Guilin, Mopeds, Little Children, and Curious Chinese College Students...

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Well, it's been a while since I made contact with y'all! Forgive me. Life has been extremely busy since last Thursday when I posted. Allow me to give you an overview of the last 6 days, and when I have time, I will fill in the highlights with more detail and pictures.

So, last Friday...Went to the kindergarten in the morning. That afternoon, we (the entire Army group) went to the airport, caught a flight to Guilin (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guilin) for the weekend, and spent the night in a hotel in there. We took a sweet bus tour on Saturday, and then myself, Eric, and Johnny split off from the rest of the group and spent the night on our own in Yongshua Town (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yangshuo_County), which is about 70 km from Guilin. The rest of the group spent Saturday evening and most of Sunday in Guilin, while we three explored Yongshua and the surrounding area Saturday night and most of Sunday. We took a bus back to Guilin Sunday afternoon, flew back to Xi'an with the group, and arrived back at the CCS home base late Sunday evening. More detail and pictures definitely to come from Guilin and Yongshua. The high-light was Johnny, Eric's, and my moped exploration of the Yongshua countryside...And then the boat tour of the Li River...Let's just say that God is the Master Artist.

Monday: Went to the kindergarten in the morning. And this week, I've chosen to also volunteer with Eric, Johnny, and a new American volunteer, Zach, at the Xi'an Foreign Language University. We essentially lead a two-hour English class/discussion every afternoon in a classroom on campus for any students who want to improve their English. We've had about 20-30 students each afternoon this week, and it has been one of the high-lights of the trip for me. We'll introduce and lecture on some topic (American sub-cultures, for example) for a little bit, and then split the group into 4 separate discussion groups. The last few days, I've gotten to know the students in my discussion group better and better, and have learned so much about China and Chinese students from them. We've had excellent discussions about religion, family, cultural differences, the United States' foreign policy, divorce, dating, and so much more. They've asked me some excellent questions. It's been SO good! Just getting to interact with Chinese college students has been a blast, and a huge learning experience. I definitely think the biggest thing I'll miss about China is the people I've met here and the great conversations and learning experiences I've had. I promise to go into more depth about my interactions with these students, both from the first week's English Corner experience, as well this week's discussion sessions. And I should have some pictures to throw in eventually.
Monday evening, didn't do a whole lot due to tiredness from the weekend trip.

Tuesday: Kindergarten in the morning again. That has been a blast this week, and it gets even more fun as the kids get more familiar and comfortable with me. It also becomes more difficult, as they get OUT OF CONTROL! Went to the university again that afternoon and had another great discussion, even better than Monday's. That evening, I went out with a few friends to watch the daily water fountain show at the Big Wild Goose Pagoda. It was a blast! The show lasts 30 min (or maybe an hour? We got there late...), and is put to well-known classical music, including the William Tell Overture (that was the only one I could name. Sorry, Dan ;-) Then we went to Dairy Queen. Yes, I have caved in several times here to American fast food, but this particular visit was per the request of our Chinese friend, Shuang. DQ is her favorite! And she says she always gets the Green Tea Blizzard, which actually did turn out to be excellent.

Wednesday (I guess that was today...): Kindergarten in the morning. Sang the hokey pokey for a while, and finally started throwing the kids in the air. I wasn't sure if the Chinese teachers would let me play with the kids like that, but now it appears they get a kick out of it. And since all the Chinese teachers are small women, I have a greater ability to help the kids fly. And of course, the kids LOVE it! I'm sure the demand for helping them "fly" and jump super high will sky-rocket over the next couple days. Went to the university again in the afternoon, and had yet another excellent conversation. After the university, Eric and I met up with some of our Army group at the South Gate of the Xi'an city wall and rented bikes to ride the entire wall. The wall goes all the way around the center of the old city, and is quite well-preserved. This bike ride was another one of the high-lights of this trip for me! Pictures to follow. After the bike ride, we had Pizza Hut. Yes, Pizza Hut. Most of our group was craving American GREASE. But it was good. And some of us went to karaoke again for a little bit. I'm sad to think we only have a couple more days here...We fly Stateside on Saturday!

Well, this post turned out to be longer than expected. Hopefully, I'll find some decent time to blog some more tomorrow. And post some more pictures...I hope everything is going well with y'all! As sad as I will be to leave China, I am also seriously looking forward to being home...

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