Today, I spend more time travel planning.  It’s time consuming because after every question I have for the travel agent, I have to wait for her to reply before I can make a decision, and many times it requires another question.  I’m making progress, but it’s taking a long time.

I decide to visit the Courtyard Marriott to check it out for the kids’ visit this summer.  It’s cheaper than the Marriott, and more accessible to our apartment (less traffic issues between the apt. and the hotel). I make the walk over to the Marriott for my swim.  Afterward, I talk to the sales dept. at the Marriott about the rooms and dates I need.  When I finish, I taxi over to the Courtyard Marriott.  I give them the same info, ask to visit a room, and then eat a burger to check out the restaurant (great excuse, huh).  The room is really nice, the food is good, and the price is way better than the Marriott, so I book it for summer.  Yea!  Something is marked off my list.

The taxi trip home is short & quick, and I celebrate the success of the day with some ice cream.  Judy gets home earlier than usual, and joins me in ice cream heaven, talking about her day.  Deb and Graham, the Australian friends who’ve shown us the ropes on food in Beijing, just got back from a job fair in Bangkok.  Deb got a job at a school in Cambodia, and is really excited.  Shannon, Judy’s friend who just got the job as the Elementary Principal for next year, keeps Judy informed about all the trials and tribulations involved in hiring new staff.  It’s tough to find the right people, and you know you’ll be working with them for at least two year, so you better get it right. 

“Two weeks” until we leave for Phuket, and another vacation.  That is our battle cry right now, at least for Judy.  I’m off for the next five weeks, so I’m going to try and get ahead on my school planning, and fully plan our personal trips in April and May, as well as the kids’ visit in June.  Then I need to solidify details on our July Scandinavian Cruise and followed by a return to the US.  I’m going to be spending way too much time on the computer.

Travel planning today makes my head spin.  So many different destinations and dates, I couldn’t stay focused on one activity, wasting lots of time, bouncing from one trip to another.  I finally take the time to type up a “Travel To Do” list, organized by trip.  It takes longer than I thought, but I finally have a “hit list” I can begin to work through.

Needing a break, I walk over to Metro for some grocery shopping.  I picked up the items I needed, but I succumbed to temptation and picked up enough ice cream for Judy and I to last several days.  I was a baaaaad boy!  After getting home and unpacking, I decide to balance out my ice cream purchase with some exercise, so I walk over to the Marriott, swim, and walk back.  I hope I’m not so sore I can’t walk tomorrow.  My knees are creaking pretty good when try to get up from my chair tonight.

Our activities today are hardly worth writing about.  Judy is scrambling to finish posting grades.  The system is very complicated, and since she is teaching every level from Pre-K to grade 8, she has a lot of students needing grades posted.  She started working on her laptop at 6:00 am, stopping only for short breaks until around 6:00 pm.   At that point, she began watching video of several “Annie” presentations, working on choreography for segment she has to teach students during lunch tomorrow.

I spend most of my time researching activities and tour possibilities for the summer visit of Courtney, Brad, & Glenda.  I also spend time making plans for our own travel.  It looks like a Scandinavian cruise is on the docket for July, followed by a trip to the US before a return to Beijing around Aug. 1.

The pictures below were taken at Metro when I visited last week.  Everywhere you go, people are decorating for the Spring Festival/Chinese New Year.  I believe “red” seems to be the color of choice.  It’s going to be the Year of the Horse, so many horse sculptures/pictures are everywhere.

We have a weekend ahead of us with a new experience.  We’re going to attend a performance of “Swan Lake”, by the Kiev Ballet, at the National Center of the Performing Arts (NCPA).  But there are things to do before then.

