China Trip

Temple of Heaven

I had a good week in China. I enjoyed my new experience of going on an accreditation visit. I was part of a team-four total-that visited an international school in Beijing. Our responsibility was to see if the school was in a position to be accredited. We had to interview teachers and look at documents...It was interesting. I think the school will get their accreditation.

Did some shopping while I was there. A little stressful to shop in China. You have to bargain hard! And they are relentless in trying to get you to buy something. They grab your arms and talk really loud. But with patience you can get some good deals. I bought some pearl necklaces ($3.00), some Nike tops ($3.00), some silk pillow covers and a few other little things. Since I only have one class I bought my students a little panda pin. I wasn't sure what they would think but they really liked it! They wear it on their uniform top. It was quite gratifying!

My last day there we visited the Temple of Heaven. This is where the emperor (or someone!) went to pray for harvest. It's in the middle of a park. The most interesting part to me was the social life going on there. There were groups of people singing just for fun. There were people taking dancing lessons, learning how to use swords, doing Tai Chi, playing cards...it was fun to see them doing things together.