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The Journey East II Group is on their way home!!
We end this journey the way we began, stomachs in a knot. Emotions running high. Anticipation on edge. This is it everybody! Tonight our kids return. Wow. Has it been a
month already? Yeah, right. It seems like six months!
As you read this page, the kids will be in the air somewhere. They will travel for 20 hours coming home and yet, when they land in Hartford, their calendar and clocks will
show they have only been gone for about 8. They gain the 12 hour difference coming home.
Several parents have indicated they can bring kids/people home Saturday morning. So it looks like we have the transportation covered. If anyone needs directions to the
Bradley Int’l Inn, They are:
Interstate Route 91 to Exit 40 (or Bradley Airport). Follow 1/2 mile to Old County Road Exit. Turn right at bottom of exit ramp and continue 1.5
miles to the Inn. Takes about 1-3/4 hours to get there from Newfane.
Bradley International Inn
34 Old County Road
Windsor Locks, CT 06096 USA
800-243-7779
info@sleepparkandfly.com
You can follow the flights by going to: www.united.com and in the “Flight Status” box, type the flight numbers:
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WHEN
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WHERE
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FLIGHT NUMBER
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April 26, 2002
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Beijing to Chicago
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850
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April 26, 2002
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Chicago to Hartford
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7808
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Okay, so we have one final report from Alex and that will be followed by Ann’s last update/farewell . . . here we go:
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REPORT 24B -- Alex, April 24, 2002
BEIJING The day began before the phone ever rang. My roommate, Nathaniel, rose before the alarm
for his morning shower with sleepy eyes not yet tainted with the madness of the day. As he awoke, I slept. Slept with the fury of one who feels the weight of the world is resting on him, but doesn't
understand why. When the phone finally rang and I pulled myself out of bed, unshaven and dirty. Still wiping the night from my eyes, I went to breakfast. The woman who collected our breakfast tickets had
a distant look in her eyes as if there was something else she could see beyond the take, tear, take she concentrated on every morning. I had barely eaten since breakfast of the previous day, so I rushed
by her with a voracious appetite to my unsatisfying breakfast of fried bread and jam." I can't wait to get back to Vermont and have milk every morning with breakfast." The formalities of
breakfast conversation. The group had long since tired of my madness for life. My love of things foreign to them, mad for my friends whom I hadn't seen in a month: Erin, Ben, Dory, Jess; everyone. Mad
for milk and cheese, mad for my feeling of freedom. But my polite conversation went unanswered so I left to prepare for the day.
The large bus we'd be taking meant I could bring what I wanted so I
packed my CD player and a book. I knew no conversation would gladden my heart as the one last night about the body politic, warfare and economics back and forth until nobody knew what side to take and we
all left feeling wiser than when we began. True philosophers of the best tradition. This was to be the day of the Great Wall. The bus ride there was uneventful. I listened to my music
and read. Deep down though I longed to arrive at the magical wall. I knew it must be the focal point of all the mad schemes and grand desires of the world. A wall that stretched from one end
of the world to the other as far as I was concerned. When we finally arrived the wall was a tangible presence. It was not visible from our parking lot, but we all knew that over the next
crest in the gondola lay the mystical wall. We stopped and bought ice cream for 6 yuan and we had once again to marvel at how far our Chinese money would take us.
The wind bit at my old, unwashed
Converse shirt, but the warmth of my excitement warded off the cold. When we finally got on the wall, my madness reached a fever peak. I was on the road that could take me from one side of
the continent to the other. We began to walk. Frenzy surrounded us 'Hello! Hello. Hello!" " T-shirt! Hat! T-shirt" "Carve your name?" Nick was as caught up in the
madness of the day as I with Nathaniel's wild mind was thinking up grandiose schemes to entertain us.
"Take a picture of me pretending to fall." We did. "Now you." I had three
pictures taken . . . one with the wall behind me, one beginning and one 500 feet down the wall sprawled out. I felt like the maddest, funniest person in the world. I didn't care. I was no longer on the
road across China, I was on my personal dragon and Nick and I would play with it as we pleased. We ran and ran down and down and finally up a distant staircase with the wall stretching miles into the
vast distance before and behind us. First Nick ran, then I ran. I didn't care. I could have run for a thousand miles with my feet barely tapping as I ran down the expanse of stone and mortar below me. I
climbed great stairs knowing well that the seemingly near-vertical segments of the wall coming back would push my endurance. I ran for what seemed like miles; I had to yell, hearing my voice echo off the
glorious expanse around me, just to give instructions on the photo I wanted taken. When I had run so far that my madness subsided, I returned as fast as I could stopping periodically to catch my breath.
