Virtual China '98

Hello, my name is Mark McDougall. I’m going to tell you what I did this morning. This morning I had a very nice breakfast. After the breakfast we went to visit a beer factory and learnt a bit about the main beer called Hans beer. We met the man who managed it and I thought he sounded very nice. We got to go into one of the sites where it was heated, and we saw lots of beer bottles on the production lines where they fastened the top of the filled beer bottles. I asked the man that was putting this thing around the top of the bottle, which was a label, if I could have one for my scrapbook and he gave it to me. We saw these two young adults fasten the bottles together so quickly on the production line.

The next thing we did this morning was going for a walk on a Street that second hand things are sold. It was really muddy and there were big puddles because it had been raining this morning. My friend, Vincent, bought two switches for lights and he was really pleased about them because they were only $7 for both of them. The last thing we did was to go eat lunch. We ate in the Chinese Merchant Hotel Restaurant. I wasn’t very hungry so I didn’t eat because I had had a big breakfast. I enjoyed this morning very much.

This is the Beer Factory we went to visit this morning in Xi’an.

 Well this is the first time I’ve ever been in this building. The people call it the bottling and cleaning facility, I’m moving really slowly and I’m jammed between six other bottles. A lot of other people have arrived and some are wearing red sweatshirts.

Oh well I’m going to this cleaning machine, there’s some sort of x-ray looking thing and there are two people watching it. Phew, that was close. I thought I’d break. Oh my gosh three bottles just DIED! Hope that doesn’t happen to me. Whoa I just started zipping past some people who put some sort of neckpiece over my head, man are they fast. Uh oh I’m getting faster, oh shoot! Ow ow ow ow ow ow ow, my neck and head hurt. I think I’m choking to death and I’ve got some sort of "hat" on, which is way to small for my head, it says HANS BEER ISI. I think I’m cracked.

Eeeeeeewwwwww I’ve got some sort of sticky goop on me and there’s a label that says Hans, brewed by Tsingtao brewery Xi’an co. and in those fonts as well. There’s something wet and yellow in me, did I wet my bottle?? Boy did this guy wrap me fast with string. Wait, whose this, it’s a "Mr. Lane" and "Brian" they’re carrying me away with 9 other bottles.

Mr. Lane and Brian our tour guide carrying away the 10 Pack of beer.

Wow, what a day! The HKIS students visited today and it was lots of fun! So many things happening, I can’t even believe that it actually happened. Those HKIS students are so nice, though shy. We had a great basketball game after the formalities and greetings. Of course we won.

We got real nice gifts, such as stationary, tamogotchis, sweatshirts, wallets and a variety of others. It was great talking to them, some spoke Chinese very well! I even got an address of one of the students- we’re going to be pen pals.

The program was very funny and exciting! They did these funny, short skits about a kid dying and they can’t do it right, so the director gives up. Another was beating up someone and the he gets this silly expression on his face and acts weird then ( I think ) he dies. There was one, where they kept passing some messages along and then at the end, changed legs- they had crossed their legs. I didn’t really get it, but good effort on their part. The last thing they did was a boy played two pieces on the violin, he is so good. He played some classical song and a famous Chinese song, Romeo and Juliet. I wish I could play an instrument as well as he can!

They were very impressed with our show and took many pictures of us. Like outside when we were getting to know some of them they took Polaroid’s with us and gave them to us for a momento of their trip. They also interviewed us on our school life and just about us. I sure wish they could stay longer, but they have to stick to their schedule like we do. I can’t wait for next year group of HKIS students!

When lunch and card trick time had passed, we departed for the Xi’an Tongren School. We first went to the still under-construction primary school. HKIS students were open to see a class learning the Basic English language and a music class. However this was only a small part of the school, as we soon discovered as we arrived at their middle school.

At the middle school a somewhat stupendous band greeted us. The band mainly consisted of bass and march drums, symbols and a number of students waving light colored sheets of paper. After passing the band we were immediately greeted by teachers, our group was lead to what looked like a meeting room. Mr.Lane and Mr.Dratz exchanged a few words with the principle of the Tongren School. Mr.Lane and the Tongren principle enjoyed their discussion, then we moved to a large room where a number of performances would soon be held.

