凤凰国际

Day Four: Attend International Innovation and Entrepreneurship Fairs with Special Envoy of Mayor of Phoenix, Global Sister Cities’ Mayors Forum: Downtown Chengdu: Chengdu Convention Center

Royal: One thing that I would suggest for students next year is to bring shower sandals because the shower is often next to the toilet. The conference was amazing despite the fact that we didn’t meet any people because plans changed and we weren’t able to attend the Mayor’s dinner.

I noticed that everything in China is run off of respect.  The chain of command and someone’s status is crucial. We walked around Chengdu’s shopping streets and noticed that everyone stares at us.  It feels like we are celebrities!

Also, the Chinese love my braids, it is quite amusing actually.  If you want good food in China, I recommend finding a Japanese restaurant.  Also, it is extremely beneficial to have a Chinese “tour guide” to show you where the best shops are.

McKenna: I woke up this morning and had soy milk and this dumpling thing for breakfast.  My host family dropped me off at the hotel so we could go to the Global Innovation and Entrepreneurship Fair Conference at the Intercontinental Hotel.  The conference made us feel official, and lots of people took pictures of us!  They are not used to seeing foreigners.  The guy next to me tried to discreetly take one of me, lol. After we heard city officials talk, we met up with Tom and Tommy, friends of my Grandpa Decker. They took us out to a great big lunch in downtown Chengdu and we explored the shopping areas.

We decided to spend the rest of the day shopping.  We had a little fun and took picture and met people while we were sipping mango drinks.  It was fun to shop and bargain with the Chinese.  After a long day of shopping, we headed back on a long (seemed hours long) journey back to the hotel.  It was a fun car ride, you could tell we were all delirious from being tired.

When we finally arrived back at the hotel, I met up with my host family.  They brought their aunt and uncle for me to meet, the parents of her cousin who I had met yesterday.  It was fun talking with them in the car, they had a lot of questions.  We first stopped at my host sister’s house. The house that I am staying in is their grandparents, so this was the first time seeing my host sister’s house.

I met her grandmother, and she showed me their garden which was surrounded by a beautiful pond.  Waiting for her dad to get home, we played songs to each other that we knew on the piano (she is better than I am). One her dad arrived home, they took me to a city which was a part of Chengdu but 30 minutes away. Despite being very tired, it was fun trying the famous BBQ in this city and walked around. We headed straight to bed. Can’t wait for the irrigation system park tomorrow!

Maya: Last night, there was some confusion and I stayed in the hotel room instead of heading home with my host family.  This morning, I woke up very early and dressed for the conference.  I dressed formally and with some heels.  On the way there, I saw a woman cleaning the streets with an old broom. We passed by the world’s largest building. When we arrived at the Intercontinental Hotel, we were introduced to Dr. William Brashears, Director of Global Education at the Thunderbird School of Global Management which is now a part of ASU. He also teaches in universities in China. 

When we walked into the conference, we grabbed our translators and sat down. Never in my life have I felt so popular when every person in the media too pictures and videos of us.  People were pulling us aside and asking us for photos while giggling. I wondered if there were any other blond haired women in the room but I couldn’t find any.  People tried to take pictures of us without letting us know.

After the opening speeches, we met up with Tom and Tommy for lunch in Dr. Yang’s favorite restaurant.  The lunch was in a private room and was absolutely amazing! We went to ice cream and Tommy went back to school. 

Shops in Chengdu are so small and they are all selling the same things. What I liked is how they tried to get you into their shops! I enjoyed bargaining. We went to a large shopping street and people stopped to talk to us while we drank mango drinks.  It amazes me how many people stare and say hllo.

Later, we met some friend of Dr. Yang’s and they recommended a restaurant with dim sum and fried rice.

When I arrived back at the hotel, my host family was waiting for me. Linda, my host sister’s home is about 15 minutes from the hotel.  We walked to get hotpot and it was a strange experience. Hotpot is a large cauldron of chili powder and vegetables or meat.  Linda had me try everything. At dinner, I showed my family pictures they said that my mother was beautiful and my brothers were cute. They thought that Robert was sooo handsome.  I also had to sign my autograph on a ton of paper because Linda’s classmates think that I’m from Hollywood. 

Chinese people are more serious than we are. When I went into the bathroom after Linda had showered, she was so embarrassed that she had left her clothes on the ground. The bathroom has a hole in the ground for a toilet and a shower head, no actual shower. At the end of the night, we exchanged some gifts and she love the American candy and shirt from Dr. Yang.

When I went to bed, I have never laid on anything so hard in my life. We are going to wake up at 8 a.m. tomorrow to go hiking and Linda is so excited!

Day Three: Meet Buddies from local high school. Presented a lesson on Phoenix, Arizona.Chinese Cultural/Mandarin Presentation in a Middle School and High School. Volunteer at a special needs school, present an English lesson, Dujiangyan Special Education School. Meeting with the Dujiangyan Mayor. Welcome dinner with city officials. Check-in with Host Family

McKenna, Maya, Royal, and Nichole visited the local Dujiangyan schools and presented Powerpoint Presentations about Arizona. They felt like celebrities walking into the classroom with 30 clapping Chinese students. Whatever nerves they may have had quickly evaporated due to the warm reception. They continued on to a special education school with a classroom full of eager students ready to learn English from us. This was a life changing experience for all and although it was out of most of our comfort zone, it became one of the highlights of our trip. With our positive feeling of the day, we continued on to a meeting with the Mayor of Dujiangyan. He spoke about the relationship that he would like to strengthen with Phoenix and spoke about what his goals for his lovely city were. They took us to a perfectly situated restaurant, near a stream, where we had our first taste of real Sichuan cuisine.

