April 6

Day 10 - JACKPOT!

It is a gorgeous day here in Vermont and we have received a ton of photos from our overseas travelers! So, without further ado, let’s get right to it. Here’s a wonderful letter from Tom:
 

Hi there,

Well!! The kids went off on the two night homestay last night. Some of the photos enclosed will show you our kids meeting the Chinese. There are others of post-performance photos from last night's performance and there are quite a few that I shot in downtown Qufu this morning. Bahaguli will recognize the Uighurs in three or four of these photos from the city. 

This has been an incredible stay. The people in Qufu have been absolutely wonderful, accomodating, as hospitable as one can imagine and genuinely friendly. No shucking and jiving here. Talk about experiential education. That John Dewey fellow was onto something. We have 23 students living in 23 different houses; having different experiences with people they never would have dreamed of meeting, just a short time ago. Parents, picture your kids in the situations shown in these photos. They are handling it so well. 

The longer period of time here and the Academy have made this a much different experience than our first venture. We've really settled in. The depth that our kids are getting into far surpasses that of the first Journey East. The veterans, Elayna, Kestrel, Devin, Julia, Eric and Maura are really digging in and seeing things that they really didn't notice the first time. What fortunate people we are (Ann, Ron, and I) to be teachers in this kind of situation. To watch the world open up to one's students and to watch them open up to it is just an incredibly gratifying experience. Got to run, getting gushy. Tom 


So are we Tom, so are we . . .

Wow. These are fantastic photos and we are beginning to see “real” China here. And the photos of the performances makes us feel as if we are there!

We are into the second weekend now and the kids will be performing tonight and tomorrow., In fact, the kids should be performing as this is being written (this 13-hour time difference continues to boggle the mind).

We are getting reports that many of the kids are enjoying the food and are trying things that won’t even be mentioned here! To help with your child’s transition back to “American” food, a link has been included at the bottom of the page to help you prepare some Chinese foods.

The weather forecast shows the warm and clear weather continuing for the next several days. Carefully watching the weather for the 10th as that day they plan to visit the Terra Cotta Warriors museum.

We appreciate all of the great comments about the web site. The fact that all of you are using the web to share in this journey is the reward for doing it. We will continue our attempts to entertain and educate you on the days without reports or photos. We have certainly been fortunate these past few days with all of the reports and photos!

Be sure to check out the Leland and Gray High School web site for some other exciting events and activities taking place. Next week students will depart for their trips to Belize and Spain.

We hope you have a terrific day. Be sure to stay tuned as we’ll continue to update the site as the photos and messages arrive from the far east!

 

 

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