Finals

This weekend, we had our staff banquet.  We got dressed up and went to a hotel downtown for dinner, dancing, and some meaningful goodbyes to the departing staff.  It was a fun night, because we were able to focus on celebrating the year that has passed.

Do you like my new tailored suit?

 Tomorrow begins middle and high school finals.  It is the last dash to the end of the year.  If I blink I will miss it all... Finals happen Monday through Wednesday.  We will have a middle school awards ceremony on Monday.  Wednesday is graduation (and my birthday!) and grades are due.  Thursday we will have a closing reflection on the year, where students say goodbye to those who are leaving.  Thursday night will be the teachers' last trip to the night market for dinner, and it will be my birthday celebration :)  Friday is clean-up and check-out, and hopefully a BBQ that night!  Phew, I am tired just thinking about it.  I need to worry about finishing my last final exam!

AND my parents arrive on Saturday night.  Crazy! 

-alan

Emeiages

No change in my Blogger access status, but Eric was kind enough to volunteer to upload some pictures.  So, here are some of the best sights from our time on the middle school trip to Emei.

-alan

 

We're sorry, the site "theallmens.blogspot.com" cannot be found.

It's 9:30pm, and believe it or not, I just got home! I was at school cleaning up after the high school awards ceremony. There will be a separate ceremony next week for middle school (which I will probably be a little more excited about since I know more of those kids), and Rachel gave out an award for the best social studies student. She was nervous (I am not sure why) and gave a good little speech....but mispronounced the winner's name. Oops!

So it was a long day at school, but I should get used to it. There are non-stop events and functions for the next two weeks. Final exams are June 1-3, and then there are half days on that Thursday and Friday...and then summer begins!

On a side note - the tree in my classroom is blooming. It was a nice surprise this morning. There are fragrant white flowers on it. I feel a strange sense of pride - I suppose this is my reward for taking good care of it!

Last time I posted, we were preparing to go on our trip with the middle school to Emei Shan. Well.....it was a success!!! The weather and the scenery was beautiful. It is nice to be out of the city again for a few days. Here's some highlights:

- We climbed a 14,000 ft mountain. Well, not the WHOLE 14,000 ft, because a bus drove us part way to the top. But according to the signs I saw, we did climb 7 or 8,000 ft of it. And all but a few kids made it to the top as well! It was great fun, though I was sore for a few days after. As in almost all circumstances on the trip, the kids were in great spirits and were willing to go along with all of our planned activities.

- My team won the trip-long competition! They played silly games, made a cheer, competed in various physical challenges, and showed good character throughout the time there. I appreciated how good-natured they were; while other groups complained at times, they always had a good attitude. As a reward, we all went out to McDonald's during lunch on Monday. It was fun to hang out with them - as a whole, it has been better than I anticipated adjusting to being a middle school vs. high school teacher. Now at the end of the year, I feel much more connected to the 6-8 grades than I do to the high schoolers.

- We set up some times for serious personal reflection, and also for them to encourage one another as classmates. I was happy to see them take this seriously, and I hope it made at least a small difference in their lives to be on this trip.

- I was surprised how much fun it was to prepare for the trip. In taking on a lot of the organizing duties, I was worried that I would get frustrated by it. But that was not the case. Also, tt was great to be working with Rachel. We have worked well together all year, and I appreciate how much she complements me. She is someone I can rely upon! It will be a little sad next year - we are likely to be on different trips as she will be working more with high school.

Sorry, but no pictures at the moment. With the problems of the site being blocked, I do not know how I can do that easily. So for now, you will just have to read. Let's all hope this issue gets fixed and I can update more often!

alan

Off to Emei Shan

It is Monday night, and I am watching the recording of the Red Wings' Game 1 against the Blackhawks. It is nice that I can watch here, and do not have to miss the playoffs. It is so darn exciting! If you saw any of the Wings-Anaheim series, then you know what I mean.

It has been awhile since I posted, for a few reasons. First, it has been a whirlwind week. We leave tomorrow for our middle school spring trip, so the past days have been spent in frantic preparations. However, I also have not posted because I have lost access to blogger. Hopefully that will change soon.

We will be out of school until Friday. I am looking forward to this trip - we are reasonable well prepared and I think it will be fun. We are returning to Emei Shan, which we visited with the Weddles back in April. It is a beautiful place, and the thought of a few days in the quiet countryside sounds refreshing. We will do some hiking, some sightseeing, some monkey feeding, some serious talks, some fun games, some singing, and some rest. So we hope there is a little something for everyone on this trip. After we return, there is only 1 week of classes and then finals. Yikes! So little time!

-alan

Happy Mother's Day!

I was looking through some pictures that my sister gave me before I left, and I came across this one today:

This is a picture of a Mother's Day gathering from the past. It seems that I have been away - at college, or working in Chicago - for many years now when this holiday comes around.

The good news is that my parents are coming soon to visit - in less than 1 month they will be here to see us.

