Dear Parents,
We had another eventful day today. After breakfast we boarded the same tour bus which we rode yesterday and Michelle, yesterday’s tour guide, was with us again. The bus took us first to the Educational Botanical Garden. We were told that this is a new establishment, for the sole purpose of serving school children. We spent about an hour there learning about various plants and vegetations, including purple banana flowers, petrified woods, and dragon mulberry trees. There was also a maze for the children to play in. During the visit there, the children formed three lines—Dragon, Eagle and Thunder (our competition teams). We were impressively orderly!
From the Botanical Garden, we went to the Temple of Heaven. The millions of tourists that we saw yesterday at Tiananmen seemed to be following our steps! There were so many people that we really couldn’t test the Echo Wall, or the Echo Stones. With the knowledge from the field trip orientation, the children were quick to find out the use of the number 9 and its multiples in the Temple. Today, we were allowed to bring our worksheets inside and that certainly was a plus. We also had a chance to buy ice cream within the Temple—that was a treat indeed! (Our camp rule is no snack food any time for anybody.)
We had lunch at KFC. It was a bit chaotic. For some reasons, our reservation was lost somewhere and by the time we got there, there was no continuous space for our group. We waited for the management to solve the problem but no one had any solution. In the end, we were asked to disperse ourselves and took whatever seats were available. The children behaved very well. They were patient and adaptive. The KFC food was a little different from that in the U.S. Some children didn’t like what was given and bought their own food there.
Early afternoon, we visited an upper-scale store that sells pearl products. Items there were not cheap. Some children bought gifts for their moms and relatives. The highlight of our visit there was when a salesperson opened an oyster to demonstrate to us how pearls are developed and gathered. After that we went to Hong2Qiao2 Flea Market. It is a 4-floor building with hundreds of stands selling various bargainable items. Bonnie and Michelle taught the children rules of bargaining: (1) don’t appear too interested, (2) offer 1/3 of the price, (3) stick to the offer if the seller begins to bargain, (4) upgrade the offer if the seller ignores you, (5) don’t waste the seller’s time by bargaining if you are not really interested in buying. We spent one hour there in small groups. By the end there were quite some successful stories. Wait to hear from your children what they were able to bargain and buy.
Dinner was Peking Duck at quan2ju4de2. Whole roasted ducks were brought next to our tables and sliced in our presence. It was a fun and tasty experience. (When we eat out, we usually sit at three big tables, with no more than ten persons each. Each table has at least one adult to help serve food, if needed.)
Today on the tour bus, in addition to bottled water, Gong Laoshi and Bonnie also prepared toilet paper. Wherever we find a convenient public bathroom, we ask the children to go, and give them toilet paper since many of them don’t remember to bring their own. Also what’s new today is that Bonnie got hold of some liquid Chinese medicine—huo4 xiang1 zheng4 qi1. It is supposed to both prevent and ease discomfort (such as sore throat, stomach upset, fever) induced by Beijing’s summer climate. A majority of the children tried it and found it objectionably tolerable.
We returned to our dorm at 7:15pm. Gong Laoshi collected everyone’s dirty laundry. The rest of the evening was free time for all.
After a rich and exhausting weekend, we are looking forward to more classroom language learning on Monday tomorrow.
Cheers,
Agnes (aka He Laoshi)