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.

We get out of our apartment as scheduled. A taxi is waiting and we arrive at the airport with time to spare. We check our bags, get our boarding passes, and begin the long trek to the international departures gate, immigration, and security. The plane departs on schedule and due to a huge tailwind, we get to San Francisco an hour ahead of schedule. Judy is sitting next to a guy on the plane who “knows everything and complains about all of it”. He even whines about arriving early and having to kill time before his next flight. He must have never missed a connection due to weather, etc.

Our layover in SanFran isn’t too long, and our Global Entry clearance gets us through immigration really fast. It’s a four-hour flight. We get our bags, recheck them, work our way through security again (TSA-Pre is helpful), and find our gate. The departure is delayed due to a late arriving plane, but we eventually get away.

Courtney meets us at the DFW airport, delivering us to a Rosa’s Café, where Brad and Glenda meet us. We have a fun reunion catching up on a few things and making plans for the next week over dinner. Brad takes Courtney back to Dallas. We take the car and drive to our hotel in West Fort Worth. We have two days in our hotel before the movers arrive with our stuff and we begin to move into our new Museum Place condo. Two more days and we’ll be back on our own bed and sitting on our own furniture. It’s going to be a great 2 ½ weeks here and in Baton Rouge, catching up with all our families.

I’m going to take a short hiatus from writing, but I’ll get back at it when we head back to Beijing. I may even have a moving story or two.

Today is a big day for the BISS elementary music department (Judy), and students. The annual Xmas program is a huge hit. Judy has done her usual masterful job of putting together a program where every student, in every grade level, gets a chance to perform. The program features a variety of costumes, props, and instruments. It’s short and sweet, and leaves everyone wishing for just a little more, which is exactly what she wants. I’ll try to post a picture or two of each group.

PRE-K

KINDERGARTEN

 FIRST GRADE

SECOND GRADE

THIRD GRADE

FOURTH GRADE

FIFTH GRADE

BISS CHOIR

After school we start putting together our stuff for the trip back to the states. It’s always a challenge to pack everything we need to take back and fit it into two large bags, and our carry-on. There’s lots of selecting and folding and cramming, etc., etc., etc.

Before Judy left school, Shannon discussed possibly coming over to eat some pizza. Dom, her husband, is out of town, and with school out for Xmas, she needs someplace to wind down after her first semester as the principal. No matter where the school is located, a principal is always dealing with parent issues, and Shannon had her share of them today. We make a plan, and begin our packing while we wait for her call. She had stuff to finish at school before getting out the door.

We work vigorously at our packing, and never heard from her. Judy sent a text, and didn’t get a reply. We tried to call, and she didn’t answer? I finally ordered pizza, but we’re pretty curious where she is. The pizza arrives, and we continue packing and eating (we’ve got a bunch to do tonight). Finally around 7:45 pm, there’s a knock on the door, and Shannon walks in with a great story, a true TIC (this is China) story.

She left school around 5:30. As she tries to hail a taxi, she calls to tell us she’s on the way, and her phone shuts down. She has no more minutes left. Like Judy, Shannon has no idea how or where to get a phone card, or how to input it, even if she did. This is “husband duty”, and Dom is in Australia, and has been for a week. She can’t even call anyone to find out how. It takes her 45 minutes to finally get a taxi, and the 3^rd Ring Road traffic is terrible. 15 minutes turns into 45 minutes.

When she finally gets to UHN, and walks into our building, she realizes she doesn’t know our apartment number. She knows how to find it when she gets off the elevator, but has no clue what floor we’re on, and no ability to call and ask. She can only remember we’re on the 15^th floor or above (we’re on the 25^th floor). So….., 10 floors (and doors) later, and lots of questioning looks from the apartment dwellers below us, she found us. We all have a huge laugh, and enjoy some more pizza.

We get a recap of her day and parent dealings, and then she heads home, hoping to find out from Dom (via Skype) how to load her phone. We’re up pretty late finishing our packing. Our 1:30 pm flight tomorrow isn’t particularly early, but one never knows what problems will be encountered when trying to get a taxi. The bulk of the packing needs to get finished tonight.

As usual, I have to take off early to get to school. My knees are feeling gimpy, and I decide to taxi over today. When I get into the cab, the driver’s gestures indicate he’s driven me to school once before. This is great, because I can sit back, relax, and let him worry about the route. I don’t have to sweat whether or not the driver really knows where I need to go. He drops me right at the door with a big smile.

Almost everyone is in class today. It’s been several weeks since that’s been the case. We spend some time talking about holiday music in the states and we even sang some Christmas carols, using some of Judy’s powerpoints. I followed that up with youtube videos of extreme home Christmas lights set to music.

At lunch today, we meet the guitar club for the first time. They’ve been meeting some on their own, getting ready for the school talent show, and have some good ideas in place. I just give them some ways to maximize the musical impacts.

Orchestra club meets after school, and the rehearsal goes ok. About half the group is attending, and they’re talking about also playing at the talent show? They actually could make it work, but they’re going to have to rehearse. To make matters worse, today is my last chance to meet with them before the talent show on Jan. 31. Like last year, my trip to the US means I’ll be gone when the talent show takes place. I hate they have to perform without me around for three weeks to push them, and fix a few things. Oh well!

When I’m not rehearsing the clubs, I spend the rest of the time putting together my sub plans for my absences. I’m going to miss only 3 classes, but it’s never easy to write plans that will keep the students busy and out of the teacher’s hair, especially when there’s a language barrier between the sub and myself. I’m also going to have a different person for each day, so that triples the problem.