Chinese Language Fair

Our song was called "Jing Hua Ci"
by Jay Chou which is about a
 beautiful porcelain vase. 

Yesterday, April 17, 2014, I had to wake up at 5 o'clock in the morning to prepare for my Chinese Language Fair. (This is very similar to the Spanish Language Fair I went to last year.) Normally, I'd be fine waking up at 5 in the morning but this was during my spring break.. where I would have loved to sleep in and not worry about school. Anyways, I arrived at the school at 6:20 and had to practice my song with my group for the competition.

We arrived at the college where the language fair was taken place at about 8:00. At that time, we were just waiting to register for all the events and to start doing these events. I was unlucky and couldn't do a lot of the activities because my group insisted on practicing our song multiple times until it was perfect. (There was a lot of drama involved as well.)

My friend Summer and I managed to do some paper cutting activities and take a photo at the Great Wall of China though. I think my favorite part of the paper cutting activity was talking with the instructor. During the fair, we were only supposed to talk Chinese (which was difficult since I don't know a lot of Chinese) or else you would end up in "jail." Brooke, our paper cutting instructor, was so nice and spoke to us in English more than she should have. She was just so nice and had a friendly conversation with us (half in Chinese, half in English.) I think that if she wasn't so nice, we both would have been in "jail."

It was time for me to compete in my first competition. I had to recite a poem in Chinese and the judge would ask me questions on the poem. I recited "Jing Ye Si (静夜思)" by Li Bai and got a superior on it! (Ratings from highest to lowest: Superior, Excellent, Very Good, Good, Okay.) It was fairly easy and I was glad I practiced my tones. I am terribly at tones.

Jing Ye Si (静夜思)

After my accomplishment, we went back to do another activity. I chose to try the Singing Bowl out. I have never heard of it before in my life and it look so cool. You basically wet your hands and then rub your hands on the side handles of the bowl. If you do it just right, then the bowl will "sing." It's one of the coolest things ever.

Finally, it was time to compete in our singing competition. To be honest, we weren't as prepared as we could have been and not as loud as we could have been as well. Overall, we got an excellent on it.

I missed the awards ceremony except for the very end. Our school won for the sweepstakes. (All the competition ratings are compiled into points and you get a grand total.) At the end of the day, I had a really fun time but it was just an exhausting day. If our school decides to go again next year, then I will definitely go... even if it means taking part of my spring break again.

♥Petpet, who took a two hour nap once she got home yesterday

*Note: When I say "Chinese," I mean Mandarin. I can speak Cantonese, which is a different dialect from Mandarin. So when I say I don't know Chinese, I mean I don't know how to speak Mandarin.

**All photos belong to rightful owner. I do not own any of them.