Pictures from their last day at the Temple of Heaven and the Art District in Beijing

Hello China Squad parents
I did not receive a blog from Mr Capen or the kids today, but I was sent some pictures from their day.
These represent their trip to the Great Wall- they hiked to a portion not open to the general public with a guide, and the wall pictures show their views and group together

The rest show them at Qianmen Square, celebrating Ms Jin's birthday at the restaurant, and receiving a lecture from an expert on the Great walls of China
Only two more sleeps until we get our kids back!
Sylvie Rimmer :)

Amy
Today was probably the happiest and saddest day of my trip. The performance was the culmination of all of our time together, and though we couldn’t understand the lyrics of their songs and vice versa, the feelings we had for each other showed through the language barrier. During lunch, I had given four students farewell letters detailing the highlights I had with them, and in the seven hours between lunch and the performance, two of them also prepared and gave me gifts. I can’t explain their kindness well enough to show the true hearts of these people, but I can say that I literally had to chase one down and sneak money into his bag because he would not accept anything in return. Afterwards, we headed to the hotel to say goodbye. It was the first time I had ever cried while saying goodbye to anyone. For some reason, even though the time we spent with the Mongolian students was only half the time of that which we spent with the WLSA students, it felt like we had known these people all of our lives. I am eager to return to Hohhot as soon as possible to see my friends again.

Thursday, June 25th

Today was an eventful day. We started out with morning classes such as Chinese, English, or Math. In English class, many Groton students volunteered to sing popular American songs. Dowey, Roan, Cherian, and Rohan sang the Groton classic “Let Justice Roll” in a glorious round. Amy sang a song she had learnt in elementary school called “Rocky Mountain”. Emma sang (rapped) a traditional American folk song under the name of “Super Bass”.
 In the afternoon, we all congregated in a practice room to rehearse for the final recital on Friday. We played many different instruments such as the guitar, the 马头琴 (ma tou qin- a two stringed violin-like instrument adorned with a horse head), and various other traditional Mongolian instruments. Afterwards, Abby performed a dance she had learned earlier today with the Mongolian girls. Watching Abby dance with the students was moving—pun intended (sobs weakly at own joke)! We also watched the students perform various other types of dance, such as C-pop and more contemporary forms.
After dinner, we all went to visit a nearby department store that featured an ice rink, an arcade, a movie theater, and twelve floors of stores. Playing in the arcade with Angel was one of the highlights of our day. Our Mongolian buddies gave many of us traditional Mongolian jewelry, which was a thoroughly pleasant surprise.
-Cherian and Emma

Today we had a later start, and walked to school for our first free period. We really enjoyed hearing the students play their instruments, such as a cello-like instrument called the ma-tou-qin (horse head violin), and other interesting instruments. They were so good at their instruments; they had practiced quite a lot.  It was so nice that they were willing to play for us, and no one was too shy to play us some great music. We then went to our respective classes, and while the classes were all in Chinese and hard to understand, it felt like a true immersion experience. Our classes were so welcoming, clapping when we entered and listening intently to our introductions. We made plenty of new friends. Our Mongolian buddies were so welcoming, and invited us to spend time with them and their friends. During our free period in the afternoon, it was quite fun to play cards and talk with them in their dorm rooms. They took us to buy food, and we had a great time talking to them. After class we went to dinner with our new friends, then went back to the dorm. We are very excited for our second day at the Mongolian school.

Monday in Mongolia

At 10 o’clock this morning, the lobby was filled with chattering and laughter as we met our hosts – teachers and students from the Mongolian Art School - and their families. Although our days varied, our host families usually treated us to lunch and dinner and also toured us around famous attractions in Hohhot. Some of us even made dumplings (although they told us to stop after a few attempts). After delicious lunches, some of us went to the museum on Main Street, which was filled with several exhibitions. Others went to various Tibetan Buddhist temples, known as “Zhao” in Chinese. Beside the temple, we walked along streets bustling with vendors selling colorful souvenirs. Although we didn’t buy everything we wanted, we definitely improved our bargaining skills. After an exciting day, the host families took us out to dinner. The restaurants ranged from traditional Mongolian cuisine to Hot Pot. Not only did we have a lot of fun with our host families, we also experienced authentic Inner Mongolian culture, learned about new lifestyles and perspectives, and Broke the Chinese Barrier. 

One wonderful thing was how funny and witty our hosts were, along with incredibly hospitable, making it a kind of all around bonding experience. My favorite moment was when our host’s father told us about his childhood and described the change Inner Mongolia underwent. Although we took some time bonding and there were some funny translating misunderstandings (American Peter is the breed of my dog… you should know it, its from America!), the day was amazing. A tiny little perk of being with them was also that everything was very cheap. J
Jamie Jiang, Shirley  Li and Marianne Lu 

The Genghis Khan spiritual mausoleum was a Mongolian symbol of the unity of peoples of all languages and origins as well as a memorial to arguably the most famous Mongolian man in history. Many times through the tour, we were reminded that the mausoleum was not a burial place for Khan’s body, but for his spirit. Waling along the lucky ninety-nine steps up to the mausoleum, we circled a traditional stone mound three times clockwise, throwing a pebble on the pile at the end in order to make a wish. We learned about how the Mongolian empire was built up by one man and his love for both his people and commerce among the East and the West, and how the last remaining eight yurts of his time could represent an entire nation. In front of each yurt was a candle whose fire had not been put out since Genghis Khan’s death in order to symbolize the protection that resided over his spirit from those who dedicated themselves to him.

The day began with a horse show unlike the Kentucky Derby or rodeo shows that most Americans can identify. The Mongolian way of showing the practice of horseback riding was by displaying their abilities to perform the traditional skills of equestrian archery and acrobatics. We then visited a sand park in Inner Mongolia that featured a vast desert with many attractions. Though our day began with light rain and long bus rides, we discovered that the bus rides were opportunities to bond with the Mongolian students and the rain brought perfect weather for sliding down sand dunes and riding sand tractors along the desert on our way to there. While waiting in lines, we passed the time by burying each other in sand and sand-ball fights. We also rode a ski-lift-gone-desert over to the park, which allowed us to capture the massiveness of the land. Once we arrived, the Groton kids split up into groups with the Mongolian students and went along partaking in the many attractions of the park. Not only did we do this with the students, but we also were able to find perfect strangers who were more than willing to overlook the language barrier and overall difficulty of sand athletics in order to enjoy an all-over-the-place game of volleyball and soccer. After two hours of free roaming and playing in the sand, we then settled down with bumpy ride on top of humpy camels and an acrobatics show to end the day. The long bus rides of the day left us with many hours to get to know the Mongolian students. We learned how to (almost) pronounce all of their Mongolian names perfectly, coined them with English names, and exchanged music from all genres and languages. Singing Rolling in the Deep and a Mongolian Father’s Day Folk Song at the back of the bus was an uplifting (and somewhat noisy) end to the day.