Putting it all together

(Written on Thursday 9/11/08, posted five days later...)

The students finished their sixth and final language class today, Thursday September 11th. Because the students are so busy, they sometimes don’t know the day of the week, much less the date. There is one cultural lecture remaining, which will be held tomorrow in the morning, with an excursion following lunch.

The students will participate in English Day celebrations on Saturday and will take the language final that afternoon before dinner. Saturday evening is free and the students will leave early Sunday morning for Longshen, the famous terraced region where the Hongyan ethnic minority lives. Sunday evening the students will put on a show for the GXNU students who have helped make their stay so wonderful these past three weeks. Several skits have been prepared involving scenes from everyday life. Also, students will perform songs in English and Chinese and the children from the high school have been invited to participate in this farewell party.

Monday the group will depart for Beijing. The students will have the opportunity to tour Beijing Monday evening, all day Tuesday, and Wednesday morning prior to departing for Seattle. The China Exploration Seminar Students from Guilin, Guangxi Normal University will arrive at SeaTac airport on Wednesday, September 17th sometime after noon.

Upon returning to Seattle and beginning autumn quarter, students must write a research paper on a topic presented during the cultural lectures. The students must also turn in a copy of a journal kept over the course of the seminar.

In the past couple of outings and lectures, many aspects of Chinese society and culture have culminated to give the students a better understanding of modern Chinese life, especially for a student. The seminar has offered through outings, lectures, language class content, and extracurricular activities, a multifaceted view that is impossible to get from reading books. Sometimes these lessons are hard to learn even if one is willing to do a bit a travel, for the ideas presented are sometimes intimate and accessing such intimate spaces must be done in a delicate way. The seminar instructors and administrators have made this process seem effortless and the UW students will remember their trip to China for many years to come.