October 3, 2010  |
| Dear Parents,
Well, finally a moment to complete our 4th newsletter to you all. We are in the midst of what is called the Golden Week in China. It is the celebration of National Day which takes place each year on October 1st with a week long vacation attached. This year marks the 61st Anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China. In order to save money, fireworks are only displayed on every major 5th anniversary, so this year was a quiet celebration. A time for travel or rest and relaxation. Many of your children are off to rural areas near Beijing, the seaside, Tianjin, Shanghai, and even Japan! There will be many stories to tell I am sure.
Prior to National Day we also had a day off to celebrate the Mid-Autumn Moon Festival. Your children had a chance to celebrate this traditional festival with their host families and extended families.
We have been working hard to prepare for the annual school Sports Meet which took place this past Thursday. I am not sure what we are going to do without our daily jump rope team practices. A major hit since the day everyone arrived.
The workload academically is tough and students need to spend more and more time in preparations for their daily assignments. Many will also benefit from utlizing the long holiday to catch up and review characters and vocabulary.
I spent 4 days with Ma Laoshi (our Trip Coordinator) in Fujian Province on the East Coast of China preparing our upcoming November field visits. See a sneak preview below.
We had a few safety issues this past week, increasing our awareness that Beijing is a changing city and though extremely safe for an international city, still requires vigilance especially when out at night. Others had to do with taking advantage of the access to alcohol and forgetting the ultimate purpose of coming to China. During a disciplinary assembly all students were reminded of how easy it is to get off track, but taking that route puts their whole future in jeopardy and in the end just is not worth it. We had some very good follow up discussions and all hope that the rest of this year will be smooth sailing.
Sincerely,
Frances Frances Fremont-Smith 范老师 |
AN AFTERNOON WITH JANE Jane Goodall celebrates 50 years of reasearch at Gombe National Park - by Drew Dockery
If the truth be told, we were late to the talk Jane Goodall was giving on the anniversary of her work with the chimapanzees in Africa. That said, we were still able to catch the end of her talk where she was talking about her new book (Hope for Animals and Their World). She gave multiple examples of species that were almost extinct that have been reinvigorated by concentrated conservation efforts. One of her examples was with a certain species of bird, I don't remember which one (the California Condor), where the scientist in charge of conserving the species grew the population immensely by taking eggs out and giving them to another couple of birds - the birds who's eggs were taken away would make more eggs and then the process would repeat itself. Though it doesn't seem that funny, the way she presented the story had most members of the crowd in stitches by the end.
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| SYA students enjoy private moment with Jane Goodall |
After talking about her book she briefly talked about her program Roots & Shoots, a group that encourages young people to take action when it comes to conservation efforts. She then took questions from the crowd which ranged from how often she gets to visit Gombe in how to start planning for a career in conservation by our very own Kathleen Collins. She took time to answer each question fully as best she could. After the question and answer part was over she was whisked away for a half hour or so to meet with the University President , but we were assured that she was going to be back if anyone wanted a picture or autograph. We waited and sure enough she was back and as chipper as ever. When it was our turn in line, Victoria got her history reader signed and Spencer and I had pictures we bought of her signed, but the pièces de résistance was the picture that she took with us as we were leaving. Even if SYA doesn't start a Roots & Shoots program, I think we were all inspired to see what we could do for the environment. For me it was checking into the possibility of creating an SYA urban garden this Spring - something that although small can be accomplished. That's the lasting message behind the talk, find what you are passionate about that can be accomplished and go with it to make it work in your community. If enough people do that Dr. Goodall's vision of a conserved world will become a reality. |
| TRIP TO TAI SHANTrains, Feet, Mountains, No View - but Amazing! By Eric Truog
When the plans to take a weekend trip to Shandong and hike Tai Shan, a famous Taoist mountain, were in their infancy, I remember telling my brother, "I'm not sure about this, I worry it will be a little too touristy." I obviously had no idea what I was in for.
On Saturday, September 18, I woke up at 8:00am, put the finishing touches on our first history paper, and then met Will Ford, an SYA China alum and American friend currently studying in Beijing, at Subway to buy some sandwiches for the hike (portable Chinese food proved surprisingly difficult to find). With the plans finally ironed out, we returned to his old host family's hutong and met up with his dad. Our train left Beijing at 4:30 that afternoon and, as we bought the cheapest tickets available, would take 7 hours to get to Tai Shan.
