ESL "workshop"

This morning (& on a SATURDAY), we went to the Macau tower for a workshop being put on by Oxford University Press. We were somewhat unsure as to what this would be like as the teachers kept encouraging us to go simply for the free dictionary. That should have been a red flag.. there are always catches to free stuff. Because my navigation skills are just stellar... we got on the wrong bus & headed to the border (which is the farthest point north in Macau) instead of the Macau tower, which is the farthest point south! haha... so I am officially off navigation duty & have passed that role over to Hong :) We ended up having to get off the bus at the border, get right back on & re-pay. Oh well... we got there in time! There were lots of little breakfast snacks, danishes & tea before we went into the seminar, which were quite delicious!! It made me miss Canadian breakfasts... when I get home, I am going to have the HUGEST breakfast humanly possible with lots of fruit, pemeal (sp??) bacon, eggs, tomatoes... mmm.. my mouth is salivating.

We were signed up for the New Magic! English seminar, and there were also ones for Math & Chinese (all elementary, high school in the afternoon). Funny enough (but expected), the seminar was all in Chinese... and it wasn't so much as an education workshop or seminar that I've been to in Canada, as it was a 2 hour infomercial for New Magic! English & Oxford University Press, in Chinese. It was interesting to see the new material being marketed, and see the similarities between what our school is using (Longman - Welcome to English, 2003) & New Magic! which is a 2009 edition (but also separate publishers). This new program uses more songs, dramas, poems, group activities/conversations than does our Longman textbooks... but even if our school was to invest in this newer English packet, I think that it wouldn't change anything. CDSJ will still have the same objectives, outcomes & forms of assessment despite the program they choose to market. The students will still be required to memorize & regurgitate according to the assessment strategies that are favored. I think what is missing in CDSJ & this New Magic! is a diverse selection of ways to assess students. If this New Magic! wants students to perform dramas or sing songs, then these should be considered as an oral mark for example. If students are making a comic strip based on a story they read in class, then this should be a part of their writing assessment. Versus currently, and even in this New Magic! packet, students are still assessed in their schools via unit tests, dictations, listening comprehension tests, etc. Any projects, performances, class participation, etc isn't factored into their final mark. Anyways... I'm glad I had this time at the workshop b/c it made me think about some of these things further.

There were a few other teachers from CDSJ, but they came quite late as they had lessons in the morning.

Fun fact - Macau tower has the highest bungee jump in the world. Interested?

Going to mainland tomorrow with some of the students & need to get a paper written for the uni & an article written for CDSJ's newsletter - busy busy... queen of procrastination :)

CDSJ Anniversary

I think I'm still recuperating from the jam packed day we had on Thursday, even after we were told that we only had to attend the General Knowledge competition & would have the afternoon off. No such luck!

On Wednesday, we attended a mass at the Primary school. It was all in Chinese, so that hour & a half was much slower than usual. After mass, the Primary 6 students had made some games for the students to play & win prizes. They were quite creative!

On Thursday, we first went to the 2nd & 3rd school for the Senior general knowledge contest, which was pretty much the same as the Junior one. A couple of weeks ago, I had done a voice recording of one of the questions, but it didn't work, so Hong & I had to read out the questions during the contest. They were really tough questions & no one answered them. They had to listen to our directions & follow what we were saying on a map & then tell us our destination. I couldn't even answer when I followed along while Hong read one of the questions. We had to wait for Patricia & Karen after the contest while they talked about the English club to the parents & members of the school board. A few of us went out for lunch, including their mandarin teacher so that Karin & Patricia could interview us for their newsletter. We were scheduled to meet all of the teachers again at the 1st campus for the grand opening of a building. Which building, we didn't know. haha It turns out that the building next to our school complex (there is a church, old-age home & this empty building all in one block), this building was going to be used to raise funds for the Teacher's Association of CDSJ. When I was talking to Carlos (he is the president of this association, also the AP), he said that until now, the teacher's salaries were funded by student tuition & there wasn't much security in this. So they've decided to set up a place where the public can rent/use & this money will go towards a security for the teachers' income. I'm really unsure as to what the public will actually use this place for, and when we asked around, no one else seemed to know either. Anyways, it was a good event, lots of food & people to talk to.

