{"id":2873,"date":"2015-03-22T14:48:49","date_gmt":"2015-03-22T07:48:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/gordonandjudy.com\/?p=2873"},"modified":"2015-03-22T15:07:20","modified_gmt":"2015-03-22T08:07:20","slug":"thursdayfriday-3-19-20-15","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/gordonandjudy.com\/?p=2873","title":{"rendered":"Thursday\/Friday, 3\/ 19-20 \/15"},"content":{"rendered":"

THURSDAY, 3\/19\/15<\/strong><\/p>\n

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The Pre-K kids meet Judy at the door when she arrives at their classroom. That’s a lot of energy to rein in!<\/p><\/div>\n

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I\u2019m out early, with a new plan for traveling to school. If I\u2019m going by train, the worst part of the trip (knee pain) is the long walk from the apartment to the station, and the long walk during the two train changes that get me to Yonghegong Station and Line 2. There\u2019s never a chance to sit down on either of the first two trains. Line 2 from Yonghegong is a long ride, but I always find a seat. The taxi ride from the apartment, all the way to school, usually costs between 50 & 60 yuan, and takes 30 to 40 minutes.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve decided to taxi to Yonghegong and catch the train, taking out all the long walking and a half-hour of train riding. The 15 minute taxi trip to Yonghegong costs 20 yuan. Hooray!!! I\u2019m saving a little money, a little time, and a little knee irritation. Success!!!<\/p>\n

As I finish class, I find out the orchestra club is planning to meet after school. I\u2019ve got a few ideas about what to play today, and then we\u2019ll get a chance to talk about the rest of the semester. There\u2019s not much semester left, only 4 more weeks. The guitar club guys have decided to record the tunes they worked on while they\u2019ve been at the school. They\u2019ve got it all figured out, and don\u2019t need much from me right now.<\/p>\n

FRIDAY, 3\/20\/15<\/strong><\/p>\n

Judy has a big day with puppet shows with the grade 2 students. She\u2019s had to find musical excerpts to fit each of the different scenarios played out by the puppets. It\u2019s the culmination of her \u201ccollaboration\u201d with Grade 2. She\u2019s also helping students participating in the elementary talent show next week refine their musical selections. There are several kindergarten students with 5-minute performances, that have to be reduced to two minutes or less. It\u2019s time consuming, and when she gets home, she realizes she never had time to drink her tomato soup. She had students in her room all-day, including lunchtime. She is famished.<\/p>\n

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Judy & the Grade 2 teachers. The red sweaters weren’t planned. It just happened.<\/p><\/div>\n

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Grade 2 – showing off their puppets<\/p><\/div>\n

I taught my classes, ate lunch, and visited with several of my compatriots. I think it\u2019s going to work out for me to travel with a couple of them to Tibet at the end of April. I really wanted to get to Lhasa before we left China, but Judy wasn\u2019t interested. I\u2019m pumped about the prospect of actually getting to go.<\/p>\n

I stopped at the Vietnamese Embassy on my way home and picked up our passports with the visas we need for our trip next week to Hanoi and Halong Bay. It was an easy process. I always enjoy the taxi ride through the embassy area, looking at embassies from everywhere (Sri Lanka, Mongolia, Egypt, etc.). While I was waiting for the visa office to open, I killed time watching the guard at the Mongolian Embassy march around opening and closing gates. I kept trying to get a picture, but every time I pulled out my camera, he would stomp his foot, and give the \u201cno\u201d sign with his hand.<\/p>\n

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 <\/p>\n

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THURSDAY, 3\/19\/15 I\u2019m out early, with a new plan for traveling to school. If I\u2019m going by train, the worst part of the trip (knee pain) is the long walk from the apartment to the station, and the long walk … 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\/2873"}],"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=2873"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/gordonandjudy.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2873\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2880,"href":"http:\/\/gordonandjudy.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2873\/revisions\/2880"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/gordonandjudy.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2873"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/gordonandjudy.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2873"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/gordonandjudy.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2873"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}