Journal Day 2: June 8th

Journal Day 2: June 8^th

What did we do today?

v Got up… Downstairs by 6:30

v Breakfast at hotel

v Got on bus

v Went to a Chinese school

o High schoolers, little kids, singing, laughing, writing, questions dancing, gifts; lots of fun!

v Forbidden City

o Tiananmen Square, Mao Zedong, crazy amount of rooms, Emperor’s Greeting Hall, Emperor’s sleeping quarters, beautiful gardens.

v Lunch and Pearl Shop

v Summer Palace

v Tea tasting/ Tea Room

v Peking Duck dinner

v Hotel

v Free time to shop near hotel

v Hotel, room check for the night

<- Playing Hacky Sack in the Gardens at the Forbidden City

Prompt: Compare education, Talk about Forbidden City.

I loved going to the Chinese school today! It was so much fun to see the similarities and differences in their school and ours. The students are on a tracking system, so the richer their parents are, the better school and education they get. This is different from the US because we try to give everyone the same opportunities. Money and brains decide you education path in the US. At the Chinese school we saw how close the students and the teachers are. Some of them were laughing and holding hands. They looked like good friends. It’s not really like that here in the United States. Many students do not like their teachers. Another difference in our schools is self-discipline. At home, many students don’t care for their classes and they don’t do their homework. In China, the classes and the schoolwork are all competitive. The children are always working, and never have any free time. They are always competing to be the best. On all of the holidays, weekends, or afternoon hours, they study. Often, even when the school gives them a free day, such as a holiday, the students are called and invited to come into school to study with their class. The kids have to in on these days, or else they will be behind the class. And here we are begging for a snow day, counting down the days till summer. We also got to see the students doing morning exercises. They did an aerobic dance and some cardio-exercises.

The Forbidden City was so cool! We started in Tiananmen Square. It was huge! I didn’t expect the Square to be so close to the road. In fact, I didn’t think that roads ran through the City. I couldn’t believe how many rooms there were there. David (our tour guide) said that if you switched rooms every night since you were born, there, then you wouldn’t stop until you were close to 27 years old! All of the buildings were so beautiful; intricately carved and painted. I thought it was interesting that the more mythological creatures on the roof of the building showed how much more the building is valued in the Chinese culture. Everything was incredibly beautiful.