People to People

High School Delegation Central Pennsylvania

Updated August 26, 2007:

  Student Ambassador & Leader Galleries

Departure Album & Winkflash pics (high resolution)

The Winkflash pictures were downloaded individually with the high resolution option, edited to add light and remove red eye and reposted.

To print any Picasa/google pics on your printer, open the file and use the right click and choose the save as option to save to your computer.

Google also has a download album option which should make downloading easier, when they return, if you email your best pics I will post them in a group album here.

Ryan's Updates From China:

July 31, 2007 Hong Kong, China Hi, everyone. We are currently in the Hong Kong airport awaiting for the check-in. We had a great day yesterday. The entire morning was spent on a 2-hour cruise of the Hong Kong harbor, and then the afternoon included a visit to Stanley Market (very inexpensive vendors), Victoria Peak where we got a bird's-eye view of Hong Kong, and a boat ride in Aberdeem Fishing Village. EVERYONE absolutely loved Hong Kong and felt it was their favorite place on the whole trip! Students even had some free time on their own last night before bed check as our hotel was in the heart of the city for a change. So there were loads of shops all around our hotel for students to enjoy. We had such a great trip and are eager to return home. Again, be prepared to receive the phone chain sometime after 9:30pm on Tuesday night. If the person you call doesn't answer, call the next person on the list and then keep trying the person who did not answer until you reach them. Three other items of importance before we return. 1. The reunion is August 19th, as previously mentioned, from 1-3pm. Location is Funck's Restaurant. If you plan to attend, I need you to RSVP with the number of people in your family attending by AUGUST 10th. I have to call the numbers in after that so they have adequate staff. You will select your food from the menu and then just pay afterwards. 2. On Saturday, September 8th, we have our next information meeting already for next year's trip to Australia. It is at Central Dauphin HS and will start, I'd guess, around 3pm (but I can confirm that at a later time). As those of you who attended remember, alumni parents and students speak about the program for new potential travelers. If any of you feel compelled to come and speak to the new group to share any of your thoughts about your student's traveling experiences, we would greatly appreciate it!! Lizz, Maria, and I will be there to greet you. Just email me if you are interested. 3. Our "Ambassadors of the Year" as selected by the stickers on the nametags that students earned will be nominated by the leaders and those students will likely have applications mailed to them. I think they can be awarded a full scholarship to another trip if they'd like to go. Anyway, our biggest sticker earners were: Emily Klein, Sterling Becker, Patrick Towery, and Toby Wallace, although EVERY student this year was fantastic!! We can't emphasize enough how much we enjoyed this group---our favorite group of students by far!! We'll see you in E-town! Ryan July 28, 2007 Greetings from Shanghai! My apologies for not being as diligent about getting the updates out. Last night we were without Internet service at Suzhuo, and I’ve been feeling a little off from what I normally have been and have been feverishly working to finish the new Harry Potter book (which I successfully did shortly before lunch today). Our visit in Shanghai has been fast-paced. In fact, on Thursday, we had our longest day yet and didn’t arrive back at the hotel until roughly 9:45. Our Shanghai tour guide, Lilly, has been a favorite among everyone. Lizz has been trying her best to try and convince Lilly that one of her four grown sons could sure use a wife like her. Lilly’s been a great sport and has even started calling Lizz “mom”, so who knows!?! Shanghai is a little cleaner than Beijing, but the traffic is much worse it seems. We spent a lot of time in traffic on Thursday. Highlights of that day included a visit to a silk factory (where MAJOR money was spent by the students who wanted to buy everything from comforters to ties and dresses). We also saw the city planning building where models of Shanghai are housed and the future planning of the city is revealed. It was quite interesting! Lunch was great this day. It was a Mongolian BBQ...you take your bowl, fill it up with the “raw food” (your meats, etc.) and then add to it your spices, sauces, veggies, etc. and take it to the cook who throws it on a hot grill, spins it around in some crazy mannerisms, and then serves it to you. Sterling was our biggest eater with 3 bowls. He claims he could have done 4, but we had to rush him out of there to leave so we’d make the next stop on time. Our evening dinner was Pizza Hut, which enthused almost everyone....until the results of the greasy pizza took its hold on them (some minutes later and some the next morning)! Our night visit was to the top of the 4th largest building in the world. We rode 88 stories in roughly a minute and had a chance to see Beijing lit up at night. Graham and Nate opted to stay down and not take the trek up, but those who did saw some amazing scenery! The line to get up and down was Disney-like long because one of the elevators was being rennovated. Friday we were in Suzhou, which is the Asian equivalent of Venice to many, and it was very nice as well. We spent a good chunk of the day