Field Trip

The International Senior Class (alias 2009 graduating Golden Sun Kindergartners who soon will be immersed in English half-days) finished their Smart Kids unit on Our Neighborhood and celebrated with a fieldtrip to Ocean Zoo. The sandbox replica of a neighborhood was carefully planned, mapped, and built during a sunshiny week. Vocabulary flowed, and Jerry–a thorny Muslim kid who doesn’t usually fit with the enthusiastic learners–threw himself wholeheartedly into building a school, complete with a hilly playground and equipment. It was a breakthrough! Now he says, “Thank you” when I show him (“one-more-time”) how to write his name or count. Even smart Jay, who slap-dashes through tasks, worked a long time on his post office, mail truck, and mail carrier.

Helen gave us a day’s notice that we’d go to Ocean Zoo. We did our best with English words: “turtles, sea lions, bi rds, and crocodiles” and boarded two colorful Golden Sun buses. Teachers all used umbrellas. Not me. Buses full, I rode with Helen, her truant 10-year-old daughter, and the secretary in air-conditioned comfort. We went directly to the sea lion show; except for the Chinese on the loud speaker, it could’ve been anywhere in the world.  The younger classes joined hands-to-shoulders and marched toward the Bird Show. Suddenly, they broke ranks, ran under trees just off the sidewalk, peeled down leotards, hiked up frilly dresses and watered the clipped grass en masse. Two of our youngest boys decided to join the mostly-girl group. No one objected.
The bird show was mostly over our heads; cockatoos and carrier birds flew into the crowd, retrieved 10-yuan notes, and landed long enough to give rich grown-ups a Polaroid of themselves.Tom pestered Shirley to take him out to find a tree, more interesting than watching birds do the same thing over and over.

We walked to the crocodile mote, peeking between sidewalk boards at sluggish big guys beneath us. Helen decided it was too dangerous and scary to see that show. If anyone was disappointed, they didn’t voice their feelings.  We directed our steps past the turtles toward indoor aquarium tanks. Our kids touched a sea cucumber, saw a starfish, identified “big fish” (he was monstrous) and a lot of colorful little fish. All but Tom wished to stay longer; he conned Shirley into another trip beneath the well-watered trees and came back crying. It seems he “didn’t have to go after all” and teacher was angry (another thing kids experience, no matter what their language). The baby class and a few from our class made one more detour to relieve themselves in the shade got quickly back in well-practiced lines.

As they boarded the buses to return to Golden Sun for a dumpling lunch, I found myself wanting to kiss each pair of eyes turned toward my “Good-bye,” even Tom’s teary ones. Instead, I adjusted sun visors, returned water bottles, and smiled if they said, “Good-bye, Virginia.” My first Chinese fieldtrip! Kindergartners in front row between Ella (white visor), Shirley (yellow visor), Virginia (blue shirt), and Auntie (end of row)”. On the way home, Helen mentioned that we would have no school Monday; due to Happy Festival, the streets would be too crowded with dancers for the buses to run. Only Hainan Island has such a celebration. I asked around and found that the parades were in Sanya last year, but in a northern city near Haikou this year. I spent the day out and about and saw nothing beyond business as usual in Sanya.

Rubbing Shoulders With Sister Cities

Orchid corsage pinned on shoulders, aloha shirt tucked in gift briefcases, and cups refilled with green tea, some 200 of us listened to enthusiastic Chinese welcomes. Cameras flashed continuously, recording Sanya, China’s International Sister Cities Conference at Palm Beach Hotel. Having stayed there during reconstruction two years ago, I could see no sign of  (then) bulldozed neighborhoods heaped behind blue construction fences. We walked on gleaming marble past upscale restaurants into spacious meeting rooms where automatic English translation headphones espoused development in economy, culture, and communication “for the beautiful future” of Sanya.

We clapped as suit-coated men and two women dignitaries took places
behind flower arrangements, then reported highlights from
developing tourist cities throughout the world.  Vice-Mayor of Korea’s southern most city in Jeju’s Self Governing Province “Island of World Peace” told of $50,000,000 US invested in tax exempt Promotion Districts so 180 countries’ folks could visit without visas. A Japanese mayor applauded China’s 85 Olympic records and focused on global warming changes in temperature and crop quality across his country before moving to promote Kamagawa City’s fishing, agriculture, and tourism. Finnish Director of Culture spoke about Kuusama, tucked next to Lapland, and urged the cooperation of schools between Sanya and Scandanavian sister cities via internet and Skype.

A colorful brochure, written in Russian, substituted for translation as Yalta City, Ukraina,
talked lengthily. I counted “Santa Barbara” among ten other Sister Cities, the only meaning I recognized. A tea break yielded three tiers of peeled tropical fruits, cookies, and coffee. One woman
with a center for handicapped children and I got acquainted on the breezy balcony until hot sun drove us inside where smokers sat.  

It was soon Hollywood, FL’s turn to shine: Director of ommunity Affairs, Jose Zaiter, touted a renaissance of six miles of award-winning beaches and casino, ArtsPark, Trump Tower, Green
Mondays, and moved on to putting laptops in patrol cars and making eight sports fields environmentally friendly. In friendly conversation as we waited for our extensive buffet lunch, Mr. Zaiter told me a committee is working on implementing LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) standards through incentive programs. It made me want to revisit FL to see evidence of these environmental concerns.

Zaiter’s musical Spanish accent gave way to Russian News Bureau’s Director and his live interpretor, pledging governmental cooperation with Sanya, along with past cities in Japan, America, Canada, and China (Harbin). The only non-Chinese woman speaker, from Sal, an Atlantic Camp Verde Island on the same latitude as Sanya, told of 30% annual increases in tourism investments there. Spanish Casares
City’s mayor joined Cancun’s pledge of cooperation with Sanya by naming a Sanya Street in Spain’s “best tourist place in the world.”

 In Chinese tradition, lunch included more ethnic dishes
than could be consumed plus an array of melons, pineapple, and exotic 
fruits. We gladly took part in the second Chinese tradition–a two
hour nap. Although the program stated, like the morning conference,
that a trip to NanShan Temple and the World Elite Model Contest at
Crown of Beauty Center was “for attendants,” those of us deemed
Foreign Experts (English teachers) were refused tickets without explanation. We were, however, welcomed to a sunset beach bar-b-que with more meat dishes than I had encountered thus far in Sanya.

Sanya’s acting mayor toasted our table with Great Wall wine as we dined and watched Li and other minority dancers and singers onstage. Our table represented Philippines, China, and US expatriates. 
        Sunday’s Unveiling of Sanya Friendship Square and Sister Cities Map Scripture also expected Attendants to attend in palm-patterned Sanya’s City shirts, but we lowly English teachers
didn’t risk being turned away. Players chosen for golf at Yalong Bay spent the day with food and awards at Sanya’s recently-developed resort. A few teachers and I took two buses to that public beach past the conventioneers’ Yalong Bay Golf Court and had a refreshing swim in the South China Sea’s not-yet-polluted waters. I found myself hoping that Sanya and her Sister Cities were speaking truth as they stressed attention to energy and environment while pursuing tourism economies.