Friday, August 8, 2014

Beijing

Last week was a busy but exciting week for us.  The excursion to Beijing was a big success. We had a great time doing sightseeing and also shopping in Beijing.  As usual, here are a few pictures for your enjoyment:


 Tian'anmen Square
 At the "Summer Palace", it was really hot that day, which reminds us of Indiana!
 Forbidden City
Great Wall!  We are all heroes now!
 
Next week, is going to be our last week in China and we are all looking forward to giving a great farewell show to No. 14 and the host families.  Everyone is ready to wrap up their stay in China and have a pleasant journey back to America. 
Best, Hangzhou instructor team

Hangzhou Blog #3

We all can't believe that half of our program has passed!  The past week has been the most difficult and the longest week for us since your students had five full days of classes.  They also started to prepare their farewell show very hard.  I am glad to tell you that they did a great job both in class and in preparing the farewell show.

Here are a few pictures for your enjoyment:
 Morning Tai Chi exercises

 Boys preparing their dancing for the farewell show!
Cultural activity: playing Hulusi (a Chinese musical instrument)
 
Next week, we are going to Beijing from Monday to Wednesday.  We are all very looking forward to it!  More pictures and stories will be presented in the next blog!
Best, Hangzhou instructor team


Thursday, August 7, 2014

Your students had another wonderful week in China.  We had four days of classes in this week and one--‐day excursion in Suzhou on Friday.  A Tai--‐Chi exercise in the morning starts our regular class day and our students like it very much even though it is hard to learn at the very beginning. The courses are going pretty well and I am glad to see that every student is taking notes carefully and trying to absorb new vocabulary and grammars. In this week’ cultural activities, your students start to learn a traditional Chinese instrument called “ulu Si”and they found it very interesting! In addition, they also had a Peking Opera mask--‐making class and each of them had their very first mask--‐painting work! The excursion in Suzhou was the highlight of this week. In Suzhou, we went to visit the Humble Administrator’ Garden, Suzhou Museum, Great Canal and the Shantang Old Street. Here are a few pictures for your enjoyment.
At The "Humble Administrator's Garden"
 
 It was fun climbing up the rock to get a better view of the garden!
 Waiting to get into the Museum.
 
We had a great second week here in China.  All the students are having a good time with their host families as well.  Your students are being very mature which makes our program go really smooth.  We can't wait for the next week and will let you know more then! 
Best, Hangzhou Instructor Team