The Summer of the Chengdu Youth 2010

Aug. 25 - Cloudy with a chance of tears -The Final Farewell [Day 10]

2010-08-27T21:07:00.007-06:00

"A memory lasts forever never does it die. True friends stay together and never say goodbye."

First of all, I want to say thanks to everyone for your support and comments . I hoped you enjoyed this blog as much as I did, I'm going to miss writing these. Anyways, Enjoy!

Our last day together started with a slow walk to the Art Gallery of Alberta from the hotel. During the walk, we had lots of time to talk. I was joking around with my buddy, who I was buddied up with yesterday too, she said "You're mine today". I said "But I was yours yesterday." She replied " Don't worry, when we are all crying, you will be everyone's buddy!" We took a break from walking and we each received a piece of paper with all Chengdu youths and most of the volunteer's pictures on the top, there was space for autographs under the picture too. We spent some time signing each other's papers and then we set off for the art gallery. The Chengdu youth were already fascinated by the outer appearance of the gallery and were excited to go in.

Inside, we toured the Warner bros. section and one about illusions. Examining picture by picture, art after art, time seemed to pass really quickly. We then headed off to Kingsway mall again, but this time for lunch. We each chose 3 different food items which added 10 pounds to the plate. I still had a bit of food on my plate at the end which I was unable to finish, everyone was bloated after lunch.

We visited the ETS bus garage briefly to watch a bus wash and finally set off for Fort Edmonton where we spent the last part of our adventure together. During the ride there, I got all my new Chengdu friends to sign my volunteer shirt, which ended up pretty cool.

Our Fort Edmonton trip started with a cool train ride, which we unfortunately got the carriage cart (where people stored luggage) and had to stand. It was OK though, we had to burn off all the calories we got from lunch anyways! We toured the forts and buildings where Edmontonians used to live. The Chengdu youths were really interested in the animal furs in the trading stores which were actually really cute (if you take out the image of the animal being brutally killed and skinned out of your mind first =]).

We were all bouncing with excitement when we boarded the horse carriage where we went back in time year by year. It was like being in a time machine! When our horse carriage tour was done, we walked back to the carnival place and my buddy and I immediately lined up for the Ferris wheel. In the beginning, my buddy told me that she wasn't scared and that she had done this loads of times. Once we had started, she grabbed my hand and shut her eyes. Whenever we moved a bit she would scream. I was reminded of my good friend from Chengdu last year who was frightened out of her socks and held onto me the whole time. When our round was over, we went to the Merry go round, which, to be honest with you, I got kinda queasy riding on =p. We also played carnival games, such as fishing for gold stars and knocking down milk bottles.

The BBQ picnic site in Fort Edmonton was our last stop. After scrumptious burgers and cookies, we played like playschoolers in the playground. Near the end, when some of the girls started crying, it was like a domino effect. Everyone that was crying was sitting on a bench. My buddy was hugging me the whole time while she was crying. In my head I kept thinking about the quote:

"I'm not going to cry, I'm going to part with a smile on my face."

The whole time a few Chengdu and Edmonton kids were crying, I was holding back my tears, I didn't want our last day to end in crying. There was one of my Chengdu friends who didn't cry and was smiling the whole time. She told me "Don't worry, I'll be crying all the way back to Chengdu tomorrow! I'm going to leave today happy." When most of the crying ceased, we all played on the swings, teeter-totter and monkey bars together. When it was time to leave Fort Edmonton, we took final pictures and said the last goodbyes to the volunteers who weren't coming back to the hotel with us.

On the bus ride to the hotel, one of the boys who always seemed unbreakable and positive, suddenly broke out into tears. I told him to always remember the great times he had in Edmonton and to not dwell on the negative. When everyone saw him, they were surprised too, I told them that he wasn't crying, he was just sweating from his eyes. All the kids from Chengdu and Edmonton started singing "童话" (Fairytale), wanting to end on a happy (musical) note. This song has been the main song of our journey, seeing as so many people knew it, we had sung it at least 10 times on the bus. But singing the song had brought back memories, causing some Chengdu friends to tear up, so we stopped singing.

When we reached the hotel, two of my oversea friends (who promised to be strong) started tearing up. Other people slowly followed their suit. We spent a little more time in the meeting room together before splitting. Seeing everyone cry I started to sweat from my eyes too! But everyone around me told me to be strong and I did. After giving heartfelt hugs and saying goodbye we await our next reunion.

I am so glad that I had the chance to experience this journey. I have learned a lot from this adventure, learning from the difference of our countries to the value of friendship. This experience is what I will remember forever, starting from our nervous beginning to our final farewell.

"You and I will meet again, when we're least expecting it. One day in a far off place, I will recognize your face. I won't say goodbye my friend, for you and I will meet again"

Megan
Signing off for the last time =)

(\__/)
( o . o )
( > < )*

Aug. 25 - Our last day together

This entry has proven to be the most difficult to write for me, I apologize for the lateness…

This morning when I met the youth at the hotel, everyone already was busy signing each others t-shirts, scribbling contact information. The tension of this final day together was already cast upon us. Elaine walked in with a box of tissues and told us she was all set for goodbyes tonight. I laughed at her ridiculousness, 2 whole boxes of tissues looked slightly crazy! Which reminded me of a conversation I had just the night previous, the youth that I was the closest to-Ting Ru joked with us and said that she wasn’t going to show up on the last day to avoid a crying fest.

Though just because it was the last day, didn’t mean we were going to let that ruin a precious moment together. We walked though city hall as a shortcut to the art gallery. My buddy asked why we were there again, and John replied and said because the mayor wanted to see his ‘angel’ (after yesterday’s memorable encounter with the mayor where he called her an angel!). The art gallery was fantastic! I actually really wanted to see the inside of the art gallery even before it was completed. The building itself was already a masterpiece, so I figured its contents be nothing less. The first exhibit we visited was related to Warner brothers cartoons. Hand in hand my buddy and I roamed the galleries, laughing at silly drawings of our childhood favourites. We adventured onwards through an exhibit titled “Reframing a Nation”, that goes in depth to explore the role landscape plays in the construction of Canadian identity. But my favourite exhibit of all was one featuring the illusions of M.C. Escher, his works included buildings with staircases that never ended, shapes that knotted around themselves, all of it was so interesting (though trying to figure out how come the picture looks so strange make my brain hurt)!

After we left the art gallery it was lunchtime, this time we ate in the food court of Kingsway mall. We found the need to take pictures of everything we did, in every place we went. This included posing with our food too. But being the usual forgetful person I didn’t remember to pack spare batteries for my camera, and unlucky for me it was dying. How could I possibly not take pictures on the last day right?! So Ting Ru and I ran all the way to Zellers and all the way back (people looked at us like we were crazy, neither of us minded!). We got back just before our group was done in the food line! After we were done eating there was some time left. Because my buddy got extremely close to a little boy that was with us throughout the entire trip, she told everyone she and him were married. So that’s when I captured this Kodak moment!

