{"id":703,"date":"2013-11-06T07:11:06","date_gmt":"2013-11-06T00:11:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/gordonandjudy.com\/?p=703"},"modified":"2013-11-06T07:11:06","modified_gmt":"2013-11-06T00:11:06","slug":"marching-band-kites-and-duck-11513","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/gordonandjudy.com\/?p=703","title":{"rendered":"Marching Band, Kites, and Duck! 11\/5\/13"},"content":{"rendered":"

There are several items of note at BISS this week.\u00a0 Wednesday is \u201cParent Conference Day\u201d.\u00a0 Students are dismissed at noon, and scheduled interviews are the afternoon activity.\u00a0 Because of the schedule shift, Judy\u2019s elementary choir had to move rehearsal to today, prepping for Saturday\u2019s concert.\u00a0 Today was their first time to use all the props (hats, shakers, jingle bells, etc.).\u00a0 It was a wild and crazy rehearsal.\u00a0 The excitement was just too much for some of the students.\u00a0 There are 36 kids in the choir committed to attend on Saturday.\u00a0 Judy received an email today from the event organizer telling her the stage was 2 meters by 3 meters (slightly larger than 6×9 feet).\u00a0 There going to be some creative adjustment of where all the kids are going to stand.<\/p>\n

This is also the week when teachers have to inform BISS about their employment commitment for next year.\u00a0 Teachers who might be adjusting jobs or applying for internal moves to administration get the word about their placement.\u00a0 If a teacher chooses to leave, they do so without a job in their pocket.\u00a0 Most that are leaving are hoping to find a job in a different city, looking for new challenges and experiences.\u00a0 They\u2019re just hoping a job is available in a city they want to live.\u00a0 If I were young teacher, with a family, it would be a terrifying circumstance.<\/span><\/p>\n

I spend most of the morning and early afternoon watching the Texas State Marching Contest.\u00a0 It\u2019s Tuesday morning here, but in Texas it\u2019s Monday evening (14-hour difference now with DST).\u00a0 The contest is being streamed, and I get the chance to watch the 1A and 2A Finals.\u00a0 Forsan has a really good finals performance, and end up placing 2<\/span>nd <\/sup>(darn), one point behind Shiner HS.\u00a0 It\u2019s the first chance I\u2019ve had to see my niece Ali performing with the band.\u00a0 I\u2019ve got so much appreciation, specifically for Forsan, but also for the great performances by all the bands.\u00a0 I know how busy Ali is with her many school activities, and all those bands are full of students just like her.\u00a0 It\u2019s amazing how they find the time to put together such good performances.\u00a0 My hat is off to all those students and their directors.<\/span><\/p>\n

Needing exercise after all my sitting today, I take a walk to explore a nearby park.\u00a0 As I arrive, I notice some older guys (older than me) walking out with bags on their shoulders, carrying folding chairs.\u00a0 I couldn\u2019t really figure out what they were carrying, but I thought they might be musical instruments.\u00a0 When I got further inside the park, I realized they were carrying kites and reels.\u00a0 Several guys were flying kites inside.\u00a0 I\u2019ve seen kites before, but I\u2019ve never seen string reels like these.\u00a0 Check out the picture below.\u00a0 The park itself was huge, and would probably be a \u201chappening \u201c place during the summer.\u00a0 It looks like they\u2019re beginning to prepare for winter.\u00a0 The fountains are all turned off, and the waterways are draining.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"kite\"<\/a>

Check out the string reel in his left hand.<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Park\"<\/a><\/p>\n

For dinner tonight, we have our \u201c100 day\u201d celebration with the other new BISS teachers and their families.\u00a0 We meet at the \u201cDuck\u201d restaurant, as we call it, where we had our first big welcome dinner when we first arrived in Beijing.\u00a0 It\u2019s a fun time.\u00a0 I haven\u2019t seen some of these people since our first week, so it\u2019s a nice reunion. \u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There are several items of note at BISS this week.\u00a0 Wednesday is \u201cParent Conference Day\u201d.\u00a0 Students are dismissed at noon, and scheduled interviews are the afternoon activity.\u00a0 Because of the schedule shift, Judy\u2019s elementary choir had to move rehearsal to … 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\/703"}],"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=703"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/gordonandjudy.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/703\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":704,"href":"http:\/\/gordonandjudy.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/703\/revisions\/704"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/gordonandjudy.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=703"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/gordonandjudy.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=703"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/gordonandjudy.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=703"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}