Macau

Thank goodness for Chinese Moon Festival and Independance day. Oct. 1st. We took a little three day trip to Macau. It is about a hour and a half by high speed catamaran. These are just a few photographs from our excursion. Macau is 5% Portugese and 95% Chinese but the influence is very strong. It is also the gambling capital of the East. I would have to say that the gambling is much different from Las Vegas. I was expecting larger casinos. They are large but not as big as Vegas and are primarily table games, many I have never seen before. We visited two of the local museums. They are very nice. and well worth a visit. There is picture is of the ruins of St. Paul a Catholic church that burned but the facade remained and is now fortified and a major tourist attraction. There is some history and much to explore in Macau. One of the shopping areas we explored had many shops with Chinese antiques. Some real, I think!, and many reproductions. Similar prices for either. The problem is none of it can be shipped into China only Hong Kong or back to the states. Check the link for more info about Macau.

QSI Quality Schools International

Britt, Our director, greats students on the first day of school.

This park is right across the street and makes for a great peaceful spot for lunch time.

Looking at the street from the front of the school.

Day one orientation for students.

This grocery store is actually part of the same building that the
school is in and is a great place to get a quick lunch item.

School Interior Pic.

Typical classroom setting.

Bev in her corner classroom.

Same room

They are always cleaning

Science classroom

5th floor computer lab

Park across the street.

Looking toward the school from across the street.

QSI Quality Schools International, The building that our school is currently in, was a shopping center at one time. It is somewhat old and could use a coat of paint on the outside. It was later a business center. When the school started 7 years ago they had a couple of rooms in the building over time they have acquired more and more space. Last year they had all of the first four floors and half of the fifth floor, which was shared with an architect firm. This year they have the whole building. The building is open 24/7. There are building guards and QSI school guards at all times. I don’t have a key to my room yet. It is not really needed as the guards are watching at all times and the rooms are left unlocked. The building next door includes a grocery store called Park-n-Shop very convenient for lunch and picking up things before you walk home. Students are not supposed to go there but I see that they sometimes do. It is pretty tough to monitor when there is a door into it from the 1st floor front entrance area of the school.

The building is the cleanest I have ever seen. Many, many cleaning people are working every day and evening. Bev asked our director where she could get a rag to wipe off some cabinets and was told that was not her job and that someone be in to take care of it. The cleaning ladies were in shortly after that. They bow sometimes when they leave your room. It is cute, and somewhat embarrassing as we are not use to that kind of treatment.

The students in our school come from many different countries, but many of them have dark hair and look Asian. Many are from Korea, some from Brazil lately as many Brazilian pilots are leaving their country. Also many students are from Japan, Australia, and Canada. Some are from the US, in total over 40 countries are represented.

Here are some pics of the school both inside and out some from right across the street where a beautiful park is located. The inside atrium shots are the day before school started, which was last Thursday, half-day, and Friday first full day. The pics of kids and classrooms are from the first day of classes. The director greeted as many students and parents as he could on the first day. Also, see one of Tim’s computer labs and Bev’s corner classroom. Many times classes will have one teacher and a second co-teacher. Class sizes are reasonable at 8-18 right now. More students may come, but we have heard there is a real big commitment made to parents that class size would be small. By the way tuition is about $12,000 US a year per student. The only people that get free tuition are those teachers that have brought children here and have been recruited from the US.