Thursday, February 13, 2014

Farewell Ceremony

As we have said, the time with our sisters from Beijing Huaxia Girls' School came to an end much too quickly. Our last event together was a farewell "party" (known in the US as a "talent show"). This festive occasion allowed Huaxia and UA students to perform for each other. All agreed that both schools have some extremely talented students! It was so much fun and, at the end, we exchanged gifts for the two schools. We are excited in Dallas to now have two "Huaxia" bears, complete with Huaxia uniforms! And we have sent a little bit of Texas to China in the form of a Texan-crafted platter (complete with horses in honor of Texas and the year of the horse). It was a fantastic farewell and we hope our sisters will come back soon!










 

A short visit with our Chinese sisters

Our sisters from Beijing Huaxia Girls school were with us for only a few short days - but what wonderful days they were! In school, they joined us for classes and for a celebration of Chinese language during World Languages Week. Around Dallas, they enjoyed their visit to the Bush Library, the Dallas World Aquarium and Dallas City Hall. We also learned a lot from the visiting teachers who presented lessons in our Chinese II language class and in a Physics class.We loved having our sisters from Beijing in Dallas and we hope that they will be able to stay longer next time!










Friday, February 7, 2014

Hellos and Goodbyes

What a whirlwind this past week has been! In addition to the surprise winter snow storm that we experienced yesterday, we had an entire week of greetings, farewells and fast-forming friendships. Here is a recap of the intensely sad and joyful moments that we have recently experienced:

On Monday, we reluctantly said Goodbye to the Chilean delegation  ...






Then, on Tuesday, we said HELLO (Ni Hao!) to the Chinese Delegation from Beijing Huaxia Girls' School, our oldest sister-school ....  









Much to our delight, the Chinese and Peruvians became fast and dear friends - what fun to have 2 visiting schools from 2 different continents here at the same time! .....





And then, on Thursday, we began the day with SNOW, a real treat for the Peruvians, many of whom had never seen snow (we Dallasites don't see too much of it either).  And all too quickly, it was time to say a snowy goodbye to the wonderful Peruvian Delegation - we are still drying our tears from that goodbye!












Sunday, February 2, 2014

Learning about Chile and Peru

A highlight of delegation visits is learning about different countries and cultures. Last Friday, we enjoyed presentations prepared by our Chilean and Peruvian guests. Both presentations were great and featured traditional songs and dances. Our UA students also loved having time to ask questions about the other Ursuline schools - everyone is now super eager to travel to Chile and Peru!