Today is Saturday, and so far it has been quite un-productive. This morning we went to a place down the street for congee, as we haven't got to try the real thing yet. It's basically a boiled down rice porridge with meat in it. & you typically eat a Chinese doughnut with it. When we got there, there were so many people standing around & we had no idea what to do. So Hong tried her best to tell them what we wanted in it. When we first got ours (after all of the confusion of whether or not we paid, etc) we thought that they had gotten it completely wrong... but in the end, they understood what we asked!! We were very happy. I got beef & 1000 year old egg in mine, & Hong got a mixture of intestine, stomach & liver in hers. I thought I was being safe by getting beef... but turns out they just put raw beef in it, without cooking it. It was ok... but pretty chewy.. like as in raw beef chewy. Hong's was good & I actually tried intestine, liver & stomach today!!! I was so proud of myself :) It was alright... but nothing I would get all of the time. I just think of those fear factors where they make the people eat a plate full of plain intestine that's been pickled or something... so it's more me relating it to that than anything, that turns me off. The yummiest part about it all was the Chinese doughnut... aw man, they are good!!! very crunchy & delicious!

Busy day of sightseeing & school events

This morning we went to the 2nd & 3rd school to watch the Jr. General Knowledge competition. Most of it was in Chinese, but there were some in English as well. It was quite the big deal with a huge audience, all of the game-show type technology & even trophies! After this was over, there was a 'lay-up' competition (Basketball), we only watched some of this as we were going out for lunch with Janice, Virginia, & Cobol. Watching this lay up competition was like going through one of those moments when you are so embarrassed for the person, that you just can't bear to watch. They were trying so hard, & showing off here & there, but they just kept either missing, crashing into the free standing basketball net, or falling. & then all of the people watching do the "Ohhhhhhhhhh" really loud when the person messes up. It would be so humiliating!!

Lunch was good... had drunken chicken, some ong choi, various dumplings, and a spicy & sour soup. The soup wasn't very good... it kind of tasted like stomach bile & it also had pig's blood in it.. which just really grosses me out. I can't do it. The drunken chicken was fairly good (completely soaked in rice wine & served cold, which surprised me). I don't really much like the chicken here as it usually has lots of skin on it & sometimes is hairy, but the skin just bothers me.. it's not crunchy & bad for you tasting.. it's like elastic & soft as it's usually boiled.

Hong & I decided that we wanted to go to Fisherman's warf today, so after lunch we set off & decided to explore. We opted out of taking a bus b/c everything is so close in Macau.. .but soon wished we had as we wandered slightly too south & ended up much farther south than we wanted to be. But that was ok b/c we ran into that Kun Iam statue, which is worth the sight. It's a fairly new statue, built in 1998. We finally arrived at Fisherman's warf.. marveled at how bizarre and random each little area was & how there were very little visitors & had some ice cream/gelato. The last part being the highlight!!! On the way home we walked past the Kun Iam temple (which was very close to where we had Hot Pot & we had walked past it then & were told to visit), so we did! It's a very nice temple, lots of history in it. We tagged onto a couple of tours, but soon gave up as they were in Cantonese & Japanese. Came home & relaxed for a bit before the Anniversary of CDSJ school event this evening. Virginia warned us that we should eat before as the speeches would be very long & we probably wouldn't eat until about 9pm (which ended up being very true), so we grabbed some sushi.

