WEDNESDAY, 8/20/14

The students in the Orchestra Club at BHSFIC, want to rehearse some music to perform for the Club Fair. They’ve decided to rehearse Sunday afternoon, and need some music. My job is to figure out what to play and arrange it. I bought a few ensembles at TBA in San Antonio to chosoe from.

Of course, I can’t remember all the “Finale” tricks when I start arraning. It’s like I’m a beginner again. I spend way too much time trying to figure out how to find the necessary tools for inputting the music. I bought a little midi keyboard in San Antonio, and once I figure it out, it does speed things up a little bit.

I managed to break up the monotony of fighting with “Finale” with a visit to wet market. I found some great looking green peppers that I added to some chicken in the wok. Tabasco and hot chili pepper sauce really “spiced it up.” I managed to cook it without getting it all over the kitchen, which is an improvement over my earlier encounters with the wok. I’m not quite ready for “Iron Chef Beijing” just yet.

THURSDAY, 8/21/14

More “Finale” fighting for me today. It begins to come a little faster, but it’s still tedious. When I get buried in a project, the time goes pretty fast. I just wish I could retain some of this for when I have to do it again. I think I’ll try to do all the arrangements right now before I forget all the little tricks. I’ll see how motivated I am in a few days.

I also had some “back home” financial stuff to work through. There’s nothing like trying complete paperwork with financial institutions in the US, relying on the really slow and intermittent internet we have some days. I finally got through it all. I’m almost looking forward to getting back in the classroom in two weeks.

Another early morning and another hot, crowded train. We each present a lesson in our session this morning demonstrating how we might develop better “critical thinking skills.” There are a lot of good ideas, and the faculty seems serious, talented, and committed to the year ahead.

Lunch is Subway. We get it “to go”, and eat in the teacher’s lounge back at school. There’s a lot of interesting talk about travel destinations, and I’m listening and taking notes. Our afternoon session is a discussion about how to establish a school-wide system of stressing “critical thinking” that goes beyond a discussion and becomes the school mantra.

After dismissal, several of the group head over to the Sanlitun area for a chance to relax and visit. I had quite an afternoon and evening of fries and burgers. There are some really interesting individuals from varied backgrounds. Several of the newbies were heavily involved in HS band back in the US, so we get to talk that up for while.   Tonight is the first time in a long time that Judy gets home before me.

I head out early for school. It’s an hour commute via train, and the sessions start at 9:00. I haven’t been on a train during rush hour since we arrived back in Beijing, and I received a full dose of “crowded” today. I don’t know how the short people handle it. I’m tall enough to look over the top of most of the passengers. We’re really jammed together, and on several of the trains, the air-conditioning isn’t up to the crowd. When I finally get to school, my shirt is mostly sweat-soaked (and I was looking so good when I left the apartment.

It’s fun to see everyone again, as well as meet the newcomers. The new US teachers are from California, Connecticut, Florida, and Georgia. There’s also a new teacher coming from Bolivia. The morning session consists of introductions, followed by some serious discussions about how the students did on their tests last spring. Apparently the math, science, and economics scores were really high. There was disappointment that no one scored a 5 on the AP English Test, but there were lots of 4’s. It was a struggle for the top Martin students to get 5’s on the English AP, so I’m thinking the students did pretty well.

The discussion shifts to how to better teach “critical thinking” skills. The Chinese faculty members all agree this is an area where generally Chinese students are weak. They learn facts and figures really well, but struggle when attempting to apply the information to an abstract issue. How to address the problem keeps us talking the rest of the morning.

I joined a group for lunch that was traveling to the nearby Xidan area for lunch. There are 8 in the group and we take the bus. This is my first time on a bus in Beijing. The cost is the equivalent of 7 cents. I haven’t deciphered the routes that I could use yet. It not as “English friendly” as the trains.

After lunch, we have a short session and dismiss around 2:00. I head over to my dental appointment near our apartment. I set it for 4:00 knowing I had meetings scheduled until 3:00. Since we dismissed early, I just went on to the office to see if they’ll take me early. I arrived around 3:10. I chipped a tooth on our cruise this summer, and wanted a dentist’s opinion about my options. I walked out at 3:45 with a new cap that looks and feels great. The cost was $90 without insurance. I’m back home preparing for the next day by 4:10.

SATURDAY, 8/16/14

Today turned into a “camp out at home” day. We both spent time working school and home stuff. Later in the afternoon, Judy went over to Capita Mall for a break. She made a “nail” stop, and found a couple of things at ”Gap”. For dinner, we ordered delivery from Moka Café. Judy was craving a chicken breast and vegetables, and I ordered a chicken wrap. The food was great, and a nice change of pace.

