Time to say Goodbye . . . to Qufu

Did you set your clocks ahead? Good.

The kids finished their home stays last night and it is time to say goodbye to Qufu. Tom wrote to say:

“. . . went to Confucius' birthplace (cave) at Mt. Ni this morning. Have a final banquet tonight and then it is off to Tai Shan and then to Xi'an.”

Let’s get right now to Ashley’s report:
 

REPORT 7 -- April 5

Reporter: Ashley

Today I wrote all my postcards (16) and mailed about five. We had a postcard gathering in the second floor lobby and I got all mine written in one swoop. It was a good day for it because it rained for the first time.

This afternoon we drove through a quaint village to a pyramid surrounded by patchwork crops. It was a remote area and we were very novel. I was using the digital camera and people loved it when I showed them the picture I had just taken.

I found out that the red writing on the walls of the quaint village were slogans promoting China’s one-child policy. The deeper we go into China, the more I see the contrasts with the United States.

We left the walled-in campus and explored a market in Qufu city. I was beginning to feel trapped within the walls and I was very glad to escape through the guarded gate.

The market was incredible!  I could have spent hours there. Everything from tea to freshly killed chickens to knock-off Adidas flip flops was sold. I bought a pineapple.

I got some great elderly people shots. Their creased, leathery faces are proof that they’ve lived a life that I can only try to understand and to appreciate.

Now that our show is over, I am in my home stay. The family is very nice and welcoming. The girl is 15; I forgot/don’t know her name. I have to ask tomorrow. The parents speak no English and she doesn’t speak it completely fluently, but we are getting along fine. Her mother works in a wine factory and her father is a professor at the Teachers’ University. They want me to wear sandals in the house. They also really want to feed me, but I got here at 10 or 11 and wasn’t hungry. The girl keeps calling her friend because the can’t translate words. She‘s very sweet. She took my hand when we first met and she has given her room up for me. They live in a modern two or three bedroom apartment on the 6th floor. Her bedroom is bigger than mine with a piano in it. The bed gives a new meaning to “firm” mattress.  I’m not sure that it’s not just a board!

Each of the kids will have their own story and experience with their host family. This must have been quite a challenge for them. Here is what Liza had to say about her home stay:

[my host family’s] daughter is 14yrs like me, and very outgoing and energetic. A first I was kind of scared, but then she bounds right over to me and starts chatting away to me, all excited. Her name is Yuki and she lives on the school campus with her mother and father, who  are quieter, but just as sweet as Yuki. They are related to Confucious, and gave me a beautiful picture of him on a wooden plaque. They love looking at all the photos I brought of my home and family.

. . . my bedroom here is so beautiful!! The outside of their house is an apartment building  and kind of slummy and trashy, but the inside is a different world! It is very tiny, but filled with georgeous fabrics, colorful carpets, handmade  pottery and beautiful paintings. They brought me into a room off the living room that took my breath away. An entire wall is covered with wooden shelves, like a bookcase, but filled with hand painted vases and pots of all colors and textures, with shining gold and silver accents. The large bed is covered  with a handmade spread of all different designs, pieced together in an exotic pattern in colors of peach, pinks and red. Then they said "this will  be your room" I was speechless. I think it is Yuki's  parent's bedroom, but you cannot argue with them, as it gets you nowhere, and can hurt their feelings.

Yuki's mom made homemade noodles. She actually made the dough, cut it into thin strips and cooked it...delicious! I kept asking if anyone else would like [more chicken], but they just kept saying "No, you eat." So I ate. It  was the best meal for me since the banquet, and I am stuffed.
 

Kim called last night and said that her host family didn’t speak much, but she managed to teach them a new card game. Korin mentioned that rice seemed to be in short supply for meals. Steven John (Leland and Gray Middle School Principal) tells us, “The Chinese feel it would be insulting to fill up their guests with rice (a rather commonplace food), so it is rarely served.”

Thanks everyone for sharing these fascinating insights to the kids experiences. I am sure they are all happy to be back together and heading out to new locations and adventures.

The gang will be in transit over the next couple of days so we should not expect much in the way of updates or photos. We have certainly been blessed with lots of photos during their stay in Qufu. Be assured that we will post any correspondence and photos we do receive. We’ll also be placing links to the places they’ll go and sights they’ll see. We’ll also include any correspondence we receive from parents.

So . . . until tomorrow, another day has passed leaving us just a short 19 days to go . . . hang in there everybody!