Guest Post: China Trips

Last week I took 50 seventh graders to Yaolinzhen as part of the outdoor lab-esque program called China Trips. Every student from grade 6-12 visits a different region of China depending on their grade. Most of the trips are service oriented so that the experience can fulfill part of the IB curriculum requirements. The 6th and 7th graders however get an outdoor education trip that is focused on team building and comfort zone challenges.

Yaolin is 4 hours and 30 minutes southwest of Shanghai and we made the trip in the pouring rain of Typhoon Fitow. When we left the school it was just starting to rain, but as we drove south if started to let loose. Each town we passed was more flooded than the last. 

When we got to the hotel we had to present all 50 kids and 5 adults with matching passports in order to check in to our rooms. Surprisingly, this only took about a half hour because not one person forgot their passports. It was a miracle! After dropping our things in the room we got back on the bus to head to the campsite for introductions. 

notice the standing water...

 a short walk up this trail to the campsite...

After a few hours of getting muddy in the field we went back to the hotel for a great meal and an early bed time... for the kids.

The next day we split into two groups. One group, my group, would camp on Tuesday and the other would camp on Wednesday. We ate a big breakfast and packed lunches before heading back to the campsite. The day was filled with three main activities.

1. Archery... awesome!

2. Wilderness Skills... boring and long

3. How to build a fire... with tissues and a lighter.

After a short break and a snack we set up our tents. Setting up a tent can always be a challenge but doing it with 25 7th graders who have never set one up before was borderline impossible.

The day ended with a camp fire and a giant spaghetti dinner.

Day three consisted of a hike with some nice scenery.

Day 4: Repelling, rock climbing, and laser tag.

On Friday we woke up and checked the kids out of the hotel. We got all the bags and kids into the lobby only to find out that the bus was going to be late. How late? 3 and 1/2 hours. We played every version of tag known to man before checking out two rooms at the hotel for movies. The bus finally came and we made it home just in time for happy hour. Thank god!

And the "Crazy Driver" Award goes to...

Seeing as it was a nice day, and we wanted to do something interesting, a group of us went to Century Park to try out the fun bike contraptions. Even though it was during the holiday, we figured we could hold our own against the crowds.

Needless to say, some shenanigans took place, especially since we two of the bike buggies under our control.

Behold.

These things are soooo much fun!  I'll give you one guess to imagine what we did with them.

Keep in mind that the people in the back have no control 

other than to pedal with the person in front of them. 

The innocent!

The crazies.

 There was a bit of "bumping" happening. And a bit of off-roading.

We might have been worrying the locals...


The park was getting ready for a big fireworks extravaganza and had the biggest collection of seats set up around the main pond. See that white line on the opposite side?

Yeah, more chairs.

Maybe next time we'll try the paddle boats, though based on our performance, it wouldn't be the driest activity...

Lovely little areas to hang out in, if you're so inclined. 

So weirdly, we were going straight (and slow) on this nice, flat, shaded promenade when Mark's chain came off of his gears. The boys all had a go with their mechanical skills, but no luck. Unfortunately, that meant I couldn't pedal either. 

Mark and I sat back to enjoy our ride while Brian and Anja propelled us forward. Considering our bad luck, we took it easy and continued our ride.

...Then tragedy struck again. 

Anja's gears completely fell off the frame of the buggy. 

And we were only halfway around the park. 

Oh, boogers. 

We definitely attracted a lot of interest being the only foreigners and the four of us pushing/walking the buggy back to the barn. 

It was strangely awesome in it's own special way. ;)

A good day in all.

Can-didly speaking...

Oh, the puns!

Check out what I found at a convenience store down the street!


Amazing the things that get imported, right?

Jinglin' at Jing'an

I had mentioned that Jing'an Temple was pretty cool when we went to visit during October break. It's been there for since the 1200's. Actually, it was originally built about 300 AD, but in a different location. It moved and was renovated many times.

How's that for old??

Doesn't look so old now, but the gold is off-set nicely by the copper and aqua building behind it.

Remember this lovely picture? ;)  Definitely work the kick in the shin to post it again. 

The fun thing is that the courtyard is filled with clanging sounds 

as people throw money in this gigantic pot. 

We were wondering if the coins ever go through and hit people on the other side. 

Get him!

Up the main stairs, 

you see fun carvings.

and get to see Buddha's smiling face at you...

And turn around and see the whole compound. 

The area behind that main staircase/Buddha room.

 I found a new door knocker!

Isn't he happy looking??

