Monthly Archives: March 2011
Student Led
I’ve had the opportunity over the past several weeks to spend several visits at the kids school, Beijing City International School. I had the chance to meet twice with an education consultant, John Littleford, the school had hired to do an assessment. He conducted a series of interviews I’ve already written about. I also had … Continue reading
The Familiar
Many folks back in the states seem to react in shock at times about our decision to move to China. I still meet people here (at work) who are visiting from the States : “Hey what are you doing here? (Cause they expect to see me in Seattle not Beijing) “I live here.” “You do?” … Continue reading
Seven, Tong Tong and Mao
Today I met my soon to be tutor, Seven. She chose that as her English name because her Chinese name is “Chimei” which is Seven sisters. Now that I’ve met Seven, it fits. What sounded like an interesting and maybe a strange name to choose for oneself, now just sounds right. She came to our … Continue reading
Sofi blossoms
The person I was most worried about with moving to Beijing was Sofia. She was in the middle year of 6th grade, in middle school. Never an easy time in anyone’s life. There are cliques, teasing and worrying about who is more popular etc…. For whatever reason Sofi back in the states wasn’t putting herself … Continue reading
Biking to Work
Traffic in Beijing This is a video taken while biking to work. It’s shot with a GoPro HD camera that I’ve mounted to the handlebars of my bike. I live around 1.6 miles from work and biking usually takes me around 10 minutes. Biking in Beijing is generally very safe once you adapt to the … Continue reading
The Last Logistical Bits
The last logistical bit of relocation bureaucracy is complete, our air shipments were delivered today at our apartment in Beijing. I’ll review a few details and things that I understand better now. Here is a tour of our Apartment Beijing Apartment Tour from mbgriffi on Vimeo. I wrote the about the process of getting permits … Continue reading
The past, the present and the future
Being here in Beijing is bringing back a flood of memories from when I lived in Taiwan. For those that don’t know or don’t realize how many times I lived in Taiwan, I will give you a brief history of the three times I lived there. When I was about 18 I was at USU … Continue reading
School in Beijing
I attended a focus group this morning at Beijing City International School where our kids go. It was an interesting experience and offers an opportunity to spend a bit more time writing about the kids educational experience. For the kids I think they have adapted the fastest here in Beijing, the routine alone has been … Continue reading
Snaggle Tooth
Today at school Miles and another boy were playing on the playground and he smashed his right front tooth on the head of another boy. I got a call from the school and they wanted us to pick him up and take him to see a doctor. Stac wasn’t feeling well so I left work … Continue reading
5 cokes and a long bread, sure!
I panicked today on what to say to the people at April Gourmet(the little,expensive grocery store in our complex). I’ve had an upset stomach the past couple of days. Did a little bit of tu today, if you want to look that up. Because I was feeling nauseaus and also because almost every place delivers … Continue reading