Final Entry of a Father-Daughter Adventure

Farewell, China!

Well, we did arrive safely back in Saskatchewan, and made it through security without the appearance of rubber gloves. I thought we'd spend the night in Saskatoon, but Crystal whisked us back to the acreage that night.

It took a few days to adjust back to home life; partly the difference in the weather, partly the food, but mostly it took a while getting used to not being the centre of attention. Sky Ann, on the other hand, seemed to have no problem at all. One of my favourite compliments while in China: You are a handsome man and a satisfactory father. 

A month has passed since we returned home. I am so glad I had this opportunity, and especially thankful for Sky Ann. I used to love traveling alone, but it would not have been the same without her. Thanks to her, I was able to experience everything not only through my own eyes, but through hers as well. It was also very special to know that there were friends and family back home thinking about us. We especially missed Crystal and Grayden, and were glad they had such as wonderful summer as well.

What was the most memorable experience? On our last day, as we drove to the Changsha airport, I wrote a sort of a poem in the notebook of a new friend who asked me to put down some of my thoughts before we parted. She emailed it to me a few days after we returned home, translated into Chinese as well. Here it is. If it is followed by a string of little boxes, it means your computer cannot display chinese characters.

PS To begin at the beginning, if that is what you would like, you have to scroll down to the last post, which was the first post.

T.I.C. (This Is China)

when I first arrived in Beijing with my daughter

and saw the ambitious architecture

and preserved hutongs of the Capital,

I thought,

So, this is China.

when we walked along the spine of the Great Wall

twisting through the mountains like an ancient dragon,

allowing us to cross time and space

I thought,

So, this is China.

when we reached Tian'anmen Square

and flowed through the Forbidden City,

engulfed by history and tourists,

I thought

So, this is China.

when we spent fourteen days together

sharing the sweltering food and air of Hunan

Friends, Canadian and Chinese together,

I knew.

This. Is. China.

中国之行

当我第一次和我女儿来到北京

看到了气势磅礴的建筑

以及首都仍然保留着的胡同

我想,

原来，这就是中国

当我们沿着长城一路走时

长城就似一条古老的长龙穿过群山

这使我感觉自己正跨越时间和空间的距离

我想

原来，这就是中国

我们来到了天安门广场和紫禁城

这里布满着历史和游客的足迹

我想

原来，这就是中国

当我们在夏令营中共度十四天

加拿大朋友和中国朋友

一起享受湖南的新鲜空气和特色食物时

我知道 这就是中国

I'm Comin' Home

 Thanks to the 14 hour time difference, August 4 will be a VERY long day, not including the lack of sleep, leaving new friends, and anticipation of returning home that would make it feel like a long day.

(good friends and a final farewell)

2 pm Craik time: We’re at the Vancouver airport!

~10:00 pm Craik time: We should be in Saskatoon! Hopefully someone will pick me up…

Camp Day 14 – Sunday August 3 (closing ceremonies)

An essential part of a Chinese summer camp appears to be an ambitious closing ceremony, in which the ceremony is declared open, the students perform for their parents and classmates, everyone is thanked, and the ceremony is declared closed. No one told me about the emotional rollercoaster of this event though.  There was laughter and applause. Gifts were exchanged, tears were shed, email addresses were exchanged, and promises to see each other in the future were made.

Today was a very special part of this adventure, and I was extremely moved by how caring and appreciative everyone seemed to be of the camp experience. It will take a while for all of it to sink in.

Supper was even hotter than usual, but delicious when I could actually taste it. Each day I have eaten more hot peppers and ginger than I have previously eaten in my previous years combined. This will be our last full-blown spicy Hunan meal, and it will likely linger for a while longer.

Camp Day 13 – Saturday August 2 (actual camping?)

China  has been full of surprises every day, and today  is no exception.

A few of today’s surprises:

-we load 2 buses with campers and gear to take to a lake in the mountains a couple hours out of the city, with many people having to stand in the aisle the entire way

-one of the two buses heading to the new camp site stalls and then can’t continue up the slope. Half of the passengers get out to lighten the load and possibly push, and the driver goes in reverse down the narrow mountain road until he reaches a level patch of road to get a better run at it

-we enjoy a relaxing 2 hour boat ride, with no scheduled activities

-the  “restaurant” where we eat is a farmhouse, with a bucket of life eels in the kitchen, and the pig pen in the adjoining room.

