With employees separated from friends and family, working odd hours in a city where the language is foreign, EF strives to find fun exciting activities to engage and reward their teachers for a job well done. The department that does this is called the Teacher Life Club, or TLC for short. Recently they held a traditional Chinese rice paper painting course, as well as a morning Tai Chi practice. Well after signing up for both, I slept through the Tai Chi (getting up at dawn is too steep a price to pay for spiritual enlightenment), I did manage to attend the painting course.
Another picture from Suzou, this is the ancient gate to the city. It was unclear if it was rebuilt or is still the original, I'm going to assume it, like most things in China, is not original. These pictures of Suzou don't really capture what the city looks like today however. Suzou suffered more than most cities in the 'Great Leap Forward', with many of the old estate homes and narrow streets and canals turned into generic any city bland commercial centers. Its quite tragic because Suzou, while not a naturally beautiful city, seems to have once been a beautiful city through the efforts of its inhabitants.
With an expert teacher who only spoke Chinese, and a translator or two, about 5 teachers 
including myself attempted to learn this ancient art form. We struggled to first learn a chicken, which looked nothing like a chicken until we added feet, who knew they were so important? Then we learned the art of painting bamboo, a skill our master had crafted over the past 40 years. Whenever our master wasn't happy with our work, instead of explaining our errors to us, which was linguistically impossible, he would forcefully, yet gently, grab our hands still holding our brushes and guide our strokes. Though far from being an expert, I'd say my work isn't half bad; and after seeing the creation of my own hands, I don't think I'll need to buy any bamboo paintings now.
including myself attempted to learn this ancient art form. We struggled to first learn a chicken, which looked nothing like a chicken until we added feet, who knew they were so important? Then we learned the art of painting bamboo, a skill our master had crafted over the past 40 years. Whenever our master wasn't happy with our work, instead of explaining our errors to us, which was linguistically impossible, he would forcefully, yet gently, grab our hands still holding our brushes and guide our strokes. Though far from being an expert, I'd say my work isn't half bad; and after seeing the creation of my own hands, I don't think I'll need to buy any bamboo paintings now.Some of the events they will be offering in the future include concerts, day trips to nearby cities and more Tai Chi. Its a great (free) way to experience some of the Chinese culture I miss by living in Shanghai and speaking English while hanging out with Westerners mostly.
Another picture from Suzou, this is the ancient gate to the city. It was unclear if it was rebuilt or is still the original, I'm going to assume it, like most things in China, is not original. These pictures of Suzou don't really capture what the city looks like today however. Suzou suffered more than most cities in the 'Great Leap Forward', with many of the old estate homes and narrow streets and canals turned into generic any city bland commercial centers. Its quite tragic because Suzou, while not a naturally beautiful city, seems to have once been a beautiful city through the efforts of its inhabitants.
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