July 6th

Sunday! We have finally started to get used to the schedule here that it was sort of wierd that we had a free day today. We all slept in till about 10:30 and then after a brief lunch, we all headed out to a small bakery across the street from our dorm and basically bought up the entire store as everything was under a dollar and everything looked so good that we all thought that it was fake!

 

Today we were finally able to get some internet connection as Mike and Ted were nice enough to give us laptops that we set up with internet connections. We all scrambled behind each other to get just a couple of minutes on the laptops so that we could get in contact with the outside world and see what was going on with our families and tell them about our adventures here. 

 

After lunch, we went to a street with a lot of stores and we stayed there till about 5 o'clock., we headed back, had dinner, relaxed, went on the computer and went to bed.

July 5th - Palace of Discovery

Another interesting and fun-filled day in Beijing. What was different though was that we didn't have classes today. No weekend classes! We all ate breakfast at our regular time, which was around 7:00 and then went back to our dorms and prepared to go to the Summer Palace. We took a rented bus and arrived at the Summer Palace after 40 minutes. We saw amazing buildings and walked around a little bit with our tour guide, who was really nice and spoke very good English. The gates of the Summer Palace were just amazing and just the culture and the people amazed us. We walked down a corridor that held 4,000 paintings and climbed all the way to the top of the Palace where the Emperor stayed at. Of course we had fun along the way and bonded more over the experience. What was great and truly amazing about today was the fact that we got to take a boat back into the city on the same route that the Emperor took when his family and himself headed back from the Summer Palace. On the boat ride back, we were able to interact with some people on the boat, practice what little Mandarin we learned and waved to people from the boat. All in all, another wonderful day that we fully enjoyed!

Happy July 4th in China!

Since today was the 4th of July, we were able to celebrate it in the afternoon. After a morning of fun/interesting Chinese classes with Wang laoshi and Pan laoshi, we had our usual lunch and got on another rented bus and headed out to celebrate the 4th of July at the International School of Beijing. It was like being back home again, well sort of. Everything was pretty fancy (well a school worth $22,000 dollars a year gives you some perks) and there were food stands from different companies like McDonald's and Papa John's. They even hired a band to play and just so many things to do and eat. Unfortunately due to the rain, the fireworks were cancelled. However, we still had a fun time nonetheless and enjoyed each other's company. It was one of our more relaxed days since we've been here and I feel that we're going to get very few of these chill days so we enjoyed today as much as we could. Everyone's having a great time and we are each figuring out each other's personalities and establishing new relationships with each other. We can't wait to see what tomorrow will bring for us! 

- Liann

Corporate Connections

The students were treated to lunch by Greg Gilligan, the Head of Government Relations for McDonald's in China. This briefing was fascinating and delicious. It focused on how McDonald's is marketing and expanding their image and store chain in China. Mr. Gilligan has lived in China for almost 12 years. He gave students a lot of great advice about pursuing careers in China and honing their language skills. He also had McDonald's food delivered to our school for our meeting. 

The Great Wall of China

The climb up the wall took about an hour and included hundreds of steps. Our group had quite a work out. "The Chinese say that you are not a true man or woman until you have climbed the Great Wall." Our Chinese scholars all successfully completed this rite of passage. 

The weather was perfect for our trip to the Great Wall. We took a two hour bus ride from Beijing before arriving at the Wall. The part of the Wall we visited was more natural and less commercialized than some 

other parts of the Wall. We had to be careful climbing because each step is at varying heights because the wall is built on the precipice. The view from the mountain top was extraordinary!

A Village Near the Great Wall

After we visited the Great Wall, we were invited to a small village in the shadow of the Wall. A wealthy family has bought some of the property around the village, including a school house. They have converted the school house into a restaurant. We were invited to eat barbeque. This was a unique fusion of cultures. It shows how the face of China is changing. The villagers were all "hao ke" (extremely hospitable).  

Kung Fu

This picture depicts the students participating in a Kung Fu class.  I would not want to meet our teacher, Master Li, in a dark alley.  He showcased some of his skills for our students during break and after class.  We all had a healthy work out.  The students are looking forward to learning more about Chinese Martial Arts.

I hope all is well on the home front.  Our Chinese Scholars continue to expand their perceptions of the world.

- Jay