Following Daughter to China

[bexrbetter]

a Karaoke place and then back to the host family home.Walking along The Bund

Going to KTV is completely normal in China, they love to sing!

 

The buildings you see from the Bund there are turn of the last Century Russian and English buildings with a smattering of Japanese and Korean.

 

 

[Admin]

Had a great video chat with Caitlin last night, she looks like she needs to come down off the ceiling from all the excitement of her trip. The last 2 days she has been staying with her host family, both parents are Architects, and going to school there.

 

Yesterday they left the school and their home stay families and a scary moment. The bus left and left Caitlin behind. Luckily her host family came to the rescue and stayed with her till she could be reunited with the rest of the group on the bus...she said she enjoyed her ride in a Chinese Taxi to the bus. They then went on the bullet train again to Suzhou, the so called Oriental Venice. Caitlin visited the Nets Garden and a silk spinning mill. Afterwards she went on boat cruise on the canal constructed over 1,300 years ago in the Sui Dynasty...now when did Cap't Cook come to Australia? Later Caitlin visited Shan Tang Street before arriving at her 4 star Garden Hotel in Suzhou, had Duck for dinner that she said just fell off the bone and then later WeChatted me with video so I could get a first look at her so I could gauge how she was really going...her score of the trip so far is 9 so I am happy.

 

Today they are flying to Beijing on MU5105 departing about now 10am their time so I am off to the resources section here on Recreational Flying to follow her flight.

 

They have a blog where one student, different student each day, posts a commentary on their day and I was really impressed with this one so just to bore you all a little more, here it is:

 

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I knew I would need to wake up early, but wow I didn't realise actually how early it would be. 5:30am, I could already hear some talking and movements so decided I better get up soon or be late to school on my first day! I pulled myself out of bed, trying to not fall back to sleep on the way up when I heard a knock on the door and this little voice said, "Emily, are you awake?" I opened my door and to my surprise Olivia (my host sister) and her mother were already dressed cleaned and ready! They showed me to the bathroom to brush my teeth, but I was a little confused, as in my house we brush our teeth after breakfast not before, but it didn't bother me. After breakfast, which consisted of bread, cheese, soup and fruit, I got into my school uniform and it was time to leave. 6:50am we left to walk to school, a big change to my normal school day, as I would be still sleeping this early! We walked though the streets of Nanjing and arrived at school around 7:10am. Their school was huge, bigger then some hotels I'd stayed in, you could never believe this massive building can only hold years 10-12

 

 

The Sister School

 

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The first class for the day started at 7:25am, this is usually when I would be waking up, but nope I was sitting in a class room, in China, kinda freaking out. Lucky for me Eliza, Jack and Narin were in my class too so it wasn't that scary. The class was Physics, great, I am in a class learning something that is deffenitly not one of my strengths and to top it off, it's in Chinese. But it was an amazing experience, to understand how they teach and how different it is in Australia. Basically it is just the teacher talking to a room full of students watching. Very different to our noisy classes. There was a PowerPoint which had various slides about Physics stuff, which made it feel a bit like one of Mr Fry's science classes. After the lesson finished music played and everyone quickly got up and started to run. Eliza, Narin and I were very confused but just tagged along at the end. Once we had run down the stairs and outside I realised they were running in class rows to line up for assembly. A lot different to in our school, we all stroll down as slow as possible, talking on the way, walk in and sit in jagged rows. The students stood in very long, straight lines, about the length of our oval and waited silently. Once lined up there was a speech and music. We were welcomed to the school and wished all the best for our trip.

 

 

The new showcase building of Nanjing

 

After assembly we did not go back to class, all of Charles LaTrobe students got onto the bus and set out on a sightseeing tour around Nanjing. We arrived at the Youth Olympic buildings, two amazingly high towers with flags at the bottom representing each country that participated. We all took photos with our countries and walked across a bridge which had the Olympic Rings in the middle. Everyone piled back onto the bus and we drove to the Nanjing museum. There were so many doorways and things to look at. Hibaq, Narin and I were showed by Mr Wang to an incredible part of the museum. It was like you were actually walking though the streets of Nanjing from the past. We were so amazed we lost track of time and needed to sprint back to the bus just in time for the group photo. Everyone was getting tired by this point and we headed back to school, where we ate lunch in the cafeteria. We were given a tour of the school and were back just in time for the last period (class) of the day, (If you didn't know, they have 10 classes a day!) The school day ended at around 5:00pm and we all decided to spend some extra time at school to play with our hosts. We all played basketball and Badminton before leaving to walk home around 6:15pm, which is when I would normally be having dinner! When I arrived home Olivia's grandparent were at her house, we all made dumplings together and ate them for dinner, I had never tried dumplings before and was surprised at how much I enjoyed them! This day had been something to remember forever and I will now always appreciate the fact we start school at 9:00 and finish at 3:15!

 

At first I was worried and nervous about what the first day being a Chinese student would bring, but I think we could all agree that it was nothing as expected, it was an amazing and fantastic experience and I cannot wait for what the rest of this incredible trip will bring.