driving there (almost 2 hours) and then saw a Buddha temple in the AM and played badmitten at a sports facility in the PM. It was a nice, relaxing evening in the hotel. Jack took a group out to buy some cheap DVD’s at a local store. DVD’s were $2.00 a piece! Unfortunately, we have no place to play them until we return home. Today we had a nice canal cruise in Suzhou and then spent some time at a middle school where we helped the students with English. They are in a summer language camp right now. We were split into three groups: one group did opera, one did Tai-chi, and one did paper-cutting (which was my group). Sara W. and Kate B. had really awesome butterflies made from paper, and Steve and Matt G. had a competition to see whose was better. Sterling and I were at a table with 4 little students who just liked that we were there. Sterling had his bags of candy and his notepads, so he made everyone happy. A lot of those students also had gifts for our students. Toby has some flashing thing around his neck that he refuses to take off now! Tonight was our auction where the students who collected the chips from ‘good deeds” throughout the trip could cash them in for little souvenirs Lizz, Maria, and I picked up along the way. We auctioned off things like Beijing Olympic hats, Oriental fans, little statues of Buddha, P2P pencils, passes for picking your roommate at Hong Kong, passes for picking the person you sit next to on the flight home, ping pong balls we had the Olympic coaches sign for us...things like that. In all, we had about 40 things to auction off. We hope they liked it (we had fun doing it!). By the way, all of the letters that friends and family gave to us to give to the students were given out the day we got on the bus following the homestay. Everyone absolutely LOVED them! We had a few people tear up and a couple of guys refused to read them until they were alone. But they really appreciated them, especially following time in another person’s home. Tomorrow we leave Jack and fly to Hong Kong. There probably won’t be much of a program scheduled for us for tomorrow, so Monday will be our last full tour day with a new delegation manager. Tuesday we then fly home! it’s hard to believe this trip flew by so quickly. In the event that I cannot get Internet access again before we leave, this is how the phone chain will work upon our arrival home: Our flight is scheduled to arrive at 9:15pm in JFK. Once off the plane, Graham is going to call his parents who are picking him up. He’ll work those details out when he’s on the phone. Then, Once we get our luggage and go through Customs, we will board the bus. There was a lot of traffic for us getting into JFK. I don’t know how bad it will be going out of there, but I’d like to wait a little bit before making the initial phone chain call. What I’ll do is wait until we are out of the city and in New Jersey. At that point, I’ll call Lynnette and initiate the phone tree. I’ll also give a ROUGH estimated time of arrival. Those who brought along their cell phones will surely be using them and talking most of the way home! So, many of you will probably be kept abreast of what time we will ultimately be pullling in to E-town. I Just make sure that everyone is on time getting there because it will be pretty late, and we don’t want to have anyone waiting for parents or other relatives when they see everyone else leaving. If I’m able to update photos in Hong Kong, I’ll try to do that. RYAN <strong>July 25, 2007 Shanghai, China</strong> Well, we’re now in Shanghai after spending a couple of days in our homestay village. It was a really interesting experience, one of the most culturally-rich homestays I’ve had with P2P! We arrived at the village on Tuesday around noon and were greeted by the villagers with a really fun musical celebration. Micah, Chad, Emily, Corrin, Dani, Samantha, and a few others joined right in after an invitation to play their drums and their instruments as everyone else learned the Chinese dance ritual. It was a really great way to be greeted after stepping off the bus. Students were divided into their homes (everyone was in groups of 4 except one group of 5 girls). Apparently, this village is one of the only government-sponsored villages in China for foreigners, so the facilities are pretty good (considering we are in a rural farming community in the middle of China!). There was a Western bathroom and a shower (although the shower was often a hose in the tile bathroom without a door or a wall or anything. But it was something!! And we all had nice guestrooms with air conditioning. Apparently this village takes in a lot of P2P students and other foreign groups, because as we were arriving another P2P group from Scranton, PA (home of “The Office”!) was leaving. After a lunch provided by the family and a 3-hour scheduled nap time (no kidding!!!), we went to the peach orchard to pick a peach to take home for peeling/eating. Again, another great opportunity to see the lifestyle of this community and see what they do. It was a brief walk to the orchard through the village and gave the students a chance to see how this community lives. It was then time for dinner provided by the families and a town festival in their square at 8pm. The entire town showed up for this festival where the women performed traditional Chinese dances. Our students were mobbed by the young children who wanted their bags of candy and pencils/pins. Our students also played a lot of games with the children from the village. Toby’s hat kept