-our camp site turns out to be a fenced-in parking lot . Nevertheless,  there is a makeshift firepit, and we set up our tents on the pavement

-before the students can enjoy the campfire, they must practice for the closing ceremonies for hours, in the dark. Performances include line dancing, singing, skits, and musical performances

-an instant noodle cart shows up at the parking lot/camp site at midnight, and no one is surprised

-the pavement holds a lot of heat, which radiates out all evening, and I am unable to sleep at all (this should not have been surprising)

Top 10 New Dishes I had in China

1-Blood-clot Soup
2-Eel
3-fried frogs (tastes like chicken)
4-most chicken dishes (because they contain chopped up feet)
5-Ginger soup (you can really taste the ginger)
6-mushy tofu
7-chewy tofu
8-smoked pig heart
9-something that looked like chicken skin, but is a vegetable (tofu?)
10-Chinese/Hunan junk food (shrink-wrapped spicy chicken feet, spicy minnows, etc)
There have been many many others, and I have tried them all. Most are very tasty, and in Hunan, some are so spicy that your lips become numb.
Sky’s favourite: corn and pork rib soup, potatoes that taste like potatoes and gravy.

Camp Day 12 – Saturday August 1 (prep for closing ceremony)

Breakfast started at 8:30am, an hour later than usual after the dance marathon last night. Then we had 20 minute sessions with each of the six groups of students, to review what we had covered in camp. For some reason, my laptop wouldn’t work with the data projector, so I had to make a last minute change of plans. I handed out file cards to the students and asked them to write about the camp, themselves, anything in English. Most were still writing when they had to go to the next class, so I told them they could finish them later and give them to me. I really enjoyed reading the ones I got so far. They were very complimentary, in broken English, but in English nonetheless.
This is our last night at the current camp site. We leave for a new location tomorrow morning.


We had a Halloween party in the evening. Well, first the students practiced for the closing ceremonies, then we had a Halloween party. We began with musical chairs for 100 people, and played games with balloons. We also carved jack o’ lanterns, using watermelons. Everyone had a great time; we didn’t pack things up until 1 am. Morning will come quickly.

-Paul Stinson

Camp Day 11 – Friday July 31 (Class sessions 3 of 3)

Another day in paradise, although it is sweltering hot. I shortened the outdoor portion of my class this afternoon, and the students were appreciative.
They are starting to realize that camp is going to end soon. There are more requests from students for email addresses and for Canadians to sign their books and their hats.
There was dance practice tonight until 9:30. Then the Canadians packed it in, but the dancing kept going. The camp organizers, volunteers and campers kept going until midnight! Breakfast is scheduled to be an hour later tomorrow morning.

Camp Day 10 – Thursday July 30 (Class sessions 2 of 3)

Today was a fantastic day. It poured last night, but the sun came out for the first time in about a week (I actually enjoyed the slightly cooler weather, but sunshine was welcome, especially since we dry our laundry outside). The classes were particularly enthusiastic and attentive; Groups 2 and 5 really try hard, and know how to have fun as well).

During the afternoon nap, Sky and I went for a walk and some ice cream and came across a couple men fishing in one of the ponds. They were casting a short line into the water that seemed to be boiling in front of them. I think they had sprinkled some fish food in, and were either fly fishing or just hooking the fish randomly. The fish were small and flat; about 5 inches long; he had several dozen flopping around in the grass before he tossed them into a bag and left.

In the evening, a few of us adults went to the camp driving range. It was fun hitting balls off the top tier. Sky came along (after all, she bought the beverages!). She is really taking advantage of all the new experiences here, and having a great time. She is greatly admired by everyone at the camp, Canadian and Chinese.

Camp Day 9 – Wednesday July 29 (routine?)

Almost getting into a routine now, even though part of the routine is confusion and miscommunication/lack of information. Some is relatively minor, such as not knowing what group I will be instructing until they walk in, but some are a bit bigger, such as not knowing where the last day or two of camp will be actually held. So far, everything has worked out, even if last minute or in some unexpected or compromised way, so I will keep operating with the assumption that everything will continue to work out.

