I know it’s actually Day 3, but I’m writing about yesterday.

    The smog yesterday was the same level as the day before (See Smog day 1). The school stayed empty and barren. As a family we stayed at home and played. We watched 2 different Charlie Brown Christmas Specials (1960’s and 1990’s). The kids received homework assignments from their teachers by WeChat. Unfortunately they couldn’t do it.

One assignment was to help mom and day with household chores, and take pictures of it. Well living in a dormitory, and the simple household chores we do here last a whole 20 seconds at a time, so by time we get the camera out, the kids are done. We cannot vacuum, sweeping is only needed for a short distance. And laundry was done the day before. A lot of parents posted pictures of the kids washing their feet. I’m not going to ask my children to wash my feet. I love them, and want them to learn respect, but my feet get pretty smelly and I wouldn’t ask anyone to get down there and clean them for me. I can do that, and save them the torture.

Another assignment was to practice reading with the kids. This we could do, if the homework had been sent by their English teacher. However, the assignment was from their Chinese teacher, and as neither my wife nor I can read Chinese yet, we forfeited. My son can read quite a bit, but he is still not at the level to read everything yet.

I was a bit nicer to my students, I asked my students to look at coloured balloons in their books and write the colours. It’s more focused, less vague, and even if their families cannot speak English, the kids know where to find the names of colours in their textbooks, and are able to do it.

Last night as I ran out to pick up dinner for us all, I notice that the school had used this downtime productively, we now have 2 12foot Christmas trees at the front gate of our school. Last night Sammy asked as we said our bedtime prayers if we could ask God to clear away the smog. We did, and this morning ther is a bright blue sky and no clouds or visible smog, I will check the rating on Irish’s phone later.

    As you might have read, today was the first ever “Red Alert” for smog in Beijing. Beijing is well known for its smog. And strangely enough the red alert day (Today) the smog was literally half the level it was about a week ago when it reached 670 parts per million (Of 2.5 micron particles). Today, the smog was about 320 at its height. So, to choose today to sound the alarm really surprised everyone in the city.

    What the alarm meant for us. The government decreed that students stay home, to study, and only the kids who stay at the school (Boarding) should be in class. For us, the parents came and picked up most of the boarding students. I had a half day work, just in case some students were sent in anyways. Which could happen, a lot of parents work, and they can’t afford to take the day off to watch their child during a school day that the kid is not sick for…. I got all my marking up to date, had a meeting about final exams, and winter camps, then after lunch left.

    The smog alert has been set for 2 ½ days, which means officially no classes for us until Thursday afternoon, but our school declared Friday morning to be the return. We are a bit worried that the students will fall behind, and I will send out homework to the parents each day through Wechat (Kind of like skype on steroids).

    A lot of parents were posting pictures of their kids doing housework with them to share with the school. We are alive and breathing, so no worries there, we all have quality breathing masks and use them when we go out. Not sure what we will do tomorrow if we are home stuck, but will figure it out.

    Sunday, the last day of the weekend. We all crawled out of bed about 8:30 as normal. The kids played and watched videos on the laptop all morning. We hummed and Hawed about what to do today, while lazing around the dormitory room the school has provided for us.

    About 11:00 we had decided to go out to the “BHG” a Mall not too far from our house. It is a 20 minute walk, or 5 minute rickshaw ride away. We love riding rickshaws. Our whole family always has. The kids call them Tricycles as that’s what they are called in the Philippines. What they actually are, however, are the front of a motorcycle attached to a back Bench seat for passengers. The whole device is enclosed in a large metal box with windows. These little boxes zip around the city like mini-taxis. Everyone talks about how dangerous they are, because there are very few licenced ones compared to the number of rickshaws on the road. The unlicensed ones might be dangerous drivers, cutting into traffic or driving too fast, but we’ve never had a problem with them.

    We took the rickshaw to the mall. As we entered the mal there was a man renting robots for the children to ride in. So we let the kids drive these exoskeletons around for 5 minutes. They kind of looked like robot-shaped bumper cars at the entrance to the mall. They had a great time running into each other or chasing each other for 5 minutes.

    Then we went to our favourite restaurant, Saizeriya. It’s good priced Italian food that the whole family likes. We go there about once every week or two. We arrived just after the lunch rush, we still had to wait for a seat but only for 5 minutes. We were able to have steak, pizza, spaghetti, sausages and squid and not break the bank.

    Finishing that we went to the top floor of the mall where there is a children’s arcade. All the games are geared to elementary school kids. Sammy got to play a firefighter simulator where she sprayed water at flames that appeared on a screen. She won 2 pogo stick races (Real pogo stick, virtual race), and rode a horse in a horse race. Joshua played virtual bowling (real ball, digital pins), went on a safari adventure with a jeep, and both racecar raced and motorcycle raced.

Upon finishing this we went to the supermarket below to get cereal for breakfasts, found Maple and Brown Sugar instant oatmeal (From Canada) that Sammy and I love. And before coming home were able to rent a whole merry-go-round for just our family (for $10), and then JD & Irish took a little kids roller-coaster ride all by themselves (No other customers) while Sammy and I took the rocket ride where you go up and down in a rocket that flies in a circle.

Irish pointed out at the end of all this that there is no way we could have had a day like this in Canada. We just could not afford it. It is nice to be able to take the kids out and have fun with them. Tomorrow is school again, and I have to plan my lessons in a few minutes but it is nice to just relax.