getting taken by one or two kiddos in particular, and then they started putting dead crickets and bugs down everyone’s backs. Apparently, as Jack explained, this is their way of saying they like us and they want to show their intimacy with us as people by doing these things. Once that was explained, everyone’s tolerance grew a bit! When the talent show came, Emily grabbed the microphone and introduced our group to the entire village and other guests. Everyone then did “The Electric Slide” since it was an easy way to get a lot of students involved in something pretty simple. Emily and Corrin and Vicki and Sarah P. also did a hand-slapping performance with some songs. Then, we showed the Chinese villagers how to do the Chicken Dance!! They absolutely LOVED it!! It was just such an unbelievable way to connect to these people despite an obvious language barrier. But everyone had such a good time!! The students have said that they really enjoyed the food which was a pleasant surprise! After spending the morning on Wednesday visiting with a local artist, we spent our final lunch with our families and prepared for the flight to Shanghai. I’ll be adding more pictures from the last few days on Winkflash.com Just a reminder, if you don’t recall how to access the photos, follow these steps: (see photo gallery below) We will soon be saying goodbye to Jack, who leaves us on Sunday when we board our flight to Hong Kong. Once we arrive in Hong Kong Sunday night, we’ll have a new Delegation Manager for the last day and a half of our trip. Oh, and the best part of our afternoon---at the airport, Kate B. and Ashley R. took it upon themselves to check with a Chinese bookstore (selling all Chinese books) if they happened to have any English versions of the new Harry Potter. Lo and behold, they came out with two...for them (much to the disappoint of many, including ME!!). But once they saw how eager we were for them, they found extra copies, and Sara and Bekah W. and Whitney added themselves (along with me!!) to those avidly reading the new book. Kate is already at page 150 after using her plane time very wisely and most of the rest of us are around 100 pages in....our hotel nights are going to be interesting now!! ha ha. RYAN July 23, 2007 Xi’an, China Hi, everyone. Tomorrow is our home stay, so I'll be without a computer for probably two days, as we are going to be flying to Shanghai the day after tomorrow (Wednesday). So I probably won't have a chance to get to a computer until late Wednesday night or Thursday, if the hotel once again has computer access for me. By the way, all of the students are in groups of 4 or 5 for their village stays tomorrow. We went grocery shopping tonight for food in the event that they don't like what is served. Jack warned us that this is a rural setting and isn't "city cuisine" so we will probably have some “unique" food choices. Most of the day today was spent with the terracotta warriors ... back in 1974, four farmers located in their fields this amazing archaeological find---8,000 clay-made warriors that were created to guard the dead Emperors of China! It's absolutely AMAZING----they built the museum AROUND the findings! This was one of the highlights of my trip so far, personally speaking. But we saw the 3 pits of warriors, and also visited a Terracotta making factory where we got to make one with clay, which was fun. Then they wanted to sell us them!! However, this time, since we are P2P Ambassadors (again, a sign awaited us welcoming us), we got 40% off everything in the store. Maria even haggled a game board made of bamboo and ivory from $500 to just $100!!! She didn't even intend to buy it, she just said she only had $100 to get them away from her, but when they conferred and took her seriously, she thought, "well, what the heck!" It's really quite nice. Everyone else just bought $6-15 items, some a few items worth a bit more! These students sure do know how to spend money!! But I will also say the items they are buying are really quite nice and come with a lot of memories from each of the places we have visited. We also spent time at a former Buddhist temple. This was a really nice stop as well. Everyone got some nice photos and explored the really relaxing grounds. Food choices again were quite good (lunch was actually everyone's least favorite of the trip so far---just that the choices weren't that great). Tony and Jamar were sitting at my table and were particularly unhappy that the cornbread wasn't what they expected! Everyone is still doing well. Tonight is a packing night, so once again it is pretty rushed around here. A lot of kids are "dropping like flies" as we like to put it, in regards to the stomach/bathroom situation. We're not sure what the cause is. It's rather random. One day, this student will be fine, and the next two days it's "bathroom alert!" All of our water is bottled water, except for some of the restaurant water which has been given the "green light" by Jack. It could also be some of the interesting cuisine. We really are trying a lot of different foods at each meal with unusual tastes, sauces, spices, etc. The combination might be a little too much for some. But other than that, and even despite that, everyone is still having an absolute blast. It's so neat to see how they have bonded with one another. Still no cliques---very much a unified bunch. And they look out for one another so much, too, which is great to see. We were really lucky this year with our delegation! Just wanted to let you know that while I have more