Wow. I can’t believe I’ve been here for 2 weeks already. On one hand, it feels like it’s been forever since I left. I feel like it was so long ago that I was hanging out with my family in Seattle and spending time with Wesley before I left. But at the same time, it feels like these two weeks have flown by…I think it’s just because it’s halfway through the program (the first program, anyway) though. The second program (the language program) is going to be a lot different, because while this international relations program was created specifically for PESI students (so there are only the 12 of us in that class), the language program is going to be held at Fudan university for all the students. So we’ll be joining with a lot of other students that regularly attend Fudan, probably a lot of international students. But the excursions and things we’ll be doing outside of class will only be me, Joanna, and Geneva. We’ll have a lot more freedom, but a lot less people to hang out with. In a way, I’m really sad that it’s already half over…I’m going to miss the friends that I made on this trip so much…everyone is going to go back to their hometowns all across America and I wonder if we’re going to keep in touch with each other, or if we’ll just be a chapter in each other’s lives that is completely separate from our real lives. It seems so strange that all the people I met here might just become memories in just 2 weeks.
So today, we just did a debriefing and reflection on our experiences at MMK. We just went through our groups and talked about how it affected us personally and what we learned, then we shared with the class. It was pretty helpful, I think. I think everyone had a lot of good insight to share about what they learned. Definitely some of the most prominent things were that these kids, even though they hadn’t had a lot of formal education, they were in a way more mature than other kids their age. Like, I felt like because they had to face a lot of hardships and difficulties growing up, they’ve been better for it. They aren’t spoiled little kids that complain that they’re hungry all the time or that they want a new toy every week, but they are happy with the simplest things. Like they LOVED that we just came into their classroom and gave them attention. And they liked having the opportunity to share with their classmates about their skills and abilities. And they loved playing games, even if the games were so simple that a monkey could play them. These kids almost don’t NEED an education like most kids get. I feel like yeah, I had a formal education and went to these great schools, but maybe they don’t need that. Not everyone needs that type of education to succeed. These kids are really good at other things, not just booksmarts. Some are great artists, some are great speakers, some are great athletes…they don’t necessarily need the schooling that we’ve had. I think at this point, because they’re so far behind in their formal education (4-5 grades behind), they might not be able to catch up to the other kids their age. But maybe they could be given nurturing, loving, encouraging adults and opportunities to learn about the world around them in other ways, and they could succeed that way. I mean, not everyone needs an education to be successful. These kids could potentially become the greatest minds of their generation through experiential learning, not formal learning.
Anyways, we finished with the debriefing at about 12:30, and me and Joanna have decided to make today a study day, because we’re both so behind on our readings. We’re supposed to have finished one of the two readers that we got already, and I’m only about…1/6 done -__- so yeah, we came with Dan to Duolun Road Cultural Street, which is like an old neighborhood preserved for its culture. It’s a really cute street with shops on the street level of buildings, and apartments on the top levels. It’s like Santana Row, but a lot more poor. There’s like all these antique shops and old-style buildings, and there’s a street market where they sell lots of street food. I wanted to try some, but we came kind of in the middle of the day, and I think most of the vendors come out in the morning and late at night :/ oh well, try again later! Anyways, we ate lunch at a Korean restaurant that was really good J I had bulgogi bibimbap and Dan & Joanna had some cold noodles. It was SOOOO gooood! Haha, maybe just cuz I was really hungry though. Now we’re at Starbucks drinking green tea frappucinos and reading/working on our laptops. Man! I do NOT want to read…but I guess I should -__- Okay then, that’s all for now!
No comments:
Post a Comment