Done retreatin'

Floraland was a success! Huzzah!

The big concern this week was weather. As you would expect with any amusement park, rides are weather-dependent. And the past couple weeks have brought a remarkable increase in inclement weather. On two nights this week, we awoke to powerful thunderstorms and heavy rain. As of right now, it has rained on 5 of the last 6 days. This has had an effect on our apartment (as well as my general mood - I hate the rain!) Take a look at the water damage to our wall, and new paint job...


So back to the retreat. As Thursday approached, we were all praying that the rain would cease. Thursday morning was still soggy, but by the time we got to the park it had slowed and we were relatively dry. Here's Rachel outside the main gate to the park:


In the morning, we broke into groups - with each teacher taking some students around the park on a photo scavenger hunt. Here's some of my students -

Thankfully, I managed to avoid most of the pictures, expect this one by the carousel....(it is supposed to be a shot of team members mimicking a carousel ride)


But I fared much better than Rachel. She went on one ride (pictured below) that she shouldn't have. It spun around in a circle, then swung back and forth in the air in a pendulum motion. Her group had gone on together - and when the ride was complete, the operator informed them that they would all be getting a second ride. Unfortunately, this was too much for Rachel's stomach, who went with another student back to the hotel to throw up and sleep for the rest of the morning. So much for teacher supervision of that activity!!


In the afternoon, kids were free to roam through the park. I spent much of the time explaining to disappointed students that we did NOT have extra tickets to replace the ones they had lost/destroyed/gotten wet. [Actually, the kids were having a lot of fun, and were very cute in inviting us to come with them on rides. I've never had students who didn't think I was completely lame! There was one crazy ride (that would never be allowed in America) that was a giant rotating trampoline. The operator played music and violently shook the trampoline in synch with the song. Result: bodies flaying widely on top of each other as all are knocked hopelessly off balance.]

So during the afternoon, I did have time to see some of the park, and visit what can only be explained as the Floraland Shrine. Notice the weird Mickey-esque Panda mascot they had...

In the evening, we sang some songs and had some serious group time, followed by some very silly games led by Rachel and another teacher. Other than some vomiting on the part of the students (related to drinking and eating contests) it was a fun time.

We awoke in the morning to more hard rain. Yuck. We walked/ran/waded across the park for breakfast, and then decided that it was best to simply return to the school. Then we got to walk/run/wade back to the hotel, clean up, and walk/run/wade with our bags back to the main gate. Not fun. Everyone was pretty well wet, but there was little complaining.


So we spent the day at school, playing dodgeball and mafia. Unfortunately, the rain meant we had to cancel an activity in which we would host students from a local migrant school for an afternoon of sports and games. Maybe we can reschedule.

In all, it was a success! Now, we can use this experience to help us think about the spring trip - which will be a longer, more serious retreat that will take us out of Chengdu. I'm excited! It was fun to spend the time outside the classroom with the kids.

In all, not stressful or too taxing...though we did sleep 10+ hours afterwards. Definitely more than usual. It was nice.

-alan