pictures to upload, for some reason winkflash.com isn't cooperating with me this morning---I can't get onto the site at all. So hopefully later on today I'll be able to add them from the last two days. Also, the reunion date is set as well for the students on this trip. It was set before we left, actually. It will take place on SUNDAY, AUGUST 19th from 1-3pm at FUNCK's Restaurant in Palmyra on Route 422 (for those who came to pick up the shirts in Hershey, it's on that same road for perhaps another 5 miles). If you pass the traffic light at the chocolate factory in Hershey, you'll go through one more light. At this point, look for the restaurant on your RIGHT. We will be in a banquet room, and you just order/pay right off of their menu. It's' really easy. I'll need a head count from everyone who is attending in your family by Friday, August 10, so obviously wait until I return from the trip to start the RSVPing! :) Hopefully I'll be able to get the LCD equipment to have a slide show as well as have a few door prizes. So I'll give you more updates as I'm able, but probably not until Shanghai... Ryan July 22, 2007 Xi’an, China Greetings from Xi’an! The last two days have been filled with some very “first experiences” for the students (and for some of the leaders, too). Admittedly, Saturday was a little less “colorful” than our previous days, but we’ve still been able to see some great parts of Beijing before getting on the overnight train. On Saturday morning, our first stop was the Beijing Zoo where we saw some giant panda bears. Jack always does a phenomenal job of prepping us before we get somewhere in regards to what we’re going to see and some of the history behind it, so he told us that any panda bears that exist in the USA (he used the Atlanta Zoo as the example) are actually RENTED from the Chinese government for a price tag of.....$1 million per year! The Atlanta Zoo found this to be so expensive that it nearly bankrupted them! And any cubs that are born within the USA become possession of China! Upon our excursion through the zoo, Maria, Lizz, and I were only able to see 3 pandas, and because it was so hot, they were retreating away from us. But with such a short time at the zoo, we didn’t have a chance to see much beyond the pandas---the zoo also had elephants, monkeys, birds, and a myriad of other unique animals. From there, we went to a place called the Summer Palace. At this location, we discovered that Emperor’s came and ruled from here for 1/2 of a year. There was a man-made lake, and this location is 7 times bigger than The Forbidden City. I didn’t take many pictures from this location. It was a little more “dull” than some other places we went to. We had a picnic lunch here, and then took a very nice (albeit short) boat ride across the man-made lake. After celebrating Micah C.’s birthday with some tasty treats that some students had purchased a few days ago at a grocery store, our afternoon was spent at a department store where students visited a pottery/crafting store where they were able to move from 3 different stations. The first station crafted pottery on a wheel (like in the movie “Ghost”). Some were pretty proficient with this, like Emily K. who loved it so much she did it a few times. Others, like poor Sterling and Sterling, not so adept! But I know Sterling and I shared a good laugh at how his creation kept going back to a big lump of clay!! The second station was a necklace-making area where they cut decorative sections of clay to put in a fire and make into a necklace. The final station was the painting station where every student selected a piece of pottery and painted it. That piece of pottery was boxed and became their souvenir at no cost. This was a really nice way to end the days’ activities. From there, we had an hour to shop in the department store. It reminded me of a Macy’s, but interestingly, when you buy something, the person waiting on you gives you a receipt which you must then take to a cashier who stamps your receipt. You then return that to the attendant who gives you the item you purchased. Then came our dinner....at Kentucky Fried Chicken!!! That was standard American fare, but everyone (including me!) enjoyed having something just a little more familiar for a change. This was nice for a lot of the students who didn’t like the sandwich we were given at lunch (which had a lot of mayonnaise, Thousand Island dressing, cucumbers, etc. on it). Then came the arrival at the overnight train....this was a first for many members of the group. The train station was PACKED! For this, everyone had on their bright orange P2P shirts because as Jack pointed out, it seems half of the Chinese population is at the train station...and he wasn’t kidding. It was really crowded, and since the Chinese culture permits pushing and shoving, we really experienced that first-hand! So we stayed together like “sticky rice” and found ourselves at a V.I.P. Lounge to wait for the train. Now, VIP Lounge has such a high-class connotation, but that wasn’t the case here. It may have been more VIP than sitting in the middle of the road waiting for your train, but it was mostly an area with padded seats to just wait it out. So, Sterling, Toby, Matt G., Steve and I hung out and talked for about 45 minutes before the train’s arrival. Once we loaded, everyone was in compartments of 4, with 9 compartments to a car. One Chinese -style “squatter” bathroom and one of our bathrooms for 36 people! A lot of students are having some stomach-related bathroom issues, so