Today is the early day for our “ayi”. She arrives at 8:00 am, right on the dot. I worked a little longer on the computer until she began to clean around my area, and I loaded up and left. I’ve been trying to find an indoor place to play table tennis, with no success. I found three spots on the map that looked promising, table tennis clubs that look like they’re based in buildings. I take the train over to the first spot, and no luck. I walk up and down the block, in front, and in back, looking for something that might indicate a table tennis club. I’m even looking for people carrying gear, or gear bags. Nothing! Drat!

Not too far away is my regular outdoor club, so I walk that direction, thinking I’ll check around that area before getting a taxi to one of my other possibilities. As I get closer, I walk by a park full of 40 – 50 men sitting around tables playing Mahjong. (no women?). It’s 10:30 am, -2°C, and no wind. Just up the street, I can see people playing table tennis. Sure enough, they’re out in force. Lots of players, and the temp is below freezing? As I’m watching, debating how badly I really want to play, a light snow begins to fall. I’ve posted a video with a couple of the players, and you see the light snow falling.

Video link:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/3j3ccqt0xzjakiy/15.1.14.Table%20tennis.MOV?dl=0

I eventually decide if they’re tough enough to play in the cold, then so am I. I walk in, find a bench, and look for a single player. Eventually a lady walks by, indicating if I was interested in playing, and if I had a net. I pulled out my net, set it up, and began to play. It wasn’t long before I was debating whether to pull off my coat or not. It was a fun morning, and I did ok after several months of “rust”.

After finishing, I jumped in a taxi and headed toward my next “club”. It was near Judy’s school, so I decided to eat lunch. Judy couldn’t get away today, so I enjoyed some local Chinese food from the BISS neighborhood restaurant by myself. Afterwards, following my map, I went looking for the next possible indoor club. Again, no luck. I’m sure the schools have places for students to play and train, but an “old foreign geezer” wouldn’t necessarily be welcome. I’m about ready to give up and get geared up for cold weather play.

My shoulders and feet are sore from the “relaxing” massage I had yesterday. I don’t see any bruises, but it feels like they should be bruised. I head over for a swim later in the morning. One of the “regulars” speaks to me. His English is pretty good, so I may have an acquaintance to keep things interesting during workouts.

After swimming, I decided to go find the nearest Gung Ho Pizza and try the pizza buffet. I read in one of the Beijing expat magazines that they had a noon buffet everyday. Sounds like something I haven’t tried here before, so off I go. Well, apparently not every one of their stores has the buffet. I found a restaurant, but no buffet. I should have read the ad a little closer to find exactly where this restaurant is. They have several in town. I should know not to make any assumptions.

Judy’s computer issues got a little more involved today. She ultimately had to back-up all her files, and give her computer to the school tech people. They were going to downgrade her from Yosemite. They still don’t have printer drivers that will work with the upgrade. In a school where everyone uses a Mac, it’s hard to believe they haven’t found a solution other than “don’t upgrade”? (of course, they’re the ones who told her to upgrade yesterday).

Judy had one of those days that should have been smooth, and a computer question grew into a near disaster.  She’s been grading student essays (yes, music “essays”).  She couldn’t open several of them because they were written with an updated version of “Pages”.  BISS has told it’s teachers not to upgrade yet (printer drivers not available for school printers in the new version).  She took her computer to the school “tech” people and told them her problem.  They assured her they would fix it quickly.

When she picked it up 2 hours later, she still couldn’t open “Pages”, and now her email wouldn’t work?  Tech guys came up and worked on the computer for a while and then said she would have to do complete “wipe”.  UGH!!!!  Too many times, it takes hours to recover and reformat valuable files in iTunes and iPhoto.  Of course, they’re saying it won’t be a problem.  Judy’s discomfort comes from too much experience with exactly this kind of a problem.

I stayed busy today.  I did my stretching and exercise session, followed by a swim session.  After swimming, and doing some computer work till Lilly’s mom came in, I left for lunch at a noodle shop in one of the nearby alleys.  After lunch, I thought I deserved a foot massage, and stepped into the spa in the same nearby alley.  Man, how do they find every place that hurts on my feet.  And not only do they find the bad spots, but they stay on it, and on it, and on it!  OUCH!

