Sunday, August 30, 2015

Building Bridges Program (在同浪天下)


All of the volunteer teachers (students from Yale, Peking,  Shanghai Jiao Tong,  and Hong Kong University)
~Play spot the white girl~

We all went to Qingyuan to teach for two weeks

The school where we taught rising 8th and 9th grade students from the town and nearby villages;
some of their parents worked at the chopstick factory across the street

View from the classroom; the Chinese government built the apartments along the river for poor rural immigrants

As per the layout of most schools in China, the hallways are all outdoors

I taught English class to 30 8th graders and 30 9th graders everyday

Zora and Alexis
(I got to give them all English names; Zora wanted a name that started with X, but Z was the best I could do)

Playing board games with my students (using Li Laoshi's techniques!)

Daily afternoon activities;
over 200 Chinese students now know how to play Heads Up Seven Up

Playing pickup with some other teachers and students

The one stoplight in our part of town;
it was a 20 minute walk to the school everyday, but my students would always call out to me as they passed me on bikes

My group of fellow teachers with whom I worked most closely during the program

Overflowing a pedi-cab (a tin box attached to a bicycle or moped); I'm hanging out the side




     The Chinese education is seen as the reverse of the American when it comes to intensity.  American students experience more and more pressure as their educational careers go on, with college being the most important.  However, in China, college is much more relaxed than younger grades.  For instance, Chinese middle school is quite intense.  Class goes from 7:30 am to 9 pm, although they do have a two and a half hour break for lunch where everyone walks/rides the public bus/fits four on a bike to go home for the break.  Also a huge difference between China and America's view on education is the role that parents and the home play in children's education.  For Chinese families, they see it as completely the school's duty to educate their kids. Why kids stay at school until 9 pm is because they are supposed to do most of their homework at school.  Chinese kids often take a lot of extra classes too, especially if they have dreams of studying in the States.  American parents are also way more involved in early education, a concept that almost doesn't exist for Chinese.  Americans believe it's the parents' duty to cultivate their children's interest in learning even before they start school, by reading to them, playing Baby Mozart, etc.

All of my students loved to take pictures with me;
While they're sprinting after each other in the halls, even the most mischievous Chinese middle schools always pause to greet/salute any teacher they pass

People dancing together in the park by the river as night falls

Night markets starting to open


Eating Qingyuan specialities with a student's family

The morning of our departure our students all brought each of their teachers breakfast and parting gifts
(and then started crying)

Tuesday, August 25, 2015

内蒙古 (Inner Mongolia)

As part of HBA (Harvard Beijing Academy), every student got to go on a social studies trip to a different part of China for a week over the 4th of July.  I went to Inner Mongolia with a bunch of other students and a few of our teachers.  Besides the fun stuff we also interviewed locals to write a long report in Chinese at the end (mine was on the linguistic situation.)

Link to an awesome video made by a couple of friends, does the trip better justice than my photos below can: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BwZCrXOb2GL4TjdxZ3V0X3dFWXM/view?usp=sharing


Bullet train to from Beijing to Inner Mongolia for a weeklong trip

Triple bunks




One week in Inner Mongolia, one backpack, no problem
Hohhot, the provincial capital, a thriving city
You can see the Mongolian and Mandarin on all signs (as mandated by gov policy)

The first round of yurts where we spent the night
(latrines were a hole in the ground behind that brick wall in the distance)









We even got to enjoy fireworks on the plains outside of our yurts on the 4th of July.

Intestines from the lamb we just saw killed (by method of a herdsman slicing its chest and reaching in to grab its heart)




Watching a wrestling competition

Interviewing locals as research for a report we had to write on any aspect of Inner Mongolia society

The second camp of yurts where we stayed



Witnessing the advent of a  storm that only happens once or twice a year on the plains

We went horse riding later that day in a way only possible in a country with so few safety regulations






Traditional Mongolian dancing performance

Mausoleum of Genghis Khan

His burial place is actually a secret, but here his personal artifacts are worshipped






Riding a gondola through the desert

Riding camels in the desert


My bactrian was a little tired


Four-wheeling in the desert

Zip-lining in the desert

Sand sliding in the desert

Riding a chairlift in the desert

Off-roading in the desert



Da Zhao Lamasery





               
Visiting a local school

                 
Dragon dance performance put on by students































When ball is lyfe, but you gotta tour a milk factory

Meng Niu milk factory


Enjoying alfresco Mongolia barbecue of lamb (what else?)
Mongolian cuisine consists of everything non-vegan,
so mainly lamb and dairy products (milk candy!)