April 22 & 23, 2011

April 22:  Was driven to the airport by the Assistant Director and my interpreter for my flight to Shanghai.  Principal Sun, Labor leader Gu Yu, and the PE teacher surprised me at Shenyang airport.  They all had to get up very early to do that which made me even more appreciative.  The people in Shenyang are my motivation to learn Mandarin.  I want to come back and be able to speak with them in their language.  Our plane was delayed to Shanghai by an hour but I was in our hotel by 1 PM.  We had a meeting with all our school administrators about their week touring schools in different areas.  There were some great stories, but I think my experience in Shenyang was at least as good as any other experience.  

April 23, 2011:  We had a great day in Shanghai.  We went to the Communist Party history museum and the Shanghai Museum followed by Shanghai lunch (Of course the food was excellent!)  We then went to the Yu Garden area and then had a walk on the historic Bund.  The architecture in Shanghai is awesome.  Tomorrow we journey home so this is my last blog from China.  If anyone wishes to chat with me further about my trip just let me know.  A big thank you to my daughter Amber who has put the blogs up for me because blogspot.com is blocked in China.    This trip has been a life changing experience.  I wish my friends in Shenyang could be near to me or I to them.  They are wonderful people and wonderful educators and I count them as my friends.  I plan to write a summary of my trip on the blog in the next week.  Thank you for following my journey as I count you as my friends too.  It will be Easter Sunday tomorrow and travel day home for me.  God bless you!!  

April 21, 2011

Last full day in Shenyang.  I started the day with a tour of the Expo Garden Shenyang.  It is a large botanical and amusement park just outside the city in the beautiful hill country.  The flowers were just starting to bloom so I may have been a week or so ahead of the full beauty of spring.  The amusement park will open in about a month after the weather turns warmer.  The botanical gardens had a display for many cities in China featuring the flowers and architecture of the city.  It was an enjoyable time with Gu Yu, Rachel (Ms. Wu my interpreter) and our driver.  We then hit a local authentic rural restaurant.  Of course the food there was excellent.  The main dish was in an iron pot with beef, potatoes, green beans, and biscuit stuck to the side of the iron pot.  We then headed back to the city and my hotel so I could pack and get ready for a dinner hosted by the Assistant Director of the Yuhong District.  We once again had great food and fellowship.  I can tell you that I was a complete stranger to Shenyang last Saturday and can count at least five people as my friends as of tonight.  I am truly sad that I have to leave these fine educators.  Each of them would people I would love to have work in our schools.  There are great educators here in Shenyang.  I hope our relationship can last a long time for the benefit of all of our children.

April 20, 2011

Today I visited two other schools of the Yuhong district in Shenyang.  I went to No. 56 High School and the Daxing Middle School.  The school is public high school where all students live on campus in 3 dormitories.  The campus is very large and has 1700 students and they have an excellent principal.  It is considered to be a key high school in Shenyang.  I was able to visit a couple of classes and tour the campus.  The students take education very seriously.  The assistant principal was curious to know that we had so many after school activities because he couldn’t understand when students would have time to study.  The students of school No. 56 tend to study after school until 10:30 PM.  The students were quite excited to see that a foreigner was in the school.  They were very happy to try their English out on me.  At Daxing Middle School, I had a tour after meeting the principal and some English teachers.  I had an excellent conversation with English teachers of the middle school.  They really cared about the students and struggled to think that they could teach the students within a 50 minute class.  They could also empathize with Indiana teachers who are on the verge of being evaluated by student test scores.  These teachers said their typical day was 7:30 AM to 5:45 PM.  In the evening, I went the Guoao principal’s house for a dumpling dinner.  It was a big event and I got to help with the production of the dumplings.  I don’t plan to quit my day job, but it was a blast.  In the short time since I arrived on Saturday, I have made four very dear friends here in China.  I got to share an excellent dinner and evening with them, plus the spouse of two of them.  I know that Guoao is in good hands because their leadership is like family.  I truly hope I will be able to continue this relationship with them.  They have energized my belief in humanity because they truly want children to be successful and treat their school like a big family.

April 19, 2011

I spent the day at Guoao Primary School.  I was able to sit in on four different classes.  One class was an English class, a Chinese class for oral language, a Chinese reading class, and a math class taught in both Chinese and English.  Two of the classes were 1^st grade and there were 46 students in the class.  There exists a level of discipline that is hard to describe.  Kids are kids and Chinese students can behave the same as American students, but when it is time to focus, they can quickly get on task.  The Chinese in general take great pride in being disciplined in school and their work.  Their driving on the other hand is organized chaos, but they make it work.  As for the food today, I can add donkey to the list.  It is sometimes joked around here that Chinese will eat anything with four legs, except the table.  I think I can believe that. 

April 18, 2011

What a great day.  My visit to Guoao Primary School was a powerful experience.  I was treated like royalty and very humbled by their hospitality.  I was driven to the school and greeted by the school leadership and some students.  I met with the principal and the assistant director of the school district briefly and then met with a group of staff members in a formal greeting ceremony.  After that, I went to several classroom to see the students and teachers in action.  There are 40 students in every class and only one teacher.  The students all greeted me with an English, “hello” and “how are you”.  We also counted to 10 and said the ABC’s.  I also visited an art class.  The highlight of the morning was going out to watch the morning exercises by the students.  I hope you can see some pictures that do a better job of showing the activities of the day.  In the afternoon, I toured the Beiling park which is related to the Temple of Heaven in Beijing.  At dinner, I tried a new food…Chicken feet.  To be accurate, it was chicken toes without the claws.  I have to admit, it wasn’t bad.  I had seaweed too.  A couple of interesting interactions:  1) a lady leaving the elevator looked up and said “hello”.  The others around her all looked shocked.  2) In the elevator, a young girl got on and didn’t notice me.  When she did, she immediately said hello and how are you.  It was fun to respond to both people.  I did take a walk after dinner around town.  I tend to turn heads in this city because I saw no other foreigners on my walk.  I may be the only American in this city.  When in Shenyang…. Zai Jian!

April 17, 2011

My first full day in Shenyang was dampened by rain and a chill in the air, but still it was fun.  I went to breakfast in the hotel.  I am pretty sure I am the only American in the hotel.  The breakfast was mostly Chinese food, but there was some bacon and sausage and fried eggs.  The funniest dish was the French fries.  I have been told that many Chinese believe Americans like French fries with every meal.  I did skip the fries.  My two hosts and the driver picked me up at the hotel at 9 AM to do some sight seeing.  We went to the Forbidden City of Shenyang, the Financial Museum and the Marshall Mansion.  The Forbidden City of Shenyang is related to the Forbidden City in Beijing, but it is exactly 1/12^th of its size.  Hopefully the pictures will do the tours justice.  We ate dinner at a hotpot restaurant and it was delicious.  My hosts ordered the dishes.  The dishes are served raw and you put them in your pot to cook and then dip them in the sauces of your choice.  The Chinese make a great fuss over their guests and never want them to be hungry.  I put only 2 or 3 items in my pot because my hosts kept putting food in them for me.  I have a Chinese variety show on the television.  No English TV in Shenyang.  It’s interesting because every third song they sing is an American tone.  There are some truly amazing performers on the show.  It wouldn’t take much for the next American Idol to be Chinese.  Tomorrow is my first day in the schools, so I have to keep this short.