Our day started with a trip to a public Chinese high school located on the outskirts of Beijing. Right away, we were welcomed into the origami classrooms and were matched with a local student in the international studies program. The instructors had planned a tie dye session for us and we were all given hand bags to take an attempt at it. After the session, we had a chance to speak with our Chinese friend and ask him about the school and his life outside of it. In those conversations, we realized a central difference in lives of students in Canada as oppose to those studying in China.
In our education system, we are perpetually challenged to pursue opportunities in hopes of contributing to the community. In Canada, high school is an important part of a teenager's life, but no more than that. In China, however - from what we saw in Beijing Experimental High School - grades 9 to 12 seem to consume teenagers' lives. Today, though, we visited a new high school which contrasted to the Experimental High in a few interesting ways. The school has approximately 5000 students, all of which live there 6 days a week. It was touching to see how welcoming and helpful they were during our tie dye session. We had a wonderful time making crafts that we could take back to Canada.
Unfortunately, we did not have an opportunity to have a summit similar to the one in Beijing Experimental school. Even though we understood certain aspects of their school life, we did not discuss the differences between their education and ours in depth.
When we arrived back in the city center, we went to haggle in another indoor market. We were able to find items of both Chinese culture and knockoffs of expensive American brands for much cheaper than anticipated. This time around we were much better at bargaining, having had some experience.
Moving on after many hours at the market we progressed to a stunning acrobatic show. They performed feats that had almost every student on the edge of their seats. We were most impressed with the motorcycle show, when up to 8 motorcyclist synchronized their bikes in a globe.
With an early dinner, we were hoping to get to bed early. Despite our tiring day, writing this blog turned out to take a thousand hours, because everyone in our group was laughing and reminiscing on the many stories and jokes we've made during the trip.
In our education system, we are perpetually challenged to pursue opportunities in hopes of contributing to the community. In Canada, high school is an important part of a teenager's life, but no more than that. In China, however - from what we saw in Beijing Experimental High School - grades 9 to 12 seem to consume teenagers' lives. Today, though, we visited a new high school which contrasted to the Experimental High in a few interesting ways. The school has approximately 5000 students, all of which live there 6 days a week. It was touching to see how welcoming and helpful they were during our tie dye session. We had a wonderful time making crafts that we could take back to Canada.
Unfortunately, we did not have an opportunity to have a summit similar to the one in Beijing Experimental school. Even though we understood certain aspects of their school life, we did not discuss the differences between their education and ours in depth.
When we arrived back in the city center, we went to haggle in another indoor market. We were able to find items of both Chinese culture and knockoffs of expensive American brands for much cheaper than anticipated. This time around we were much better at bargaining, having had some experience.
Moving on after many hours at the market we progressed to a stunning acrobatic show. They performed feats that had almost every student on the edge of their seats. We were most impressed with the motorcycle show, when up to 8 motorcyclist synchronized their bikes in a globe.
With an early dinner, we were hoping to get to bed early. Despite our tiring day, writing this blog turned out to take a thousand hours, because everyone in our group was laughing and reminiscing on the many stories and jokes we've made during the trip.