Quite the event! It was a dinner put on by the Alumni association, lots of food & presents. I got a bizarre egg thing with a lot of glitter on it... I don't even want to open the container b/c the glitter will just spread like wild fire (youtube: Demetri Martin, 'jokes in the guitar' to find out more about glitter). Food was pretty good... many meals one after the other, in total, including the dessert there were 14 dishes. It took a long time to eat! My favourite was the steamed fish (SO GOOD!) & the boiled lettuce & mushrooms. The last dish also had something else in it... I TRIED... but didn't like it. It had chicken's feet in it, boiled as well. so again... the skin was all elasticky & chewy... & then also the webbing was still in between the toes! Eek! I definitely think that I would have enjoyed it had it been deep fried or something.. but just not boiled. I tried a bit... but just couldn't finish (so Hong ate mine, I will attach a picture soon!). One more thing... all of the little bones were much like our metatarsal bones in our feet - soo eery! Dessert was so tasty! Cookies and rolls that were almond/sesame based, & red bean soup. I was surprised by how delicious red bean soup actually is, i loved it! (it also has lotus seeds in it)

I am definitely pooched now! Off to bed I go :)

Out the window!

So, my optimistic attitude about the class quickly faded today. It was insane, frustrating, and completely out of control. I am really struggling with how to fit into this class, what is of my concern & what is not, what should be done about situations (& how to deal with them?) and perhaps it is me needing to just let go & adapt to how things are done here?? I don't know what to do. I just know that I can't, morally ignore physical and verbal violence in the classroom. I hope things improve... otherwise I am going to be quite the grouch for the next 5 months.

After a long day of classes, Hong & I went out for lunch on the way home. We stopped at this incredibly over priced Japanese restaurant. I got a seafood udon (I would call it noodle & sauce, barely any seafood :( & Hong got a fried Eel & rice. The bones in the Eel were somewhat dangerous & you couldn't really eat around them (they were thick enough to jab into your throat or mouth, but were also too small to pick out) so unfortunately Hong just had rice for lunch. There was a large table of Jr High kids beside us & one of them got dared or something to shove a massive sushi roll into his mouth. Needless to say, he choked & threw it all up onto the table. It was awful. What a day so far!

Once I got home, after talking to Connor for a bit on skype, I decided to have a nice long nap. I was exhausted & slept for about 2 hrs. Hopefully I can fall asleep tonight!

A-ha moment!

Second day in my grade one class and it went very well. Miss Woo is there to help out with some crowd control, but it isn't bad at all. My previous practicum class had 56 students!! 14 is a breeze in comparison. Speaking of which... I am noticing such a drastic contrast between the grade ones here & the grade ones in Canada. & I by no means want to portray anything negative about it... but the students here seem older, more serious, & constrained almost. I have heard from many people that in Macau, studying is everything & the parents do everything that they can to make their child excel in school... but also make them work very very hard each & every night. On the playground, they are just like any other child... but the classroom is just so different. Not only did I completely drop the ball on giving them homework my first day, but when I assigned some today... I didn't assign enough!! Miss Woo said that the parents get quite upset if there isn't a 'substantial amount of work sent home to be completed'. I am not sure I will get over this pressure and importance that academia holds in this city. It's just amazing!

side note: I forgot to mention this yesterday! When I was in the Kindergarten class yesterday morning before the students arrived (everyone else starts at 8:20am, where as the Kindergarten students start at 9am). One of the student's father approached me & asked me if I was teaching his daughter. & I said that yes, I will be teaching them English twice a week. As soon as I said this he just grinned from ear to ear & couldn't stop thanking me for being in this class. It was very sweet... but for all he knows - I could have no idea what I was doing!!! haha

Today's lesson went very well. I wanted them to learn about using very simple nouns & adjectives, so we described some of their vocabulary that can be found around the classroom. They were so cute, pulling anything they could out of their schoolbag so that they could get a turn to describe it!

