Jet Lag

It's 2:30 in the morning in Beijing, and I am wide awake, so I might as well be productive. Besides, all but 1 channel on the TV are in Chinese. The pic is the view from our hotel on the grounds of the National Academy of Education Administration, our sponsoring group. It's out near the 5th ring road, so we are 10km from the city center.
The flight in was pretty uneventful, if extraordinarily long. Over 24 hours from the time I got to the airport in Houston until we arrived at the hotel here. We flew to Newark, changed planes, then headed over the pole to Beijing. Both planes were completely full, and I didn't have a window seat, so no pics of the Houston-Newark trip. On the Continental flight to Beijing I didn't have a window seat, either, but I was in the first row of the third section, so had extra leg-room since I faced the bathroom wall. Plus, the emergency exits on either side of us had windows, so I got lots of pictures of Greenland and Russia. I wasn't able to sleep much - lots of traffic in front of me, people walking the aisles, using the lavatory, babies crying, but I did miss the North Pole while I was sleeping.
After clearing customs we road a short train through the airport, exited, and our hosts met us at the exit. The airport wasn't nearly as crowded as I expected. The road to the hotel was not crowded, either. They told us that at rush hour it would be packed. I did see lots of construction, and whole blocks of apparently old buildings that had been bulldozed. Also, there were thousands of trees that had been planted along the highway, I guess to block the view during the 2008 Olympics.
The hotel is nice, we each have our own room. Supper was a buffet with various dishes, most of which I was not familiar with. Spicy cabbage, pot-stickers, some sort of mashed potatoes, and 20 other things. I will definitely be losing weight while I'm here.
Enjoy the pics, and wish me luck staying awake during the lecture tomorrow morning. In the afternoon we go to Tienanmen Square and the Forbidden City. I am looking forward to that. Maybe tonight's rain will have cleared the pollution out of the air. It's terrible, my nose is stopped up with dust, and my eyes are burning. We will be in Beijing 10 days - I hope its not this bad the whole time.
be safe, see you soon,
rem

My Big Trip

Everything is done - I'm packed, the house is (relatively) clean, the bills are paid, and I have some spending money in my pocket. By this time tomorrow I'll be almost halfway to China!
Although I am not looking forward to a 20 hr trip, I am sure the end result will be worth it. I can hardly wait to see the place, smell it, touch it, feel it, hear it, taste it. So new to my senses, and I'm sure overwhelming at first. But I have a whole month to take in all I can, and I plan on bringing back lots of pictures, stories, and memories.
We will be going to 6 cities, all marked on the map except Lijiang, near Kunming. Lots of traveling, including a train trip down the Yangtze Valley from Nanjing to Shanghai.
I won't be able to post again 'til I'm in Beijing, so have a great Memorial Day, remember our servicemen and servicewomen, and be safe.
rem

A New Trojan Horse

The Real Thing

Back to School

Hi-ho, hi-ho, its off to school we go.....

Monday marks the start of school for millions of Texas students. Ours are particularly lucky - we now have a district-wide curriculum, purchased at some exorbitant price with taxpayer dollars. The new Deputy Superintendent for Curriculum decided that the teachers in the district couldn't be trusted to know the TEKS and the best ways to teach them, so she bought pre-packaged curriculum for the entire district. The geography curriculum is horrible, it does not cover the TEKS in a way that will prepare students to take the new End-of-Course exam. Our school has been selected to participate in the "field test" next May. Although we will never get the scores, it would be nice to think our students will pass it. With C-SCOPE, the high-dollar curriculum, many won't. I have been in contact with a person on the EOC test review committee, and although the person can't say much, they did say C-SCOPE won't get the job done. The TEKS on physical/population/culture/urbanization are not covered in-depth in the new curriculum. I am hoping I can talk to the C&I folks and they will pay attention, but probably not. Dr. P has already made it clear she knows more than the teachers, who know nothing at all. We are all too Dopey.

El Salvador

I'm Campaigning

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Geography Camp

Another year has passed and its time once again for the famous Summer Academy for Minority Scholars at Texas State University in San Marcos. So far we have been to the Institute for Texan Culture in San Antonio, taken a tour of 4 different religious sites in Austin, and participated in a necrogeography tour of the San Marcos area, visiting 3 old cemeteries. One of the burial grounds was that of slaves from the Kyle area; most of those graves were unmarked, but clearly distinguishable by sunken places in the ground.
The 30 students and their teachers are preparing PowerPoints about the many different cultural groups that settled Texas, including the Wends, Irish, Czechs, Vietnamese, and my group, the Lebanese.
Tomorrow morning we'll do our presentations and depart for home. Some groups have as far to drive as Los Fresnos, and another is from Buda, 20 minutes away. All of us plan on returning next year.

Barsana Dham, Driftwood


Uhland Cemetery


Log cabin, Institute for Texan Culture


Synagogue, Austin

One Down, 3 to Go

The Spurs made it out of the first round in 4 games - 2 of them squeakers. Last night was almost too much to watch - I closed my eyes when Ginobli was shooting the last free throws.
Now we're up against New Orleans, who ripped through Dallas like they weren't even there. Tough times ahead....

Hooray

Fafblog is back, after an absence of almost 2 years. Hip Hip Hooray!