The train ride in itself was quite an experience. Being the only foreigners on the train, we were ceaselessly battered with questions. They'd ask hugely broad questions like, "What's the difference between America and China?" or probe into subjects that are now controversial like the relationship between the Middle East and the United States. Equally interesting was hearing some of their stories. My favorite was meeting the migrant workers heading into the cities, hauling bags of rice over their shoulder, their food for the next few weeks.
We arrived in Tai An (the town surrounding Tai Shan) at 11:30 at night on Saturday, where we met up with my brother, who is working at the Shanghai Expo, and another American friend studying in Nanjing. At this point the group was the four Americans, Will's host dad, and three of his coworkers/friends who were along for the adventure.
The plan was to hike up the back of Tai Shan (where a trail is nonexistent), be up at the top for the sunrise, then hike down. The ascent was extremely challenging. We essentially hiked up through a riverbed that ran down the mountain. Occasionally, we'd veer off and hike up through the terraced farms, which was fascinating to see. It's impossible to describe how in the middle of nowhere it felt like we were and equally impossible to describe how much of a legend Will's host dad was. He had only done this hike twice before, both times during the day, and he was brave enough to lead seven other people up it at night. Occasionally, we'd lose the trail and he'd go trampling off into the woods or climbing over rocks for several minutes before yelling back to us that he'd found it.
We hiked in such a fashion for several hours, not getting to the top until around 5:30 Sunday morning. Unfortunately, it was extremely foggy so we couldn't see the sunrise. Having been up for the last 24 hours, we Americans were exhausted and, deciding to wait to see if the fog would clear out and sat down. Within minutes we were all asleep. After about an hour nap, we all woke up to rings and rings of Chinese people (they had taken a chair lift up) surrounding us, taking pictures of the four sleeping foreigners. After our four Chinese companions plowed a way through the crowd, we started down, not arriving back in the town of Shandong until 12:30.
We ate lunch, which, in our hunger, consisted of 175 dumplings, then, while our Chinese companions some forty years our seniors had the energy to go walk around, we went to a café and took a nap. The train didn't leave for Beijing until 10:30 or so that night, so after waking up we went out and got some dinner. Thankfully, we had hard sleepers on the way back. Honestly, at that point I probably could have slept standing up, so the bed felt like such a luxury. We arrived at the Beijing Train Station at 5:30 Monday morning. I got to my host families house at 6:45, and by 7:30 was back at school preparing for a Chinese test. Though utterly exhausted, the experience was entirely worth it! |
HAPPY MOON FESTIVAL A clear, bright Moon Shines on Beijing: By Tyler Bayley
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| Alex Meddin enjoys a Moon Cake - WOW! |
By Tuesday, the day before the holiday, I and my classmates had become experts on the "Mid-Autumn Moon Festival". In Chinese class, we learned about the history, stories, and traditions surrounding this holiday. Many of us would have never thought that rebellion against the Yuan Dynasty depended on the infamous and innocent little moon cake. However, things soon gained another dimension as the holiday neared. I was excited to make the jump from hearing and learning about Chinese holidays to actually experiencing them: my first chance to see how they are really done. On Wednesday, I woke up, and the sky was unusually clear and blue, which is strange for Beijing. On the way to my Mom's parents' house, I noticed energy in the air that felt different from the everyday. As I walked into the old dan wei apartment, I knew a great meal was well on its way. When the juicy ginger beef was stacked high next to the various piles of eggplant and moon cakes, my Laolao announced, "Chi ba!", as she brought a massive bowl of crab to the table. Crab, somewhat of an expensive indulgence for my family, was proudly presented to me. Although during my brief time in China I have happily enjoyed pig liver and chicken heads and feet, crab was something that I could not stomach: especially since they prize the innards rather than its scanty amounts of leg meat. As I saw the gentle pride breathing from my jovial Laolao's face, I could not deny her. So I took a crab and dug in.  I saw the genuine joy in her face as I cracked open the bottom side. In that one moment, I saw beyond the colorful stories and traditions; making contact with the true Chinese meaning behind this celebration. Through all the gazing at the moon, eating of moon cakes, and overall celebration, the face of my Laolao as I ate was stuck in my head. Steaming, gritty yellow guts never tasted so good. Nicknamed tuanyuanjie (meaning "Reunion Holiday"), I began to truly understand what the culture behind this holiday means to the people of China. |
ROSH HASHANNA AND YOM KIPPUR Jewish High Holy Days Celebrated in Beijing: By Daniel Kane
There are not many places that exist in the world today, where you can go for lunch and overhear conversations that switch in and out of English, Hebrew, Yiddish, and Mandarin Chinese. In fact, I would go as far as to say, that this last weekend I went to the only place in the world where that is possible: The Chabbad House of Beijing.