Nick and I were still talking and sweating, convinced we had conquered the world and done what we could do to become one with the mystical behemoth. Rachel and Nathaniel just laughed at how mad we
both were. When we finally returned, a heavy man from America offered to take our pictures out of kindness and he gladdened our souls simply by holding eight cameras at a time just to get our
groupon film. I thought that I was one of the only ones touched by madness on the Wall; apparently everyone else was as dazzled as I; I was surprised and happy. At the bottom, the children
ran around with their parents trying to sell us things. The chaos of the top had returned. A pair of Southerners walked behind us talking about how a fur hat looked like "rabbit feet
strung together." And my smile was elevated by their thick drawls. I had always imagined drawls like that existed only in the cartoons, but this trio of seemingly misplaced family
proved me wrong once again. I went into a buying frenzy finding gifts for those people who had none yet. A woman with sad eyes offered me a bracelet for two yuan and then switched it for an inferior one.
In my madness and rush to return to the bus, I failed to notice and was angered at my own incompetence. She was merely trying to live. I was the fool who fell for her trick and therefore I couldn't stay
eternally angry. Her sad eyes betrayed her conniving mind. I quickly concentrated on the next task at hand.
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Whew. Another example of the impact of this voyage. Thanks to all the kids and adults for their personal and emotionally charged reports. Now,
we have a final farewell from Ann:
LAST REPORT FROM BEIJING -- Ann Landenberger (Artistic Director)
April 25, 2002
-- This morning we had a chance to shop on LiuLiChang, the street famous for art supplies and antiques. It felt a lot like Soho in character, but the architecture of the street was old, detailed,
completely indigenous and very, very beautiful. In the afternoon we spent a couple hours at Silk Alley: If you love shopping, it's a dream; if shopping gives you the heebie jeebies, it's a little crazy.
In either case, it's a memorable experience. We then had a final banquet-low key compared to the last in Hohhot -- with administrators from our host school. Beijing duck, fabulous fish and a few other
specialties were great farewell treats. It's late and I must pack and there's no point in trying to put closure on these last 30 days since the journey isn't over yet. I'll be brief and say: So far this
has been a successful experiment in learning and thinking and teaching outside the box. "School" has been a 24/7 activity and it was impressive to hear kids reflect on that throughout the day
today.
Among many other lessons learned, I find it affirming and instructive to have heard from all those who have hosted the show that American students are far more creative and imaginative
than the Chinese. To that I have countered in conversations with my Chinese counterparts that that may be so, but the Chinese students-as a group-seem to be more finely tuned and rigorous about
their learning. And so, we conclude, we can learn from each other.
We have been happy to offer a show that is truly American-not only in content and spirit-but also in the way it was created,
i.e., through improvisation. We, in return, don't have to look far to appreciate what Chinese students must do and do do to get what they-and their families-want for their lives. "Rigor" takes
on new meaning over here. I know it sounds corny and I ask the rest of the group to forgive me when I say, once again, that the arts are a powerful and effective way to build bridges between peoples and
this one month in the classroom on the road has really proven that.
Well, it's Thursday night for us, Thursday morning for you. We board tomorrow at 4:35 pm our time and return home 11:45
pm Friday, your time. Many among us feel the urge to go on and on now that we've grown so accustomed to being among the Chinese. For a group that comes from an area with such a dearth of ethnic
diversity, that's a good sign and I truly believe it means that most of these kids can do anything anywhere they chose from this point on.
Truth to tell, though, there is no place like home.
So true, Ann, so true. We too will miss this journey. While we have endured a long month waiting for your return, we have lived every day with you and have grown
accustomed to you all being “over there. But the truth is indeed, we will be happy to have you once again, “over here.”
Thank you Journey East II!
Okay, back to reality.
We received several responses to the quiz. No one got a 100% correct, however a few got mighty close. Getting all 24 students and 5 adults names correct was a tough one. And we should have made it
clear that the five major cities were China cities. Chicago and Tokyo were cities the group landed in and they certainly qualify as “major cities!” Otherwise, you all did quite well. Thanks for playing
along. Here are the correct answers:
- Flight 1579
- Beijing, Jinan, Qufu, Xi’an, and Hohhot (Chicago and Tokyo accepted)
- 6:00 am the next day (7 am if using the 13 hour standard time difference)
- Confucius
- 6,825 miles
- Steven John (Leland and Gray Middle School Principal)
- Red and yellow. 5 stars.
- Lamb
- Yuan
- Pineapple
- 82.7740 Yuan
- Ni hao
- Xi’an
- 6,000
- McDonald’s (and KFC)
- Confucius, Taoism, Buddhism, and Christian
- Kestral and Ashley
- Devin and Ron Kelley (Music Director extraordinaire), Haiku
- Gobi
- Tom, Ann, Ron, Jenny, Pat, Elayna, Jessica, Elton, Devin, Ashley, Nathaniel, Julia, Eric, Liza, Mitch, Marcus, Kestrel, Korin, Rachel, Aubrey,
Kim, Cate, Audrey, Maura, Nick, Ida, Sarah, Alex, and Wei Wei.
We’ll have a “day after” page sometime tomorrow, after we get back from the airport and get squared away (might even be Sunday!), to wrap up the
site journey. The site continues as we will begin to post info about upcoming performances, school visits, and other JE activities. And we’ll also introduce some other fun stuff on the site as we move on
to the next phase of this exciting Asian Studies program at Leland and Gray Union High School.
There’s only one more thing to say now . . . welcome home!.
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