In classes, I let students go through my scrapbooks and yearbooks to practice their English, and toured the camp facilities to describe and write up what they see. Some campers are still a bit shy about their English, and some were a bit tired, but I am really enjoying the progress they are making in their English and confidence.

In the evening, Brent and Joyce addressed some concerns with camper behaviour to make sure that the last week of camp goes well. Aron and I went awol briefly for a trail hike and returned without any poisonous stings or bites (okay, Aron was attacked by a colony of ants, but it was his own fault), and I still had some time to catch up on my journal before bed.

Sky has been attending almost nightly birthday parties with the other girls in the camp until, well, let's say later than her bedtime back home, so I suggested she go to bed a bit earlier tonight. Tonight, that will be 10pm local time, 8am this morning Craik time.

Camp Day 8 – Tuesday July 28 (Last week of camp begins)

I wasn’t feeling too great today; the chlorine in the pool bothered me even though I stayed out of the pool. I helped out, but had some down time, and didn’t lead anything.

This gave me the chance to mill around a little. I enjoyed convincing Mike to dig out his guitar from his dorm to play a few songs, and briefly popped in on another group attempting to sing “I Believe I Can Fly”, off-key but enthusiastic. They asked me to help, but all I could offer was more enthusiasm and more off-key singing.

Had a nice moment with Sky on the roof of the classrooms, eating ice cream and watching bats diving above the treetops.

Camp Day 7 – Monday July 27 (swimming and hike)

Campers were allowed to sleep in for an hour, then we had breakfast and a 5 km hike to the pool. It was less muddy than I thought it would be, and only a bit treacherous. No trucks or buses took any of us out.

The campers had a great time at the pool. A few didn’t swim, so I did some activities with them off to the side; volleyball, skipping, and then even some violin and dancing thanks to Sally (Chenyuan), a very talented friend of Sky’s. Surprisingly, the impromptu dance lessons weren’t traditional Chinese dances, they were the cha-cha and the rumba.

Supper was at the pool; a bag of soy milk, a bean bun, a processed chicken stick (think pepperoni stick), crackers, and some mini fruit-roll-up things. More on Chinese food at a later date.

Camp Day 6 – Sunday July 26 (team teaching, art club, and late night beer & ice cream)

That pretty much sums it up for today.

Camp Day 5 – Saturday July 25 (golf, meetings, father-daughter night hike)

Today we took kids to the driving range here at the camp. Brent brought half the campers in the morning, and Aron organized the other half of the campers in the afternoon. Each person got to hit 20 balls (5000 balls total, which are retrieved by hand by the camp employees). It was great fun.
In the evening, we were hoping for unstructured activities, but camp in China seems to mean something different than in Canada. The teachers, volunteers and organizers had some meetings together to help clear up miscommunications and improve scheduling.

Later in the evening, Sky and I went for a walk in the dark along some camp trails. We collected glow worms, and listened to the unique night sounds of different insects, birds and frogs from home. It was very peaceful, and another highlight for me of this trip.

Camp Day 4 – Friday July 24 (early morning hike, first class cycle complete, movie night)

Missed camp breakfast again, but I have a supply of fruit and cookies for situations like this. Instead, I went for an early hike outside the camp facilities to see what I could see. I had my GPS with me so I couldn’t get lost (well, unless the batteries died), but no translator. I snooped at some people’s gardens, and narrowly escaped becoming food for some dogs (which is ironic here, since one evening I think I might have inadvertently eaten some dog at one restaurant last week. Or maybe that would be better called poetic justice).

This afternoon I had class with the sixth group of campers here. Instead of using my same lesson as before though, introduced my second lesson so I could see how it went before committing to run all the groups through it. The main idea is to tour the camp, and write notes in English on what you observe. It went well, but was cut short by an thunderstorm. The rain wouldn’t have been a problem except for their journals, which I didn’t want to get too wet.

In the evening, we watched Blue Planet. I ducked out to catch up on some rest. Instead, one of the boys asked if I would listen to some of his music, which I did, and it was a nice way to spend some down time.