Being a moderately observant Jew, I came to China thinking I would face certain obvious difficulties. After my first meal of pork, and what I'm fairly certain was chicken foot, I realized keeping Kosher would be completely impossible. I could only hope there might be just enough interested Jewish tourists and traveling business men to organize high holiday services. And maybe, if I was real lucky, there might even be a Rabbi in town.
So imagine my surprise upon arriving at synagogue on the first day of Rosh Hashanah services to discover there is not one, but four Orthodox Rabbis, who service the 2,000 Jews living in Beijing. 2,000 Jews who have apparently been very busy, as over the last decade, as they've built a community center, a synagogue, a Jewish day school and even a kosher deli.
I went to schul for both days of Rosh Hashanah, and on Yom Kippur. And aside from all of the make up work for Chinese class I had to do, all three trips were incredibly positive experiences. The entire community was extremely welcoming and friendly. And if you can imagine, the people brought together by High Holiday services in Beijing are an extremely interesting group. I met, tourists, businessmen, embassy workers, students, and a large group of Israeli backpackers, who had so many good stories to tell.
So here I was, sitting in my new synagogue, Yarmulke on my head, my stomach full of Kugel and Rugalach, listening to the stories of five young Israeli hitch hikers, and I thought to myself: Maybe being Jewish in Beijing won't be so bad after all. |
| BILINGUAL CORNER COMMENTS
Off to an Interesting Start: By Brice Berg and Veronica Houk
I think the Bilingual Corner started off a little bit shaky, because nobody there really knew what we had planned for the meeting. Also the pairing up with partners was kind of an awkward experience as well. But after the pairing up of partners, everything seemed to actually work out. The three legged race seemed like a hit, but as Eric and I pointed out, it doesn't necessarily have anything to do with being bilingual or working towards that goal. What I thought went really well was how easily conversations seemed to flow during the introduction time. I thought everything seemed really smooth. I feel like it would be better if on a nice day, we could possibly go out to the garden to hold the Bilingual Corner, it seems like a nice atmosphere for this sort of a gathering. Other than that, I thought it was great. I am not sure what is planned for the weeks to come, but we talked to Li Laoshi and figured that the next meeting is going to be in a month because of various conflicting holidays. We also looked for Wednesdays, but next Wednesday we are going to be at the Great Wall and then the following Wednesday will during the middle of our break. One thing that we talked about doing was breaking up into small groups and having a Chinese to English Taboo which would be really fun. Other than that we don't really have a strong, concrete plan. But it seems like we have plenty of time to meet and talk about it. - BRICE
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| Bilingual Corner multi legged race |
The commencement of Bilingual Corner was very exciting. Last week, we sat down with two of the captains for the Chinese students, Yuki and William, and planned our weekly activities. (A hilarious dialect of Chinglish helped the captains communicate.) The first week was chaotic, but a great way to get to know everyone - we introduced ourselves, made name tags, and divided into groups of four consisting of two SYA participants and two Chinese students. Unfortunately, we won't have Bilingual Corner again for a few weeks due to Chinese holidays and complicated scheduling, but we have a lot of blossoming ideas from Singles Corner to Karaoke to field trips. Meanwhile, our Chinglish grows more fluent with each day. - VERONICA |
SNEAK PREVIEW OF OUR FALL FIELD EDUCATIONStudents will work on Mangrove Forest Renewal in November
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| Preparing fishing nets off Xiamen |
This past week I travelled with our Trip Coordinator, Ma Ningwei to Fujian Province which is located on the east coast of China. We did a pre visit to Xiamen and Quanzhou to set up field work for our students while in these locations.