Next on our agenda was our final destination, Fort Edmonton Park. Though I have been there on school trips, going with my new friends was a different experience. The tour guide lead us on the train where we took lots of pictures, except lots of light was pouring in through the windows so it made everyone’s face very odd coloured. Lots of pelts were on display, I have to admit they are nice and soft, so definitely could see it becoming a nice hat, but imagine wearing the hat worth just as much as a sports car. Not too worth it eh? After touring the tall wooden buildings and the living quarters inside, we went on ride pulled by a horse. It was getting very hot (first super hot day this week), Elaine had an umbrella but not wanting to scare the horses and have the cart go out of control we refrained from opening it. And if the extreme heat wasn’t enough the horses smelled really bad. One of the boys asked how many times a week the horses were bathed, and their stench was explained when we were told the horses didn’t get washed, only brushed! My buddy borrowed my jacket and wrapped it around her head. If was a funny sight! Next we went to the mini amusement park. Everyone wanted a turn at the Ferris wheel so the line up was very long. My group began with a ride on the merry go round, the ride was a long one so when some of us got off we were a bit wobby on our feet! Finally we had our turn on the Ferris wheel, despite its small appearance it was exciting, because the momentum created when we rocked the seat forwards and back was quite freaky, especially when you’re a few stories high! So there was a lot of screaming from my buddy and I, but pretty soon we just screamed for the sake of it. After this ride we played many carnival games, the first one I went to was a ring toss game. A couple of the girls got pretty good at the game and picked cute metal rings for their prize. By the end I bet they each had over 5 rings! The older guy of the 2 Chengdu boys got very good at a ball throwing game, I was very touched when he told me to come over and pick a ring. It was quite cute, he even helped me pick one, and he showed me the one he picked for himself pointing out how similar they were. Now I’ll always remember the first ring I ever received haha! The only game that I was successful at was the fishing game where the objective was to put our hooks on the fish with little gold stars underneath. There was so many of us playing we knew exactly which fish had gold stars underneath after a while, because we watch the booth operator put them back! I ended up winning a huge pencil, quite useless but its so cute! Even before we were finished playing with all our tickets, we had to go to the barbecue site. Our final destination.

After days of eating Chinese food, the kids were delighted to have good old hamburgers and hot dogs for a change! My buddy had a plan to have all ‘6 brothers’ and ‘sisters’ stay over at the hotel for the night and ride to the airport to send them off the following morning. So she dictated a proposal in Chinese and I wrote in out in English (emphasising on the PLEASEEEE!). She delivered it but they unfortunately had to reject our proposal, really I couldn’t blame him as it was all policy he was following. But the emotion driven side of me just simply didn’t want to understand, didn’t want to believe that this really was goodbye. My buddy- Ting Ru began to cry, I sat down next to her to comfort her and gave her a hug . But tears are contagious, soon I was in tears as well… But the boys gave us courage, telling us that it wasn’t goodbye, so there is nothing to cry for. They were right, so we pulled ourselves together quickly. Ting Ru pulled out a package of pretty metal bangles, and began handing them out to each one of her new ‘brothers’ and ‘sisters’, the boys and Elaine had big hands and it looked so painful for them to put them on. Squeezing their hands until they were various shades of red! Ting Ru told us we had to keep these forever because it was our promise, 2 years later we will meet again. Kevin jokingly replied that even if he wanted to take it off he couldn’t because it would be way too painful. Haha! We didn’t want to waste any more time, so we all went to play in the park like small children laughing and screaming. We decided we wanted to sit at the top of the monkey bars and take a picture, but Ting Ru couldn’t climb up, so being the gentleman he was Kevin went down and let Ting Ru stand on his shoulders to get on top. As soon as we were comfortably seated, (or as comfortable as sitting on metal bars can be) we began a mini concert, where we sang tunes that we all knew. However, we realized Kevin didn’t know any Chinese songs aside from happy birthday, so be inclusive we threw in a couple rounds of ‘happy birthday’. (Peter thought we sounded too silly when it was clearly nobody’s birthday). Even though none of us wanted this day to end, the sun still slowly set towards the horizon. The last day was just about over. We walked slowly, hand in hand, to where the bus was waiting. Along the way I took pictures of everything, I didn’t want to leave a moment forgotten when only so few remained. On the way back, Ting Ru told Kevin to wait for her, that she would be back in 2 years, they pinkie swore on it, which was quite sweet. As we were by the bus, Elaine made a brief speech, the part that sticks out most vividly to me is ‘天下无不散的筵席' (there is no party that never ends), I knew that but I still despised it. Everyone gave me hugs and told me not to cry, and Peter told me to smile because his ‘little sister’ (me) is prettier when she smiles. I had to laugh at that. The bus ride back to the hotel was a memorable one. Ting Ru and I were listening to her mp3 when song that I was familiar with came on (至少還有你), I began to mouth the words, Ting Ru sang them out loud, and pretty soon the entire bus was following along! But this bus ride was too short for all the songs we still had yet to sing, we arrived at the hotel. While we were waiting for the someone to open the door to the meeting room, Chun Lian and Liu Xing began crying. Not too long after the volunteers were told that we had to leave so the youth could pack, I didn’t want to leave. The kids were sent to their rooms, sitting alone with the adults in the lobby I was still crying. Mr Lam came up to me and started to comfort me, he told me this wasn’t the end, the physical distance may be great, but technology will keep us close as long as we chose to embrace it. When my Dad came to pick me up he brought albums that I developed of the days I was with my new friends, I gave it to them and left quickly because I knew we would all start crying again if it were it were any longer.

In the morning I texted Elaine wondering how everyone was doing at the airport and she put me on the phone with Ting Ru. It was a short conversation as they needed to check in. But I couldn’t get my mind off them all day so I spammed their inboxes when I got home! And to my surprise a reply came shortly, this was not an ending, we will only be as far apart as we allow ourselves to be!

Hylann

Aug. 24 - Times we won't Forget [Day 9]

2010-08-26T17:58:00.010-06:00

"As long as we are true friends, distance can never separate us."

*Sorry, but I was really tired the past few days when I came home and didn't have time to post this earlier =p

The days are passing really quickly now, tomorrow is creeping closer and closer. Everyone seems to realize this and is making use of every moment together. This morning we walked from the Sutton Place Hotel to the City Center mall to the CBC broadcasting station. the weather was wonderful today, even the Chengdu kids felt more at home. We had the grand tour of the CBC station, which included journeying through the editing rooms, music producing rooms, and broadcasting rooms. Some of us had the opportunity to speak into professional-looking mics, where they edited out the background sounds to make it sound professional.

