BNU Middle School #2 Opening Ceremonies

The Program for the Opening Ceremonies

The arrival of the students

To me, this is what I see "Beijing ** Middle School 2012-2013 year ********"

There are 1,000 students at the school.  500 in grades 7-9 (different campus) and 500 in grades 10-12.  We all assembled on the school's track infield.

Since SYA China has a part of School #2, we get to attend the opening ceremonies.  The students blue SYA shirts because their uniforms have yet to arrive.

The students in the front row were asked to make sure that the students in their column were lined up in a straight line!

The principals and administrators gathering beforehand.  SYA's director is the woman with the headband on the left.

Opening remarks

Students extolling the virtues of the school

The majority of the opening ceremonies centered around awards for the previous academic year. Not that I really understood what the awards were for specifically.  I kind of got the gist from what was going on.

These are the brightest students in the school.  As their accomplishments were read, there was a lot of OOHING and AAHING.

We sang the Chinese National Anthem and the school song

An hour later...we were done!

Each class was dismissed.  These Middle Schoolers were being reprimanded by their teacher for their "scraggly" line-up.

SYA China -- The School

Here's a look at where I work.

Since 1994, SYA China has been granted a portion of Beijing Normal University's High School (Middle School #2)

Entering the campus, you walk down this nice tree-lined lane and then get to...

The Main High School Building.  SYA takes up about one-third of the 6th floor.  SYA students are required to walk up the stairs, I hope to keep my pledge to do so too.

Up the stairs, and you are now looking down the LONG hall.  SYA classrooms and offices are the first five rooms on each side of this hallway.  The issue for me, is that the only men's bathroom on this floor is AT the end of the hallway and around the corner.  It's an ISSUE!!!

Five of the six classrooms look like this.  Note the pictures of the Chinese rulers on the wall.

There is one large lecture room, which is what I probably will use, due to the fact that there is a projector and LOTS of whiteboard space.

The school library.

In the hallway, each student is assigned a mailbox and a locker (blue).

The student computer room.

The SYA China Office, the open door in the back left is the directors office.  The open door on the right is....

The teacher's office.  There are seven Chinese language teachers, one English teacher, one Chinese History teacher, one travel and activities coordinator, one college counselor and myself, the Math Teacher.

My desk.  Still in need of personalization.

Moon shot with what I THOUGHT was an astronomical observatory on campus, but alas, apparently it isn't.  I'll just continue to believe it is.

Beijing Olympic Park

So, it turns out that Beijing Olympic Park is about a 20 minute bike ride from my house.  This is the main plaza.  Just out of the picture on the right is the famous "Water Cube."  How my picture turned out with so few people is odd, as the whole place was MOBBED with visitors.

The Bird's Nest!!!

I was interested in the architecture of the exo-skeleton.  I bet you are too, Marl.  So here's a few for you.

It costs 50 RMB (8 USD) to go into the Bird's Nest.  I found the seat color pattern kind of cool.

Turns out, you can pay a bit of extra cash to both stand directly on the track itself and/or take part in some Segway racing.

So, some pictures of how the Bird's Nest has features that would NEVER fly in the United States.  No cup-holders.

No escalators and even though I didn't take a picture, about 80% of toilets in the Men's bathroom were squat.  I'm surprised there wasn't an outrage about that!

The Olympic "Pagoda"

Not sure what's going on here.  But this must be in the Olympic Park area as the park extends far north of where the main structures are.

The Olympic Flame

They've turned a large portion of the Water Cube into a Water Slide Park

But apparently, one can pay (it's expensive) to swim in the Olympic Warm Up pool.  I think I have to head over and swim where Michael Phelps did!