life. Pedro sadly did not make it through lunch without icing being spread all over his face. Then we went to a Chinese class after lunch. It was a painting class, where we learned how to paint sea animals. It was cool. I drew DNA, a fish, and a smiley face. Then we departed for the hotel then an hour later we headed for dinner. Like what Donny said last time… “A repeated dinner”. After dinner we went swimming and had to use a swimming cap. It is a Chinese law to use a swimming cap in a public pool. Then we fell asleep.
Fernando Otero
Day 9- Bodi High School
This morning we woke up super early! After we ate breakfast, we headed off to the Xi’an boarding school. Savanna, Sabrina, and Donny all had presentations to give. Donny and Savanna were really nervous. We finally arrived at the beautiful Bodi School and we were warmly welcomed by the students and faculty. We were ushered into a room where the directors exchanged gifts, and the school held a welcoming ceremony. Afterwards, the Chinese students along with all of us were led into a room where we could do our activity: DNA Bracelets. It was really hard to instruct the students because of the language barriers; however, we managed and we even had some time left to talk to the students. After exchanging e-mails, we then headed to lunch in the school teacher’s dinning lounge. Following lunch, we visited the school’s world class gym for many rounds of table tennis (Ping-Pong). China’s Olympic team and other near by countries go to that gym to train for professional table tennis. Hardly anyone was keeping score, or even playing by the rules. Next, we sat in on a Biology class. The students preformed an experiment, and after that we had a Chinese culture lesson. We learned about shadow puppets, waist drums, and even learned how to say “You are really great!” in Chinese. It was time to depart for today. We did some quick shopping, and then we went to dinner. The dinner was a cook your own food style. It was a super fun dinner. We then headed back to the hotel for free time. Everyone decided to go to Dairy Queen and Wal-mart across the street, and then we came back and fell asleep.
Donny and Norman
Donny and Norman
Monday, June 22, 2009
Pictures,Pictures,pictures
welcome back weary travelers. I have spent several hours editing and cleaning up over 9000 pictures that were taken on the trip. Mrs Simonson should have dvd copies of all this week. Out of those 9000 pictures i have been able to narrow them down to just over a 1000 EXCELLENT PHOTOGRAPHS! It was cool seeing everyones view of the trip.
Mr. Simonson
Tuesday, June 16, 2009
Day 8 - Biking the Wall
This morning we went out to the buffet breakfast, meeting up at 7:55am and eating at 8:00am. It’s a western style breakfast buffet. (It has food for vegans!) It’s odd at breakfast because the people that clean up stare at you like vultures waiting for you to finish the last crumb so they can clean it up. It’s so hard to eat with them staring so intensely! We went to our rooms again to prepare for the day, brushing our teeth, etc. Tatiana and I brushed our teeth while watching a movie on HBO. No idea what the name was, but it was a movie that had hockey in it. A fire Marshall went to save his hostage daughter, who was being kept with the Vice President of the U.S. He was being threatened for the whole treasury. Crazy stuff! We met up again at 8:45 to head off to visit Xi’an’s ancient city wall. The wall was built when it was the capital 600years ago. Only the Imperial family was allowed to reside within the walls, along with the Unix servants and concubines. (As well as officials). Four hundred years ago the wall was rebuilt, when the capital was moved. The reason for the move was that there was a new emperor, who was the son in a peasant family. He came to power by leading a revolt and winning. However, in ancient China it was said that to be an emperor, you had to have a dragon spirit, which only those of royal blood possessed. The peasant emperor did not have royal blood, and feared the spirits of the past emperors would make his rule short. To keep this from happening, he rebuilt the city wall to trap the spirits, and moved the capital of his empire to Beijing.
We rode bikes on this wall, the rent of a bike costing 20 RMB. We had a blast, though a few accidents revolving around one person. Fernando not only fell, a big crash and burn, he lost a bike peddle as well. It was kind of comical in a way. The wall was a nice ride, but was riddled with holes, bumps, and inclines. It was very tiring! I originally rode solo, but switched bikes with Savanna, who learned how to ride a bike on an ancient city wall in the middle of China. It was also the first time some of us rode tandem. Savanna switched from tandem with Antonio to my solo bike, and I rode tandem on the back for the first time ever, along with Antonio and many of the teachers, and other students. Very tempted to sing out “Daisy, Daisy”, but I was out of breath. The air here is very humid and thick!
After the wall, we visited the Forest of Steles, or the Stone Tablet Museum. It was ancient scriptures, carved into stone, hanging from ancient scriptures, carved into stone, hanging from ancient Chinese characters, to the more modern ones. In one room alone, there were 114 double sided tablets that contained over 600,000 Chinese characters. In the third room there were turtle like creatures holding up the tablets. These were the “Sons of the Dragon”. If you rubbed his head, you would have good luck. If you rubbed him from head to tail, you would have life long good luck.
Many of the tablets contained Confucius’s teachings. His disciples wrote them into a book on the stone tablets, which were huge, taller than me, a 5 foot 2 inch girl, and wide. They were filled from top to bottom with writing. Confucianism was originally just teachings to live by, not a religion. Many of his lessons are still followed today. Thank goodness we don’t still follow his view on women though! In ancient times, women were meant to serve and obey their husbands.
