There is a pretty lake here with lotus flowers. The American students in the AI group took a picture together here after practicing (which was while the Chinese students in our group went to the beach)

Today was a very long day and we listened to many lessons. I taught my STEM lesson today but the projector wasn't working for the first half of my presentation and ended up writing on the chalkboard. I didn't have much time for the second half of the lesson and changed it from giving the presentation to just talking about it. I really liked the last lesson we heard today where Vera and Iris taught us about traditional handicrafts. Shirley laoshi taught us how to make bracelets and Iris taught us how to make the Chinese Knot. We also learned how to speak a few sentences in the XuanCheng dialect and it was very fun (although I probably said everything wrong). I found out that there were similarities between the XuanCheng and ChongQing dialect. The way you say "I don't know" is very similar in both dialects, both replacing "知道" with "xiao."

Today we went to JiXi. Before going, I tried buying a fan and ended up losing a hundred RMB and didn't get a fan. I ended up getting the money back, but today was very hectic. When we went on the tour, we learned about fengshui (风水), the balance of energy in one's surrounding. I learned about this in Chinese school, but I never got to see a residency with extremely good balance before. There were mountains, and then a plot of land where the buildings and crops were, and there was a river and more mountains. The tour guide pointed out that the entire place was in the shape of a rowboat. Afterwards, we went hiking and climbed the rocks. It was quite fun, however it was extremely hot.

Today we went to three different places. We made dumplings, went to a plywood factory and saw the manufacturing process, and we went to a mountain and learned about the Taxus Chinensis/ Chinese Yew , a special type of tree that can prevent cancer and get rid of mosquitoes. I really liked making dumplings because it brought back childhood experiences.

Today was the first day of teaching in the Anhui teaching camp. I was the second one to teach and it was a very interesting experience. After the lessons, the group took a break from the classroom and went hiking at JingTing Mountain. When we were done with the hike, we came back to the classroom to continue lessons and plan for the STEM project. Teaching a lesson was a very unique experience and was different from what I have done before. I had volunteered as a TA for three summers, however it was still challenging in some ways. Before the lesson, it was very stressful and I was nervous, however I enjoyed it at the end. It was fun and I think it was pretty rewarding. During the lesson, I encountered a few difficulties. Beforehand, we did not know the levels of the students. From what I saw, all the students have learned at least a little about my topic (Pronouns and Subject-Verb Agreement) and found it pretty easy. The high school/ college students seemed to know a lot about it and are already very comfortable with my topics, however the middle school students seem to struggle more. I think it was a little difficult to teach with this gap. The students also did not like to raise their hands or volunteer to answer questions. This could of been because they were bored or did not understand what was going on. There was also a lot less time given then I thought, as I did not get to let them do the worksheet and I had to skip over some parts of the lesson. After the lessons, we ate lunch and went to the JingTing Mountain. It was very tiring to hike up the mountain, and the heat made it worse. There were a lot of bamboos and statues, which a lot of people took pictures of. I did not try to climb to the top of the mountain because I was too tired and dehydrated to go on. When everyone was done, we were all drenched in swear and exhausted. After hiking, some of us went into a temple and prayed. We then walked around the temple and probably made the gods mad because of all the noise we were making. As we were leaving the site, it was already starting to storm. Before going into the classroom, we stayed outside and watched the storm. We mostly pointed and gazed at the lighting, which was very pretty and cool. The huge lighting bolts flashed across the sky and I was very surprised as I have never seen lighting like this. When the electricity in the classroom was working again, we all went in to start the lessons again. Two of the Chinese students taught us about the culture of the internet in China. Afterwards, we got into our STEM projects groups and decided on the topic of the project.

Today we went to the water village. It was extremely hot but also pretty. We saw many beds here and learned about clothes. After buying food from this one booth, the salesperson told me that I needed to learn how to bargain because everything is overpriced.

In the morning, we went to visit a lake and had to walk a lot. At this lake, there were many willow trees that signified beauty and a lot of lotuses. At this place, we saw a bridge. According to the tour guide, this was the broken bridge that represented the broken heart of the white snake in a Chinese fable.

Today the group went to two main places. This is a picture of on of the lakes we went to, which is located right next to a small museum with ancient buildings. Before looking around, we sat around at this lake to rest. A few people decided to try crossing a small portion of the lake by stepping on the logs, which you can see in the bottom left-hand corner.