A new work-week begins, after a successful “Annie” presentation.  BISS is beginning auditions for BISS Idol, the school talent show.  Judy has auditions scheduled for the elementary students Tuesday thru Thursday.  She’s curious what she’s going to see and hear.

I’m putting together materials for my classes this week, and several weeks to come.  We’ve been doing some talking about “The Beatles”, and there are great videos available on YouTube.  Internet access and speed varies widely, so I have to download and save anything I want to use.  I have a program that lets me save a YouTube video for later use, but depending on the internet speed, it could take 2 minutes, or an hour.  On a day when we’ve got good internet, I have to work like crazy.  On the slow internet days, it’s a real beating.

I’m not sure what kind of information you might be getting in the U.S., but for the next two weeks, the CPCC (Central Party of the Chinese Communist party), and the NPC (National Party Congress) are meeting in Beijing.  The meetings are held at the Great Hall of the People, near Tian’anmen Square, just down the street from my school.  We received an email reminding us of the meetings, and the possibility for traffic issues.  I travel by train so I don’t anticipate any problems when I go at the end of the week. 

There is definitely a heavier security network in place, due to the government meetings, but also due to the attack at the Kunming Train Station (not in Beijing).  As I went through the usual subway security this morning, all bags are scanned.  Today, however, there was someone with a wand, randomly scanning people walking through.  They stopped me and pointed at my water bottle.  I thought they were telling me to throw it away, like at the airport.  Actually, they only wanted me to drink a little bit of it, I guess to prove it wasn’t explosive.  It’ll be an interesting two weeks.