Chongqing with Monica

Monica, a Senior 3 student (similar to a senior in high school),  invited us to spend the day with her family, visiting downtown Chongqing.  We had a great time!

Chongqing is a city of bridges, with two major rivers running through it.  This bridge is one of many that cross the Jialing River.  The "haze" is constant.

Monica's family's apartment was modern, efficient, and beautifully decorated.

The lunch was an assortment of fabulous Chinese dishes!  Here are Monica's parents, Monica, and her aunt.

Monica plays this traditional Chinese musical instrument, the Guzheng.

Click here to see and hear Monica play.

The Girls

..............with the City of Chongqing in the background.

This is the big, new Opera House, located where the Jialing and Yangtze Rivers meet.

Jialing River boats

We met a group of serious bicyclists, who posed for a photo!

We saw our first two Christian Churches in China.  They are newly built, and locked up.  Outside this Catholic Church, the people were drinking beer and tea, eating peanuts and sunflower seeds, playing cards and socializing. 

The two Churches are beautiful.

A brand new Science and Technology Museum/Center is located in Central Park, near the churches.

We took the Cable Car back across the Jialing River to downtown Chongqing.

Click here to see the port of Chongqing.

Click here to see the Cable Car video.

This area of the city is where old-style stilt houses have been replaced by modern buildings.

We had SPICY and mild versions of Hot Pot for dinner, with Monica's family.  All sorts of meats and vegetables are simmered in the brew.  Chongqing is most famous for Hot Pot!

The lights of  "our" city.......for one year. 

Looking back at the Opera House......

Click here to see kites flying at night.....

University District of Chongqing (part 2)

We went back to the University District on another beautiful autumn day, with Qing and her family.

Riding Bicycles.......Paula and Qing

We visited a fourth campus of Chongqing No. 8 Middle School, where the Senior 3 students live and study.

Student desks.  The pressure is on!

Click here to see Paula riding a bike.

Click here to see more bicycle-riding.

University District of Chongqing

After the Cultural Revolution, universities were re-opened in China.  With the huge population of Chongqing, a whole new area (outside the main city) was built up to house several big, new universities.  Attending one of the universities is the goal of ALL of the students at our school.  They have been tested to determine which high school they are allowed to attend, and they will again be tested (four times each year, actually) to determine which university. 

These 3 students from our classes (Guo Yuan, Wang, and Monica)  took us on a tour of two of the big university campuses.

One of the universities has been built on the site of an old farmstead.  The "Living History Farm" has been incorporated into its new university surroundings.

There are bronze statues of farm life.....

......and the old house where farmers still live, cooking over a stick fire, sleeping on board beds, washing clothes by hand, hand-hoeing small fields, planting rice paddies......all so that students may learn about the rural life-style. 

Chris is ALWAYS on the look-out for beautiful flowers.

Lunch with the kids at a noodle bar....

....in campus-town.

Recycling is actually pretty common here in China.  This is a display about recycling aluminum cans.  Often, recycling may just amount to a little old man or woman going from trash can to trash can along the streets, pulling out the good stuff.  But at least they're doing it!!!

These are the little 3-wheeled taxis that serve the university.  I guess that I thought that little tiny (fuel-efficient) cars would be the norm in China.  But, that is not the case.  The Chinese people seem to like mid-sized cars, without much regard for fuel efficiency at all.....

This is a branch campus of the down-town university.

These photos of Ginkgo Trees are for Forester Jared.

Ginkgo trees are the oldest tree species on the planet.  Jared planted one in Dole Valley.

The small lakes on campus reminded us of Iowa State's Lake Laverne.

Of course, there are always pagodas.

Everything on the campuses is brand new!

After events of the Cultural Revolution, wouldn't Mao Zedong be shocked to know that there is a HUGE statue of him in the center of this complex of universities???

Teaching in China (part 2) Military Training

Our Senior 1 students went off to a week of Military Training, at a camp on a nearby mountain.  They learned to 

"obey orders and be well-disciplined."  Upon their return to school, they presented an outdoor assembly for the school.

All the students in this assembly are our Senior 1 students.  Chris and Paula actually teach 26 classes of students on 3 different school campuses.  (Each week we each teach half of the students.....then flip-flop for the following week.)

Click here to see the girls with the flag.

Click here to see the kids marching.

(some of our girls, exhausted after a difficult week)

O Ping and O Fei were Guests-of-Honor at the Military Training Assembly.   Our Chinese names mean "Peaceful Seagull" and "Flying Seagull."  The students call us "Mrs. O and Mr. O."

Click here to see the boys doing Kung Fu moves.

Click here for one last video of our great kids.

Teaching in China (part 1)

We "hit the ground running!"  On the first day of school here at Chongqing No. 8 Middle School, we were requested to give a speech to an assembly of all staff and students.  We told them a bit about ourselves and our  plan to teach here for one year to help

"MAKE  THE  WORLD  A  BETTER  PLACE."

Our school is made up of around 6,000 students in 5 grades of Junior and Senior High School.  The students live in dormitories surrounding the urban school in the Shapingba District of Chongqing, CHINA.

We teach the Senior 1 classes, students who would be high school freshmen in the U.S.  The kids are wonderful, motivated, and well-behaved, though our classes have from 56-68 students in each group!!!

The students appreciate hands-on learning.  For this lesson, I had a dozen soccer balls for them to pass, spin, and then create English sentences containing the phrases upon which their thumbs landed. 

These students enjoyed the Jeopardy Game where they had to answer science questions....for the money!

These students are excited about "People Bingo."  The have to find classmates with certain attributes and have them sign their bingo card.

These girls like to wear the SPEAK ENGLISH  hat.

These are all the other Senior 1 English teachers at our school.  They're young and enthusiastic!  Qing (in blue) spent one year teaching Chinese Culture and Language classes at Battle Ground High School, from 2004-2005.

I was asked to teach a "Methods" class to all the English teachers at our school.

We not only teach, but also take Chinese Language and Calligraphy classes at our school.

Mr. Zhou is a wonderful teacher. 

Other students in our Chinese classes are AFS exchange students:  Max from Germany, Felipe from Italy, and Caroline from Chile.  AWESOME kids!

The school cafeteria where most students eat three meals per day, since they live at the school.

Most students do go home for Saturdays, unless they live very far away.  On Saturdays, the cafeteria is not so  crowded.....and the dormitory (in which we live on the 11th floor)  is quiet.