Short!

Thirty years ago, when the military draft was in place, most of us counted the days till we got out of the army. With less than ten days to go, you had the envious honor of being referred to as “short.” This meant you were less than two weeks away to becoming a civilian again. Hardly a night went by when you wouldn’t hear someone yelling “short!” in the barracks halls.

Well, today the kids in China are “short!” Just nine days to go on this journey, and only four more days in Hohhot. The group will have regular class and performance days until this Sunday when they attend the Hohhot farewell banquet.

We heard from Kim last night and she said:

Inner Mongolia is beautiful. The mountains kind of remind me of home except there are no trees. The food is so good. I've eaten a lot of lamb/mutton. It's weird. The other night we were served cooked chicken feet . . . yuk! . . . I couldn't even look at them without losing my appetite. We've been rehearsing with the students here. It's really fun because most of them can't speak English. Three guys that are dancers at the school were teaching me, Ida, and Liza some really cool hip hop dancing. It was fun because they only know “yes,” “no,” “hi,” “bye,” and “thank you.” I've been here so long now and having so many friends here really helps. My Chinese is improving and I'm loving it so much that I keep thinking I want to continue to learn the language. The temples and pagodas are absolutely beautiful. I  think I like it up here the best so far, though Xi'an has got to be my favorite city.

I am convinced now that these will not be the same kids we said goodbye to three weeks ago!

The weather is definitely not the same when the kids left in March! It is absolutely gorgeous here in Vermont right now. The leaves are budding, the grass is green, and we even had the fan running yesterday! If you are curious what the weather is like right now in Hohhot, then go here to find out current weather and forecast.

The population of Hohhot is more than 100,000 more than the population of Vermont.

Go here to find out more about the “foods of Hohhot.” And here’s a page with many pictures of the local attractions.

Here’s an excellent “summary” of Hohhot’s culture and history. And this page will help you learn about the Mongolian ethnic minorities.

As always, as soon as we receive photos and/or correspondence from China, we’ll update this page. We’ll also add any correspondence shared by parents or friends of the JE group.

Before we go, here’s a short bit from Tom:

Our students are teaching the Chinese students "By the Waters of Babylon" and the Chinese/Mongolians will be teaching our students a Mongolian song. The kids are loving the collaborative work. They can't figure out how they'll learn the Mongolian song and dance but I'm sure that they will, after a fashion.

That’s it for now everybody. Hope you all enjoy this really hot April day in Vermont!