Judy has a haircut scheduled, and I walk over to the Marriott for my exercise session.  We get home about the same time, and each do a little schoolwork.  We leave the apartment and taxi to a Marriott near the NCPA for dinner.  We have a coupon for a free buffet for two.  The food is great.  Every time we eat at a different restaurant in Asia, we see something new, either in the preparation of the foods, or an entirely new dish we haven’t seen before.  At this one, each table has a small portable hotpot.  Items to cook are at one of the buffet stations.  People throughout the restaurant are cooking their own fish, beef, vegetables, etc.  I manage to over-indulge myself on desserts.  I hope I can stay awake thru the ballet. 

We taxi over to the NCPA and work our way to the entrance.  The security is pretty heavy, with scanners, bag x-rays, and electronic wands.  It’s almost like the airport.  It’s a gorgeous building, inside and outside.  We have great seats and the ballet is wonderful.  The sets are elaborate, and the dancers are great.  This is my first ballet.  Judy has seen several Nutcracker presentations through the years in Arlington.  I’m trying to take in all the visual and musical moments. 

I wish I could take credit for this picture. It’s a beautiful building.

The orchestra overall did a great job.  They pulled a little in a few spots.  I enjoyed watching the conductor trying to isolate the problem and pull the group back together. 

It’s like a ghost town at BHSFIC today.  With all the 10^th graders already dismissed, any faculty not teaching an 11^th grade class are getting money out of the bank (no small task if it’s more than pocket change) or they’re home packing.  Most of the students are in class, but they’re not exactly eager for learning today.

I get home, ready to start my own “Spring Festival” break.  Judy calls to let me know she’ll meet me at Bluche for the regular Friday BISS after-school “wind-down”.  It’s fun seeing everyone again and hearing stories of their holiday break.  Our trip to Texas seems boring listening to the exotic destinations that others visited.

There’s a lot of talk about new jobs, and who’s going where next year.  Several of the older teachers are moving to new jobs at BISS.  Others are discussing their new jobs in Bali, or Prague, or Hong Kong.  It’s still weird to hear about all these international placements.

Today is my first day back at school.  It’s a weird week, since the students completed finals last week.  Attendance is really good, considering nothing they do this week will affect their GPA.  The 10^th graders meet right after lunch as a group to receive their report cards and last minute instructions for their trip to the US.  All 80 of them are leaving Saturday for schools in the US.  They’ve been assigned one of six schools.  They’ll be living in homes and attending classes for 4 weeks, before returning to Beijing and starting the next semester in February.

The faculty is pretty excited.  Many of the US teachers will be accompanying a student group to the US.  For those not accompanying students, they’re taking their first trips home to visit family and friends.  They’re counting down the hours until departure.

The 11^th graders traveled to the US last year.  This year during the break, they’re making a 3-day trip to Singapore to take the SAT.  It’s about 1000 miles, one way.  They’re traveling as a group, and a few of the faculty are accompanying them.

I received a report back from several people that the talent show went well while I was in Texas.  The orchestra played well, and the guitar group was a big hit, playing a Green Day tune.  Since 10^th graders make up a large part of the orchestra, and they’ve been dismissed from school to prepare for their flight to the US, we don’t meet after school today.  The guitar club is beginning work on a new song.  My job is to put together the drum track on Garageband for them to work with.  For the orchestra, I bought ensemble music at Pender’s in Denton while I was home.  I’m going to select a couple of tunes for the group to play, and work on the arrangements during my month-long break.

MONDAY, 1/6/14

We’re back to our normal “Beijing” life.  Judy is headed to school.  During the holidays, Judy’s friend Shannon was announced as the new Elementary Principal, effective August 2014.  Kyra, the principal who hired Judy, has accepted a position as a K-12 principal at a school in Indonesia.  It’s another example of life in an international school, people move on.  Judy’s ready to catch up on all the BISS gossip, but school is too busy, and Shannon is in Sydney at a job fair.  It’s after 8:00 before Judy gets home.  It’s not a surprise.  Like I said earlier.  We’re back to our normal “Beijing” life.

