Aug. 23 – We’re all in this Together! [Day 8]

I can’t believe that this is almost over! I’m not sad that school is about to start, I just don’t want my new friends to leave! I wish they can all stay in Edmonton for longer, or even better, forever! Everything good has to come to an end someday, if only that wasn’t true. I’m going to start crying now as I write this! =(

Today we started the same time as usual, meeting in the conference room. When I go there, there was only one Chengdu buddy there, along with other Edmonton buddies. My Chengdu friend came up to me and had explained that put down an “order/request” to be my buddy for the next [last =( ] two days, in other words, she had called dibs on me. She told me that yesterday night, my other Chengdu friend had requested to be my buddy today.

We began with a short bus tour of downtown. Our first stop was at the Omni TV station for a full behind-the-scenes tour. (Even though being interviewed is not my favourite thing to do) I thought that it was really cool to see the process of news and interviews going through to being shown on TV. There was one part where one everyone was circled around a reporter’s desk and the reporter put the news about the Chengdu Youth Visit on the computer. All the Chengdu youth were so embarrassed to see themselves and demanded for the computer to be turned off! We still watched most of it though.

We visited an ASSIST summer camp and had showed off our pro-ness skills in Chinese chess. I didn’t have much skill to show off, seeing as I lost three times, but look on the bright side, I made a couple of people look really good!

After another short tour, this time including the outside of the legislature, we immediately headed of to McDonalds. Everyone had placed their orders ahead of time, so the food came quickly. Chengdu and Edmonton kid’s mouths were stuffed full with fries and burgers. Everyone had a large cup of whatever drink they desired (remember this point, it will come up again later in our story). Everyone remembered to go to the washroom at the end of lunch time, as they still remembered the torture my friends and I went through when we forgot to go a few days ago!

Hawrelark Park was our next stop; the time of our lives was waiting for us. Once we stepped off the bus, every Chengdu youth started shivering. The wind was way too strong for their liking. When all extra jackets were put on, we started paddle-boating. Everyone was to pair up with their buddies to paddle together. We were told rules such as no splashing, no bumping other boats and always keep life-jackets on. Everything was going fine for 15 minutes until I had to go to the washroom in the middle of the pond! My buddy and I rushed to shore and ran off to the nearest washroom, laughing all the way. When we came back, we still played for 20 or 30 minutes.

At a certain point, many of our boats had grouped together in the middle of the pond, so we tried to join every boat together. We grabbed on to each boat on the left and right hand side of our own boat. Even though all our 9 boats were touching each other, it technically wasn’t “bumping” I think..., no, I think it was bumping, it’s just that no one yelled at us =D! At that moment, everyone helped each other out: moving around so that others could come in or encouraging people to keep trying to come back when the waves were holding them back, I felt like that was when we were actually “all in this together”.

When everyone was lined up perfectly in a straight line, we all raised our arms in the air and yelled “Sze Chuan Jia You!” in other words, “Go Sze Chuan!” This was one of the funnest moments of our adventure. We also played dodgeball, tug-of-war and lacrosse which were also tons of fun.

When we were all pooped and slowly filing on the bus, everyone picked up a fruit from the front of the bus. When we were half way done our fruits, someone suddenly asked “Are the fruits washed yet?” We started freaking out (just because we’re like that, we have to be perfect!) until one of the Chengdu chaperones assured us that she washed the fruit. We all thanked her graciously! Everyone was munching on peaches and apples as we drove to the Aviation Museum. We learned about the history of many planes and jets, and also had the opportunity to ride in a legit plane! I’m sure we all learned lots of things that we didn’t know from here.

We had another long bus trip to Legends Golf course where we stuffed our faces with burgers, fries and salad, making our stomachs distended at the end. We also had the opportunity to hit some golf balls at the driving range, which came to an end very fast, because of the setting sun.

Today, we had dessert at the Crowne Plaza Hotel; also know to me as the rotating restaurant. We were eating dessert that was too pretty to eat; some Chengdu youth had to take pictures of it first. Everyone is getting ready to have the time of their lives again tomorrow.

Megan:

“Saying hello only takes a second, but saying goodbye takes forever”