The Chicago Urban League is proud to announce that it is once again hosting a student mission trip to China! For the next two weeks, 24 CUL students are being immersed in the Chinese culture, customs and cuisine. This is a journey is an adventure of a lifetime that is sure to change their lives.
The great news is that we get to be a part of their journey through the blogs they are writing. Check out the 9th entry below:
Throughout this trip, we’ve been exposed to some extreme cultural differences and some minor cultural differences. Yesterday, we went to a resort filled with multiple fun activities: obstacle courses, haunted houses and a large carnival which was similar if not identical to some places in America. Today, we participated in two lectures on Solar Energy and China’s Electric Vehicles followed by two workshops on woodblock printing and Chinese paper cutting. The workshop on Chinese paper cutting reminded me of when we made paper snowflakes in school but instead of snowflakes you make more intricate pictures; for example, the instructor created an Egyptian setting with cacti and a pyramid. We also traced different Chinese characters during the woodblock printing workshop, so today was very artistic and very fun.
~Australia Harrison
Yesterday we saw a show about the Song Dynasty. In America, typically at the end of every show, the whole cast comes out and takes a bow. Instead, at the end of the Song Dynasty, everyone came out and just waved as we left which I found quite interesting. Today one of our fellow ambassadors, Karl celebrated his 17th birthday. In celebration of his birthday he was given a traditional Chinese cake, Ms. Parker had us all sign a large scrapbook-like card and the Chinese student ambassadors presented him with gifts including a nice set of socks and a pineapple shaped birthday card. We were going to play basketball as well, in celebration of his birthday, but then it started pouring down. All in all this has been a great experience for me.
~Jordan Wiggins
