Steve Perrin:
Today AACE 06 went back to school! We attended the Dali
campus of the High School Affiliated with Yunnan Normal
University. Following that, we explored some of the natural
wonder of Dali in the Cashdan Gorge. Tomorrow is a travel
day; we’ll taking another bus ride to Lijiang and
then flying back to Kunming for some extensive work in
the schools there. Today Meg Hudson, a tenth grader from
Putney will share her experiences.
Meg:
Today was a very exciting day for all of us. We went to
a gorgeous school in Dali and then a beautiful walk through
Cashgan Gorge that overlooked Dali. Both places were very
beautiful in different ways. The school’s structure,
content, and the students there made it gorgeous and welcoming.
The walk through the gorge though was just so naturally
beautiful that it was an incredible experience.
The school was wonderful! As soon as we arrived we were
greeted by three students and teacher. We were then brought
on a tour led by a student, and were shown their outstanding
campus. Next we were brought to the head-masters office.
This was amazing! The room was huge and filled with luxurious
furnishings. After we gave him our gift, he gave us a
magnificent piece of artwork. It was a four-fold marble
plaque that had the four symbols of Dali on it, the snow,
moon, wind, and flower. Soon after we were taken to watch
the morning exercises that the whole school had to do.
This was very interesting because I have never seen or
heard of anybody doing this in America.
As soon as that was over,
a student came over to Gus and me and told us that we
are going to her class to visit. The other students were
asked by other Chinese students to attend their classes
as well. This was so much fun! At first everyone was shy,
but a little later people started asking questions and
soon we were surrounded with people firing questions at
us. They asked us to sing a song so Gus and I sang the
Vermont state song and after they sang a song for us.
In the next class we were brought to we were not asked
to sing but a boy sang us a song from the Beijing opera,
as a gift, and it was very beautiful. When we left the
classes a teacher and several students taught us, or tried
to teach us, how to do the morning exercises. This was
very fun but at the same time challenging as well. We
then went outside of the school and said goodbye. It was
extraordinary how excited and eager they were to become
our friends.
After we had a nice lunch with three students from the
school that are coming to America in July 2006, we took
a chairlift ride and then went to walk through the Cashdan
Gorge. The view was unbelievable. You could see all the
mountains in the distance, and the view of the gorge was
breathtaking. Two things that I found very interesting
were that there were no boats on the lake except for a
few fishing boats. There were many fire fighters there
because of a recent forest fire. Since the area is a natural
preserve, water has to be carried in 50 kg jugs.
All in all, this was a very fun day filled with tons of
enjoyment. I think the favorite part of the day for everyone
though was probably the school, just because it was so
remarkable to see the students overwhelming reactions
to American students their age.
Gus, a horticulture student at the Career Center in Brattleboro,
was very impressed by this new greenhouse. The entire
school was constructed in one year!
Dali hotel Courtyard. We’re roughing it! As you
can see, this hotel courtyard is modeled after traditional
Bai homes with rooms around a central courtyard.
