A list of our gracious host families

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the girls got more than they bargained for...*grin..in the good sense of course...and they were hosted by the families of students from Xing Hai school. Many of the parents went the extra mile and during our home visitation, they shared with us what they have been treated to....here's a sampling of their immersion in the chinese culture:

- a treat to the flavour of the month - hairy crabs - many of our gals have the chance to taste the seasonal crab and for the uninitiated, it's pretty expensive here in s'pore...as it's known for its fragrant roe!

- learning how to make dumplings, drinking wine at a wedding dinner, having a famous calligrapher to give personal paintings - all these are part n parcel of the treats that were given to Ling Huan - thankfully our gal does us proud by preparing breakfast for her host family !! pssst....did i tell u that her host parents are both policemen ?!

- joyce gets to cycle with her buddy every morning to school - and in suzhou, there are lanes for the bicycles...

- for tiffany and peggy...they might have to purchase new pants as they enjoyed the home cooking by peggy's foster mum that they each ate 2 bowls of rice - with 7 home cooked dishes...*grin*

and of course, tiffany impressed the vp of Xing Hai school when she became the first student to walk us to the car park...in the cold....way to go Tiffany...for ur pr skills !!

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Photos

ling huan
from the treats that she is getting...u might be mistaken that she was their daughter :)
(seen here on the extreme left is the physics tr who helped to bring us around)

a pix of the policemen in Ling huan's house
Ling Huan is safe and secure in this house...where the host family are from the police force :)

wei lin's host family
wei lin was given a taste of a 3 generation family..with home cooked meals by the maternal grandfather every day...in fact, the menu is never the same..
(pix of the mum, buddy and the granddad)

wei lin's buddy
playing a song from "titanic" for us...

peggy and her host family
when we visited peggy, tiffany was there as well..and the report is that they are both well behaved and a good influence to the buddy...

tiffany
tiffany learning to use the chinese instrument to blow a tune...not an easy task...as i've one at home and i still can't blow beyond "do re mi"

another gracious host..
aren't our girls lucky?

xiao wen
xiao wen's buddy(seen here with her fav teddy bear) is a warm and bubbly little gal who is extremely helpful..she also happily volunteered to walk us to the next apartment..and she is definitely going to visit nygh next year :)

tiffany and her buddy
having fun!!

joyce hard at work
working on her project for "wenzhou"...hmmm..i think it's a cut and paste job from the net :)

piece of work by marilyn's buddy
beautiful painting