New love - basketball?

Rachel and I opted in to buy season tickets with our friend Tom to Northwestern basketball.  (as if our obsession with all things Northwestern could not be pushed any further)  We thought of going to a few games this year, but with the price of season tickets so low, it was hard to pass up.  We have been to two games so far, and it has been fun.  The games are shorter than football (less than 2 hours, often), and require much less time and energy commitment from the fans.  Plus, you can park near the stadium. 

The real fun will be during the Big Ten season, when students actually decide to show up for the games.

And sorry Mom - we will try to be more conspicuous next time, so you can see us on TV!

-alan

Christmas time is coming!

Thanksgiving break is over - and after a long holiday it is always a chore to wake up early and head off to work.  But we are back in action, and the annual school science fair competition is coming up next week for me.  Now all the kids are scrambling to get things done.

With the end of Thanksgiving, that means I can officially welcome the Christmas season.  Rachel and I scurried around last night, buying our Christmas tree and lights.  The tree is up but not fully decorated yet.  Pictures to follow.

-alan

Thanksgiving break!!!

I have the pleasure of having an entire week off for Thankgiving.

I had a half day Friday, during which all the teachers showed movies as part of our "International Film Festival."  That was followed by the weekend and an entire week off of classes.  What joy.

I took Rachel to work today (ha!) and drove home in a thundering downpour.  But now it is balmy - long sleeve T-shirt weather.  Crazy November.

So what am I doing with my time?  I attended an econ brown bag lunch at the University of Chicago today - that's right, using my time off to refamiliarize myself with the finer points of academia.....using statistical analysis to make shaky conclusions about how the real world works, and free food.  Oh, and if the catering service at UChicago follows the principles of supply and demand, then business school students there prefer diet to regular at a 2-1 margin.  Interesting!

-alan

Wrigley wrap-up

The day began with a bleary-eyed 6:30 wakeup on a Saturday morning, which was compounded by staying up way too late the previous night.  I grabbed my bagel and a Coke Zero, and headed for the red line to take me up to Addison.

There were already people milling about prior to 8am, decked out in purple and orange as they took photos by the redecorated Wrigley Field.  I followed the crowds to the parking lot of McDonald's, where ESPN's GameDay crew had set up shop to tape their 3 hour college football pregame show.  Students were bused down from Evanston at 4am to be the first ones in line on the set, so purple was firmly entrenched in the front of the cameras.  I had no desire to get there so early, and was pleasantly surprised when the ESPN officials ushered me in with no wait at 8am as the show went on the air.

I watched the first half of the show alone, as Rachel was busy with a Model UN program at school and other friends were too lame to wake up on a Saturday.  After some time, my east coast sports fanatic friend, Dave Kalan, arrived in a spiffy black trenchcoat and kept me company for some time with his endless supply of sports-related banter.  The whole event was a fun experience - except for NU-hater Lee Corso, who donned an Illinois helmet at the end of the show.  Sigh. 

Afterwards I headed to "Wildcat Way," a heated tent decked out with food, drinks, and TVs.  The team came through on their way into the stadium - all wearing suits, and looking very nice.  Coach Fitz was a little scary though.  He did not even crack a smile as fans cheered the team on.

The crowds were THICK at this point, and it took considerable effort to get anywhere.  I headed outside to listen to the band play (and a good thing I did, because the band could NOT be heard at all during the game from where we sat) as I waited to meet Rachel.

Once Rachel was there we snapped some photos and headed into the stadium.

Giant Fitz bobblehead!!

I would say that at this point, the day started going downhill.  It was a tremendous pregame atmosphere.  Tons of purple, great decorations, people were festive and excited about the game.  ESPN gave NU lots of publicity.  It was everything I could ask for in a gimmicky game like this.

Inside the stadium, I have more problems.  Our seats were okay - but paying $100 each for where we sat is pricey by any standards.  We could see, but it felt like we were watching something way off in the distance, because we were behind home plate in the corner of the stadium.  Great baseball seats, lousy football seats.  In general, I was not thrilled with the atmosphere inside.  No replays, people were way too drunk, and the announcers could not be heard on the speakers very well.  Plus, we could not hear the band or the students cheering.  Finally, the sun going down made it dang cold to sit there for 3 hours.  It is a lot of little stuff, but given the added cost, I would have far rather watched this game in Evanston - or even on TV!  

That is to say nothing about the actual outcome of the game - of which I will choose to forget and say nothing at all.

-alan

Adventures in Africa

Okay so I never went to Africa, but 2 weeks ago I did get a chance to visit family in Texas while we celebrated the life of my late grandpa, Thomas Kennedy, who spent over 20 years in Africa. 


We went through thousands of pictures and I learned a lot of things I never knew before.  It was a great trip for the history teacher in me because I brought back a lot of great artifacts to show my students.  No, I didn't bring back any tusks, but I did get to hold them....
 

Overall the highlight was having goofy moments with family members.  My favorite was when we busted out the African garb and played dress up.  It was Halloween but no we did not go trick or treating....

-rachel

Lost and found

This blog title could have a lot of meanings, particularly due to my long-awaited return to the blog scene.  I (Rachel) want to share how a couple of strangers have recently made my day. 

The first instance came over a month ago.  Alan and I were having some Hecky's BBQ on the lakefill before the Northwestern football game and enjoying the beautiful weather.  We ate our fill and started playing catch right along Lake Michigan.  So I threw a pass, it bounced near our camp chairs then off some of the rocks then more rocks then SPLAT...yes the ball was well on its way to Michigan....


I was determined to get it back, but was unwilling to jump in after it.  So I set out on a quest to find a kayaker (we had seen a few) to assist me in the ball's retrieval.  Luckily, after less than 5 minutes of searching, my hero paddled by and tossed me the ball.  It was a victory, even though NU's game didn't turn out so well.


