Shaliwen

First of all I am typing this while "enjoying" a bag of Cucumber flavored chips. That is weird, right? They taste weird as well. So I think I am going to store them in my new panda-box. Maybe some Chinese people can enjoy them, instead of me.

This morning we went to work, like I will be doing for the next 7 weeks. But this morning it was snowing in Beijing. Not a lot, just enough to cover the streets of Beijing with a white layer. We had breakfast near the busstop again, but this time there was some meat in the egg-"pancake". It tasted really good.

At work I worked half an hour before we had a talk with the headmaster. Someone from AIESEC came to work to translate for us. We talked for two hours! I asked a lot of questions about the center, like how people get there and how are the children and the parents treated there. I learned a lot more about the center. They actually use individual tests to see what the level of the child is when they first come to Xinxinyulu. This helps them to make an individual program for each child and his/her parents. But at the moment the center is overcrowded and a few teacher are still on vacation. At around the 15th of March everything will go back to normal. The classes our going to be smaller and every child will get individual training with one teacher. He talked about it as if it would be totally different. I am quite curious about it.. We will see.
We also talked about the differences between China and Holland/Japan. We gave him a few good ideas and hopefully we can do more with those. He was really enthusiastic when we told him about the picto's we use in the Netherlands. We use them to help structure the lives of the children with Autism. I think we should try to bring this more in to practice at the center. So I will put my focus on that for the next two weeks.

After the long talk to the headmaster we had a quick lunch at the center before we went by car to the university. There we got guided to the subway station to meet some else from AIESEC. Because this afternoon we are going to another TN to see how they work there. We went to Shaliwen, a school for children with hearing problems. Actually I also applied for an internship there, but Xinxinyulu is closer to my own profession.
We went to Shaliwen with two AIESECers and 20 Chinese students who volunteered for this. The school looked really nice and very hygienic. We needed to wash our hands before we got near the children and even our temperature was checked. We saw the classroom of the children and helped them with some drawing. We took a lot of pictures and got a little presentation. Four of the children recited a poem and after that we were asked to donate money. Another picture was taken and we went back to the university.
In the bus we asked two of the Chinese girls if they wanted to have dinner with us, so we went to some fancy looking restaurant somewhere near their university. It looked really nice and also very expensive, but we only paid like ?7,50 per person. China is really cheap that way.
We had a lovely meal and I got to learn some more about Chinese and the culture and tasted different foods.

They also explained to me what my name means if you try to translate is into Chinese. I think my parent really gave me a good name. My name can actually be divided in to three characters. Translated it has something to do with 'Luck' and 'Peace'.

After this long day we went home and Kaho and me are both quite tired. Nonetheless we got behind our computers to talk to our family & friends. I first skyped with my boyfriend and we both talked about our day. Then I talked to my mother about my day as well. And after that I wanted to show both of them the chips and my panda-box, so I got on skype again. This time I didn't only talk to my boy, but to his brother as well. They were in a crazy mood and were teasing each other with stuffed animals and hand gestures. It was a lot of fun and my jaw is still hurting a bit from laughing.