Today is Friday and our second day in Zhenghou. We arrived two days ago on the bullet train. The bullet train was not as fast as I had expected. It had a electronic board that would show messages in Chinese and English (which by the way was hilarious to read because the English translation was so bad), anyway it showed the speeds and the highest I saw was 179 km/h. I have no idea what that is in mph but it didn't feel very fast, it was really smooth though. We arrived at a really nice hotel, which is fairly new. Our luggage had to be locked on the train and I lost my key on the train so my luggage was locked and I couldn't get into it so I had to try everyone's key and none of them worked so the Chinese hotel workers had to break it off, I was freaky out. Anyway Thursday was great, we went to the summer palace on Thursday which was gorgeous, and we got to take a boat ride across a big pond that was there. We had lunch after that and I have to say I am getting really sick of Chinese food, half the time I don't know what I am eating. All this Chinese food has made me realize the varieties of the food we have in America. I can't wait to have American food again. This morning we went to a museum which was pretty cool but that is not really what I am into. Today we had a performance in this amazing music hall, which I think went pretty well. Anyway I need to let other people in here. And I need to go to bed because it is 11:15pm here and tomorrow we have to leave the hotel at 7:15am.
ANONYMOUS Student posting
China, what a trip!
Kaifeng, China
Friday, June 22, 2007
Awesome Day
You should be so proud of your students! They played at the Zhengzhou Art Center. I am so proud of each and every one of them. Their behavior was exemplary! They interacted with the University students today and the chinese students all spoke english very well. They communicated with each other and shared ideas and stories. ALL of our students talked with Chinese students. Many of them shared emails and information to stay in touch. I am blessed to be able to take part in this trip and I thank you for sharing your students with me.
Miss you all!
Michelle Fisher
Miss you all!
Michelle Fisher
Thursday, June 21, 2007
Late night posting- Thursday June 21st
We are posting this late (12:45 a.m.) just to let everyone back home know we arrived safely in Zhenzou this evening. We just settled into our rooms, and we are tired. I will have some students post to the blog tomorrow, but this evening we will just add a few pictures of our adventures from today (Thursday June 21st).
The first picture is one of people from our group boarding a the Bullet Train in Beijing this evening for our trip to Zhengzou. This was taken at 5:30 p.m. Beijing time June 21st.
The first picture is one of people from our group boarding a the Bullet Train in Beijing this evening for our trip to Zhengzou. This was taken at 5:30 p.m. Beijing time June 21st.
The next image captures an view of the beautiful Summer Palace, which we found out is not a palace at all (I'm sure one of the students will elaborate on that!).
The final picture shows members of our group boarding a dragon boat for a lake cruise on the grounds of the Summer Palace.
Enjoy these pictures and know we are all fine, if a bit exhausted from all our travels. More student postings again tomorrow!
On their way to Zhengzhou
There will not be a posting from China, today because at 10:00pm the group was on a bullet train traveling to Zhengzhou. I was asked to post a note to reassure everyone that the weary travelers had had a busy, fun filled day with hopes of reaching their destination by 11:00pm. They will check into their hotel, get a good nights rest and share their adventures with all of us tomorrow. If you're like me, I look forward to the new posting, so tune in tomorrow!
Julie Hepfer (home base)
Julie Hepfer (home base)
Wednesday, June 20, 2007
The day of the Great Wall visit
So its hard to remember how long we have already been here after a crazy 13 hour plane ride and the major time difference. The time difference is probably the strangest thing so far, the day of the plane trip most of us were awake for eh say 30 hours-ish. A few of us got some nap time in on the plane ride (mostly those of us in Economy-PLUS!) who had extra leg room.
This morning we were supposed to wake up around 6:30 but Barrett and I ended up waking up at 5:30 Chinese time without realizing we set our clocks to the wrong time. We just wandered around the hotel at like 6 in the morning and ate our early breakfast.
The Chinese food here is AMAZING! I was a little worried it wouldn't be as good as the Americanized Chinese food we all love at Panda Express back at home. At all the restaurants we basically sit down at giant circular tables, about 10 people to a table, and we are served by about 3 of 4 waiters at a time. They bring dish after dish of delicious Chinese food that is served family style on a round center tray that spins around. The first food I tried the first day we got here was duck. It was actually very very good. We have all tried so many new things already, its been great! Using chop sticks has been a challenge for some people... including myself.