The tablets also combined governing information, which government official hopefuls had to copy down on rice paper with ink, word for word, and memorize it all. There was a fancy fountain at the entrance that they washed their brushes in. The entrance also had three gates. Originally, the middle door, the largest, was for the emperor, the right gate for his concubines, and the left for his officials. This changed, the middle gate becoming one that good spirits passed through, and the side gates were for evil spirits. After the museum, we went to lunch at a local restaurant. It did not look like much on the outside, but on the inside it was extremely fancy! I felt so underdressed! The place had the nicest bathrooms we have seen the whole trip. Very pretty sinks, and the soap used was dispensed from an actual tea pot.
After lunch, we went to the Wild Goose Pagoda, which was a large Buddhist temple. It is called the Wild Goose Pagoda, because there had been a meat famine going on, and the monks were hungry, so they brayed to Buddha. Afterwards, a flock of geese flew overhead, and the leader of the flock suddenly dropped dead and landed in front of the monks. It was a gift of food from Buddha. (The vegan term of Chinese Buddhism is the Maha Yama sect by the way.) The temple was very beautiful, plenty of old buildings and plants. There were many different types of statues of Buddha in the temple grounds, each from a different sect of the religion (which are in many different groups). Sadly, we didn’t see any monks.
After visiting the temple, we went to the night market, which is basically a huge maze of streets, venders, and shops packed in an enclosed space. It was crazy and crowded! The people on scooters kept beeping and driving past at a crazy speed, and they seemed a bit reckless for some. I nearly got ran over a few times. It was cool, but you had to protect your belongings. The vendors were very stubborn too, and would walk away from you!
After the market, we went to the hotel to freshen up, and then headed out to dinner. It was dinner and a show. The Tang Dynasty Palace gave a show of the Tang Dynasty dance and music. It was very colorful, and some of the dances were pretty, others cool. The third song played during the performance was written by an emperor, who was better at art, calligraphy, and music than he was at governing. That was the Tang Emperor GaoZong.
Following dinner, we went back to the hotel for sleep. The students helped Savanna with her next day’s speech and we all prepared for our Biotechnology experiments.
This was a compilation of Tatiana’s and Taryn’s experience for today.
We rode bikes on this wall, the rent of a bike costing 20 RMB. We had a blast, though a few accidents revolving around one person. Fernando not only fell, a big crash and burn, he lost a bike peddle as well. It was kind of comical in a way. The wall was a nice ride, but was riddled with holes, bumps, and inclines. It was very tiring! I originally rode solo, but switched bikes with Savanna, who learned how to ride a bike on an ancient city wall in the middle of China. It was also the first time some of us rode tandem. Savanna switched from tandem with Antonio to my solo bike, and I rode tandem on the back for the first time ever, along with Antonio and many of the teachers, and other students. Very tempted to sing out “Daisy, Daisy”, but I was out of breath. The air here is very humid and thick!
After the wall, we visited the Forest of Steles, or the Stone Tablet Museum. It was ancient scriptures, carved into stone, hanging from ancient scriptures, carved into stone, hanging from ancient Chinese characters, to the more modern ones. In one room alone, there were 114 double sided tablets that contained over 600,000 Chinese characters. In the third room there were turtle like creatures holding up the tablets. These were the “Sons of the Dragon”. If you rubbed his head, you would have good luck. If you rubbed him from head to tail, you would have life long good luck.
Many of the tablets contained Confucius’s teachings. His disciples wrote them into a book on the stone tablets, which were huge, taller than me, a 5 foot 2 inch girl, and wide. They were filled from top to bottom with writing. Confucianism was originally just teachings to live by, not a religion. Many of his lessons are still followed today. Thank goodness we don’t still follow his view on women though! In ancient times, women were meant to serve and obey their husbands.
The tablets also combined governing information, which government official hopefuls had to copy down on rice paper with ink, word for word, and memorize it all. There was a fancy fountain at the entrance that they washed their brushes in. The entrance also had three gates. Originally, the middle door, the largest, was for the emperor, the right gate for his concubines, and the left for his officials. This changed, the middle gate becoming one that good spirits passed through, and the side gates were for evil spirits. After the museum, we went to lunch at a local restaurant. It did not look like much on the outside, but on the inside it was extremely fancy! I felt so underdressed! The place had the nicest bathrooms we have seen the whole trip. Very pretty sinks, and the soap used was dispensed from an actual tea pot.
After lunch, we went to the Wild Goose Pagoda, which was a large Buddhist temple. It is called the Wild Goose Pagoda, because there had been a meat famine going on, and the monks were hungry, so they brayed to Buddha. Afterwards, a flock of geese flew overhead, and the leader of the flock suddenly dropped dead and landed in front of the monks. It was a gift of food from Buddha. (The vegan term of Chinese Buddhism is the Maha Yama sect by the way.) The temple was very beautiful, plenty of old buildings and plants. There were many different types of statues of Buddha in the temple grounds, each from a different sect of the religion (which are in many different groups). Sadly, we didn’t see any monks.
