Arianne K. Phillip, May 28

Kung Fu Class & A Two-River Boat Ride

This morning we had Kung Fu lessons. It was surprisingly very fun. Advanced students and teachers in Kung Fu exhibited a great performance in the art. They performed individually and against each other with different weapons of battle. My favorite performance was when all of the students performed with the wooden sticks. It was nice to see how they all moved in unison while performing. When it came time for us to learn the ten basic steps of Kung Fu everyone was thrilled to learn. I was mostly excited because I know I can go back home and say I learned Kung Fu from Kung Fu experts. We broke off into smaller groups and started to learn the ten steps. Originally I thought it was going to be easy, but in the middle of learning the steps I thought it was more difficult than it appeared. After a few practices I eventually got the hang of it. What I liked best about learning the ten steps was the precision of each step. Our teachers would literally correct us if one finger was out of place. I thought that showed the importance of each stance and uniformity. At the end we all performed group by group. It was funny to see all of the performances as we all tried our best to remember and complete each step correctly. Later throughout the day I started to feel sore in muscles I have never worked before. Even though it was sore, it felt great to work them out with those ten steps. I think I will continue to practice the ten steps every other day.

Later in the evening we went on a two-river boat cruise along the Yangtze River and the Jialing River. It was nice evening out with all of the exchange students and Chinese students and faculty. We all sat on the top deck and watched the sunset of Chongqing. On the cruise we passed a few buildings that were lit up. The view was spectacular; it reminded me of New York in a way. I was used to seeing these sites during the day, the real beauty is at night from a distance. I gathered with a few friends from Widener, other exchange students and Chinese students to play a few Chinese games we learned in class. That was the highlight of the cruise. It was nice seeing different cultures coming together playing games and enjoying each other’s company. Overall today was a wonderful day that would love to repeat again.

Liz Braccia, May 25

On Monday morning, instead of having our normal class in the classroom, we had a special class. We went to the gym to experience and learn martial arts. From the moment I first saw the schedule for the month, the martial arts class was one of the things I was the most excited for. My brothers were very involved in karate when they were growing up, so I was looking forward to seeing how it compared to Chinese martial arts. Their attire resembles traditional Chinese clothing. The material used is general silk. We first noticed that they had props like swords, long sticks, and spears, and we were very interested to see how they were going to use them. They had music prepared and they put on a performance. They started by not using any props. The moves were very sharp and intricate, and they did different kinds of flips. Then, they incorporated the props and showed how they would fight each other. After they preformed, we had the opportunity to learn the ten main positions in martial arts. I found it to be very difficult to get each position correct; however, I found it to be very interesting.



At night, we went on a two river cruise. One of the things Chongqing is famous for is the point in the city where the two rivers, the Yangtze and the Jialing, connect. There are many different cruise boats that sit on the river where people can have parties or go to dinner and travel the river to see the city. In order to conserve energy, the government has recently ordered large buildings in the city to refrain from using their big lights. The tour guides for the two river cruise felt compelled to apologize; however, I still thought the views of the city were beautiful. We were able to hang out with all of our new and old friends. The forecast had called for rain all day, so we were very fortunate when the skies were clear and temperature was comfortable.

Sheree Colon, May 22

Sheree Colon, May 22

A brief recap of my life in China

Thursday there was a basketball game between China and the international students. The international team won. There were cheerleaders during the halftime period; they did an excellent job with a cute little dance routine.

Friday we woke up extra early and went to see Dazu Stone Carvings. The place was ravishing with beautiful stone carvings all over. The carvings were set up along a “u” shape path so you basically walked a circle from beginning to end to see the carvings. Each carving held a story and the pictures carved in to the stone were the stories being told.

Friday night we surprised a classmate with a surprise birthday party. The professors, international students, and our Chinese friends all gathered with 3 cakes to share his birthday.

Saturday was the most anxious day for me. I woke up, looked out the window, saw the rain and knew the weather matched my mood. I wasn’t excited to go meet a family and spend the day with them. I was so nervous, but I put a smile on and headed to the learning building to meet my family. I was put at ease when I was told another international member of our group would be going with me to the same family, a professor from Thailand named Mark. My Chinese family was a CTBU student named Aaron, his mother Elizabeth and his father Julian. The first thing I did with my family was go to Elizabeth’s job. She’s a middle school English teacher and when she told her students she would be having some foreigner friends over they begged her to bring us by to meet them. We visited two classes and the students were so excited to see us. They asked me questions about America and talked a lot of English with me to practice their pronunciation. It was nice to see how excited they were just to speak to someone not from China. After we left the school we crashed a wedding. It was so funny. The family at the wedding was so excited to have foreigners crashing their wedding. They said it was good luck. The groom greeted us personally and asked us to sit with his parents and the bride’s parents at a front table. The groom’s mother gave us rose pedals and asked us to throw them at the groom and bride when they walked down the aisle. It was so exciting. I never saw a Chinese wedding and to be at a wedding I wasn’t invited to front and center was amazing. We stood at the wedding for the marriage ceremony and left to get lunch when the party started. Lunch was nice, we talked about a lot of different things and my family was so excited to learn about me and what I like.

