Counting down the hours...

So as I sit here eagerly awaiting Abbie's visit (& procrastinating from everything else, like I do best) I thought I would give a little update on what's been going on!

Singapore

I realized that I didn't even write anything about Singapore! Only pictures. Hong & I met up with Alex & Mike (two friends from school) for some great times in Singapore. I have always wanted to visit this country after my father visited there for business when I was quite young. He had nothing but great things to say about this place & I was eager to experience it for myself. Well - he was right! Singapore is beautiful, clean, & filled with so many different people from different walks of life. I loved it! Even though this wonderful country took a massive bite out of my bank account, I enjoyed every second of it. To paint a picture of how wonderful this place is - 4am, Hong & I are taking a cab to the airport & our taxi driver is awesome, just chatting us up like crazy. We get to the airport, he gets out of the car, gets our bags out, etc & gives both of us massive hugs & asks us to come back again & meet his family & daughters & stay with them next time. We didn't just befriend taxi drivers our entire trip, we were fortunate enough to take in all the sights (well as many as we could squeeze into 5 days). We went to Chinatown, Clark Quay, Sentosa Island, Little India, fish spas, the giant ferris wheel, the downtown including the Merlion statue, Raffles hotel for a couple of Singapore Slings!, & a wonderful stay at the Furama Riverfront Hotel. I have a childhood friend that left Canada in grade three to move to Singapore, but I kept in touch with her throughout the years through letters. She would always tell me extravagant stories about Singapore & all its glory & now I understand :) I am so happy that I got to visit this place! I just couldn't get enough!

Teaching

We were anticipating some news from the school with respect to whether or not summer programs would go ahead this year once we got back from Singapore. The day after we got back, we found out that the government has ordered that all schools close & that no summer programs would run. So now what, you ask? We were asking the same question for about 3 weeks.. haha. But seriously, we were still expected to come to school as a regular work day, since we would still be getting paid. & lucky for us, we discussed cramming all of our hours for the month into a couple of weeks so that we could take advantage of the rest of the time that we have in Asia.

Most of our days were spent talking with the teachers, eating, walking around. But we also did some serious work when the school asked us to make a presentation about the assessment report that we had written for the school a couple of months prior. So Hong & I put together a seminar on Assessment as best we could, based on what we have learned in the past two years about assessing students. This seminar was interesting!! (to say the least). Education lingo is difficult as it is, never mind in a foreign language. During the presentation & immediately afterwards, we were quite certain that the teachers did not understand a word we were saying.. but we gave them a little homework anyways. Much to our surprise, the next day they presented masterpieces for us! It was wonderful to see! We know that they put a lot of hard work into it all & that they were determined to figure out what the heck we were talking about. Their goal for the upcoming year is to alter their assessment techniques & experiment with different assignments, tasks, etc for the students. It should be quite the challenge, but they are all looking forward to this change!

Cebu, Philippines

Before we knew it, school was completely over for us & we were on our way to the Philippines for some RNR. We decided to stick to Cebu as we only had about a week to travel & the Philippines is just so huge! We spent one, dreadful night in the capital city (Cebu City) & quickly ran away to the island's paradise (Moalboal). We found a beautiful place to stay in this town & took in the many sights around the area. My proudest moment of this trip was overcoming my crippling fear of the ocean & its unknowns. I have attempted snorkeling a couple of times in my life & they typically ended with me doing the snorkel mask scream & running out of the water to the safety of the shore. My parents' favourite story from Turks & Caicos is seeing me hurdle myself (flippers on & all) from the water onto the beach on our snorkeling excursion. Oh boy! I am a wimp sometimes! Either way.. I conquered this fear & went full force ahead into this unknown world under water. & wow! Have I ever been missing out. The ocean is so beautiful!!! We saw so many beautiful & colourful creatures. We even saw a sea turtle from shore one day. I think this is an activity that I will continue to enjoy in the future! Maybe even take on scuba diving one day?? Whoa whoa whoa.... baby steps.

Right now?

Today is the 24th of July & Abbie arrives TOMORROW!!!! But for the past couple of days, I have just been relaxing in Macau, planning our trip to Thailand & ... (thinking) about getting started with some work stuff. Abbie will be here for a total of 11 days & in this period of time we plan on taking in the sights in Macau, Hong Kong, Bangkok & Ko Samui. Sounds like a lot, but I run a tight ship & I will do my best to drag Abbie's lifeless body around, while she combats her jet lag.

The countdown is on, of course, until I get home. Just a little under two weeks I will get to see (some) of my family & friends once again! I have lots to get finished once I return, so I am definitely going to take advantage of the rest of my down time :)