So Mom - I hope you had a Happy Mother's Day! I'm sorry that you could only see me on Skype this year. I love you and am excited to see you soon!

-alan

Cutting the PC lifeline...

For the last month now, I have been alternating back and forth with little rationale between my own PC - a decent Dell business laptop - and my school-provided Macbook. I had been holding out switching over to the Macbook exclusively for work purposes, because all of my school documents were on my PC.

However, this morning my freshmen are taking a test (9 pages...I wonder if that is too long? But then again, those students say that by far their hardest tests are in Geography, which is taught by Rachel. So I can't feel too bad!). Because they are all working so hard, I had time to transfer all those files over to my Mac. So now, there is no excuse and I can leave my PC at home for good!

-alan

Yucky

The spring rains have come, apparently.

After several weeks of beautiful dry weather, this week has been wet and rainy. This morning, I didn't hear (or ignored?) Rachel's warnings of rain and went to the scooter without donning my rain gear. (I have a poncho for the scooter, but it doesn't work as well as my head-to-toe rainsuit.) Men should always listen to their wives.

Add to that, there was a notice from the electric utility that the school would be without power today. It is currently 25 minutes past the announced cut-off, so I am cautiously optimistic that they canceled the work for today. We'll see.

But, the weekend is upon us. Rain or not, that is reason to be happy!

-alan

Chinese Youtube debut

One of my Chinese colleagues at CDIS also dabbles in video on the side. She has entered a video contest with a TV travel channel - I am not sure about the details, but she had to make a movie about Chengdu.

The clip is posted on Youku, which we foreigners call "Chinese YouTube." I assume you can view it from abroad as well.

Look for a very quick shot of me about 2/3 of the way through. And click the up arrow below the video once you are done watching - it helps give her publicity, which should help her win!

http://v.youku.com/v_show/id_XODgxMTY3Mjg=.html

-alan

Reporting from Sichuan

One year ago, National Public Radio (NPR) was in Chengdu (coincidentally) when the western part of the province was hit by a 7.9-magnitude earthquake. The one year anniversary is only days away - May 12.

Now, the same reporter has returned to get an update on what has and has not changed in the affected regions. You can follow their reports on "All Things Considered," which airs in the afternoons. You see/listen to the reports on their website. Monday they reported on Beichuan, the city which was so devastated (see current picture of Beichuan below) that the government was forced to abandon it completely and move it to a new location.

Alternatively, you can read more background information in their blog, called Chengdu Diary.

-alan

All kinds of fun spring events!

The past few weeks have been BUSY. Busy but fun. Fun, because the spring is a season for special events at CDIS. I wanted to give you all a taste for the types of things we have been experiencing of late.

So, in no particular order...

Our school sponsors sports in all seasons - volleyball, basketball, and soccer are the biggest sports. The problem with Chengdu, though, is that there is not much local competition. Unlike Beijing or Shanghai, there are few other sizable international schools in the city that have competitive teams. That means that the teams practice for months - but only play one tournament per year.

However, one other school in town that has a soccer team set up a game with our kids. Our teams won convincingly. Here is the 5th-6th grade team:

You can see the soccer field - which we share with the Chinese school across the way. It looks nice, but it is hard as rock! We have had a few too many injuries this year, unfortunately.

What was fun to see about this game was how the older students, who would play later, sat on the sidelines watching and cheering. This group of raucous Korean high schoolers cheered loudly as their younger classmates played. Our ears are constantly filled with this language (more than they should)....I hope they are not saying anything bad!

__________________

Another big event I blogged about recently was the middle school lock-in. This overnight event was a lot of fun - and though I got little sleep and had to deal with some issues I wish I could have avoided - it was worth it to see how much fun the kids had.

Just in case you were curious what Rachel looks like when she is working, here you go - though her expression doesn't show it, I think she had fun too.

We played lots of games - all planned by the students, thankfully. [Except for capture the flag, which the teachers ran. The students really liked playing CTF, but it was frustrating for us to watch. The kids played super conservatively, so that in 3 hours of playing there was never a successful capture of the flag. Oh well. I guess we need to work on battle strategy in our classes more...]

This activity was memorable - the "pillow fight." It was really more of a no-holds-bar fight to the death. Thank God no one got hurt!

Some of the boys got a little TOO into it.

___________________________

A month back, we attended the Model UN conference with the students up in Qingdao. You have already seen some pictures from our time in the city, but here is a look at what the students did in their time there.
If you dress up 100 teenagers in suits, they actually look pretty good! Especially when all those kids like in China, where custom-tailoring is the norm.
Our kids represented China, Turkey, Bukina Faso, Ecuador, Jordan, Ghana, and Iran.
Below is the group out for Korean food after the first full day of the conference.

_________________________________

Finally, some pictures from International Day!