Not a bad place to visit!  I'd label it as one of those interesting places, but nothing VITAL/ DO NOT MISS for a visit to Shanghai. 

Look at us preparing for guests!  ;)

Splish Splash, I was takin' a bath!

So there's a typhoon around these parts.  Did you hear about it??

Yes, we're fine, Mom. I'm dry and warm, and I have enough to eat. :o)

I actually had a different post last night, but the internet was not as functional as one would need, so no post.  Again.  I'm sorry!

Back to the Typhoon Fitow:

For us, we started hearing about it Sunday (last day of break) from our head of schools and our principals. They emailed things like, have your phone tree prepped in case we have to cancel school, prepare for longer/messy commutes, etc.

While we'd usually just cross our fingers for a 5 AM phone call like always, Mark had the wrinkle of going on his China Trip on Monday morning. Lucky him: if they had to delay his bus drive with 7th graders, they would just wait at school before an all-clear.  Other grades had to go to the airport and hope the planes left.

Turns out, he's fine. Even after a five hour bus ride in a torrential downpour.

With 7th graders!

I got the following texts:

"Here."

"Making smelly kids wash their feet. :( "

Quite the talker my fella is! ;o) I got to chat with him this morning as we were waiting for the school shuttle. He said that everyone is already covered in mud, and they will be tent camping tonight. Can't wait to hear more!

For us still at normal school, there were stretches of intense rain Monday, but it was fine until the evening. From last night to this afternoon, it was constant downpour.

Us this morning waiting for the shuttle. 

Cameron with a breakfast burrito and the Canadians with smiles. (AH! eh?)

Very wet indeed!

Someone managed to take one of these out. Impressive!

Today was when there was a bit more excitement at the Lower School...

Inside recess since the playground was flooded.

Look! They even had a rain gauge inside the school! Right in my hallway, no less!

Wait a minute... that's no rain gauge. :(

I don't know if you can see it, but the puddle was as big as a queen-sized bed. That was the water not hitting the buckets. 

Hey!  You know what doesn't make a good rain gauge?

An electric piano. That's right. Not a good rain gauge because the only way you can see the water is when you pour it out of the keywork.  And boy, did it flood!

It looks like it's letting up now.  I'm just ready to dry up. 

And avoid electrocution. 

*zap!

Look who's Saxy!

Mark is still in the Shanghai Community Jazz Band and it's concert band. The jazz band is good, and he was begged to stay in the concert band since without him and the high school band lady, they have no alto sax section. Their first concert was on Sunday at this community center so we decided to make a day of it.

Poor Mark had to lug his saxophone around the Jing'an Temple (real pictures later).



We ended up meeting Brian and Anja and two upper school teachers also in the concert for dinner at Element Fresh. (Element Fresh is a place with good western healthy food and excellent juices.) After dinner, we walked down the street and down a nondescript alley to the cultural center that the bands were playing at.

The concert itself was nice. The jazz band played first and sounded pretty good! Mark was awesome as always, especially in his solo for some James Brown funk tune. The rest of our newbie group came in the middle of the jazz set, which was awfully cool of them to support at such a random event.

The wild thing was that the crowd talked through the entire thing. While the bands played, while the MC gal introduced every song with a joke and a tidbit of information, even while the Chinese girl translated. They were a very appreciative and enthusiastic audience, but the amount of talking was quite new to me.

I snagged a picture of the concert band. You can see Mark on the left.


It's time for some card playing, so I have to dash, but love and kisses to everyone at home!

Happy indeed

I was just saying yesterday that I was proud of myself for posting Monday through Thursday every week, and I just had to go and skip a day. I guess I got distracted by John learning the word for diarrhea last night and using it with every Chinese we met.  (What is it about learning a new language that makes you revert to such childish antics?? We were all in stitches, laughing so hard.)

Maybe you can excuse me on the basis that this week is a holiday and we have the week off. Today was the official National Day for China. It's the 64th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China. Interesting, right?

I wanted to go back and share one last thing about Friday: our trip to FAC.

Like y'all know, when payday and the start of vacation fall on the same day, it's a beautiful thing.  When you throw in a free bus downtown, it's even better.

Happy hour found us at Morton's (yes, the same chain that's in Denver). While the 45 RMB martinis were delicious (normally 108 RMB), the thing that made it wonderful was the endless supply of steak sandwiches. The best cuts of meat I've had in Shanghai (not too hard to do, but they were actually good). They even had a little bit of horseradish on them. Yum!  

We definitely used this as our dinner and stayed for quite sometime.

We couldn't help it; there was such a great view outside!

See you there next Friday!