Camp Day 3 - Thursday July 23 (Every Body Dance Now)

Up early and no time for breakfast, trying to get everything prepared for the day. It was a bit easier today as I am able to use the material from the first day over again with new groups of students, but it must be adapted each time because the groups have varying levels of English.
The evening activities began with spontaneous basketball games, skipping and conversation groups, then all the students were brought to the assembly room and taught several dances, including the Macarena, YMCA, and of course, the Chicken Dance.

Sky began as an active participant, but it wasn’t long before she kicked it up a notch and was up on a table with the instructors, dancing in front of the entire camp . Everyone had a great time.

The dancing ended at 9pm, so the students worked on writing in their journals for a half hour to end the scheduled activities of the day.

Camp Day 2 – Wednesday July 22 (Total Eclipse of the Sun)

Today there was a solar eclipse. We were expecting it in the early morning, but it happened sometime in the afternoon. I saw part of it, but missed the 6 minutes or so that the sun was mainly obscured. It actually never got dark outside though, as we are a bit south of the complete eclipse.

Schedule
7:30 breakfast
8:00 Assembly (National Anthems, etc)
8:30 Oral Reading
9:00-12:00 Morning Classes and Activities
12:00-2:30 Lunch, and afternoon nap
2:30-5:30 Afternoon Classes and Activities
6:00-7:00 Supper
7:30-9:30 Evening Classes and Activities
10:30 lights out

There are about 100 students in the camp, They are divided into six groups. In the morning and afternoon, students are either in class or in activities. Three groups each have a separate class with a Canadian teacher, while the other three groups are together for activities, where the emphasis is on outdoor or physical activities and applying their English. Classes went very well. In the evening, I took some campers for a night hike, and then returned to hold a drawing class. It was a fun, exhausting day.

First Day of Camp – Tuesday July 21

In the morning, we hauled our luggage from the hotel to King Home School to meet up with the Chinese students going to the camp. We arrived safe and sound. A few moments later, the youngest Canadian student broke his arm. Skateboarding. He was brought to a hospital in Zhu Zhou where they partially set his arm, but no cast.

We worked with the campers this afternoon and evening. Overall, they are very friendly, enthusiastic, motivated, but some are quite shy. And the language barrier is quite high for most, particularly with speaking and understanding spoken English.


-Paul Stinson

Photos!

Paul has managed to send about 2 dozen photos which I have embedded into the previous posts (go back to Grayden holding the snake to see all the new photos).

He also added a Tiananmen Square post that is out of order chronologically, but I could not figure out how to add a new post among the old.

Enjoy!

Crystal

My thoughts on Tiananmen Square

Now that I have actually been to Tiananmen Square, here are my thoughts.

I feel tha

think it is a most beautiful and glorious place.

-Paul

Monday July 20 – Last Day Before Camp Starts

Morning: Signing Ceremony in the morning between Praxis International School and King Home Middle School.
Late morning and afternoon: planning for the camp, redoing plans, etc
Evening: supper and meeting with Chinese university students who will be volunteering at the camp
Ready or not…

My daughter left me with strangers in China - Home stay family #2 (Sunday July 19)

Chinese parents of students involved with the camp and the school here have requested another home stay, and the Canadian kids all want to do it again. So Sky abandoned me today.

Today was not much fun, but we made up for it in the evening at a karaoke bar. It is hard to describe. The place was on the 5 floor of a building. We stepped off the elevator into a large open area kind of like the foyer of a high end hotel, and there were hallways leading off in all directions with open lounging areas with couches and dozens and dozens of doors to private karaoke rooms, where you sang, danced around, and were served beverages and fruit and peanuts. We got back to the hotel early (the next morning, that is).

Sky here.

At my 2nd home stay I got an umbrella, went to a park, and went swimming.
I got the umbrella at the market, and won 2 prizes at the park. At the park we went on a bike ride thing, then we went on a floaty bubble thing and a boat (the floaty bubble thing was a hollow sphere. The boat was for one person at a time). We went on a roller coaster thing, and we went to a balloon booth where we had to pop balloons(that’s where I won the 2 prizes.)
We went swimming from 9:00-11:00 (7:00-9:00 your time.)
My home stay friend was Hu. She is about 13 years old and very nice.

