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!