Romy and Michelle call in fat.

Day 4 brought us back to our roots. A tour of the our high school. Our old campus had moved to brand new specially constructed facility in the Shunyi district. We visited the newer campus first and were blown away by the size and the amount of facilities. Seeing the contrast between a tiny school with a graduating class of 5 people to one that accomodates nearly 3000 students was quite a shocker. They had all the facilities we dreamt about. Swimming pool, auditorium, a huge library, a grass soccer pitch instead of the gravel rock minefield we used to have, and of course varsity sports jackets....sigh.

Thoroughly impressed and a little detached after seeing the new campus we headed off to see the old haunts where surprises awaited us.


The building facade had changed color and when we walked into the front door into the glossy lobby we were greeted by employees of 'Bodyworks'...an all inclusive health and fitness facility for obese chinese children.

As we walked around on our tour we saw some very large young girls doing stepaerobics in our old music room, 200 lb boys thundering away on treadmills where the elementary art classes were, and extremely overweight teenagers stretching out their muscles in what used to be our cafeteria. The entire facility, all four floors, was catered to these rich overweight children, including lounges, labs, medical facilities, and dining services that catered special meals to the dieting children.
Apparently obese children are becoming a cultural epidemic in the new China. Contributing factors include the one child a family policy, which leaves Grandma, Grandpa,Grandma,Grandpa, Mom and Dad to stuff only one spoilt mouth with goodies. The abundance and adoption of high calorie western fast food coupled with disposable income is apparently another factor. The fourth floor where our classes used to be is the medical wing right now. My homeroom and physics and math teacher, Mr. Marchetti used to have a saying "Push forward the frontiers of science!"...he would yell out during the middle of class.... well we went to visit his old classroom....its now a cat-scan room....looks like someone pushed a little too far....