Some cool gate doors we found at Panjuanyuan last Sunday.  Wish we had a gate to hang ’em on.

These are some pretty fancy slingshots.

We were looking for a nice teapot. This was one of about 15 different vendors selling them.

Need some beads?

I have a haircut scheduled for 1:00 pm, so I spend some time putting together my class plans for the week before heading over to swim. The pool opens at 9:30, but there’s a very regular group that show up when they open. I’ve decided to swim after 10:30 when the “regular” group begins to finish. When I walk into the building, the clerk lets me know the pool isn’t open. I’m not sure why. I’ll probably find out tomorrow. One of the “regulars” speaks enough English to converse with me, and he’ll update me.

Slightly disappointed that I’m not getting my exercise in, I make the decision to ride the bike to my haircut. I’m going to carry my table tennis stuff, just in case I feel up to it afterwards. Conveniently, there is a Homeplate BBQ between here and there. In keeping with my BBQ theme for lunch this week, I stop off on my way. It’s a nice day, so I get to sit outside and watch the locals pass by while I eat.

After my haircut, I’m trying to determine how windy it is. If it’s too windy, I’ll try to fly my kite. Even though the winds are borderline, I decided to try the table tennis park again. The wind is around 5-10 mph, but everyone else seems to not care, so I dig in. I end up playing two straight hours. I’m less tired than usual, so I must be getting in better shape? Afterwards, I head home on the bike. Judy gets home really late. She just can’t walk out if everything isn’t in place and ready to go for tomorrow morning. Judy arrives just in time to eat, get her clothes ready for the next day, and then go to bed. The little kids will wear a person out!!!! There’s no way I could do it!

Today is the official “turn off the heat day” in Beijing (March 16). The heat everywhere goes off. Beijing has been in a warming trend with lows around 32 F, and highs in the upper 50’s/low 60’s. The only heat we’ve had on in our apartment all winter is in the two bathrooms, only because we couldn’t turn it off. It gets so hot in here, with lots of windows and sun exposure. I open windows whenever I can (if the pollution isn’t too bad).

I have a new experience scheduled for the day. I’m going to the Embassy of the Republic of Vietnam to get visas for our trip in two weeks. I’m going in the afternoon when our ayi comes in. First, I go over to the wet market for fresh fruits and vegetables. I’m making soup for tonight’s dinner. After cleaning everything up, I go to the pool for my swim session. After swimming, I dress for traveling, with plans for the embassy, and the table tennis club if I feel like it.

The embassy isn’t too far from the Silk Market, so I walk over to Taiyanggong Station, and get on board. I hate the long transition at the Guomao Station from Line 10 to Line 1, but I need the exercise. In the Silk Market, I find a place that sells kite reels. I bought a kite yesterday at Panjiayuan and I need a cheap reel & string. After bickering and arguing price, I eventually get what I need. Now, it lunchtime, and Tim’s Texas BBQ is between here and the embassy. Isn’t that convenient.

After lunch, I walked two blocks over to the Embassy and found the Visa Office. There were about 10 people in various stages of getting their paperwork completed. I filled out the forms, stapled our pics onto the form and got in line. The total cost for the visas for both of us was around $150 USD. That’s the highest we’ve paid for entrance visas to anyplace we’ve visited. I can pick up our passports and visas on Friday. I’ll probably go by on my way home from school.

Outside the embassy, I hailed a taxi and gave directions to the table tennis park. It’s just too pretty not to get out and enjoy it. I’m always apprehensive as I walk in, never sure if I’ll get a chance to play. I end up playing with 4 different players over two hours. When I finally head home, I’m beat.

Back at the apartment, I start putting together the soup. It’s after 7:30 before Judy gets home. She has so many details to organize and put in place for her many different grade levels, she can’t get away. We finally enjoy dinner (I’m getting good at this soup thing), and catch up on each other’s day.

Judy’s ready for a recovery day. The weather’s so nice, we decide to go out and do a little sightseeing. I’ve seen a lots of sections of Beijing that she hasn’t. It’s a perfect day to visit the Panjiayuan Antique Market.

I guess this guy takes his bird everywhere on his bike?

Judy’s beginning to “warmup” her bargaining skills. She still starts too high. I’ll keep training her, but she’s a tough study.

