FRIDAY, 1/30/15

For myself, today started with my usual morning of stretching, breakfast, and swimming. Back at the apartment, I worked a little on the computer, and waited for Lilly’s mom to arrive to begin cleaning. When she arrived, I traveled over to Metro for grocery shopping and lunch. Lunch was at Subway. After lunch I made all my regular Metro purchases, lunchmeat, pasta, cereal, Diet Coke, etc. I caught a taxi back to UHN where I unloaded all the refrigerated items, then waited for Lilly’s mom to finish. The more room I give her, the faster she is. She does a great job!

Metro is decorated for the Chinese New Year!

Judy has musical rehearsal after school, then comes home, worn out after a really full day. We’ve already begun the countdown for Bali (two more weeks).

These are some flowers Shannon had for Judy’s birthday at school today.

SATURDAY, 1/31/15

Judy leaves around 9:00 am for the musical rehearsal. She’s looking forward to getting a lot accomplished, as well as getting it “over with”. It is a good rehearsal, and the students are beginning to realize it’s getting closer. Some of the elementary school students are participating in a scene or two. Today is their first day, and having waiting parents in the audience “raised the level” for the older students.

A birthday cake from the faculty working on the musical. It provided a nice break.

I pretty much wasted the day. Water got in my right ear when I was swimming yesterday and I couldn’t get it out. I tried a blow drier, and then used some alcohol to help dry it out. I didn’t have much success. I may end up visiting a doctor over this. It’s probably wax buildup, and they’ll have to scrape and squirt water in to break it up. I’m not looking forward to that.

Today is officially Judy’s “60^th” Birthday! Because of the rehearsal, we’ll celebrate tomorrow. Some “Grey’s Anatomy” episodes, and microwave popcorn will have to suffice for celebration today.

My plan for today is to put together some ideas and do the legwork for Judy’s upcoming birthday. After my usual morning of swimming, etc., I headed over to the train. I traveled to Tim’s Texas BBQ, where we’ve decided to eat lunch on Sunday with some of Judy’s friends from BISS. I wanted to make sure they’re open Sunday, and make a reservation if I can. I used the visit as an excuse to get a really good chicken burrito for lunch. I visited with the manager and made a reservation for a large table for Sunday.

After lunch, I headed back to the train and rode to the Liangmajiao Station, so I could walk to the South German Bakery. I saw some nice cakes when I was there on Tuesday, and wanted to order one for Sunday’s lunch. As I’m walking to the bakery, I noticed the roads I planned on using to walk to the flower market were all blocked with police tape. The police and military were blocking all vehicle and foot traffic. This area is near several embassies, and my curiosity is piqued about what’s going on.

After ordering the cake, I took a taxi to the flower market. I wasn’t interested in walking the long detour around the closed roads to get through. The driver kept trying each possible route, but they were all blocked, and he kept muttering about it. After a long detour, I arrived at the flower market. I walked in and began looking for something to liven up Judy’s classroom. After my purchase, I walked out and got a taxi. I tried to tell the driver to make a U-turn, but he wasn’t hearing. We ended up making a long detour with lots of traffic (and lots of driver grumbling).

Back at the apartment, I picked up a vase for the flowers, and went back out. I grabbed a taxi and went to BISS, planning to put the flowers in Judy’s room so she and her students could enjoy them on Friday. I got lucky and she was in another part of the school, so I snuck in, left the flowers, and went back out, undetected. School was out, so no one noticed me. I taxied back home and began putting together some supper. Sure enough, she was pleasantly surprised so “mission achieved”.

My flowers, and chips and salsa from Shannon.

TUESDAY, 1/27/15

Since the pool area doesn’t open until 9:30, I kill time with computer work and Facetime visits back to the US. There is a guy who swims everyday that has begun to converse with me. His English is pretty good, and I’m enjoying the brief discussions we have. After swimming, I come back to the apartment, eat lunch, and then prepare for my afternoon activities.

Today, I have a haircut scheduled. Afterwards, I walk to the South German Bakery and buy several different loaves of bread. It’ll be a nice treat this week for our meals. On my way back to the apartment, I stopped at BHG market and bought a few necessities. When I get home, I put together a vegetable soup, with lots of fresh veggies that I’ve cut and cleaned myself. I’m actually getting better at this.

