Summer is officially over, and school starts on Tuesday for us. I’m so excited, I can’t stand it. I am the official Middle School/ High School Librarian. With the help of 4 children (2 were my own), I’ve spent the entire week getting it together. And per the usual fashion, at the last minute, I was given 14 7th and 8th grade science classes. It’s only for a month until the teacher shows up.
It has grown from 2 shelves when I started it last year, to 20 shelves now, mostly by my own solicited donations. My desk has yet to be delivered, but maybe tomorrow.
Our first couple of days of meetings covered a lot about how to be successful, and I noticed some people who have started after me have been promoted. When I was being recruited, I told the then head of the English department that I did not want her job. She seemed overwhelmed with stress. This, being Librarian, is my success. I practically created the library, and it makes me so happy. I will have set library hours and journaling hours. Our director knows me so well. As much as we are ready to leave China, I will be sad to hand this over someday.
This year my school is also offering a great opportunity. They will pay ahead for anyone who wanted to get a current teaching certificate valid in the US and UK, and for 3 extra months, you can get a Masters. Then they will take it out monthly from our paychecks. If we stay for another couple of years, they will give the money back. I am pretty sure I’m going for it.
I also questioned a bunch of social media groups as to where would be the best place to go next. I got several good leads from all over the world. The most dominant one was Scotland. So that teaching certificate would work for there too. Also, it would work if we could get into teaching on a base somewhere like Germany. There were also several recommendations for Canada and Iceland. As you can see, we’re pretty done with tropical or subtropical Asia.
Let me tell you a bit about what life post-COVID looks like. This week, every day that I left my house to go to work, I didn’t wear a mask, for the first time since January. We had our meetings without masks. We were told that for the most part, things will be back to normal. We cannot have classes that mix grades or have too many students. This makes, Art, Music, Library, and clubs, look very different. We should have field trips again, but maybe no big productions.
The girls have already felt post-COVID life. They have had a very busy summer with youth groups. They have gone bowling, ice-skating, camping, had game nights, movie nights, girl groups, and all kinds of fun things problem-free. The thing is, China went on strict lock-down, almost immediately, and then stayed strict for about 2 months. Then slowly, slowly let-up, and now we are practically free again. We still wear masks on the subway, and we still get our temperatures checked at school, but that’s about it.
In the last of free time, I’ve delving into my genealogy and finding out some amazing things. It seems once you find your are related to anyone public figure, it gets really easy from there. They kept records meticulously. My mom’s dad’s line is riddled with famous people. And famous people always hung out with and married other famous people. I’ve been going down all kinds of rabbit holes. I had no idea how British I was.
One thing that was so interesting to me is that I have mentioned before my recent obsession with Hamilton, the musical. I don’t even know if obsession is a strong enough word. I have never been this crazy over anything. Anyway, as I’m doing my genealogy, I find out we’re related to Aaron Burr. Rumi can’t get over this. He’s her favorite character in the play. In fact, we are related to 3 presidents and a signer of the Declaration of Independence. The Daughters of the Revolution won’t accept me as a member while I’m in China though.
I have so much hope for the rest of this year. I feel like I’ve exited a cave and so many things are waiting outside.
Smiling in Shanghai 