written by Aron Rash.
Day six began with a visit to the Henan Experimental School’s history museum. The two story building contained seven rooms, each exhibiting walls plaques which contained information regarding the foundation of the school, as well as many of its wonderful attributes. A guided tour of the museum lasted for two hours and brought us to a seventh, final room where our class took pictures using a kiosk and signed them digitally on the kiosk touch screen. It is reasonable to assume that the photos we took will be made available for the viewing of future visitors to the school’s museum.
Once we’d finished touring the museum, our class was formally introduced to and greeted by the school’s administrators. Soon after our introduction, we met with our exchange students who’d just finished the first two of their four exams that were scheduled for the day.
Collectively, we agreed that we needed something more engaging/fun to do. Both classes walked to the school’s outdoor basketball courts where we organized a pickup game between the Chinese and the Americans.
For about an hour, every student was lost in his chosen activity. The group was split three ways. Some played basketball. Some played soccer. Those who chose neither simply watched. No matter his choice, everyone seemed to be having a good time.
When the time came to throw in our towels and grab a bite to eat, we broke off into groups once again. Most of us ended up at a local cafe where we were ordered from an assortment of traditional Chinese dishes. Some of the ones I sampled and enjoyed include: sesame pork with steamed buns, pumpkin soup, Chinese chicken quesadillas, and sautéed pork confit. The general consensus was that the cafe food was some of the best we’d tried thus far.
After paying our dues in more Chinese yuan, we walked for less than a block to reach quaint, second-floor coffee shop. Most of us either ordered coffee or ice-cream with fruit. I can vouch for the deliciousness of both. We spent the next few hours of the day sipping coffee and chillaxing in the shop -which appeared strikingly similar to a traditional American Star Bucks.
Once a few hours of chitchat had spilled away with the coffee (and our centerpiece), we returned to school so that the Chinese students could finish up their remaining two exams.
While they were busy slaving over scorecards, us Americans had fun attending three of the more interesting classes offered at Henan Experimental School. First, we mastered the art of traditional Chinese ink painting… maybe.
The teacher, with the help of his assistant and translator, guided us inexperienced American folk in illustrating a single cherry blossom branch. It was hard. Most of us agreed that our paintings “looked pretty dank” when finished. Next, we met a Kung Fu master on the school’s soccer field for a lesson in what Kyrie later told me was Tai Chi, not Kung Fu. Following our Kung Fu lesson, we participated in a non-typical Chinese geography class. The most interesting ornament in the room was what seemed to be a spherical projector. They told us it was supposed to project images of earth, the sky and outer space onto a dome-shaped in-cropping in the ceiling above it; nevertheless, it was too warm to have functioned properly at the time. When our classes were over, we received –or should I say participated in a simulated final surprise.
We walked into a room full of manual driving simulators. Some of us were ecstatic, and others were skeptical. It took many of us a while to learn the ropes of driving a stick for the very first time; it even became frustrating at times. Although, when I finally got the hang of it, I found it to be the most clutching part of my day. But, wait, there’s more! Right when we were starting to get comfortable in our new whips, our Chinese friends concluded their final exams and came to relive us of our many duties as simulated drivers.
Our final stop of the day was the local Hot Pot restaurant. Hop Pot was crazy. I’d like to think of it as a Kanki on steroids that, instead, serves traditional Chinese food. I’ll try and paint a picture of the experience with words, but only my photos and accompanying memories will truly do it justice. In the center of each round table sit two vats of boiling liquid. One is spicy and the other is not. Visit by visit, a member of the serving staff drops a different ingredient in both vats, consequentially adding flavor to the broths. Once you are sure that an ingredient has been cooked thoroughly, you can hit the sauce bar to concoct a dipping sauce unique to your pallet. It will serve to enhance the flavors of certain ingredients. Some of the ingredients that ended up in our broths or on our tables include: longan berries, dragon fruit, lotus root, cow stomach, duck stomach, and cow throat. Yeah…
On top of trying all the new foods that were presented to us, we were sufficiently entertained by the performers. First up was a man dressed in a samurai uniform; he was able to instantaneously switch masks with a flick of his fan. Then, it was the man who stretched noodles like a ribbon twirler; he was equally impressive. And, it would be totally uncool to go on without acknowledging the incredibly hospitable serving staff. Of course, we finished day six with a bang when our class whole started flash mob dancing to Xiao Ping Guo in front of the entire restaurant. It was pretty dank.