I’ve decided to join the Marriott Health Club.  BISS has a corporate membership for all their teachers, so I figure I’ll enroll at the same place, and Judy and I can go together sometimes.  Since Xmas is over, I’ll have much less need to head to the markets for shopping.  Maybe I can actually find time to improve my own health situation?

The Marriott is about a 1¾ mile walk.  I’m going to try and walk it every day, weather permitting.  I make the walk, pay the membership fee for 6 months, and head into the pool for a swim.  Day one isn’t too bad.  I’ll start slow and build up my distance, or at least that’s my plan.  I walk back home, and once I hit the door, jet lag and exercise combine and force me to take a nap.  I wake up long enough later to go to bed. 

TUESDAY, 1/7/14

Judy gets off to school smoothly.  She has a good day, and gets home early (by her standards), around 5:30.  She’s tired, and heads off to bed early.  It probably has something to do with jet lag.  I woke up around 2:00 am and couldn’t get back to sleep, so it’s a long morning.  I eventually head out to the Marriott and get in my exercise.  Afterwards, on a whim (and hunger-motivated), I walk over the South German Bakery for some bread to take home.  I don’t need it, but I sure did want it.  Back home, I continue work on our summer travel planning.  Lot’s of ideas and possibilities exist, so I’m mostly doing exploratory work.

WEDNESDAY, 1/8/14

I’m still not sleeping through the night, waking up at 3:00 am today.  More exercise is on tap.  I’ve got to develop some type of regular schedule.  I make the walk over, experimenting with a new route that saves ¼ mile.  After the workout, I go looking for some Home Plate BBQ.  They’ve moved to a new site, but their old site was supposed to reopen sometime soon.  When I arrive, it’s locked tight with no sign of any future opening.  Next door is the “Avocado Tree”.  It’s a “Chipotle” rip-off, and the food is good.  I enjoy a great burrito, grab a take-out menu, and get info on delivery.

Back home, I work on class prep for my final two classes this semester.  I’m also working out how to get connected to Celebrity Cruises.  If I use regular internet, the Celebrity website doesn’t work.  If I use the VPN, the website is confused because it thinks I’m in California, but my info says I’m in China.  I finally get a connection to a Beijing travel agency that schedules for Celebrity Cruises.  I may have solved the problem, but only time will tell.

Judy is scheduled to get home early today.  We’re supposed to go the police station and register our return from the US.  It requires passports, a copy of our apartment lease, and a tax certificate proving our apartment owner is paying tax.  Judy is late arriving.  Shannon is back in town, full of stories about the job fair in Sydney.  We finally make it to the police station, in a secluded neighborhood.  When we finish, it requires a long walk to get back to a place where taxis are running.  We finally grab a taxi, and get home, ready to eat a little dinner and hit the sack.  It’s been a long day since 3:00 am.

SATURDAY, 1/4/14

We woke really early (around 2:00 am), thanks to jet lag.  Judy begins to unpack the bags.  I start planning grocery shopping, but my plans never materialized.  We are both moving really slow.  Energy levels are really low today.  We eat, sleep, snack, and sleep some more.  It takes Judy most of the day to get everything put away.  I’m beginning to plan the summer visit of our kids to Beijing.  We’re working on our entire summer schedule, including a possible cruise, and a trip back to the US.  Living in China complicates things a little since some websites don’t work here.

I decide to order a pizza.  There are language issues when I try to give them our address.  I thought I did okay, but the pizza arrives two hours later, after numerous update phone calls.   It didn’t stop us from eating it, however.

Several times during the day I received calls from United Airlines verifying we were missing luggage (our missing luggage paperwork was handled at the airport by Air China).  The second call was telling me they would deliver it when it arrived.  I asked it if had been found, but language issues kept me from getting a straight answer.  Just as I was about to go to bed (around 9pm) we get a knock on the door.  Our luggage has arrived.   Whew!  Relief!

