Time to Blog-er-size! J
Hi, it’s Clare S. It’s our 8th day here today; it has only been a week, which feels like so much longer. We just got back on the bus from visiting a school that preformed for us; it was AMAZING! One girl sang some type of traditional Chinese song, and even though I couldn’t understand the words, I loved it. She was doing something that she really loved and I could easily see that. Dr. Dennis is right; we are so similar even though we are from completely different places. Today I finally fully understand it.
The art students demonstrated their drawing and painting talents for us. Stepping inside of a Chinese art classroom was not that different from our classrooms back home.
We watched a ballet class demonstrate dance movements. The dancers were very elegant and graceful. Later the dancers put on colorful costumes. One student performed a solo ballet dance and then there was a group dance that seemed to be a combination of ballet and jazz movements.
The singer in the red dress from the Yu Kai School joined our chorale performers for our evening concert.
Right now, we are on our way to a pagoda. I think it’s going to be pretty neat. It is was cooler here than it was in any other city, I don’t know whether it is because of the climate or if the weather has just simply changed. We just got back from the pagoda; it was so cool! I went to the gift shop and experienced my first real bargaining session with my brother Peter. Wow, we got the price down 60 Yuan.
Some of us climbed the 278 steps up the Wild Goose Pagoda.
Near the top level we watched one of the monks stamp red ink on this carving to make a print of Buddha's footprints. Of course, the print was for sale afterwards.
What I have really noticed here is that everything is a lot cheaper, or at least it seems like it. It took me an entire week to go through 100 U.S. dollars, which is around 700 Yuan. A bottle of water can cost from 3 to 10 Yuan. One thing is that people try to rip you off all the time, especially the street vendors. Like today, I was buying a bottle of water and an ice cream bar, and the woman tried to give, what I’m pretty sure was Tai money for part of my change. I’m so glad that our tour guides told us about this scam, because I’m sure that the vendors would be scamming a lot of uninformed people.
We got 2 new tour guides a couple days ago. Our old ones, Vivien and Leslie, were amazing! Vivien was so cool. I wish she were here L. I cannot wait until we get to Beijing! It’s been so hot for the past week, and to be honest, all our clothes are pretty gross! So in Beijing, I can finally wash my clothes and that right there is REALLY exciting! AND!!! And!!! There is tons of shopping there! J
That’s all for now!
Hi mom! J miss you
(I’m actually not even sure if she will see that or not…but oh well. J)
~Clare
