Created at Leland & Gray High School in Townshend, Vermont, supported by the Asian Studies Outreach Program (ASOP) at the University of Vermont (UVM), and funded primarily through a grant from the Freeman Foundation,

Journey East, as a whole, consists of the Asian Studies Academy and Sino-American Performing Arts Exchange at Leland and Gray Union High School; the integration of an Asian Studies curriculum throughout the Windham Central Supervisory Union, and the introduction of Chinese language programs into the district.

Dr. Juefei Wang, Director of the Asian Studies Outreach Program University of Vermont, is a recipient of the prestigious Goldman Sachs Award for Excellence in International education, on behalf of the UVM, Asian Studies Outreach Program.

The Leland and Gray Journey East program is deeply indebted, and extends its heartfelt thanks, to Dr. Juefei Wang, without whose effort and support this program would not even be possible!

Thank you Juefei!

I apologize to everyone for the lengthy downtime yesterday. I know it must have been terribly frustrating for you (as it was for me) trying to log in to the site, only to be rejected. The situation has been remedied (Thanks Farren!) and hopefully, we are good to go throughout the rest of the trip.

The program has developed such a huge following that sometimes the demand on the system gets to be a little too much to handle. We are a growing family and we’ll need to find bigger “digs” in the near future.

Okay, so let’s move on. The gang is now in Hohhot, but we still have a few of photos that just came in from the last day(s) in Xi’an. So let’s step a day or two and check ‘em out:
 

Out and About

in Xi’an

Here is the itinerary for today and tomorrow:

• Friday (today): Teachers and students will begin discussion of their collaboration performance pieces at the Little Concert Hall and Dance Rehearsal Hall. They’ll all have lunch at the hotel. At 3:30pm, they’ll meet for a collaboration at concert halls. The evening will be topped off with the special Welcome Banquet.
• Saturday: Collaboration at 9:00 am. During the afternoon and evening, the students will visit their Chinese host families; lunch, dinner and other activities arranged by Chinese families.

Sounds like they are hitting the ground running. They have a busy beginning to a very full stay in Hohhot. Now, after being “tourists” for a few days in Xi’an, they’ll get plugged in and get their pent-up creative and performance juices flowing. Lots of music, dancing, singing, collaborative exercises, and lots and lots of learning.

For you parents, this can be a tough few days ahead. This is that part of the trip that is similar to hitting the wall in a marathon. The first week is filled with all of the anxiety and anticipation of the trip. Each day for the first week brings news and relief as you deal with the absence of your child. The second week is filled with the many reports and photos of your child in Qufu. And now, after 18 days, and the gang settling into a long run in Hohhot, it is easy for your emotions to begin to struggle a little. At this point the trip has lasted forever and there is still forever to go.

So, hang in there everybody. You are doing great so far. The end is in sight and the coming days are going to bring us so many wonderful photos of the kids and their Mongolian friends. The home stays will bring many interesting reports and will introduce us to a number of Mongolian families that will join our ever-growing “Journey East family.” And we’ll everything we can here at JE Central to keep things lively.

One things for sure, the performance photos you will see on this web site in the days ahead will be nothing less than spectacular!

The group should be settled in by today and the photos and reports will resume flowing our way like a faucet turned on high!

We’re going to leave you with a look back in time. Here are photos of each of the previous (month-long) Journeys East. Can you name the place and year? And how many of the JE kids can you identify? Good luck . . .