There are 2 boys in the class that Miss Woo frequently describes as 'naughty', and I have witnessed some of that behaviour... but today was awesome! So yesterday, Sam was flicking erasers at another students... so I told him to stop & go pick it up. He kind of gave me this pouty I'm pissed at you look but then finally did it. Today right at the beginning of class he was just bursting out nonsense, trying to get a giggle from everyone. I simply (& I think of Tara whenever I say this), shook my head no & said 'no thank you Sam'. He got it. & didn't revolt in any way. Just took it all in & continued what we were doing. The other little one is Paco, and yesterday I saw him across the room during our 'oral speaking groups' rolling around on the floor, crawling like a worm while pushing his chair & stomping around. But there was something about today that just ignited him. He was getting up.. going from one spot to the next to find me something that he could describe, he was taking that one step further in talking about more than one detail of an object, etc. It was fantastic. I just need to get this kid moving & challenge him a little. I think he (& Sam as well) are far more than competent in everything we do in class.. but just need that little extra push.

Hong was working until after lunch, so I came home & waited for her to get back so that we could get some grub! We wandered around as we usually do until we find something & we stumbled upon a fantastic dumpling place! They were soooo good. Not sure if they have meat ones though (pretty sure these only had veggies in them... but you never know). They were dirt cheap too! (don't know if that's a good thing.. ha) They were only $1 MOP each which is about 15 cents Canadian. We went to the market after to get some food for dinner & decided to get some more rice. There was this man running this stall & of course looked right to Hong & started speaking Chinese to here, even though I was pointing to what we wanted. He kept repeating the same thing & Hong would say something in English & finally she said 'Gong Yingman' which means 'speak English'. He then kept saying something over & over again in Chinese which we think it was something like 'really? you only speak English?' & was just creepily smiling at Hong, but still not getting our rice. It was pretty funny.. I think he had a crush on her.

Something else funny at the market. There was this mom just holding her daughter in the air with her pants down so that she could pee into the drain in the middle of the sidewalk. Right by all of the food stands!! Mmm

First day officially teaching

I was just about to come on here & tell you all about my first day of teaching & plan some more lessons for this week... and then I had a technology panic attack and cursed myself for purchasing a mac that come without a manual 'eject' button on it. I was going to try out one of the CDRom's that came with the English package, when it got stuck! Definitely not formatted for my computer, as my computer wouldn't even read that there was something in it. With a mac you can't just press eject on the computer & out it comes. Anyways... long story short, I just spent the last 2 hours searching my computer's help menu & the apple website trying all the many ways to get this thing out!! (most of which using terminology that I will never understand, thank goodness they make attempts to somewhat dumb it down for techno-illiterate people like me). Result - I got it out!!! YEAH!

Today was our first official day teaching, and I planned as though the teachers were giving me the full reigns. Thank goodness I did this because that is exactly what they did. It was fantastic! My partner teacher (Miss Woo) & another support/translator (Miss Jeung) did however stay in the classroom and helped out with everything I was doing! My first lesson was with P1 (Karate kid!!) & we were starting chapter 2 of their English textbook. When I had met with Miss Woo last week she had said that she would prefer it if for now, that I try to do the lessons exactly how she does so that the transition is easier. Because my understanding of cantonese is extremely limited and her English (it's pretty good... but I'm sure we miss a lot of what each other is trying to say), anyways I really didn't get a full understanding of what exactly she does in the classroom. So I went with what I thought was going on. Another boat that I missed during our conversations (actually both Hong & I didn't get this), but I guess Mondays & Wednesdays, they have 'oral class'. It's a complete 1/2 hour devoted to speaking. So today was Monday and although my lesson did include speaking... it wasn't a full half hour of only speaking. Unsure of how exactly I'll plan for this?? It just seems forced to remove the speaking from all of the other areas of learning English. & not to mention what the heck are we going to talk about for 1/2 an hour?? Another boat that I missed (man, I was really stuck in the middle of the ocean on this one!) was that I didn't assign the kids any homework. Miss Woo came up to me after & said - "I'm a little concerned that you didn't assign any homework"... and I was thinking to myself - I'm supposed to give them homework?? They're 5!!! I guess they receive homework in each subject every day, so I will need to start taking that into account. whoopsies! There I go again, carrying Canadian assumptions of homework etiquette into Macau. Can you imagine if we assigned homework to Grade ones in Canada? Parents would be livid!!! & not to mention it wouldn't actually get done!