we’re dealing with that individually. But everyone is being a trooper and handling those things as they come! We pretty much called it an early evening on the train. The train departed at 9:30pm and Momma Lizz went around to every room to tuck the kids in, tell them a bedtime story, and make sure they locked their compartment doors and only open it upon hearing one of our voices. So, while the accommodations were a little cramped and the bed was really flat and hard, at least there was air-conditioning and gave everyone a chance to sprawl out for sleeping purposes. The train ride lasted just over 11 hours, with an arrival time of 8:30am on Sunday. I will post pictures when I have time... RYAN July 20, 2007 Beijing, China Well, the shopping has begun! And the vendors here are very, VERY happy! ha ha. It's been another long, exhausting day, but it's been another day filled with so much fun and interaction with the people from China. We've really been fortunate to have so many diverse opportunities awaiting us on a daily basis. And there hasn't been a single thing yet that the group has really not liked! That's very unusual with 1/3 of the trip already completed! We started the morning by going to a Cloissone factory where the group was shown how this enamelware is created---from start to finish! It was really quite a sight to see the patience of the workers at this factory! We were all unbelievably impressed! After the tour, everyone had a chance to sit down and do some painting of their own! It was a great chance for everyone to see exactly what these workers do on a daily basis. One woman was in a room working on a vase that will take her a half of a month to complete!! Several of the students (Chad, Bekah, Tricia) were chosen as those doing the most creative job on their painting, so they received some free Cloissone chopsticks!! This was also the first stop for major shopping. I saw some serious cash flow part hands during this time!! After this was the much anticipated stop at the Great Wall of China! We had two hours here to climb what seemed from the bottom to be a very manageable set of stairs. WRONG! Even I was shocked by how much of an incline these steps were at...and how HUGE the actual steps were. Good ol' Toby came along with Lizz, Maria, and I as we ascended this incredible incline. He really was a huge help for Lizz as she huffed and puffed her way up the steps. She said her cardiologist would be very proud of her! ha ha. Anyway, when we got up what seemed like the top (but I think it was only halfway), we came across our pal, Tony B., who was taking a breather on the steps and guzzling his water. He called it a day, and that didn't take Lizz long to join in. When Toby, Maria, and I went through the next stop point and realized how many more stairs we still had to go (with a limited time until we had to get back to the bus), we took a few pictures and started back down. Along the way we passed a few "lost lunches" on the steps and gave our calf muscles quite the workout. Toby was happy his football coach would be proud of him for getting his leg workouts done (and then some!!). But the prize today went to Barrett R. who was the first person in the entire group to make it to the top first! There were only a few who actually made it to the top, and Barrett managed to pull off this feat first. QUITE an accomplishment! We were really happy that the weather was comfortable today. There was a nice breeze going, and although it was hazy for taking pictures, we couldn't have asked for a better day for the Great Wall visit. If it had been scorching hot, there would have been an entirely different perspective on the experience, I guarantee it. Following a late lunch and some more shopping in a marketplace, we went to a Kung Fu school, which our students LOVED. Again, there was a lot of interaction between our P2P students and their little ones who ranged in ages from little tots to 18-19 year olds. Nikki M., Samantha S., Tricia, Emily, Bekah and Sara W., and Sterling all had their bags of goodies out and made a LOT Of new friends as the crowd of little ones gathered around them like it was Christmas. Steve C. joked that they reminded him of the vendors when we would come out of an attraction. But this crowd was gathering to collect something instead of selling us something. It was a funny observation! We were treated to a special Kung Fu show (breaking bricks with hands, sitting on boards of nails, etc.). Afterwards, these students worked with small groups of our students to do some basic Kung Fu moves (and flips on the mats). Micah, Patrick T., and Lindsey W. were our All-Stars during this event! Lindsey was even told by one of them that if she wanted to appear in a Chinese Kong Fu Hollywood movie, she'd have the right "look" for it! I told her I hope she said she was interested!!! We ended the very long day with a Peking Dinner Ceremony. Everyone really seemed to enjoy the duck. Only a small handful passed on it, and there certainly was enough food on the table to find something else to enjoy! So, tomorrow morning we are out of this hotel and off to Xi'an. We are going to be going to the Beijing Zoo and then take part in a couple of other activities before reaching our overnight train to Xi'an. So, I won't have internet access again until I reach the next hotel (and hopefully it will be as easy to access the Internet there as it was here). So, the next time I anticipate getting to a computer will be Sunday night around 8:30pm our time (so Sunday morning, 