Judy has her first program today. The BISS Elementary choir sings two songs at the assembly today. They are a “BIG” hit. Judy says they actually sing quite well. When we join many of Judy’s faculty at the Friday evening “unwinding” at Bluche Restaurant, all they can talk about is how great it was. They had no idea what they were getting when they hooked her.
After school, auditions began for “Annie”, the BISS musical for the year. Judy says the kids have great attitudes, and are eager. The faculty members she’s working with all have strong talents to bring to the production, and are great with the kids. The real struggle is working through the paperwork to get the “permissions” paid, so they can get the music.
I spend more time in meetings, learning about my students. The counselor talks about the difficulty of meeting the students/parents expectations for college acceptance. They all expect to get into Harvard, or Cornell, or Stanford, or MIT. They’re not pleased if they have to settle for less.
Many of the students live on campus in the dorm rooms on the 5th floor. They only get to use their phones after 9:00 pm, and lights go out at 10:30 pm. They have required study times after dinner, between 7:00 and 9:00. If they have an evening activity, there’s no time for homework. The 11th grade students have a total of 13 different classes spread out between 40 possible classes (5 days, 8 classes per day). The music class meets twice each week.
After the BISS “unwinding” at Bluche, we join Deb & Graham (Austrialians from the Burger Contest a few weeks back) for dinner. They take us to their favorite “local” chinese restaurant near their apartment. We are treated to 4 different vegetable dishes, and 3 different meat options (BBQ). We are stuffed when we leave, and the evening cost us $15. I’m liking this part of China really well.