We weren’t the only ones with the idea. The area is really crowded, beginning with the traffic. When we finally get into the main area, there a so many vendors. When I was here before, it was a weekday, and cooler. We have fun checking out items we might want to bring back to the US. I found a kite I can begin practicing my “flying technique”, so when I get a really good one, I’ll be able to handle it. Judy found a couple of rings she couldn’t walk away from. We found a few things we would’ve bought, if the price had been right, but it wasn’t, so we had to walk away. There were rows and rows of jewelry and beads, and almost anything anyone would want. I guess this might be considered a Beijing version of the “Canton Market” (as in Canton, TX).

We found some lamps we like, but we just don’t know where they’ll fit in our new “digs” in Ft. Worth.

Judy heads out at 7:45 for her 8:30 am Professional Development session. It’s all about assessment. When you’re looking at one “last” assessment, after 39 years of teaching, one of the last things you want to spend a half-day doing is sitting through discussions about “assessment”. Her attitude is grudgingly cooperative.

After the session, Judy and several of the elementary faculty travel to Homeplate BBQ to celebrate Shannon’s birthday. They have a cake and some good BBQ. Afterwards, its off to Lilly Nails for some nail touch-ups. After the nails, Judy and Shannon go over and visit Anna and her 5 month old baby. It’s after 8:00 when Judy finally gets home. It’s been a long day, split between boredom and fun.

I have a really active day. I start off with a trip to the wet market, then a swim. After the swim, I prepped the vegetables, and cleaned the strawberries (really good). I rode the bike over to the table tennis club. The weather is beautiful. The place was packed. All 30 tables were full, and over 40 people sitting around waiting for an open table. I sat for one-half hour before I finally got a chance to play. I’ve improved so much from when I started playing last May. I was worn out after almost two hours on a table. I rode the bike home, and put together the vegetable soup when I arrived. I’m gonna be sore tomorrow.

WEDNESDAY, 5/11/15

Now that our ayi is back to work, Wednesday’s are an early day for her (and for me). She arrives at 7:45 am. On Mondays and Fridays, she comes in between noon and 1:00 pm. I spend the first part of the morning working on class preparations for tomorrow. I head over for a swim session around 10:30, trying to get out of her way a little bit. After the swim, I came back and she’s finishing up. The rest of my day is spent finishing up my class prep.

Judy has a regular faculty meeting after school, arriving home late. We finish up the night watching an episode of “New Girl”. That should demonstrate how desperate the regular television situation is around here.

THURSDAY, 5/12/15

I have classes today, so I’m out the door, on my way to the train at 6:20am. The Beijing Subway system had adjusted their fares when we returned to Beijing after the Christmas holidays. The fares used to be 2rmb, no matter how far someone travelled. My travel cost for the train round-trip was 4rmb (about 64 cents). Now the fares reflect distance travelled. My trip to school costs 5rmb (84 cents) and going home is 4rmb (64 cents). I’m not sure why it’s different going one way than the other, unless time of day is a consideration.

After classes, I was able to eat lunch and catch up on what’s happening around school and the southwest side of Beijing. Since it’s early in the semester, I don’t have orchestra club, so I’m able to head home, arriving around 3:00 pm. Judy gets home much later. It’s just like Arlington. She stays busy with classes during the day, and spends a lot of time after school digging through resources and organizing materials for the next day.

FRIDAY, 5/13/15

My day is a repeat of Thursday, teaching classes, and traveling back and forth. Judy has a much different day. She has classes straight-thru, all day. Lunch is very short due to talent show auditions. Her Book Week assembly goes well. She spends a lot of time at school closing out the week, and doesn’t get home until nearly 8:00pm. She’s almost ready for a break. We have one coming in two weeks.

Judy’s costume for the Book Week Assembly. She’s on the far right if you can’t spot her.

I can’t remember what I thought I was going to do today, but Judy called and I had to start hustling to get ahead of a possible problem. She had received an email from BISS HR two weeks ago, detailing info about Visa renewal for returning and leaving? teachers. We ignored it, thinking it was for leaving teachers whose visas expired before the school year ended. Our visas don’t expire until July, well after our departure from Beijing.

