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Hey everybody . . .

We have a lot of snow falling here in southern Vermont. It’s another winter (mid-April) day in Vermont.

Alrighty then, we have a ton of photos today. Well, not really a ton, maybe a couple hundred pounds (which is till a lot!), or maybe more than 70 (a record so far this journey!). So maybe you better get yourself a fresh cup of coffee or Diet Pepsi and a cinnamon roll, because you are going to be here for a while!

We have photos of the Welcome Banquet and a visit to Mongolian Kindergarten and Hulun Primary School.

We are going to start the day with a student report from Kayleigh Overton. Kayleigh helps to set the stage for the Welcome Banquet photos.
 

April 11, 2007 -- Kayleigh Overton, Sophomore

6:30 AM. The phone rings: “Time to get up. This is your wake-up call!” Emily and I both groan and get up to eat breakfast--pineapple, eggs, watermelon and so much more. It was all delicious.

At 8:25 we all met and started our day. First, we went to the Dazhao Lamasery, a Tibetan Buddhist monastery built in the Ching Dynasty in 1779. At the lamasery, we learned many things such as there are four kings that protect the four skies: North, South, East and West. I also learned about stages of human reincarnation. The five stages I remember are heaven, human, hunger, healing, and animal. I recall that the animal is the lowest thing you could be reincarnated as since, for example, a chicken symbolizes greed, a pig is foolish, and the snake is evil. I personally agree that snakes are evil because of my fear of snakes….

After we left the Dazhao Lamasery, we visited the Five Pagodas. There was one difference in the reincarnation wheel at the Pagoda, the pig represented laziness. Over 5,500 Buddhas are carved into the side of the Pagoda.

Later in the day, we went back to the Inner Mongolia Arts College where we learned a song in Mongolian. Some of us had learned it two years ago in chorus when students from this college visited Leland and Gray, but we only vaguely remembered it. Knowing it a little was helpful, though, when we went over the pronunciations of the words. I thought it was going to be a lot harder than it actually was. It was fun learning a song in a different language. What I thought was cool was that we (the Mongolian students and us Journey East students) were able to communicate well without many words.

After we sang, we began to learn a Mongolian dance. It was really hard for us at first. The teacher would start dancing and, at the same time, we would have to follow what she was doing. After a couple rounds of different dance steps, we started to get the hang of it. When we watch the Mongolians’ dances in Vermont, they don’t look hard to do or like they take a lot of energy…but they do! As well as the Mongolian song and a song we’ll teach them, we are also performing the dance here as well! That should be a blast.

For tonight’s dinner, we had a welcome banquet. The food was amazing; there was fish, tofu, yogurt and cheese. There was also other food I could not identify. Neither could Hujia! Toward the end of the dinner, there was a special Mongolian ceremony called the Hada. Hada is a welcoming ceremony. First Mr. Connor and the president of the arts college cut a duck. Then people sang and played instruments such as the horse-head fiddle. While the music was playing, Mongolian singers came around and gave us each a beautiful blue scarf to welcome us to Inner Mongolia. The Mongolians and Chinese do so much to welcome us into their country. They are truly amazing, warm-hearted people. I hope all of us in Journey East will make friends for a life time and remember this experience forever.

-- Kayleigh

According to en.tibettour.com, the origin of the Hada is:

The hada is pronounced "kha-(b)tags" in Tibetan. Folklore historians believe that the tradition of the hada presentation can be traced back to the reign of Kublai Khan, the founder of China's Yuan Dynasty (1271-1368). Basipa (Phags-pa) returned to Tibet in 1264 after his special trip to pay tribute to Kublai Khan in Northwest China's Gansu Province. He brought back a hada with the design of the Great Wall and Chinese characters that meant "as lucky as one wishes." When he went to worship the Buddha at the Jokhang Temple in Lhasa, the Tibetan capital, Basipa presented the hada to the Buddha. Later, the hada was endowed with a religious connotation, referred to as "fairies' streamers." Learn more.

Let’s take a look at the Welcome Banquet festivities:
 

Friends Celebrating Friends

Pretty cool. Another very special moment.

Each journey, when the students return to the U.S., they are asked “what was your favorite thing about the trip. Most always say “the children.” They’ll often say, the Great wall was amazing, the food was delicious, their new friends are so very special, but the children . . . the children are priceless.

The following photos take place at the Mongolian Kindergarten and the Hulun Primary School. Wu Xiyong's wife is the principal of the primary school.

I don’t expect to see you flip over these photos (like our second resident flipper, Amy -- check out March 27 if you missed Chauncey’s flip) but I do expect to hear a lot of “aaaahs” as you look through these wonderful photos.

The photos speak for themselves. Enjoy . . .
 

Isn’t this great stuff? Here’s a photo of our fearless leader, Tom Connor, with one of the Mongolian students. Tom’s love for all children drives his incredible and tireless efforts in developing the Journey East program. More than one hundred students have participated in the Asian Studies Academy and Sino-American Performing Arts Exchange.

I leave you today with a photo of one of the magnificent young Mongolian dancers. She is ready for the big time.

I think I’m coming down with “Saturday Night Fever!”

Enjoy the snow!