I started keeping track with 19 weeks to go.
We were hired via Skype whilst in Shanghai on our return from
Christmas in Australia; 31 December 2010, we left New Year's Day 2011 for NYC.
When we heard those last words 'we would like to hire you both' we jumped up
and down on our bed like children learning their parents had run away with the
circus. What a way to end one year and start another one.
Being a teacher in New York City is good. Watching the City
delete teachers is not good. Of course the last school I was at, Ross Global
Academy was closed by the city's education department for being about the worst
school in NYC. It was not me, I only was the computer guy, it was those running
the school; like with seven principals it its six year history, and the love of
hiring teachers straight out of college (a cost saving) who had no experience
dealing with an inner city public school or any school for that matter.
From their homepage "RGA is committed to providing a
holistic education to enable students to develop a global worldview and the
skills necessary for success in the 21st century. RGA prepares students to
think critically and creatively, understand and respect different cultures,
become leaders, use technology, live healthy lives and develop a passion for
learning."
Aside from using technology I did not see the rest of their
ideals happening. RGA was a battlefield. But I am not knocking RGA, I enjoyed
my working there and I set up some innovative projects such as our live musical
interactions between RGA and the overly talented music teacher at St. Luke's
School (oh wait that is other one off to Dalian with me to teach, who was
jumping on the bed at the end of December with me in Shanghai).
Seven days from now we get the local limo out of Harlem and head
to JFK for a meal or two on the way to Shanghai for a couple of days then to
Melbourne to see one son for a few days and off to Adelaide for six weeks to
see more of the family. Narda is excited about her
grandchild which is incubating in the Adelaide Hills.
We will miss that birth, November, but we will be back for Christmas with an
armful of strange baby things from China.
In the past 19 weeks we have managed to reduce our belongings to
one seven by five by six foot container, collected a few weeks ago and sitting
near some wharf to be tossed aboard some float-able device headed for Dalian.
And two overweight suitcases and a few bags disguised as carry-on camera bags
for our flights. We have gotten a painter for our houses in Round Lake and a
new tenant for one of our houses up there and four Indian lads
in their 20s renting our house in Jersey City. I think we are almost ready to
go.
Of course we still have a few stray bags and boxes which we have
to either wear or discard as they just won't fit on the plane.
After nine years in New York we are out of here.
We came for a year or two in 2002 to look after my then 97
year-old-father, who shuffled about until a few months shy of 102. Now we are
headed to China. We have one week left to explore and do all those things in
New York City that we may never get to do again.