Hello everyone! My name is Katy and I’m a new Edu-Pal from the USA.
I arrived in China at a very unique time-just a week before the seriousness of the coronavirus came to.
Despite the obstacles during this hard time, the folks of Edu-Pal and my host family have given me a very good and welcoming experience so far.
For safety reasons, many people in China are staying at home, so we are not traveling to the EPC office. Despite being isolated I have been checked in on by the EPC staff regularly and have been able to make friends with the other Edu-Pal sisters over WeChat!
We are still holding cultural events and mandarin classes via group video chats.
We received a package in the mail with all of our materials for our at-home cultural events.
Two of the things we have been able to learn about and make were the Chinese style “tuan shan” fan and coin purse.
For the fan, we started off our class learning about the fan’s origins and uses. We also compared the style of the Tuan Shan to different fans from other countries. On one of our fans we received in our package, there was some traditional Chinese artwork that we had to color in with paint. As we started this, the class got very silent and everyone focused on their art!
It was a very fun art project and I loved seeing everyone’s different paintings!
For our “homework” we were able to create our own drawing on a blank fan. I tried my best at keeping to a similar style that we learned about but drew some of the native plants from my home state in the desert.
Our coin purse class was laughably the most challenging. We started off our class with Luka trying to explain to us for 10 minutes how to thread our needle. (It was very hard to see the thread on camera) But we were all able to overcome and make our own cute little purses! I personally really enjoyed this class. I tried to pick up sewing just before leaving the states, so it was nice to be able to practice it again while I am out here! Shout out to craft master Luka for being so patient with us haha.
I am grateful to still be learning and seeing pieces of Chinese culture despite being stuck inside. I feel I am still getting a memorable and enriching experience in China.
Thank you Edu-Pal China!
Comments