Hooray! I’m back to my own classes today. Unfortunately, it’s going to be a long day. I have periods 1 & 2 classes on Thursdays. Period 1 begins at 8:00 am. With the hour commute on the train, and the need to arrive early to make sure everything is ready, I have to leave at 6:30 am. The commute is easier at this time of the morning. I spend about 20 minutes getting the room set-up with the projector and sound hooked up and ready to go.

There are four total classes of 11^th graders (17 students per class). Two are meeting 1^st period, and two are meeting 2^nd period. Thomas Potter, the art teacher and I have to meet the 1^st period combined classes and give them a spiel about our class. Then the students make their choice and off we go to our classes. I end up with 23 students, and 10 go to art. We repeat the process 2^nd period, and I get 24 and he gets 12.

Thomas grew up in San Antonio, and his last teaching position was in Dallas, Oak Cliff. It was a much different scene than the Martin Cluster in Arlington where I’d been teaching. He moved to Beijing last February and began teaching part-time at BHSFIC. They managed to spread him out into enough classes, and even a few technology classes to allow him to be full-time this year. He is living with his girlfriend (now fiancé) from Ireland. They spent 3 weeks this summer touring Southern China and Vietnam. It was more of a bus-riding / hostel sleeping type thing. They got to see a lot that country, up-clase and personal.

After my morning classes, I spent time working in my room, then had lunch at the school. After lunch, I walked across the street to a Starbucks for a needed caffeine “hit”, then back to the school teachers lounge. The administration had asked if I was willing to teach a music elective for interested 10^th graders on Thursdays. The class meets a “double-block” of periods 7 & 8. Today, we get to “sell” our class to all the 10^th graders. There are nine possibilities, ranging from French and Spanish classes, Math Contest, Physics, Confucius, Art, and Psychology (and Music). I put on my best “sell job”, and ended up with no one for my class. I thought I had a few “hooked”, but when the Math Contest guy started talking about traveling to the US for a contest, I knew I was out-matched.

After school, the Orchestra Club met, and played through our tune we’ll perform for the Club Fair in two weeks. Rehearsal went well. I had written out the parts in “Finale”, imported the file into “Garageband,” and added some percussion and bass “loops” to make it a little more interesting. We all enjoyed ourselves.

Around 5:30, I finished up, and started home. I ran into a group of faculty headed to a “hotpot” restaurant, and my stomach won me over. We rode the train to a station I hadn’t visited before, and had a blast. Good food, and good company! I also had the chance to check out a new shopping area for “odds and ends”. The other teachers tell me it’s a good place for school supplies. I finally got home around 8:45, and Judy was already in bed, looking for musical ideas on her computer for her Christmas programs.

Today starts much better than yesterday. Judy gets a taxi with no problem. I arrive at BISS for the band class well ahead of the 11:35 meeting time. The students are making steady improvement, and we’re having fun. We have all the brass and woodwinds together today, and they did a nice job of working together and having patience while I worked with the smaller groups.

Some of the band classes at BISS. It’s part of a 12 week exploratory unit.

After class, I make my standard trip to the nearby Chinese restaurant for the green beans. I also ordered green beans to take home for Judy, as well as an order of gunbao chicken.

The trip home in the taxi takes forever. I can’t believe how much traffic there is for non-rush hour. At the apartment, Lilly is still cleaning so I put away the food, and start working on my school materials. Tomorrow is my first class day, and I need to make sure everything is ready tonight, before I go to bed. I’ll need to leave at 6:30 am tomorrow to arrive in time to organize the classroom and get set-up for class.

The taxi home for Judy takes an hour? Unbelievable!!! Something’s going on, but I don’t know what. I can track her trip home on the “Find My iPhone” app. I think she could have walked home quicker.

Some days, life in Beijing is pretty mundane.  Not today!  We’ve had rain intermittently for several days, and as we left the apartment at 7:00 am this morning, a light rain was falling.  I’m going in with Judy to help with the “band instrument” unit.  No taxis were waiting, and there were already a few BISS faculty waiting.  We stood around 15 minutes and had no luck.  A couple of the faculty walked down the street to try to catch a bus.  We walked to the other side of the street hoping to have better luck catching a cab.  Still, we had no luck, after 30 minutes.  We decided to walk to the train.  This is the first time ever Judy hasn’t managed to get a taxi to school.