Judy saw the Head of School today, and he reminded her about turning in her stuff for visa renewal. She quizzed him on our need to deal with it since our visas were good into July. He assured her that we did need to turn in all the necessary paperwork (marriage certificate, birth certificates, temporary residence permits, passports, foreign expert certificates) so our visas could be “de-certified”. The deadline is today???

I start digging through all our paperwork, getting the necessary stuff collected and organized. After swimming, I taxied over to BISS and gave all the stuff to Judy. She’s planning on turning it in after school. Since I’m in the neighborhood, I grabbed lunch at the local Chinese restaurant. I like several of the dishes and it’s been months since I’ve had the chance to eat there. After lunch, I walked down the street to the State Electric Grid office to pay on our electricity account. We’re paid up for several months now, maybe until we leave.

When Judy gets home, after going by the HR office, she is slightly irritated. We were right. They don’t need any of the information from us. Our visas are good and don’t need de-certifying. The HR clerk told Judy she just cancels our “Foreign Expert Certificate” when we leave, and the visa expiration takes care of itself. All that rushing and scrambling for basically nothing. It’s something that’s all too common here. People try to do the right thing, but the communication is just garbled enough be confusing. It’s not like I had important things to do, but I sure wasted time and money getting the materials to Judy in a timely manner. As we near the end of our tenure here, I’m sure there will more issues like this that crop up.

SUNDAY, 3/8/15

After the week Judy experienced, she is slow to start moving around. When she finally gets going, her main goal is to find a place to purchase some lotions to ease the skin dryness she’ been experiencing. She can’t sleep at night due to the itching and dryness. She takes off walking for the Galeria mall near Sanyuanquio Station where she found some things last year that worked.

My goal is to get to Metro for our weekly grocery shopping, and then over to the wet market for fruits and vegetables. I found the things we needed and Judy got home, stocked with lotions. We finish the day relaxing around the apartment and making sure preparations are completed for our week ahead.

Judy – talking to the audience at the end of the show.

MONDAY, 3/9/15

There’s “no relief for the wicked”, as the saying goes. As full as Judy’s week was this past week, she has another full week ahead. There is a “Book Week” assembly on Friday, and she has several small performances in which she’s a participant . Saturday, there is a Professional Development (half-day) activity. It was originally scheduled for November, but was moved because of the APEC Conference.

After swimming, I decide I’ve got to have a new swimsuit. My current swimsuit is too big. I remember it fitting ok last year. I’d like to think I’ve lost weight, but I’m not thinking that’s the case. It’s loose enough to concern me while I’m swimming laps, and there’s no reason to embarrass anyone else (or myself). I’m sure there are lots of places to buy suits, but finding that spot isn’t easy. I end up at a sporting goods store near Wangfujing. I found a suit that will work and a swim cap. I’ve never worn a swim cap before. Everyone wears one when I’ve been swimming in China, either at the Marriott or at UHN, so “when in Rome”.

Back at the apartment later, I mix up some vegetables for our evening soup. Judy gets home very late (after 7:30). She spent much of the time after school putting away stuff from the musical.

FRIDAY, 3/6/15

Today is the BISS musical, so Judy has a full day of activities. After school, she and the other staff make all the final arrangements, checking their lists, etc. The doors of the Annex, where the show is performed, open at 6:30. There’s a sizable crowd when they open, and there is a scramble for seats. By the time the show kicks off, the house is full, around 120 or so.

The show goes really well. There are some nice musical moments, as well as staging and light effects, and the crowd is appreciative. It’s always fun to watch the reaction of the actors when they realize the audience is reacting to what they’re saying. Some of the students really “stepped up” as the evening progressed.

After the final curtain, I help Judy clean up a few things, and prepare for the matinee tomorrow. We get home around 10:00 pm. It’s not long before Judy is “sawing logs”.

SATURDAY, 3/7/15

Judy leaves at 11:00 am. The show starts at 2:00. I leave around 1:00, arriving in time to participate in the scramble for seats when the doors open at 1:30. Another great performance of the show today! Several things went better. Judy put a fix on the ending/encore that helped a ton. The participating students were so excited at the end. It’s fun to watch them enjoying the results of their labor. The staff did a great job of putting together these performances, rehearsing only 45 minutes a week with the group. The first time everybody was together was “dress rehearsal” on Wednesday. So many vacations, holidays, sports activities, kept popping up.