After the regular foot massage routine (shoulder massage while feet soak, followed by the foot massage) I put on my coat and prepared to leave.  The masseuse came back in with what looked like big incense sticks and told me to lie down again.  Off came the coat and sweater, and I prepared for ??? some meditation?  I wasn’t sure what.  She turned my head to the side, stuck something in my ear, and lit it.  I was getting a “candling” treatment.  The hollow candles are supposed to clean out the ear passage.  I don’t know if it worked or not.  I was mostly worried that my hair would catch on fire.  While the candle was in my ear, she massaged my scalp.  When the candle burned down, she flipped me over, and did the other side.  That was a first!  All I can say is “I survived”.  I didn’t notice any immediate benefits.  It wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t a relaxing experience.  Neither was the foot massage for that matter.

After the massage session, I stopped at the wet market, purchasing some really good apples, strawberries, blueblerries, and grapes, as well as green beans for tonight’s soup. I dropped the stuff at the apartment and then walked by the bank to check if my December pay had been deposited yet, and getting some big bills changed to 20’s for Judy use in taxis. Next stop was the BHG market in Capita Mall for some random things we’re needing around the apartment.

Back home later, I put everything away, cleaned the fruits and vegetables, and put together the vegetable soup, and began cooking. Whew!!! It’s been an active day with lots of mundane activities and one genuinely new experience.

SATURDAY, 1/10/15

Judy has a half-day of professional development sessions today. It’s part of the make-up time from the APEC conference holidays back in November. It’s a session on classroom management (discipline). After nearly 39 years, Judy’s not that fired up about another session on how to handle a class. It’s held in a small classroom and there isn’t room to move, and certainly not pull out her computer and work on other things. She’s beginning to count down how many more of these she’ll have to participate in.

After lunch, the musical cast meets and rehearses for 3 hours. They get a ton of good work done, but of course, there’s never enough time.

After rehearsal, Judy and Shannon head over to Sanlitun, where Dom and I meet them at Homeplate BBQ for dinner. We get caught up on some of Shannon’s adventures in Sydney at a job fair. She’s working hard putting together her faculty for next year.

International schools have all the same problems as other schools, parents, scheduling, money, equipment. They have an added problem in that their faculty turns over frequently. We’ve been impressed with the quality of the teachers here, but many of them are constantly looking for their next destination. School staffs where we’ve taught in the past haven’t been so itinerant. It’s hard enough finding good teachers and holding them, but in this environment, the pressure to get good teachers is especially heavy.

SUNDAY, 1/11/15

After 6 days of classes, rehearsals, and professional development sessions, Judy has a ton of computer work to do. IB teachers are required to assess each student in four different areas of learning, and since Judy has all the elementary school and half the middle school, that’s a lot of input.

I spend my time making some of the final contacts and airfare purchases for our summer cruise in the Mediterranean. Making these decisions 6 months in advance are based on some assumptions we’re making obout when we’ll be able to pack and ship our stuff out of Beijing back to the US. I hope I’m guesses are correct.

THURSDAY, 1/8/15

It’s another Thursday class day, and this one is actually on a Thursday. Classes go well. The clubs are not meeting today since final tests are next week, and the students need the time to study.

I forgot to mention yesterday that Josie celebrated a birthday dinner last night with several of the faculty. Her son, Jordan, is in town visiting, and was also able to attend. We had a fun time at a “duck” restaurant on the northwest side of town. It’s always fun to have a night “out on the town”, with the BHSFIC group. I don’t have too many chances to participate in their after school get-togethers.

FRIDAY, 1/9/15

Back at my school today, it’s obvious that final tests are near. The students look tired when they walk into the room, and I have to get very active to keep them alert.

Judy’s day is like every Friday. She has a full day of classes, followed by a musical rehearsal after school. The Friday rehearsals only last an hour, so they have to be really efficient in the use of their time. Several students missed the rehearsal causing some consternation amongst the teaching staff. The cast has rehearsal tomorrow after lunch, and the hope is that everyone makes a stronger effort to attend. As with any school group, sometimes, the parents are the problem, not the kids.

