All work and then some play!

Day 3 dawned bright and cold – very cold!  Dr Huang Yifeng conducted her third ever lecture in English (with her previous two being in 2012 and 2013 to our students!).   She did brilliantly well.  Horizontal alignments were matched to the previous day’s vertical alignments and their railway lines were starting to come together.  We only told them at the end of the day that the work they were doing was about 2nd year university level – and they lapped it up!!

After lunch (again, way too much yummy food for our belts to handle!), they continued their projects and then prepared for the night’s festivities – the Cultural Exchange Party!

We prepared as only good Australians can (we had one quick practice about an hour before) and then set off for the party.  As has been the custom, the Chinese students prepared a feast of snacks and a smorgasbord of items – everything from belly dancing, some hip-hop and a very enthusiastic rendition of Bad Romance by Lady Gaga from the Chinese students.  We also saw traditional dancing and calligraphy.   Our students were encouraged to join in (watching Hamish trying to dance was certainly a sight!  He also made a brilliant emperor).  Paul and I decided that we couldn’t sing Waltzing Matilda for a fifth year in a row, so we decided, as a group, to do the very traditional Australian dance – the Nutbush!  It was really well received and many of the students (and even Dr Fangjian) joined in.

These get-togethers are really the highlight of our trip.  We are made to feel so welcome and many new friends were made.