We then walked to City hall and took part in an interesting tour of city hall. We covered many offices in City Hall, including the mayor's office. One of the meeting rooms with part of the ceiling that could open and close had wowed everyone when our guide showed us how to control it. In one of the offices, there was an awesome picture on the wall full of bubble gum with a knob sticking out. When you turned the knob, one bubblegum would fall out, all the Chengdu kids enjoyed that! When our tour ended, we still had time before lunch would start, so everyone went outside next to the pool to "chill".

Almost everyone took off their shoes and socks to dip their feet in the cold water. The rest of the cool people, including me (no offence to the people in the water) sat around tables and chatted the whole time. One of the Chengdu boys who stepped in the pool had rolled up his pants to the limit, it was so funny seeing him in short shorts!

At this moment, many of the Chengdu kids started getting nervous about performing in front of everyone. I told them not to worry and I promised them no one would laugh (out loud anyway). Lunch took place in a room in City Hall (I think the Heritage Room), there was a buffet of sandwiches, wraps, fruit, and of course ice cream with unlimited toppings! The mayor made a short speech right before we started eating, also he handed out bags of gifts to all the kids.

When lunch was done and every ice cream toppings was tried, everyone filed to the stage outside the room. The informal program started with a couple speeches by the mayor, Chengdu chaperones and ECBEA representatives, then we moved on to the performance part. First, the 7 Chengdu youth performed sign language actions to the song “真心英雄“ (True hero), which was very inspirational. One of the chaperones performed a Tibetan dance which was really graceful even when she didn't have the traditional dancing costume on. Last but not least on the list of performances was Zhang Sen, one of the Chengdu boys, who performed Kung Fu to Kung fu Fighting. The music surprised everyone by starting very ancient chinese-y, then it suddenly broke out in the English song. Everyone was so surprised when they saw what he was capable of: the bridge and five cartwheels in a row, that we were cheering very loudly for him.

When all the performances ended, we went to sign the mayor's guest book first, then went to the book depository. Many of the Chengdu buddies had requested to get English dictionaries (which for a moment I thought it was weird, but then I remembered that they lived in China, where all the dictionaries would be in Chinese). I recommended some of my favourite books to lots of the buddies. Which they gladly took my advice. After book searching, the Chengdu kids were given the awesome red Vancouver Olympic gloves (which I don't own a pair myself), they were really happy and tried them on right away. Whenever they put on the gloves they would always be warm because of their memories from Edmonton.

We walked around Kingsway Garden mall to kill some time, then went straight to Dynasty Century Palace restaurant. We started with some more speeches and jumped right to a 27 minute video made by yours truly. The video was filled with memories of these past 8 days, watching it again and again was like replaying our past adventure over and over, and there was never a dull moment. After dinner, the Chengdu kids repeated their group performance from city hall, which created a huge wall of cameras and video cameras right in front of the stage. No wonder they looked so nervous!

"A farewell is necessary before we can meet again."

There was a few times tonight that friends from Chengdu would say "I can't believe tomorrow is the last day! I'm going to miss you guys." I told them to not think about it and just to have fun tonight.

The night ended with karaoke sung by our Chengdu guests mixed with Edmonton buddies, I thought the speaker might have been on too loud, because it sounded like the singers were screaming in the mic, but then I realized that I was standing right in front of the speaker (should've noticed that earlier). We left together eager and not looking forward (at the same time) to whatever tomorrow brings.

Beware of tomorrow's weather ; cloudy skies with 99% chance of teardrops.

"Yesterday brought the beginning. Tomorrow brings the end. Somewhere in the middle, we became the best of friends."

Megan
Over and Out

Aug. 24 - “让真心的话和开心的泪在你我的心里流动" (Let the words of the heart and the tears of joy, move within all our hearts) [Day 9]

2010-08-26T00:32:00.001-06:00

As I’m writing today’s blog entry , the lyrics in the title still echo loudly in my head. This song was specially performed by the youth to thank everyone for their hospitality during their stay here. It’s so hard for me to believe that today was the second last day of the Chengdu trip… All the words, laughs, inside jokes, bonds that we share are irreplaceable! Even the days that I am not volunteering it feels like I never left, my new friends would play out all the highlights of their conversations, keeping me up to date with all their new inside jokes because I am their “兄妹” (Sister). It really does feel like a small family to me, our ‘brotherly’ greetings, our ‘family pictures’. Looking back I have only spent 4 days with these youth, yet I see them in the morning and we feel like old friends. This feeling really is remarkable, words simply cannot do it justice.

Today we began our day with visiting CBC, touring the different studios and broadcasting stations. We got hands on experience with the recording equipment where most of us got to say our names into the mics and have it recorded! I had fun taking pictures with my new friends as we sat in newscasters seats and in front of the green screen. It was especially funny because most of the volunteers were wearing lime green t shirts in a shade almost identical to the one on the screen, so we theorized if we tried to put on a background in place of the green, the whole person’s body would disappear with it! As we walked out of city center mall, a lady handed out copies of the metro, my buddy recognized pictures of lady gaga splashed on its cover at once! The newspaper went into details about her coming to Edmonton; my friend went crazy wishing she could see this concert. Its incredible how even people halfway across the globe share similar pop culture as us!

Our next stop was at city hall. We got a brief tour of city hall, people kindly took us around and showed us where Edmonton’s councillors and mayor works. We even got to see a meeting in session and go into the mayor’s private office. I bet the favourite part of the tour for most of the youth, especially the younger ones was when they got to take gum out of the candy dispenser shaped picture frame! (First time I’ve seem it too!) After, we went back outside to take some pictures by the fountain and waited for them to call us in again. While we were waiting we saw people on boards in the fountains which looked like a lot of fun, but I wasn’t willing to risk falling into the ice cold water! While this was happening, my buddy borrowed a phone with internet browsing to check her QQ account (Chinese version of face book and msn). While she was on she showed me pictures of her friends back home and messages that her friends left her while she was gone. But the thing that I will always remember was one blog entry she showed me. It dated back to over 2 years ago, not too long after the earthquake happened. It was a freestyle poem that she wrote about the treacherous earthquake , the loneliness she felt and a last goodbye to her parents. It was written amazingly, I could almost feel an ache in my heart for her. The reality of what these youth had been though because of the earthquake, never hit me so hard as it did then. The part of the poem that stood out was where she wrote ‘never again will I see you, mother, waiting for me with warm supper’. Its so impactful because I look at my own life and these simple things that I take for granted, these same things mean so much to kids that were unfortunate enough to lose these chances.