8:30am your time). By that point, we'll have been on the trip for an entire week. It's hard to believe that!! I'm working on putting more pictures up on the winkflash.com site. I've created a new folder for today's pictures. I'll put in as many as I can before it's lights out for me! Everyone is doing well, and we are still having an unbelievable time! Ryan July 19, 2007 Beijing, China Well, here we are with a second full day in touring Beijing! It's exausting, let me tell ya! But as our Delegation Manager Jack would say, the days are "colorful." We spend the morning at an Athletic College, an unbelievable campus devoted to athletes (many of whom are preparing for the Olympics being held in Beijing next year). We observed some of the athletes practicing, but it wasn't anything terribly exciting. Most everyone was shocked at how enormous the campus was and that it was devoted solely to athletics! Lunch in their cafeteria was rather interesting. Many students of all ages came and talked (or tried to, anyway) with many of our students. Lots of gift exchanging going on, and we continue to be mobbed for photos....apparently the Chinese find it thrilling to have their photos taken with foreigners, especially Americans. So they are always asking to be photographed with us, and of course we are more than happy to oblige! So our students had such a great time interacting with so many of these students. After lunch, we spent the next hour or so learning how to play ping pong from the professional coaches at the Athletic College. There is even an exact science, believe it or not, to how one should hold that ping pong stick. So everyone played around and enjoyed that (despite the stifling heat inside the gym), and then the coaches prepared a little ping pong competition for the students. Splitting them in half, they went a couple of rounds hitting the ping pong straight down the gym and then racing back. Our big finish was made by Tony B. who dove over the finish line and slid in to the finish. That was the group's best moment for the day, and the gym errupted into applause (even though he still didn't win it for his team!). Our afternoon was spent in an older part of Beijing where we walked a flight of 75 stairs at 45 degree angles (not sure what that meant, but that's whatwe were told) to get to the top of this tower that gave a great overview of Beijing. There was also a brief drum ceremony that took place there while we were on top. Around this time we had a migraine attack Becky N. who handled it like a champ! With a little help from Excedrin Migraine, she still wanted to participate in everything and had a lot of encouragement from her new friends who sat with her when she wasn't feeling well and gave her lots of hugs and pats on the back. The headache came and went in shifts, but she toughed it out and is currently feeling a little better but is tucked away in bed to get some much needed sleep. But we were really impressed by how she wanted to continue with everything even when we told her we'd sit back with her if she wanted to rest. It was also nice to see everyone support her like they did! Following the tower, everyone had a chance to ride the rickshaws through old Beijing. Toby was my rickshaw buddy, and we were accosted (as was everyone else) with the vendors who kept peddling their bikes besides us almost begging us to buy their "stuff." We actually did make out with some amazing deals on a few items, and Toby managed to get his "Rolex" watch price knocked down in half from the original price. He bartered like a pro!! The girls also did quite well with their bartering. Those vendors are relentless though--they follow you for blocks and just don't give up. But everyone has completely gotten past the "this is uncomfortable" phase with them and just learn how to ignore them. We also spent time with a man, Mr. Lau, who greeted us and told us (through Jack's translation) about living in old Beijing and what he typically does in a given day. Our students asked some really great questions and took a lot of pictures with him. There is sooo much cultural interaction on this trip, the most I've ever seen in seven years' worth of P2P trips (and it's only two days in!). Every night when we do our "likes and dislikes" from the day, the cultural interaction is always the thing at the top of the list of "likes." And it's so cool watching them communicate with one another, albeit in a limited manner. The Hard Rock Cafe capped off the night (with a LOT of shopping in the gift store....I think the students helped pay the mortgage for the month with everything they got!). Whew! We're back in for the evening, and it's time for much needed rest (at least for me and Lizz/Maria!). Everyone else is off swimming, playing games, or napping. I'm currently working on downloading my pictures from today onto a website. Once I finish this, I'll email everyone with the website and with my username/password so you can log in and view the pictures. I had to drop down to 2 mpixel photos for easier downloading, which was my problem from yesterday. Ryan July 18, 2007 Beijing, China Greetings from Beijing! We are back from our first full day in China, and what an unbelievable day it was! After an early night to bed last night (the jet lag DID kick in for everyone, by the way---in fact it took me 30 minutes to get one of my rooms of 2 boys to wake up to answer the phone or the door after pounding and incessant calls. I'm sure they were close to being in a jet lag coma!!), we all got out and ready to