I met Anne-Marie for a date on Sunday at the Book Worm in Sanlitun. We continued talking about China. She shared a lot of similar views, and even the few differences we fun to discuss. It was a shame I hadn't met her earlier and she was leaving soon. But that's where email comes in. If I ever go to Germany, I now have a contact.
We held our last CAD. It seemed a bit childish to go EEEH over going to the Beijing Zoo, but many of us hadn't gone in a long time. However, I think we expected too much. There were only two Chinese participants there. Participation level has been declining lately. I'm sorry to say, but that was the saddest zoo I've ever been to. We saw many animals walking around in circles or back and forth. I've been told that's a sign of them going crazy. The cages weren't always too small, but some just didn't seem that great. The animals didn't seem too happy. Not only that, like 4 exhibits were closed, including the bears, penguins, crocodiles, and hippos/rhinos. At least I got to see pandas! All 3 of them. Sorry to those I promised I'd bring you one home, they're a little harder to sneak out then I thought. Damn cages and all. Those bastards scratch hard too!
I had my food workshop the next day, the first part of debriefing. My intent was to compare the differences between breakfast, lunch and dinner in Canada and China. I had put a lot of effort into it. But the best laid plans go to crap! I was asked to shorten it to 11am so Jonathon could take us to a reserved room for Jamies birthday. I was already pressed for time, as circle check took up a large chunk. I tried. It went well at first, with Yuchan and I writing down information comparing the two countries. Yuchan was a bit unprepared for a question portion, and people were getting frustrated at the answering system, which made me flustered and jumpy. But it smoothed out. However, I still had to give up two activities I had planned, including a marshmallow fight. Everyone gave positive comments, but I was still a bit disappointed. I was a little bitter for the rest of the day, but wasn't mad at anyone. Sadie and Andy prepared a reverse culture shock workshop that afternoon. It was well needed for some people I think. A lot of the symptons of culture shock, and even reverse culture shock I had experienced before. I've warned people back home that I will be acting odd for a few days, so people should be expecting that. It set up some good remedies to dealing with it.
The next day, I had another workshop. This one was on reflection with our counterparts. I had everyone write a timeline, from the beginning of the program to the very day we left. They were to write good moments with their host families, counterparts and group, as well as bad times. They were to reflect on these and share with their counterparts and comparing experiences. Heather held a workshop that we would reflect on what we learned during our CWY experience, and what we would take home from it. I took it very seriously. We read letters that we wrote at the beginning of the China phase. I have a tendency to write something that makes me laugh when I read it afterward, such as at the end of my letter, "P.S. Go pick up as many fine women as you can, you stud you." Okay, okay, I lie. I didn't put, "you stud you" in there. I looked hard at what I learned and what I would remember when I came home.
Our last workshop was Felix and Anthony's on Chinese history. We read through some Chinese history, back to the Opium Wars. We've come aways to discuss sensitive subjects with our counterparts now, which include Mao, the Cultural Revolution and to a slight degree, Tibet. I'm quite happy our counterparts respect our desire to learn about these. Tomorrow is a our last CWY oriented portion of the program. Afterwards, its party party party! Except tomorrow. That's still totally Chinese, as we have very little idea whats going on, we're expected to cook god knows what dishes and do god knows what for entertainment. Damn. Shit, how many days left?
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