Chinese School (one of the best middle schools in Chongqing)

(picture: morning excercises)

Every morning I wake up at about 6:30 to quickly "throw" on some clothes, fix my bedhead, have some boxed milk (Beijing Olympic Gold Medal Brand if I do say so myself) and quickly stuff some bread with apple jam into my mouth, spicy noodles, or fried rice iwth egg (it depends on what my Grandmother wants to cook that morning). After that I brush my teeth, take off my house slippers at the door and put on my tennis shoes. Then I take the elevator downstairs and rush through the small district (like a walk street, except more like an alley and with shops, one of the shops is a bra shop...just bras hanging out for all to see) where our apartment is to get to the main road. Once I am there I choose the safest way to cross the street which is usually by the stoplight...but sometimes taxis and motorcycle taxis don't obey those. I always cross the street when other people do.

Next is the bus, which is crowded usually. And rather nasty. But that's alright, Torrance buses are about the same.

After getting off the bus I walk a little ways past health shops, cell phone stores, a bike axel shop, two bus repair stations, a copy machine store, and a few magazine shops located near the main gate of the school.

The main gate of the school is on 24 hour watch by usually friendly security guards. Foreign students (all 4 of us at this school) need not show our IDs because we are so easy to recognize, especially me!!!

On mondays the studentry crowd on to the field for an assembly, which I am usually too tired to comprehend, and to hot. It is extremely hot and humid. And when you are amongst 6000 sweating students it is even hotter. After student-helpers from each class take roll the assembly begins. We about face and watch the Chinese flag be rasied and the rest of the students sing the national anthem. I'm sure I will learn it soon.

When that is all through and done with 6000 of us cram into 4 or 5 buidlings! Ah it gets soooo crowded. When class is in it only takes about 1 minute to get down to the field because everyone is in class. But after assembly, going to morning excercises (which I will talk about later), or coming back from morning excercises, it takes about 10 minutes. Maybe soon I will take a picture so you can get an idea.

In China because schools have so many students the teachers move from room to room not the students. There are 500 teachers at my school. During class the teacher stands on a raised platform with a desk at his/her front and a blackboard at their back. You are reminded when class begins when the teacher shouts 上课 (shahng-kuh) [Class begins] ! Everyone quickly rises and the teacher bows saying 学生好 (shoo-eh shung hao) [Hello Students]！The students all bow back saying 老师好 (lao-shir hao) [Hello Teacher]!

The first week of school class was hot because the air conditioners didn't work, only the fans. But today they worked and I was content.

As you have probably already guessed everything I learn is in Chinese, well, except English class. So I try my best to understand everything, I can't undertsand chinese literature but I go home and translate the poems we learned that day. Today I even handed the teacher a poem, it was our homework and I think he was surprised. It was short but the meaning was relevant to me. I will post it after this one.

Math....eh...difficult. I can understand "plus" "minus" "divide" "subtract" "problem" " a set of.." "mutliply" "x" "a" and "b". But instead of saying "x" my teacher says ""eh-koo-suh."

Chemistry blows over my head because the teacher is require dto speak the local dialect of Chongqing Hua [chong-ching-hua]. There needs to be at least one lesson in the local dialect, and not in Mandarin, so the students feel comfortable. I suppose it would be like if we learned chemistry in American English and had to speak and hear British English the rest of the day.

At 12:30pm class breaks for lunch and I go off campus to my friend's host family's house.

My Brazilian exchange student friend, and Bolivian exchange student friend live there. I think the mom likes the house full because she has one daughter away studying in Denmark and the other one (my friend) is studying at school from 7:20am til 9:30pm (yes you read that right).

I have gotten close to her and I also call her Mama. I also call my other chinese mother figure Mama.

At 2:00pm the rest of the school resumes class. At 2:30pm foreigners (me and my friends) begin 国化课 [guoh-hua-kuh] (Chinese Cultural Class). On Monday we learn Kungfu, Tuesday we learn Chinese Painting, Wednesday we learn Chinese, Thursday we learn Calligraphy, and on Friday we have another Chinese lesson.

Today was Kungfu, but we just got to know the teacher and we watched some of the sport activites going on on the field. The Brazilian exchange student has done Kungfu before so he and the teacher did some forms together. The rest of us watched and talked with the teacher.

I can speak Chinese, and the German exchange student (whose mother is Chinese) can too, so often we act as translators. Which I enjoy very much!! That is what I want to do when I am older!

At 4:00pm school is over for us foreign children. But at 5:45pm the regular students have a dinner break until 6:30pm and then resume a self-study class which is supervised by a teacher at school. However my friends tell me that they have so much homework they can't get it all fone by 9:30pm and often stay up til about 12am. My friend stays up til 3am each night. My school is "hardcore". There are dorms for kids whose homes are too far away but most kids leave for home on the weekends. I only have one friend who boards.

Oh and I forgot to mention morning excercises! After 3rd period we have about 20 minutes to get our blood moving again. After everyone crowds on the stairwells we all line up by class on the field (not unlike monday morning assembly). A teacher stands on a platform near the stairwell and holds a mic, he calls out the rhythm for the excercises. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 9..... 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 10.... A female teacher stands at his side and shows us what we should be doing. She is usually wearing a tracksuit. We mimic her. But I am so far out in the field I just look at the person in front of me. At first I was afraid people would laugh at me for messing up, but it turns out no one cares, because no one really tries anyway.

One time after school my friend and I were swarmed by curious middle schoolers after their afternoon excercises (different schedule) and they asked us all kind of questions and giggled behind their hands. Most of the group talked through 3 students whose English was exceptionally good even though they have never been to an English speaking country. When I spoke Chinese to them they were awestruck, they couldn't believe someone who looks like me could talk like someone who looks like them! It's all very visual here. I mainly spoke Chinese to them, but my Bolivian friend spoke English and they loved it.

Alright more to follow later!

Zaijian! [zai-jen], Bye!