For your viewing pleasure, a collection of various photos taken around SenLinHu during Dragon Boat Festival weekend: The villagers with the intense dispositions and wide, squatting stances are partaking in a competition of strength – who can stand like that the longest. Also in the gallery, ‘families’, 家, performing chants and a shot of the Dragon Boat Festival skit.
Dragon Boat Festivals, 龙舟赛, have been a part of Chinese culture for over 2000 years. Later this summer, the city of Bemidji will hold a Dragon Boat Festival that SenLinHu has placed well in before, yet we held our own this weekend in Cass Lake. Beyond the boat races, village families had a Tug of War tournament, 拔河, various other competitions, and a picnic. Check out clips of the races and stay tuned for more video of villagers enjoying the weekend’s festivities.
For every meal at SenLinHu, we have a 饭菜介绍，a short presentation of what we’ll be eating that helps villagers learn some of the most important vocabulary there is in Chinese – food. Presentations are led by villagers and performed before eating. By great luck we captured one of the best 饭菜介绍 in a long time on camera. Here it is:
Every night at SenLinHu we have some sort of evening program that varies greatly. Earlier this week, SuLaoShi, 苏老师, our resident super-athletic instructor led a battle of strength and skill, boys vs. girls, with all sorts of competition including relay races, basketball and ropes courses.
Activity time, 活动, at SenLinHu is great because our instructors lead activities that they love. Villagers get to choose an afternoon activity that they have for four days, while they cycle through a series of one day morning classes. Just a few of the activities include frisbee, pingpong, volley ball, archery, soccer, basket ball, calligraphy, painting, and martial arts.
At SenLinHu, we have a set schedule, but that doesn’t mean it lacks fun and free time for villagers. Lunch, 午饭, is at 1pm and after a 休息, rest time for the village, we have an hour of 自由活动, free time. The villagers can visit the bank, a snack shop with sweet and tangy and very popular Chinese snacks, and even our 王府井, a gift shop named after a famous shopping district in Beijing. Check out the video below to see villagers do all these things and more… and some just relaxing with friends old and new.
It’s only the second day of SenLinHu’s second session and already villagers are starting to find their way around. Our returning friends are remembering the schedule and the daily songs while they help us welcome the new villagers to a great summer.
Today villagers met their 小组课, their Chinese classes, and started lessons.
Today SenLinHu happily opened its doors to 80 new 2- and 4-week villagers. After making their way through customs and various other stations to get situated within the grounds, villagers found their 家，their family, and created chants for their cabins, their 木屋, and shared them at Second Session’s very first evening campfire.
Here’s a video of the villagers representing their cabins, and some stills in the gallery below:
Check for updates, lots more to come.
This weekend was the end of the first session at Sen Lin Hu, and many villagers and staff headed home. The first session staff and villagers had a wonderful time making friends and enjoying life at Sen Lin Hu, and the second session staff are excited to welcome more students to our Chinese immersion village. To mark the end of the first session and the beginning of the second one, here is a video of last week’s campers singing Sen Lin Hu’s version of 朋友 pengyou “Friends” by 周华健 Zhou Huajian. This song is a favorite at Sen Lin Hu, and we sang it at an evening campfire to wish an early departing credit villager 再见 zaijian (lit. “again-see”).
Here are the lyrics to the Sen Lin Hu version of 朋友 pengyou. Translations are by Sen Lin Hu staff.
这些年 一个人
zhe xie nian, yi ge ren
These years, one person
风也过 雨也走
feng ye guo, yu ye zou
The winds have blown, the rain has come and gone
有过累 有过错
you guo lei, you guo cuo
Experienced exhaustion, made mistakes
还记得坚持什么
hai jide jianchi shenme
Do you still remember why you keep going?
真爱过 才会懂
zhen ai guo, cai hui dong
Having loved deeply, finally can understand
会寂寞 会回首
hui jimo, hui huishou
Can feel loneliness, can reflect on past times
终有梦 终有你
zhong you meng, zhong you ni
Finally have a dream, finally have you,
在心中
zai xin zhong
in my mind/heart
朋友 一生一起走
pengyou yisheng yiqi zou
Friends can be walk together for their whole lives
那些日子 不再有
na xie rizi bu zai you
Those experiences cannot be had again
一句话 一辈子
yi ju hua, yi beizi
One phrase, one lifetime
一生情 一杯酒 (水)
yi sheng qing, yi bei shui
a life-long friendship, a cup of wine (or water)
朋友 不曾 孤单过
pengyou buceng gudan guo
Friends have never experienced loneliness
一声朋友 你会懂
yi sheng pengyou, ni hui dong
If I call you my friend, you will understand
还有伤 还有痛
haiyou shang, haiyou tong
(even though) you still have wounds, still have pain,
还要走 还有我
hai yao zou, hai you wo
still keep going, you still have me
Sen Lin Hu’s acting class performed the play Mulan on Friday for the whole village, and they earned a resounding round of applause. Here is a video of the play.
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