New School Year, New School Building, 33rd Birthday

On the 17th I hit my 365 day streak on duolingo.  That meant I had been learning and practicing mandarin every day for a year.  I am still going. 

I did a hash on the 19th with the Shekou Hashers. It was good to return and get back into the runs.  We ran Nanshan and had a great time.  

Saw a cool caterpillar on the way up Nanshan.  This little thing was venomous so it was a look but don't touch situation.

Had a bit of a hard time making it up nanshan.  My lungs were having a hard time filling and emptying so I puffed on the ole asthma aspirator and kept trudging on in the heat and humidity.

Work started with training on August 20th.  Our first session was virtual but each subsequent session was in person.  The new, purpose build state-of-the-art, school building is very impressive.  It is a sprawling campus with two gyms, six science labs, an auditorium, black box theater, and even a pool.  Although it is an awesome new building it is not perfect.  There are still not enough science labs so I need to frequently change classrooms.  We were told this would not be a problem in the new building.  Also, instead of projector screens we have huawei smart boards, which are cool, but they offer no significant advantage over a standard projector and they costed a lot of money. 

Unfortunately, because we had open house and opening ceremony in the new building, I had to work over my birthday weekend and really did not get to celebrate as I had wanted.  There were some decent performances by students during the ceremony interspersed with really boring speeches.  I was unable to take a longer video and really would not be allowed to post more than what I have included below. 

Faye came over but she was not feeling very well so we postponed our plan to get a massage.  Her and I made plans for our next trip together to Bali (Indonesia), Kuching (Malaysia), and Singapore. 

The first day of school was Monday the 28th, which is also my birthday.  Only a few people here remembered.  After I reminded folks they seemed pretty sorry about forgetting. 

This week has been busy.  So much so that I only made it to the gym once.  I will need to remedy that soon.

There is a typhoon on the way.  It is supposed to hit tonight.  School has been switched to online learning tomorrow. Yet another thing covid changed forever, no school will ever be off for weather as long as online learning is an option.