Hard to Say Goodbye

Dear Parents,

Before giving your children a warmest hug at airport for his/her back from the great journey to the "Middle Country", we will provide the very last post of 2015 IUHPFL Hangzhou program.

After the performance night and the final test, everyone got packed up their luggage and took a train trip to Beijing and Shanghai for 6 days before their long flight from Shanghai(via Frankfurt) to Chicago.
Three days are too brief for touring the capital city of China, Beijing. There are so many attractions and delicious food waiting to be discovered. During the three days stay, we went to Chinese National Musume, Tian'anmen Square, the Forbidden City and the Great Wall.

 

Shanghai is our last stop. We went to the Oriental Pearl TV Tower(the height of which is 468m, 1535.43 feet), the Bund(the memory of the International Settlement era of Shanghai, 1843-1943), Yu Garden and the neighboring Local Temple(now most part of it remodelled as restaurants and a bazaar). We will probably visit "Xin tian di" today(Local time of Shanghai, July.14) before boarding on our flight.

Special Post：Wrapping-up video of the Program at Hangzhou

Blog#5 Performance Night

This past Sunday(7/5) was our big day.The Performance Night was scheduled at 4 pm at No. 14 Middle School.

Students hand-made the invitation card to all the teachers who have taught us. Special thanks to Chase for designing the card.

Everyone was busy preparing for the performance night.
We prepared 11 performances in all. The detailed program is as follows:

1. Dance <Supergirl>: Kara, Dominique, Annika, Alex, Klaus

2. Piano & Song <Alouette>: Nick & Chinese sibling

3. Chinese Yoyo: Justin, Nick

4. Skit <Tale of the White Snake>: Sarah, Ellis, Mohamed, Marc, Dominique, Justin, Alex

 

5. Piano & Song <Baby>: Annika, Kara, Klaus

6. Chinese Music <Phoenix-tailed Bamboo under the Moon>: Klaus, Mohamed, Sarah, Nick, Marc, Justin

7. Chinese song Medley: Ellis, Nick, Kara & Bao Laoshi

 

8. Song <Cups>: Dominique & Chinese sibling & her friend, Justin & Chinese sibling, Kara, Sarah

9. Taiji: Mohamed, Nick, Ellis, Alex, Dominique, Marc & Peng Laoshi

 

10. Painting & Karate: Chase, Nick

 

11. Dance & Song <Little Apple> & <Sorry my Chinese is not good>: the whole class

Instructors also help them to record the video about what they would like say to their homestay families. These parents of homestay families were deeply moved by their heartfelt words. For both homestay families and our students, the past three weeks would be their most unforgetable memory. The performance was highly praised by all the audience, especially principal of the school.

Next week, our students will wrap their stay at Hangzhou start their week long excursion to Beijing and Shanghai. Please follow us with the last update before they get back to their sweet home. :)

Blog#4 Chinese Art Experience and Ready for the Final Performance!

This is the third week students studied at No. 14 Middle School at Hangzhou. So far, they have learned many useful topics such as describing daily life, making phone calls, dining out, bargaining, asking for direction, comparing transportation, and etc. They actively applied what they learned to real-life situations.

In addition, they have read several Chinese classical poems related to Hangzhou and west lake. They even tried to write their own poems in Chinese. Their knowledge about the Chinese culture, Chinese festivals and customs in particular, has also increased greatly. 

In the afternoon class, they learned how to draw Peking Opera masks and do paper-cutting. They also learned how to draw Chinese painting by using brush and ink. The teachers were very impressed by their great talents. All the work of art students made have been used to decorate the stage for the performance night. 

As students have spent three weeks with their host family, they have grown a close relationship with their host parents and siblings. To show their appreciation and gratitude, they all wrote a letter in Chinese to their host families. There were so many things they wanted to say and a short letter was just not long enough. 

In addition to class, Performance Night is a big event for this week. Students were busy rehearsing. All the teachers were amazed at students’ strong learning ability and diverse talents. Here are some pictures of students practicing. We will update the performance night very soon.