Zaijian Lanzhou ...............

Our time in Lanzhou has come to an end. It has been an amazing four months and all of us are very appreciative of the hard work the Gansu Foreign Affairs Office and Lanzhou University put into this program. We are all leaving with some new language skills, new friends from all over the world, a new appreciation for the complexity of China, and a million photos! It will be very sad to leave tomorrow morning, but a hot kiwi summer sounds pretty good right now. See you in Christchurch!

Closing Banquet

Tonight we attended the 2007 GSFAO Ambassador Program Closing Banquet. The Guest of Honor at the Banquet was the Vice-Governor of Gansu Province. Margaret, from the GSFAO, and I hosted the banquet performance. We performed 3 Chinese songs and some of us made speeches on behalf of the group. The banquet was held at the same place as the opening banquet at the beginning of September. It seems hard to believe that our time here has come to an end!

Lanzhou University International Student Christmas Party

This evening we attended a Christmas Party held by Lanzhou University for its International students. The party was held at a hotel across the road from the University campus.

Practice makes perfect

Today we had two practices for our final banquet performances. As a group we are performing three Chinese songs we learned in our language classes. In addition four of us are making speeches on behalf of the group and it is very important that our pronunciation is perfect!

International Expo at Lanzhou University

This afternoon we hosted an Expo on campus for the staff and students of Lanzhou University. Each of us had a table and presented information about our countries and hometowns. Many students I spoke to had heard about New Zealand's beautiful scenery and most said that they would like to visit New Zealand someday.

Lanzhou Foreign Language Secondary School

One room of the library

With some of the teachers

This afternoon I was invited by Principal Zhang to visit his school, the Lanzhou Foreign Language Secondary School. I was surprised by how large and well-resourced the school is. There are around 140 teachers and 1200 students in the school. I met with some of the teachers and they attempted to teach me how to do some traditional Chinese dances! I visited some classes and then met one of the foreign teacher's from the school. We then went to a nearby hotel for a banquet.

Study, study, study

This weekend most of us are holed up in our rooms studying. We have 3 exams beginning on Monday morning. We have been studying a lot but the Chinese characters and measure words are making things a little difficult. It will be good to see how much we have learned over the past 4 months. Wish us luck!

GSFAO Good Luck Banquet

Dinora delivering her presentation on Mexico

Myself and Becky from the Gansu Foreign Affairs Office

Becky, Graham, and Mr Ding

This evening the Gansu Foreign Affairs Office hosted a banquet for us after our final weekly meeting. This dinner was to wish us luck for our exams and for our final two weeks in Lanzhou.

Liao Jia Cao Primary School

The group in the Guest House Lobby with the supplies we bought for the school


Graham signing the football

Luis and Anca

The football we signed for the kids

Last month we visited a Rural Primary School and spent some time playing with the kids. They made a deep impression on us and Graham and I collected money from the group to purchase supplies for the school. It is amazing here how much difference a little money makes. We were able to buy 300 notebooks, 300 pencils, 2 footballs, 1 basketball, some comic books, as well as some world maps and posters for their classrooms. I am sure that the children will be very grateful and we are all happy to help give back to the local community. This afternoon we presented the supplies to a representative from the village and he was very thankful. Hopefully the supplies will help inspire some of the kids to study hard in school and bring a smile to their faces.

Badminton & Ping Pong

Lanzhou Uni Post-Grad Campus Gymnasium

Graham and Youssef

Lanzhou University Medical Campus

Some of us enjoy playing ping pong and badminton when we get a chance. Now it is getting pretty cold so we don't play very often, but we used to go out the back gate to the Medical Campus and play. It is pretty disheartening to lose to school kids, but I figure they've had a bit more practice than I have! It was only recently that we saw Youssef's CV and discovered he used to be a ping pong champ back in Egypt so we no longer feel so bad that he used to demolish us on the ping pong table ..............

Zaijian Lanzhou No.33 Middle School

Class 9

Class 12

The students perform exercises outside every morning

Banquet at The Green Hotel

This morning was the last time I will teach at Lanzhou No.33 Middle School. I will definitely miss teaching the students. In the evening myself, Erika, and Jeff were invited to attend a banquet with the Headmaster of the School, some representatives from Lanzhou University, and some English teachers from the Middle School. It was a very fun evening and the teachers from the Middle School were very appreciative of our volunteer work at the school. As a leaving present I presented the Middle School with a book about Christchurch for their School Library.

It's December already?!

It seems strange that we will be leaving Lanzhou in less than 3 weeks. The time has gone by very quickly! I have been surprised to see some Christmas decorations around. The photos above were all taken at the Lanzhou Legend Hotel. At our local supermarket just outside the main gate there is a Christmas section with decorations and all of the staff are wearing Santa Hats.

Happy Birthday Marie

Youssef, Anca, Marie, Lali and Luis in the Guest House

Today was Marie's birthday so we celebrated by going to a Uygur Restaurant for dinner and having a delicious cake. We have had many birthday's in the group over the last four months but Marie's is the last!

Shopping

This afternoon we visited an Antiques Market just off the Pedestrian Street (the main shopping area in Lanzhou). You never know what you'll find at the markets here!