After visiting the temple, we went to the night market, which is basically a huge maze of streets, venders, and shops packed in an enclosed space. It was crazy and crowded! The people on scooters kept beeping and driving past at a crazy speed, and they seemed a bit reckless for some. I nearly got ran over a few times. It was cool, but you had to protect your belongings. The vendors were very stubborn too, and would walk away from you!
After the market, we went to the hotel to freshen up, and then headed out to dinner. It was dinner and a show. The Tang Dynasty Palace gave a show of the Tang Dynasty dance and music. It was very colorful, and some of the dances were pretty, others cool. The third song played during the performance was written by an emperor, who was better at art, calligraphy, and music than he was at governing. That was the Tang Emperor GaoZong.
Following dinner, we went back to the hotel for sleep. The students helped Savanna with her next day’s speech and we all prepared for our Biotechnology experiments.
This was a compilation of Tatiana’s and Taryn’s experience for today.
Monday, June 15, 2009
Day 7 - Warrior Mania
Sunday, June 14, 2009 in
We woke up to Bruce knocking on the train cabin door of our room. It was bright and early, we were almost to Xi’an. We were pleasantly surprised to find that none of the bathroom horror stories were true. We originally thought that the bathroom was a giant rust ball with a huge hole in the floor, with no modern toilet, that lead straight to the tracks. Fortunately, the bathrooms were western style, but the toilet excrement did lead strait to the tracks! Where are the health codes???
The ride was smooth, but a bit foreign. Once the train stopped, we were on our way to meet our new tour guide, Cathy, and her assistant Melody. We found our new bus driver named, Master Jong (pronounced master “Juan”), and rode to our new hotel for breakfast and check-in. The hotel is marvelous! Our new hotel is sublime in every way, shape, and form! The staff, the room, and the entry hall are glorious and expert quality in every way. After eating breakfast and dropping off our stuff in the rooms we went straight to the Terracotta factory where they assembled life size figures to mini Terracotta warriors, wooden furniture with intricate inlays, and many other things.
Terracotta warriors were made during the Qin dynasty, when the Emperor ordered the construction of 6 foot tall clay soldiers to protect him during his afterlife. The Emperor was originally going to execute 6,000 of his strongest warriors so they would protect him during the afterlife, but a medicine man said the clay soldiers would suffice. Overtime, those clay soldiers have been damaged and buried under the earth. Recently, as in the 1970’s, a farmer was digging and found the remnants of the soldiers. The area was excavated and 1,500 of those clay Terracotta warriors are on display in a museum. However, there are still 5,000 more Terracotta warriors still buried under the earth… this is because once the warriors are extracted from the earth, the majestic colors they are said to have, diminish due to oxidation of the paint.
After visiting the factory where the Terracotta warrior models are made, we were able to actually visit the Terracotta Warrior museum. We saw the actual excavation site and we saw Mr. Young, the farmer who accidentally discovered the warriors. We also saw the warriors themselves, and watched a short informational video on the history. We did the site seeing plus more in the blazing heat and extreme humidity. After a quick, light lunch near the museum, we came back to the hotel and took much needed showers, along with a rest. At
This was a compilation of Sabrina’s and Savanna’s outlook on the day’s events.
Day 6- Recuperation, then a train to Xi'an
Today we actually slept in late; we didn’t have to wake up until 7:30am. Breakfast started at 8:30am and we had a debriefing about the last day’s events. It was just a discussion about our flaws and how we can improve as a group to improve those flaws. We gained much encouragement for the next presentations we have to give. After the debriefing, the students packed their belongings and played sand volleyball, while some adults talked with a Chinese teacher.
We enjoyed our short free time while we had it to recuperate from the week’s activities. Then it was time to say good-bye to Jeanie our Qinhuangdao tour guide. We presented her with a gift and departed for a 4 hour bus ride back to Beijing. It was a long, eventless bus ride. It was just us, our tour guide Bruce, and our Master driver. There was so much traffic that we couldn’t believe it.
Once we finally arrived in Beijing, we had an American dinner at KFC. It was really good and it was great to have something besides traditional Chinese food for at least 1 meal. I’m not saying that traditional Chinese food is bad, but it felt really good to have the Colonel’s secret recipe slam my taste buds for a change. After we left KFC, Master TG (our driver) took us to the rail road station in central Beijing. There we departed from our bus driver of a week, Master TG. He was awesome because once you can drive in Beijing you can drive anywhere because the traffic is so bad. Anyway, we gave Master TG a gift and we headed to the busy train station.
When we finally made it through the train station security, we were sent to a remote section of a waiting room by a Chinese official for some odd reason… or if you have been following us on this trip, because of the H1N1 virus scare. Without the seclusion getting in our way we boarded the overnight train to Xi’an (pronounced She-on). We each had our own bed on the train and it was a really awesome experience although those beds were really small and stiff.
We enjoyed our short free time while we had it to recuperate from the week’s activities. Then it was time to say good-bye to Jeanie our Qinhuangdao tour guide. We presented her with a gift and departed for a 4 hour bus ride back to Beijing. It was a long, eventless bus ride. It was just us, our tour guide Bruce, and our Master driver. There was so much traffic that we couldn’t believe it.