In Xiamen there is a beautiful island called Gulangyu, which still has much of the same western style architecture from over 100 years ago when it was occupied by the Dutch. Here students will learn of the history of the island and local culture from the head of the Xiamen Museum.
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| Western architecture on Gulangyu |
Students will spend 4 days working closely with a local NGO in Xiamen to help preserve the local mangrove forests which protect the soil from erosion along coastal shores. Students will learn about the fishing culture, how to mend nets, how to fish for oysters, and all about the importance of the various types of mangrove trees. In addition, they will spend 2 days and an overnight on an island off the coast and spend the days planting mangrove trees and cleaning the beaches of the multitude of trash that washes ashore.
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| Mangrove Reforestation on Crocodile Island |
Prior to this students will have spent 2 days in a village in Wu Yishan learning about tea. How to pick it, process it and drink it properly. From here they will travel by overnight train to Quanzhou, the start of the maritime silk route and see what the great mariner Zheng He accomplished duing the Ming Dynasty. They will also spend a day learning martial arts and meeting students at the Southern Shao Lin Martial Arts Academy.
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| Preschoolers begin Martial Arts training |
Our field work begins November 8 and ends on November 19. It is certainly a great opportunity to learn by doing. True hands on education. |
#2 HIGH SCHOOL ANNUAL SPORTS MEET
Winning Gold for the SYA Team: By Aimee Ochsner
When Li Laoshi first told me that I would be competing in the 运动会（sports meet), I didn't know what to expect. I had competed on my school's track team back home, but for some reason I was oddly nervous about this track meet. Being new to China, I had no clue what kind of athletes the chinese students would be. It helped to ease my nerves when I found out that a friend was competing in the high jump with me, and that she too hadn't competed in this specific event in many years. When we walked down to the field before the events were about to begin, it was an intimidating sight. All the chinese athletes (and there were many of them), were lined up in perfect lines doing their warm up drills. The SYA students formed our own seperate some-what straight lines, and did a whole variety of warm up drills at the same time.
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| Procession in of the athletes |
After we were "warm", Emma and I walked over to the high jump pit. There we faced our competition, who were about 30 other students from BNU #2 all warming up for the high jump. Our first main observation about our competition was that they were all scissor-kicking over the bar. Having high jumped in middle school, I knew that this was not the easiest method. I was surprised that they had not been taught to jump over the bar backwards, since this was by far the most productive technique. Among all the chinese students scissor kicking over the bar, I knew Emma and I were about to extremely stand out.
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| Enter the proud SYA team |
The competition began, and Emma and I were the last two students to go over the starting height. Emma went first out of the two of us, and after flying over the bar backwards, the crowd of onlookers broke out into many "Oohs!" and "Ahhs!", and then a round of applause. They were all amazed with our high jumping technique! This fascination continued with each round, and eventually some of the other competitors tried to imitate our form. As the competition quickly dwindled down with each height, more and more students crowded around the high jump pitch to watch.
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| Boys Relay Team |
Eventually, there was myself and two other chinese students left in the competition. My nerves kicked in again once I realized I had a chance to win the gold medal for this event. The two other girls (who were both surprisingly good for scissor-kicking over the bar) went before me. They both hit the bar, and then it was my turn to jump. I could hear my heart beating in my ears, while my fellow SYA students chanted "U-S-A, U-S-A" all around me. I focused on the bar to calm down my nerves, and then took off on my run. I jumped as high as I could, and I cleared the bar! The crowd broke out into applause as I ran back to where my classmates were standing. Now, all I hadto do was wait to see if the other two girls made it on either of their next two jumps.
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| SYA Team at Sports Meet |
We nervously waited as they each took their turns to jump. When neither of them cleared the bar, that meant that I had won the high jump! I was so excited to winmy first competition while here in China! I was presented with a gold medal for my win, and was asked to sign my name on a huge poster along with the other gold medal winners. The sports meet was a great way to start off my year here, and I hope that there are plenty more moments like this to come while I am in China!
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| Jump Rope Team in Action- placing 5th out of 12 |
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CLIMBING THE SAN CHA GREAT WALL
On The Road Less Traveled
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| View of San Cha Great Wall: Jason Lau Photo |
Postponed twice and for good reason -- September 29th turned out to be the most perfect day ever for making a 7 hour trek up, to, and along a very remote section of the Great Wall in San Cha. It is the Great Wall section documented in Peter Hessler's recent book, Country Driving. We met Wei Ziqi who introduced Peter to this section of the wall and he and his wife cooked over 500 baozi in preparation for our arrival! It would be a long day and everyone was excited about what lay ahead.
