Day 3 - Fushun School

I woke up at 6am. Ms Poh had already taken her bath.

When I arrived for breakfast, the Mr Yao was already there. The kids started coming in. They looked fresh & well-rested.
my breakfast

At school, the children were told the rules of the school. The principal must have seen the lack of discipline in our students. Then they started their first Mandarin lesson. The kids behaved themselves. They were not rowdy. They paid attention to the teacher.

After the Mandarin lesson, they had to do mass exercise with all the students of Fushun. Then the kids had P.E. lesson with 2 instructors. It was fun for them. I think they enjoyed the lesson very much.





We had lunch at 11.40am. There were deep fried eggplant, fried fish, potato slices with pork, & stir fried marrow with bahe (lily bulbs), vegetable soup. The food was tasty. The lily bulbs were so sweet & crunchy.

The students rested for a while. Some played games with their Chinese classmates. They had their dance lessons at 1pm.

When I went up to see them at 1.30pm, the kids had made great improvement in their dance routine. Ms Xu was very pleased with their progress.

I told there was a debrief last night & they were reminded of their mission here. I'm glad the students listened to the teachers & made an effort to pull their socks up.

Jaymes' face was very black. I was surprised he was the only male dancer. Alvin had diarrhoe so he had to rest. Alvin, Han Long & Widi were in the computer room next door playing computer games. Jaymes was not happy over this. He told me not to watch him dance as he felt pressured by my presence. Furthermore I was always scolding him.

As he was standing next to the door, Chinese students who passed by the room, looked in & saw him. He looked cute in black tights & he had to twist his body & shake his butt. There was nothing I could do, I told him to do his best & I tried to comfort him by suggesting that I bring him out for dinner & cyber games tonight, if the teachers approved.

I admit I was very hard on him on this trip. Since young, he was not interested in dancing nor performing in front of others. That's why I did not force him to take up classes. But this dance routine was told to the students before the trip, he agreed to it so he has to do his part.

The boys who didn't attend dance lessons were playing in the classroom on the ground floor. They bought lots of titbits & even went out of the school premise to buy snacks from illegal hawkers. They were told in advance not to do that as the food was not clean. The advice obviously did not register in their heads.

After dance lesson, the kids came back to the classroom for Report Writing. Another riotous session. Even as Mr Yao was teaching them how to write the report, many of them were eating titbits, talking , interrupting him..... He had to shout to make himself heard above the din.

I had a headache, I walked out of the class to get fresh air.

At 6.20pm, the bus arrived to bring us back to the hotel. I asked Jaymes what did he want for dinner. I was surprised at his reply. "Mom!!! Eat at the hotel lah! The others would be angry that I can go out because you are here. Eat with them before we go out. It's not nice."

Our dinner tonight :
Deep Fried Lamb Chops
Braised Lettuce
Sweet & Sour Prawns
Braised Fish
Sichuan Tofu
Fried Bee Hoon Raddish Soup
Cold Ham with Cucumber sticks
Mixed Vegetables
After our baths, Jaymes & I went off to to search for a cyber cafe. A sales assistant gave us directions but the area was quite dark, I dared not venture further. So both of us went to the supermarket to get some drinks & snacks. I bought cough syrup for two girls who were having sore throats.

When we got back to the hotel, the group was having a debrief. I went up to my room. Ms Poh didn't come back until 10.15 pm. She had to make sure the kids go back to their rooms to sleep before ten.

She had her bath. She had a cup of honey & did some work until 12 midnight. I kept her company until I couldn't open my eyes anymore......