Once we finally arrived in Beijing, we had an American dinner at KFC. It was really good and it was great to have something besides traditional Chinese food for at least 1 meal. I’m not saying that traditional Chinese food is bad, but it felt really good to have the Colonel’s secret recipe slam my taste buds for a change. After we left KFC, Master TG (our driver) took us to the rail road station in central Beijing. There we departed from our bus driver of a week, Master TG. He was awesome because once you can drive in Beijing you can drive anywhere because the traffic is so bad. Anyway, we gave Master TG a gift and we headed to the busy train station.
When we finally made it through the train station security, we were sent to a remote section of a waiting room by a Chinese official for some odd reason… or if you have been following us on this trip, because of the H1N1 virus scare. Without the seclusion getting in our way we boarded the overnight train to Xi’an (pronounced She-on). We each had our own bed on the train and it was a really awesome experience although those beds were really small and stiff.
Saturday, June 13, 2009
Day 5 - Biotech Lessons
Morning awakening was great after an unusual night of fun. At breakfast I had some thing quiet close to what tasted like chichara, which is pig skin. That was great. We then headed to an Agricultural farm. We saw some familiar experiments like tissue culturing and hydroponics. The farm was built mostly around hydroponics, which are plants that are not grown in soil. Instead the plants solely rely on nutrient enriched water. There was green house upon green house of advance hydroponics work. There were certain green houses for melons and certain green houses devoted to vegetables, etc. We found our way into a green house designated for pumpkins. The pumpkins’ initial cultivation was June 1st and they already weighed 100 kilograms. These green houses inspired Mrs. Simonson and Mrs. Grimes to make a hydroponics green house at the Mesa High Biotech academy because of the science involved. Mrs. Simonson said she had never seen anything like that in her life, so she wants the students to start planning for a hydroponics green house.
After we saw the sophisticated hydroponics systems we visited a historical farm nearby that was suppose to represent how ancient farmers of the past worked on their own farm. There we saw donkeys pulling a huge rock looking stone which was used as a tool to crush corn. We saw the actual animals which were kept on the farm during that time period. Following our tour of the historical farm, we traveled back to the hydroponics farm and had lunch. Our lunch consisted of fresh vegetables that were grown in the hydroponics farm. It was delicious. After lunch we departed to the houses of local current farmers in the area, and mingled with there families. They showed us their houses and we realized how similar the apartments were to the United States. The Chinese government took the land from the farmers and built apartments for the farmer to sell, because they were in prime land near the city. The farmers invite tourists to their houses as their only other source of income. However, they do farm a community garden where every in the apartments have access to the fresh fruit and vegetables grown in the garden.
At 2:00pm we departed back to the hotel and prepared ourselves for the Biotech Lessons for a school. The Chinese school didn’t want us Americans to visit the school just in case we had the H1N1 virus. Instead we set up the experiments in the hotel conference room. We did three labs; they were the Epidemic lab, the DNA Bracelet lab, and the Fruit DNA extraction lab. The students from the school had a lot of fun, especially with the Fruit DNA extraction. Of course we had fun as well. During the labs, the Chinese students were taking pictures of us when we were in front of the class. We almost felt special. Then after the labs were finished, everyone headed out and started talking to each other and we were also taking picture with the Chinese students. The Chinese loved this experience so much that they didn’t want to leave; in fact, we didn’t want them to leave either. After our good-byes and networking exchanges, we headed to the hotel to get ready for dinner. The teachers told us not to change out of what we were wearing to the Biotech Lessons we gave. We went to dinner with matching black polo shirts and black pants. At dinner, the food was the same as the past days. So there were no surprises about what food was what. At night we sat and watched T.V. which by the way was all in Chinese. We learned the Lakers are up 2-0 in games, and that’s all we know. Tomorrow, we head back to Beijing, and then from there we are taking an overnight train to Xian.
After we saw the sophisticated hydroponics systems we visited a historical farm nearby that was suppose to represent how ancient farmers of the past worked on their own farm. There we saw donkeys pulling a huge rock looking stone which was used as a tool to crush corn. We saw the actual animals which were kept on the farm during that time period. Following our tour of the historical farm, we traveled back to the hydroponics farm and had lunch. Our lunch consisted of fresh vegetables that were grown in the hydroponics farm. It was delicious. After lunch we departed to the houses of local current farmers in the area, and mingled with there families. They showed us their houses and we realized how similar the apartments were to the United States. The Chinese government took the land from the farmers and built apartments for the farmer to sell, because they were in prime land near the city. The farmers invite tourists to their houses as their only other source of income. However, they do farm a community garden where every in the apartments have access to the fresh fruit and vegetables grown in the garden.
At 2:00pm we departed back to the hotel and prepared ourselves for the Biotech Lessons for a school. The Chinese school didn’t want us Americans to visit the school just in case we had the H1N1 virus. Instead we set up the experiments in the hotel conference room. We did three labs; they were the Epidemic lab, the DNA Bracelet lab, and the Fruit DNA extraction lab. The students from the school had a lot of fun, especially with the Fruit DNA extraction. Of course we had fun as well. During the labs, the Chinese students were taking pictures of us when we were in front of the class. We almost felt special. Then after the labs were finished, everyone headed out and started talking to each other and we were also taking picture with the Chinese students. The Chinese loved this experience so much that they didn’t want to leave; in fact, we didn’t want them to leave either. After our good-byes and networking exchanges, we headed to the hotel to get ready for dinner. The teachers told us not to change out of what we were wearing to the Biotech Lessons we gave. We went to dinner with matching black polo shirts and black pants. At dinner, the food was the same as the past days. So there were no surprises about what food was what. At night we sat and watched T.V. which by the way was all in Chinese. We learned the Lakers are up 2-0 in games, and that’s all we know. Tomorrow, we head back to Beijing, and then from there we are taking an overnight train to Xian.
