PTIs and Adult Sports Day

Hi Everyone,

I feel like I haven't posted anything on the blog for a while as Andrew was up for "blog duty" last weekend... I think he did a great job by the way!

I wish I'd had my camera with me last week, but I didn't, so you'll have to settle for a little post without pics- sorry.

Last Thursday was had our first Parent-Teacher Interviews. Of our 48 students, 44 parents came out, which is a SUPER high percentage compared to what we're used to in Canada. Usually at home it's also the parents who don't really need to come, who are the ones that show up. Ie- it's the parents of the well-behaved A-students who show up, when the peeps you really need to see are the parents of the maniac ADHD F-students. So these Chinese parents came for the interviews last Thurs and all were super concerned about their kids... it was funny b/c since my course (Planning 10) isn't that hard, many kids are getting somewhere in the 90s. Many of the parents wanted to know how their child could improve on their mark. I was like "Ummmm, well, little Mei-Ling here is getting 96% already... I'd say that's pretty good for now!" Parents were also super interested in what kind of university their kid would be able to get into, (based on their Term 1 mark from grade 10). Again, we were like "well... it's great that you're concerned about that now, but you really don't need to worry about that quite yet." The other thing that they ALL asked was where their child ranked in the class. Middle of the pack (in the 80s) wasn't good enough, and many kids got dirty looks from their parents. I guess it's just really different here in China where each couple is only allowed to have one child... it's their one big investment and they don't want it to get messed up. Also, in China there aren't enough seats in the universities for everyone to get in, so it's extremely competitive... much moreso than at home. The kids are in school every day from 7:30am to 4:30pm, then have about an hour off for dinner, and then have a mandatory 3-hour study period in the evenings (those who live in the dorms). It's CRAZY!!

The other event that we had last Friday after school was Teacher's Sports Day. It was held out on the school field, and all the staff (0ver 100 of us) took part in a bunch of games... all these crazy things like sack-hopping, 3-legged jump-rope running, picking up ping pong balls with chopsticks, the tennis-ball shuffle relay, etc. My favorite one was where we had to tie a garbage can to our back (with big elastic bands, like a backpack), and catch badminton birdies that were served to us by our teammate from the other side of the net... it was really challenging. At the end of it all each teacher received a big cheesecake to take home. Yup, another random present from the Teacher's Union. I told the Chinese teachers that in Canada we have to pay dues to our union... here they give us cheesecake... works for me! For those of you who have been keeping up with our blog, you'll know that this isn't the first random present to be bestowed upon us this year... we've had boxes of pear-apples, big bottles of cooking oil, gift certificates to the hair salon, boxes of mandarin oranges, etc... they just keep the goods coming... each time more random than the next! We're very thankful though.

Alright, hope you're all well and enjoying getting ready for Christmas. Even here in Shanghai there are lights and trees going up all over the place, which is nice. The Chinese don't celebrate Christmas, but there are so many foreigners here, I guess it's caught on. The bigger reason is probably so they can rake in more cash... who knows.

Bye!

Weekend Trip

Hey, it's Andrew with more news.  Last weekend (Nov. 15/16) we went on a guided tour of a small city called Suzhou (Soo-jo) that is about 2 hours outside Shanghai.  We left on Saturday morning from our school at around 8 am.  There were about 10 of us who went, including the principle of our school, other school admin, and us four Canadians. We visited several great historic sites, such as a Buddhist temple that was built at the top of a mountain, and a tea house that was also on a mountain, both of which we had to hike up to.  They took us out for meals at nice restaurants, and the food was "interesting", but not by Canadian standards.  It is difficult to keep an appetite, when each meal has at least one plate with a bird or fish looking up you!  We stayed at a decent hotel on Sat. night (think Ramada Inn), and then did some shopping at a huge market on Sunday. Then it was back in our large passenger van, and we returned home by Sunday evening.  Good times!  Hope you like the pics.

Cheers, Andrew

Shanghai Master's Tennis Tournament

Hey everyone, it's Andrew.  On Nov. 13th, Corinna and I went to see the Master's Tennis tournament that was held in Shanghai.  It's a bit like Wimbledon, but on a smaller scale, and only men's tennis.  We went out the the stadium, which is about an hour and a half bus ride from where we are, and arrived at around 2 pm.  It is a very nice facility, which holds approx. 5,000 fans, and is probably less than 5 years old.  The roof even opens up for summer events.

As for the matches, we saw a two men's doubles matches, and two men's singles.  The most exciting one was between the number 3 ranked in the world Djokovic and the number 6 Tsonga.  It was a great tennis, with lot's of amazing net play, and in the end, the "underdog" Tsonga came out victorious.  However, at the end of the week, Djokovic was declared the overall winner of the tournament, after beating Roger Federrer a few days later.  Here are some pics of the event, and the winner Tsonga signing the camera lens after the game.

Fire Drill

This morning we had a fire drill at school. In Canada a fire drill is like a big free-for-all... an event that usually takes up most of a class, and therefore is pretty popular.

In China, of course you wouldn't want to take away any time away from the Math lesson, so the fire drill is held before school (instead of the daily morning exercise session). In Canada, everyone knows it's just a drill and therefore it can be a bit rowdy... here in China however, we had the firetruck come out for the event, smoke bombs detonated in hallways, and all students jogging in and out of the buildings in perfect single-file lines. Then the head fireman got up on stage and gave a speech to the students while they were standing out on the track... the whole event was videotaped, photographed, and had it's own special banner going across the outdoor stage. It took less than 15 minutes. Very impressive!