Our School Outing

Hello Everybody.  Well the weather has been awesome.  But the last two days have been giving us a little taste of what's ahead for our summer.  It has been humid and hot.  And we have started to use our air-conditioning again.

Now that being said, we had our school field trip on Friday.  And the sun was out in full force.

First we went to the Rizhao Urban Centre.  it was quite awesome.  It had a model of the whole of Rizhao.  Didn't actually know that Rizhao was so big.

The Rizhao Urban Centre

 Vivian our Chinese Language Teacher

                         

 Some exquisite trees.

                         

 
Some of the decor.

 The model of Rizhao

 Some interactive floor displays.

 The Rizhao Public Library.

After the Urban Centre we visited the Botanical Gardens.  It is very peaceful walking through there.  We had lunch in the Gardens (which the school provided).  It was strange seeing some learners not wanting to sit on the grass as they have never done it before.  But once we showed them it was okay they did not mind.  The Gardens have sections:  roses garden, bamboo garden, bonsai garden, garden for the blind (what the???).  It was really nice but the heat was just too much.

 A picture of the whole gardens.

 Love the contrast of colours in this picture.

 Lunch time.

 Kathy and Vivian having some fun.

 A brides paradise for photos.

As I said they even had something for the blind.

After the gardens we went to the flower mart for the children to see how flowers are transplanted.  Well it was even hotter in there as they have plastic under their roof turning it into a greenhouse effect.  It was huge.

As you can see the plastic over the top making a greenhouse effect.

Then it was back to school again.

Keep checking out our blog.  We are getting nearer to the day we leave for Bali, Indonesia.  Very excited.

A Science Fair and Team Building

The days are really starting to get warmer.  It is lovely.  Being able to walk to school without even a jersey on, and having our windows open till about ten in the evening is wonderful.

My class has just finished their theme on Asia and made some wonderful artwork.

A Building in the Forbidden City

Terracotta Warriors

The Great Wall of China

We have just had our science fair at school on Friday 9th May and it was a wonderful afternoon.  The learners had to each put their experiment display and show it to the rest of the school and the parents.  Some worked and some did not but that is what experiments are about.  Finding out if your hypothesis is correct.

Flowers turn blue when placed in coloured water

Volcano

Watching an egg get sucked into a bottle when all the oxygen is depleted.

Can solids float?

 Making a sunrise

 Making solids float in water.

 Hot water and cold water does not mix.

 Discovering magnetic fields

Static energy.

On Saturday 10th, all staff, teachers and admin, had to be at school by 7am.  It is definitely an early start to a Saturday morning.  We all were put on a bus and headed an hour out of town to the Wulian Mountain for a team building event.

When we arrived we were ushered straight away to start the activities.  Every thing is so military.  We had to line up like soldiers and stand at attention at all times when not engaging in an activity.

We had to draw a flag, give our team a name and then make up a team song.  

After that we had to climb up about 20 meters, walk along a narrow ledge which was cut away in the middle and we had to jump over it before being lowered down.  It was scary.

Some Chinese teachers went up even knowing they were fearful of heights.  Well lets just say that they had to be carried back down on the instructors backs.  

During the 5 minute breaks we had, the Chinese staff went cherry picking as there were bushes of them all around us.

After that was lunch time.  Well lets just say I did not eat much. Grasshoppers, bees, some meat that was so tough you could not eat it.  And yes I tried the grasshopper and the bee.  Was probably the tastiest thing on the table.

Yes that is me eating a grasshopper.

Then it was off to games again.  The weather really turned bad so we went into a hall.  There we had to play games that can only be completed with team work.  It was quite fun.  

Then it was time to hit the road again back home.  Myself and Helen took the local bus back to our tour bus and the Chinese staff went on a walk back.  Thank goodness we went to the bus because the rain poured down.

While waiting on the bus I saw some people getting ready to fire a rocket launcher.  Weird.  But I did try and record it but got such a fright when it blasted off that the recording stopped.

Then it was time to hit the road home and was 6pm by the time we arrived.  And I was quite tired.  

We will be going on a school outing soon.  So keep reading.