A message from Sky

STATURDAY JULY 18

Sorry, that should be “Saturday”. There are many misspellings and mistranslations here, even on the most important displays sometimes. The most revered leader in China has engraved interpretive plaques marking his birthplace that describe his contributions to the “wourld”, and that in addition to being wise, he was a “crackajack man”. Of course, if I tried to copy a Chinese character placed in front of me, I would not be able to guarantee what it would end up actually meaning.
Today was a challenge for some of us, well all of us to varying degrees. Changes to the camp schedules, miscommunications and conflicting expectations will make the next few days leading up to the camp particularly stressful.
Sky had a great time today, with activities such as learning to play a Chinese musical instrument, and making Chinese Opera masks.

Paul

Crazy Train / The Canadian went over the Mountain … - Friday July 17

Okay, now TODAY was the best day.
We all met up at the hotel, and took a train to Shao Shan, the birthplace of Chairman Mao Zedong. I understand that Mao is kind of a big deal around here, but does it warrant a day trip to his home town? We’ll see.

The train ride was unforgettable. It was about 2 hours, passing by rice paddies and fields of lotus flowers and countryside. Beautiful. We could see farmers working in their fields, planting each rice plant individually by hand.

This experience was still eclipsed by our first tour in Shao Shan, to a Buddhist temple at the top of a mountain. We drove part of the way up, and took a chairlift up the rest of the way. Well, to the base of the stairs. The view was spectacular, and we spent some time enjoying the breeze and taking it all in.

The tour of Mao’s actual home was interesting, and took us on the closest thing we have had to nature walks so far. I actually had my first contact with local fauna today (not counting the occasional fly and mosquito). Okay, it was still an insect, but it was a praying mantis, the coolest of all insects. It was subjected to Canadian attention for a couple of hours, but survived and was released back to the wild.

After all the hiking and despite the heat small group of us forged ahead to visit the giant statue of Mao. What was particularly interesting about this site was what people did there. They would first stand in a group and recite something together, then walk around the base of the statue, and then take photos of themselves in front of the statue. We did the same, and then returned to Zhuzhou.

-Paul Stinson

My Dad left me with strangers in China!

My homestay was with Ella. She lived in a nice apartment. We went swimming. The swimming pool had 3 fast water slides, 4 you had to go down on a mat with. The red one went very fast. The yellow one was the same but a tube and didn’t go as fast. The blue one had a curve and didn’t go as fast. There was a wave pool, a deep pool, a shallow pool and a very shallow pool (water park) that had water guns and small slides.

-Sky

Teachers Unsupervised Part 1 - Thursday July 16

The Canadian kids all went on home stays today. Sky and Liam went with Ella and her family. I met the mother yesterday; she is an English teacher at the school. I met the father yesterday as well when we toured the camp facilities; he runs the training centre. So, just to be clear, I didn’t send my child away to stay with a strange family I had never met before, in a foreign country. And to avoid any unnecessary worrying, I’ll jump ahead and let you know that Sky had a great time, and I saw her a few times during the day. The first time, when she stopped by the hotel after lunch to pick up her swimsuit, I could tell she needed a break, or that maybe the homestay was a bit much for her. After a 30 minute nap though, she was energized and ready to go again.

A highlight for today was a demonstration by Ge of various Chinese musical instruments. He is an amazing musician, and can play over a dozen instruments.

So what do a group of adult Canadians do in a city of a few million, with no children around?

We did some more planning for the summer camp, and went to bed early. I think some of us did laundry.

-Paul Stinson
____________

REALLY to be welcomed to ZhuZhou

This morning when we walked back to the middle school, we were led to an outdoor stage, where 700 students were assembled to welcome us. We were presented with flowers, there were short speeches, and then we toured more of the grounds. King Home School has about 2000 students Grades 6-9 (a bit small in numbers for around here), and the adjacent high school has about 5000 students. There are 14 Grade 7 classes of 50 students here, but not all of them are here today. After all it is summer holidays. But most are here, for summer classes.