I then had another lesson with the Kindergarten class (K1). These kids are about 3-4 years old. They were learning the letter P this week so I chose a song to go along with this. We sang the 'Peanut butter & jelly' song with actions that I made up & then played 'pass the peanut butter' with a jar of PB that I brought from home. I think they were a little disappointed at the end of the game when they didn't get to eat it! Anyways, they had a lot of fun & were super cute. Any suggestions of any P-letter, pig, pizza, or peanut butter related games that I can do with them on Wednesday??? Oh boy! This should be interesting.

Now that I've procrastinated the day away, I'm going to get to work!

Finishing off the reading break

On Thursday, Virginia wanted to take us to mainland China so that we knew how to get there safely! Also, they did not want to tell the VP that we had gone to Thailand, as his view of a 'Reading Break' varies from that in North America! Whoops! You receive an entry slip every time you come into Macau & we originally thought that this would say 'Bangkok', so Virginia & Helen wanted us to get another one that said 'China' or 'Hong Kong'. Turns out it didn't matter as the carbon copy of this slip doesn't reveal that information! Either way.. it was good to know how to get to mainland. It's so easy! You take a bus that is just around the corner from us, walk to the border, go through a few custom windows & then you're there! In & around the actual border gates is quite sketchy. Virginia gave us some tips on not how to get ripped off. She says that the robbers will try to distract you with something, so don't fall for it, always have your bag in front of you (& be careful that they don't slice it to get the contents out), & never help anyone with anything, even if they ask. She says that these thieves are very fast, aggressive & skillful! I think that as long as we're smart, we'll be ok.

She showed us a couple of places to get some good deals, & the areas where you bargain & those that you don't. Having just returned from Thailand, we were very disappointed to see how expensive things seemed in comparison. We'll just have to sharpen up our bargaining skills a little more. One thing that China is not short of - rip off designer goods! Oh my goodness... everything you could imagine! Gucci, coach, converse, abercrombie, rolex, etc. It was everywhere! It is however illegal to bring these goods out of China. So we've been told that as long as you're not obviously carrying pirated goods, then you are fine. I really don't know how much of this stuff I'll buy, and I'd be terrified of getting into trouble!! (like the nerd I am:) Going through customs on the way back, they were so picky about all of our stamps on our passport. They kept me at the window for about 10 minutes & then when Hong went through, they actually asked her questions about why she's in Macau for so long. They usually never utter a single word to you.

Luckily, the next day we were scheduled to meet the VP to go to the Immigration's office to sort out our visa documents. What a waste of the morning! We get there, they tell us that it's not ready & that we can stay in the country for 20 additional days anyways because we had been across the border the day before. So, we have to go back on the 24th of March to hopefully get our visa this time. We went back to the 2/3rd school to meet Virginia as she needed one of us to record a few passages for a General Knowledge English contest that they are holding. It was about 9:50am and we couldn't do this until 11am, so Hong & I had to hang around for a while waiting for Janice, who had the recording device. Normally, we would have just gone wandered around, but it was pouring buckets of rain out! Virginia even mentioned that the weather might progress to 'black rain'... which is a really heavy amount of rain where the city just shuts down, most people return home, but if it's not safe to do so, then you have to stay where you are until it lets up. With black rain follows mudslides, typhoons, etc at times. Scary! My umbrella kicked the bucket the other day, and Hong's was on its way out... so we really had no choice but to stick around. After the recording, we went out for some Chinese/Portuguese food with Virginia & she FINALLY let us pay for it! Our mission after lunch was to find new umbrellas & boy, did we ever! We didn't skim out on cash this time & bought a superman strength umbrella. The only problem is, it's really big & when it rains everyone has an umbrella out & it's just like a jigsaw puzzle getting through the crowds with all of the umbrellas. I even got dragged a few steps one day, as this girl's umbrella got stuck in my hair & she didn't notice (not even after I screamed and followed with her umbrella poking into my head)... ouch!