go by roughly 8:30am. Our first stop: The Forbidden City. Really, really quite cool. The weather was really mild today because it had been raining and storming all night, so it wasn't quite as hot and humid as it was yesterday. We spent the good part of the morning touring with Jack in the city. A few chances to wander within the city in small groups and look at some exhibits, but everyone got some great photos, and one of the vendors within the city started drawing a caricature of Tony B. while Jack was talking to us during one of the stops long the way. Our official "Buddha of Good Deals," Tony ended up getting this hand-drawn caricature of him (which looked AMAZING) plus his name written in Chinese for $6.00! Well, after this stunning price break, EVERYONE wanted to have this done (much to Jack's dismay). Because we were on a time schedule, obviously, and because the vendor probably surprised himself by running out of plates, not everyone got one of this unique souvenirs, but quite a few did...and the vendor found some more plates and found us later on our journey and drew people like Josh O., Micah C., Chad P., and Lindsay W. as we were walking on the tour. This was one of their highlights of the day! Then we moved to our first lunch. Let me say that the food situation has been amazingly quite pleasant. Apparently all of our meals are served on lazy Susans. We sit at a large table of about 10, and everyone picks at food similar to a family style of eating. They just bring out lots and lots of plates of foods (sometimes we ask Jack to tell us what it is, and sometimes we try to be daring and just try it without asking...), but everyone is quickly finding things that they like and things they don't like. This is the best way. Everyone is leaving full and happy because there are at least 10 different things to try. And believe it or not, at one of the meals today, they served two bowls of French fries (which I had expected to fly off the table), and both baskets weren't finished. Nearly everyone I've been sitting with today at both meals tried different foods and attempted to be adventurous. It's been a great experience with the food, and so far I haven't heard a single complaint about it. Our afternoon was spent at a vocational school. The students are done for the year (their school year is similar to ours), but students volunteered to come in and meet with us. We were greeted with enormous banners welcoming "People to People Ambassadors" and were escorted to a room where we were part of an official tea cermony. This consisted of an instructor and her students showing us how tea is made (the really good stuff, not the Lipton instant kind!!). It's quite an ordeal...I never knew! There are procedures they follow in this offical ceremony, and apparently there are hundreds of Chinese tea, so it was likened to wine-tasting. We had small tea cups that held maybe 2-3 tablespoons full of tea, and they made/let us try 4 types.There was music playing while this went on, and even the people who hate tea (Nicole M. for instance) were troopers and tried every type offered!! Afterwards, the girls offered some of their tea for sale as part of their fundraisers for school (it allows them to do things and go on field trips). Everything was really affordable and reasonably priced, and quite a number of people bought some tea to bring home (again, great souvenirs!). We also made dumplings and clay roses at this school. Our last activity for the day was too cool to put into words...we attended a theater to see an acrobatic show. When I say it was "death defying," I am not kidding. In one of the acts, there was a young kid (they were all in the early 20's or younger) who stacked chair after chair after chair---before you know it, he was near the ceiling of the theater doing handstands and other unbelievable feats that left us all sitting uncomfortably on the edge of our seats. It was amazing. But the show consisted of unbelievable talent, and it was a true Chinese cultural experience. Everyone RAVED about this, one of our favorite things, I think. And so we enjoyed dinner and returned to the hotel here by around 8:00pm. It is QUITE a long day---we are run ragged from morning to evening. Not a lot of chance to catch our breath, but I think that all of the students are adapting so well and are making some great friends. Nobody is off on his/her own, they all have at least one buddy we see them hanging out with, and we see lots of smiles on faces. I'm working on finding a way to get some of my pictures made available to you. Patrick T. has really been helpful in sitting with me at my laptop and getting me linked up to a website to download my pictures to so you can start viewing them. Unfortunately, the connection speed here is s...l....o....w....so the uploading of photos is extremely time-consuming. I'm also having a tough time attaching them as files to the email, so if I find out how to do this, I'll be sure to let you know and give you the password so you can see them! Tomorrow is another full day: Sports training school (for next year's Olympics held here in Beijing!!) in the morning followed by another sports school where we'll be taught ping-pong in the afternoon. The Hard Rock Café is tomorrow night, so everyone is obviously excited for that... All is well. Not a single problem to report! All three of the leaders told the students tonight how impressed we've been with their attitudes, their participation, and their enthusiasm. It's really been such a great trip so far! Ryan

