TED Talking, Fan Dancing, and Volunteering
It’s been an amazing and tiring past two weekends! From having the opportunity to give a TEDx talk to dancing a Chinese fan dance to volunteering with AFS, it seems that I’ve been all over the place. It all started on January twelfth with an early wake up call as per usual for an unconventional opportunity. After my normal morning routine of reading Chinese articles, eating, and running, I rushed on over to the lecture hall with my black floral dress, fancy gray sweater, and black heeled boots. Around nine thirty, shockingly enough, I received the honor of speaking first. If there is one major lesson I’ve learned from performing speeches time and time again, the speeches that truly speak the most are those that originate from the pure passion of an individual. Having the opportunity to speak about language was amazing because I absolutely love language and its ability to connect people across the globe. Between each few speeches, there were breaks for speaker-audience interactions. After my speech, I met a parent of an NCSSM alumni, a student from Duke, a pilates and yoga teacher from Cuba, and an older gentleman who went to China for business trips all of whom inquired about my language learning journey.
Just a few hours later, Asiafest began. After many weeks of forgetting counts, fumbling around, and mastering the art of the Chinese fan dance, in our pink dresses with our blue and pink fans, the NCSSM Chinese dance team danced in front of over one hundred eager eyes. Though I did make a few mistakes, I felt completely and utterly elated by the time we were prancing off stage. The crowd pleasing moment was the wave: the Great Wave of Fans (seen above). After practicing many a day and many a week, it felt odd for it to be over. No more Chinese dance practice. No more awesome fan waves. No more fumbling around and dancing with the wrong colors. However, after Asiafest, the Chinese dance captains received a message from the UNC Chinese Undergraduate Student Association inviting us to dance for their Chinese New Year’s Banquet. All this is to say, my Chinese dancing career is not over just yet!
The word of the day was “forte,” which was rather appropriate given the occasions. To top it all off, I found a dime heads up and got a coupon for my favorite protein bar. ‘Twas 一个美妙的一天 ☺️
This weekend I had the opportunity to volunteer with AFS for the NSLI-Y interviews this weekend. It was a blast to the past not only because I had the opportunity to be interviewed last year, but also because I got to see AFS volunteers I’ve met before at volunteering events and orientations. I can remember how last year there were many volunteers at the interview event. However, this year, besides the NCSSM world language teachers and interviewers, I was the only student volunteer. I manned the sign-in station, having the opportunity to meet each and every one of the thirty-eight applicants to walk through the door. Amazingly enough, over half of the applicants were from NCSSM!
Another highlight of the day was having the opportunity to talk with 李老师 in Chinese. She’s one of the Chinese teachers here at NCSSM, and she teaches mainly intermediate Mandarin Chinese and Readings in Mandarin Chinese. Earlier this year, I tried the Readings class, but it was just a little bit too difficult; I also don’t want to run out of Chinese classes to take in the first year at NCSSM. Any who, she informed me about an opportunity to volunteer at an English camp in China as a youth counselor. Teachers and students from all around the world come to this camp to teach English and interact with Chinese middle school students.
Next weekend, I will be volunteering with AFS at an orientation for AFS exchange students in America, and then the following week, I get to meet Chinese exchange students from Hangzhou, and then there’s Chinese dance again. It looks like I really got my work cut out for me!