A Summer to Remember

I'd say Amira had a pretty adventurous summer. By the grace of God she visited Shanghai, China, various cities in the Dominican Republic, New York City, Washington, DC, Atlanta, GA and then made it back home to good ole Philly, PA. This post is about camp in China, so let me hop off my tangent :-)

Summer camp in China was a cool idea. Amira spent her weekdays taking private Chinese lessons at Mandarin Rocks. Actually, the only reason her lessons were private was b/c she was the youngest one at the camp. The other kids ranged in age from 8-14. Sometimes that meant she got special treatment (remember the movie popcorn story?? [below]) and sometimes she felt left out :-(

One of the most interesting things I noticed at the camp were the teenagers who traveled abroad in pairs (i.e. without parents) to learn about Chinese language and culture. Apparently is not uncommon for some wealthy sophisticates to send their children trekking around the world with minimal supervision. Our group consisted of several eager young teens who were obviously used to a lot of freedom. From eating rats in Vietnam to scuba diving in New Zealand, these kids had done it all. I must admit that I sat in admiration as they told me of their many world adventures. In some ways they were extremely precocious and in other ways they were just regular ole teenagers. The only difference is that they were thousands of miles from home doing what I wouldn't DARE send my kid to do alone. No, not in a million years!

Mandarin Rocks had a full line up of activities for the kids. They were constantly hitting the streets of Shanghai to shop, watch movies, see the acrobatic show, visit The Bund (waterfront) and a host of beautiful Chinese gardens. Honestly, I think Amira got around Shanghai more than I did. Don't take my word for it. You can always ask her yourself what she thought of China :-)