The home stay experience so far has been remarkable. Ma Jingyi and her father came to pick me up at the Lotus Hotel yesterday and we went straight to their apartment where we had a wonderful meal of mashed potatoes, eggplant, egg with tomato, and many other delicious dishes. Their home is solar powered so we all showered at night to make sure there was plenty of hot water for everyone. In the morning we had the opportunity for a good breakfast before walking to Yunnan Shida Fuzhong School to meet with the other students and teachers coming from their home stay families.

Walking to the school was a challenge because cars have the right of way in China, not pedestrians, so crossing the streets in a busy city is tedious. When we arrived at the school, we played ping pong. At first I was excited to have some fun, but I quickly realized ping pong for the Chinese is a very competitive sport. They were not playing to have fun, they were playing to win. When we attended classes, we first were given a lesson on intelligence machinery. Here, we were instructed on how to operate small pieces of machinery to make figurines out of flat pieces of wood. Each of us tried our best to create a seal out of the flat wooden pieces and the more daring tried building the stage coach design. This was very fun and we were then allowed to keep our projects as a gift. We played basketball in the school gymnasium after Jessie shared her American PowerPoint with the group. Some students skipped resting in their dormitories to watch the basketball game with the Americans. Afterwards, many Chinese students asked to have their picture taken with us, which felt really exciting! Next, we went to a class much like aerobics and I found it very difficult to keep up. I was too tired to keep moving around after the games. Later, we sat in on an art class with other students before taking our first afternoon class in silk screen t-shirt design. My Chinese friend helped me to make sure the characters on my shirt said “lucky” in Chinese. After attending many different activities with the Chinese students, I have made countless new friends and learned much about the culture.

Students were given a class in design and wood working. Here Harrison, Maygan and Matt work on their projects. Mr. Tang Jinquan the teacher is helping Charles.

The class poses with Mr. Tang, host students and their projects.