After clean-up, the staff all met at a new restaurant, “Taco Place”, next to Homeplate BBQ in Sanlitun. The evening is a lot of fun watching the group “let their hair down.” Several Australians, Americans, and a scot, make for an interesting mix of accents and unusual phrases. We’re all constantly having to ask each other “what does that mean.” Everyone has stories to tell about the challenges of teaching a musical to a group of students where English is their 2^nd or 3^rd language.

THURSDAY, 3/5/15

My new semester starts today. Thursday classes begin for me at 8:00am, but my room is always wrecked out from various groups meeting at different times during the week or weekends. I try to arrive no later than 7:15 to guarantee I’ll have time to get set-up and all my materials and devices ready to go. It wasn’t too bad today when I arrived. I was expecting much worse after a holiday. A few times, I’ve had to go find chairs in other rooms or on different floors.

Time for a little straightening up.

After class, I worked on setting up the new grade book on the computer (has to be done each semester. I have to search the student names from a database of all grade 10, 11, and 12 students (about 190 total). It includes their Chinese name, as well as their English name. Of course, I don’t have their Chinese name in my info, so I get to scan every name, first looking for student ID numbers that start with 2013 (the grade 11 students), then looking for the specific students in my classes. It takes some time to work through it. They’re alphabetized by their Chinese family name.

At lunch, I enjoyed hearing more about everyone’s travel during the Winter Holiday. The guitar club guys meet during lunch. They’re reviving the music they’ve played in the past, 5 songs, and beginning to record it for themselves. Today is just a rehearsal day, no recording. The orchestra club isn’t meeting today after school. I’m not sure we’ll be meeting again this year. All the 12^th grade members have a required lecture session on Thursdays after school, so they won’t be attending anymore. Some of the grade 11 students are “in charge” now. We’ll see what they want to do for the remaining 6 weeks before all their tutoring and testing begins.

Back home, as it begins to get dark, fireworks start going off in the neighborhood. It seems to be heavier tonight? As it turns out, the 15^th day of the Chinese New Year is another big fireworks day. Looking out from the apartment, there are big displays all over the city. None of this is organized. It’s all individuals firing them off. These fireworks would be really expensive back in the US. They take their fireworks serious around here.

FIREWORKS VIDEO LINK:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/u8mm2beee0trdxj/15.3.5.Fireworks.MOV?dl=0

TUESDAY, 3/3/15

Judy’s working hard, keeping herself focused on the musical performances this weekend. As might be expected, all the staff and students are “feeling it”, referencing the tension of the looming performances. I’m sure it will come together, but right now, few of those involved would place a bet on “success”.

I get in another day of swimming, and narrow down my class plans for the weeks ahead. According to the calendar, I have 7 weeks (2 class days each week) before the mid-term exams. After the mid-terms, the 11^th graders begin an adjusted schedule of heavy tutoring for AP tests which take up the first two weeks of May. After that, they begin a 3-week session of intense SAT tutoring, culminating in the SAT test on Saturday, June 6. In more simple terms, I won’t have any classes to teach after April 17, until June 11, almost a two-month break. Then I teach Thursday and Friday that week, and I’m done! Any material I want to deliver to them had better get done really soon. This is the true definition of “part-time”.

WEDNESDAY, 3/4/15

Today, after school is the “dress rehearsal” for the musical. But before that, Judy has to go in and teach a group of elementary teachers a dance for a Library/Book Assembly next week. If she wasn’t earning her salary before, she definitely did today.

I’ve been looking for a time to try my hand at “wok cooking” again. It’s been a couple of months, and I’ve been avoiding it because of the mess I tend to make. I’ve got some chicken, and an open day, and Thursday and Friday are class days for me, so today is it!

After swimming, I go over to the wet market and buy snow peas, tomatoes, peanuts, and several types of peppers. While the chicken is thawing I do all the prep work. I’m not working with any kind of recipe, just a list of vegetables that could be included. The stir-frying begins with reasonable success. I end up with a chicken/vegetable dish that’s not too bad. I’m not ready for “Iron Chef”, but I can eat it with some pleasure.

I proudly dish it out to Judy when she comes in, too tired to appreciate the grandeur of the moment. I don’t think she’s even listening to me as I tell her about my day. Is this “role reversal” or what? Her “dress rehearsal” went reasonably well, and the end is in sight.