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 third entry below:
Hello, our names are Vincent and Jaelon. Today in China it is 9:05pm and 87 degrees as we wrote this blog. Today everyone experienced the amazing “speed of the bullet” train as we travelled from Beijing to Hangzhou. After the long six ½ hours of the smooth ride of the bullet train, we were happily welcomed by the Hangzhou Wanxiang Polytechnic staff and student ambassadors. Once we got settled into our beautiful hotel rooms, we were invited to an opening ceremony which was more like a festival. They served us fantastic and traditional Chinese dishes like duck tongue and shrimp. After we dined, the Chinese student ambassadors performed a number of routines followed by all of us dancing and singing together, we danced to some of their music and some of ours.
After we dined, we couldn’t stop dancing and singing all over the place. Hangzhou Wanxiang Polytechnic provided us a bag full of gifts as well as really nice polo shirts. It was nice getting to know the Chinese student ambassadors and they taught us a lot about how they live and how it’s different from how we live in America. We also took many pictures to document the day; we did funny faces and put up peace signs. This was such a great way to end the night, with friendly goodbyes and lots of hugs. Tonight’s opening ceremony was definitely the highlight of our trip, and we are very excited for the days that we will spend here in Hangzhou.
~Vincent Hale & Jaelon Brooks