Soon after, we were asked to go inside again. Performance time! I was anxious to see what kind of performance they had ready for us, as I heard the youth and teachers stayed up till 2 rehearsing for today. I was definitely not disappointed when I saw the sign language performance they organized to the song “真心英雄“ (True hero). The tune has been stuck in my head all day, and just now I decided to find the lyrics to reminisce:

真心英雄 True Hero
曲：李宗盛词：李宗盛
Composed and lyrics by Jonathan Lee

周:在我心中曾经有一个梦
Emil: zai wo xin zhong zeng jing you yi ge meng
Emil: In my heart there was once a dream

要用歌声让你忘了所有的痛
yao yong ge sheng rang ni wang le suo you de tong
to use songs to make you forget all your pain

成:灿烂星空谁是真的英雄
Jackie: cheng can lan xing kong shei shi zhen de ying xiong
Jackie: Among the starry skies, who is the true hero

平凡的人们给我最多感动
ping fan de ren men ji wo zui duo gan dong
common people move me the most

黄:再没有恨也没有了痛
Anthony: zai mei you hen ye mei you le tong
Anthony: No more hate, and no more pain

但愿人间处处都有爱的影踪
dan yuan ren jian chu chu dou you ai de ying zong
May there be traces of love in every part of our life

李:用我们的歌换你真心笑容
Jonathan: rong wo men de ge huan ni zhen xin xiao rong
Jonathan: Using our song to exchange for your true smiles

祝福你的人生从此与众不同
zhu fu ni de ren sheng cong ci yu zhong bu tong
Wishing the best for you, may your life be unique

把握生命里的每一分钟
ba wo sheng ming li de mei yi fen zhong
take charge of life’s every second

全力以赴我们心中的梦
quan li yi fu wo men xin zhong de meng
do our best to work towards our dreams

不经历风雨怎么见彩虹
bu jing li feng yu zen me jian cai hong
without wind and rain, how would we see the rainbow

没有人能随随便便成功
mei you ren neng sui sui bian bian cheng gong
nobody could succeed just by being lacksadaisical

*把握生命里每一次感动
ba wo sheng ming li mei yi ci gan dong
take charge of life’s every second

和心爱的朋友热情相拥
he xin ai de peng you re qing xiang yong
with your best loved friends, get along well and hug

让真心的话和开心的泪
rang zhen xin de hua he kai xin de lei
may the true words and happy tears

在你我的心里流动
zai ni wo xin li liu dong
move in your and my heart

The lyrics are so nice, and to watch the smiling faces of the youth as they sign makes me feel like we really do make a difference in their lives. Following this performance was one done by Zhang Sen (nicknames by us as Johnson) where he performed kung fu to the song in Kung Fu Panda, the move that I have never seen anyone else perform before was one where he did the bridge right in the middle! It was quite funny to see this boy that could barely sit still look so intensely focused for once! Last but not least one of the teachers, Ms Tang performed a beautiful Tibetan dance for us, even though she wasn’t wearing a traditional costume, her dancing abilities made up for it! After the performances came lunchtime! The food was great, much thanks to our Mayor Mandel for organizing it, Many sandwiches and wraps of all colors and sizes were organized into many platters. But the part that was most anticipated had to be the ice cream! There was a table set aside with assorted toppings and syrups, my friend put in a bit of everything, though it was a bit messy looking, he claimed it was delicious! Mayor Mandel prepared little gifts for everyone. When he gave my buddy one, she coincidentally was practicing her English in a small notepad, she ripped out the page she had just written with the words: “Thank you, I love you!” written on it and gave it to the mayor!

After city hall we went to the book depository. Because all the books are in English, the buddies had to help recommend books for their buddies to take home! I didn’t just give out advice, but I got lots of recommendations as to the books that I should read soon too! All the youth came out with a big bag of heavy books (have fun carry them home!), and it was interesting to see what some of them chose. My buddy chose a few sketching books because she was starting to learn to draw, and some kids came out with dictionaries because they were that determined to learn English. Some of them took thick novels and said the thick books will remind them to study English really hard, and come to Edmonton again one day.

Our next destination was Kingsway mall! My group and I went to Purdy’s, and lots of thanks to Carmen who bought a box of hedgehogs to share with everyone, they were so yummy! My buddy and I walked twice our normal speed to make sure she could buy all her presents before we had to leave as this was our last shopping opportunity. Though we were the last to meet the group at leaving time, at least all her presents were bought!

Our last stop tonight was at Dynasty Century Palace, a Chinese restaurant where we had a special ECBEA dinner with our Chengdu friends. Many of my new friends got on stage to talk about how meaningful this trip has been and expressed their gratitude to all the people that have made this small miracle possible. Many Edmonton students also went to give small speeches about how significant and fun this volunteering experience has been for them. I couldn’t agree more! Afterwards a slideshow of pictures taken in the last week was shown. Seeing all the times we shared and with a farewell just around the corner, I couldn’t help but start tearing up. We ended the evening by singing karaoke, me and my ‘brothers’ sang ‘JiangNan” together, though it was less singing and more yelling into the mic, it was a lot of fun and something to remember. At some point in the evening a crowd suddenly merged to the TV outside. It turns out mayor madel spoke on OMNI today about the ChengDu visit, and showed the camera the note that my buddy wrote for him. For the rest of the evening everyone kept reminding her that her ‘情書’ (love letter) was made public! Everyone wanted to continue singing unfortunately it was time to end this day.

Tomorrow awaits, though it’ll be hard to put our sad feelings of goodbye aside, I hope we can make the most of the limited time we have together.

A quote for tomorrow:
“Don't cry because it's over. Smile because it happened.”
~Dr. Seuss

Hylann

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

2010-08-24T03:26:00.004-06:00

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”

Aug. 22 - A day at West Edmonton Mall [Day 7]

2010-08-23T00:57:00.001-06:00

Today is the day I had been waiting for since the day I saw the schedule! The day that we would go to west Edmonton mall; I was couldn’t wait to show my new friends the place I spend countless holidays and weekends! We divided up into three little groups to explore Galexyland. My group started out with the ‘Orbiter’- one of the newest additions to this amusement park. When we were al seat belted and ready to go, my buddy turned to me and asked: “Are we gonna fly out??” I laughed at her and assured that it was very safe! Throughout the ride was a lot of screaming (especially coming from the younger few), every time we went down a steeper slope or curved a sharper corner there would be a small eruption of shrieking from our cart! It was lots of fun, but no one wanted to look at our action photos that were taken while we were on the ride, because everyone was looking slightly crazy with hair flying all over the place and expressions startled. We went on a few other rides, the flying galleon, swing of the century, bumper cars and the newest ride. All of these rides right after the other left a few of us feeling slightly light-headed!

