Before I began my journey in China I promised myself that I
would keep a weekly blog about all my adventures. At first, I was doing all
right but now my blogs have been written in word documents on my computer and
never posted online. Below is an update of what’s been going on since I last
posted:
Spring Festival/Winter Break (Chinese New Year):
This was an amazing
experience. Five of my girlfriends and I took a bold trip to Yunnan (south of
China). We saw four of Yunnan’s most popular cities and made incredible
memories everywhere we went. Chinese New Year was not what I expected. I
thought I would see people dancing in dragon costumes and huge parades going
down the street, but instead things were low key in the city I was in, Dali, Yunnan.
The most traditional way to celebrate Chinese New Year is to light fire-crackers
on the Eve of the New Year while watching the “Spring Festival Gala.” You can
say this is almost the equivalent to New Years Eve show in Times Square,
Manhattan. The next day, everyone goes to their relative’s home and they eat
and rest all day. I think that’s a perfect way to celebrate any new year!
Highlight: Two day hike on the Tiger Leaping Gorge (Hu Tiao
Xia). Most amazing and physically/mentally straining thing I’ve ever done.
Check out more info. about the Gorge here: http://www.travelchinaguide.com/attraction/yunnan/lijiang/tiger.htm
New Semester:
There was not much of
a transition from my long vacation to the beginning of the spring semester. I
have 8 classes a week as opposed to 6 a week. Now, this does not sound like a
lot, but when you add this to 4 secondary projects, grading, and lesson
planning-it definitely became a lot. Along with my 8 writing freshman writing
classes, I also have:
English Corner: 1 hour, once a week, students meet me in the
school square and they practice oral English. I almost always have
games/different activities. This ends up being another prep. along with my
8 classes.
Public Radio Show: 45 minutes, once a week .This is usually
one of the highlights of my week because I get to finally site down for the
week, talk, and play awesome music. My site-mate and I try to have different
topics every week. We speak in English and play American music that most of our
students and city folk haven’t heard of outside of Taylor Swift, Lady Gaga, and
Beyonce.
Dance Exercise Class: 1 hour, once a week. Another highlight
of my week. Those of you who know me very well understand my passion for dance.
This class is similar to Zumba; high cardio dancing/exercising. I also take
time to teach hip-hop and Indian dance in the class.
Indian Dance Performance: 1-2 hours, three times a week. End
of the year show. I auditioned about 50 students and had to only pick 6! This
was tough, but I love the group I have and I can’t wait until our performance.
I just finished choreographing the whole dance. For those of you who are (or
aren’t) familiar with Indian dance, the song is- Nagada Saang Dhol, YouTube it!
The song is about 4 minutes long and I am glad I had my friend cut it because
we would probably pass out dancing to this song for 4 minutes-high intensity
cardio!
Women’s Mentorship Program: 3 hours, twice a week. My
women’s group has a huge event coming up called the “Nu Women’s Summit.” The
volunteers and I are combining 3 schools’ women’s groups together at one
location. It is a chance for all for students to travel, meet other students,
and learn about women in the world. Right now, I am preparing the students who
are attending to create poster-projects around the theme: Independent Young
Women. Lots of work to be done, but I can’t wait until the summit at the end of
May.
I’m not busy at all.
Yes, I am swamped. Yes, this is a lot, but I enjoy it and I
am tired! This brings me to my summer plans:
I have 4 people coming to visit me this summer and I am so
excited/nervous/anxious for them all to come. My college friend, Stevan is
coming, along with my mom and her two besties! This is going to be a jam-packed
summer. I am in charge of planning their trip here and I hope they fall in love
with China just as much as I have. I am nervous that my language abilities will
be terribly limited. This means that whenever I have free time (rarely ever), I
have to be adamant about studying Chinese. I just hope we all have a wonderful,
stress free summer!
