ACC K-12 Program in Beijing: what I did every day

How did I get to go to Beijing? Well, I got accepted to attend a 6-week teacher training program at Minzu University in Beijing. It was funded by a fulbright scholarship, which covered airfare, some food, housing, travel, and two cultural excursions. I had about 4 hrs of homework every day, learning and memorizing usually up to 100 vocabulary words a day, reading texts, or preparing presentations or teaching demonstrations. The coursework was heavy, but it was motivating 99% of the time. I loved it. There were 11 other participants from around the United States. We were all about the same level of Chinese proficiency, with varying levels of experience. I made some pretty awesome friends there and learned a ton.

And fortunately, we had one of the teachers that was great at taking candid, somewhat awkward photos of us so I have some great documentation of what we did with the program every day:

In front of our Minzu University sign :)

Us reading with some kids at a Chinese public school.

Presenting on the Chinese language 5 modes of communication. Nice hands right?

Discussing some concepts

Presenting for native speakers who will eventually go to America to teach Chinese.

Presentation on positive modes of reinforcement, creating a positive classroom environment

Trying to prep them for how American kids REALLY are ;) ha ha.

Learning about Chinese "tea" culture. Still don't know what that means, ha ha.

Smelling some tea clay bottle things. I am hesitant.

Doing a teaching demonstration about comparing Chinese and American holidays

 

Visiting a private school in China - it was crazy the discrepency in educational materials between private/public schools

Sitting in a boring lecture :)

All of us teachers as well as the private school teachers

Doing a "cultural activity" at the park

Learning some Tai Chi

Playing a Chinese game (kick the jianzi)

At the park with the other teachers

Learning about Chinese writing with a makeshift sponge brush. So creative, right?

Learning...whatever this is...Can't remember...

Play a ridiculously fun game in the park.

Us with some of my closest friends and teachers from the program.

What our homework looked like every day. Response questions.

The walk on campus to the west gate. Beautiful, right?

Bad pic of me with all of my Chinese teachers.

Receiving my certification of completion

Me with my favorite teacher, Zhou Qu, on the last day of class.

Thailand Part 2: Elephant Hills Camp

On Day 3 in Krabi (Ao Nang Beach), Alyssa signed us up for a 2-day package at one of Thailand's national parks, Khao sok. See here for details. The package included travel from our location to the park, a "luxury tent camp experience" (complete with hot showers, full-size beds in the tent), amazing Thai food buffets for every meal, rafting through the jungle, showering/feeding elephants, jungle trekking adventures. Also, it rained the whole 2 days but the jungle was even more beautiful so I wasn't complaining ;)

Our "luxury tent"

The view from inside our "luxury tent"

The view from the lodge. Seriously the most beautiful jungle.

A view of our "tent" (it was nicer than the bunker I live in in SLC, I'm not gonna lie ha ha)

A picture of one of our buffet meals. This was round 1 ;) Also, new favorite food: massaman curry. Seriously amazing.

Here is the food we prepared for the elephants: bamboo shoots, banana leaves, tamarin mixed with medicine, pineapple.

The view from the elephant camp. Could it be more beautiful? NOPE

This picture cracks me up. Maybe you can tell my hesitance as I am "scrubbing" ( aka touching from a distance) the elephant ha ha

The elephant's dinner. Mmmm, right?

We had to cut up the pineapple and bamboo shoots.

The elephants would use their trunks to capture the food we gave them. :) Some elephants disliked certain foods so you had to figure out what they wanted.

This pretty much captures the experience of feeding elephants - they are super eager and when that trunk comes at you full-speed, dannnngggg. You can sense my hesitance I'm sure ;)

Lots and lots of cool vegetation there.

We also rafted down the Koh river. And by "rafted" I mean, the raft guides rafted us and we sat there. Ha ha. And then they handed us a snack mid-river trip...#americanslovetoeat

We rafted through lots of jungle. This was one of my favorite parts!

We also trekked through the forest in rain ponchos :)

And saw really huge trees

And learned how to make coconut milk from real coconuts. #delicious

 Then I took planes back to Beijing (my fulbright scholarship only funded flights to and from Beijing from America, so I had to fly back to Beijing and catch another flight back to the U.S. of A.) I had 40 hours straight in airports or on flights, and let's just say it messed me up for a while. Worth it? Still worth it.

After 24 hrs of travel. Zombie mode. Only 16 more!

It was such a liberating summer. I loved every moment of it. Literally. It was challenging academically in Beijing, but in a very motivating way. It was fun, and a very real escape from the pressures and struggles of every day life (dating, work, etc). Summer of a lifetime! ;)