After rides came lunch, we ate at a ‘Sichuan style’ fast food place in the food court. A little taste of home for or ChengDu youth! After we were almost done eating one of the youth challenged our interpreter-Elaine to a staring contest, their intense expressions was definitely something to see!

After lunch came the shopping! We split up into many many different groups because we all wanted to buy different things. After instructions were given we were free to roam, my little group headed towards H&M, because it was a brand that my buddy recognized from home. She picked out some clothes to try on, by the time we made our way to the change room she already had 7 items in hand. She stopped right before she got in line, turned to me and asked: “Are we allowed to bring so many things to try? Back home we never try more than one item at a time!” (Haha! Culture shock!) We assured her this was completely normal in Edmonton and pushed her into the line. She modeled clothes for us which was quite fun, she ended up buying something for her best friend back home! Afterwards she asked me where my favourite place to shop was, and I led her to the biggest clothing store in the mall-Forever 21! We began doing what girls do best, rapidly leafing though racks and racks were, I stumbled upon a really nice dress, so my buddy and I both went and tried it on! She tried on a different dress and we knew she just had to get it, she looked absolutely stunning! We told her that the others would not recognzie her the transformation was that great! She no longer had that tomboy-ish sfeel that she always complained about. We agreed that it could use a little jacket, so a member of our group went around the store and came back with about 10 different little jackets, all sorts of short, long, dark light jackets of assorted colours were tried on! After about 8 jackets, 20 minutes and about $70 dollars, she walked out of the door with a dress and a jacket, and the biggest smile on her face! She was so eager to show off her purchases that she went to change into her new outfit right away! Shopping time passed by way too fast, on the bus ride to dinner everyone talked about all the things they had bought, the list consisted of assorted candies and chocolates, bags and wallets!

Our dinner was at Lee Garden’s today. We sat at a long table (which was really 5-6 tables all pushed together), and everyone was extremely courteous and passed the food around because it was difficult to eat food that was halfway across the long table. After we were done eating there was a long break between dessert and dinner, so the people sitting near me began talking. The things that stuck out from this talk was when the youth began to open up and share their firsthand experiences battling with the earthquake and what happened afterwards. It’s definitely one thing to hear the stories on the news, seeing video clips and images of people I don’t know in places halfway across the globe. But hearing the youth talk about their experience was something else. These people I now proudly call friends talking about this earthquake that changed their lives and took their parents. It really made me think, there is much to be grateful for in my own life. Out of the countless stories that were told, the one that really stuck out for me was from one boy. He told us ten minutes before the earthquake started he was talking to his dad on the phone. Really I suppose it was less of a story but more of a statement, a statement that proved to me just how merciless this earthquake was. I could not imagine if that were me, how I would always regret all the things I never said that last time I had the chance to. I realized that despite the fact that the ChengDu youth have a past that’s been filled with grief they have been able to move on with their lives.

After dinner we went back to West Edmonton Mall to go bowling at Ed’s. We helped our buddies to find the right shoe sizes, and split into groups. My buddy claimed she never touched a bowling ball in her life, yet she beated us all in the first game! Everyone had a lot of fun, and with only a few days left we took many pictures together hoping to savour every moment we have left. There were pictures with crazy poses, serious poses, poses with our bowling ball as we tried to capture every side of us! Even though there are still three entire days left before their departure, it feels like much too soon.

It still shocks me that I have only spent less that a week with this group, because my connection with them feels stronger than with many people that I see every day. It is truly incredible! How this friendship is growing with every hour that we spend together makes me wish that this trip would never end.

Hylann

Aug. 21 - Fun for Everyone! (Even the Groundhog) [Day 6]

2010-08-22T00:31:00.004-06:00

I can't believe the days are passing so quickly, just like they say time flies when you're having fun (in this case, we are flying way too fast for my liking). Today, our troop left to Royal Alberta Museum and toured the many sections. After a fast guided tour, we had free time to wander around. After my buddy and I grouped up with another pair, she quickly veered me away from the bugs section and we entered the Aboriginal room.

My buddies had felt a bit scared in there because there was no else in there but us and lots of people sculptures staring at us. We speed walked through the exhibit and went to admire the crystals and minerals. This seemed to be my buddy's favourite section.

When our big group got together at the front doors, we set off for our picnic. We walked past the government building's gardens and had a couple thousand photo shoots there. Walking straight forward from the museum, we reached a steep (when I say steep, I actually mean really really steep) hill (actually more like mountain), in which our picnic site was at the bottom of that mountain. In the beginning , I didn't think it was such a big deal so I gradually descended down the hill with my buddy. I saw a few Chengdu kids who started going down had fell down, but stood right back up. I started gaining speed (by accident) and I was racing off the dirt path into the knee-tall grass, but I couldn't stop! I soon tripped and fell into mud (WIPEOUT), staining my pants and shoes.

When I reached the bottom of the hill everyone was asking if I was OK, and the Chengdu kids were trying to help me wipe the mud off my clothes (they were so kind!). Standing there I felt like the 10 year old Chengdu Youth from last year who had sunk into the mud (while catching frogs) and needed new socks and shoes. One of the kids spotted what she thought was a beaver, but turned out to be a fat groundhog. We surrounded its hole and started dropping crackers near the opening. To everyone's delight, it eventually came out and ate our crackers. We must've stood there for at least 15 minutes watching the fat rodent munch.

In the end, the groundhog had enough and left. We reached our picnic site and started playing with footballs, soccer balls, bubbles and jump ropes you name it. Then, we enjoyed pizza with loads of chilli sauce (again). This time, one of chaperones from Chengdu was joking around and said she restricted one of the boys from putting so much chilli on his pizza.

He eventually got hold of the whole jar and made a run for it. Several Chengdu youths who were hungry for more chilli chased him down for the jar.

Following the lunch, we played games such as Flinch and a game they taught us which was similar to Duck, Duck , Goose. One person would walk around the circle of people and drop a pop can behind someone. That person would have to try to catch the it person before he reaches their spot. Whoever lost each time would have to perform in the middle of the circle. The losers had danced, recited poems, done cartwheels and sung songs. I eventually had to sing my ABC's. Once we got on the bus, my buddy and I right away fell asleep, along with half of the extremely tired bus.

Later, we went downtown and sat at the edge of the river (on dangerously unsteady rocks), watching the dragon boat festival. We were snapping photos and cheering for who knows what team.

