Yes, We are still here....

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Well. it has been way too long since I wrote in this blog but it has been a very busy first two weeks of school. This year I have four math classes and two information technology classes. It is nice to be settled down again after our six weeks on the road this summer and we are slowly getting back into the swing of things for the new school year.

The new buildings that are going up on the campus are supposed to be ready by November. In the next blog I will include some photos of the construction progress. It is going to be pretty incredible when it is finished with many new more residence and school buildings. The school population doubled this year to over 500 from 250 last year, as was predicted. It may reach 600 by the end of the year and is supposed to double again next year. As you can imagine, that kind of growth is pretty phenomenal to deal with but everyone seems to be adjusting pretty well. The final school population is predicted to be over 3000 in the next few years.

Along with the students, our staff has doubled in size as well. The bus that takes us to work each day has got bigger and our parties have become a little bigger as well! But more people means more beer and more food! The new teachers are a mix of a few that have moved from other areas of China along with others that have just moved over here from Canada. It has taken a little time to get all the household logistics worked out for that many new people but it is slowly coming together. Electricity, water, telephone, etc.

Not much has changed for us this year except we now have a house cleaner that is really great. She comes one afternoon a week and gives our place the once over. We found out by accident that any dirty clothes or dishes we leave out also get washed as well but we are not complaining about that one. Our cable TV ran out over the summer but we are going to have digital cable tv installed sometime in the next few days. I have to admit we are getting pretty spoiled.

Yesterday we had a big outdoor assembly for Teacher Appreciation Day. Several teachers and students gave speeches and then all the teachers received a small container of tea from the students, one by one. There is a lot of respect for teachers and for education in this part of the world. I included several photos that I scammed from the Chinese Maple Leaf website that were taken during the event. Hopefully, I will get off my butt and start taking some more of my own photos soon!

The weather here has been very hot recently but today it cooled down to 29 Celsius. Yesterday during the outdoor gathering I think it must have hit 45 in the shade! It was nice to wake up to a cooler day today.

Well, that is about it for now. I will try to start writing again more regularly for those friends and relatives in Canada and the US. Until the next time...

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Photos

Student speeches
The students here are very comfortable giving speeches on a regular basis.

The "Canadian Teachers"
Posing for the camera after we received our gifts.

Sandy speaks for all of us
As she said,' We will only know what the tea is like when we put it in hot water and we get to know what the students are really like when they get in "hot water"." lol

Rock stars in the making...
These guys opted for a rock song to get their message to the kids. Everybody thought it was a hoot as you can see by the reaction in the next photos!

Are they really singing to us!!
The students ate up the performance. It would hard to find a nicer bunch of students!