School Days .

Looking out the front gate to McDonald's.  They are everywhere.   Next to that is a 7Eleven which are on practically every street corner.

Blaine's grade 11 Physics

All Chinese are not short!!  This boy is14 yr. old.

I thought you may be interested in the school Blaine is teaching in.  It's called Christian Alliance P.C. Lau Memorial International School, or CAIS for short.  There are about 600 students K-12 at the Kowloon campus and  the campus in Shek Kip Mei has grades 1-3.  This is a temporary arrangement until the new school is built in Lai Chi Kok, which will house around 1600 students. They hope to be in the new school by 2014.  Both  Kylie and Ryan have to go between the two campuses so its kind of a pain.
They have changed from the Sask. curriculum to Alberta, so it makes for more work to get everything in order.  The school has 60 teachers on staff, which come from Canada, US, Australia, China, New Zealand, and India, and probably a few other places l don't know about.  The kids are multicultural which makes for very interesting names to pronounce.  The days are a little longer than at home.  They go from 8:05 -3:35  Most of the holidays are the same except for Chinese New Year and the odd day here and there.
I took these pictures off the web site.  They are very proud of their Canadian connection and this is also what draws kids to the school, l think because lots of them want to go to Canadian Universities. The mascots name is Azul, which is Spanish for blue (picked by the kids).  He's really rather neat and draws lots attention when he goes out.
Blaine is on the fourth floor and has lots of stairs to climb a few times a day (100steps each time)  He says he can do it without puffing now!  We live about 4 blocks from the school.  Right across the road from the school, on one side  is a McDonald's and on the other side is a private Hospital.  We've managed to make our presence known at both since we got here! Blaine is teaching 7,8,9, and 10 & 20 Math, and grade 11 Physics.  Basketball will be starting soon and he will be coaching the Under14 boys.  Oh my goodness as I was writing this, somebody hit the guard rail coming around the corner of the road right below us and flipped his car!!  I heard the noise but didn't look out the window for a few min. till l heard the sirens. I don't know why you don't see more accidents with all the traffic and the speeds they go.
Well its 11pm so l guess l'll finish this another day.
Blaine took a bunch of pictures of his classes and around the school.

Looking down on the outdoor Gym

Ryan lifting in the new weight room.  The other fellow is a new teacher from Alberta

Kylie in his lab

Blaine's grade 7 math class.  The boy third from the left should be in grade five but was skipped  ahead two grades and is doing grade 9 math.

The Staff room.
I think everyone is looking forward to getting into the new school.  Having elevators and an indoor gym will certainly be appreciated.  Oh well we won't be here for it but the kids both plan on staying here so they will be happy.  Ryan is taking courses at the university here twice a week to get his Masters so he has a busy schedule. Friday is a holiday, don't know why but we can always use a day off.  Hope you all have a good weekend and are rested for the week ahead.
Blaine and Sandra