We then left for the Fringe to watch street performances. We also got a few bags full of fresh carrots from the farmer's market, in which everyone absolutely loved! One thing that happened at Fringe was when the performers who paint themselves and pretend to be statues, walked up behind my buddy and scared her. We all had a laugh about this. With some persuasion, she was finally brave enough to take a picture with the golden "statue". =D

After Fringing, we headed to a hot pot restaurant where everyone was excited to dig in. We could order whatever we wanted to put in the hot pot, there was a spicy side and a non-spicy side (thank goodness) to each pot. When we were finished our dinner, one of the Chengdu youth went outside to get something on the bus. When he came back, he had carrots in his hands! They must really like them! He offered me one and I took it, they were good!

At the end, almost everyone got together for a giant game of Stella Ella Olla (which we had to teach them). It was very intense, we played it at least 15 times! We also taught each other hand and slapping games which filled the restaurant with loud laughter (I think it may have been a bit too loud though).

When the fun finally ended, everyone went back home to get ready for another day of F-U-N!

Megan

Goodnight! =D (Actually good morning....oh well)

Aug. 20 - “Jiu shi zhe yang zi lei!” (It's like this) [Day 5]

2010-08-21T23:17:00.009-06:00

Today was my first day official day of volunteering since orientation day, and it was the most amazing experience! Since this was my first time volunteering for this event, unlike some of the other volunteers I realldy had no idea what to expect. When we got on the bus the first thing Megan did was pull out her adorable i-dog, and started playing Chinese music. The most surprising thing was when my buddy picked out a song from my phone and told me to play it, it was a Cantonese song! I was so blown away by her incredible ability to sing along so flawlessly in a language she has absolutely no idea how to speak. Along the way I kept hearing this one sentence in Chinese that our Chengdu friends kept saying to each other - “Jiu shi zhe yang zi lei!” And that marked the start of the mini Sichuan dialect lessons led by our Chengdu friends, for the rest of the ride they thought up the weirdest sounding phrases to teach us, lots of fun even though I had no clue what I was saying half the time!

Our first stop was at the Devonian Botanical Gardens! even though they seemed to have adjusted to the time difference fairly well, the youth still couldn’t get used to the colder climate of Edmonton mornings. To get ourselves out of the cold we decided to check out the butterfly house first, as promised there were A LOT of butterflies.

As we continued though the garden, someone working at the garden showed us a sticky green bug that eats leaves of plants! One of the youth picked it up to play with, letting it crawl up and down his arm, carrying it around to try and scare the girls! When others wanted a turn to hold the bug it would crawl away from the other youth back to this boy who carried it first! He claimed proudly, “No need to try and take him away, he has fallen deeply in love with me already!”

Our outdoor adventure begins when we start our walk in the outdoor parts of the Japanese garden! The little pointy shingled buildings, little bridges, large bells take us away from Edmonton and into a land of serenity and tranquility~

Personally I’m no fan of insects, and the close proximity with them was a rather jittery experience. So my partner found herself a glass frame with all the butterflies lined up side by side, telling me “Why go and battle with them when you can take a picture of them from behind the glass!” I laughed at her, but secretly agree!

But this moment of peacefulness ended when the large bell was spotted. Everyone took turns hitting it with the thick wooden ‘mallet’, some youth even stood underneath it to let the sounds of the bell ‘fill’ them, causing their eardrums to vibrate and the adults to worry about having to deal with half deaf kids. The youth tried to get Elaine, our interpreter to stand under the bell to read some words but she was paranoid it was a trick to lead her into standing under the bell and give them an opportunity to ring her eardrums! (Can’t say I don’t agree!)

With a little time before our scheduled lunch time, our bus driver took us to a place by the St Lawrence with a very interesting view. He told us that we were to catch our own fish for lunch today, “So no catch equals no lunch!”. For a second we were slightly scared that he was serious, until we caught on and realize he was kidding. But looking at the view only takes so long, so someone started skipping stones across the river. Pretty soon all of us were on our hands and knees finding flat rocks and hold our own little competitions to see who could make our rocks jump the most!

*Look at all the smoke in the sky, it’s really unfortunate that the smoke is so terrible these last couple days, we can’t show our friends from Chengdu the blue skies and white clouds of the typical Edmonton sky!

Our next stop was at Jasmine Garden a lovely small Chinese buffet in Devon. The food was delicious, a buffet with good selection, followed by ice cream for dessert! My buddy claims Canadian chocolate ice cream is so much richer in taste than the ones available in China. As well, I was very surprised to learn that the most Sichuan people did not enjoy the taste of the classic Chinese food I was so used to eating in restaurants such as sweet and sour pork! One girl said “Sichuan people like it spicy! Not sour-ish sweet-ish!”

Following lunch, we headed down to the Kinsmen sports center. The ride from the restaurant to the center was a long one, as the bus pulled into the center loading zone 2 volunteers had already made a dash for the washroom! (Must have been those huge non-alcoholic Shirley temples from Jasmine Garden!) In Kinsmen we were given an opportunity to play various sports, some were hometown favourites of our Chengdu friends, such as ping pong, basketball, and badminton. But to make things different for them we taught the Chengdu youth our most played phys ed class game-Doctor Dodge Ball! Our team was very clever in disguising our doctor, whenever someone was ‘out’ on our side, everyone would tap them so the other side would no know who to target!

After that we headed down to Smitty’s for a Western style meal, Smitty’s was very generous in letting us choose whatever we wanted to try on the menu! My absolute favourite thing was my side of sweet potato fries, if you think French fries are good, Sweet potato fries are 10x as delicious! Mmmm! One girl at my table ordered pancakes for her dinner and the youth got to look and smell the maple syrup that came with it, one of the few things we can guarantee that is ‘made in Canada’! Our meal ended with the Smitty’s staff’s special dessert of ice cream and cake, and special cute gift bears with a small label on the foot to remind our ChengDu friends of their times here in Edmonton.

Back downtown we went, to Churchill Square, never have I seen our place so different! The big screen that was set up for the movie showing at nine, the people walking on stilts around the square, this was not just something new for the ChengDu youth for once, it was new for me as well! Though I had to leave before the movie was shown, I’m sure it was quite an experience as well. I don’t think they have outside theatres like that in ChengDu, there just isn’t that much space open for such events due to the population of China! When YMCA started playing in the square everyone made the Y’s and M’s, C’s and A’s with our arms the Cheng Du youth were surprised EVERYONE knew how to do the movements, so quickly we taught them as well, lots of laughs and dancing!

* Sorry that this is a bit late, but we hope you enjoyed it!

Hylann

Aug. 19 - Day of Roasting Marshmallows and Tracking Bison! [Day 4]

2010-08-20T01:11:00.003-06:00

Today, we started earlier than usual in order for us to have enough time in Elk Island. No one seemed tired this morning, everyone's face was lit with excitement. On the way, the Chengdu kids started a sing along by blasting music. They were so surprised when us locals actually knew a few of them and had sang along too.