Friday, June 12, 2009
Day 4- More Great Wall
Today, we woke up at 7:00 AM. After taking a shower and getting dressed, we headed over to breakfast in another room of the hotel. We sat down at a large, yellow table with a lazy Susan which seated all 16 of us. After we ate, we took the bus to the start of the Great Wall, which is known as the Dragon Head. We pulled into a parking lot that was buzzing with construction. This is the only part of the Great Wall that actually jets out into the ocean. It is called the Dragon Head because the main symbol of power in China is the dragon. Most sections of the Great Wall represents the body of a dragon. However, the part where the Great Wall reaches the ocean represents the dragon’s head taking a drink of water in the sea. After parking, we headed over to the ancient military barracks. In the barracks we saw a gigantic pot that the cooks used to make food for all of the soldiers. Then we saw a bunch of small scale models of military weapons that were used to defend and attack the Great Wall. There was a ladder used to climb walls, as well as two different types of battering rams. Outside, we saw some people dressed up as ancient Chinese soldiers. Apparently, they were filming for a movie about the Ming Dynasty. Unfortunately, we did not hear the name of it. After exploring the Dragon head, we bought some ice cream and departed to our next destination.
After a short drive, we arrived at our next location; the Shanghi Pass. The Pass is the only entrance in the Great Wall. This is the only way the enemies from the north could have taken over the Ming Dynasty. However, the entrance was extremely defended and almost impossible to penetrate. While hiking to the top of the pass, we stopped at a pond in which we could feed fish. Those fish were hyper and would jump out of the pond in the excitement of food. When we got to the top, we saw a giant drum that could be beaten 10 times for 1 yuan. Donny decided to do it. It was a really loud drum! Then, we went back down and headed to lunch, and afterwards we headed back to the hotel.
We got all of the materials required for our activities with the students tomorrow, as well as the gifts for the students. We then headed over to the area where we would set up the activities. We set up for tomorrow and wrapped our gifts for the students, and then we headed over to the same room in which we had breakfast. While we were walking to dinner, Donny had an incomplete idea for a horror story: for some reason, a man is walking on the beach ringing a bell. He asked everyone to think of ideas as to why the man was ringing the bell. At dinner the chefs made beautiful sculptures out of vegetables, and several people threatened to attack anyone who destroyed them. After dinner, we all went to our rooms to go to bed.
We finally are going to do what we came here for. We are going to put our experiments on display for 10 Chinese students and 5 teachers. We are all excited, yet nervous because we do not want to mess this up.
Written by Donny and Norman
After a short drive, we arrived at our next location; the Shanghi Pass. The Pass is the only entrance in the Great Wall. This is the only way the enemies from the north could have taken over the Ming Dynasty. However, the entrance was extremely defended and almost impossible to penetrate. While hiking to the top of the pass, we stopped at a pond in which we could feed fish. Those fish were hyper and would jump out of the pond in the excitement of food. When we got to the top, we saw a giant drum that could be beaten 10 times for 1 yuan. Donny decided to do it. It was a really loud drum! Then, we went back down and headed to lunch, and afterwards we headed back to the hotel.
We got all of the materials required for our activities with the students tomorrow, as well as the gifts for the students. We then headed over to the area where we would set up the activities. We set up for tomorrow and wrapped our gifts for the students, and then we headed over to the same room in which we had breakfast. While we were walking to dinner, Donny had an incomplete idea for a horror story: for some reason, a man is walking on the beach ringing a bell. He asked everyone to think of ideas as to why the man was ringing the bell. At dinner the chefs made beautiful sculptures out of vegetables, and several people threatened to attack anyone who destroyed them. After dinner, we all went to our rooms to go to bed.
We finally are going to do what we came here for. We are going to put our experiments on display for 10 Chinese students and 5 teachers. We are all excited, yet nervous because we do not want to mess this up.
Written by Donny and Norman
Day 3 - Tour of the Great Wall and more...
This morning we woke up at crack of dawn. The weather was beautiful; blue skies and pretty clouds. We took showers and got prepared for the huge day ahead of us. Then we had breakfast at the hotel. As we were walking and getting on the bus we were chased by a hotel employee and asked if we knew where a missing robe had went from one of our rooms.
