Western Academy of Beijing (WAB)

On 30 November 2012 WAB organized a one day event, with the slogan “CHANGE”, the 2012 Global Issues Conference which involved all students in the Middle and High School. They had found me through my book’s website and invited me to talk for nearly one hour, to introduce my book.
It was a very different and unique experience for me, going to this enormous Western school complex in Shunyi – they have far over 1,000 students. Very modern, great atmosphere. Today’s kids don’t know how lucky they are, in my time things were really very “basic”, the least to say.
I first joined the opening ceremony in their gym which included over 800 middle school and high school students and teachers. See the crowd. The speakers were very interesting and I only felt pity I could not listen to the end and meet them. Their topics were pretty well related to the themes in my book.
My talk was in the Blu Theater. The student audience was from Grade 9 to Grade 12 – with an age range from 13 to 19 years old. All students were high school students and a mixture of female and male. The Grade 11 and 12 students mostly take Economics; Environmental Science and other Scientific subjects.

An international buffet

After that I joined the enormous buffet lunch, where the parents from many nationalities were offering dishes, snacks and more at their individual stands. The choice was just too overwhelming. Great idea, just noticed there was no Belgian stand – there was a Dutch table (bitterballen!).
I also bumped into my old friend Richard Liu who works there.
Great many thanks to Suzi Roberts, Lorraine Mc Mullen and Echo Cai, and all who gave me such a warm reception.