We reached Elk Island park in an hour and a half and was greeted by at least 50 bison. Everyone immediately ran to the front of the bus to get snapshots (I'm surprised that the bus didn't tip!). We received a tour through the forests and looked for evidence of life (such as footprints, poo, and fur). There was a part where the tour guide explained that the giant dusty bare part of the ground that we were standing on was where the bison rolled on the ground in their own pee! Everyone jumped back a few steps because of the fact that we were standing in pee. The tour guide also showed us plants that tasted like tea and mint. We were literally walking through the forest, with not much of a path, just flattened grass. Mosquitoes were brutal!

As one of my Chengdu friends was walking through the trees, she must've ran into a certain plant, because her sweater was stuck full with burrs! It took a while to help her get it all off.

Lunch came quickly, we gathered around a picnic site and campfire to roast sausages and marshmallows. This was one unforgettable experience for everyone, especially our Chengdu guests who had never done anything like this before. They enjoyed the unusual hot dogs and marshmallows (which they had never tried, let alone seen before) along with a buffet of apple pie, fruit, gummy worms, chocolate and so on. They still ate hot dogs with mounds of chilli on the sausage, it was spicy even by looking at it.

The probably most Canadian thing they tried today was roasting marshmallow on a stick. Now we learned about 3 kinds of sticks: the regular two-pronged stick, homemade stick (made from bent cloths hanger) and last but certainly not least the Canadian Experience (a sharpened tree branch). Everyone seemed eager to use the third one. They were timid at first for trying new things, but once one marshmallow was eaten, they couldn't resist to have another (and another, and another, and another). They graciously made sure that each person had their share of the marshmallows by offering them to anyone else before chowing down themselves.

Once bellies were full, it was off to the Ukrainian Village. There was a section here where many of my Chengdu friends were trying on Ukrainian wedding clothing! When they put it on, it took a while for them to take it off, because they were having so much fun! We also participated in a tour of what a Ukrainian village would've looked like.

Urban China restaurant was our next stop. We all enjoyed the Chinese cuisine and was drawn into another contest of who could eat the most chilli pepper pieces. Obviously it was a Chengdu friend who won, but it was fun to see how much we Edmonton buddies could stand (including the peer pressure around us)! I made a bet with my buddy that if I ate one piece, she would have to eat two, we did that throughout the dinner. There was one boy (who won the contest) that ate at least 40 pieces! His face turned so red at the end everyone started laughing!

Megan

Aug. 18 - Chengdu's Got Talent! [Day 3]

2010-08-19T01:21:00.002-06:00

The 9:30 sharp departing bus was filled with warm atmosphere this morning despite the chilly weather. We reached Telus World of Science pretty quickly immediately rushing off to the Body Works section. I explained quite a lot in there to my new buddy, such as "Oh, this is a cows tongue" and "This is what our intestines look like". It was very interesting for the kids.

When we went into the Star Theatre to watch the epic story of the planets in our solar system, my buddy explained to me that her school also had a globe shaped theatre like this (but much smaller) which they used to watch the stars. The only problem with it was that it was all described in English (the graphics and effects were intense so it kinda made up for the language issue). Despite being told that the audience should be fairly "quiet" during the show, I could faintly hear all the caring buddies from Edmonton whispering the stories in Chinese to our Chengdu friends. I thought that was really sweet of everyone!

For the few that were still tired, they had a 40 minute nap on the extremely comfy chairs. After the star show, we rushed onto the bus and was eager to get lunch. During the bus ride, we dashed over a speed bump, causing us to be lifted off our seats; everyone burst out laughing at the surprise. Then, our awesome bus driver took the speaker and said in very airline-captain voice "Welcome to Beijing Airlines, this is your captain speaking. We are experiencing a little turbulence. Please remember to keep your seat belt on. Thank you!" Everyone cracked up all the way to our picnic lunch.

We ended up in a picnic site (kingdom of the mosquitoes), where yummy pizza was brought to us. As everyone sat down around the pizza on the table, each Chengdu youth was seated in front of 1 box of pizza, so they acted as if it was their duty to get rid of all the pizza in the box next to them. It then turned into a contest. It was so funny seeing them slap on slices of pizza on random people's plates.

In Valley Zoo, we got special treatment and participated in many animal encounters and behind-the-scenes-animals. One of the main attractions was the close up look at the tiger feeding. It was hilarious when the zookeeper mentioned that if the big cat lifted its tail, it had to pee. At that moment, the tiger lifted her tail causing everyone to jump back quickly looking really anxious, not wanting to get sprayed! But it was a false alarm!

We also received a close up with the red pandas which were a-d-o-r-a-b-l-e!! The zookeepers brought out a boa constrictor that we could pet. Too bad my buddy was terrified of snakes and was too scared to pet it.

The Wildrose Cafe was next on our schedule. Dinner was full of yummy burgers, chicken wings and spring rolls. I was learning how to speaking Sze Chuan language while we were chowing down. The first thing I learned was to say "What are you doing", which when I pronounced it sounding like "Do you want a dumpling?" No one knew about the fun that was in store for them next. When every plate was licked clean, the Karaoke mic was taken out. The Chengdu kids were such confident and good singers! One of the boys surprised everyone by volunteering to sing almost every second song. My buddy was a very intense Chinese rapper. We should have had our own Chengdu (in Edmonton)'s Got Talent right in that room. We covered songs from "Welcome to Beijing" to "Thankful Heart" to "Selling Chinese Dumplings"!

When the mic was finally put down an hour later, everyone retired back to the hotel for a good night's rest.

Megan

Over and out (Oh my goodness, look at the time!)

Aug. 17 2010 - Cards, Dim Sum & Muttart! [Day 2]

2010-08-17T23:05:00.002-06:00

At around 9:30 in the morning, volunteers met up with the youths in the gathering room. A few of them were still eating their breakfast so every kid sat around the table twiddling their thumbs. Cards were brought out which seemed to be the greatest ice breaker. (No, we didn't play poker, though it was tempting) and the Chengdu kids started teaching us "locals" a game they regularly played. Everyone was soon laughing and I still didn't know most of the rules (so I lost and I was "punished"), but it was fun!

We toured Edmonton City Centre Mall, which included going up and down the escalators at least 10 times for whatever reasons. Then, we had a small bus tour before stopping for lunch at the Dynasty Century Palace. Our awesome tour guide & translator explained every step of our journey with explicit detail in Mandarin (I hope I can be that fluent someday!). Once we stepped out of the bus, the Chengdu kids started shivering and they couldn't believe that we could stand this weather in our T- Shirts and shorts. My buddy kept asking me if I was cold, even when we were in the restaurant, but I assured her that this was warm weather for Edmontonians. Long story short, dim sum included egg tarts, albino chicken feet (it's not actually called this, but I don't know it's real name) and lots of hot sauce.

