Teaching in China (part 4)

A huge part of our "mission" here in China involves being ambassadors for good international relations.  Because of our children and grandchildren back home in the USA, we are especially focused on "making this world a better place."

Students visit our "English Corner" classroom weekly.

They enjoy listening to Mr. O play the (traditionally American) Banjo......

....and trying it themselves.

Playing "Go Fish", speaking only English

"Junior High" students are just as enthusiastic as our high school students!

Every single day, in ALL the schools in China, students spend time doing a fun exercise routine, to up-beat music.

Qing (in the center of the photo) exercises every day with her home-room class.

Click here to see a class exercise to the music.

Some students are involved in school clubs.  This student assists in teaching Kendo (the modern Japanese martial art of swordsmanship.)

Some students like to visit us in our apartment.....

.......to play the Banjo.....

......and Piano Keyboard.  Many Chinese students play musical instruments very well!

A big "Thank you" to Shari's Restaurants for providing a complete class set of  high-interest American breakfast menus for us to bring to China!  Students have learned about foods, service and tipping,  and about our money system.  "Tipping the waitress"  is NOT a customary practice in China.

Students role-played being waiter or waitress and customer.

Working with these menus made us miss AMERICAN  FOOD!

Chris's lessons usually involve showing portions of our travel DVD's.  Here, students are creating questions to ask for a discussion about America's Appalachian Trail.  All classrooms are equipped with big-screen TV's......wonderful technology!

On this day, they learned about Oregon River Rafting with Uncle Kevin!

Our Chinese Names are "O Ping and O Fei," which makes us seem like sister and brother, as we have "O" for our common last name.  (In China, the woman's name is never changed with marriage.)  

The meanings of names is most important:  

O means "seagull."  

Ping means "peaceful."  

And Fei means "flying."

Paula's name:  O Ping, for "Peaceful Seagull."

Chris's name:  O Fei, for "Flying Seagull."

We take a two classes in Chinese.  Chris practices his calligraphy quite a lot. 

Teaching in China (part 3)

We actually serve three campuses of 

"Chongqing No. 8 Middle School", 

which is ranked very high among the highly-competitive schools of the city of Chongqing.

This is our main campus, in the district of Shapingba.

Another view of our main classroom building.  Here we have 20 classes of 60 students each, all high school freshmen.

On Tuesday and Wednesday afternoons, we are chauffeured out to the Hong Fan campus to teach to "junior school" classes of 50 students each.

Another view of the Hong Fan campus.  None of the schools have elevators, and one of our classrooms here is on the SEVENTH  floor!!  (We're getting plenty of exercise.)

On Wednesdays, we teach 4 more freshmen English classes at the campus in the suburb town of Baishi Yi Of course, I like the ivy covering this school.

This is the attitude towards English here.  This poster was in the shopping mall.

Every school campus involves high security.  Campuses are completely walled-in, and have security guards at every entrance.  We really feel no great need for all this security, however, because there is virtually no sign of crime (or even vandalism) here.  In all cases, the students live in dormitories on campus, with some going home on weekends.

This is one of our chauffeurs.  Always, we wish that there was more focus on energy-efficient vehicles in China.  With so many people just now getting their first cars, it would have been a market set for solar-powered or electric car technology!

Hot Springs Resorts of Chongqing (old and new)

Chongqing is known for HOT  SPRINGS  and SPAS.

The five of us rented this apartment for the day.

Qing loves her hammock on Sunday afternoons.

This was an old-style Hot Spring, with a mineral bath pool in our room.

All over China, this is how heavy things are carried.  This is a bong-bong man.

This was the most polluted water we've seen yet in China.  It was actually BLACK.

Click here to see the really cool Mah Jong table in action.

The Hot Spring Resorts all have plenty of   Mah Jong Tables.  This seems to be the national game of China, and is played with tiles, but is similar to playing rummy.  We found the coolest table EVER at this resort!!  You put the tiles down into a center hole in the table, and then the electric table automatically scrambles the tiles, re-stacks them into rows (correct side up), and sends the stacked tiles back up through the slots in the table.  Incredible! 

Another Hot Spring Resort:  Brand New

Senlin gave us entry passes to the big, fancy, new resort.  We had to take the motorcycle taxis to get there!

Click here to see what Chris saw on his motorcycle ride.

We spent our full 24 hours at the Hot Spring Resort.

Too dark for taking photos at night.....

We spent most of the night sleeping on the granite slabs, heated by the hot springs. We also had full body, foot-pinching, and "hot rock" massages.  Glorious!

It was like a big "Pajama Party", with hundreds of people, all wearing the same matching outfits: pajamas.

Really, quite fashionable!

The hot spring pools were each "flavored" differently.  This one was" Eucalyptus." There were 54 different flavored pools !!  We tried them all.

This pool was "Lavender."  Notice the wonderful foliage around each pool!

Some pools were partially covered.  Other popular water  flavors included:  Red wine, Licorice, Milk, Coffee, Green Tea, Ginseng, and Roses.

There were two pools with little fish that nibbled at any dead skin:  "Fish Treatment Pools."

It's fun, living in a Chinese city famous for its mountains and volcanic hot springs.