MONDAY, 1/5/15

Time to get back into our “Beijing” schedule for a few weeks. Judy heads out early for school, getting away around 6:45 am. Later in the morning, I get out to the wet market for some vegetables and fruit.

When Lillie’s mom shows up to clean around 12:00, we talk to Lilly on the phone. She’s at home in Central China and had a baby girl. Her mom needed to know how much to pay for the iPad I purchased for Lilly in the US. We settled on the price and then I headed out to Metro for groceries.

Back home later, Lilly’s mom finishes up and leaves. She does a really thorough job. I put together a vegetable soup for dinner. We’re going to try to eat a little healthier this semester, more vegetables, and less peanut butter.

TUESDAY, 1/6/15

Most of my work today is searching flights for our cruise this summer from Barcelona to Athens. Courtney, Brad, and Glenda are going with us, so coordinating all our departures/arrivals get kinda involved, especially when I’m working with a budget.

After lunch, I walk to the gym in our housing compound. They have a pool, and it’s time to get back to some kind of exercise schedule.  I loved swimming at the Marriott last year, but getting there and back took so long.  I needed something closer to home.  I’ve been avoiding this since November, but I can’t wait any longer to start. After I got started, it wasn’t so bad. I swam further than I expected. Now, if I can only keep this up?

WEDNESDAY, 1/7/15

Lilly’s mom has to come early on Wednesdays so her schedule will work with her regular clients. She arrives right on schedule at 8:00 am. I can hang around some while she works, but it’s better if I try and get away some during the morning so I don’t get in her away.

I’m not normally out this early unless I’m headed to work. I head back over to the wet market for fruits and vegetable (the soup was really good Monday night). On the way home, I stop off at a little convenience store to buy some phone cards to recharge our phones. It costs us 80rmb a month for 200 calls or texts, and 300 mbs. of data. You have to call a number, punch in the numbers off the cards and the appropriate value posts to the accounts for each phone. It’s a pretty easy process, once you know how to reach the “English” version.

Judy has an assembly today. At the last minute she decided to sing a song with a ukulele accompaniment she had been working on with all her classes. She made it into a sing-a-long, and one of her students played ukulele on stage. The song was a huge hit! So much so, the principal asked them to sing it again at the end of the assembly. Ho hum. Another day, another dollar.

Today is an official make-up day for the Thursday holiday. It’s not just for Chinese schools, but for any business, bank, etc. that might have celebrated Jan. 1. I get to school with time to spare, and set-up the room, ready for kids. Everyone is here today. It’s been a long time since everyone has been in class. Neither of the clubs are meeting today, so I hang around for lunch, and then head home. The jet lag hits me around 2:00. Ugh!

Judy’s home preparing for a big week back at BISS. With grades to finish posting, and musical planning to do she has a full day of work.

The weather in Beijing has been steady. It’s below freezing at night and slightly above freezing during the day. It’ll be like this for the next week, without much change. Unlike the weather in North Texas, it stays pretty steady. The pollution is a different matter. It’s really high for a few hours, and then drops to low double-digits for a while, and then starts the cycle again. Weird?

It’s more of the same as we continue our jet lag struggle. We’re waking up in the middle of the night, and sleepy during the day. We’re sleeping at such odd times, it’s difficult to keep track which day it is. I spend a little time making sure my class plans are organized for tomorrow. Since I have to leave really early (it’s a Thursday makeup), there’s no time for last minute adjustments.

This might be a great time for a mini review of our trip back to the US. We began to move into our new condominium in the Fort Worth Cultural District. We moved in a small lot of furniture we had been storing since our move to China. We had a lot of trips to Walmart and Target for items to get us setup. You don’t realize how necessary something is (scissors) until you start looking for it and realize it’s in Beijing, or still in storage with the rest of our stuff. It was nice to be back on our familiar mattress.

