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It’s Quiz Time!
Good day everyone!
In honor of Earth Day, we are going green! It’s also QUIZ day (see below)!
And now we wind this journey down to the finish. The day after tomorrow and the JE 2008 gang returns to the good ol’ US of A! Sounds good, doesn’t it?
Due to a very slow, and intermittent, Internet connection from Shanghai, we won’t be getting photos during the day today. However, we do have some interesting links (thanks Xiaoyan) to Chinese web sites that covered the JE 2008 activities. Check ‘em out:
From Inner Mongolia Morning Post:
- Related pages from the website of the college:
These are very cool. Wow! Talk about being “in the news!” Thank you, thanks Xiaoyan.
Now, here’s Tom with a very brief report:
Just arrived at the hotel in Shanghai. We are going to the Pearl TV Tower tonight. The largest in all of Asia and the third highest in the world. [Tom]
While we wait for the reports and photos, let’s talk about a very important matter. For some of you, this is your second time around (and third for a couple of you!), and you know all of this stuff. So the following is for those of you who are experiencing your first Journey East.
We talked earlier in the journey about these students being ambassadors for Vermont and for the U.S. Everything they said and did was a big deal, everyone they met was anxious to see them, talk to them, be with them. Banquets, guests of honor, celebrations, gifts, etc. They were the story. Everything, every day, was about them. They have been treated like “celebrities” for a month, a lifetime. Front page news!
Well, when they return to Vermont, they return to what they were a month ago -- themselves. No big deal. Ordinary people. This will be a challenging adjustment for them and for you. They will expect, and deserve to a certain extent, for people here to pay attention to them like they have been in China. Most people don’t even know they have been on this journey, let alone what they have experienced. They are just another person.
For several days after their return home, you will give them that deserved recognition. Their fellow students and teachers will also give them praise and attention for what they have done. They will certainly see life in a different light, questioning and comparing everything they used to take for granted. They are coming home with a wealth of knowledge and understanding and they need to share it, to test it, to use it. They will compare and challenge the ways here with the ways they have seen and lived in China for the past month.
In time, these young people will work their way back from this exhilarating experience to being themselves again. They will never be the same, that’s for sure.
Over the next couple of weeks, these guys will be able to transition slowly from their celebrity status as they perform and share their journey with students throughout the state of Vermont. Their journey will become a “star” for many young people to look and wish upon. The young people who experience the JE troupe will see that this might be them one day. Maybe. Hopefully.
We mustn’t forget that this journey is the result of the the previous journeys’ successes (2000, 2002, 2004, 2005, and 2007). Had those efforts not proven worthy and successful, this journey would only be a “what if.” JE 2008 will join that great list of “journeys.”
Okay, so with no photos today, I have decided to give you al an extra day for your quiz.
Several times during this journey I told you to pay attention ‘cause there was going to be a quiz. Well, I am not going to let you down.
Below, you’ll find your JE 2008 quiz. This is an “open site” test, which means you are allowed to go back and look through the journey for the answers. I will post the answers on Friday, when we bring this journey to a safe and sound conclusion.
Before I let you loose on this challenging test of “were you paying attention?,” we’ll say goodbye for today and look forward to seeing you all back here tomorrow. We’re almost there everybody. One more day!
Now that we are just about finished here, the journey may not seem like it lasted a month. But once you begin searching back through the site, looking for answers to the quiz, I think you’ll be reminded (and amazed all over again!) how huge this journey really was, is, and will be for the rest of (yours and) your child’s life.
Enjoy the day!
Okay, you may turn your papers over and begin . . .
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