Tuesday, November 10, 2010

Mrs. Frank and I had breakfast at the hotel at 7:00AM, and were picked up in the lobby at 8:15AM for the short ten minute ride to The Century School. The weather was extremely cold, the wind was very strong and the sky was gray. We entered the gated school campus, drove up to the main administration building, and were greeted by Principal Zhang. We were each given a large bouquet of flowers and our reception was recorded by a TV reporter, two cameraman, two school photographers, and a host of other school officials. An electronic sign in the entrance welcomed me and Mrs. Frank and we were ushered into a large, third floor, conference room. There was a LCD projecting a large image of the flags of both the United States and China. On the large conference table was tea, water, fruit, and another large bouquet of flowers. Mr. Zhang officially welcomed us and gave us an overview of the school and the cameramen and photographers constantly took pictures. Mrs. Frank and I showed everyone a PowerPoint of AMSB and briefly described the program. We presented gifts from our school and then were given a two hour tour of the campus, which included the library, the main middle school building, the pre-school building, the lower elementary school building and campus athletic fields. The walk outside was very, very cold and windy. We ate in a special dining hall for lunch with about ten other school staff members. The food consisted of about twelve different selections of seafood, vegetables, and dumplings, but the most interesting dish was that of fried crickets…which Dr. D. bravely tried. During the school’s lunch break, between 11:30AM and 2:00PM, we drove to a local department store to buy a winter jacket for Mrs. Frank, who needed better protection from the strong wind. In the afternoon we observed two middle school English classes and then met with several of the better seventh and eighth grade English students in the library…doing a question and answer in English. Finally, we had dinner in the school’s formal faculty before returning to the hotel at 7:00PM. Mrs. Frank used the evening to prepare for an art class that she volunteered to teach tomorrow. Dr. D. used the time to update his diary and review the photos which Mrs. Frank had taken during the day.

Monday, November 9, 2009

We got our wake-up calls at 5:30AM, had breakfast at 6:00AM, checked out of the Beijing hotel at 6:30AM, and left for the train station for the high speed train to Jinan. We arrived at the very modern and very large train station at 7:30AM. The weather was cool and overcast, the heavy fog had lifted, but the clouds remained. The train D35 to Jinan left promptly at 8:20AM and the three hour ride to Jinan, in the Shandong Province. The train was much like a modern jet…and very fast. We arrived in Jinan, a city of about 7million people, at 11:20PM. The weather was very cold, near 32 degrees, very windy, and the sky was gray and overcast. Mrs. Frank and I were met by Wang Ping, the English Department Head from The Century School, who had visited AMSB in June and a driver named Mr. Zhang. Wang Peng was also there to meet Dan Gregg and Mailoha. Mailoha was going to stay at the Shandong University of Finance where Peng was an English professor. Wang Peng had also visited AMSB in October and stayed at Ms. Frank’s home for a week. After a brief welcome, we went our separate ways. Mrs. Frank and I left for a lunch in downtown Jinan and then took a three hour car ride to the city of Shouguang, where The Century School is located. Most of the countryside was farmland. We were finally dropped off at one of the most beautiful hotels that I have ever visited, the Chenming International Hotel, which was only two years old. Shouguang is a city of one million people, but is the center a major agricultural region for China as well as for other countries. The hotel was built primarily for foreign business people who come to the city to buy produce. At 5:00PM we went out to a restaurant for dinner with the Principal of The Century School, several of his staff and teachers, as well as school officials for the entire region. It was a very lovely meal with many toasts toward good relations between The Century School and Amity. We returned to the hotel after dinner and explored the grounds. I found a tennis center and hit for several minutes with one of the employees. We also found a table tennis room (ping-pong) and played a few games before returning to our rooms for the evening.

