It has been a log time since I have posted….

The family and I are in a much better place now physically and emotionally. Now we still miss a lot of things from the ChaoYang urban cityscape, but the rural feel of ShunYi is very calming. For most of you, these places are unknown. ChaoYang is a large section taking up the Eastern half of Beijing, where we lived for the most part of 14 years. ShunYi is a region in northeastern Beijing that is close to the airport, and we moved here 1 year ago.

Our new school is called BIBA (Beijing International Bilingual Academy) and we are all flourishing here. My youngest daughter started ECC (Preschool) this year and has mostly loved it. She has two best friends that she plays with constantly. I have become friends with the father of one of them. The other I have not met the parents of, and she mostly plays with in school.

My middle daughter has met several friends in similar situations to us. Her BFF is a Hungarian girl. They both love art (Sammy is a graphic artist, her friend is musical). They joined the girls soccer team together and have since made many more friends as well. Sammy’s team (our school’s team) won the championship against the international school league in Beijing this year.

My eldest, Joshua has been heavily involved in the drama club and performing arts. Last year they put together Mulan, but were unable to perform it when the city locked down. This year he was in 15-Minute Hamlet, and they performed last night with 2 other short plays. He was amazing.

My wife has found a group of mothers that she hangs out with, and they do activities together. They go out shopping, have a weekly Bible study, go to local coffee shops and malls to relax. She loves it and I can easily see her opening up again. For the last 3 weeks we have been at birthday celebrations for someone from this group each weekend.

As for myself, I have found a very welcoming work environment, and good friends. I won’t lie, the work was difficult last year as I had to learn new methods and retrain myself in a few things as I went. But the school did have a support system with mentors and professional development seminars for us to use. It was awesome. I am a bit nervous this year because they as that experienced teachers develop and run some of these seminars. I’ll keep you posted.

Socially, I am doing well. I have a Bible study every Monday with a group of guys from work. I also just stated a school D&D club on Tuesdays for some of the teachers. This did mean I had to learn 5e, but it’s not a bad system and I am not having trouble converting things from Basic D&D (that I used to play in the 90s)