Remembrance and Reflection

 

California Gold

  The blog this week is about remembering friends and reflecting about what we learned while teaching school in China.  This is one of the last blogs I will post.  If it takes me two blogs to complete my reflection about China, then I may add one extra.  Anyway, this is my reflection about school.

  SCHOOL:  Many people ask us the question about how was it teaching in China.  Basically it was outstanding.  Not for many of the reasons that you might think.
  First:  The schedules that we had were not anywhere near as taxing or demanding as what we do here in America.  While my schedule was extremely light, Cecelia's was a bit more difficult.  Despite the differences though, it gave us the opportunity to rest and recharge.

  Next:  While working with Southeast Asia students, we found them to be diligent and hard working, but yet they have a difficult time being creative and developing their own opinions.  They are very good about parroting back information given to them, but ask them to think outside of the box and they will struggle.

Finally:  Teachers and students gear themselves to learn the test.  I mean they study the actual exams that they will be taking to either move to the next grade or to get into a college prepatory school.  I experienced the worst form of teaching to the test for six weeks.

  My message to teachers and administrators is as follows:  I BELIEVE THAT I WORK IN ONE OF THE GREATEST EDUCATION SYSTEMS IN THE WORLD AND IT IS TIME TO QUIT LISTENING TO PEOPLE THAT DON'T KNOW WHAT THEY ARE TALKING ABOUT.  THOSE TELLING US THAT WE ARE BAD AT WHAT WE DO, DON'T REALLY KNOW WHAT WE DO.  DON'T EVER LISTEN TO ANOTHER NEWS ARTICLE ABOUT HOW POOR WE DO IN COMPARISON TO SOUTHEAST ASIA IN MATHEMATICS AND SCIENCE.  OUR KIDS CAN THINK AND ARE CREATIVE.  I WILL TAKE OUR BEST KIDS EVERYDAY OF THE WEEK AND TWICE ON SATURDAY AND SUNDAY OVER ANY OTHERS IN THE WORLD.  TEACHERS YOU ARE DOING A GREAT JOB AND NO SYSTEM IS PERFECT, BUT I AM PROUD TO BE A TEACHER IN AMERICA!!!!!!

Typical Central Coast Morning in August.  The beauty is in the diversity of the area.

  ADVENTURES:  Enough about education.  I could have reflected more but there are more important things to focus on instead of school.
  This last weekend we spent some time relaxing a bit.  The first week of school and golf practice found us pushing pretty hard to get back in the swing of things.  So, we took some time and went to surprise our friend Julie Amodei in Cambria.  She was having a remembrance for her late husband and our good friend John Amodei.  John passed away at too young of an age from Melanoma.  Julie had planned the event a few weeks ago, but with getting back in the house and getting ready for school, we were not sure that we would be able to make it.  In the end, we felt like we needed to take some down time and this would be the perfect opportunity to do so.  We were supposed to RSVP, but we figured it wouldn't be a big deal if we crashed the party.

An area near Harmony

  On Saturday morning, we took some time to get things ready at the house for the upcoming week and then headed out around 11:30.  It was a pleasant drive and we made it to Paso Robles around 2.  We had not eaten lunch, but as we were making the last part of our trek I spied a gourmet roach coach parked in front of the Peachy Canyon Winery.  I had recently read an article that talked about some of the great food being served by the roach coaches.  We were not to be disappointed.  I had Thai Pulled Pork Tacos.  Cecelia had a BBQ's brisket sandwich and finally Taylor and Claire had Tri Tip.  All the lunches had an amazing garden salad that went with them as well.  When we received our lunches,  we took our lunches to the picnic area of the winery.  We found a nice shady spot on the grass and dove into our culinary delights.  To top off our amazing lunch experience, the winery had live music that was outstanding.  I made the mistake of laying down in the grass to enjoy the shade and the music.  Let's just say that it is a good thing that we didn't have the winery open either of the bottles of wine that we bought.  I may have never made it out of that place.  It reminded me of a line from Hotel California.  "You may check in anytime you want, but you may never leave".
  Fortunately we did leave and made our way to the party to see our friends in Harmony.  It was a great time and we really did surprise Julie.  She was so grateful and appreciative that we came.  We were remaniscing about the last time that we were there at her place.  It was almost exactly a year to the weekend that we came and visited with her, just before we got on a plane to China.

Lacy is so Zen!!!

  We then had dinner with some of Julie's friends and family, as well as with Heather Archer and Greg Uzell.  All of our kids were there as well.  It was quite the rowdy group at the Mexican Restaurant in which we ate in Cambria.
  After dinner, we headed out to try and find a hotel for the night.  All of the rooms were booked in the beach towns and Paso Robles, so we ended up staying at a Comfort Inn that I knew about in Atascadero.
 

Warming the feet by the fire after a swim!!

  The next morning woke up to a glorious morning.  The sky was clear and the air had the smell of the beach in it.  We headed toward the beach and were soon to discover that our glorious morning just turned into a typical fog choked summer day at the beach.  We drove up the coast and fortunately the farther we went, the clearer it got.  By the time we arrived in Cambria to buy breakfast burritos for the beach, the sun had almost peaked out.  We were meeting our friend Heather at the beach and bringing the coffee and breakfast.  The girls wanted to spend some time climbing on the dunes, running on the sand, and swimming in the frigid water.  We had a wonderful time with Heather and her daughter Lacy at the beach, but after the polar bear plunge the girls were ready for a warm bath.  They had their bath and then it was time for us to head for home.  We said our goodbyes and made our way to the car for our return road trip.  It was a great family time and we made a couple of stops at roadside stands to break up the trip back.  One of the things that I think Cecelia and I really learned while we were in China, is to take the time to be mindful and enjoy peace when we are presented with it.  It was definitely a peaceful and mindful weekend.
  Next week will be the beginning of the end.  So sad, but it has been totally worth it.  Enjoy the last few weeks.