The next couple of days were devoted to getting work done! We fell behind a little while in Thailand, so I've just been getting some reading done & writing some papers. It's raining out a lot... so it isn't so bad being inside. Tomorrow, I will focus on planning some activities for the grade ones & kindergarten students - should be fun!

Thailand

We had originally planned to head for the airport at about 2am Friday morning so that we could make our flight in time (we have to take a ferry & then an hour bus ride to the HK airport), but we got a phone call from Andrew (who is living in HK) that evening so we decided to head over to his place at about 8pm, stay over and then go to the airport in the morning. Friday morning, we woke up at about 4:30am to catch a cab to the Airport Express for 5am. We were going to take the 24 hour shuttle bus, but Andrew said that the express was much easier. So, we got to this express train station, but it was completely empty, no one in sight & finally heard a recorded message saying that the first trains don't run until 6am. Darnit! That wasn't going to work since we had to meet our group at 5:45am. So, instead we wandered around until we could find a cab at that time in the morning & headed to the airport in a cab. over $300 HKD later, we arrived at our meeting spot. Oh well.. at least we got there in time!

The flight was about 2.5 hours & then had to take our tour bus to our first destination. We went to an "Amusement Park" about an hour outside of Bangkok and about an hour or so away from Pattaya. I wish I had known what this "Amusement Park" actually was beforehand as the English translation paints pictures of rides, candy & fun in my mind. I won't go into details because I would never wish for anyone to experience this place. All I can say is that my initial impression of Thailand was that it was animal exploitation to the extreme, filled with 'Monkey shows', elephant "rides", and shooting ranges. We were expected to tip everyone that we encountered and I may have been the fun ruiner, but there was no way I was willingly encouraging this establishment any further. Anyways...

We drove for about another hour to get to Pattaya where we checked into our beautiful hotel & relaxed by the gorgeous pool. Because we are on a tour, all of our meals are set and paid for, so when we go to a restaurant, we're just given a set meal. We were told that on a Chinese tour, you will always go to a Chinese restaurant and receive 8 dishes & one soup as the meal. We were also told that Chinese people can not handle Thai food nor do they like the spice, so unfortunately while in Thailand, the majority of our meals were exactly the same, from one Chinese restaurant to the next :( However, Hong & I did get a couple of opportunities to have some Pad Thai & Mango sticky rice. Mmm Thai food is so yummy!

That night we went to a Magic Show - Thai style. Very interesting. & then went to 'Mike's mall' which is essentially a giant market inside of a building. We tried out some of our rusty bargaining skills at this place but failed miserably. I think their rent must be much higher than in other places, because prices were too high & they were less willing to budge in price. So, we didn't buy anything there. We were absolutely exhausted by the end of this day & slept very well in our quiet hotel. It's odd that a hotel is so much more quiet than our appt in Macau!

On Saturday we woke early to take a boat ride to another island in Pattaya. Our first stop was just off shore where dozens of companies gave Parasailing rides. This was the sketchiest thing I have ever seen!! I have some pictures of it.. there were literally about 50 boats zooming around very close to each other, tugging a parasailer behind them. & how the rider is attached to the parachute is very different from anywhere else.. you are hooked on by two small carabeaners and dangle from the attachment points. Needless to say... I did not feel comfortable trying this... but Hong was willing to be the guineapig! She loved it!

We continued our boat ride to the beautiful beach where we just relaxed by the water all morning. There are lots of people around trying to sell you stuff & take you on jet ski rides, etc.. but overall it was pretty nice. There was only one unfortunate incident where an old man from Nepal had approached Hong & I separately & was asking to take pictures of me .... it was really odd & uncomfortable. I said no, repeatedly, as I was in a bathing suit & thought that he was very creepy.