This event was HUGE. Way bigger than I thought. There were 10+ restaurants and stands selling food, a dozen different nationalities with cultural information on display, games, music, and non-stop performances. Here is the view from my classroom:

Our entire school participated, because it was held right at the end of a school day. You can't possible deny that these kids are super cute when they are all dressed up!


Everyone in the neighborhood was invited, so there were big crowds throughout. Several Chinese students from English corner came - it was nice to see them there.

My homeroom's responsibility was to run a game - so they came up with the idea of "Soap Bowling." (actually, the original idea was human bowling, in which the kids would be the bowling ball and slide somehow across a soapy surface - but that was vetoed) Participants slid a bar of soap across a wet table towards the pins, with more points being awarded for more pins knocked down. It was a very messy success.


There were a lot of cultural performances, from all around the world. Each took a turn on the stage. Here is a Korean drumming performance, whose participants were middle school students.

But now, what you have all been waiting for - Rachel's line dancing debut! In case you cannot see too well, she is wearing a red shirt and cowboy hat (where did that come from, anyway?) and is in the center of the video. Enjoy!

There's still more fun to come - our middle school trip (4 days long, oh my!!), graduation, end-of-the-year parties, etc. We'll blink, and the year will be over...

-alan

Flags flying proudly

One thing I did not expect to see today was an American flag flying prominently atop a flagpole.

Actually, I saw two of them.

It started when I got bored of laying around the house. Today is a national holiday in China, so we had the day off of school. Both Rachel and I slept until 10 (it was well-deserved, believe me). But by around 4, I was ready to do something active. Since I did NOT want to do schoolwork (even though grades are due), I chose to call up Zack and go with him to the gym.

So we met outside the gym at 4:30, only to find - it was closed. National holiday, remember? Well, it did not occur to us until that point.

"Oh well," Zack said, as he walked home to continue preparing for his wedding.

I however, was not so eager to return home to more inactivity. So, I took my bike out for a ride through the neighborhood. I bought the bike over the summer from one of the staff who was leaving, but it has been chained up outside our apartment ever since. A few weeks back, I finally put air in the tires to make it road worthy. So I was a little worried about it, and for the first few minutes did not think I would go anywhere. In the first block, I manage to jam up the gearshift, and it was making some bad creaking noises. But I pedaled on, and most of the problems seemed to work themselves out.

So I rode west, out of Xipu. I traveled along one of the new roads near our neighborhood that contains a lot of the new industry. As I rode, I quickly passed the point where I recognized the surroundings. I passed underneath Rao Cheng, the highway that we unofficially call "4th Ring." Once you pass Rao Cheng, you are really in the boonies.

But the industry continued. Chengdu's high-tech industry is booming - lots of Chinese and multinational corporations are relocating operations here, because there is a dearth of well-educated and cheap engineers and technicians to hire here. So I rode on.

I was on a 5-lane road, with sidewalks on either side of the street. Much of the way, there was a median with manicured flowers and shrubs. Streetlights popped overhead at rates that would make Chicago residents jealous. There were regular bus stops, which were serviced every few minutes by the #305. I even saw the orange-clad street sweepers working, despite the fact it is a national holiday!

Yet there was almost no traffic to contend with. Looking on either side of the street, there was the occasional warehouse-sized factory. Every few kilometers, there was a high rise complex being constructed with some absurb name, like "International: Ecology Living in Green." But very, very few people. It was almost eerie.

Which got me thinking - this is so very different than how infracstructure works in America. Here, the roads, the sewers, the lights, the public transit, the land, even the street sweepers are put into place before the business moves in. Yet think about how many developments are already in place in the states when they clamor for the government to provide those things.

So I have long heard that land is at a premium in China. With so many people, I can presume that this prime real estate was not barren before - this had to have been farmland. So where are those people now? This vast, sparsely populated area was surely created by the government at some expense.

So as I rounded the corner to return home, I spotted it - the American flag flying (next to the Chinese flag, of course) outside the offices of Molex, a multinational electronics and communications manufacturer which has a large facility here in Chengdu. It satisfied one curiosity, because I knew this company employed a number of foreigners here. But the gem of the trip (only because it is more recognizable) was just down the street - behind a fence, a service road, and another fence - was the American flag flying in front of Intel, the famous computer chip manufacturer.

So for all it is worth, I can find those companies now. But as I witness the "progress" that is coming to Chengdu in the form of these foreign businesses, I cannot help but think where it will end. Companies began to dump the manufacturing part of their operations to eastern China (Shanghai, Guandong, etc) in the 80s. In recent years, thanks to rising labor costs, complaints of environmental destruction/pollution, and the aggressive work of western provinces, manufacturing has started to relocate to this part of the country. But simply changing the location does not fix the fundamental problems of finding a way to do these jobs without causing so much trouble to the workers and cities that house them. Because the same cycle will repeat itself in western China - and where will these companies go next? Will there always be someplace for them to move?

I'm just thankful that so much of the non-heavy industries are coming to Chengdu, otherwise life here would take a turn for the worse.

-alan