WEDNESDAY, 1/28/15

Lilly’s mom comes early on Wednesdays. She arrives about 7:50, and starts to work. I kill time, trying to stay out of her way until I can go to the pool. After the swim, I came back and began to dig into Turbotax. It takes time to figure out which 1099’s, etc., I can get online, and which I have to wait to be mailed. Brad’s checking the mail, and will scan and send what else I need when it arrives. I always dread this time of year, trying to find every possible deduction and making sure I get it right. Thank goodness for Turbotax.

Now I just have to worry that I can continue to access everything online that I need. We keep reading about how much the government here is hammering on the internet. Several of the teachers at Judy’s school have almost been shut down when their VPN’s have stopped working. I don’t know enough to know what’s really happening, but I know everything seems to have slowed down, or won’t load at all.

And the “Ice” theme continues today. Judy heads out to school (somebody has to earn a paycheck around here). I did my morning routine of stretching, swimming, and computer stuff. The wind was blowing too much today for table tennis, so I decided to go to Houhai Lake and check out the “ice” activities going on over there. We’d heard and read about it, but hadn’t seen it.

I took the train over and walked the remaining distance to the lake. There was definitely some “ice” activity going on. There were lots of skaters, and some kind of a “seat skate” that could be maneuvered with something similar to ski poles. There were also some “ice bikes”. They had a tire (maybe spiked) on the back, and a blade on the front. Riders were pedaling them all over the ice. The lake seemed to be divided by portable fencing into segments that were being administered by different concessions. There were also fences around the edges that helpers were maneuvering back and forth as the ice got thinner or thicker. Today is the first official day for all the Chinese schools to be out for the winter break, and there were lots of people around the area.

VIDEO LINK – ICY HOUHAI LAKE

https://www.dropbox.com/s/gnojnqjd2gwo8a3/15.1.26.Icy%20Houhai.MOV?dl=0

Houhai in a warmer time

I killed some time in a Starbucks and then walked to a nearby kite shop I had been reading about. They had many of the same kites I’d seen in the markets, but they also had some hand painted kites with some unique designs. I really want one of those “cool” kites, but I hate to spend the money and then crash it the first time out. They seem delicate. It’s not like I’m an experienced “pilot”. I should probably start with a less expensive, sturdier kite, and if all goes well, step up to the more unique styles.

We have a late flight, so we slept late and ate a big buffet breakfast. Before we left the hotel and started for the airport, we visited the hotel “Ice Bar”. It’s a huge igloo built next to the main building of the hotel. It has several rooms built off a long hall. One is the bar with tables, there are several meeting rooms, and a larger room at the end for serving meals. All the furnishings are built out of ice. I wouldn’t want the duty of working in that facility. It’s seriously cold.

We took a taxi out to the airport, ate lunch at Burger King, worked through security (much easier than Beijing), and arrived at our very crowded gate area. There were six gates in close proximity, and six flights all leaving within the same hour. There weren’t enough seats and it was a madhouse. On the plane wasn’t much better. It was cramped, but at least we had individual screens for movies, etc. A quick two-hour flight and we were home. It doesn’t take long to unpack from a short weekend trip, thank goodness.

We get all geared up ready for a bitterly cold day, and head downstairs for breakfast.  We almost burned up while we ate.  We were wearing so many layers.  We met our guide at 9:00, and headed out on our tour of Harbin.  The first stop was downtown and St Sophia Cathedral.  It’s a huge Russian Orthodox Cathedral in the center of town, a remnant of the strong Russian influence in northern China.

Next stop was the Siberian Tiger Reserve.  The guide told us there were over 1000 tigers at the site.  We loaded a bus and drove all around the property, and in and out of several large compounds, each full of tigers.  The highlight for me (and not so much for Judy) was the feeding of live chickens to the tigers.  Our bus parked in a large open area. Tigers began to wander toward us, and then a jeep covered in protective bars wheeled up and tossed a couple of live chickens out so we could watch the tigers catch and eat them.  It’s not something seen at many US zoos.

TIGER RESERVE VIDEO LINK

https://www.dropbox.com/s/zjzm0kpjkencraz/15.1.24Tiger1.MOV?dl=0

We killed some time in “Polarworld”, watching a Sea Lion Show, and a Beluga Whale Show.  The whales performed what I would describe as synchronized water ballet with their trainers.  It was beautiful.