My next case of lost and found happened Friday.  Alan and I ate a delicious meal at the Polo Cafe in our neighborhood.  We left without my leftovers so I ran back in to get them.  In my rush my wallet flew out of my pocket somewhere on the street.  Of course I didn't notice its absence until we were already home.  We returned to the scene of the folly but it was gone.  I was sad and annoyed that I would have to cancel cards and get new IDs.  As I was in the middle of a call to cancel a credit card the doorbell rang.  Someone had my wallet and was hand delivering it!  I was so thankful!

-rachel

Midweek check-in

It is a Tuesday morning, and hopefully a better day.  The Mondays back after a long weekend are always tough, but I was also a little under-prepared for my classes.  The hostility I got back from my students' in response was tiring.  All was going to be okay, until I realized I wanted to make a pie for Tuesday's Bible study - which meant staying up a little later baking, instead of going to sleep early as I should have.  Ah well.

This week should be fairly straight-forward.  Mostly review, talking about science fair, and a test.  No problem, right?  It will be Thursday before I know it.  And not that I want to be a chronic weekend-wisher....but next week is Thanksgiving vacation (for me, but not for Rachel) and so it is hard not to look forward to it with great anticipation!!

-alan

Big news for NU

It was a day of good news / bad news for Northwestern.  We happily stormed the field following the big win over Iowa on Saturday, as it was the first big win for the team all year.  It was an anxiety-inducing game, as NU had to come back in the closing minutes.  It was our second time on the field, as we also went down to celebrate following the win over Ohio State in 2004.  That one was a big upset - this one was not.  We have owned Iowa in recent years, so despite the ranking it did not feel like an earth-shattering win.  We were also safer this time, choosing to walk down the stairs instead of jumping over the railing.  Given their inability to win big games of late, I am quite proud of the team, and especially their quarterback - Dan Persa. 

The downside was hearing, upon returning to the car, that our star QB will be out for the year with a ruptured achilles.  Sad.

But more good news - ESPN Gameday is on its way to Chicago.  The Saturday morning college football preview show will broadcast from outside Wrigley Field.  This will be huge marketing for NU.  Of course, the bad news is that I had scheduled my first bowling team practice for Saturday at 9am - the same time as the TV program.  I think this is more important. Sorry girls, practice is moved.  Coach is going to Wrigleyville!

-alan

Veteran's Day

The joys of teaching!  Actually, in China we missed out on most of the random government holidays - so it was a real treat to wake up Thursday and not have to trudge off to school.  Those days of rest are an irreplaceable part of a balanced work life, because sometimes the weekend alone is not enough.

I needed the rest after burning the midnight oil on Monday, when I had to finish my quarter grades.  That was followed up by a failed attempt to construct a homemade conductivity tester on Tuesday morning for a lab - I proved I know nothing about circuits after shorting several bulbs.  Oh well, the kids had fun with hammers....testing if various elements were malleable or brittle.

Thursday afternoon Rachel and I went out for one last round of frisbee golf over at iit - Rachel nearly bopped an army guy in the head, while my errant throw caused an unsuspecting engineer to do a 360 and head back inside for his own safety.  I will use the excuse that we decided not to keep score, thus causing our attention to waver at times.

From there we wandered down to the new development south of 35th street - the former home of high-rise housing projects and current home to a mixed-income new construction development.  This visit was predicated by my attendance at a first-time home buyer class on Tuesday evening, when thoughts of low interest rates and tax incentive programs cast a spell over my more sober judgments.  We toured a 3 bedroom / 3 bath townhouse that reminded us quite a bit of the condo that my parents recently bought in Michigan.  It was not a "ohmygoshwehavetogettothebanktogetpreapprovedandbuythisrightnownownownow" moment, but it was certainly a great value if we wanted to stay in the same part of town.  I am sure this is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to this topic.

Today is report card pickup - so I will be meeting most parents for the first time.  Given how the lack of progress on their science fair projects affected many of my students' grades, I imagine many of the meetings will not be as pleasant as they could...

-alan

No luck....

My blog pace is clearly down in this new season of life, and all attempts of mine to cajole Rachel into filling the void with the various stories, adventures, and life tidbits have been met with good, though altogether unfulfilled, intentions.

Today we "fell back" in time, and the change is a bit shocking.  Chengdu winter, though depressing and awful in its chilly humidity, still brought 10-11 hours of daylight at its apex.  We could count on leaving school at 4 or 5pm and having the light of day guide us home.  But at 5pm today, some neighborhood vagabonds knocked on our door and lured us outside under the guide of a "progressive walk"....and we had not been out much more than 15 minutes by the time darkness fell.  It will be a race all next month to make it home before it is dark. 

Tonight I feel pulled by competing interests.  On one hand, first quarter grades are due Tuesday and I have not finished my work.  On the other hand, there are only 2.5 days of classes and so I feel like this will be an easy week.  (Wednesday - special "homecoming" activities for the second half of the day; Thursday is Veterans Day; Friday is parent-teacher conferences)  Thursday will be a good off day for us - we need to unpack winter clothes (currently strewn about in the 3rd bedroom/office/current junkroom) and maybe fit in a little shopping.

Our social calendar, which we have been neglecting other than NU sporting events as of late, is filling up!  We have various parties, concerts, and events scheduled for November and December.  It will be an exciting time....not to mention trips to Michigan for Thanksgiving and Christmas, and maybe even an NU bowl game??  Hard to believe that the "holiday" season is here, but we certainly confirmed it yesterday, as we purchased a Christmas tree stand and a nice looking tree skirt from Target.  Woot!

-alan