SUNDAY, 1/5/14

This jet lag is killing us.  It seems to be affecting me worse than Judy.  I can’t seem to sleep past 1:00 am.  Then I’m up until noon when I need a nap.  It’ll be nice when my body adjusts.  Judy finishes unpacking our newly arrived bag, then begins class prep for tomorrow.  I make the walk to Metro for groceries.  I found the Haagen Dazs stash.  Yum!  Back home, we unpack, and eat the ice cream.  Still can’t seem to get my body on track, so I take another nap.  I wake up just in time to go to bed.  I’m glad I don’t have students tomorrow.

We had a great Xmas holidays!!!!  It was so fun to visit with family and friends in DFW.  Jet lag proved a troublesome.  I guessed it would take a week to begin to feel right, and I didn’t miss it by much.  Our bodies kept trying to sleep during the day, and too many nights we woke up at midnight, unable to fall back to sleep.

Courtney had us in a great hotel, The Magnolia, in downtown Dallas, across from her apartment.  Her apartment has an agreement with the hotel to accommodate visiting family members of residents.  The price was tremendous, and the accommodations were first rate.  The price included breakfast, and cookies in the evening.  We took advantage of both way too freely.  We spent the last 3 nights in a guest suite at the Tower Condominiums in downtown Fort Worth.  Debbie Hunn was a huge help setting it up.  We’re beginning to look ahead to our move back to the US (whenever that is).  Downtown Fort Worth sure seems like a possibility.

We arrived with 4 checked suitcases that were fully packed, 2 personal bags we carried on, and a 30lb. box of tea cups for Xmas gifts.  The box was a real pain to haul through the Beijing and Chicago airports, since it didn’t have wheels.  I was looking forward to an easier return trip.  Boy was I wrong.  Judy had ordered enough clothes and shoes to get her through the summer and next fall.  I made too many purchases as well.  I bought several items in anticipation of the arctic temps we’ll face when we return (face masks, ear warmers, etc.).  It’s just easier to buy things when we know what the sizes are.  We’re never sure in China what the sizes are, including shoes.

Judy also ordered 40 pair of rhythm sticks and 40 recorders for her BISS classes that were delivered to Courtney.  Packing for our return trip was interesting.  We ended up buying a small wheeled-duffel to get some of the stuff home.  Every time we travel we learn a lesson or two (or three) about how to do things better.

Super Shuttle picked us up at 4:00 am Thursday, Jan.2, in downtown Fort Worth.  Check-in went smooth in spite of really long lines.  Just as we neared the security entrance for TSA Pre, I was sent back to the ticketing counter to check the extra bag.  I thought it might make it through, but it was just a little too big.  I couldn’t even jump on it and make it fit the sample sizer.  After waiting through the long lines again, I made it back to Judy and we went through the TSA Pre security check.  It was much easier than the normal procedure.  We didn’t have to pull out computers and electronics.  We got to wear our shoes and our belts, etc.  Sooner or later, all our travel and frequent flyer miles will begin to pay off.

Our flight arrived in Washington DC twenty minutes early.  We must have walked a mile from our arrival gate to the departure gate.  Boarding was smooth and the flight gets off on time.  These long international flights are really different from domestic flights in the US.  Each seat has it’s own screen with individual controls.  I watched six different movies from DC to Beijing.  We also ate 3 meals.  Of course, it was a 13½ hour flight.  Judy slept a little bit, but I only slept about 15 minutes.  We arrived at 3:45 pm, Friday, January 3.  Customs was easy in Beijing.  The new International Terminal in Beijing is so much better than when we flew to Beijing in July.

The extra bag I checked in Dallas didn’t make it to Beijing with us.  We went through the process to track it, which is pretty interesting with the language barrier.  It eventually was delivered to our apartment late Saturday night.

We have to take two taxis to get home because of the amount of luggage we’re carrying.  Our apartment is a welcome sight when we arrive at 6:00 pm.  Lilly cleaned while we were gone.  We dump our bags and are in bed less than an hour after arrival.  Now comes the fun of our return jet lag.