Day 11: June 15, 2017

Today was an all-around really good day. It started off a little shaky with me sleeping through my alarm, but Emily and I had enough time to eat a really filling breakfast and we waited for twenty minutes for Jungwoo and Jelani to get ready. We lost half of the group at the subway station because Dr. K got stuck at the security check, so it was interesting figuring out how to get to the Datong school with a couple of students, Cai Lao Shi, and Dr. Jacoby without Michael with us. But, at the end, it wasn't too bad, and we were able to get our way around. When we got to the school, Emily and I walked all the way to the fifth floor to meet Rose and take three classes: Biology, Computer Science, and English. This week was their review session before their finals week, so classes were pretty relaxed and didn't require learning any new material. Biology was very similar to a review session at Andover, where the teacher will sit down and let his or her students review on their own and answer questions when needed to. Computer Science was really interesting. They took a practice test, but Emily, Paige, and I didn't know anything about CompSci, so we just doodled. The next class was English, which I was really excited for. However, it was nothing similar to what I imagined. They were reviewing example sentences, but the multiple choices didn't make any sense, and Paige, Emily, and I found it really hard. After English, it was time for lunch, and no one really knew what was happening, including our Chinese partners. We were brought to the school cafeteria, and we thought we were going to eat with the students, but apparently they only make enough food for the students, so the cook started freaking out and told us to wait while they prepared something, but turns out, we were going to eat outside anyways. We traveled, by train, to Yu Yuan Garden, and we were given time to roam around and eat food. Ryan, Jungwoo, and I had Peking Duck Rolls and Fried Xiao Long Bao's that were really good. We then got Starbucks, and I got one of my most recent discoveries, Matcha Frappaccino with Earl Grey Jelly at the bottom of the cup. After lunch, Georgia, Anna, and I each got a pair of sunglasses, and we met up with two PA students and walked around the garden. After, we had time to walk around, and Jungwoo, Ryan, and I each got really cool black and white shirts from a place called Lu Shanghai. We went back to the hotel for a little bit, where Emily and I used our one hour to do some laundry by washing some of our clothing with soap. For dinner, we went to this Fried Xiao Long Bao place, which was delicious, and we slowly went to the acrobat show. Going into this, I was not expecting much because I was so tired, but as soon as the show started, every act was absolutely amazing, and it was fun to sit with Ryan, Jungwoo, and Cai Lao Shi. 

High: when we were walking through the train station, Jelani touched the sign with his hands, and everyone around us was shocked and amazed

Low: when the cooks at the school started freaking out that they didn't have food for us. 

Shoutout: 1. Emily for being an awesome roommate 2. Kishan for having a nice little talk in the garden