Wrapping Up our 5th Year

So, our second school year at BASIS International School, Park Lane Harbour is wrapping up. Sandy and Emily are finishing up their college classes, with Sandy completing her BA and Emily her AA both in intercultural studies. We are all looking forward to summer vacation, though mine won't begin until June 30. 

The long and wild ride which began in 2020 seems to be coming to and end, and it has been very heartening to hear how life is beginning to return to normal in the US and around the world. In China, though, prevention measures for COVID are still ever present. With the zero tolerance policy that China has implemented, BASIS Park Lane Harbour (being a boarding school) faced several challenges this winter and spring when new cases broke out in the nearby city of Shenzhen. Just prior to Chinese New Year vacation, we ran 15 days of school straight because students couldn't return home without undergoing schoolwide testing. Then after the holiday, more cases broke out, so, the school became a seven-day boarding school (we are just a five-day boarding school) and kept students for about eight straight weeks. Teachers and staff volunteered on weekends to provide on campus activities, which worked pretty well because we weren't allowed to travel either. Several weeks we faced daily testing which we needed because our building compounds required us to show proof of testing via a government-issued app. Right now, it seems things are improving and travel is opening up again, which is great.

Worldwide travel, though, is another story. Since there are few flights into China at present, the cost is prohibitive -- about $8,000 for a round-trip ticket. Add to that a mandatory two-week hotel quarantine in the city of arrival and a one-week hotel quarantine in the destination city, plus a one-week stay in the city of departure from the US, and travel home for the summer just does not make sense economically or timewise. But the big change that will happen is that this summer Emily will return to the US. It has been a fight to get a visa for her, and she just doesn't have any peers in our current city. So, Sandy and I will finally be empty nesters come August.

As we look to the future, we see ourselves staying in our current city one more year (to complete my teaching contract) and then we will be considering options. China has changed a lot in the last three years, and, though we love it here, it has been a long time to be away from family and friends. We have done poorly with keeping connected with people (it's been two years since my last blog) and are wanting to change that. We'd love to hear from you, even if it is just a quick note.

craig.casterline@protonmail.com

sandy.casterline@protonmail.com

I'll try to update this blog more regularly and add in some interesting pictures of our adventures.