the ASPect - American School of Paris

student experience /7
Day 4 - Taishan and Linyi Arrival
By Gabe, Misha and Nicholas
To go down the mountain, we had two
options: some people wanted to walk
down the stairs and the rest took the
cable-car and bus. The walk took only
three hours, half the time it took our group
to walk up the previous evening.
When we arrived at Linyi we were warmly
welcomed with a reception hosted by the
heads of the Linyi Number Middle School.
Some of the dishes were shocking like the
chicken dish that had the feet and head in
it, and there were some other crazy mixes.
We were all polite and tried all the dishes.
Day 6 - Linyi
By Clara, Caroline and Alison
We rode the bus to a Riverside
Poetry Garden, where there was
beautiful scenery and fantastic
poems carved onto hundreds of
rocks. Afterwards, we were lucky
enough to go to a Wholesale
Market. After lunch, we met with
Professor Yao Baohua. She talked
about her experience as a child
living in China and during the Cultural
Revolution when she was sent to work on
a farm for eight years.
Then we headed to the Art of War
Museum. The museum contained 2000
year-old bamboo strips with chapters
of a book by SunBin and his grandson,
SunWu. In the afternoon we pulled into the
grounds of the Linyi school, and we were
greeted with an immense crowd of the
students waiting for our arrival. We played
thrilling basketball games and had dinner
with our penpals.
Day 5 - Linyi
By Justin,
Alana and Drew
Today we went to the home of the greatest
Calligrapher Wang Xizhi, who lived over
1500 years ago and was born in Linyi.
Next to his home was a garden and pond
which included a long wall of calligraphy
samples, serving as a “calligraphy hall of
fame.” We also visited a nearby Buddhist
Temple.
Our next stop was a school of art called the
Wang Bin Studio. The artwork there was
exceptionally beautiful.
After lunch we met up with our Pen-pals
at Linyi Number One Middle School. We
had a about twenty minutes to talk with
our pen-pals and then we went into their
classrooms to give presentations. The
class presentations were very exciting
and most of the classes included over
70 students. Many of the students had
questions about our lives, and even
requested some entertainment such as
dancing and singing. They were as pleased
to meet us as we were pleased to meet
them. It was interesting to exchange
thoughts on our cultures. We were then
shown around the school by our pen-pals.
It was an honor to be introduced to the
school the way that they did.
WOW! It’s amazing, how we could have
friends from so far and not even know what
they look like, and then to meet up with
them at a pizza hut! WOWZERS!
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The Aspect - November 2010