{"id":619,"date":"2013-10-15T20:52:23","date_gmt":"2013-10-15T13:52:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/gordonandjudy.com\/?p=619"},"modified":"2013-10-15T20:52:23","modified_gmt":"2013-10-15T13:52:23","slug":"beijing-musings-101413","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/gordonandjudy.com\/?p=619","title":{"rendered":"Beijing musings, 10\/14\/13"},"content":{"rendered":"

Judy gets some bad news at BISS today.\u00a0 They informed the faculty that Corey, the second-grade teacher, had sent in his resignation, effective immediately.\u00a0 He had returned to the US during the long holiday last week due to a death in the family.\u00a0 Apparently his wife was so distraught over the death, they had made the tough decision to stay in the US.\u00a0 He\u2019ll have to come back to Beijing and pack everything up, and get it shipped home.\u00a0 I can\u2019t imagine the work that lies ahead of them as they try to get moved and settled back in the US.\u00a0 They have a 2-year old son.\u00a0 Judy loved working with Corey.\u00a0 He loved his students, and was great with them.\u00a0 She\u2019ll miss his energy and smile.<\/p>\n

I spend the day working on my music project, with some success.\u00a0 I\u2019m beginning to understand how to maneuver around the programs.\u00a0 Like anything else, the more you work with it, the faster you get.<\/p>\n

I visited the market for our weekly supply of fresh fruits and vegetables.\u00a0 It\u2019s cool today.\u00a0 We were lucky to receive our Texas shipment when we did.\u00a0 We packed for the move, planning for the shipment to arrive in middle-to-late September.\u00a0 All of our \u201cfall\/winter\u201d wear was included.\u00a0 Beijing weather info we read indicated that October was a good month in Beijing, but November can begin to get really cold.\u00a0 We haven\u2019t needed jackets at all, until today.\u00a0 Judy actually got cold working in her room after school today.\u00a0 Tomorrow\u2019s weather forecast is for a low of 36\u00b0 F.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve been wearing shorts and polos everywhere except to work.\u00a0 I was beginning to get a few \u201clooks\u201d from the locals on the cooler days.\u00a0 Judy was drawing stares in her flip-flops.\u00a0 Everyone seemed to be wearing jackets.\u00a0 It hasn\u2019t seemed necessary, yet, but the weather is definitely evolving.<\/p>\n

\"Apt.view<\/a>

A clear day in Beijing, from our apartment<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Apt.view<\/a><\/p>\n

While I\u2019m on the weather\u2026\u2026this seems like a good time to discuss the pollution issue.\u00a0 We check our \u201cChina Air Quality Index App\u201d most days (it\u2019s a free app).\u00a0 There are two Beijing readings, the government reading, and the US Embassy reading.\u00a0 The US reading is always higher than the government reading.\u00a0 We don\u2019t really have to see the app to know what\u2019s happening, though.\u00a0 The view out our apartment window tells us everything we need to know.\u00a0 On the good days, we can see forever.\u00a0 On the bad days, buildings only six blocks away are difficult to see.\u00a0 The highest US Embassy reading we\u2019ve seen is 317.\u00a0 The lowest we\u2019ve seen is 54.\u00a0 We\u2019re told that last year, there were several days when the reading was over 700.\u00a0 It can change in a hurry.\u00a0 Last week, I headed to school and the reading was 275, with the wind blowing pretty hard.\u00a0 When I came out of the subway an hour later, everything seemed clear, and the reading had changed to 77.\u00a0 It literally \u201cblew away\u201d.\u00a0 It was weird!\u00a0 Many challenges with weather and pollution are no doubt ahead of us, but we have our masks, and we\u2019re as ready as anybody else.\u00a0 I\u2019ll keep you updated!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Judy gets some bad news at BISS today.\u00a0 They informed the faculty that Corey, the second-grade teacher, had sent in his resignation, effective immediately.\u00a0 He had returned to the US during the long holiday last week due to a death … 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\/619"}],"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=619"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/gordonandjudy.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/619\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":620,"href":"http:\/\/gordonandjudy.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/619\/revisions\/620"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/gordonandjudy.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=619"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/gordonandjudy.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=619"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/gordonandjudy.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=619"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}