We were killing time until dusk so we could hit “Ice and Snow World” just before dark.  We had some time and I requested we have a chance to go down to the frozen Songhua River and watch some of the activities.  We weren’t disappointed.  There were cars racing on the ice, hockey, snowboarders pulled by large kites, and several other assorted ice activities.  The river is huge and it was frozen solid.

THREE LINKS TO FROZEN SONHUA RIVER ACTIVITIES

https://www.dropbox.com/s/14gch662qxsh2vf/15.1.24.Songhua1.MOV?dl=0

https://www.dropbox.com/s/p3hjorvs1df2nb5/15.1.24.Songhua2.MOV?dl=0

https://www.dropbox.com/s/ndov73dk0vdx5u6/15.1.24.Songhua3.MOV?dl=0

The climax of the day was the visit to “Ice and Snow World”.  This was the main reason we traveled to Harbin and we weren’t disappointed.  It was amazing.  There were so many amazing structures built and sculpted from ice and snow.  The site is huge and takes some time to walk through.  The temperature was near zero F.  Thankfully there wasn’t any wind.  We spent an hour and a half checking it out, and then met our guide and driver.  It was a really fun visit with some amazing sites.

VIDEO LINK TO “ICE AND SNOW WORLD”

https://www.dropbox.com/s/eh6uvbxivv2nyf3/15.1.24.Ice%20World.MOV?dl=0

Today is our Harbin travel day, but we don’t go out until 8:15 pm, so there’s a full day of activities before we leave. Judy gets off to work and I start my daily schedule of stretching, swimming, and table tennis. Lilly’s mom cleaned this afternoon, leaving around 3:15. Judy walked in at 3:30, much earlier than expected. She managed to get away from school quickly. We finished our packing and headed to the taxi at 4:45.

We arrived early for our flight and found a Pizza Hut for dinner. The security line was long, and the officers really know how to “wand” someone. The flight to Harbin was slightly less than two hours, but the seating was tight. We arrived early and walked into the meeting area with our baggage at 10:10, looking for the driver we arranged. Our schedule arrival was 10:15. We waited and waited, and the driver never arrived. Several other travel operators approached us, checking to make sure we weren’t on their lists of clients. We finally made contact with a transportation coordinator from our hotel, The Shangrila, and he put us in a taxi with instructions for the driver.

About 11:00 pm, while we were still in the taxi, driving to the hotel, I got a call from someone speaking Chinese. He hung up, and 5 minutes later, our tour guide for tomorrow called, saying our driver just called, wondering where we were. I explained we had waited a half hour and finally gave up on the driver showing up. She apologized, tried to explain what happened (kinda vague), and confirmed our meeting time for Saturday. We arrived at the hotel at 11:20, checked in, and began to get ready for the next day. It’s supposed to be really cold. We think we’re ready, but there’s a lot of stuff to lay out and organize.

With no school for 6 weeks, I’m going to try and develop a consistent schedule of exercise and activity. Before breakfast, I try to do some stretches, along with pushups to keep my back from becoming a problem. The pool opens at 9:30 am, so I try to be in the water, swimming no later than 10 am. I’m only doing 900 meters right now, but will lengthen it out to at least 1600 meters over the next several weeks. To relieve the boredom (back and forth), I’m counting strokes and laps in Chinese.

After swimming, I usually kill some time on the computer or eating lunch, waiting for Lilly’s mom to arrive to clean. When she gets started, I climb on the bike and ride the 3 kilometers over to the table tennis club. The temps this week have reached “highs” of 44 degrees F. The wind isn’t blowing, so I actually begin to sweat when we get “warmed up”. I never saw myself playing in weather this cold.

I’ve been over there so much lately I’m becoming a “regular”. I must be getting better. Some of the more experienced players are offering to hit with me. There’s the occasional player who can speak a little English. It’s a nice change to the usual scenario of the silence around my table. All around there are people talking trash to each other and laughing. Since I’ve always lived in a “suburban” environment, it’s fun to experience an “urban” setting. The same thing probably goes on in downtown areas throughout the US. I just haven’t been around it before. There are lots of retired people here looking for ways to keep busy and moving.