Back on the bus, we headed towards the Chinese Garden which showed some projects of Edmonton's dedicated Chinese associations. I think they really connected with the scene of the pagoda, the 12 zodiac statues and the stone bridge. When we were all given free time to chill around the garden, I noticed one of the Chengdu kids slipped a coin in a crack under their specific zodiac animal statue --- maybe for luck or a wish--- but I didn't ask, I just thought it was interesting.

From the Chinese Garden, we walked through paths and bridges and reached the Muttart Conservatory. Throughout the small trek to the Muttart, we were feeding happy mosquitoes. But, as I heard someone say before, we have too much blood anyway, we can't be greedy! My buddy was very tired walking past the cacti and 1,000 year old plants, so she ended up resting on my shoulder standing up!

When we inspected every single plant at Muttart, we drove to Londonderry mall where we all crammed into Dollarama looking for souvenirs. It was so funny when a group of the Chengdu youths went into The Bay checking every price tag to see if any merchandise wasn't "Made in China", I don't think they found anything that wasn't other than maple syrup. They ended up with bags of chocolate and candies that I think wasn't "Made in China". One of the kids also bought a funky wig from Dollar store!

Our day finished off with a very Asian dinner at Good Buddy. My buddy spooned me a piece of the spicy beef, she assured me that it wasn't spicy so I tried it. Then I realized that it wasn't spicy to her! But the spicy sting was gone when we reached dessert. We said our goodbyes at the hotel and we can't wait until tomorrow.

Megan signing off (at a time that is waaay too late) =D

Until tomorrow!

A new group. A new adventure! [Day 1] - Hylann

2010-08-17T21:13:00.001-06:00

Wild cheers, loud clapping was heard outside the Sutton place hotel this evening, as a group of over 40 volunteers waited eagerly for the arrival of the Chengdu youth to. Though we may have only shaken a few city blocks with our voices, it is undeniable that the anticipation and preparation of this project has shaken the entire city! Volunteers coming out from various parts, businesses generously help the financial aspects of this project, alongside the kind contributions of the city of Edmonton itself. Together we have created an Edmonton spirit like no other, embracing these youth with our generosity and hospitality!

Volunteers came hours before the expected arrival of the youth, preparing last minute decorations, bustling around trying to make our soon to be first impression the warmest and friendliest one possible. We were given pep talks, reminding us we were to be the best ambassadors of Edmonton, to help our new friends take away as much as possible form their stay, but the excitement we all felt couldn’t be contained. All the weeks and months leading up to the amazing week we were anticipating was finally so close! But among all the enthusiasm I had overheard some nervousness ‘what if I don’t understand them well enough?’ and ‘what if I make them feel awkward by watching them all time?’ As we got later into the evening the energy level of us volunteers only increased, every 5 minutes I couldn’t help but peek at my phone to see how much longer it was before our guests were expected to arrive. About half an hour before the expected arrival time, our leader informed us that the youth were all going to have an assigned Edmonton buddy to bond with. Because there was way more volunteers than there was guests, only seven of us were lucky enough to be chosen, with a bit of luck I was one of them! When they told me her pinyin name I drilled it into my head so I could remember it for when they did self introductions. Not long after, we got a call saying that the youth were only 5 minutes away from arriving at the hotel. Volunteers busted out of the room at top speed, carrying banners of all shapes and colors. What a sight it was, a sea of green figures flowing down the grand stairway of Sutton Place at such a late hour! Though some adults tried advising us to stand inside, the excitement of the younger volunteers was truly uncontainable, despite the late evening breeze we assembled ourselves outside the building where we will be spotted first, with banners open, Canadian flags waving! Those 5 minutes seemed to be endless as I waited among my peers, as each silhouette of the familiar ETS bus came into view I felt myself holding my breath just a little, thinking to myself ‘They’re here! They’re here!’ Finally a ETS bus turned the corner and slowed to where we stood, I saw the passengers face’s illuminate with a smile! Miraculously, I felt my own lips curved up to match theirs, that’s when I realized our worries were for nothing. As the saying goes, ‘We all smile in the same language’; though we all speak varying levels of mandarin, a smile means the same universally!

We guided our guests back to the conference room. After a brief intruding ceremony, the youth introduced their names and their buddies walked up to welcome them to their seat. I picked my buddy out right away, everyone at my table was more than happy to lend a hand helping her get some food, making sure she was comfortable. Unfortunately I had to leave soon after, but I left my number on the corner of my Canadian flag, told her she could call me if she needed anything at all!
Today was only the beginning. I have been on a trip away from home and I know what the youth must feel right now, the excitement, the anticipation for the days ahead must be incredible. Hopefully we can welcome these youth to love Edmonton as much as we love it, to find warmth in a place so far from home! :)

Hylann

Monday, August 16, 2010 - Orientation and Arrival

2010-08-17T08:36:00.000-06:00

Volunteers for the Chengdu Youth's visit all gathered for the orientation at the Sutton Place hotel. The organizers voiced their expectations which included keeping a positive attitude toward the youths, treating them with respect and of course talking to them in Mandarin (I'm sure everyone was excited to exercise their Chinese, no sarcasm there) . The gathering room buzzed with everyone's excitement as they heard that the youths would arrive soon. Everyone received awesome bright green T-shirts that were all 3 sizes too big! No one seemed to mind though.

The Chengdu kids arrived really late, yet no one looked tired. Everyone was ready outside the hotel, holding their posters that brightly said "Welcome to Edmonton". There was one particularly long banner made by my family and I that stretched across the entrance of the hotel, which also had "Welcome" on it. As the bus pulled around the corner, the sea of volunteers proudly wearing their green T-Shirts cheered. It literally sounded like a whole football stadium there! The expressions on the Chengdu kid's faces were priceless, a dash of surprise mixed with a whole cup of happiness.

Everyone, volunteers and our new guests, filed back into the gathering room. Many speeches were given by the organizers, government representatives and Chengdu representatives. Soon, the 7 Chengdu youth were paired up with the buddies that they would be with tomorrow.

After the paparazzi photo shoots leaving everyone seeing spots, we started mingling (yay!). Even though the first part of the mingling moments were as silent as a class of students writing a test, the noise increased so that I couldn't hear what the person beside me was saying. My buddy especially was very tired. The wonderful Chinese cuisine of chow mien and fried rice was served to the kids (the volunteers were already stuffed beforehand). Bright green bags full of who knows what were also handed out to the guests while they ate.

When it was time for bed, everyone said their goodbyes but were still bloated with energy. The journey has begun.

By Megan