This is a map that is posted of the campus, at our school, Country Garden.   It is a boarding school, so the majority of students arrive on Sunday night and leave on Friday afternoon.   It is located in Beijao Town in the Shunde district.  We live and go to school within a gated community about 1/2 hour from the second largest metropolitan area in the world, Guangzhou, China.  

In the very middle of the map above you will notice a green space.  This is referred to as the hill on campus.  This is us on a walk up to the top of the hill.  There is an observatory at the top, unfortunately it does not look as though it has been used in a long time.  

This is my classroom a week before school starts.  The rooms seem adequate.  The white machine in the far back corner is an air conditioner which they turn on and off all day long, we also have one in our home.  They run the air with the windows and doors open a lot though because the air will make the students sick???  I have a nice TV but the internet is not so reliable.  Otherwise a white board is not visible in this picture, but it is off to the right.

This is a picture of Mason standing in the bedroom of my classroom.   The children nap here each day from about 12:30 to 3:00 and then sleep here at night.  They change into their pajamas each nap time. The beds are very hard with just a grass mat and thin blanket below.  This is apparently the chinese way to sleep because our beds at home are very hard also.  A colleague told me it was good for your back and health, I beg to differ.  Each child has a blanket and pillow.  After they awake each day they fold their own blankets and get dressed.

Here are Mason and Gabe enjoying one of over the 20 full basketball courts on campus. This was the week before school started when we had all the courts to ourselves.  Hattie's getting in a few shots. Although they have all these courts the sports are quite disorganized and more laid back than we are used to.  We will see what is still to come in the sports world.   

Hattie was excited to take a run around the track, when she returned her feet looked like this???  Shoes will be a priority in the future.  The track facility is quite nice and has a full size turf soccer (football) field in the middle.   Luke will do some of his classes in this area.  It doesn't seem like he will use a gym very often, if ever.  

These are some sinks outside one of the cafeterias.  You usually rinse your hands before and after dinner.  Many men also rinse out their mouths and spit in them, it makes me gag.  There is not usually soap either.  Also the only thing to dry your hands with is toilet tissue, which if you think about isn't to absorbent when drying your hands, it just sticks to you...another chinaism as we are referring to the moments we come upon where you just shake your head and wonder???

Here is the picture I am choosing as stuff you don't see back home...these were some new TV's being delivered at school and it appears Jackie Chan is their endorser.

This is a picture from the third floor of the opening day flag raising ceremony.  Thousands of kids lined up independently in these lines with their classmates and stood at attention for about a 20 minute opening address by the headmaster David Lee.  

This is my class and the man to the right is Ryan, the head Chinese Teacher or Classroom Teacher

This is my class and I think they are all actually present :)  They are adorable, but very busy.  Most of them are 5,  some still 4 and few will turn 6 soon.  Many of them have been at this school since they were 3.   

Lastly this is a small group I have every other Thursday for a Math Logic Club.  For our first class we learned what Tic Tac Toe was, how to say it in English and then how to play.  They were very quick to catch on.  We only had 50 minutes for class and they were really into it by the time class was over.   A good teaching moment :)