(7/16/09)
So we realized we were in China for real today. We went to the train station in Shenzen, right across the border from Hong Kong, and about 400 Chinese people were staring at us and few people spoke English. We just kept showing our ticket (which was all in Chinese) to anyone that would read it. They sort of pointed and yelled and eventually we found ourselves in the "soft sleeper" waiting lounge, which was quiet and cozy and smoky. We eventually rushed to the train when someone yelled "Guilin" at us. We walked into the train and saw our room. Ellie got stuck because she and her bag couldn't be in the 4-person room at one time. We remedied that eventually, after much laughter. We bunked with Jackie, a tour leader for a travel company (we know, lucky) and a local who ate soup loudly at 1 am. That train rocked us to sleep! (although "soft" is a bit of a misnomer... think "softer than steel, but not by much...") By 7 am we were in Guilin. When we got out of the train station, we realized that everyone LOVES to say "Hello" to us everywhere we go. We toured around Guilin during the day and met up with an English speaking contact (Autumn) after dinner who attended local schools in Guilin. We were fascinated with what she had to say about math education and we are going back to Guilin on Monday to meet up with a local math teacher. We are super excited about this.
A couple of things she said about math education in our conversation:
-When asked, why do you think the Chinese are known for being good at math? she said that they just did math, they didn't know they were "good at it, until now."
- Students followed the teacher with no questions asked
- Students wait to be called on
We are meeting again with Autumn on Tuesday the 21st and we are meeting one of her math teacher friends!
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