Several speeches were held as the Tongren choir prepared to take stand in front of some 200 people. My personal feeling told me that this part was boring, I almost dosed off more than once. "My Daughter/Son is Dying " Skits soon followed. Ambient laughter came as the actors and actresses performed. I especially liked "My Son is dying " in Mandarin. Grade 8 (Music Level) violinist Nile Chang played two pieces, one of which name I cannot remember and Chinese Romeo and Juliet. Nile was truly superb, a pity that he had to cut his first piece short. I was a little disturbed when the Tongren students talked as Nile was playing. A Solo of Titanic’s "My Heart Will Go On" was sung by a Tongren student. Many people said that the soloist really sounded like the Celine Dion. I claimed that is was because of the CD in the back round. Kindergardeners did a few cute dances as well as some older ones. The Tongren’s middle schools last performance was a demonstration of Kung Fu.

All students and teachers headed for the yard in front of the school. Gifts that HKIS students purchased were given out to students that we met; some even gave something in return. Vincent, Mark and I interviewed a teacher from the Xi’an middle school. Our topic that we focused on was housing in China. The teacher was very resourceful and was a great asset to out research.

Tongren and HKIS middle school students competed in basketball. The teams had been fair even though we had more people, because the Tongren students had all been from the high school. Tongren did win. ;(

We left the school and headed for the hotel for a 30-minute rest. Dinners was at the "Ming Dynasty" resturaunt, located near the hotel we had a easy time getting there and back. I considered dinner good, for the exception the trouble Karam and I caused because of our eating rules.

Over all the day had been okay, bus rides had been loud and funny, and I got to skip walking the Xi’an city wall because of Virtual China.

Tongren Middle School Students, showed their skill while they performed for HKIS. Above are younger students doing a very nice dance.

Interview with the students in the Xian Tong Ren School

Today, we went to the Xian Tong Ren School. We watched lots of shows which was performed by the students in there. They were so talented that made us feel envious of them. Also, we performed some stupid skits to them in Cantonese, English and Mandarin. At least, the people in the school seems to enjoy it. During the time in the school, I found lots of friendly people and made friends with them. This is an interview with them:

Student: Hi! I’m Ko Sin Kei, I ‘m sixteen and I go to the High School. Can I be friends with you?

Karina: Sure, I’m thirteen this year, and a seventh grader, so is my friend Caroline.

Student: These are my friends, they are all in High School.

Karina: Can we do an interview with you guys?

Student: No problem.

Karina: Do you know what subjects do the students take in the Primary school?

Student: Umm…… Math, English, PE, Art, Geography, History, Social Studies, Music and other subjects they choose to take.

Karina: How long is a school year in this school?

Student: About eight to nine months.

Karina: When does it begin and end?

Student: September 1^st ~ between July and August.

Karina: How many vacations do you have?

Student: About 10 to 20. Chinese New Year is the longest, it’s about two months.

Karina: What time does school starts and ends usually?

Student: Approximately at 8:20am we start having our first period and we are off for lunch at 12:00pm.

Karina: How long is the lunch break?

Student: Half an hour.

Karina: How many days do you attend to school every week?

Student: Five and a half days.

Karina: What are you planning to do after you finish High School?

Student: Maybe to the university if I can.

Karina: How do students get to the school in the morning?

Student: We take the school bus everyday at 7:15am.

Karina: Do you know how much your parents pay for you to come to this school?

Student: $12000 per year.

Karina: Thanks for all these information.

Student: I’m glad to help you.

Karina: Can we take a picture with all of you?

Student: Sure! I want to ask you for a long time already.

Karina: We better hurry up. I think we’re going to leave soon.

Student: Oh, are you coming to Xian again?

Karina: I don’t think so, but there is another group of students from our school coming this following week. I hope you can be friends with them too.

Student: Can you give me your and Carolines’ address? We really want to be pen pals with you?

Karina: Sure. Why don’t you give me your address also?

Student: That’s great.

Karina: (Caroline and me took out the presents for them.) Here are some presents for you, sorry that we only have two presents and not enough for you guys to share.

Student: Oh, thank you very much. We are extremely sorry that we didn’t prepare any presents for you guys.

Student: (Ko Sin Kei took off her bracelet and give it to me, and another girl gave a fuzzy thing to Caroline which she used to decorate her jeans.) These are some presents we can give you right now, I hope you’ll like it.

Karina: I think we really have to go now.

Student: Bye. Call or write us anytime?

Karina: We will. Bye.

This is a picture of me and my friends in the school. I’m the one standing third from the left in the back row.