Day 6: Expected Guests

It was interesting to see the Chinese flag (one star each for the workers, soldiers, students and farmers?) instead of the American flag on the campus. There is a beautiful sculpture of a ginormous ink pen tip. There were students playing tennis on the tennis courts. There are also basketball courts but I did not notice them at first. The campus is gorgeous, very enclosed- apart from the city, and very...'gray.' Today was the school of literature and literature majors. The students may have minors but there is really no choice for classes among concentrations, the school assigns set classes. It was about 9am. The weather was beautiful already, fairly warm. We walked to the school of literature and were greeted by a grand reception of photographers, filmers and faculty.

We were taken to the 'Honor Room,' and boy is it an honor. The decorations are so beautiful and the furniture amazed all of us, very nice style. One wall contained awards won by students, which the school kept, which is different than in the United States. They are documenting everything with video and photo. I bumped the filmer a few times because he was squatting an inch away from me. A student (teacher?) from the performing arts department performed a piece from a Chinese opera that we related to Mulan. It was different and I was hoping no one started to giggle because we're not used to it. Thankfully everyone was great :)

We then were directed outside to take a picture with a huge red banner that said something...
Some of the students came out and 2 girls asked for me and rushed up to me, proclaiming that they were the penpals that I had communicated with before we traveled to China. I only wrote once in the states and the night before due to exams, work and etc. They both wanted me to come to their class but they were in different classes so I agreed to do one in the morning and the other in the afternoon. Their names are: Ding Ke and Yang Yi (or Cathy is her English name). They are so beautiful and sweet.

We split into 3 groups so the music and dance group combined together, which made 7 of us. We were taken to different classes by student guides/interpreters. I have found out more and more that Tracy's English is not standard but exceptional. They do not have much practice conversing in English and some have said this is the most English they have ever had to speak. We are also trying to brush up some Mandarine.