GGS

Day 10

Today day 10, breakfast was not very exciting there was egg, bread melon and the usual cakes. After breakfast we had lessons like normal, the two teachers we had today were lets just say interesting. Their lessons what not very interesting but we did learn how to say what we had done in the past few days and what we are going to be doing. The second teacher of the morning made us sing a song which only some of the class managed to pick up as it was very fast. Then it was lunch which was a very random with foods like spicy beef, beans, buck, purple cabbage or beetroot, cauliflower  in a tomato sauce and melon. We needed all our energy for martial arts in the afternoon. For this we now have kung fu outfits or white silk pajammas. We all looked stunning as you can imagine. Martial arts was tiring as you can imagine, in the second half we got to use swords or knifes as they called them. This was funny as me and Jenny were slightly too close at some points ops.  The weather has not been very great the past two days. Last night just as a group of us were heading out to the shops for some munchies, the rain began. The streets were like rivers as the drainage systems are not very good. And now just as im writing this i can hear the rolls of thunder and the flashes of lighting. So another wet night is instore i think. So tonight we are just going to be chilling and having some internet acess.Bye charlottex

4 musketeers

Kung fu outfits

Swords

whole class

Sounds from the day

Download us_singing_song.MP3 About dumplings!

Download activity_present_future.MP3 Learning sentences

Download Rain.MP3 Thunderstorm

Day 9

It was back to lessons again this morning and we had the nice number lady again. This time we learned about asking the price of stuff like Coke and water and all that. Then we had the scary lady who wasn't all that scary today but some of her flash things were like a wierd Panda story she showed us. After class we went to the Temple of Heaven which was cool. The buildings were painted all pretty with blue and red with smart dragons and lions and stuff painted in gold! So we dandered around that for a couple of hours but we were all quite tired and had sore feet and sore legs and sore heads and so on so we decided not to stay on and follow Steven and his flag across the busy road to the market. The market was farely awesome too! It had a variety of jewelry, clothes, bags, shoes, technological stuff and lots more. Laura, Ruth and I thought we were pretty good with the whole bartering thing until we talked to all the other people and found out we were quite frankly useless. Nevertheless we had fun looking at all the produce but ran out of time to look at the fish market down the stairs. But all the others said it was cool with tonnes of types of wierd and wonderful fish. Anyway we got back on the bus and headed back to the campus. I fell asleep. We had dinner and were planning to go out but by the looks of things it may not happen as the heavens are falling and doesn't look as if it will stop! So anyway, we had a fantastic day although we were a tad on the tired side... as they say we'll sleep tonight! Oh and a nice thought for you all, it's just 9 days until you see our wonderful faces again!

All my love, Lynsey xxxx

Sounds from the lessons

Download singing_health_song.MP3

Cultural lesson - Download womens_feet_china.MP3

Download interview_with_lynsey_sights_day_9.MP3

Download learning_words_day_9.MP3

Photos of the day + more in the album on the right.

Temple of Heaven

Triple gateway

Local costume

Market stall

Number gestures

Day 8

Homestays - today the studens visited their chinese counterparts. They all went well and everyone had a great time. They did a variety of activities - such as shopping, walking in gardens, vsiting a famous bridge, eating lunch with the family, playing badminton, making dumplings, doing calligraphy and exchanging presents and talking. Everyone is exhausted so the diary will follow tomorrow.

Here is what Ruth thought about her homestay -

Yesterday we touched the true China…and all fell in love! I think it is fair to say that we were all a little apprehensive and nervous about our prospective visits with Chinese families but I can now happily tell you that this was in no way necessary.

Huang Shining or Hannah as we called her is a small, smiley and slightly shy Chinese girl who welcomed both myself and Lynsey Kirk into her home and her daily life for a day. After meeting us at school Hannah and her father took us to the supermarket – complete with pigs hooves and chicken feet for the more adventurous shoppers – to buy some dumplings for our lunch, before we arrived at her school and met up with her friends. One thing that has surprised me the most here in

China

, and yesterday, was how welcoming the people are, always happy to see you and willing to make you feel at home. Myself and Lynsey discovered a very similar daily life to our own at home as we sat with these 6 girls and laughed, ate junk food and played games that were so close to our life in Scotlandthat we were both surprised. The day as a whole turned out to be the opposite to what we expected. Stereotyping, we expected a family worse-off than our own, and a life that differed completely from ours, instead we were met with a gigantic flat screen TV and a life that mirrored ours almost completely. A visit to the famous Marco Polo bridge – known for its 500 carved stone lions, each one different – and a trip to a beautiful lake in old town Beijing, left us shattered by the end of the day but glad to have made new friends and discovered a side to China that so few people get to see! This experience, though not very well explained in this rather rushed attempt at a blog, I think will stay with us forever as we discovered a China that we didn’t expect but fell in love with instantly. A huge thank you to Hannah, her friends and her family for putting up with us for a day and making us part of their family, I wish we could have had the chance to do the same to them.

