Amoy Wanderings

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 ...

The last few months, I have been relatively silent for many reasons, not the least of which is all the changes in our lives which seem very insignificant when compared with the issues many of you have been facing in the States. The COVID crisis seems largely to have passed, which is what benefits the political situation here, although there are significant monitoring policies still in place. In our previous city, Xiamen, students have been allowed to return to their universities for the new school year, but they have been locked on campus and must apply for permission to leave campus. Over the most recent break (which should have been at least a week long) the students merely given a long weekend vacation which was designed to prevent them from returning home and bringing the virus back with them. In our current situation, we are merely facing occasional mask requirements and a few health code checks, though that may also be because we are living in a much more rural setting. As to...

It is amazing what one can accumulate in a year. Our upcoming move has forced me to look at all the possessions we now have and consider once again the role stuff plays in out lives. We arrived 10 months ago with three suitcases apiece and a foggy understanding of life in China. Now, it will take some significant effort to relocate and set up a new apartment.  I sort of thought I had gotten all this reevaluation of stuff out of my system last year when we sold the majority of our possessions and downsized from a 3,100 square foot home (with two barns and a garage) to a 10x10 storage unit and some space in my son's garage. Now that was a monumental achievement. But somehow new stuff crept back into our lives, taking up additional space in our apartment and our lives.  Don't get me wrong. It there is a certain amount of stuff we need to live life and a certain amount we need to function within the society we live in. And, I kinda like having a bread machi...