Malone Service Learning - China

May 15th - Beijing Today we attended a Catholic service at The Church of the Immaculate Conception of the Virgin Mary. It is the oldest Catholic church in Beijing. The architecture was intricate and beautiful. The service we attended was given in English and it was a lot like Catholic services in America. In the afternoon we went shopping at a large indoor market where we bargained for clothing, jewelry and other souvenirs. The bargaining process is an interesting one; the vendors are very forceful and are not hesitant to physically pull you into their stations and offer you ridiculously high prices for their goods. You can then haggle with the vendors to bring the price down so you can walk away with a fairly cheap t-shirt, knick-knack, etc. ~ Laura

Welcome to Beijing, faithful blog followers! After our ten hour long, overnight train from Shanghai, we found our hotel and traveled to the Forbidden City. Pictures of Mao Tse Tung hung from buildings, were printed on t-shirts and mugs, and covered pamphlets to remind us of the revolution and the new order of China. What moved us most, though, was the rich history of the dynasties that came before China as we now know it. We have continually been amazed at the length and depth of China's history; it makes America look like only a newborn. The Forbidden City was absolutely massive, with its different gates, meeting places, slave quarters, concubine housing, and elaborate gardens. Though still only a dim picture, our understanding of the grandeur of the lives of the emperors and empresses is much clearer. After an informative tour of the City, we went across the street to Tian'anmen Square. This is the site of a great democratic movement that took place, so this experience served...

May 18 Today our day began with a visit the Shanghai Financial Center, which is the third largest building in the world. We quickly entered in at the lowest level of the building and then surged to the 97th floor; it only took 66 seconds to get there. It was impressive to review the history of infrastructures in Shanghai, which appeared during the 1990’s. The Shanghai Financial Center was build in 2005 and finished by 2008.The day was full of the elaborate Chinese restaurants, by which we were greet by all throughout the trip. Dinner was even more special because the Ming Yuan Restaurant topped all the eating centers that we had been to, and we were joined by the lovely girls from the Helena’s House of Hope. I got to eat bachoi, one of my favorite Chinese vegetables; then we said our goodbyes to our new acquaintances, accompanied by the ironic thought, that we would probably never see them again. My final thought was, “Its okay, the girls will be forever in my prayers.” The night end...

[caption id="attachment_132" align="alignnone" width="427" caption="Some of the girls members of the group danced with at the school."] [/caption] [caption id="attachment_133" align="alignnone" width="442" caption="Learning a dance from some of the girls at the school."] [/caption] [caption id="attachment_134" align="alignnone" width="429" caption="One of the bedrooms"] [/caption] [caption id="attachment_135" align="alignnone" width="428" caption="The students' cafeteria."] [/caption] Today is our third day in Beijing! This city is cool because it has many more historic spots we have visited with traditional Chinese architecture than in Shanghai. Today we visited Light and Love School in a rural part of Beijingabout an hour away from our hotel. It was like an orphanage but not only orphans live there. Students are also allow...

[caption id="attachment_127" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="The group on the Great Wall"] [/caption] Today we visited the Great Wall. It was really cool to see it. We rode the cable cars to the top. The ride up was cool because you could see all around and you could see the different parts of the wall. I was amazed by how big the wall really is. I also was surprised by how steep it was. We had to climb lots of uneven steps and big slopes. It was a little scary coming down, but definitely worth it. The view while standing on the Great Wall was absolutely amazing! It was awesome to see how beautiful it was and how it stretched for miles and miles. We rode the cable cars back down to the bottom. After we bought some souvenirs and cheesy “I Climbed the Great Wall” t-shirts, we got back in the bus and headed to the city. When we got back to the city, we visited a park. It was really pretty. Inside the park was a small temple that the emperor b...

Wednesday May 11 Today we went to Concordia International School in Pudong. This school had students enrolled from all over the world. The students came from places like Australia, Canada, the United States, and more. The school taught students from preschool through twelfth grade and provided classes with a diverse range that will give the students a well rounded education. The building was beautiful and would surpass a lot of the preschools, elementary, middle, and high schools in the US. The faculty there were all so friendly and their passion and love for what they did was evident. The couple that invited us, who we met at Thanksgiving church on Sunday, were great hosts and made us feel more than welcome at Concordia! As I type we are at TJ's waiting for Dr. Chen and some of our group to come back from exchanging money to work with the girls to perform skits! We will have to work together, despite our language barrier, to play out a story and perform in front of everyone. When ...

Today we had the opportunity to visit Shanghai University and meet with some of the students. All of the students were English majors and could easily communicate with us. It was very enlightening to finally be able to engage in full communication with some of the people here without the help of a translator. I thoroughly enjoyed that each member of our group had the chance to be paired with a student and could learn a lot about each other's culture and see our differences and similarities. You can learn much about a different culture by simply picking up a book, but you gain much more insight by actually discussing it with someone who is a part of the culture. It was nice that we were able to ask one another questions that you would not find answers to in a library book. It is interesting to hear what people's impressions are about the American culture. I was happy that we were able to answer their questions and exchange personal information with one another. I hope ...

Sunday: Visiting local church. And "resting": ...and our great co-leader found fun way to use "mini-shovel" in the restaurant:)

JT's kids took us visit some interesting neighbors on Sat.

Group at work:

Hello family and friends of the 2011 China team!   The China Service-Learning Team made its way safely to Cleveland Hopkins Airport, arriving around 7:00 a.m. this morning.  Dr. Stephen Moroney and I served as "chauffeurs."  Co-leaders Dr. Donghai Chen and recent Malone graduate Monica Small and the entire team are excited about the coming two weeks.  Look for updates about their adventures from Dr. Chen in the days ahead and please feel free to post comments!   Dr. Jacci Welling