Roll out the red carpet...

We have arrived in Xi'an, another Chinese city representative of many ancient dynasties. Today we visited the Qinyang Primary School and were greeted like a bunch of American celebrities by students who were excited to showcase their English skills. We literally walked a red carpet as the children were chanting "Welcome Welcome" and "Hello Hello" as they waved balloons and presented us each with a bouquet of flowers. We were also presented with scrolls with Chinese proverbs and we were invited to observe summer school English classes with mini-lessons about food and traffic safety. In China it is customary to present gifts to hosts, teachers, and guides. Some of the teachers also brought small gifts to share with the students such as pencils, pens, rulers, or coins that might represent something from our schools or the region or state from which we all originated. My favorite part of the day was when one of the children asked me, "You are very tall,
why?"