the day before the three-day Workers' Day holiday break (which began May 1st), all the teachers at my school had an outing--to the Guangzhou Vocational School of Tourism and Business in the morning and to a park for team-building activities in the afternoon... here I am on the bus on the way there giving a strained early-morning smile
a class we observed at the Guangzhou Vocational School of Tourism and Business... the school was government-funded and was very well equipped and maintained
in a round-table discussion with teachers from both schools giving comments, critiques and advice on the classes we had observed that morning
me with some fellow teachers at a small closing ceremony we had to conclude our visit to the school
me posing with the delegation from our school, presenting this framed Chinese calligraphy as a gift to our host school
in the afternoon during our day trip we went to a park outside Guangzhou for some team-building activities... here I am posing with a flag I found while waiting for the activities to begin
for the team-building exercises, guys in army fatigues led us in some games and team-problem-solving activities... it was all in Chinese and so most of the foreign teachers skipped out of it... here we are getting started
here we are trying to untwist our arms so our hands come out even
we put ourselves in a circle holding hands with arms crossed and had to figure out how to uncross our arms without breaking the circle... it was all a bit childish, but good enough for getting to know some of the other teachers better
we were divided into teams for some team activities... I'm on the team in the front row with the green flag
solving puzzles as a team
a toy puzzle we worked together to solve
all the teachers and administrators together at the park after the team-building activities in Apr. 2010
pretty lilies in our apartment in Guangzhou
in May 2010 we went to see a performance at Lan Lan's university held as part of the 9th Annual China Arts Festival... we actually thought we were going to see Cantonese opera, but instead it was a revolutionary play about an uprising in Guangzhou in the late 1800s... here's a scene from the play
a scene later in the play... it seemed well performed, but I couldn't really follow and lost interest and fell asleep for a good part of it... I would have preferred Cantonese opera
in May 2010 we attended a "ball" which was held in the library basement restaurant at Lan Lan's university... here is Lan Lan at the entrance to the ball
the ball consisted of dinner, then performances, then dancing, complete with masquerade masks... here I am sipping some sort of green cocktail during the dinner
Lan Lan enjoying the spaghetti dinner at the ball
different performances were given at the ball... the highlight was this Hawaiian couple presenting hula dancing with ukulele music (I think they're teachers at the university)
Lan Lan and I masked and ready for the ball... we waltzed a few numbers in masks at the end of the evening
Lan Lan and I by the restaurant decor at the ball in May 2010
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