Wouldn't you think that 8:30am would be considered past "alarm" time? But Montana and LuRue were both blasted awake & had to get moving in a hurry. We had a pickup time of 9:30am, so we headed off to breakfast & managed to be "on time" in China time...5 minutes early.
A young man came in right on the dot, looking for us. A woman had contacted BaoLi a week or so ago, asking if any volunteers would spend the day with her and her 14-year-old son in order to give him practice speaking English. Don declined, but Montana and LuRue were willing, so here they were, climbing into a very nice car with the woman, her son, and the woman's brother.
The destination was "The Tomb of Jing Di", quite a distance north of Xi'an. The historical site has been open for about 9 years and is a model for preservation of artifacts. The digging sites are sealed off with glass, maintaining necessary temperatures and humidity. Visitors walk over transparent floors in some sections. The woman arranged for an English-speaking guide who was very good, so it was an interesting visit.
One of the attractions there was a "movie" that neither Montana nor LuRue could figure out. It lasted 20 minutes (we were in the SRO section), and from the back of the small theater, it looked exactly like a stage with rather small actors. Even though we "knew" that it was a screen, it looked very much 3-dimensional. From our position, it looked like we were looking at a real stage with real actors from the rear seats of a very large auditorium. However, when the actors disappeared in a puff of smoke, there was no denying reality. In some cases, the actors faded into a stone statue of themselves a couple of times.
Besides the sight-seeing, both Montana and LuRue enjoyed talking with the woman and the boy, whose name is Yuan. He wants to choose an English name and was asking for suggestions from Montana. BaoLi hadn't told us much about the woman...kept saying she didn't really understand the woman's motivations, but it became clear to LuRue during the day as they conversed in broken English. The woman is determined that her son go to the United States next September to attend high school, then university...eight years. She has no family there, has no friends there--only a dream and determination. They took a 16-day trip to the East Coast, to Chicago, and to California a couple of months ago. LuRue thinks she was hoping to get lucky and connect with someone who could arrange a school location. The boy says he wants to study astronomy. We all exchanged email addresses...we may someday find out if he actually makes it.
After the museum tour, we went to a noodle restaurant and the mom wanted to take us to another museum, but we said that no, we had to go back to the hotel. Montana had a video to put together at BaoLi's request and LuRue wanted to get started on planning for Monday's session with the younger students.
Montana went to her favorite place "The Fitness Room", but had to scream silently as there were other health nuts there.
Another big day coming tomorrow. Then a huge week ahead. Not much down time here!
A young man came in right on the dot, looking for us. A woman had contacted BaoLi a week or so ago, asking if any volunteers would spend the day with her and her 14-year-old son in order to give him practice speaking English. Don declined, but Montana and LuRue were willing, so here they were, climbing into a very nice car with the woman, her son, and the woman's brother.
The destination was "The Tomb of Jing Di", quite a distance north of Xi'an. The historical site has been open for about 9 years and is a model for preservation of artifacts. The digging sites are sealed off with glass, maintaining necessary temperatures and humidity. Visitors walk over transparent floors in some sections. The woman arranged for an English-speaking guide who was very good, so it was an interesting visit.
One of the attractions there was a "movie" that neither Montana nor LuRue could figure out. It lasted 20 minutes (we were in the SRO section), and from the back of the small theater, it looked exactly like a stage with rather small actors. Even though we "knew" that it was a screen, it looked very much 3-dimensional. From our position, it looked like we were looking at a real stage with real actors from the rear seats of a very large auditorium. However, when the actors disappeared in a puff of smoke, there was no denying reality. In some cases, the actors faded into a stone statue of themselves a couple of times.
Besides the sight-seeing, both Montana and LuRue enjoyed talking with the woman and the boy, whose name is Yuan. He wants to choose an English name and was asking for suggestions from Montana. BaoLi hadn't told us much about the woman...kept saying she didn't really understand the woman's motivations, but it became clear to LuRue during the day as they conversed in broken English. The woman is determined that her son go to the United States next September to attend high school, then university...eight years. She has no family there, has no friends there--only a dream and determination. They took a 16-day trip to the East Coast, to Chicago, and to California a couple of months ago. LuRue thinks she was hoping to get lucky and connect with someone who could arrange a school location. The boy says he wants to study astronomy. We all exchanged email addresses...we may someday find out if he actually makes it.
After the museum tour, we went to a noodle restaurant and the mom wanted to take us to another museum, but we said that no, we had to go back to the hotel. Montana had a video to put together at BaoLi's request and LuRue wanted to get started on planning for Monday's session with the younger students.
Montana went to her favorite place "The Fitness Room", but had to scream silently as there were other health nuts there.
Another big day coming tomorrow. Then a huge week ahead. Not much down time here!
what an interesting “movie”!
ReplyDeleteLove your continued enthusiasm to get to know and speak with local people—Yuan might show up on one of your door steps back in the US.