The second day in JB Petit High School was just as magical and eventful as the first. We enjoyed a very packed yet exciting schedule today and gained a further understanding of the Indian culture.
In the morning, I took the school bus to school with my host buddy, Deena. Taking the school bus to school in India is surely a one- of- a -kind experience. There's a bus guy that stands at the door of the bus with half his body hanging out of it and just scooping up kids into the bus every time it stops; there's loud chatter and traffic, irritated Indians honking non stop, the smell of breakfast and all kinds of eccentric scenes that we pass by in the streets- there's never a boring moment. I guess that already describes India acutely on itself.
This morning we took two classes before going to the special activities. I had biology and double chemistry. The teachers are all extremely accommodating and nice. It seems to me that the Indian syllabus puts quite a heavy emphasis on science subjects- they have science lessons almost everyday. The teachers teaching in JB are all very experienced- their explanations were clear and concise and the students were all so actively involved in learning and aAfter the classes, we attended the yoga workshop. I think the workshop had been the enriching experience by far in India. The teacher taught us a few basics of indian yoga. First, the art of breathing. Indians believe that controlling and paying attention to breathing is the key to achieving health and peace.We had breathing practices and practiced various poses while paying attention to our breathing. It turns out that when you focus on how you breathe, your thoughts really do kind of drain away from your brain; it also makes you more aware of how your body is feeling, focused and makes you feel relaxed too. After that we tried some animal poses- the cat pose and the dog pose- which allows us to stretch our spine and relieve back pain. Then we also tried the corpse pose where the teacher explained was a pose that allows gravity to relax and release the tension from our bodies- though most of us fell asleep during that pose, it was simply too comfortable just lying there on the mat. There was also the fetus pose, which is an imitation of a baby in it's mother's womb. According to our yoga teacher, Indian culture believed that everyone is protected by an invisible womb in life, which provides us with all our needs. Finally the most interesting part- the teacher told us to pair up with a girl similar to our size. We didn't know what we were doing until we were lying face down on the ground and the other girl was just walking and stepping around on our backs and spines. The intention of this activity is to release the tension from our back and spinal muscles. Though it hurted quite a bit at first, it felt amazing after a while. I think it's kind of like the sort of things that you have to endure some pain before you actually enjoy it.
sking- once the teacher asks a question, almost everyone raises their hands and yells the answer. If they don't understand something, they voice it to the class and they won't rest until they get the answer. I think us Hong Kong students definitely have something to learn from their attitude.
Following that we had a visit to the Prince of Wales Museum near the school. It's one of the most famous an museums in India; it stores vast collections of Indian, Western and Far East artwork, weapons and historical artifacts. I was lucky to have a really knowledgeable JB girl, Priyansahi accompanying me during the visit- she told me about all kinds of Indian mythology involving elephant headed gods, ancient Indian saints and sages, and various heroes and villains. We also took a look at some Indian weapons and ivory. It was a truly fascinating experience. The museum itself is a magnificent ancient work of architecture with a dome shaped top and a huge lawn. We certainly enjoyed the visit a lot.
After that we got back to school just in time for the hot lunch- it was a chickpea stew and jasmine rice today. It tasted super good and sophiscated with all the spices! Indian cuisine is just plain awesome. We also had an art workshop. We tried to create our own Indian folk paintings. The characteristics of these paintings is that they use double lines for all outlines, because they believe that one line represents the male gender while the other represents the female gender, and using double lines strikes a balance between both. They also use extremely bright colors for their artwork. It was really nice learning about their culture.
India is just such an exotic, lovely and friendly place and it keeps presenting all sorts of surprises. I can't wait for tomorrow :))
In the morning, I took the school bus to school with my host buddy, Deena. Taking the school bus to school in India is surely a one- of- a -kind experience. There's a bus guy that stands at the door of the bus with half his body hanging out of it and just scooping up kids into the bus every time it stops; there's loud chatter and traffic, irritated Indians honking non stop, the smell of breakfast and all kinds of eccentric scenes that we pass by in the streets- there's never a boring moment. I guess that already describes India acutely on itself.
This morning we took two classes before going to the special activities. I had biology and double chemistry. The teachers are all extremely accommodating and nice. It seems to me that the Indian syllabus puts quite a heavy emphasis on science subjects- they have science lessons almost everyday. The teachers teaching in JB are all very experienced- their explanations were clear and concise and the students were all so actively involved in learning and aAfter the classes, we attended the yoga workshop. I think the workshop had been the enriching experience by far in India. The teacher taught us a few basics of indian yoga. First, the art of breathing. Indians believe that controlling and paying attention to breathing is the key to achieving health and peace.We had breathing practices and practiced various poses while paying attention to our breathing. It turns out that when you focus on how you breathe, your thoughts really do kind of drain away from your brain; it also makes you more aware of how your body is feeling, focused and makes you feel relaxed too. After that we tried some animal poses- the cat pose and the dog pose- which allows us to stretch our spine and relieve back pain. Then we also tried the corpse pose where the teacher explained was a pose that allows gravity to relax and release the tension from our bodies- though most of us fell asleep during that pose, it was simply too comfortable just lying there on the mat. There was also the fetus pose, which is an imitation of a baby in it's mother's womb. According to our yoga teacher, Indian culture believed that everyone is protected by an invisible womb in life, which provides us with all our needs. Finally the most interesting part- the teacher told us to pair up with a girl similar to our size. We didn't know what we were doing until we were lying face down on the ground and the other girl was just walking and stepping around on our backs and spines. The intention of this activity is to release the tension from our back and spinal muscles. Though it hurted quite a bit at first, it felt amazing after a while. I think it's kind of like the sort of things that you have to endure some pain before you actually enjoy it.
sking- once the teacher asks a question, almost everyone raises their hands and yells the answer. If they don't understand something, they voice it to the class and they won't rest until they get the answer. I think us Hong Kong students definitely have something to learn from their attitude.
Following that we had a visit to the Prince of Wales Museum near the school. It's one of the most famous an museums in India; it stores vast collections of Indian, Western and Far East artwork, weapons and historical artifacts. I was lucky to have a really knowledgeable JB girl, Priyansahi accompanying me during the visit- she told me about all kinds of Indian mythology involving elephant headed gods, ancient Indian saints and sages, and various heroes and villains. We also took a look at some Indian weapons and ivory. It was a truly fascinating experience. The museum itself is a magnificent ancient work of architecture with a dome shaped top and a huge lawn. We certainly enjoyed the visit a lot.
After that we got back to school just in time for the hot lunch- it was a chickpea stew and jasmine rice today. It tasted super good and sophiscated with all the spices! Indian cuisine is just plain awesome. We also had an art workshop. We tried to create our own Indian folk paintings. The characteristics of these paintings is that they use double lines for all outlines, because they believe that one line represents the male gender while the other represents the female gender, and using double lines strikes a balance between both. They also use extremely bright colors for their artwork. It was really nice learning about their culture.
India is just such an exotic, lovely and friendly place and it keeps presenting all sorts of surprises. I can't wait for tomorrow :))
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