Sunday, November 8, 2009

Sunday morning we left the hotel at 7:30AM for the hour ride to the Great Wall. The day was again cool and foggy. We were driven to the Great Wall in a very comfortable Mercedes van. Along the way we stopped at a state-run “jade” store, which sold thousands of jade items. Once at the Great Wall we took pictures and walked along with many other thousands of people. While the weather was very cool and breezy, it was very comfortable walking. We left the Great Wall after one hour and had an early lunch on the way back to Beijing at a cloisonné factory and store, again with thousands of cloisonné items for sale. We retuned to Beijing around 1:00PM and had a tour of a Hutang Village on bicycle-type taxis. The Hutang Village was once a wealthy area of Beijing that evolved into a working class area…but because of its great location near the Forbidden City was now being renovated as an area for wealthy people. Next was a long walking tour of the Forbidden City, a huge complex of more than 9,000 rooms were the emperors’ once lived. We also took a brief walking tour of Tiananmen Square where were two huge television screens displayed. The both screens were at least 100 yards long and about 10 yards high and they were displaying a video of various scenic areas in China in celebration of the 60th anniversary of the Peoples Republic of China which occurred during the first week of October. We ate dinner at a restaurant famous for the dish of Peking duck, which was the main entrée. Finally, before going back to the hotel we went shopping at the Silk Market, a crazy marketplace filled with thousands of vendors who were incredible experts at driving customers crazy with their bargaining skills. We bought quite a few items, but returned to the hotel exhausted.

Friday & Saturday, November 6 & 7, 2009

Friday was a travel day. Mrs. Frank and I got to the Bradley airport at 6:30AM on a sunny morning and met our two traveling companions, Mailoha Albaladejo, an economics student from Eastern Connecticut State University who was going to visit the Shandong University of Finance, and Dan Gregg, the trip organizer and former employee of the Connecticut State Department of Education who was there to make arrangements for more upcoming trips to China. Chicago seemed much colder than Connecticut. Our flight left Bradley at 9:00AM and we arrived in Chicago at 11:00AM (10:00AM their time). We had a light lunch at the airport and waited for United Airlines flight 0851 to Beijing, which left on time at 12:43PM CST. Luckily Ms. Frank and I both had isle seats for the 13 hour trip to Beijing. During the flight we read, watched two movies, ate, and tried to sleep. We arrived in Beijing around 4:15PM on Saturday afternoon. There was a very heavy cloud cover and a fog that seemed to surround the entire city. It was cool and damp. We met our tour guide, Bing Wang and a driver, King Wang, at the airport. We all traveled to a restaurant for our first meal before going to the hotel. The dinner was a buffet style assortment of traditional Chinese dishes. We arrived at the Jiang Xi Grand Hotel around 7:00PM. We settled in and even got foot massages at a shop near the hotel. We then got our computers and internet connections set up. Before we turned in I was able to call home using Skype and email, but for some reason we were unable to connect to our blogs or Facebook.

Back to China in 2009!

I am excited that I will have another opportunity to return to China...this time with art teacher, Sara Frank. We will be leaving for The Century School in November.

The Return to Connecticut, USA

We left the hotel at 11:30 AM,on Monday April 21, and stopped at a very large restaurant for our last meal in China. It was still raining when we arrived at the new, huge airport.

Return to Connecticut, USA

Monday, April 21, 2008

I got up very early, and went down for breakfast at 6:00AM. It was still raining. Instead of waiting around the hotel I decided to go to the Antique Market, for yet a last shopping spree before the 11:30 AM bus to the airport. I found three others who also wanted to go to the market and we got a taxi. Unfortunately, the hotel directions to the Antique Market were to the wrong location…and we spent one and one-half hours in rush hour traffic before we found that out. We finally got to the market at 8:20 AM, only to find that it virtually empty. My colleagues decided to leave and took a taxi back to the hotel…empty handed. I was lucky to find one small shop where bought a few items. I did get a bit nervous, being alone at this market, with few taxis around. However, I did find a man in a car on the street to bring me back by 10:15AM, and had forty-five minutes to finish packing.

We left the hotel at 11:30 AM and stopped at a very large restaurant for our last meal in China. It was still raining when we arrived at the new airport. Lines at the airport were long and by the time we made our way to the gate, people were already boarding. I bought a few items in the duty free shop to get rid of my last few yuan…and settled in for the 12 hour flight back home. We left basically on time, at 4:20 PM on Monday, April 21. We saw the sun set…then rise…and landed in Chicago basically at 4:20PM (EST) on Monday, April 21! It was sunny in Chicago and we made our way for the connecting flight to Bradley Airport. It left at 6:45PM (Central Time) and we arrived back in Hartford, with our entire luggage, by 10:00PM. I got my car at the hotel and drove back to Norwalk, returning home just after midnight! A great trip completed.