After lunch Aaron invited his cousin Amanda to go with us to the mall. So the 3 of us left to a place called Paradise Walk. We were there for a couple of hours doing what kids do and having a good time. We went back to Aaron’s house where I learned how to write Chinese characters including my Chinese name.

Then we ate dinner, talked some more, and before I knew it I was safe and sound back at the dormitory sad that it went by so soon.

Ryan, May 22

Ryan, May 22

Wednesday we had the food fair; the food fair is where all of the different countries that are represented in the program make a dish from their respective country. This is done so that everyone who is participating in the cultural experience and students from the university can have a taste of other countries’ food. Widener made pasta and PB&J, our group made a lot of food almost 8 pounds of pasta and it was all gone within 30 minutes. During the fair the students had prepared some games for everyone to have some fun, related to food and drinks. They had made up a drink consisting of vinegar and some juice and who could drink it the fastest, and a sandwich contest where one of the sandwiches were filled with mustard the rest had jelly, the crowd had to guess who had the mustard. These games were fun and had everyone participating. On Thursday we had class in the morning where we learned some more Chinese, there is so much that we had learned in these classes and we haven’t even begun to scratch the surface on understanding the whole language. After class we had some free time and went to do some shopping and prepare for the afternoon event. In the afternoon we played a basketball game against the school’s team. The game was extremely completive; we had referees and an official scoreboard for the event. The game was a lot of fun to be able to play with the schools team and for half time the school’s cheerleaders came and did a half time performance. The end result of the game was that we, the forgeries had beaten CTBU.

Lauren, May 21

Lauren, May 21

Our last few days here in Chongqing have been extremely busy, and filled with numerous activities. On Thursday afternoon, the international students and CTBU players competed in a basketball game. The competition was tough but in the end the international students’ team edged out a win against the CTBU players. Everyone even enjoyed a wonderful halftime performance by the beautiful CTBU cheerleading squad. The afternoon was fun filled and brought everyone together through friendly competition between the students.

On Friday, we visited the Dazu Stone Carvings. We had to get on a bus and travel over three hours until we reached the stone carvings site. We were accompanied by many CTBU student volunteers and two fabulous tour guides who provided historical information about the stone carvings as we saw them. The stone carvings were originally created to teach Daoism to the farmers in the area who were mostly illiterate. The officials in that area thought that the people would be able to understand better by using the “pictures” to explain some of the concepts involved with Daoism. The stone carvings were absolutely magnificent. There is such great detail shown in every ornate figure. Many even had traces of bright and vibrant colors that accentuated the stone carving. The Dazu Stone Carvings are an amazing piece of Chinese cultural history.

On Saturday, each student was sent on a home stay visit with a local Chongqing family. Many families were students and faculty members of CTBU. This would really give the students an opportunity to see a traditional Chinese family, home, cooking and activities. Many students were taken to historic places by their families, or taught to cook a traditional Chinese dish, like dumplings. Some people were even able to be taken to a wedding. This was an important exercise for the international students to be completely immersed into traditional Chinese culture. Although everyone had a different schedule, we can all agree it was an amazing experience.

Mike Schaeffer, May 20

Mike Schaeffer, May 20

Playing basketball in China is certainly entertaining, especially pickup. The rules for pickup basketball are extremely different compared to my understanding of American pick-up games. The first time I ventured up to the courts with Nick B we were just shooting around not trying to anticipate any games or anything. When we walked through the gate it was as if everyone’s heads turned and saw two ghosts walking onto one of the open courts to shoot around. Then longer we were there the more people seemed to look over at us. Whenever I’ve shot around back in the States I’ve always understood that if you make it, you get the ball back until you miss. Then whoever gets the rebound throws you a pass in the lane for you to shoot a layup. Then the ball gets kicked back out to the person who just got the rebound. Not exactly the same in China. It’s more of a free for all. Another time when I was up at the courts a few Chinese came up to us and asked to shoot around. Next thing I know they’re fighting for rebounds on misses. Whenever we made shots they were still fighting for rebounds leaving us standing in the same spot waiting for the ball to get passed back out to us. Meanwhile the ball would already have left their hands and someone else was getting a rebound. It had a lack of structure to me. I give them props though. Whenever they would play they would give it 110%, no matter how good or how bad they were. I know everyone has heard the saying “white man can’t jump.” Well this may be true but the Chinese don’t leave the ground.

Mary Granson, May 20

Mary Granson, May 20

I was privileged to tour an orphanage for less fortunate children in China. The children were fed and clothed and had smiling faces. The children also were treated with kindness and given hope of being adopted by a family. They are given a family within the orphanage of a caretaker and other children. They develop friendships and relationships with others. No child looked abandoned. This was by far the most important site-seeing to me personally. I believe children are a country’s most valuable resource. It meant a lot to see that all their children are being cared for.

I later visited Dazu Stone Carvings. They were not anything that I expected them to be. I did not realize how large the carvings were or how beautiful. This is a very impressive piece of artwork. The carvings are in great shape for being over 3000 years old. The fact that the Chinese people, without power tools, created them is a great feat. I could compare these carvings to the stain glass windows of the many churches in the United States. Both have great meaning in religion and pride to the people of their country.