We spent the morning on the side of the old Grand Canal trade route linking Hangzhou to Beijing (no longer fully linked) where students had a chance to draw either the scene in front of them or a memorable scene from the last couple of days.
Afterwards we went to the Hangzhou Craft Workshop where we had a chance to paint paper umbrellas. This is a tradition in Hangzhou that has been popular for centuries. After an introduction from a 7th generation umbrella artist students (and teachers) produced their own umbrellas - some were fantastic and some were...... "unique".
After a filling lunch we took a 2 hour bus journey to the 700 year old Maoping village where Heiko and Laura led a 10 minute stretching routine to loosen everyone off from our long hike yesterday. Afterwards students were randomly paired up and challenged to produce photographs demonstrating themes such as "old vs new", "order vs chaos". There are clearly some great photographers in the group such as Sarah and Desean. And..... just to embarrass her, check out the similar haircuts of Laura and the old man behind her!
We then walked an old postal route to Luci village where we will be based for the next two nights, ate an enormous meal and participated in a really fulfilling workshop analysing how people can interpret situations differently and experience different emotions responses. This was our best workshop yet with everyone getting involved in organising their own emotions and then challenging the orderings of others.
Update from: Dr. David Errington, Form 13 Tutor