Xiamen

Date started: 2010.11.08 ~ 2010.11.13

Place: Xiamen, China

CAS Type: Creativity, Action, Service

For the CAS week, I decided to go to Xiamen, as it looked like a very calm and relaxing journey as the main transportation system was going to be bicycles.

2010.11.08

At last, the day for going to Xiamen came (:

Me and my friends were so excited to have 1 week off IB, and have some time to have great fun. We met at the airport at 10:50AM and checked in together. Sadly, we didn’t have time to go around for food (burger king, popeyes… D: ), as the check in took some time. As a group, we walked to the gate number for our flight to XIAMEN. Soon the gate opened, and we were able to go on board. However, across on the left, there was starbucks. It was very tempting indeed. My friends went to buy some food, but I didn’t. After buying the food, we went to the gate to go on board, but in the end, I RAN back to starbucks and got myself a sausage roll ;D

The flight was very short. It was about an hour long, and during the flight I enjoyed eating the sausage roll (it was de-li-cious). We were also served a small meal with biscuits and orange juice. When we arrived in xiamen, we collected our luggage and our supervisor for the journey (Leo), told us that we had some time to buy some water. I went to buy 2 bottles of water, each 3.50 yuan. Quite cheap (: After gathering together, we went onto a bus. A long bus rideee. During the bus ride, I listened to some music and took photos along the way. As it was a long bus ride, we had a break in between to go to the toilet. Back on the bus, Leo handed out this small booklet which had backgroud information on Xiamen. During the bus ride, we saw Tulou’s, which were houses built out of mud. Apparently, many Han people lived in the houses and still are today.

Soon, it was already dark, and we visited this place where we were able to see a night view of the Tulou. We got the ticket for admission and saw the Tulou’s. There were 5 Tulou’s together and they were in different colour lightings. Leo told us that these Tulou’s represented a soup and small dishes.

After seeing the night view, we walked a while to eat dinner. For dinner, we had rice, fish, chiken, toufu, vegetable. The food was good (: There was even a fire in the middle for warmth. We realized later on that this place was going to be our dormitory for the week. Looking around the round tulou (there are many types of tulou: round, square, long), we were happy to have clean toilets. We also took photos of the place, and then we took our baggage to go to our rooms. The baggage was already outside. Me and Soo-Yeun were going to be in room 203. We were happy to have the second floor, as it would be easy to move up and down the stairs. When we opened the door for the dormitory, the room was better than what I was expecting. It was very cozy (:

As some people were assigned the square Tulou’s, we went to visit them aswell. It was only a few meters away from ours. During the walk, there was a stream/river on the right hand side of us, and the atmosphere was really nice and calm. Above us, stars were pierced into the sky and it was amazing. It felt like we were in a small countryside. Compared to the afternoon, the evening was quite cold. The square tulou’s were small and cozy aswell. After visiting the tulou, we went back and tucked ourselves into bed. Tomorrow, we were going to be teaching small children, and biking aswell.

2010.11.09

Waking up at 8:30, we ate breakfast and energized ourselves. In the morning, we walked to the ancestral temple and took some photos. Then, we came back to the round tulou to have lunch (we had this deep fried sweet potato which was REALLY just REALLY good (: ). Then, we went to get our bikes which we were going to use for the week. When I first got the bike, I was half excited, half scared, because I was a beginner. I tried riding it as a tester, but as expected, I was really bad (hahahah). After getting our bikes, we rode our bikes to the children’s school. The students were cleaning the school, as the officials were going to visit tomorrow.

When the students finished cleaning, each of our groups were assigned a class, and we started teaching. We started with the ABC song, and made short talks with them. It was very hard to teach them, as they were not as confident with english. Therefore, we used some chinese in between to make sure they understood what they were learning. Then, we sang the rainbow song and tought them “colours” in english. We even did small games to make the best out of the students learning. After fininshing teaching, we rode our bike’s back to the tulou and ate dinner. After dinner, it was about 8:00 ~ 8:30. Then, it was free time

During the time, we planned some teaching for tomorrow and got ready for another tomorrow.

2010.11.10

Today, breakfast was served at 8:15. In the morning we went to pick tea leaves and we had a competition on which group was going to pick the most.

When picking tea leaves, we were told which types of leaves to pick (top three leaves where there is 1 bud, and 2 leaves, all light green). After picking the tea leaves, we went to the tea factory and in front of the factory we laid out our leaves to dry. To find the winner, we weighed the leaves. We didn’t win ):

Anyways, we went in to the tea factory and took photos and watched the full process involved in tea making. We also had the experience to drink tea and buy some, if we wanted to. Then we had lunch and went to teach the students. As we planned the teaching, we were able to carry out the lesson more fluently.