 

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[Admin]

Nice little curve they have just done:

 

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[rgmwa]

Nice little curve they have just done:[ATTACH]32052[/ATTACH]

Must have realised they were heading in the wrong direction.

 

rgmwa

 

 

[bexrbetter]

Remind Caitlin Oz is 2 hours ahead so she actually woke up after 7.30 according to her body clock!

 

Most middle schools in China go to 9pm at night weekdays, on Saturday it's till 6pm and the morning class she took before assembly is actually optional, as are the Sunday evening classes - no Chinese kids don't take them though, it's an optional "no choice" thing. Hence many kids live at school during the week even though their houses are close by.

 

Bit sad seeing the kids that do go home, going home around 9.30 at night.

 

 

[Admin]

I think he must have fallen asleep at the wheel on this one:

 

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[Admin]

Phew, landed...another worrying step finished...Those China Eastern pilots may train here in Australia but you never know what happens after they leave...I had one run in with them not making an "On Final" call as I taxied out on to the runway:

 

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[bexrbetter]

Phew, landed...another worrying step finished...Those China Eastern pilots may train here in Australia

Umm probably because most of them are Australians?

 

I don't think I've flown in China yet without an Oz up front left or right seat.

 

 

[rgmwa]

....or American or British on the internal flights we took.

 

rgmwa

 

 

[Admin]

Caitlin is having such an AMAZING trip, an experience that I personally can only dream of. The tour is all organised and taking in so many different places and aspects of China that she will remember for the rest of her life. If you remember I noted that Caitlin got left behind with the tour bus leaving without her so a call to the school has resulted in a bit more focus on this by counting twice so it doesn't happen again:

 

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Got to love Caitlin's facial expression.

 

Anyway, rather than bore you with more posts of her incredible trip, if anyone is interested you can see their Trip Blog that is loaded with pictures and a story of what they have done each day by a different student each time...hope you enjoy it, it can be found here:

 

http://blog.travelpod.com/travel-blog/cltc/1/tpod.html

 

 

 

[bexrbetter]

Anyway, rather than bore you with more posts of her incredible trip,

I doubt very much that's the case and thanks for your posts.

 

These trips help cut down ignorance and I am at the moment helping to prepare for my Chinese Niece to spend a year in Japan with AIS . The hate relationship between China and Japan is terrible and this can only be a good thing. The entire trip is completely free, even plane tickets, as it's sponsored by private citizens of both China and Japan who are trying to break down these hate barriers.

 

 

[Admin]

Well, finally Caitlin is about to arrive home, currently just entered South Australia so we are getting ready to pop out to YMML and pick her up. She has had such an amazing experience for a 16 year old jam packing every single day with activities and seeing/experiencing things many of us just dream about (see the trip blog...link above). The 2,000 year old warriors have fascinated me.

 

Anyway, thanks for your input and your interest in her trip...we really are a family here

 

 

[planedriver]

My God she's grown so much since I saw her at Narromine, quite the young lady now.

 

That's kids for you.

 

Bet your so glad to see her home safe and sound.

 

Start saving now mate, she might want to go again:yikes:

 

 

[Admin]

Thanks mate, next year we have her Chinese home stay student coming over here to stay with us...I bet she will not want to return after experiencing our shorter school hours. This trip has opened my eyes to how much Caitlin has grown up...i still see her learning to walk by hanging on to a pole and walking around it and I am the one that is scared by it all...it's actually rather depressing...Daddies little girl that you want to hug and protect

 

 

[Admin]

Hi all, well it is that time again, instead of Caitlin going to China it is Lachlan's turn to do the School trip. This time Lachlan will be travelling China Eastern all around China with his itinerary:

 

16th - 20th Sept......Beijing

 

21st - 23rd Sept......Xi'an

 

23rd Sept................Suzhou

 

24th - 26th Sept......Nanjing (their sister school)

 

26th - 28th Sept......Shanghai

 

It is going to be an experience of a life time for Lachlan at 16 years of age and like Caitlin on her China trip will probably come home a different kid. It isn't all hotels as Lachlan will be staying with the family of one of the students at the sister school.

 

Bex, where are you in China?

 

 

[nomadpete]

This time you shouldn't worry as much as when Caitlin went. Boy, I wish we had school excursions like that when I was young!

 

 

[bexrbetter]

Hi all, well it is that time again, instead of Caitlin going to China it is Lachlan's turn to do the School trip. This time Lachlan will be travelling China Eastern all around China with his itinerary:16th - 20th Sept......Beijing

21st - 23rd Sept......Xi'an

 

23rd Sept................Suzhou

 

24th - 26th Sept......Nanjing (their sister school)

 

26th - 28th Sept......Shanghai

 

It is going to be an experience of a life time for Lachlan at 16 years of age and like Caitlin on her China trip will probably come home a different kid. It isn't all hotels as Lachlan will be staying with the family of one of the students at the sister school.

 

Bex, where are you in China?

I'm close to Chengdu, where the Pandas are.

 

Xi'An is closest to me, but I don't think I can't get there as I have too many things on these days. However if there's any problems let me know immediately. I have good friends in Suzhou and Shanghai.