Concordia International School

This is an entry about the kids experiences at their school.  We selected this school since it had great reviews, the teachers seemed great, the facilities were very new and it is Christian based.

Ying children on their first day of school at Concordia International School

Yu gege:  Here is my experience of being at Concordia International School for the first 3 weeks.  The biggest surprise when during PE we went outside of the school compound and we ran around a local housing development.  It was a one mile run.

I like that I don't have to walk around the halls with a teacher and that we have lockers.  The curriculum seems to be about the same but the pace seems to be much faster.  I also like how we have to wear a uniform for PE.

My Chinese is really fun since I get on the computer and listen to CDs.

Yanyuan:  My teacher is very good and nice.  The lunchroom is great, even last Friday they had fried fish - very yummy.  I feel that this school is the same or maybe a little better than Harbor City.

Caomei:  I like school too - I'm in kindergarten.  What I love the most is that we only read books in Chinese and English.  I like learning Mandarin.

Concordia Entrance

Impressive playground

Yuyuan and Caomei on the token school sign

Caomei's kindergarten setup.

Ma ma taking Caomei to school

Ying's in Suzhou

It's been a while since writing and since we took a trip to Suzhou but I thought it would be good to post some photos anyway.  We were there in mid-August and it was about 95-100 degrees and wicked humid.  The city is about 20 minutes away by fast train and is known for its gardens.  The kids were a bit museum and garden'ed out so we spent the first day at an amusement part.  Here are some photos of that park and the main attraction - Tiger Hill.  Suzhou is known as a river town similar to Venice, Italy where they transport things around by small boats.

Amusement Land, aka - Shanghai Disney.  $20 entry and some nice things for the kids to do.

Impressive roller coaster.  This is the type that your feet hang - no one was courageous enough to go on it.

More strangers wanting photos with Caomei.  

Happy kids waiting to go on their roller coaster!

This was our entry into to Tiger Hill.  It was filled with temples, gardens, water and one big pagoda.

A large bridge in the Suzhou across a canal.

A boy doing his business behind the wall but he forgot about those watching from the street.  This is a common behavior in China (i.e. going to the bathroom in public places).

Tiger Pagoda - leaning a little to the right.  You couldn't climb it any longer but it was amazing to look at.

This is the China diaper training technique.  The small children have a slit in their short so if they have to  go then they do something similar to this position.  It is quite a good idea to save trash and money!

Ying's at Hangzhou

Many bridges over parts of West Lake (Xihu).  Leifeng Pagoda in the
 background.  A nice climb for all of us.

High speed train, clocking 188 mph.  

Unique nighttime show over West Lake.  Us and a 1000 other people
watched the love storyunfold with music and lights.

Big arches coming out of the water during the West Lake show.  

Yangmei and Caomei

Hiking up the hills behind the lake.

Bathing in luxury at the JW.  We felt like royalty.

Huge lillypads with gorgeous edible flowers.

Hurricane Haikui

Coming from Florida -- strong winds, thunderstorms and hurricanes are a big yawn.  Well, it was a big deal in Shanghai.  Last week we had Category 1, Hurricane Haikui touch land about 300 km south of Shanghai.  

Shanghai has a code yellow, orange and red level system to tell their citizens how bad a storm or other diaster has become.  Well conditions went from yellow to orange to red, which we found out is the condition that everything shuts down.  So no work, public transporation, etc while the winds were blowin'.  Trees here are not made to withstand strong winds so there was many trees and branches down.  Amazingly, the next day the Chinese workers cleaned it all up!!

Our front yard underwater.  Yanyuan getting extremely wet -  we had about 6" of rain.

Our pomegranate tree half down in the background.

Bikes - The Best Mode of Transportation

Shanghai is known for its crazy drivers and lack of rules on the road.  Our first and strongest lesson to our kids was to make sure that they understood the green walk symbol didn't mean go, it means walk with extreme caution.  There is no yeilding from cars or bikes to pedestrians.
Because of the craziness, my company doesn't allow employees to drive here.  If you are a  certain level then you are provided a car and driver, otherwise an allowance if given for paying for taxis, metro or whatever.  
Cars are very expensive to own, license and insure so as a result every local has a bike or scooter.  These are the common modes of transportation and they use them very efficiently.  These pictures are not strange ones - they are the normal!

Commuting 3 on a bike - Dad (blue shirt), kid in front and mom on the back taking a nap.  Very normal.

Man and his wife transporting a huge load of styrofoam.

The Ying family with our bikes in the foreground

I've been riding my bike to work the last few days and I feel safer on my bike than walking.  The roads all have a very wide bike lanes and everyone just flows.  One of my friends called it 'dancing', everyone on the dance floor knows where to go so no one bumps into each other -- you just have to make sure you know how to dance!

Just a few pics

A break from having their pictures
taken by strangers, with strangers!  

My favorite picture of the koi at Yu Garden.
I need to attempt to paint this - or just enlarge
the photograph!  That sounds good to me.

Love all the roofs!

Will - always wanting to go fishing!
This time he caught a fish with his hands.
Then he got caught and was told to
leave the fish alone.  

The Expat Bubble

We have been unable to update our blog since we had issues in our new home with getting the internet working and then setting up my Virtual Private Network (VPN).  In China the government controls the internet and blocks certain websites like Facebook, YouTube and Google Blogger (this site).  A good topic for another blog.

Our new home is in an area called Jinqaio (pronounced - Gin Chow).  If you slurred to your taxi driver while out drinking in downtown Shanghai, passed out and woke up in Jinqaio you would have thought that he put you on an airplane back to Wichita, Kansas.  Many like to say that it you are in the 'bubble', protected from the extremes that China has to offer.  This little area of Pudong, Shanghai is also known as Green City and has a large population of expatriots (aka - expats).  With the large number of foriegners comes many of the comforts of their homes - like Mexican, Irish, American and German restaurants; Starbucks; churches; and many large homes that expat's companies afford to those crazy people that decide to move their families from Florida to the other side of the planet.

Our neighborhood street

Jinqaio is about 12 -15 years old and is a place where some brilliant Chinese people decided to build some American and British International schools to cater to those expats that don't want to mess up their kids too much.  With the great international schools comes the families needing oversized homes and apartment complexes that they couldn't afford in their home country.

Concordia International School

If you are a family without school-aged kids, your company doesn't give you a nice housing/school allowance or are looking for the true China experience then Jinqaio is obviously not for you.  And those who fall into those camps will constantly say, "If I'm coming to China, I want to experience China".  Yes, you can quickly step into China but it takes more of an effort (taxi or metro).