Before lunch, the teachers had the opportunity to work with a class. Sky and Liam, the two youngest, came with me. We did introductions, then some drawing and naming parts of the face, followed by some songs. We taught “Itsy Bitsy Spider” along with the actions, then asked if a volunteer could share a song. One student stood up and sang what sounded like “Frere Jacques” in Chinese. We concluded by teaching and singing the song in French and English, and a final rendition of the Chinese version. This went so well we did it again with another class.

In the afternoon we met with the teachers of the English Department and discussed teaching ideas, very interesting but not as fun as working with the students of course. In the evening we visited the site where the summer camp will be held. More on that later, except to say that it is not in the heart of the city, kind of in the suburbs, but with rice paddies. And bamboo.

The highlight of the day, possibly of the trip so far, was lighting and launching Chinese lanterns in the evening in Yandi Square. It was beautiful, festive, and somehow no one’s hair caught on fire despite ourselves.

Next: Sky has a home stay with a Chinese family, leaving Dad unsupervised and unchaperoned.

-Paul Stinson

Welcome to Zhuzhou (Tuesday July 14)

When we stepped off the plane in Changsha, it really felt like walking into a sauna, even though it was the middle of the night. A 90 minute bus ride brought us to our hotel in Zhuzhou, Hotel Hua Duo. It is not the same quality of hotel as we had in Beijing, but it has air conditioning (although I did not realize this until we woke up later this morning, when I tried to use the remote to turn on the TV and received a cool blast of air instead. Better late than never.)

This room (407) is our home/resting place for a week until camp starts. The 2 bed, ½ bathroom, 1 mahjong table room overlooks a fairly busy street, average by local standards I think, but about as busy as 8th Street in Saskatoon (except more motorbikes). The bed is impressively firm, like a sheet of plywood wrapped in a sheet. There is a no smoking sign, but the floor is riddled with cigarette burns, particularly around the mahjong table. There is a bit of a funky smell in the room, that doesn’t improve over the course of the week.

Today we visited King Home Middle School, then wandered the largest mall in Zhuzhou, similar in many ways to a Canadian department store. I appreciated the fixed prices, despite the praise of some of our group on my bargaining skills at the tourist markets in Beijing. One major difference from a Canadian store was the large number of assistants in every area of the store, ready to help you. Another difference was that when you selected something to purchase, they wrote up a purchase order, which you then had to take to a till to pay, and then you brought the receipt back in order to pick up your item.

That was enough for today. Tomorrow morning there is a special welcoming ceremony for us at the school, followed by … well, the schedule is becoming subject to change, so we’ll see.

-Paul Stinson
______________

HOT

Crystal here.

I was just checking the weather in Changsha, close to where Paul and Sky are at. For the next 3 days here is the forecast:

Monday - high 37, low 29 (clear)

Tuesday - high 37, low 29 (clear)

Wednesday - high 37, low 29 (cloudy).

Yikes!

Fourth and Final Day of Touring Beijing – Hutong Rickshaw Adventures

Today we leave Beijing, but not until a hutong tour by rickshaw. A hutong is a narrow street. At first glance, this looks like the poor part of town, especially after seeing so many diverse skyscrapers. The buildings are only 1-2 stories tall. There are no flashing neon lights. This is a small preserved part of old Beijing.

It is raining at the start of the tour, and I wonder if the man carting Sky and I around on his tricycle-powered cart would rather be doing something else this morning. I am grateful to be doing this rather than another tourist market.

Our hutong guide is a young woman named Candy. From her we learn that a single residence in this area sells for 5 billion ($1 billion US). The courtyard of the first place we visit is very beautiful but simply decorated. We eat lunch at a second residence (real REAL Chinese food, two steps removed from Canadian Chinese food, and one step from restaurant food, and delicious). Lunch for our group and a second group upstairs was provided by the woman of the house, whose name sounded like Maurine to my ears. Candy informs us that there are only two residences in the hutong area that provide this experience, and that there is strong competition to be this kind of host.

After the tour, we head to the airport, 2 hours early to catch a 2 hour flight. The flight is delayed one extra hour due to heavy rains. Then another. Then a couple more.

We arrived in Zhuzhou, our destination, around 3 in the morning, so what happens next is another day and so, another post.

-Paul Stinson