Our activities today are hardly worth writing about. Judy is scrambling to finish posting grades. The system is very complicated, and since she is teaching every level from Pre-K to grade 8, she has a lot of students needing grades posted. She started working on her laptop at 6:00 am, stopping only for short breaks until around 6:00 pm. At that point, she began watching video of several “Annie” presentations, working on choreography for segment she has to teach students during lunch tomorrow.
I spend most of my time researching activities and tour possibilities for the summer visit of Courtney, Brad, & Glenda. I also spend time making plans for our own travel. It looks like a Scandinavian cruise is on the docket for July, followed by a trip to the US before a return to Beijing around Aug. 1.
The pictures below were taken at Metro when I visited last week. Everywhere you go, people are decorating for the Spring Festival/Chinese New Year. I believe “red” seems to be the color of choice. It’s going to be the Year of the Horse, so many horse sculptures/pictures are everywhere.
After reading your almost daily posts about your new life halfway around the world, Donna keeps asking me, “And just WHO ARE THESE PEOPLE–the Harts??” “Where did this sense of adventure come from????” I remind Donna that these are the same Harts that traveled with 180 teenagers to Califormia and New York and all over! Now, THAT is adventure!
We are doing pretty well. We got a new dog at the start of the holidays, and Fantine Noel (had to be Les Mis-related) is working out well. She is about 12 pounds and white and fluffy. She fits in with the other two pretty well. Donna is starting back teaching pre-AP junior lit and AP English language and I am teaching another physics class this semester. My class last semester was very nice–great kids. I had two foreign exchange students–from Italy and France. This new group seems like a nice set of kids. We shall see!
Jennifer Johnson helped facilitate me doing another workshop at All-State (my third over the years). This time it was on teaching music history. I did a 45 minute sample presentation on Shostakovich, specifically his 4th and 5th Symphonies. It went well. I will begin a new series at Good Samaritan on January 29th entitled, “The Russians Are Coming, The Russians Are Coming.” I will do Tchaikovsky, Shostakovich, Mussorgsky, Prokofiev, and Rachmaninoff.
It is fun hearing about your daily routines, and the free-time escapades, as well! Sounds lie you guys are doing well! The Thailand side-trip sounds amazing! Being from Texas, they just might put you in the “elephant rodeo.” Watch out spurring them too hard! And it’s hard being an elephant rodeo clown. The last elephant picked up the barrel and threw it 240 yards out of the arena. Ouch.
Have a great semester!!!