I woke up several times throughout the night because I was afraid of missing the bus, so I ended up waking up 30 minutes earlier than expected. I was tired, but there was no use going back to sleep when I had so little time left.
I sat with Katey on the bus, and while I would have liked to socialize more, I knew I needed to study for the test Monday since our weekend is pretty pack.
Getting to the school was interesting because it was an hour and a half away from the city. I don’t really know why, but at some point, we did several three-point-turns, and I think that was because our bus driver didn’t know where he was, or because the bus was too wide to fit through the entrance. I’m not sure, but either way, we made three three-point-turns in the middle of the street.
Upon arrival, we got a tour of the school. The guide asked us how much Chinese we could understand, and our teachers said that if he talked slow enough, we would be able to understand. I actually understood 90% of what he was saying, but our teacher kept translating for us. I wish they would do this on phrases I didn’t understand, but alas, that is not the case.
We got a look at the lunch room, the dorms, the playground, and the classroom.
I think the dorms were the most shocking part because the beds were literal planks of wood. One of the mattresses was off center, and the underneath looked like a deck. I know they’re used to, but I still don’t understand how someone could think a plank of wood is comfortable.
After the tour, we sat through an introduction of the school. It was really hot today, so I was using my fan, and at one point, one of the cameramen asked me to stop fanning myself because he was filming, and I was “being distracting.”
We then we to the classrooms to talk to some of the children and present them gifts. At first, we were just answering questions and talking about ourselves, but it eventfully led to us singing 小苹果.
I didn’t really want to talk to them by myself because my Chinese isn’t that great (at least my pronunciation), so, me, Hannah, and Katey planned to stick together. The teacher ended up saying no to that plan and I was alone. The children couldn’t really understand me, especially when I asked what their favorite movie was. I guess my tones were really off, but they eventually got it.
At some point, I ran out of things to say, so I ended up showing them my textbook and putting snapchat filers on them. They seemed to get a kick out of that.
We then went to eat lunch, while was really good. I had white rice with potatoes. We were also given eggs, but I didn’t eat those.
At some point, some of the kids I was talking to came up and asked Hannah for her phone number. We weren’t really sure what they were asking though because I asked them if they had cell phones and they said no. We had to ask Kevin and Korey to help us because we didn’t know what to give them. Turns out they just wanted to stay in contact, but we didn’t understand how they managed to do that.
The children have an afternoon nap, and while I would have loved to have joined them, we ended up going to another place similar to the Yin Jia Cun. Hannah, John, and I hung out and took some really great pictures. It was nice talking to someone new, and John’s a super cool dude. He texted me later and said we should become a photo squad, which I’m totally down for.
After an hour, we headed back to the school and split into different groups. I choose music class, which I thought would be teaching children music, but was instead us taking turns performing musical stuff.
Two of the boys sang for us, and they were both really good. Of course, Isaac and Korey had to show off with the drumming skills, and of course, Isaac could also play the piano. They both did great on their respective instruments.
Deanna and Rachel played heart and soul, and that was really good.
All the girls danced for us, and they were so good.
Some of my other classmates performed importune performances, and all the while, the teacher was pressuring me to sing. It eventually led to everyone pressuring me to sing, so I ended up singing reflection in Chinese. My hands went numb during it, and before I sang, I opened with “sorry, my Chinese is really bad.”
Everyone said I did really good though, so that was nice.
The children were supposed to sign cards, but then we were supposed to give them back to them, which was really confusing. It didn’t really matter though because they were all fascinated by Korey and Isaac.
Around 4:00, we said our goodbyes and headed back to school.
I went out to eat with Hannah, Rachel, Cayleigh, and Deanna. We got some 鸡蛋面条. I wasn’t expecting to like them since they have eggs in them, but they were really good. We then got boba and called it a night.
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