On Wednesday and Thursday (January 30th and February 1st), teachers were moved back to the Holiday Inn Dongzhimen near Sanlitun (the second hotel we stayed in when we first arrived) because of a power outage on campus. We took two mini busses at around 1pm which were quickly packed, making it necessary for some colleagues to catch a Didi to the temporary accommodations.
Leading up to the move there were some concerns about food spoilage, as many teachers just so happened to have food in their refrigerators and freezers. The idea was that the school would collect our perishables and store them in the cafeteria's freezer, which would be sealed until our return to campus. Some of us figured it would be just as viable to bag our items and hang them out the window of our apartments (the weather has been in the negative single digits on the celsius scale). I'm not sure how many, if any, went with plan A or B, but Dea and I ended up just trashing a bunch of leftovers and taking some "snacks" to go.
The Didi actually beat us to the hotel. Once we arrived, we exchanged our visas for room keys, dropped off our bags, and took advantage of the opportunity to visit a favorite spot, the Great Leap Brewery, with the best burgers I've had in Beijing. I got a little happy and ordered two - a lamb blend with tzatziki sauce, and a cheeseburger. We also had some hot wings. I washed it all down with a banana wheat brew that was pretty tasty... and Dea had a coke.
We slept in until around eleven and got a WeChat from Chuan asking what we wanted to get into. We went back and forth before deciding on the National Museum of China. It was a great day.
We were up and out early Friday morning. This time we enjoyed the luxury of a charter bus. While everyone else was hanging out in the lobby waiting for the bus to pull up to the entrance, Steven and I, following our instinct, took the thirty second trek up the block and grabbed some seats. My phone was acting funny so while we debated on how we would notify the rest of the crew that the bus was just up the street, the principal showed up looking for the bus. Dea was right behind her. She figured since she hadn't heard back from me, I must have been seated comfortably and unwilling to go back into the cold. Awkward.
I caught some z's on the way back to campus. Traffic wasn't bad at all. Once we arrived, we shot up to our apartment for a quick change and then to classes to finish setting up for the student-led conferences. It was a long day but the conversations made it worth while. A couple of parents even asked for pictures with me. Because my day was fully booked, the conferences went on until 5pm. I was looking forward to heading back to the apartment and calling it a night, but "the crew" wanted to get together and head to the Gem Mall for dinner at one of our favorite spots.
Because we had Wednesday and Thursday "off", we had to make up for it by teaching on Saturday. That was as weird for me as it was for the kids. We spent half a day "catching up" before heading to the Arts Center to practice for the Spring Festival Celebration in some refrigerated temperatures. No recess after lunch meant that the kids were off the chain! Because it was so cold in the theater, we went back to the classroom after our rehearsal and watched Moana before dismissal. Hey... it was Saturday.
Sunday was the first time ordering delivery and was sadly disappointed with the results. Delivery time was 2 hours and as one might imagine... the food needed to be warmed.
Monday, just before lunch, the email was sent out that sent all the balls on the billiards table scattering into their respective corners whispering about the latest bombshell: The head of school is being replaced. The other shoe finally dropped. Funny watching personalities "adjust" themselves. Politics is shameless creature. The remainder of this week will be spent practicing for the Spring Festival Celebration Thursday, and then we're on break at the end of the week.
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