News from Fr. Rob Carbonneau in Chongqing, Sichuan, China
Following a week of orientation in Hong Kong, I arrived in Chongqing on the evening of Friday, August 23, 2007, at Sichuan International Studies University (SISU) and moved into my campus apartment. The next day I was told that on Monday, August 26 I was to start my weekly, English lecture class on International Relations “Hot Topics” to about 70 students. As of October 3, I have lectured on such topics as “September 11th,” “Terrorism and Anti-Terrorism,” “Is Pollution Slowly Killing Us?” and “An American’s View on the Iraq War.” On August 27 I began teaching another 90-minute class in English to about 150 students. This class focuses on US History and Culture and will also involve England, Australia, and Canada. To date, it has been an overview of American history to 1850. On October 9 I will explain the British Commonwealth system and have successive classes past and present under standing on England, Canada and Australia. Freshmen began to arrive on campus during the first two weeks in September. I then started teaching five spoken English classes once a week for 90-minutes. There are a total of about 140 students in those classes. So, it is a good work week. I also see a Chinese language tutor twice a week. In an upcoming newsletter I hope to write more about Chongqing. It is a massive metropolitan city. All in all, I have adapted well and feel the support from many people back home. I thank you all.