THE HEAT IS ON! For those of you who are regular readers, you know we’ve been told the heat in Beijing would be turned on sometime in November by the government. The water in the shower seemed warmer yesterday, but today we’re sure. The radiators in the apartment are warm. We’ve been lucky! It hasn’t been extremely cold, and our windows have max sun time during the day, so we’ve been very comfortable. In fact, most days I have to open a window to cool it down.
It’s an early day for me. Parent/Teacher Conference Day is at BHSFIC today. I have to be across Beijing by 8:00 am. I’m expecting big rush-hour train crowds, but it really wasn’t bad at all. I make it to the campus fairly easily.
“Free Interviews” for 11th graders take place from 8:30 to 10:30. This is the time for me to sit in my room, and wait for parents to walk by who might want to speak to me. There’s a big meeting at 10:30 for parents and students (teachers don’t need to attend). After lunch, scheduled interviews take place. These are interviews teachers have requested for parents to attend. I don’t have any scheduled interviews, and no one drops in during “Free Interviews”. I wasn’t expecting anyone. The parents are much more concerned about the AP classes their kids are taking since these will determine US college admissions (the reason they’re attending BHSFIC).
I spend most of my time on Facetime. I can “hard-wire” into the school’s stronger internet, so I take advantage and check in with family. I actually run out of time before I can reach everyone (Sorry Kathyrn and Courtney). I take time to visit with a few of the faculty members, and make sure the administration knows I was on campus, then I head to the train and home.
I managed to finally completely break our door lock last night (push-button finally broke and disappeared inside the locking unit). We’d had earlier issues with the lock, but now there is no way to open the door without setting off the alarm. I contacted the leasing agent last night (she’s in Nepal on vacation), and by the time I get home, it’s been changed out. Of course, I didn’t have the passcode yet, so I get to kill some time reading the iPad outside the apartment until the landlord arrives, and shows me how to set the new passcode. It’s great! The door had been an irritation since we arrived. This new one is really smooth!!!
Judy gets home, and I train her on the new lock (not as easy to you might expect). Then we get down to the business of hearing about her strategy for “Clue”. She’s gonna nail the guy, if she can just get to school early enough.