Day 3: Orientation Day 2

Today was rather uneventful. We went on a tour at the Beijing Center (TBC). Supposedly, it's the largest book collection of Chinese culture/history in Beijing. Interestingly, it started as a library with only like 13 books. There are many valuable books, scrolls, and maps in the collection, either donated by various private parties or bought through book dealers. It's astonishing to see the comprehensiveness of the collection and what their facility has to offer its staff and students. Pictures will be uploaded at a later time.

Later that day, we heard a presentation by Rachel Wasser, the President of China Education Initiative (CEI), a recognized and Chinese government supported NGO. They spent the past 3 years planning their project, and this year was their first year of implementation in Henan schools. They pair American fellows with Chinese fellows, and place them in middle schools to help prepare the students for 中考, in the areas of English, Chinese, and math. What they've seen this year has been substantial improvements in test scores and student retention rates. These trained fellows collaborate to develop an academic curriculum which can provide a sustainable method of education for rural areas. The next few years will decide the fate of the project and really evaluate the effectiveness of this NGO.

Finally, we decided on our projects which we will undertake the Dandelion School. So everyone is required to teach English in a 7th grade class and pick their own project. I will be working on a health-related project on nutritions, studying the effectiveness of newly added diet of an egg and a chicken leg per week and evaluating to see if any other foods are needed. Another part may include a way to provide vision education and promote awareness of eye problems and simple solutions.

We ate at 奥士凯银龙酒家‎, a lot of 家常菜. Overall, the food was pretty good, but since Haiwan ordered, the food was rather bland and flavorness. Note to self, never let a 福建 native order food again. 上海人 would never order something like that, because flavorful items, salty or sweet, are the preferred choice. Nothing extraordinary happened today. After dinner was over, I went to visit 人民广场 at night, which was an amazing view. Also, I went to 王福建, which is the Beijing equivalent to 南京路 in Shanghai. It was hustling and bustling, saw a lot of expensive clothes, accessories, and 老外. Chinese night life has definitely changed, but in some ways, it's still the same old. The shopping areas are modernized, if not even much better than American shopping plazas. However, a lot of stores close extremely early, around 10pm. I was shocked to see lights of stores going off that early. Where's the night life? Is clubbing the only thing around after 11pm?

Btw, tomorrow is the last day of orientations!