We’ve been watching Scandal, Season 2, and will crank up Season 3 when it’s time. It beats the heck out of watching all the “Ferguson” stuff on CNN “all day, everyday”. I can’t help but wonder how much trouble they would be having if the media army wasn’t there. It’s difficult to spot the “protesters” some times for all the cameras crowded around. It looks like some in the crowd are hoping to provoke a negative response and gain a big lawsuit payday.

SUNDAY, 8/17/14

We get to spend another day getting ahead (or catching up) on school and home chores. We finished up Season 2 “Scandal”, and began Season 3. Later, we ordered delivery from the Blue Frog. We ordered a salad, a chicken breast with vegetables, and some chicken skewers. When we hed to bed, Judy is looking forward to her first full week of school. I’m anticipating my first day of professional development at my school for our new year.

For me, it’s back on the bike and another trip to the table tennis club. I play with an entirely new group today. While I’m playing, I notice one of the players from the park near UHN has walked in. I had played against her a few times, and she could speak just enough English to allow some very rudimentary conversation. Using a Chinese/English phone dictionary, we had spent some time conversing at the park in May and June.

I guess she plays at this club occasionally. At the end of the morning, we renew our “rough” conversation. She has questions about the US, and when another player sits down, we talk about her daughter who’s a student at Duke. The more I come over here to play, the more familiar my face will be to the regulars, and the more accepting they’ll become. Ultimately, I just want my table tennis game to improve. Just like anything, to get better, you need to be exposed to players at a higher level.

Headed back home later, I stop at a Subway for lunch. After lunch, I pick up some milk at a local grocery. Riding back to the apartment, I stop to get the low front tire on the bike filled up with air. There are several guys scattered around street corners in the neighborhood with portable shops, set-up to work on bikes. They open up their trailer with parts and tools, and wait for business to cruise by.

Judy calls around 6:00 to let me know she’s headed to Homeplate BBQ in Sanlitun with a group. Dom and I meet, and end up taking the train. The traffic is so backed up on our street, a taxi would have taken forever just to get to the 3^rd Ring Road. As we finally walk up to the restaurant in Sanlitun, I get an “oops” text from Judy. The group is at the other Homeplate BBQ, nearer our apartment. Dom and I eventually get to the new location, and we enjoy a great evening of good food (burgers, cheese fries, etc.), and interesting conversation.

WEDNESDAY, 8/13/14

It’s Judy’s first day with students. This is her 39^th “first day”. There’s always some excitement and anticipation on day 1. But with 38 “first days” behind her, she’s more focused on events and activities that are happening weeks from now. She stays after school, not getting home until after 7pm, putting together lesson plans.

My day is spent searching for some travel ideas. I did get out to the local “wet market”, and then ate at the local noodle restaurant. I’m killing time until my school begins to have activities next week. We do have some new “Major Crimes” episodes that will entertain us in the evening for a few days.

THURSDAY, 8/14/14

Judy’s beginning to get her morning schedule established to including the walking and exercise.  She’s usually out 30 and 40 minutes on the walk.  She’s been leaving for school a little later than last year, but hasn’t had a taxi problem yet (not getting one). Some of the “old hands” at school told her it will get tougher when the Chinese schools start up on Sept. 1.

I’ve decided I’m going to ride my bike over to the table tennis club. It’s a long ride, but without problems. When I walk in, a few people recognize me from back in June, so it’s not long before I’m playing. I’m improving, but they’re still working me over pretty well.

On my way home, I have a “close encounter” with a rose bush. I was riding down a narrow side road, and a car came along. As I moved over, to get out of the way, I brushed up against some lovely shrubs. Unfortunately, the shrubs were roses. My arm got pretty chewed up, and my shirt was torn. When I got to the apartment, I cleaned up the scratches, and even pulled out a few thorns. I had to throw away the shirt.

I’m spending quite a bit of time these days planning our travel for the next year. We have a calendar established, but can’t settle on what we really want to do. The two main holidays (October and February) are national Chinese holidays, so it’s best to be out of the country on those weeks to avoid the crowds. We learned that during our Yangtze River Cruise last year. We’re looking at Taiwan, Bali, the Phillipines, Harbin (ice festival), Shanghai, Indonesia, and Vietnam.

Today, I meet the rep from our local travel agent. We’ve booked our travel back to the US for the Xmas holidays. She comes by the apartment to swap the fapaio (receipt) for the cash. We need the fapaio for Judy’s reimbursement from her school. A portion of the tax deducted from Judy’s monthly paycheck is available to her for travel, if it’s receipted correctly.