People to People

Middle School China Delegation  2007 - Safe at Home

(Please email your favorite pictures, and I will make a group album to post here)

     

Mr. Kinney subject of Prize Essay- Article & Pics

Program & Group Leader links:

Questions or comments? Get in touch with Group Leaders at: Tony Kinney, 717-512-4130; Alice Errickson, 717-843-7153;

Ashlyn Rehm, 717-795-7037; Kathy Witmer,kawitmer@mbgsd.org, 717-766-0695.

China Info Links: CIA; Dept of State; TSA; CDC

The language map is a 10 page, fold out, laminated, cheat sheet of essential words, phrases and symbols which a client who travels frequently in China highly recommended. I will have one at the February meeting.  The link is to Amazon.com's page to order.  

CDC on Immunizations for China

 CDC Do Not List for China

• Do not eat food purchased from street vendors or food that is not well cooked to reduce risk of infection (i.e., hepatitis A and typhoid fever).
• Do not drink beverages with ice.
• Avoid dairy products, unless you know they have been pasteurized.
• Do not swim in fresh water to avoid exposure to certain water-borne diseases such as schistosomiasis. (For more information, please see Swimming and Recreational Water Precautions.)
• Do not handle animals, especially monkeys, dogs, and cats, to avoid bites and serious diseases (including rabies and plague). Consider pre-exposure rabies vaccination if you might have extensive unprotected outdoor exposure in rural areas. For more information, please see Animal-Associated Hazards.
• Do not share needles for tattoos, body piercing or injections to prevent infections such as HIV and hepatitis B.
• Avoid poultry farms, bird markets, and other places where live poultry is raised or kept.

 Detailed History of China History Timeline Condensed History of China History for Kids China