Judy had a nice visit at Beckham Elementary, catching many of her faculty friends at a short faculty meeting after school. I visited Martin HS, and had the chance to attend the faculty Christmas luncheon, seeing lots of friends and trading lots of stories. I didn’t make it to Boles, but maybe next fall I’ll get a chance to stick my head in over there.

We visited my parents and my brother’s family in Baton Rouge, but missed my sister and her family. Schedules get complicated when all the kids become adults. Judy and Courtney made a run over to New Orleans for some sightseeing. Back in Fort Worth, we had a fun family Christmas visit with the Knight family. We had a chance to do some shopping, buying supplies for our next 6 months in Beijing. Our last few days in Fort Worth were spent visiting with friends, and making plans for our return to the US in July.

Some French Quarter sightseeing

The line for beignets at Cafe Du Monde

THURSDAY, 1/1/15

It’s a new year in Beijing! We woke up several times during the night as we began to struggle with a messed up sleep cycle. When we finally began to move around, we read the news about the tragedy in Shanghai. Apparently there was a big New Years celebration going on in the area near the CCTV building that was cancelled just before midnight, after they heard the news from Shanghai. A light show at the Olympic Park went ahead as scheduled.

Judy began the tedious job of unpacking while I went out to Metro to buy some groceries and supplies. We mixed our activities with an occasional nap. We have several days to make the jet lag adjustment before we start work.

FRIDAY, 1/2/15

I wish there was something new and exciting to discuss, but mostly we’re still adjusting to our time zone. The fourteen hours difference is a challenge. I’ve just come to accept that it takes me 8 to 10 days to fully adjust. That’s about how long it took me to adjust when we travelled to the US. I remember waking up on the 10^th day and realizing that I finally felt “right”. Before that, I just felt “washed out” most of the time. Since I have a pretty defined coffee (caffeine) schedule, it wasn’t unusual for me to wake up in the middle of the night, with a “lack of caffeine” headache.

I did make a trip over to the police station to register our return from our trip to the US. Anytime we leave China, we’re expected to check-in at the police station when we return. It used to be an “anxious” moment for me when I had to go, but it’s become a routine part of life in Beijing.

Judy began to suffer from cabin fever, so she headed out to Sanlitun for a visit to Lily Nails for some important relaxation therapy. When she got back we ordered a pizza delivery from Gung Ho Pizza. They also had a nice Caesar salad. We enjoyed a fun evening of food, and some new “Major Crimes” episodes Courtney added to our media hard drive while we were in the US.

It’s time to head back to Beijing. Originally our flight was scheduled for 8:30 am, when I booked it in August. However, I found out yesterday when I began to check-in online that it had been changed, and we now had a 6:00 am departure. That means arriving at DFW airport by 4:00 am, so we left our condo around 3:15 am. We picked up Brad on the way (he now lives just down the street about 2 miles).

We arrive at 4:00 and begin checking our luggage. We took a lot of time last night (very late) to adjust our luggage and make sure both pieces were at 50lbs. or below. My trusty luggage scale has never been wrong, but it was today. Both pieces were slightly over 51 lbs. Darn! We move to the side and move stuff from one bag to the other to make sure at least one of our bags was underweight, and then moved stuff out of our backpacks and carry-on bags we were carrying to try and help the weight problem. We finally got checked in and moved to security. TSA-Pre definitely helps. I only had to remove my shoes going through.

We grab some breakfast while we wait. The plane boards and departs on time. Heavy headwinds make our San Francisco arrival late, but we have a long layover. We find a place to eat some lunch, and kill time until we are able to board our Beijing bound plane. There are lots of empty seats and we get to spread out. Judy has a row of 3 seats by herself, and I have four seats together by myself. It’s not “first class”, but almost.

We arrive in Beijing around 4:30 pm (Wednesday). Man, it’s a long flight, about 12 hours on this leg. The luggage is on the carousel when we get through immigration and we make our way to the taxi area. There’s a long line of people, but there are a lot of taxis. 30 minutes later, we’re walking into our apartment. It’s a great feeling to back “home”. We unpack a little, but we’re both really beat. It’s 6:30 pm on New Years Eve, and we’re headed for bed! I don’t even know if there is any kind of a New Years celebration in town, and I don’t really care.