I get all the vegetables prepped I’ve been buying lately for another afternoon with the wok. One of the recipes I looked at used brown sugar. I tried it, and it was pretty good. I might have overdone it today. I managed to burn the brown sugar. It wasn’t so bad I couldn’t eat it, but it would have been better with a either little less brown sugar, or a little less cooking. I’ll continue experimenting as my stomach and patience allows.

I think we’re back to our normal sleep cycles. No more jet lag excuses will be allowed. Judy gets off to school and the fun times at faculty meetings. My first job of the day is to do a little shopping at the local wet market. After the really big market closed last fall, I never really found a good place for local fresh fruits and vegetables. I had seen all the tents a few times as I walked across the bridge on my way to Taiyanggong Station, but didn’t know what they were. Someone had mentioned they were the new “wet market”. It’s on the canal behind UHN. There were lots of fresh items, including some meats. I purchased a few things for my next wok adventure.

I dropped the stuff off at the apartment, and then headed to Metro to finish off my grocery list. I had lunch at Subway before heading back. I get everything put away and then head out to the bike rack for a trip to the barber. Today’s trip will be my longest bike ride yet, and I have to cross a very busy bridge. I’ve watched bikes and scooters cross it for a year now from taxis. If they can do it, so can I. The biggest trick is to be aware what’s coming at you from ALL directions. I survived the round trip. My haircut is another pleasing experience. I arrived early so they did a head massage while shampooing. I didn’t want to leave.

For whatever reason, probably the bike ride, I couldn’t stay awake when I got home. I fought it for awhile, but finally gave in. Judy wasn’t even home yet. She couldn’t wake me when she came in. That’s how knocked out I was.

We decided to go to Houhai Lake today. There’s so much in Beijing we haven’t seen. We had some time today, and we weren’t overburdened with schoolwork, yet. I’d read some about the area, but hadn’t visited, and since Judy visited Friday and was excited about seeing more of, today seemed like the perfect time to check it out.

The Drum Tower can be seen in the distance, over the top of Judy’s head.

One of the things I read was that there was lots of ice-skating in the winter on the lake. No ice skaters today, but there were swimmers, and boats. There are lots of shaded walk areas, but like much of Beijing, not enough benches to sit and enjoy the sites. We rode the train over and the station is 1 block from the lake, so it’s an easy walk. After we walked around half of the lake, we cut up into a neighborhood and wandered through the narrow streets, stopping at some interesting shops. As lunch time approached, the crowds began to show up.

We found a Starbucks and got rejuvenated with a mocha frappucino before heading home. Back at the apartment, Judy went to work on her computer, prepping for classes that begin Wednesday. When the Starbucks drinks wore off, we ordered a pizza delivered from Kro’s Nest. It’s huge, so it should feed us till Tuesday.

After a slow start to the morning, we taxi over to BISS. Judy needs help taking apart 10 sets of really heavy bongos (no elementary kid could use them). After the bongos, we hung large photos of BISS musicals in the hallway. They had to be taken down in May so the hallway could be painted during the summer break. She took pictures before they came down, so we’re replicating how they were hanging. She needed me for my height and my willingness to climb up on a shaky chair to staple border on the bulletin boards and hang the framed photos.

The rest of our day was spent at the apartment fiddling around with chores, and watching Season 3 of “Major Crimes”. This is a nice way to kill an afternoon and evening.

As we start into a new school year, and having completed 300 blogs, it seemed like a good time to review our travel adventures this past year. One of our goals when we came to Beijing was to take advantage of some travel opportunities.   Here a list of how we did:

Sept. – Seoul, Korea and the DMZ, 4 days

Oct. – Yangtze River Cruise, Chongching and Yicheng, 4 days

Oct. – Shanghai (Judy), 2 days

Dec. – Sanya, Hainan, China (“Chinese Hawaii”), 5 days

Dec. – US, Xmas Holidays, 14 days

Feb. – Phuket, Thailand, 9 days

April – Hong Kong, 5 days

April – US Trip (Gordon), 8 days

June – Courtney, Brad, and Glenda arrive and we tour Beijing, 5 days

June – Xi’an for Terra Cotta Warriors, 2 days (Courtney also)

June – Tokyo and Kyoto, 6 days

July – Amsterdam (via Warsaw), 4 days

July – Scandanavian Cruise, 12 days, departs & returns to Amsterdam

Berlin, Germany; Tallinn, Estonia; St. Petersburg, Russia;

Moscow, Russia; Stockholm, Sweden; Helsinki, Finland;

Copenhagen, Denmark

July – DFW & Baton Rouge, family visit, 10 days

As best I can figure it, we spent 85 days out of Beijing, flew in or out of 19 different airports, and rode on 22 tour buses or cars with guides. I think we got our money’s worth this first year. Now I’m beginning to plan for year #2. We’re looking forward to the new sights, sounds, and smells we’ll be experiencing.