Hello!
I have successfully survived my first week in Hangzhou and everyday has been jam packed with activities and educational courses. Sometimes I find it hard to self-study or post a blog because I feel exhausted from the long days here. As a recap, last week we toured the beautiful campus of Hangzhou Wanxiang Polytechnic and later that night, we were presented with a wonderful dinner and ceremony. The student ambassadors of Wanxiang Polytechnic put on quite the show for us and I was overjoyed to see how excited they were to have us here. The rest of our week consisted of attending classes to learn about culture and history of China, as well as the language.
The other day we traveled to the Xixi wetlands which is right across from the hotel we are staying in. We only had the opportunity to tour the museum but on Saturday, a couple UIS students and I ventured out to explore the wetlands for ourselves. There were many beautiful flowers and diverse patches of grass and trees. We noticed a terrifying looking spider, which we later discovered to be a crab (it was squished so we did not have a clear view). I will try and upload some pictures from this adventure if possible!
As I write this, I am preparing for our next workshop courses which consist of Paper Cutting Art and Dough Sculpture. I have to get to class but I will be back later with an update!
Cheers!