In most Dragons trips the students are given an opportunity to test our planning, organizational, and of course Chinese skills through a project called X-Phase. While often overwhelming the planning process allowed us to be creative and also work on......Read More
Today we are heading out on the first day of our X-Phase, which is a student planned and organized portion of the trip. Today we are exploring the Xizhou Oldtown, and tomorrow we are seeing the Three Pagodas and Chengsheng Temple. We are staying in......Read More
By now we have left the homestay village. In fact, I am writing this on a train to Dali, but I figured I’d get in one more homestay experience to the Yak while I still can. I returned to my homestay house after a few afternoon activities for......Read More
I’m a loud person, and so among other differences between life in New York and our rural homestay, what stuck out to me the most was the culture of conversation. I struggled for the first few days to fill voids in conversation at mealtimes, trying......Read More
Note: Slackpacking is when you hike to a camping location but you don’t actually carry any camping gear. In this case, we hiked to a cave but some other guys drove our tents there. I have never really been a very physically active person. Sports......Read More
Like all people on the Mandarin intensive program I have a desire to learn Chinese. I am fascinated by the writing, the language, and the culture. However, unlike everyone on this trip, I don’t speak Mandarin. Besides a middle school level......Read More
As a frequent tea drinker I have always been aware that the tea I drink provides both a deeply calming and awakening effect. Only in these last few days have I learned that this is caused by a great amount of positive Qi held within the tea leaves.......Read More
I’m writing this on the afternoon of our second full day here at the Miao village, between a tutorial on hand washing clothes and the much needed chance to do it myself (all the host families ended up having washing machines.) Although it is only......Read More
Today is our first day in our rural homestay village, we are living in a Miao ethnicity village high in the Zhaotong mountains. So far the village could not be more welcoming. Our first night here they performed a traditional welcoming ceremony just......Read More
I’m woken early this morning to the croons of dozens of roosters etching out an audio geography in the predawn cool fog of this village. For my morning pee I need to grab a headlamp, try not to step on the half chickens roosting on the rail......Read More
June 30, 2019 The first photo was taken the evening of June 30, 2019 after we had dinner at the guest house we had arrived at that noon. This quaint, cozy guest house was in the mountains north of Beijing with a view of the Great Wall of China. The......Read More
The group has arrived in Beijing and is now headed to their Orientation site on the Great Wall. Wishing them a great start!...Read More
Everyone on our group flight is now gathered in LA! We kicked off the fun with a couple of card games, but we’re just missing Matthew! We can’t wait to meet up with him, Patricia and Maddie in China！...Read More
Hello all! We’re on the eve of most of us converging in LA to launch off across the world, I’m hoping everyone’s taking care of their needs in their final moments with family. We want to post a note about access to personal emails......Read More
I can’t wait to go to China and meet all of you! I go to the Hotchkiss School, a boarding school in Connecticut, but I’m from the Bronx. I’m 17 and I’m going to be senior next year. I have two younger sisters and an older......Read More
Hello 你好 my name Jaid i’m 17 and I am from Oklahoma. I have lived in Oklahoma for most of my life however, I attended a co-ed boarding school in Connecticut for two years which is where i began learning 中文. I have recently moved back to......Read More