We had lunch at a restaurant just up from the beach, & had the usual Chinese 8 dishes & one soup. One constant that no one ever eats is the fish. It really doesn't look good. We were told that when you get fish that is deepfried or pan fried & covered in sauces (spicy sauces), that means that the fish was most likely dead for a long time before it was cooked & they deep frying & sauce is a cover up for the fishy smell & taste. It wasn't recommended that we eat it. Hong tried a little & said that it didn't taste good at all. Right after lunch we took our boat ride (about 1/2 an hour) back to the mainland Pattaya. This boat ride was quite the adventure. We were flying over massive waves & crashing down to the water like it was no big deal. I felt like I was on a half hour roller coaster.

We then went to a Massage place to get a 2 hour Thai massage. Quite the experience. We were all in a huge room with multiple beds, and many of the people in our tour fell asleep except for Hong & I... we always had one eye open because of how different this experience was. The two ladies were just killing themselves laughing when we would squirm or giggle when they manipulated our limbs, etc in odd poses. One shocking moment was when they are working on your neck & head area, they twist your head to the side & crack the whole top area of your spine & neck... it surprised the heck out of me! & then I thought, you can definitely kill someone that way. I was just hoping that they knew what they were doing!! After the massage they wait in the little changing area with you until you give them a tip. So we gave them $50 B, which was the amount that was suggested by our tour guide & my masseuse gave me the nastiest look & then her & Hong's lady just started yelling in Thai. We didn't know what we did wrong... but I think they were expecting more from us.

That evening we went to the 'Lady Man' show. It was neat... but I think I expected more. The costumes were great & the men really looked like women, but the dancing was awful & the lip synching was even worse. They have to do these shows multiple times in one evening, so I can understand that the enthusiasm and pizzaz would fade pretty quick. I was fascinated by how much these men resemble females... everything about them was so feminine. Almost all of them have had some form of surgery... it's quite the transformation that they must go through in order to qualify for this lifestyle.

We left early Sunday morning to go to Bangkok (a.k.a in Chinese - "Munhkok" meaning traffic jam). On our way there, we stopped at this dry/preserved foods store. Everyone in our tour went crazy over this stuff! Some people bought boxes & boxes of dried food. Hong & I just bought some snacks to try some things. My favourite was Tamarind, which is a fruit, but it was dried & then sweetened. It was sour, spicy & sweet all at once, so delish! Next was the Chinese herbal/medicinal shop. I wrote a little bit about it in my pictures, it was quite the experience. They sit you in this private room, make you watch a video which just spews out the ingredients of the products that they have, and then some man comes in & gave us a shpeal for about half an hour (in Chinese) about the products. It was really awkward after the talk because they kind of just stand there... don't let you leave.. almost as if they are waiting for you to buy something before you can leave. Hong & I didn't get anything though, we had no idea what was going on!

On Monday we went to the 9 Sacred Temples (/Buddhas), the other temple where we had to take a boat ride to, & also saw the four faced Buddha. I feel like an idiot writing about all of the things we saw because I know nothing about them, and I don't even know what they are called because everything we went to, they spoke in Chinese about it. I'll just have to do some research.

Tuesday was a short day as we were flying out that day. We went to a "Honey shop", which was strikingly similar to the Chinese Medicinal shop. After that we went to Baiyoke Hotel, which is the tallest tower in Thailand. This was lots of fun and is much like the CN tower or Calgary tower. I found this sign, but unfortunately didn't take a picture of it & on it, it had a list of the tallest towers & buildings in the world. But the CN tower was no where to be found!! At first I thought that maybe it was only a list of the tallest buildings in the world, but then I noticed many other towers listed... but still no CN tower :( Poor Canada, we were left out.

After a long trip... we had to catch the 10pm ferry to Macau, for an hour ferry ride. We were exhausted by the time we got home, but it felt good to be back!