The art and pleasure of walking

Hello :)

Well, up and at 'm again today!!

The last few days have been busy but nice. In the weekend I was teaching both mornings and hanging out with the girls for the rest of the day. 

I took Lexie to see a Cinderella play on Saturday afternoon. The play was quite good and Lexie liked it. The way home wasn't great as we couldn't get a taxi for ages. I used my app but the stupid driver couldn't find us so in the end we jumped into the first free cab that came along. 

On Monday night we had a crazy thunder storm. Grandma wanted to wade over to our place to give me and Izzie our dinner. That was very sweet of her but I wanted to go over to theirs with Izzie to see Lexie as well......so I put Izzie in the carrier, put on sandals and shorts, got an umbrella and went for it. 

Izzie wasn't happy at first because she prefers to walk everywhere by herself. When she saw all the water and heard the splashing and the raindrops she enjoyed our walk as well. It rained even harder after dinner and I was wading through ceveral cm's of water. 

I've been doing my best to get workouts in but it's been a tad difficult. I got a new step that I'm very happy with and Izzie loves it as well ;) 

On Monday I had to go to the dentist before subbing as my tooth had chipped. Luckily no filling was needed and a little polishing sufficed. Byebye relaxed morning though..... The dentist was really nice and didn't even charge me. I got to school early but without workout gear. I went to the hill opposite the school for some walking and stair work. Since I was a bit bored I counted the steps: 772 in total. Up for about 435 and down for the rest. Some of the "steps" are sloping paths, hence the difference. 

On Tuesday I went to school early especially to get a workout in. It turned out that there was a special schedule that day so I started work by 11.35 instead of 12.00. I did manage to do what I wanted in a shorter time. 

Subbing was fine: Spanish and band. The kids were instructed by their teacher to conduct so I grabbed a flute and later a clarinet to play along in the band :)

Today was an early day yet again as I'm subbing the morning classes and HuangPu with 5 group lessons clarinet is coming up at 12.30! 

On the way home I'll catch up with a friend over dinner. Wednesday night dinner out is now a "thing" as traffic is too bad to get home quicker anyway. I take the subway into town first, then have dinner and catch a cab home afterwards.

Going home all the way on the subway is too messy at rush hour. I have to transfer and that is basically impossible. Well, I don't like to be caught in human underground traffic jams so I rather like my "dinner first" routine. I'm still home around the same time, just with way less stress and a belly full of (mostly) Western food ;)

Blog numero 3 of the week!

Wow, I'm on a blog roll this week ;)

I've been walking to the school bus every day this week so I've been taking some sunrise shots with my phone. Gotta keep myself entertained, right?

My early morning ninja skills are getting quite good as I manage to slip out of bed without waking Izzie up. Haiwen has arrived safely in France where he is enjoying the clean air. 

With Haiwen gone, grandma is reporting for duty at 6AM as I have to leave to catch the school bus.

I'm also doing some sub work next week which includes rehearsals with the high school band as the music teacher will be out on a middle school trip.

Right now I'm in IB math class. The kids are taking a test while their normal teacher is in The Hague.
Funny to think that he's off in Holland and a Dutch person is covering his class ;)

I'm sad to say that the cool and fresh air is disappearing already. It was not as chilly out this morning as the last few days. Ah, humidity and heat are nigh! I really enjoyed feeling "cold" the last few mornings!

I'm off in the next period so I will get a workout in. I'm still not sure what I will do exactly but inspiration will come shortly.

Here's a conversation I had with a student just now during 1st period advisory:

Student: "Miss Joke, can I go work out, I'm done with all my homework."

Me: "Sure, what are you going to do?"Student: "Squats and lunges mostly."
Me: "OK, will you do them weighted?"
Student: "Yes, I will, I want to try out the new equipment that came in."
Me: "Excellent, go ahead and check back here at the end of this period."
Student: "Thank you, but I also have a question about my Chopin etude."
Me: "Let's take a look at it."
*student gets computer and shows me the score*
*I take a look and give advise*
Student: "Thank you Miss Joke."Me: "No problem, go smash it in the gym."

Other people depicting the sunrise

Lexie had a great school trip on Tuesday. They went to the athlete's training centre on the outskirts of Guangzhou. She was super popular and had to take loads of pictures with the athletes.

I asked her what else they did and she told me: "we helped our older sisters and brothers to pick up balls". Hehehe, "older sisters and brothers" is the Chinese term for people that are older then you, but not quite up to "uncle" and "auntie" age.

I had a close encounter with nature earlier this week

The kindergarten kids had a physical check up yesterday where they also drew some blood.

Lexie showed me the mark on her arm and declared: "The doc took some blood here but it didn't hurt and I didn't cry".  

*Proud mommy*

Oh what a beautiful day!!!

Aaaaah, the few days a year that are 100% nice weather wise!! Started the day with a walk to the school bus at 6.06 when it was 15C outside. So fresh!

I did a walk/jog combo all the way to the bus, courtesy of the "cool" weather. I don't like getting on the bus all sweaty but today that was not a problem. Jogging with my backpack and purse is not ideal, but hey, gotta burn those cals!

At 8 AM it was homeroom time. Not much going on there, just getting the school day started.

Luckily it had the first period off so I headed to the hill across from the school to do stairs. And stairs.... and more stairs, up one way of the hill, down the other way and back to the starting point.

I had a little bit time left before the next class so I did a few bicep curls and shoulder lifts in the school gym. By then work out time was up so I headed for a shower. All squeaky clean and back to class!

Haiwen is leaving for a business trip to France tonight. He'll be gone for 12 days. I don't think he's been away for so long before yet (I have, hahaha). I hope he has fun and that the trip will be a success.

In the afternoon I will have one piano class. My student is doing well and I'm sure that she grew several inches since we started! Those kids just keep on getting taller and taller (or am I starting to shrink??)

To top today off I will go to yoga class (at our own school) tonight as well. Haiwen is going to drop bye to say bye-bye, since I already left so early this morning.

Getting warmer soon.....

Lexie is off on her first school trip today. They have great weather so I'm sure they will have lots of fun :)

OMG, a blog!!!!

Hi all! Sorry I've been MIA for so long again. Life just gets a bit too crazy so there's very little time to sit down and write.

First let me share my fitness progress with you. I'm very proud of what I have achieved in a little under a year and a half! This process has also taken much of my previously allotted blog time because I was busy working out.

The second bit of exciting news is that Izzie is going to start kindergarten in June so I will have much more free time, woohoo!!! We were planning to let her start in August but the principal would have none of that. She decided on June she we are going along with that.

Well, almost perfect.....

Lexie and Izzie are doing great. They are so cute and so much fun to be around. Of course there is some crying and nagging at times but their smiles make everything OK again.

Lexie is really into drawing now she keeps on demanding "art works" from me, hahaha.

She loves them and gives me stickers in reward; "mommy, that is really good, here's a red sticker for you" *puts an imaginary sticker on my hand*.

My cutest student

Teaching has been going well and all of my students are making good progress. Except the one girl that has had 4 classes this year only but that can't be helped. They need to be in class to be helped along :)

Early bird catches the worm!

I've been subbing at the American School for a bit now so I'm walking to the school bus every morning at 6 AM. Today the sun finally decided to come out. This week is the last full week that has been planned. Maybe I'll get some more temporary subs before the school year is over.

It's a nice gig with access to the school gym and library.

I hope you are all doing well and I think I'll be in touch more very soon!

xoxo

J