Once we got on the bus to take us to The Great Wall of China our tour guide Sara told us that the wall was 4,000 miles long, took 2,000 years to build, and was glued together with egg whites and sticky rice. Then we arrived at The Wall about an hour out of Beijing. A treacherous uphill climb through the mini souvenir stands ensued, whose owners marked down our names so that they will remember us when the time came to travel back down the same path. The owners of the stands wanted us to buy souvenirs from their shop, so while we were walking up hill, they would stand in our way and try to negotiate the prices. Some people almost didn’t survive! We hadn’t even reached the Great Wall yet, and our group was tired from the climb up the side of the Mountain. At the halfway point of the mountain we saw a camel sitting comfortably in the shade and Mrs. Simonson yelled out “I would have paid anything to ride this camel up here if it was at the bottom of this mountain!”
Continuing on we finally walked about half a mile straight up hill and arrived at the cable car lifts to take us to the Great Wall. Some people believed the lifts were unstable, but in my opinion they were fun besides being just a little too hot. The scenery was absolutely gorgeous. As we ascended, the view grew and we could see everything in the great distance. It was a breath taking and unbelievable experience. We got to the top and had to decide whether to take the difficult path with a stair case like in the movie Kung Fu Panda or easier path of the Great Wall, which started heading down hill. Without a doubt, most people chose the easier path and didn’t finish climbing to the end. It was a huge workout. We will definitely come back stronger individuals. There were many different nationalities of people there and they were fun and interesting to talk to. Many crazy, beautiful, and fun pictures were taken. We then had to leave and went back down on the cable car lifts. While traveling down the mountain, the sea of sales people swarmed around us and insisted they were our “friend” and that they “remember you”. Sometimes we were “special friends and can have special prices”. Let us just compare this shopping experience to quicksand, the more you struggle, the deeper you sink. We escaped, but not without a few cuts and dents in our wallets. Once we got back into the bus we felt exhaustion fall upon us as the opening ceremonies of the Olympics played on the mini television in the bus, which most of us slept through.
After a long drive we stopped at the Cloisonee enamelware shop and saw how simple copper and colored mineral powder was transformed into beautiful pottery. Then after a quick lunch which had a questionable cooked fish on the table appearing to watch your every move, we had some spare time to shop. This is when Savanna and her mother bought a Wa er shao…meaning an ear scoop cleaner thing.
Next, we went to the Ming Tombs, where a picturesque walkway was lined with beautiful willows and grand statues of various animals and officials whom we noticed were all boys… Sara was taking our final group picture of the day when a random tourist stood behind her and made funny faces which made all of us laugh. Later on our way out we found the same tourist and we took pictures with him and he kissed our cheeks because we speculate he was either French or Italian. Sadly this is the point where we had to leave our fantastically amazing tour guide Sara. We have a tour guide for each city we visit and since we were leaving Beijing, we had to leave Sara. After departing from the city we took a long drive that should have lasted only three hours, but since traffic was slow it turned into a four hour drive. The reason for the traffic is that there was a tour bus at the side of the road that was burnt to a crisp which had just been ‘deflamed’. We felt sorry for the people on the tour bus, because they probably lost all of their stuff, and were stranded in the middle of no where. On a good note, our tour bus made it to the next city.
We arrived at Qinhuangdao at 9:00pm and met our new tour guide. However, it was hard to adjust with the memories of Sara still fresh in our minds. Our tour guide’s name for the city of Qinhuangdao is Jeanie. She took us to dinner and after eating we headed to the new hotel by the beach. We are all excited about being close to the beach. Good day! Our day starts at 7am. Bye bye!
A compilation of Stabby’s & Savanna’s experiences.
Once we got on the bus to take us to The Great Wall of China our tour guide Sara told us that the wall was 4,000 miles long, took 2,000 years to build, and was glued together with egg whites and sticky rice. Then we arrived at The Wall about an hour out of Beijing. A treacherous uphill climb through the mini souvenir stands ensued, whose owners marked down our names so that they will remember us when the time came to travel back down the same path. The owners of the stands wanted us to buy souvenirs from their shop, so while we were walking up hill, they would stand in our way and try to negotiate the prices. Some people almost didn’t survive! We hadn’t even reached the Great Wall yet, and our group was tired from the climb up the side of the Mountain. At the halfway point of the mountain we saw a camel sitting comfortably in the shade and Mrs. Simonson yelled out “I would have paid anything to ride this camel up here if it was at the bottom of this mountain!”
Continuing on we finally walked about half a mile straight up hill and arrived at the cable car lifts to take us to the Great Wall. Some people believed the lifts were unstable, but in my opinion they were fun besides being just a little too hot. The scenery was absolutely gorgeous. As we ascended, the view grew and we could see everything in the great distance. It was a breath taking and unbelievable experience. We got to the top and had to decide whether to take the difficult path with a stair case like in the movie Kung Fu Panda or easier path of the Great Wall, which started heading down hill. Without a doubt, most people chose the easier path and didn’t finish climbing to the end. It was a huge workout. We will definitely come back stronger individuals. There were many different nationalities of people there and they were fun and interesting to talk to. Many crazy, beautiful, and fun pictures were taken. We then had to leave and went back down on the cable car lifts. While traveling down the mountain, the sea of sales people swarmed around us and insisted they were our “friend” and that they “remember you”. Sometimes we were “special friends and can have special prices”. Let us just compare this shopping experience to quicksand, the more you struggle, the deeper you sink. We escaped, but not without a few cuts and dents in our wallets. Once we got back into the bus we felt exhaustion fall upon us as the opening ceremonies of the Olympics played on the mini television in the bus, which most of us slept through.