We first started to review what we learnt yesterday, and then started learning numbers, days of the week, and a song. We also read a book together (the very hungry caterpillar). The book was my favourite part of the lesson, as we were able to interact together more closely. After teaching, we rode our bikes and ate dinner. Then, we were given a small surprise. Fireworks. We were given the time to buy some mini fireworks and try it out. After the noisy fireworks, we were able to have some sweet bean soup and went to bed.

2010.11.11

It’s Thursday already, and time’s flying.

Today, we ate breakfast at 8:15, and had an early 9:30~11:30 session to teach the children. Then, we went to have lunch nearby, and then went to pick fruits. We picked persimen’s and it was a interesting experience. After the fruit picking, we went to teach the children again. It was sad, as today was the last teaching session. We taught the children a song, as we were going to come together in the hall to perform. We decided to sing boom-di-ya-da, and added the words which we learnt. We also gave the students a small booklet which we prepared beforehand, with all what we learnt in the three days. Then, we went to the hall and everyone performed what they learnt. After the performance, we had time to play basketball or football with the children and have some fun.

Ahhh, and the time came to say goodbye D: Some of the children were even crying ): It was sad that we were unable to contact the children through the internet. After the farewell, we went back to our tulou (bicycle ride again)and had dinner. In the evening, we were going to have a puppet show and have a chance to try the puppet by ourselves aswell. Trying out the puppet was exciting, and watching others do the puppet was hilarious. After the puppet show, we had sweet soup and went back to our rooms for a good rest.

2010.11.12

After all the teaching and culture experience the past few days, our focus week was coming towards an end already. Today, we were having a full day cycling day and having a relaxed and enjoyable time. In the morning, we had breakfast as usual, and took our bikes to have a long cycle. While we were cycling, we stopped between various Tulou’s to have a look around. After visiting about 3 Tulou’s, we had a long cycle to the restaurant where we were going to have lunch. The cycling was a very calming and pleasurable experience, as the scenery was breath-taking. Going up and down with green trees the sky was a delightful experince. However, during this experience, there was a bicycle accident with one of our student. Therefore, we waited a while for her to recover and continued finishing the journey.

HOWEVER, I accidently fell aswell but was wearing black tights, so I just carried on cycling. After arriving in the restaurant, we all had lunch together and I checked my knee. It was a little deep but I guess it was going to be a sign for me to remember this experience (:

After lunch, we had a decision to either cycle all the way back, or to walk a while and then ride a bus back to our Tulou. I decided to walk and ride the bus and so did some of my friends. While we walked, there was again, another beautiful sight of the scenery. Then, we rode the bus back to the Tulou. After the long day, were assigned a house of a student that we taught, and we had the experience of eating dinner in their house. In the students house, we had dinner and we talked with their family while having tea. When it started to become to late, we said farewell and went back to our Tulou. In the last night of the week, we sat in the fire and had deep fried potato. After warming ourselves, we went back to our room to pack and had a good nights sleep (:

2010.11.13

Finally, the long journey came to an end. This week seemed very fast, but very slow at the same time… At 7:15, we woke up and had breakfast. Then, we walked to the bus for a long bus ride. We took some photos along the way aswell. The bus was about 4 hour long, and during the bus ride, Leo talked to us, saying that he hoped that this journey was going to be an experience we would “never forget” in our lives.

Then, after the long bus ride, we arrived in the airport, checked in, and went on the aeroplane. Soon, we were back again in Hong Kong. The moment I stepped onto the Hong Kong airport, it felt good but I missed Xiamen already. I guess this is how the story went during our week in xiamen. (: It was surely the best focus week I ever had been to during the 6 years at South Island School ;D

Reflection:
L2: Cycling - During the start of the trip, I was not a very confident at cycling, but as we were doing it several times of the week, I developed new skills.
Fruit harvesting / Tea leaves - Now, I am able to carry out picking tea leaves and fruits.
Tea leaves - pick the leaves from the top and choose three leaves (2 grown and 1 bud)
Fruit harvesting - Use a tree stick and pull down the branch which has the fruits
L3: We planned the lessons beforehand to carry out the teaching. While doing the lessons, we learned what things went on well and what things didn't. Therefore, we were able to build up our planning for lessons after wards.
L4: Teaching groups - We picked tea leaves as a group and this allowed us to work together for better performance. When harvesting fruits, we helped each other pull down branches.
L6: Working in poor villages (poverty) by improving living standards
L8: Able to harvest fruit as well as pick leaves, also learned how to teach children
Overall, the Xiamen trip was one of the most memorable focus week which I went to. I was able to learn about various traditional methods of harvesting, as well as help the children learn English. Moreover, I was able to learn how traveling could make one learn a lot about various different things. The thing which I was most proud of during the trip was being able to ride the bicycle, as I only had one experience of riding it. In addition, I think the trip was one which I not only learned a lot, but also felt many different emotions which was why it was memorable.