{"id":1118,"date":"2014-03-10T06:43:33","date_gmt":"2014-03-09T23:43:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/gordonandjudy.com\/?p=1118"},"modified":"2014-03-10T06:43:33","modified_gmt":"2014-03-09T23:43:33","slug":"wednesday-3514","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/gordonandjudy.com\/?p=1118","title":{"rendered":"Wednesday, 3\/5\/14"},"content":{"rendered":"

Judy\u2019s BISS Idol auditions continue.\u00a0 Today she heard more pianists.\u00a0 They were well prepared.\u00a0 She also saw a group of four 4th<\/sup> grade boys (2 Chinese, 1 Japanese, and 1 Korean) with a dance performance.\u00a0 They did a great job, and had obviously been preparing.\u00a0 It wasn\u2019t improvised like you sometimes get with younger students.\u00a0 Judy asked how they had prepared.\u00a0 They told her they had been going to a dance academy for several months to prepare for this audition.\u00a0 BISS Idol may be a more serious activity than Judy had anticipated.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m supposed to begin my \u201cextra\u201d music elective class for 10<\/span>th<\/sup> graders today.\u00a0 Classes are scheduled for 2:15, but I\u2019m going to go over in time for lunch at 11:30 (it\u2019s free).\u00a0 I have time to swim before I go, so I pack my school stuff and swimming stuff and head out.\u00a0 Since I\u2019m dressed for school, I planned on taking a taxi.\u00a0 I\u2019m not interested in a long walk in these \u201cschool\u201d shoes.\u00a0 When I get to the street, I realize that traffic is really backed up on our street.\u00a0 I can also see that the 3<\/span>rd<\/sup> Ring Road traffic is moving slow.\u00a0 Also, no empty taxis are coming by.\u00a0 I walk across the street, planning to catch a taxi going the other way (no traffic issue), and get a ride over to the train station.\u00a0 From the train station, I can cut under the highway, and then catch a small shuttle bus that travels from the train station to the intersection near the Marriott.<\/span><\/p>\n

What a great plan!\u00a0 However, when I get a taxi, and tell him where to take me, he begins arguing with me and then pulls over to let me out.\u00a0 I think he misunderstood where I wanted to go.\u00a0 I tell him the street where the Marriott is.\u00a0 He indicates we\u2019re going to take a different route, and off we go.\u00a0 It\u2019s a circuitous route, but gets me to the street I need pretty quickly.\u00a0 Traffic is really bad here also, so I spend some time sitting in traffic.\u00a0 When I get close to the Marriott, the driver lets me out, and I finish with a short walk.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"IMG_0860\"<\/a>

Another one of those crazy bike\/trash guys. I don’t know where they take all this stuff, and how they make money on it. Someone must be paying something somewhere for recycling materials. These guys are everywhere, and I haven’t seen any vehicles that look like a garbage truck, anywhere.<\/p><\/div>\n

After the swim, I walk out of the Marriott, and across the street, where I can catch a small shuttle.\u00a0 Each of the vehicles carries 8-10 passengers.\u00a0 I\u2019ve never tried this before, and I don\u2019t know how much it costs.\u00a0 I climb in, like I\u2019m a regular rider.\u00a0 When we get to subway station, everyone gets out, and we\u2019re met by someone collecting money.\u00a0 It costs me 2rmb, about 36 cents.\u00a0 This is so cheap!\u00a0 I\u2019ll probably use it more often now that I know the cost.\u00a0 Prior to this, my only contact with the shuttles was dodging them on the narrow road as I walked to the Marriott.\u00a0 They\u2019re electric and run silent.\u00a0 The only warning you get is a short honk, and then they buzz by.<\/span> <\/p>\n

Looking for something to liven up my life, I take a different train route to school.\u00a0 I\u2019ve decided to travel on Line #1, the train line that goes underneath Tian\u2019anmen Square.\u00a0 I\u2019m curious how heightened the security is for all the government meetings.\u00a0 It turns out to be an uneventful trip.\u00a0 Nothing is out of the ordinary, except for the added military guards at the train stations.<\/span><\/p>\n

At BHSFIC, I meet my new music elective class of 10<\/span>th<\/sup> graders.\u00a0 There are 6 students attending today.\u00a0 The 10<\/span>th<\/sup> graders just spent 4 \u00bd weeks in the US.\u00a0 These kids were in Miami, Ft. Lauderdale, Chicago, Monterrey, and Texas.\u00a0 It\u2019s fun to talk to them about their experiences.\u00a0 They lived in private homes, and attended classes in private U.S. schools.\u00a0 The girl who was in Texas attended Trinity Valley HS in Fort Worth, and lived on a ranch.\u00a0 She even got to attend the rodeo in Ft. Worth.\u00a0 It\u2019s fun to hear her impression about \u201chome.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Judy\u2019s BISS Idol auditions continue.\u00a0 Today she heard more pianists.\u00a0 They were well prepared.\u00a0 She also saw a group of four 4th grade boys (2 Chinese, 1 Japanese, and 1 Korean) with a dance performance.\u00a0 They did a great job, … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/gordonandjudy.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1118"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/gordonandjudy.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/gordonandjudy.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/gordonandjudy.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/gordonandjudy.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1118"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/gordonandjudy.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1118\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1119,"href":"http:\/\/gordonandjudy.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1118\/revisions\/1119"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/gordonandjudy.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1118"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/gordonandjudy.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1118"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/gordonandjudy.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1118"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}