After a long drive we stopped at the Cloisonee enamelware shop and saw how simple copper and colored mineral powder was transformed into beautiful pottery. Then after a quick lunch which had a questionable cooked fish on the table appearing to watch your every move, we had some spare time to shop. This is when Savanna and her mother bought a Wa er shao…meaning an ear scoop cleaner thing.
Next, we went to the Ming Tombs, where a picturesque walkway was lined with beautiful willows and grand statues of various animals and officials whom we noticed were all boys… Sara was taking our final group picture of the day when a random tourist stood behind her and made funny faces which made all of us laugh. Later on our way out we found the same tourist and we took pictures with him and he kissed our cheeks because we speculate he was either French or Italian. Sadly this is the point where we had to leave our fantastically amazing tour guide Sara. We have a tour guide for each city we visit and since we were leaving Beijing, we had to leave Sara. After departing from the city we took a long drive that should have lasted only three hours, but since traffic was slow it turned into a four hour drive. The reason for the traffic is that there was a tour bus at the side of the road that was burnt to a crisp which had just been ‘deflamed’. We felt sorry for the people on the tour bus, because they probably lost all of their stuff, and were stranded in the middle of no where. On a good note, our tour bus made it to the next city.
We arrived at Qinhuangdao at 9:00pm and met our new tour guide. However, it was hard to adjust with the memories of Sara still fresh in our minds. Our tour guide’s name for the city of Qinhuangdao is Jeanie. She took us to dinner and after eating we headed to the new hotel by the beach. We are all excited about being close to the beach. Good day! Our day starts at 7am. Bye bye!
A compilation of Stabby’s & Savanna’s experiences.
Tuesday, June 9, 2009
Day 2 - Sunny and Shinning
The day started out 30 minutes earlier then we expected. The wake up call being at
We went to lunch after touring the temple. Cute place, but I was only able to eat rice. We had a great time laughing, the kids’ table being the loudest in the place. When we finished eating, we proceeded onto the
Random details
- The toilets are holes in the ground, porcelain and flushable, whoever, so you have to squat in order to use them. We call them squat toilets. They are not as bad as they sound.
- The
- At the
- The original
- The Birds Nest and Water Cube are now Olympic museums. They draw in some of the largest income
- Bag tea is only the tea powder, low quality in taste and brand, pure leaves are thought to be better.
- Fresh water oysters produce pearls in sets of 20, while salt water oysters produce only one pearl in a lifetime.
This portion of the blog was a compilation between: Taryn and Tatiana
Monday, June 8, 2009
Day 1 - Wet and Rainy
We have anticipated this day for six months now and we have just completed it; posting the first blog from the country of China. Here it is! Our first day has been utterly exciting, filled with new and amazing experiences. In total 16 people embarked on this trip.
We began in terminal 4 at Sky Harbor airport in Phoenix. Everyone made it through security and we were ready to go. However, our plane was not. It was delayed about an hour, but did not affect our transfer in Los Angeles. The flight from Phoenix to Los Angeles was Sabrina’s first trip, so after being introduced and embarrassed on the airplane, she finally obtained her pair of wings.
In Los Angeles there was another security check, and we boarded our airplane on time at 1:00am. Considering the time of day everyone was still awake and anxious for the 14 hour flight to China. The flight was bearable, but no on in the world should be confined to a cramped, small chair for so long. It’s almost impossible to relay, there is almost nothing to write about but there were a few highlights. Because we crossed the International dateline on our way to China, June 7th is non-existent to us. Taryn sat next to a graphic designer that works for Disney’s Pixar Company and who had worked on the 2nd Starwars movie made (Attach of the Clones). The food was bearable and better than expected. The most interesting part of the flight was once we landed because of the H1N1 virus precautions by our host country. People walked onto the flight and took everyone’s temperature with a handheld laser gadget. Someone on the back of the airplane seemed to be extra warm because they delayed us from getting off of the jumbo jet for 45 minutes. Yes, that’s right; the entire airplane was delayed from unloading. As we sat in on the airplane in the terminal gate, it began to rain.
We finally made it through customs in China and met our tour guide, Bruce, and his affiliate, Sara. They are young and extremely enthusiastic. They have been upbeat although we were faced with the cold, dreary, wetness of the rain all day. We also have a personal bus driver named “Master TG” (pronounced Tong), because he is the master of driving. The itinerary was switched because of the downpour of rain. Our first site visit was to the Beijing Museum of Natural History. This was followed by the silk factory, where we saw how Yuanlong silk was made. It was really interesting, we helped make a silk quilt, shopped, and Mrs. Simonson and Donny ate a silk worm. Ugh! Pedro and Savanna purchased some traditional Chinese clothing, which both look really nice. When we departed the silk factory, we were leaving the extremely small parking lot on the bus and we got into a small car crash. Our bus collided with another bus. Everyone is okay and we barley even felt it. Afterwards, we had an authentic Chinese lunch which was extremely good. A few of us cannot use chopsticks to save our lives.