The group, led my math teacher and frequent visitor to this section of the Great Wall, headed into the forest path at quite a clip. It was hard for many of us (ok - me) to keep up, and at one point Mr. Pettus had to backtrack to find us as we missed a turn in the woods. I would then take a different route and meet the group at the Buddha cave on the other side of the Wall. Jason Lau writes below of his trek that day.
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| Jason Lau on high tower of the San Cha Wall |
"At the beginning of the hike, I was skeptical as to whether or not we would actually be seeing the Great Wall. The first half an hour consisted of a hike up a mountain to get to the beginning of the hike on the Great Wall. It was a relief to finally arrive at the Wall, but it was also a reminder that we still had a solid amount of hiking left. Compared to the tourist infested sections of the Great Wall like Badaling, this section was really the "road not taken". The pathways of the Wall were engulfed in foliage. The stones and mortar were crumbling. There was essentially a whole forest growing on the Great Wall.
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| Maya tries to stay level on Wall |
We trekked through the trees and up the Wall; I got a fair amount of cuts on my legs. At one point, it was impossible to continue further on the Wall, so we had to backtrack and find a way out of it. Once we found an exit, we "bushwhacked" through the forest alongside the wall until we found another entry point. It led us to the highest tower of the surrounding area, and from there we had an amazing view of the scenery. We had a short break there and took a group photo.
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| Heading up mountain to San Cha Wall |
Afterward, we continued on the last half of the hike. We got off the Wall and headed down the mountain to the Buddha Cave, which was basically a Buddhist shrine.
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| Buddha in remote cave at San Cha |
You needed a flashlight to be able to navigate in the darkness; otherwise you would have fallen into one of the holes in the cave. That concluded our hike and we made our way back to the buses."
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| SYA 2010 on San Cha Wall : Pettus photo |
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MEET THE FACULTY
MA NINGWEI Makes Our Trips Magical
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| Ma on San Cha Wall |
Meet Ma Laoshi, our very cheerful, outgoing and energetic Chinese Teacher and Coordinator for all of our Field Excursions. Born in 1973, in Changchun, Jilin Province (she was 5 when I was teaching in the same town!), she never envisioned a future of teaching. Her father was an engineer and her mother a government official and both believed strongly in education. From a young age, Ma learned to tell her parents she wanted to be a scientist when she grew up, knowing this would please them. When she reflects on her childhood, she remembers one huge influence in her life, a Chinese herbal medicine book that was in her house. She would pull this book off the shelf and read it, copying the traditional characters and learning vocabulary. This made her very happy and also increased her interest in Chinese medicine. (This would come in handy years later while she now cares for her elderly father).
Ma entered the Foreign Languages School in Changchun at the age of 12 and began to study Japanese. She could have chosen English, but she wanted to be different from the other girls. From there she went on to study Japanese at Jilin University and graduated in 1996. She loved learning Japanese and loved the culture and history, she however did not appreciate their teaching methodolgy as it was very similar to traditional Chinese teaching and very strict and rote.
During her Junior year she interned for Panasonic as a translator. This was her first taste of "freedom". She was on her own in a vibrant, growing city and loved every minute. Later she would be hired by the Hua Neng Group in Beijing as a translator and editor and was able to get this job because of her ability to understand long form (traditional) characters.
Opportunities to teach kept coming her way, but she was still not interested in this direction. Until one day in 2002 when she saw an advertisement for a teaching position at the American College Center. She applied and got the job and to her great surprise found that indeed her passion was in education and that teaching would be her future.
Ma joined SYA in 2007, one year after she could have been hired as she had an opportunity to teach at Columbia University in 2006. It did take some adjustments changing teaching style to fit the needs of adolescents rather than university students. At Columbia she found she was friends with her students and that this now had to change as she was more than a teacher at SYA. What Ma finds so special about SYA is that you become the students big sister, guidance counselor, and teacher.