After a 10-minute walk in the rain, we arrived at the station.   We walked down to the platform and I knew immediately something “funky” was going on.  There were lots of people lined up.  I had never seen lines for the train at Taiyanggong.  We got in a long line with 5 other faculty from BISS.  We stood for 15 minutes waiting for a train.  Trains normally come through every 2-3 minutes.  When a train finally arrived, only a few people got off.  We weren’t able to cram on, but we moved to the front of the line.  7 minutes later a 2^nd train arrived.  Everyone managed to get on but me.  They all had classes to get to, and I was just helping.  I caught the next train that arrived 8 minutes later.

The trains were as crowded as I had ever seen.  Lots of people were waiting for fewer trains than usual.  Every stop, more and more people crammed on.  I finally arrived at the transition station, fought my way out the door, and walked to the next train platform.  The first train that came by was jammed and I couldn’t squeeze on.  The 2^nd train (4 minutes later) didn’t even stop.  It just rolled through the station and kept going.  I got on the 3^rd train, and eventually arrived at the station for BISS.  I walked around to the station exit closest to BISS, but the escalators weren’t working, so I had to climb 9 flights of stairs (17 stairs per flight).  Out of the exit, the walk to BISS was about a quarter of a mile through the light rain.  I finally arrived at the school around 8:35 am, and headed up to help Judy with class.  Needless to say, I was wet from the rain, but sweat was also adding to the misery.  This was the toughest transportation day since we’ve been here.  Not fun, but certainly a vivid memory.

After class, I relaxed a little, then walked over to the neighborhood Chinese restaurant for an early lunch.  After lunch, I taxied home, and began working on school planning.  Judy arrived home around 5:00pm (really early for her).  We put together dinner, and finished off the evening with two episodes of “House of Cards” season 2.

Today is an early morning for me. There haven’t been too many days I’ve left the house before Judy, but today is one of them. It’s the first day of school for all the Chinese schools. Beijing #4 is having opening ceremonies at the main campus. They’ve asked us to arrive at 7:30, so I leave the apartment at 6:45. I get a taxi and off we go. The traffic is really bad. Later in the day, on the CCTV news, there is lots of discussion about how bad the traffic is around China on the first day of school. I would believe it. We were in the middle of lots of “stop and go” traffic, mostly “stop.”

I finally arrive at the main campus around 7:45. The rehearsal for the student groups is still going on. The ceremony begins on time at 8:00. It begins with a performance by the incoming male students. They’ve been doing military training for the last two weeks, and they demonstrate some of their martial arts training and marching skills. It’s followed by a flag presentation and flag-raising by student groups and singing the Chinese National Anthem and the Beijing #4 School Song. Next are a series of speakers, including a student, former faculty, current faculty, and the principal. The ceremony finishes around 9:00 am.

Pictures from the opening ceremonies. The faculty was seated nearest the camera. The students fill up the rest of the field. Parents are at the very back.

Students demonstrating martial arts training

Classes at my campus start after lunch. I don’t have a class until Thursday,, so I’m homeward bound. It takes a while to find a taxi, and I finally get home around 10:00 am. I spend the rest of the day working on plans for my classes. I’ve got a lot of material from last year, and I saved everything, but I need to formulate a better plan to present it. We’ll see how it goes.

Today is the “Welcome Party” at BHSFIC. It’s raining, and I’m wearing a suit, so I taxi over. It’s really hot and humid today. I arrive about 8:15, and head up to my classroom to test all the sound equipment and the projector. Everything works so I had down to the auditorium for the program.

All the students and staff are seated in the auditorium. There are several student speakers, and the principal and Dr. Prettyman speak. All the speeches are in Chinese and then tranlated into English. The faculty is introduced. There are some musical numbers and some dancers. The end of the program is a group of the Chinese faculty dancing. It’s a big hit!!!

These are the new faculty members at BHSFIC

After the session, there’s a short faculty meetingl After the meeting, we’re released, and a small group head over to a restaurant in the Xidan area. It’s a relaxing time with some really good fried rice and dumplings. I enjoy listening to the new teachers talk about their experiences in the new country. After lunch, we ride the bus back to school. I grab my backpack and start searching for a taxi. I’m still wearing a suit, and it’s really hot. I don’t want to crowd on a train, dressed like this.

Back at the apartment, Judy’s been taking care of schoolwork and planning for the week. We were planning on going out and getting some dinner later in the afternoon, but it starts raining really hard, so our plans change. We end up eating some of the food we have in the apartment and finishing “Scandal” season 3. I’m glad to be through with that for a while. Maybe it will get better next season.