After lunch, we proceeded to Tian An Men, the largest square in the world. After passing a security check point, we had leisure time and took many photos. The square was surrounded by the China National Museum, a Chinese Congress building, and our next destination, the Forbidden City. It’s called the Forbidden City because all males were forbidden to go inside, only the Emperor was allowed. After passing our 4th security checkpoint within 24 hours heading into the city, we realized the nuisances of being a tourist. However, we did not let the fact that we were being searched everywhere we went or the relentless downpour of rain stop us from enjoying the fact that we are actually in China. Anyways the Forbidden City is really rich in history because it was constructed in the early 1400’s. We viewed the Emperor’s throne, and his concubines’ living quarters. The city is extremely beautiful. After being soaked all day we proceeded to an elegant Chinese theater, where we watched a Chinese cultural play about how the danced, fought, and celebrated in the past.
We finally arrived back at the hotel at 9:30pm (China time) and haven’t seen the sun since left Phoenix. Oh the beautiful skies of Phoenix and San Francisco.
We began in terminal 4 at Sky Harbor airport in Phoenix. Everyone made it through security and we were ready to go. However, our plane was not. It was delayed about an hour, but did not affect our transfer in Los Angeles. The flight from Phoenix to Los Angeles was Sabrina’s first trip, so after being introduced and embarrassed on the airplane, she finally obtained her pair of wings.
In Los Angeles there was another security check, and we boarded our airplane on time at 1:00am. Considering the time of day everyone was still awake and anxious for the 14 hour flight to China. The flight was bearable, but no on in the world should be confined to a cramped, small chair for so long. It’s almost impossible to relay, there is almost nothing to write about but there were a few highlights. Because we crossed the International dateline on our way to China, June 7th is non-existent to us. Taryn sat next to a graphic designer that works for Disney’s Pixar Company and who had worked on the 2nd Starwars movie made (Attach of the Clones). The food was bearable and better than expected. The most interesting part of the flight was once we landed because of the H1N1 virus precautions by our host country. People walked onto the flight and took everyone’s temperature with a handheld laser gadget. Someone on the back of the airplane seemed to be extra warm because they delayed us from getting off of the jumbo jet for 45 minutes. Yes, that’s right; the entire airplane was delayed from unloading. As we sat in on the airplane in the terminal gate, it began to rain.
We finally made it through customs in China and met our tour guide, Bruce, and his affiliate, Sara. They are young and extremely enthusiastic. They have been upbeat although we were faced with the cold, dreary, wetness of the rain all day. We also have a personal bus driver named “Master TG” (pronounced Tong), because he is the master of driving. The itinerary was switched because of the downpour of rain. Our first site visit was to the Beijing Museum of Natural History. This was followed by the silk factory, where we saw how Yuanlong silk was made. It was really interesting, we helped make a silk quilt, shopped, and Mrs. Simonson and Donny ate a silk worm. Ugh! Pedro and Savanna purchased some traditional Chinese clothing, which both look really nice. When we departed the silk factory, we were leaving the extremely small parking lot on the bus and we got into a small car crash. Our bus collided with another bus. Everyone is okay and we barley even felt it. Afterwards, we had an authentic Chinese lunch which was extremely good. A few of us cannot use chopsticks to save our lives.
After lunch, we proceeded to Tian An Men, the largest square in the world. After passing a security check point, we had leisure time and took many photos. The square was surrounded by the China National Museum, a Chinese Congress building, and our next destination, the Forbidden City. It’s called the Forbidden City because all males were forbidden to go inside, only the Emperor was allowed. After passing our 4th security checkpoint within 24 hours heading into the city, we realized the nuisances of being a tourist. However, we did not let the fact that we were being searched everywhere we went or the relentless downpour of rain stop us from enjoying the fact that we are actually in China. Anyways the Forbidden City is really rich in history because it was constructed in the early 1400’s. We viewed the Emperor’s throne, and his concubines’ living quarters. The city is extremely beautiful. After being soaked all day we proceeded to an elegant Chinese theater, where we watched a Chinese cultural play about how the danced, fought, and celebrated in the past.
We finally arrived back at the hotel at 9:30pm (China time) and haven’t seen the sun since left Phoenix. Oh the beautiful skies of Phoenix and San Francisco.
Thursday, June 4, 2009
We are all Packed and Ready to go
Today we met at the academy and spent the day gathering, checking, rechecking and finally deciding where to pack all of our supplies. Mr. Costenson and Mrs. Simonson gave up there larger bags for the supplies. The parents came and helped out. Thanks to all the parents and grandparents who have been so supportive in planning this trip and now here we are ready to go. Students will be writing in their journals daily so if you have suggestions just let us know. The folks who handled our travel arrangements, Music Celebration Incorporation, have been wonderful. Next time you hear from us we will be on our to China!
Wednesday, June 3, 2009
Plan for Rain
It is nearing our departure time. I have looked at the extended forecast for Beijing and it looks like rain will welcome us in China. Plan on bringing a rainjacket. I can't imagine having to deal with an umbrella and your luggage all at the same time. There will be no place to change closthes when you arrive according to Mr. C. He hasn't traveled with a bunch of teenagers in a while! Updated Itineraries are on there way and we are all in for a treat! Don't forget the swimsuits. Next meeting is Thursday where we will practice our mad packing skills.
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