Already it is Friday. Wednesday was spent in the office on the 12th floor of a high rise near where I am staying. I'm becoming very adept at the frogger game of crossing four roads. Two are big roads and two contain four lanes of traffic going in each direction. Fortunately, it not terribly difficult and when in doubt, I surreptiously attachment myself to a local going in the same direction. Safety in numbers.
Japanese food seems to be popular. I base this on eating at Japanese restaurants for both lunch and dinner on my first day. And let me tell you, these folks can put it away! I was informed that although it's a lot of food, it's healthy food. I declined to comment on the butter drenched asparagus and the greasy (but tasty) tempura. It's a mixed blessing knowing too much.
Thursday was a very interesting, albeit, very frigid day. We took a taxi across town to visit one of our programs. It's a school that focuses on education for migrant youth. We have a pilot studying underway with a subset of the students to get them educated in not only common courses (math, language et) but in vocational and life skills so that some day they can seek skilled employment versus becoming part of the unskilled labor force. While a complicated undertaking, the details of which I will not go into here, there has been positive feedback from students and supporting partners.
The school itself was very interesting. Inside a compound, they have been slowly improving conditions to include things like trees (see picture, if I get it posted), heat, hot water, murals (also see photo), new classrooms and turning a storage building into a place for congregating as a school and where the kids can play during inclement weather. The founder/head mistress of the school is amazing. She is a tall, very friendly, intelligent woman with amazing English skills. I believe she is a former professor who upon learning about the plight of migrant youth took it upon herself to get the resources to start the school. It is in it's third year of operation. Our meeting, wrapped in our coats, hats and gloves left us chilled to the bone by the end of the day but it was a great visit. We had lunch with the pilot proram students who were very friendly and even spoke a few words of English. They have come to Beijing with their families from all over China. The one very peculiar experience my HQ coworker and I had (it's nice to be able to share these experiences with someone!) is using the girls' restroom facilities. I've never been in one like it - and honestly, wouldn't mind not doing so again. Imagine two tile lined troughs going up each side of the room. Intermittently, a wall separates different "stalls". There is no door and except for the partitions, there are not other barriers in the room. You straddle the trough and squat in full view and smell of everything that is already in it. Tissues go in a small trash can in each stall.
Japanese food seems to be popular. I base this on eating at Japanese restaurants for both lunch and dinner on my first day. And let me tell you, these folks can put it away! I was informed that although it's a lot of food, it's healthy food. I declined to comment on the butter drenched asparagus and the greasy (but tasty) tempura. It's a mixed blessing knowing too much.
Thursday was a very interesting, albeit, very frigid day. We took a taxi across town to visit one of our programs. It's a school that focuses on education for migrant youth. We have a pilot studying underway with a subset of the students to get them educated in not only common courses (math, language et) but in vocational and life skills so that some day they can seek skilled employment versus becoming part of the unskilled labor force. While a complicated undertaking, the details of which I will not go into here, there has been positive feedback from students and supporting partners.
The school itself was very interesting. Inside a compound, they have been slowly improving conditions to include things like trees (see picture, if I get it posted), heat, hot water, murals (also see photo), new classrooms and turning a storage building into a place for congregating as a school and where the kids can play during inclement weather. The founder/head mistress of the school is amazing. She is a tall, very friendly, intelligent woman with amazing English skills. I believe she is a former professor who upon learning about the plight of migrant youth took it upon herself to get the resources to start the school. It is in it's third year of operation. Our meeting, wrapped in our coats, hats and gloves left us chilled to the bone by the end of the day but it was a great visit. We had lunch with the pilot proram students who were very friendly and even spoke a few words of English. They have come to Beijing with their families from all over China. The one very peculiar experience my HQ coworker and I had (it's nice to be able to share these experiences with someone!) is using the girls' restroom facilities. I've never been in one like it - and honestly, wouldn't mind not doing so again. Imagine two tile lined troughs going up each side of the room. Intermittently, a wall separates different "stalls". There is no door and except for the partitions, there are not other barriers in the room. You straddle the trough and squat in full view and smell of everything that is already in it. Tissues go in a small trash can in each stall.
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