We’ve been working on our travel plans for the end of the month. The National Day Holiday for BISS begins Saturday, Sept. 27, and extends to Oct. 5. It’s a Chinese Holiday, so we’re trying to find a spot outside of China. We finally got confirmation on a week-long trip to Malaysia. It’ll included Kuala Lumpur, then a trip into the Malaysian Highlands and a colonial plantation. The last several days will be spent on a private island in a villa on stilts over the ocean. We are pumped!

Our project for the day is to get a deposit transferred to the travel company. We walk over to our nearby Bank of China outlet, and get it completed. While we’re there we run into a couple of teachers from BISS. They’re setting up an online account. I tried it when we first arrived last year, but the BOC website wouldn’t run on a Mac. When they finish, the clerk helps us set-up our online account. This is big news for me. Until now, I could only check the account at an ATM machine. Now I can check it from the comfort of our apartment. If I understand the process, I’m going to be able to make transfers from the account from home also.

Back home later, we finish up some chores, watch some “Scandal” episodes and order food in from Avocado Tree. We really enjoy dinner, but “Scandal” is getting tiresome. I enjoyed Season 1, and about half of Season 2. Season 3 is the same thing, episode after episode. They have to solve problems they’ve created for themselves, over and over, and over and over, and over and over.

Judy has an assembly today. The 5^th graders are performing. They have a great performance! Judy has said several times what an unusual group they are. The girls enjoy the singing and dancing, of course. The boys in the group also enjoy it, and she’s been having a blast working with them.

I go out for a bike ride, not really sure where I’ll go. When I get on, I realize I have a really low bike tire. It’s been low before, so I’m going to have to get it fixed. First I ride over to the nearby corner bike tech and get my tire aired up. Then, I ride over to a “Giant” bike shop. The bike I have is a “Giant”, and I’ve had several small issues I want them to check out. My brakes have been spongy, so they adjust them, “no charge.” Then I have them replace the rear tube. It costs $5, including labor, and takes 20 minutes.

I just missed a great picture of the little motorized bike cart. There were 9 workers on it, headed to their next landscaping job. That’s a water hose hanging off the back.

While they’re working on the tire, I walk over to nearby Sanyuanli Market, and buy some nuts. Judy’s been craving peanuts, so I stocked up on regular peanuts, and also some “hot” peanuts she really likes. As I’m leaving the market, I have to stop off in the bakery. It smelled too good, so I added some fresh bread to my bag. This market has everything, fruit, vegetables, meat, fish, bread, noodles, and even imports. It’s a series of small independent vendors, and some are pretty aggressive with the sales pitch.

One of the meat vendor shops in Sanyuanli. I think the long thing on the right is an oxtail.

With my bike, and my nuts and bread, I start back toward the apartment. I haven’t played table tennis lately. I’m carrying my equipment, just in case I had the time and the desire, so I adjust course and head over to the table tennis club. When I arrive it’s around 2:30 pm, and a really slow time. There are about 20 players scattered around. I walk in, find my usual area, get my stuff out, and wait for an opponent. A guy walks in, sets up his net, and sits down, waiting, but he seems to be waiting for someone. After about 20 minutes, the old guy who manages the club (and has sorta befriended me) walks by, sees us, and motions to the guy sitting next to me that I can play. He offers to play and we get started. We played almost 2 hours, and I’m worn out when I finally decide to leave. My game and reflexes are definitely better.

After the bike ride home, I shower and wait for Judy to get home. She gets in around 6:00, and we head over to Bluche for the Friday night social. No one is at Bluche. We walk across the plaza, and find the BISS group at BKOB, a similar restaurant. They have a better patio area, and we enjoy the remainder of the evening visiting with old and new faculty.

Today is a pretty quiet day. I made the rounds for groceries. I walked over to the local wet market and bought some fruits and vegetables. When I got home, I washed the vegetables, getting them ready for cooking later today.

I went over to Metro after lunch for my weekly “stocking up” visit. This is the best place for Diet Coke, cereal, cheese, and I’ve been buying our chicken breasts here the last few times.

Back home later, I cut up the chicken and prepared my “special sauce”. I marinated the meat and put it in the refrigerator for a couple of hours. When I get everything cooked up later, it’s really good. I guess because of my use of Tabasco, it tastes closer to a Southwestern dish than an Asian dish. I’m not too particular what kind of dish it is. I’m too busy eating it.