Homeward Bound
Right about now the girls should be on a bus bound for Hong Kong. They expect to arrive around 1:00 a.m. They don't have to be at the airport until around 8:00 a.m., but this is the difficult part of flying out of Hong Kong when you live in Guangzhou. Ping didn't want to spend the night in a hotel in Shenzhen and get up early to make it to the airport in Hong Kong, so she and Cici decided to just arrive at the airport extra early. They are both night owls anyway, and this is also a way to start turning their body clocks around.
With any luck the girls will be able to talk with me on the internet once they arrive at the airport. I wrote a one page birthday letter to Cici and sent it to her last night. Maybe she will be able to access her email and read the letter while she is at the airport.
In the meantime I made an appearance for book and schedule night at school last night. Cici was assigned a top locker as she wished. I think their basic procedure is to assign the top lockers to juniors and seniors. On the wall of honor I saw Cici's name on the high honor roll and on the National Honor Society listing as well. The school is small enough that all the teachers and administrators know who I am so the process was very easy.
What do you do with a student who is ahead of her class in math but behind her class in a foreign language? Well, first of all, you must pretend that Cici, who is fluent in two foreign languages, and has been studying a third foreign language (English) for two years, is behind in her foreign language requirements. Because the school only offers Spanish and Latin to satisfy the foreign language requirements, Cici will take Spanish I, where most of the other students will be freshmen. On the other hand, she will be in pre-calculus, where most of the other students will be seniors.
To accommodate this schedule, Cici was placed in the 10th grade theology class (at this point the school knows that theology is meaningless to her so they have stopped pretending). I think Cici will be happy with this because there is no final exam in the 10th grade theology class).
This awkward schedule gives her an easy ride through the morning and early afternoon, but a brutal schedule for the final three classes of the day: Pre-calculus, Physics, and American History. I think Cici will like this too, though, because she just isn't a morning person. Her only substantive classes in the morning are English and Spanish. These days they teach American History with a local flavor, so she will study from a Texas Edition of the American history book. The Spanish teacher has an Anglo name; I wonder if she is a native Spanish speaker.
Well tomorrow night is not here yet but it won't be long.
With any luck the girls will be able to talk with me on the internet once they arrive at the airport. I wrote a one page birthday letter to Cici and sent it to her last night. Maybe she will be able to access her email and read the letter while she is at the airport.
In the meantime I made an appearance for book and schedule night at school last night. Cici was assigned a top locker as she wished. I think their basic procedure is to assign the top lockers to juniors and seniors. On the wall of honor I saw Cici's name on the high honor roll and on the National Honor Society listing as well. The school is small enough that all the teachers and administrators know who I am so the process was very easy.
What do you do with a student who is ahead of her class in math but behind her class in a foreign language? Well, first of all, you must pretend that Cici, who is fluent in two foreign languages, and has been studying a third foreign language (English) for two years, is behind in her foreign language requirements. Because the school only offers Spanish and Latin to satisfy the foreign language requirements, Cici will take Spanish I, where most of the other students will be freshmen. On the other hand, she will be in pre-calculus, where most of the other students will be seniors.
To accommodate this schedule, Cici was placed in the 10th grade theology class (at this point the school knows that theology is meaningless to her so they have stopped pretending). I think Cici will be happy with this because there is no final exam in the 10th grade theology class).
This awkward schedule gives her an easy ride through the morning and early afternoon, but a brutal schedule for the final three classes of the day: Pre-calculus, Physics, and American History. I think Cici will like this too, though, because she just isn't a morning person. Her only substantive classes in the morning are English and Spanish. These days they teach American History with a local flavor, so she will study from a Texas Edition of the American history book. The Spanish teacher has an Anglo name; I wonder if she is a native Spanish speaker.
Well tomorrow night is not here yet but it won't be long.
It is too bad I saw this so late. I have some experience with flying in and out of Hong Kong with Guangzhou being my entry and exit from Mainland China. Hong Kong airport has very good free wireless coverage, and I found their pay-in lounges to be nice as well. I did something similar, I left Guangzhou on an evening bus due to an 8 AM flight. I used the pay-in lounge to grab a shower and catnap in a comfortable chair, and then was able to get breakfast in the lounge as well.
Since is about 7 AM China time right now, I expect all this is moot
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Thanks for the tip. I hope Ping and Cici did this. Otherwise it was a long night for them after arriving at the airport. It is pushing 9:00 a.m. in Hong Kong now so they aren't far from boarding for a 10:25 a.m. departure. The flight shows to be ready for an on time departure. We just have to take it one leg at a time. First they need to get to Newark on time so they can clear customs and immigration and make the connecting flight to Houston.
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