Judy’s days contain the usual “ups and downs” associated with teaching. They took pictures this week of the entire elementary school, students and faculty, outside (it was 25 degrees when they took the picture). In the US, it would have been cancelled for warmer weather.  The musical rehearsed after school on Tuesday instead of Friday because of a big basketball tournament this weekend for both boys and girls teams. In a small school like this, the students are committed to lots of different activities, just like most small schools in the US. It takes a cooperative effort to figure out how to share students (and facilities).

SATURDAY, 1/17/15

Judy’s plan for the day is to mix some relaxation activities with schoolwork. After a leisurely morning she heads over to Dragonfly Spa to get some kinks worked out. She enjoys some time in a nearby Starbucks before heading home.

I’m trying to get into my “activities” regimen for my winter break. I don’t have any required work activities for six weeks.   I start off the morning with a swim after Judy leaves. This pool in our complex isn’t nearly as nice a facility as the Marriott was last year, but the price is one-fifth the cost. For the money we’re saving to spend on our travel later this semester, it’s worth it.

After lunch, I ride the bike over to the table tennis club. The temp today is in the upper 30’s, but there’s no wind. The sun is shining and it makes for a really pretty day. I got the chance today to play with some really good players who helped me work on my game. They just kept pounding the ball into the same spot, and I was able to work on some consistency. I’ve improved enough so that it’s not a waste of their time to hit with me. I posted a video link below for what the club looks like on “nice” day in the winter. By the time I started home, it was standing room only. More and more people were streaming in.

Video link:  a sunny day at the tables.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/nnwsk73iyl5r3o4/15.1.17.Table%20tennis.sun.MOV?dl=0

SUNDAY, 1/18/15

Judy has some last minute shopping to do for our trip next weekend to Harbin. She needs some good waterproof gloves. She goes over to Sanlitun for a Lily Nails visit, and then UniQlo for the gloves. I meet her at UniQlo and we go to Union Grill for lunch. We both ended up getting burgers.

Back at home later, we took time to look at our excursions for our summer cruise from Spain to Greece. Courtney, Brad, and Glenda are joining us, and we want to have plenty of time to work out what we want to do. As we look at it, I’m already getting tired. I know it’s going to be an unbelievable trip, but those excursion days are long, and we don’t want to miss any opportunities. There’s no telling when, or if, we’ll ever get back.

THURSDAY, 1/15/14

This is a link to another short video from the table tennis park yesterday, in the snow.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/qkjxdzhkahowt4t/15.1.14.Table%20tennis.2.MOV?dl=0

If I understand the schedule correctly, today and tomorrow are my last two days to teach this semester. The grade 11 students are all enrolled in all-day SAT prep courses on Sunday thru Tuesday. On Wednesday, many of them will begin to travel to Singapore, Hong Kong, or Macau, to take the test on Saturday. The next school activity I have will be a faculty meeting on Feb. 28. That’s six weeks away.

I’ll be looking for a few things to keep my busy. Judy and I have two trips planned, and I may take a “day” trip over to Tianjin, a 45-minute “bullet train” ride away. It’s on the coast and handles much of the shipping load for Beijing.

My classes go well. We spend time working with “Garageband” and writing a 12-bar blues, including lyrics, about the students’ life at BHSFIC. The guitar club guys came in and practiced a little during lunch. After school, a couple of the students from the Orchestra Club came in and we discussed some plans for next semester. It’s hard to get too excited about arranging anything new when I know the schedule for the spring will be even more disrupted by tutoring and testing than this semester. Last year, we missed almost 6 weeks due to special class schedules designed to cram for AP tests.

FRIDAY, 1/16/14

I volunteered to help out at school today by serving as a test proctor for a MAP test for the 10^th grade students. It begins at 8:00, so I have to head over earlier than usual for a Friday. My main job is to be available in case they need my computer for the supervisors from the testing company. The test is four hours, and online. Battery power becomes an issue. We have to make sure there are plenty of extension cords available. I get relieved in time to teach my regular music classes during periods 3 & 4.

After class, I eat lunch with several of the faculty, getting the info on their upcoming trips to the states. A few of them are accompanying student groups for exchanges with schools throughout the US. One of the groups will be at St. Marks in Dallas.

Judy’s had a busy week and is ready to crash. Grades are due next week, and although she’s been working ahead, trying to complete them, there is still a lot of work to do. Besides grades for each student, they also receives comments in 9 different areas. It’s really time consuming, since she has nearly 160 students to “assess”.