Freshmen on the Road Again

This month, all high school grade levels are hyped to go on China Trips, which will take place in the 4th week of September. This year’s freshmen will be traveling to Qingyuan to conquer a range of activities such as rock climbing, caving, biking, and yes, camping. This year’s activities will share several characteristics with the Grade 8 China Trips but will be considerably more challenging. Next week, Dragonfly representatives will be at the school to further introduce the trip, but the freshmen should expect to get scraped, muddy, and dirty.

A lot of the activities that the ninth graders will explore this year will be similar to the activities they experienced last year in eighth grade, which include: climbing, mountain-biking, hiking, caving, and camping. Although the activities may be almost the exact same, students must note that these activities will be more extensive than the previous year. Another interesting activity the freshmen will experience this year will be learning about Qingyuan’s cultural heritage. Previous years of freshmen enjoyed exploring the Pan family mansion, a historic site which is over 200 years old, and learning the art in making tofu. For this year’s community service activities, ninth graders will be helping the farmers in that area with their agricultural activities. This will be helpful for the farmers, but it will also help educate the students in agriculture and what it is like to live and work in rural areas. This year, the freshmen will once again go camping, but there is one slight alteration. For this year’s camping, students will not be given a tent. They will be given a canvas, and will have to construct a proper tent using raw materials around them.

Some of the concerns voiced by the Grade 9 students were the complications that came with camping and the junk food ban. The ninth graders may not be as eager to go camping as they once were due to the fact they have to build their own tent and because the weather in Qingyuan is rainy. In Qingyuan, thunderstorms are a common occurrence, and last year, some of the students who were present for the Grade 8 China Trips also experienced some of the difficulties with the weather. On the other hand, some students expressed feelings of excitement. For instance, Kai Lin said, “it is interesting to go camping as we don’t usually go camping, and it will be a new experience for us as we don’t usually live, or stay in such environments.” Another concern that students were distressed about was the ban of junk food. There were several groans from the freshmen when the teachers announced that this ban included cup noodles. While there may be some complications with the trip, the ninth graders have to learn to adapt to these new preferences because if they do not adapt, they will move nowhere but behind themselves.

While there are several new changes to the China Trips, there are also several aspects that the students will enjoy about this year’s China Trips. During this week’s China trip meeting, there were many hoots and cheers when the teachers announced that this year we would be going caving. The students may be greatly interested in this activity because in previous years we have not experienced caving, and the new experiences are just enough to spike their curiosity. While some students, like Sehun Choi, were “worried about going to an environment they have never been to,” these students were also enthusiastic about exploring a new place. A substantial amount of the students, as always, were also eager to eat and try new food.

This year’s Grade 9 China Trips appears to be quite lively; the freshmen have a long journey ahead of them to find out new things about themselves and as Mrs. Sarah Hawkins says, “expand themselves.”