Senior Class, Level 3.
Both Meghan and I were approached by a few kids from the local high school and asked if we could come and lecture for a few hours on what we do in China.
It was quite a treat to learn about the lives of the students and how they all seem to think that biologist don’t make any money. Very true. After telling them about our research we asked them what they wanted to do after high school. The majority said that they wanted to be doctors, but a few simply wanted to be able to travel the world.
We also learned that it costs them about 3000RMB per year to attend school as a junior and senior. With the average monthly income of about 2000RMB per month, their parents are spending a significant amount of their overall income on a single child’s schooling. I can’t imagine having two or three in school at the same time.
The rest of the day was spent answering questions about life in America and how much certain items cost, such as computers, iphones, rent and cars. We brought a few english magazines and three dozen snickers bars, of which they engulfed as soon as we left the room. It was very nice for them to invite us to speak about our lives as international researchers and we plan to give one more lecture before leaving.