Volunteering at Tianjin International School...

A couple of weeks ago, I began volunteering at the girls' school, which has students K-12.

On Wednesday afternoons, the elementary students have "clubs" that they go to.  These are interest groups that enrich the school experience.  There might be a cooking class, or a science class,

or... a music club.

The only problem is, they didn't have a teacher for the music club.  The teacher is coming in January,

and the teacher filling in didn't know how to read music.

I just happened to be at the school when Diane found out about this need, 

and she volunteered on the spot, since she plays the piano.

Then she turned to me, and said, "you play too, don't you?  Let's do this together."

And so we have.

And we seem to make a good team.

 We work with the glockenspiel with the 2nd to 3rd graders.  

I've never done it before, but it wasn't hard and we've managed to keep the kids 

involved and happy.

 But then the 4th-5th graders wanted to do the hand bells.

I've SEEN hand bell choirs on TV.  That's as close as I've come.

So being handed several suitcases full of bells, with 

stickler rules about not touching the brass (hence the white gloves for everyone),

and we're working our way through learning 

how to use them.  It's tough when the 5th graders know more than I do about something, and they KNOW that they know more.   But we are actually making music.

And of course, there's no pressure. 

 Just a Christmas concert in December--but we only have to do one piece.

Another thing to mark in the category of "I never thought I'd be doing that..."