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| Ma checks out the Mud in Mangrove Nursery |
Ma enjoys travelling and spends much of her time coordinating our intricate field work that takes place in the fall, winter and spring. She loves showing SYA students China off the beaten path, because it brings them closer to Chinese society. When asked what one of her most memorable moments has been, she thoughtfully replies, "All my memories are unforgettable!" She feels so close to SYA and believes so much in its mission. To think that she has helped to create a little spark in these students lives that helps contribute to their growth and their understanding of China makes her feel it is all so worthwhile. |
NOTES FROM LOVING HOST MOMS
Love Transends Culture Differences
不愧是一个住校的孩子，高乐天（Tim）生活的自理能力很好。每天早起，自己做点儿早饭吃，收拾好屋子，早早的就去上学。每天放学回家，不忘把自己的水壶清洗、晾好以备第二天干干净净的使用。让我觉得他是一个生活上有条有理的孩子。来到家里的第一个周末，他早早起床，我们做了一顿美式早餐：Pancake。松软可口展现了他的厨艺。（和他做的相比，第二个星期我做的Pancake，那真是难以下咽了).特别是有一次，他吃"蒜蓉西兰花"时，刚吃一口就说：你用蒜炒的？体现了他对食物的品尝能力和敏感度。难怪他说他喜欢烹饪。真是有食品品尝和烹饪的天赋。
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Tim and Host Family at Summer Palace
(you've got to love the Red Sox shirt!!) |
As a boy who is used to living in Boarding School, Tim is a very independent boy. He gets up early and makes his breakfast and cleans his room and then goes straight off to school. As soon as he comes home from school he makes sure to clean his water bottle, leave it in the sun to dry so it is ready for use the next day. All this leads me to believe he likes his routines. On the first weekend home, Tim got up early and we made an American breakfast of pancakes together. He has great cooking skills as they were soft and tasty. The pancakes I tried to make the following weekend could not compare. One interesting moment was when we were eating Stir fried broccoli and Tim asked if I used garlic. This showed how clever he was at tasting the various ingredients in the food. No wonder he enjoys cooking. **************************************************
我的美国女儿Megan
受北师大二附中海外学年项目的委托，我们家高兴地接待了一个美国女孩子，白皙皮肤、修长身材、金发碧眼，一个漂亮的典型美国女孩--Megan。Megan中文名方晓露，也很好听，但我们还是习惯喊她Megan。与Megan相处快一个月了，越来越喜欢这个可爱单纯有礼貌的孩子了。 Megan学习很认真也很用功。她来中国前学过2年中文，基本的日常会话会些，写字也很工整，但语音语调不是太好，这也是外国人学中文的通病了。比如每次见我，就说："你好吗？"一开始，我总是下意识地马上回答，我好，Megan， 我很好。后来几次明白了，其实她是想说，"你好，妈！"明白后我就有意识地纠正她，这种纠正还真不好说，告诉她，说"妈妈，你好"，或，"妈妈好"，会好 些。但以后几次她还是习惯性地"你好吗？"，这回，我习惯了，回答起来也由回话改应承了。她的语文老师布置念课文的作业，每篇课文念三遍，她总是保质保量 的完成，还争取多念几遍，中间我纠正她的语音语调，她总是很认真地跟着念，态度诚恳而认真，而且不时地表示感谢！Megan一般念三遍后发音就比较正了。她最不会发的音是"cai"，总是念成"sai,tai,zai" 等，最掌握不好的是第二声。"同学"发不好，"很好。"总念成"恨好。"她总是抓紧一切机会练习她的中文，有时候我家先生和女儿跟她说英文，她听懂后用总 是用中文回答。有时迫不得已要用英文表达，事先总会说"对不起，我要用点英文！"这里的对不起，有向我们表达歉意的意思，但更多的好像是对不起她自己没有 抓紧一切机会练习中文。
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| Megan and Host Family |
My American Daughter At the invitation of SYA China we accepted an American girl into our family. Our American daughter is lovely and fair skinned with blond hair and her name is Megan. She has a Chinese name Fang Shao Lu, but we are accustomed to calling her Megan. Megan has been with us for almost a month and we are growing to love this sweet and polite girl more and more. Megan is studious and hard working. Before coming to China she had studied 2 years of Chinese. She can handle most everyday language and her writing is quite good. The only problem, as it is for most westerners are the tones. For example, " How are you?". I would answer readily, "I am fine, Megan, just fine!" Then