Making Moon cakes
Thursday, October 29, 2015
Thursday, October 22, 2015
DAY 12: Wednesday
By Yianni Rowlands
I set my alarm last night for 6:30am, my usual waking time, just so I could have a shower, chuck on some "clean" clothes, watch an episode of the Simpsons, and still be in time for breakfast which is at 7:30. Well here's what happened I woke up, at 6:30, changed the alarm to 7:05, and went back to sleep. Next thing I knew Miles was yelling "Yianni! It's 7:20!" I tore off my sheets, jumped off my bed, chucked on some clothes, grabbed my room key, slammed the door and sprinted to the elevator. We got in. Got out. Ran to the restaurant to eat our breakfast. We ate breakfast, noodles, rice and other assortments of Traditional Chinese foods, and Chinese imitations of western foods, which the hotel has been making for us to make us feel at home. I sat on one of the couches in the restaurant and stared out of the window. The restaurant is on the 5th floor, which means I could get a good view of the city. it's amazing, such a large scale. The skyline is so much higher than Australia's. All the buildings are all modern, but somehow, all so old. The look of the city, well from my point of view, can be described with one Star Wars quote, "A long time ago, in a galaxy far far away" the Star Wars universe, is all very modern but very old, it is also very far away. That is how I see China, somehow everything's futuristic, but also very old. We left for school. School is fun. With so many lesson focussing on language development I've learnt so much while I've been here. My knowledge of China on arrival has given me a good base to build from. My brain is filling with new words and sayings and my character writing is improving too. It's so motivating to see other people speaking mandarin, it just makes you want to have a go at it, and makes you want to perfect it. After school we went back for lunch, which was pretty much the same as breakfast. After lunch we walked to the University gymnasium, and did Tai Chi. It was amazing to see the athletes, doing the Tai Chi movements so fluently. The way they move is like the way a Chinese calligrapher paints strokes with his, or her, brush. Every movement, and stroke on point, it is stunning. We all learnt a movement and had a go at leading the group. Dinner was amazing, we had red bean balls, my favourite Chinese food! If you don't know what a red bean ball is, it is a sesame ball, with mushy red bean inside, it is sweet and crunchy. It's amazing! After dinner we practiced the song, Peng You (this means friend in Chinese), which we will be performing on Friday at the closing ceremony. Mum, dad, Mira and Tjala, missing you heaps hope your having a good time in Australia!
I set my alarm last night for 6:30am, my usual waking time, just so I could have a shower, chuck on some "clean" clothes, watch an episode of the Simpsons, and still be in time for breakfast which is at 7:30. Well here's what happened I woke up, at 6:30, changed the alarm to 7:05, and went back to sleep. Next thing I knew Miles was yelling "Yianni! It's 7:20!" I tore off my sheets, jumped off my bed, chucked on some clothes, grabbed my room key, slammed the door and sprinted to the elevator. We got in. Got out. Ran to the restaurant to eat our breakfast. We ate breakfast, noodles, rice and other assortments of Traditional Chinese foods, and Chinese imitations of western foods, which the hotel has been making for us to make us feel at home. I sat on one of the couches in the restaurant and stared out of the window. The restaurant is on the 5th floor, which means I could get a good view of the city. it's amazing, such a large scale. The skyline is so much higher than Australia's. All the buildings are all modern, but somehow, all so old. The look of the city, well from my point of view, can be described with one Star Wars quote, "A long time ago, in a galaxy far far away" the Star Wars universe, is all very modern but very old, it is also very far away. That is how I see China, somehow everything's futuristic, but also very old. We left for school. School is fun. With so many lesson focussing on language development I've learnt so much while I've been here. My knowledge of China on arrival has given me a good base to build from. My brain is filling with new words and sayings and my character writing is improving too. It's so motivating to see other people speaking mandarin, it just makes you want to have a go at it, and makes you want to perfect it. After school we went back for lunch, which was pretty much the same as breakfast. After lunch we walked to the University gymnasium, and did Tai Chi. It was amazing to see the athletes, doing the Tai Chi movements so fluently. The way they move is like the way a Chinese calligrapher paints strokes with his, or her, brush. Every movement, and stroke on point, it is stunning. We all learnt a movement and had a go at leading the group. Dinner was amazing, we had red bean balls, my favourite Chinese food! If you don't know what a red bean ball is, it is a sesame ball, with mushy red bean inside, it is sweet and crunchy. It's amazing! After dinner we practiced the song, Peng You (this means friend in Chinese), which we will be performing on Friday at the closing ceremony. Mum, dad, Mira and Tjala, missing you heaps hope your having a good time in Australia!
Friday, October 16, 2015
I have had the best week, but I think it's only gonna hit me that this is not just a 6 day school camp but a 6 week Chinese learning trip. China is stunning, absolutely stunning, it is absolutely beautiful. I have filmed everything I have seen, so I can show you when I get back.
Here's a summary of this first week. We arrived on Saturday, went to our hotels had dinner and slept, I got bitten by Many many mozzies, Sunday we went for our first day at uni, we had three hours in the morning with a short 15 minute break inbetween every hour, I learnt so much, the university was beautiful, it was like a small town in itself so green and so large, in the breaks we could go to the little Chinese shop and buy snacks, I bought loads of snickers bars, then after uni we did Taichi, with a Taichi master, that was so fun.
Monday we did Uni again and then we went to the temple of heaven, it was beautiful, it was so big. Tuesday, we had university again, and then I can't remember what we did, anyways, Wednesday we went to Tianeman square and then to the forbidden city, it was amazing, it's was so big, and all the buildings were so old and beautiful, after that we went and saw this amazing Chinese acrobatics in this old theatre. Thursday, I did a speech and went to the summer palace, which was amazing, the thing about China is its like a very colourful paradise, just covered in a layer of thick dirt dust, it's stunning.
The summer palace is beside the water, so there were amazing Chinese boats everywhere, in China there is also old people everywhere sitting, playing cards. Friday, today we were on the Great Wall, it was a pretty short walk but beautiful all the same, it was very steep! There were also little shops up there. Then we went and visited the birds nest and the water cube buildings, from the Beijing Olympics.
China is amazing all the streets are very old, all the buildings are gigantic, there is food all over the streets, fruit mainly, either on the back of cars or on the ground on heavy bags. All the fruit stores look like they have vomited all this beautiful fruit out onto the streets, it's amazing, and lots of the stuff I've been seeing reminds me a lot of your photos of Thailand.
Wednesday, October 14, 2015
Yianni in China
Visited the forbidden city today, also had my last day learning for the week, then we went and saw some amazing acrobatics in this beautiful Chinese theatre, the first photo is of motorbikes in the big ball like in the Simpsons movie, there were nine in the one ball, it was astounding!! Tomorrow I have to do a speech for the people of Hanban, the people who organised the trip. And then Friday I'm on the Great Wall!
Yianni
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