An early wake-up call. Too early. 5AM here in Beijing is actually 3PM back home, so the body clock awoke just 3 hours ago and I had only just convinced it that we still had time to sleep. But up and at it... shower, shave, dress suit to be presentable in the 85% humidity at 82 degrees... better put on EXTRA deoderant.
On the bus by 6:15 and a box breakfast awaits. It looks like we're having a form of ham on white bread, a small roll and yogurt you drink though a straw. Most of us figure out the straw bit only after we struggled to consume the yogurt with out a spoon. We settle in for what our guides expect to be a 2 hour drive.
2 hours go by and we are nowhere near Tianjin. The highway is so congested, it reminds me of a massive game of tetris: race your vehicle into an empty space, then wait. At one point, all the drivers get out for a smoke. Then, as if by some signal, they all jump back in and we all start driving again. It turns out there was a stalled truck and a construction zone inconveniently co-located. The cell phone towers buzz with our frantic calls to Fuxing High School begging forgiveness for being tardy.
The cell phone tower buzzes back... to me. A text message in Chinese? The guide explains that the cell phone has cross th boundary into Tianjin and the government is sending me a welcome message. Welcome to Tianjin... we still drive for another hour.
At last arrival and the new school awaits. A digital sign out front welcomes us... photos first, then much needed time in the lavatories.
Relief found yet again, we proceed to a room where speeches are made and greetings exchanged. Gifts for the Board and the Superintendent were given to my care and I did my best to represent our schools with honor. Our students sit with Fuxing HS students and they too exchange small gifts. Next it is a short tour and lunch in the staff lunch room. On the way we look in on the new gym. Just the same as ours with but one difference... no bleachers.
"Where do the parents sit to watch the competitions?" "They do not come for sports competitions at school. Parents only visit school 2 or 3 times per semester for parent events."
The"Students begin their day at 8 but some do extra classes at 7:30. They finish a little after 4 and then get started with additional classes like music or art usually until 7PM."
Lunch is excellent and the company outstanding with Principal Yang. I share how Colorado finance works and the school staff share how their system is financed. We then discuss how to help struggling students improve and I am asked what we do for students who can and should excel. I try to explain the range from G/T through Special Ed but between my articulation skills and the language barrier, only marginal understanding is reached... but at least a conversation has begun.
Now a meeting in an official room where our national flags have been placed for us like two diplomats signing peace treaties. The honor of formality is great. We express our mutual interests in sharing ideas and helping our students learn from one another... even learning together by working on the same projects. We sign agreements of our interests. More documents will follow these humble beginnings.
On to Haihe High School and we enter through a gaurded gate. The sign above the door brightly proclaims the school was founded in 1895. This is the oldest, and a very prestigious school in Tianjin. We are welcomed with Chinese caligraphy... more gifts to carry back to Scott. The artist himself presents the works which express wishes of good health and suggest that our work in education should contain a volume like the oceans themselves. An enthusiastic discussion erupts and we are escorted to the school's museum: the original school bell and corner-stone, an orginal light bulb that still works, a mechanical device that demonstrates sin waves, a slide project from 1919. On the walls, pictures of graduates who have written books, won awards and presented in front of world audiences. Principal Bian knows every story and tells each with delight.
After we present our gifts, I dislodge my LPS lapel pin "This is given to administrators in Littleton. It would be my honor if you would wear mine." Great joy and friendship grows by the moment. This time it is the principal who proposes to communicate, to share learning activities and to hope for actual visits between students and teachers in our respective homes. I commit to helping the vision become reality. We begin to leave amid the happy noise of students in the halls... kids are the same no matter where you go. Full of life.
Departing now seems so hard. These are now long time friends that I have only known an hour. So many questions, so very welcoming, so much beauty.
On to dinner with the staff from Fuxing HS. The table is arranged with the Principal at the head, the Party secretary on his right and I sit to his left. It is polite to offer to fill the glass of the person to your right, so my place is a high honor. I feel inept at all the customs but I strive to learn... toast, friendship, goodwill, eat a few bites. This is not dinner in America. Eating is a secondary pursuit. "Astonishing fortune" I offer, using General Elrington's elegant toast. We share stories and the translators work so hard, they hardly have time to eat. I try to pause my conversation to give them time...
Now the check, and I must ask for the receipt. The government encourages people to ask for receipts by offering a lottery. I get a stack of receipts, each with a scratch off area. It seems I've won! 5 Yuan awaits me at the register, a prize from the Chinese government; thanks for following their rules.
Again parting is difficult. Our contact Steve Tam must go... none of this happens without him and I owe him so much. Back onto the bus and trip home: 4 more hours of hopscotch with massive trucks. I doe with my son's head on my shoulder. Everyone's tired, everyone's safe... everyone is different.