later I realized she was putting the words in the wrong order as she was meaning to say, "Good Morning, Mom!" She prepares her Chinese oral presentation thoroughly each night and I try to help her perfect her tones. She has the most difficulty with the "ts" written as a "c" and the second tone, which can cause problems like instead of "very good", the wrong tone can end up meaning, "hates." But she uses every opportunity to improve and practice her Chinese and will always apologize if she needs to use English. This apology seems less directed towards us than to herself for losing a moment of opportunity to practice. ************************************************** 温馨的生日 9月21日是丹尼尔17岁的生日，我准备为他过一个温馨而难忘的生日，至于如何做我没有告诉他。
正直中秋节前夕，我们放了半天假，使我有了更多准备的时间，把自己的想象力尽情发挥了一通，房间装饰、蛋糕、贺卡、礼物、音乐......，只等着丹尼尔放学归来。
房门响了，我们做完了最后一步，当我打开门将丹尼尔迎进门时，欢快的生日快乐歌曲响起来，客厅内闪烁着烛光，五彩缤纷的彩带装饰着空间......，这一 切让丹尼尔意想不到，他非常兴奋。接下来重磅推出生日礼物之一-我为他精心制作的"生日快乐"配乐幻灯片，这里记载了我们从学校将他接回来后的生活照片， 生日礼物还有我为他刻的中国名字的石章和自制的贺卡。
看着一张张动感十足的照片，许下心愿，吹灭蜡烛，切开蛋糕，丹尼尔笑容满面，"谢谢妈妈！"丹尼尔的话，足矣，让我感到幸福快乐!
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| Daniel Making Birthday Wish |
A Warm Hearted Birthday
September 21st was Daniel's Birthday, so I made preparations for him to celebrate a unforgettable birthday in China. I wanted to surprise him, so I did not tell him the details. The night before the Mid Autumn Moon Festival we had a half day off work, so I had even more time to prepare. So I put my creative energies in motion, decorated the house, got a cake, a birthday card, presents and music..., and all that was left was to wait for Daniel to come home.
I heard the doorbell and got everything ready as I went to the door to greet Daniel. The music in the background rang out the Happy Birthday song, and the candles shimmered and the colored ribbons glittered in the light. Daniel was in awe, he had no idea and was so very happy. Then we presented him with his gifts. The first one was a slide collection of all the photos since we have met Daniel and the next is a stone chop with his name carved into it. We then gave him our handmade card.
Seeing the emotion on his face as he made his birthday wish, blew out the candles, cut the cake and smiling turned to me and said, "Mom, thank you!", made me so utterly happy. **************************************************
我接待美国海外学年的学生已经有三年，她们性格各异但都十分可爱，她们十分率真，独立，每当看到她们给我感受最深的是中美教育差别之大，我十分欣赏美国教 育孩子的方法，可惜我已经错过了最佳时期，但回过头想想即使是最佳时期又能怎么样呢？以你个人的力量怎能抵挡整个社会的现实环境呢？你的孩子要考学，要就 业我们只能"逼迫"孩子学习学习再学习，没有其他的"自由"时间，我很羡慕美国的孩子有很多的"自由"时间做她们想做的事。
在独立思考处理问题方面美国孩子比我们孩子做得好，我问她们平时的花费都是她们打工挣的钱，从她们思想里不愿意向父母伸手要钱，可我们的孩子大多都是向父母要钱，甚至就连大学毕业生都有啃老族。
每当看到她们认可我做的饭菜我心里就十分高兴，从美国孩子身上能知道她们的真实想法与我们孩子的不同，能看到她们的活勃可爱，我在中国替她们远在美国的父母照顾她们能体现自身的价值感到高兴，使自己也变得年轻。
Kathleen is the 3rd American daughter I have hosted. Their personalities vary, but they have all been sincere and quite endearing. They are so independent and being around them really drives home the difference between the education systems in the US and China. I really appreciate the way children are educated in the US, sadly I seemed to have passed my prime, but then what is one's prime anyway? How can an individual change the trend of the whole society? Our children have to compete on the college entrance exam and for employment and all we can do is force them to study hard, and study harder and harder yet. They have no free time. So I am envious of my American daughters and the "free time" that they have to do what they wish to do.
