China Summer 2009

Written by Alise Zirilli

June 1^st.  So today was our last day in China.  We started off the morning with going to the Paralympics Training Center.  It was an amazing facility with everything handicap accessible.  After walking about the training center we headed back to campus to see if we could catch a glimpse at the Chinese National rhythmic gymnastics team.  Unfortunately we went there right when their practice had finished.  We did get to see the like Junior Olympic rhythmic team. 

After we had lunch and went to our calligraphy class.  Each of use got a different character that we had to practice.  After we mastered our characters we all wrote them out on a large piece of calligraphy paper, which was for our class to bring back to the States.  Writing the characters out was fun but a bit frustrating because we were all trying to make them look perfect. 

After calligraphy class we all went back to get ready for our final banquet.  Before the banquet though us girls wanted to do something special for Hongwei and Nick. So Shona and I went over to the stationary store and bought notebooks.  We went back to the dorm and we wrote one big group note to Hongwei and Nick to give to them during the banquet. 

At the Banquet we did many toasts to each other and all the people at Beijing Sports University that made our trip there possible.  We each received a neat wooden toy and t-shirt from the president of BSU.  After the banquet we heading back to the dorm and invited some people from the building up to our floor to hang out for the night.  It was great getting to meet new people and getting to hang out with our group one last time in China.