Other students thoughts:

Download interview_with_charlotte_homestay.MP3

Download interview_with_laura_homestay.MP3

Day 7

iniFinally  managed to write up the diary for Fri - sorry to be a wee bit behind but there is so much going on....

This morning in class we did  a variety of activities. We learnt how to sing a song which was really good fun and we could all just about hold a tune. It is amazing how much easier it is to sing rather than just speak in Chinese! We also learnt about Chinese cuisine which was interesting. There are 4 main types of cuisine and each is known for something different ie spicyness, textures, flavours etc. We also learnt a whole variety of new wors to help the girls with their homestay visits tomorrow. The students then had to go the front of the classroom and click on the picture on the computer to see how many they could remember. Ailith and Charlotte were the stars of the group as they volunteered. Pretty intimidating so I was very impressed. We also had to do a random exercise of just underlining words we knew which was pretty pointless as we didn’t practise the phrases or anything. We had a quick text on words we knew – she said them and we had to number them in the order she said them and then translate them. It was really good to try to listen to the words. Learnt a lot, how to ask where entrance / exit are, how to tell the time and ask questions about time, the compass points and right / left / on / under and middle. It felt a bit like information overload. Also learnt about Chinese pictographs – simple pictures that represent things. Ie. circle with line below it like a smile is morning ie sun rising.

Lunch was interesting – I was starving. There was something that resembled chocolate cake but was rather disappointing.

Today was a lovely blue sky, sun and hot day. Such a nice change from the drabness we have been having. And nice to have hot weather that was not humid but had a breeze. The hardest thing is that it stays hot till 10/11pm! The school grounds looked so much better in the sun! And everyone’s spirits were much greater and people were more energetic and not so lethargic.

Spent the afternoon visiting The Summer Palace which was amazing. It was so lovely to visit temples set in a big open garden with lots of trees, grass, shade and space for people to disperse. We also split down into our school groups which made touring the palace much easier rather than simply going round as two big groups of 40! Much more enjoyable. Saw really typical Chinese gardens – ponds with lotus flowers, willow trees, pagodas, corridors and all beautifully decorated with paintings and carvings. Bright colours – red, blue and green. There was one temple complex which was incredible with symmetrical corridors, stairways and a beautiful view out over the lake. Also saw a huge wooden boat that is made to look like marble. And we took a boat ride across the lake to a small island and walked back along a 17 arch bridge with 500 stone lion statues. The whole place felt like a beautiful oasis – apart from all the tour groups!

Took a local bus back to the campus with our guide Stone. It was a first class with air con so cost all of 2 yuan for the 40 min journey! It even had a small flat screen TV playing the news. Normally it only costs 1! It was pretty busy and every bus always seems to be jam packed full. I guess it is how most people travel.

We went out to dinner locally for Lynsey’s birthday to a restaurant that Stone recommended. It was cheap and beautiful. We had our own private room again. Ordered aubergines, spicy chilli chicken that burnt your mouth and was almost impossible to eat, dumplings, chicken with peanuts and chilli (the standard favourite dish), green beans with chilli. It was typical

Sichuan

food which is known for being spicy. Unfortunately it was too hot for some people. The portions were huge as always so only ordered a few dishes and shared them. Such a nice sociable way to eat. Stone gave Lynsey a lovely necklace which had a whole story behind it. And he got her a delicious cake – chocolate icing with marshmallow and a light fluffy sponge stuck together with pineapple jam. It was gorgous. She even had candles!

Just uploading some photos before going to bed! See the albums to the right for more.

Gate

Decoration

gardens

Soundfiles from the day

Sound files from the day

Download asking_when_time.MP3

Download learning_flower_song_singing.MP3

Download explanation_pictograph.MP3

Lynsey's 16th birthday

Lynsey had a great birthday - we are just back from a meal out. She got a cake with candles, we sang happy birthday, she got some chocolates and had a great day in Summer Palace. An amazing place. Plus the sun shone and there was blue sky - the first since we have been here. She also got a present from our helper Stone....

The diary will follow tomorrow.....but some photos of the evening...

(by the way I passed on the comments from lynsey's parents to lynsey from the blog)

Birthday present

Cake

Candles

Lynsey + Stone

group dinner

Faulty numbers

Sorry that the phone numbers for the individual rooms that I gave you don't work. I was assured that they would but I guess you were the first ones to try. So a big apology to Jen's dad and Lynsey's parents....I will check out why they aren't working tomorrow....

Video 2

2nd installment of the video from Forbidden City and Tiananmen Sqaure.