American children are much better at analyzing situations and solving problems.When I ask about their daily spending they reply that they work for their daily expenditures and do not like to ask their parents for money. This is so different from our children who are always depending on us for cash even after they graduate from college.
I am always thrilled when my American daughter likes my cooking. American children are able to express the feelings more freely, whereas our children are so much more reserved. In China, I am their mother and must take care of their health and wellbeing, in so doing I seem to feel younger myself.
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CONGRATULATIONS!
OSKAR SINGER wins the first Chinese Language Tone Competition with a perfect score!
GOLD MEDALISTS at the Annual Sports Meet.
Congratulations go to AIMEE OCHSNER for winning Gold in the high Jump event.
MAYA ODEI wins Gold in the 100 meter dash. Congratulations!
MEGAN FOSTER wins Gold in the 800 Meter track event. Congratulations!
More results will be announced in the next Newsletter - which hopes to be out by October 17.
TROUBLE READING NEWSLETTER???
CHECK IT OUT ONLINE AT
ONLINE NEWSLETTER |
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| PARENT DECEMBER TRAVEL |
SYA China has a special offer of 500RMB per night at the Holiday Inn Deshengmen. This includes free internet and breakfast for two. This hotel is just around the corner from our school. We can help you make reservations or if you do this yourself the contact is:Please book the hotel from "郭琳" Lin Guo lin.guo@dshyhotel.com
Don't forget to mention School Year Abroad.
Please let us know what your plans are as you begin to formalize your travel.
REMINDERPackages and letters make a big difference. When they arrive it is like a holiday celebration. Remember, no matter how often you skype or talk on the phone there is nothing better than receiving a letter --or even a package -- when far away from home.
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A NOTE FROM
TUAN TUAN
Heather's host sister comforts her by giving her this drawing!  |
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| ALUMNI VISITS |
STONE YU '07 writes:
It is crazy that although 4 years have passed, uch here has remained the same! Thank goodness the guard at the gate remembered me or I might not have even gotten in! SYA '07 is the single most influential year of my life thus far! Crazy!
MICHAEL CONNELLY writes:
Such a strange experience to return to SYA to find everything and nothing has changed. The building I was a student in has been spruced up and is no longer SYA's home. BNU #2 High School is looking new and old, but then so is Beijing itself. Shi Laoshi and Mr. Pettus are my only ties to the past here; the reign of Bissell has ended. I am only visiting China for now, but roaming the halls of SYA has made me realize I need to come back and live in here ASAP. I'm jealous of all the students here having this amazing experience and proud to count myself as an alumnus.
KRIS HONG '08 writes:
Long time no see! It's been 2 years sice I've been to Beijing, but it is always nice to see familiar faces. Walking here from Jishuitan station is like a walk down memory hutong. I am still with the same girlfriend I met here and we live together in NYC. I guess she has managed to change my accent from Beijing to Shaoxing. When I look back, I realize that SYA was the starting point for my future career ad lifestyle. SYA made me fall in love with China. Hopefully after graduation, I will have many opportunities to visit as I plan to work in China. Best wishes to all.
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| SPORTS DAY REPORTS: by Will Green |
Drew (high jump): I think it's been pretty fun, SYA has made a good showing, especially in the girl's events.
Spencer (high jump): it was fun. Would've liked it more if I could've practiced a little more. Overall it was fun though.
Heather (200 m): Not a big fan. Very nerve wracking.
Calum (200 m): fun, quick, exciting- great fun.
Emma (shot put): very good. greatest achievement in my SYA China career so far. Very emotional.
Auguste (200 m): Harder than I thought it would be. Placed 3rd.
Ricky (1500 m): my event just between 2 people. Felt a lot longer because it was 8 laps. Got 1st though.
Maya (100 m): One of my opponents was pretty fast. Neck and neck with her the entire race. Towards the end, the other girl got tired though, and I came out stronger and won the race.
Connor (triple jump): Crazy and chaotic, I didn't know what to do.
Stern (triple jump): really difficult, way harder than it looks. The Chinese kids jumped higher than expected.
Relay Team (Eric): Very difficult. Height difference between the Chinese and us caused problems for the entire team.
Jump Team (Jess): Best we've ever done. Everyone stepped up and did their best.
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