Our first performance was on the Great Wall today. It was very exciting for all of us. There was a small crowd but I really think they enjoyed our music. After playing, most of us began our hour journey up the wall. There were so many steps! For those of you back in America who never really had the chance to learn or appretieate the Great Wall (like myself, until today), it is so beautiful and can stretch from New York to LA. Just looking at it is jaw-dropping! It was another very smogy day so it was hard to get some good pictures, but it was still really great.
Well you already heard the mention of our massages tonight from Dave above. He made the huge mistake of not getting one. Barrett and I did and it was amazing. It was a one hour body massage for 200 chinese moneys (Yuan) which is about 25 US dollars. Talk about a great deal. It included lots of pounding, stretching, chopping, foot soaking in tea, and other stuff. I have never had a massage before so I dont know if what they were doing was some cool Chinese thing or just a normal massage.
Well that's all for now,
Written by Kevin Mueller, (edited by Barrett Abraham)
This morning we were supposed to wake up around 6:30 but Barrett and I ended up waking up at 5:30 Chinese time without realizing we set our clocks to the wrong time. We just wandered around the hotel at like 6 in the morning and ate our early breakfast.
The Chinese food here is AMAZING! I was a little worried it wouldn't be as good as the Americanized Chinese food we all love at Panda Express back at home. At all the restaurants we basically sit down at giant circular tables, about 10 people to a table, and we are served by about 3 of 4 waiters at a time. They bring dish after dish of delicious Chinese food that is served family style on a round center tray that spins around. The first food I tried the first day we got here was duck. It was actually very very good. We have all tried so many new things already, its been great! Using chop sticks has been a challenge for some people... including myself.
Our first performance was on the Great Wall today. It was very exciting for all of us. There was a small crowd but I really think they enjoyed our music. After playing, most of us began our hour journey up the wall. There were so many steps! For those of you back in America who never really had the chance to learn or appretieate the Great Wall (like myself, until today), it is so beautiful and can stretch from New York to LA. Just looking at it is jaw-dropping! It was another very smogy day so it was hard to get some good pictures, but it was still really great.
Well you already heard the mention of our massages tonight from Dave above. He made the huge mistake of not getting one. Barrett and I did and it was amazing. It was a one hour body massage for 200 chinese moneys (Yuan) which is about 25 US dollars. Talk about a great deal. It included lots of pounding, stretching, chopping, foot soaking in tea, and other stuff. I have never had a massage before so I dont know if what they were doing was some cool Chinese thing or just a normal massage.
Well that's all for now,
Written by Kevin Mueller, (edited by Barrett Abraham)
So Hey!
so hey whats up parents
this is not from the actual person that this blog is being sent out from
today we did some wacky and crazy things
first off we went off to the great wall and all got tattoos of our names in Chinese symbols
it was awesome
the girls mostly got it on their rear ends
the guys pretty much got them on their biceps.
we went to a vase shop where we where forced to make copper vases to be sold at high prices
the worst part was the scorching heat in the rooms used to melt the copper
before we became partial slaves
we went to a jade factory where large pieces of jade where thrown at us till we would dance like little monkeys for the Chinese people
well off to bed
we have a big day ahead of us tomorrow
full of harsh punishments.
POSTED BY CHASE SZORC
this is not from the actual person that this blog is being sent out from
today we did some wacky and crazy things
first off we went off to the great wall and all got tattoos of our names in Chinese symbols
it was awesome
the girls mostly got it on their rear ends
the guys pretty much got them on their biceps.
we went to a vase shop where we where forced to make copper vases to be sold at high prices
the worst part was the scorching heat in the rooms used to melt the copper
before we became partial slaves
we went to a jade factory where large pieces of jade where thrown at us till we would dance like little monkeys for the Chinese people
well off to bed
we have a big day ahead of us tomorrow
full of harsh punishments.
POSTED BY CHASE SZORC
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