Download forbidden_city.wmv

Day 6

well today we didnt have to get up quite as early, breakfast was at 8 as usual and then it was off to our third class this week. Where we learnt to fold paper into the shape of a bird... after some interesing starts we all finally managed to make something that was similar to the teachers. After the lesson ended, we seperated into small groups and walked around the campus, enjoying the sunshine, however, we all soon had to go back indoors for the afternoon's folk dance lesson. We were taught one of the traditional welcoming dance's of Tibet, something which requires a great deal of hand and eye co-ordination... lets just say we did our best! However, it didnt help that some journalists happened to be more than a little snap happy...! One jounalist began speaking to  Me, Lynsey and Lindsey and has managed to rope us into writing some articles on Scotland for the newspaper she writes for, and will e-mail us when we get back home. No more to report as of yet, will write tomorrow.

laura xxxxxxxxxxxxxx

ps from Thea -

By the way dinner tonight was exciting - slimy mushrooms, jellyfish, seaweed and very sweet grapes! Ruth and I tried the jelly fish but it was very rubbery and hard to chew. Not very nice. The signs for the food have some very odd translations like agarics (mushrooms), beans in chicken fat, nuts + wings.....

Just been out for coffee and ended up having a tea ceremony - tried jasmine tea. Very flowery. Served in very small cups - 2 sips and it was gone. And there seemed to be a special way to pour and make the tea. Also were given lots of 'tea food' ie green tea flavoured biscuits. Very interesting. Charlotte had her first manicure (now has very long and lovely nails) and Jenny wants one tomorrow. Ruth, Laura and Lynsey bought some chinese music and had a good giggle with the accompanying videos. Now we need a dance and karoke competitions....Also all the students received white silk like kung fu outfits which look like pyjamas!

Oragami

  Teacher

Seaweed

Folk dancing

Tibetan outfit

Sound snippets

Download intro_tones.MP3

Download lynsey_1 to 20_with_tones.MP3

Download class_repeats_no_4100.MP3

Download Music.MP3

Video

Hopefully this will work! We have 45 mins of video from Day 1-4. It has not been edited yet, but no time to do this. You will need something like realplayer / media player to download it. It make take a while. We hope to do a DVD when we get back which will be of better quality - this is just a sampler!

And yes, Thea is the token photographer and the technical expert!

Download china_day_14.wmv

Day 5

Well well, Jenny here!!! Today we had to get up for a 7 o'clock breakfast, for a 8 o'clock departure to Tiananmen square, the Forbidden city and Wangfujing. Tiananmen square was packed!! Aswell as not moving very much due to the crowds there were people trying to sell watches, postcards, stamps and fans to us as we went by them then they even followed us for a bit! After walking about the square and hearing about it and taking pictures of places we went into the Forbidden city which I thought was extrememly interesting. All the rooves to the buildings were painted gold and the red walls with the grey bricked courtyard made the whole place very pretty for the pictures everyone was taking. Again as we left, we were bombarded with items people were trying to sell on the street. We took a wonder to the bus and drove to a restaurant as we were all starving. The restaurant was nice and very chinesey with red lanterns and pictures on the walls and the round spining disks on the tables for the food. We had some kind of fish thing with what we thought was legs! Pork, beef, chicken, vegetables served in a variety of ways and aubergine and tea which is really different from the tea I'm used to! After we had our fill, we got back onto the bus and were taken to Wangfujing, a huge street with lots of shops and markets, a girls dream! The shops were nice and there were a good few shopping centers that you could buy souveirners and gifts like fans and chopsticks and so on.  The silk shop was lovely, everyone who went in was tempted to buy something but not all of us did. The market was...well I will say amusing in some sort of sense because as we walked through in between the stalls, sellers grabbed at our arms and tried to persuade us to buy stuff, and when we walked away they lowered the price to try get us to come back! We also had Stone with us to help us translate. We all then met up outside a HUGE department store, very similar to Debenhams, and decided what we were all going to do. Mrs McCulloch, Lindsay and myself decided to go back to the High school because we were tired and didn't particularly want to walk about much longer while the others went to the night market with the weird and strange looking foods.

Right Laura and Lynsey here (dangerous mixture!!) Well while the others went back to the High School we went to a nice wee Chinese restaurant with Stone and his friend Sylvia. After some time we finally managed to pick a few dishes which look as if we'd like them... and we certainly did! They were yummy! Probably the best food we've had so far. After our munch we went for a stroll through the Night Market, which was certainly, lets just say, interesting. We decided that beetles and cow intestines on a stick weren't for us and avoided buying anything. The starfish was tempting though?! Anyhoo that was all dandy and Stone and Sylvia were nice enough to flag done a couple of extremly non-pricey taxi's (£2 for like an hour!) and we made our way swiftly and rather dangerously weaving in and out the trafic back to the campus. Overall it was a rather spiffing day and was thouroughly enjoyed by all. Byeeeeeeee L + L xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx =)

Okay with 180 photos from today alone I can't possibly download them all so will give you a flavour! And will put some in albums on the right.

Entrance to Forbidden City

Typical building

Market stall

Night market

Parasols