Maya: We woke up the next day for breakfast and had some of the best noodles I’ve ever had! And this was hotel food! I was very impressed with the breakfast that was offered. 

Tour of the Schools: I remember the strangest thing to me was how the traffic worked on the way to the schools.  Everyone here honks to alert other drivers they are near.  In Arizona, it is considered rude to honk and the noise of honking isn’t constant like it is here.  When we arrived at the high school, I was in total shock.  The students were waiting outside of the doors, screaming of excitement, wanting us to come in! I felt very important in that moment.  We walked through their cheering hands and were instantly separated to two different classrooms. 

When I walked into the classroom, every student started clapping and cheering.  I showed pictures of the Grand Canyon, Downtown Phoenix, and my high school. There was a question and answer period and one girl raised her hand and asked if I had a boyfriend.  That made everyone laugh.  The Chinese teacher then walked in and told the teacher that he was going to teach an easy lesson because I was there.  I passed notes to two of the students and that was so much fun. I found a badminton birdie on the floor of the classroom and enjoyed speaking to the owner about playing badminton.

After touring the high school, we went to the Dujiangyan Special Education Center. This part of the day was very rewarding to me because we sang songs and drew pictures with the excited students. My favorite part of the day was seeing the students’ parents’ eyes welling up with tears as they watched their child play with us.

We continued to a special dinner with the Chengdu city officials.  We had an amazing dinner by the canal and ancient city.  There were all kinds off assortment of food; vegetables, meat, and little snacks.  You could see the flowing water from the canal built back in 256 B.C. This was truly incredible and I enjoyed every minute of it.

McKenna: (Regarding breakfast) First of all, the food in the hotel was amazing and it was fun to try all the new things they had. If the hotel food was that good, I couldn’t wait to try the street food! After getting our first good, Chinese meal in, we all headed to the high schools.

Maya and I visited a huge private school that taught middle and high school with dorms. When we got out of our car and saw all the students eagerly waiting for us, the goose bumps and excitement officially set in.  All the students were just as excited as we were and welcomed us in such a perfect way. I was very nervous and had to pretend like I knew what I was doing!

This was also when I met my host family, “sister”, Tina. She was very sweet, just like everyone else, and I made my way to her classroom.  They were teaching English first and I was there to give a little presentation. Being in front of a 30 student class was a little nerve racking, but the students did a great job at making me feel comfortable.  They asked great questions and were excited to hear about my boyfriend, music, dance moves, and much more about American culture! I learned how to say my name in Chinese! The students and teacher Mr. Norris, also made me an awesome sign in Mandarin saying that I am welcome to come to Dujiangyan.  After conversing with the students and sitting in the next Biology class, I took a tour around the school and it was amazing.

One interesting room we saw was a room where the walls are padded and there were dummies you could hit. They called this room, the room where you could let your anger out. I think we all need this in America.  The tour ended in the school’s dining hall where we had a very good lunch.  We then headed back to the cars to continue on to the school that we were to visit.

Royal: Nichole and I visited a school in China.  All the students were so loving and kind.  Anything we did, they thought was funny.  We gave a presentation about Phoenix to the kids.  All of the kids spoke pretty decent English, I was impressed. They loved when we spoke to them in Chinese, even if it was just saying, “Ni hao”. I noticed that they really like outgoing type people because most of them seem to be on the shy side.  They are a great group of people!

Nichole: I never knew that China had a school just for disabled kids. I loved visiting the schools today. This was such a great opportunity for everyone. I loved meeting all of the Chinese officials.  They were all so sweet and I loved to see all the passion they have for their hometown. How they presented everything was amazing. There are not enough words in the dictionary to explain how thankful I am to be here with everyone.

Going to a Chinese host family was such a culture shock. You have no idea what to expect, it is so different from the US. For instance, when you enter a home, you have to take your shoes off and change into slippers. The reason for this is because they don’t want to bring the germs from the outside world into their home.  One thing that was strange to me was that they use washcloths as towels.  I was so confused and did not know how to “use” it.  You would never expect the littlest things to be so different.  I think it is a great experience to live the life like a Chinese person.

McKenna: We headed back to the cars to go visit a Special Education School for 5^th and 7^th graders. The students at this school were so funny and nice like the students of the Middle School. We drew pictures with them and sang some common American songs. We then headed to Dujiangyan City Hall and had a meeting with the new vice mayor and others in the government, I need felt so official. They were all so nice and showed us amazing presentations about their city.  They were also kind enough to give us each a gift and a stuffed panda.  We went to dinner with them in this very nice, beautiful area that was next to the river. All the food was very new to me, and was VERY spicy!! We had lots of fun learning different phrases in Mandarin and trying new foods.  Now was the most anticipated part of the day, going off with our host families! 

We headed back to the hotel and I got very nervous. But as every other moment today, my nervousness quickly was resolved by the warm welcoming of my host family.  They were so kind and love to bend over backwards for you. 

I met my Chinese sister, Tina’s, 22-year-old cousin, Fiona.  She is beautiful!  Her dad and mom are very funny, outgoing people.  We came back to their apartment on the 12^th floor and it was very nice.  I am staying in one of their two apartments with Tina and Fiona (fun!!).  I am so lucky to be here and be able to experience all these new things.  Not to mention, I have the best host family! Today was amazing.