Day 2 at BHSFIC begins earlier. My classes on Friday start at 9:50. The hour commute means I have to be out of the apt. earlier than usual, especially if I need want to arrive in time to set-up the classroom ahead of the students. I’m not carrying my clarinet today, so the load is a little lighter.
I arrive about 9:20, and start setting up. After getting the music playing, I realize there’s no projector. I start checking around and there are none to be found today. Many of the rooms have mounted projectors. The few projectors that are not mounted are all in use so I’ve got to do some quick adjustment of my lesson plan. I’ve got a lot of musical excerpts, but they’re so much more interesting with video.
I check roll today, calling the students’ first names (in English). They each stood and told me their last names so I can begin to work on pronunciations. After roll, we start some simple rhythmic instruction, and we do some early rhythmic reading. The students seem to get the hang of it, but listening to the whole group counting in English is pretty interesting. We’ll build on this as the school year proceeds.
When I the finish the 2nd class, it’s lunch. The opinion of the faculty is that the food at the IC campus is better than the main campus. I fill up and start planning my afternoon. I have to figure out how to get to the foreign passport office, then back to the main campus to meet, Amy Song, who’ll be helping me set-up a bank account. With advice from several sources, I head for the subway. Coming out of the subway, it’s a long hike to the office. I find it, and pick up my passport with my long-awaited “year long” multiple entry visa. It basically means I can “come and go” as I please for a year. Most of the paperwork we’ve been doing since we started this whole process in January was to get this document. SUCCESS!!!!
I walk back to the train, travel to my next stop, and walk to the main campus. Amy meets me and we go to a nearby Bank of Beijing branch to set-up an account so I can be paid. Since payday is next week, this is an important job. One hour later, I have an account. We head back to the main campus business offices to complete more financial paperwork with my new visa and bank account, and by 4:30, I’m finished.
Judy’s school is “unwinding” as a group at the Drum & Bell Bar after school today. It has a rooftop patio and overlooks the courtyard between the Bell Tower and Drum Tower we visited a few weeks back. They’re traveling from school on a bus.
I catch a taxi to meet them. It sounds so easy to say “catch a taxi”, but I have to try and give directions. He seems unable to read the Chinese address on the information I have, and no matter how fast or slow I say “Drum and Bell Tower”, he isn’t getting it. I finally pull up a map on my iPad and a glimmer of understanding shows up on his face. He drops me off close to the historic sites, and I start wandering through the ancient neighborhood looking for the group. I finally find them and. join them on the roof.
It’s another gorgeous evening and we enjoy ourselves, sitting in the middle of all this history, meeting more of the very international faculty at BISS. There are so many unique individuals with interesting stories about their international teaching experiences and destinations. Much of the talk is about everyone’s destination for the October holiday. We hear talk about Bali, Mongolia, Phillipines, and Hong Kong. Our Yangtze River Cruise is beginning to sound “tame”. I think it’s going to be a great way to start off our travel experiences.
We drag ourselves home and quickly get to bed, looking forward to a lazy Saturday morning. I feel as though I walked all over Beijing. My knees are screaming at me. As I tuck the blanket under my neck, Judy laughs and tells me it’s 8:15. I was asleep by 8:20.