Sparkles and Onyx in China: Western Academy of Beijing

Or, Olivia's school. Part One.

Several times I have taken pictures of the campus of Olivia's school with the intention of sharing them here.....Life gets in the way and I don't post, then something new happens and that gets posted instead. I carry the camera everywhere so you can see what I see, then I don't show it to you......This will be the start of showing you the amazing campus of Western Academy of Beijing. I will start with the summer photos of when we first got here. Not many shots but then it can't be a multi-part post if I show you every thing at once. Plus, I didn't see it all at once and the changing seasons reveal bits as time goes on..........

Starting inside for a moment to connect us to our real world:) One of the first things we learned here is that many, many, many US colleges do foreign recruiting here in China. They come in groups for the most part. This day saw about 25 or more schools being represented. How cool is this? USC right in the High School, Koi Garden!! Olivia didn't really want to pose for this but she indulged her mother's need to blog it.

The building in the background is the High School. It is about five years old. The school as a whole is almost 20 years old.
This is early September 2012
A series of stepped board walks line the campus pond on the high school side. The pond separates the property into two parts connected by a bridge. The graduating class of 2012 did the mosaic work on the edges. Gorgeous grasses in bloom and in the water, giant lotus plants......didn't get them in bloom, that would be earlier in the summer. I saw them but didn't think to photograph.

This is the pond with an aerator going like crazy. The pond is actually pretty nasty water. A couple years ago the Parent Link organization at school set about to improve the quality of the pond. They bought the aerators and cleaned the pond and did a bunch of stuff to improve it. From what I understand, it is much improved. Still gross especially right now in the Spring when it has sat without aeration all winter.........

It is beautiful when the plants are verdant as above but it still is pretty smelly.

The bridge with its little pagoda like structure. The far side of the pond is lined with willow.

This is another shot of the High School building. the stairs lead to the upstairs cafe where students can buy food and eat, in nice weather they can eat on the deck. There are three eating areas inside depending on what they want to eat. Of course they can also bring lunch.