Slice of life

I posted my last week's slice in an airport on Tuesday afternoon. Sunday evening I returned from a short trip to China. It was a work trip, a school visit, most of which I spent at school visiting classrooms, talking to the teachers, students and the PYP coordinator. The school felt like home, everything was so similar because it was a school that follows the same IBO PYP programme as does my school. On Friday I had time to visit a temple, stand on the Great Wall of China and see some of Beijing. I wrote in my notebook every night. I realized that I lack the words and skills to share my experience with others in a way it would even be remotely as rich as my experience. Maybe in time I will find the words to do it properly. For now I will borrow a bit of the structure from Annie Dillard's book For the Time Being.

Birth
When a child is born everybody wishes the best. Hopes are high. Dreams are big. Yet there is no way to predict or plan what the life will bring. Someone born in Soviet Union had no way of seeing the changes ahead, the possibilities opening, the opportunities waiting. I was born in a family of a teacher and an engineer, both living a modest life. I grew up knowing that ordinary people didn't travel. China was way too far.

China
Standing on the Great Wall of China I couldn't help but think about the wonders that happen, beauty and power of nature, the twists of history, how small one person is, yet how mighty people are - growing cities and flying airplanes. I thought of all the people who had died while building the Great Wall of China - their bones grinded and  buried together with stones in the more than 7000 km long structure. How cruel. The piece of wall that we saw creates awe.

Clouds
For the four days Beijing showed mostly blue sky with some white clouds slowly cruising over it occasionally hiding the sun and bringing the heat down. On Wednesday the sky turned dark and deep dark clouds brought along thunder and lightning and pouring rain.

Evil
How is it possible that one of the seven wonders of the World was littered with piles and piles of plastic bottles. At first it seems as carelessness or stupidity, but in fact it is an evil act to leave trash behind.

Numbers
Estonia:
area 45,339 square km
population less than 1,500,000
population of capital city Tallinn about 400,000

China
area 9,596,961 square km
population about 1,400,000,000
population of the capital city Beijing about 19,000,000

It take 32 minutes to fly to Helsinki from Tallinn. It takes seven hours to fly from Helsinki to Beijing.

Over 10,000,000 people visit the Great Wall of China every year.
Three of us stood on the wall without anyone else in sight.

Thinker
An abbot of a Buddhist temple said that teachers are givers. They give selflessly without expecting receiving back. They need belief, calmness and wisdom. They create calmness with their example. Their being is what makes the environment. Students are like petals on a lotus flower, the teacher like the center of the flower and compassion like the sun that gives light and warmth.

Encounter
A three-year-old girl with endless energy supply and red bouncy curls drew me a picture on a post-it note on the back seat of a taxi. She showed me elephant and duck fountains in a small garden, and informed me that the garden also includes frogs and monsters. She jumped on the bed of her parents and showed me her favorite bed cover with Rainbow Dash. She put on blinking sneakers to ride down an elevator to send me away. The next day she came and gave me a hug as a greeting.

Now
Back at home. Busy as ever. Like I never went away.