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 :)

Only in Macau...

Reading through a friend's blog, it gave me an idea to summarize some of the err.. let's say, interesting things that have occurred in Macau. I remember doing the same with my friend, Rachel on the way home from Ghana over a couple of bottles of free airplane wine. For this list (which may be a work in progress), Hong & I sat at the dinner table one night brainstorming some of the funny, adventurous, scary, gross & odd experiences thus far in Macau. Let me begin...

1. One of the most recent ones, which I like to call "the curious incident of the rat + a long metal pole intended for bodily harm + a man who is a cook in the restaurant in our building = not a fairy tale ending for one of these players". I will not delve into details, unless specifically aksed?

2. People here do marvelous things with their cell phones, such as driving on a moped or showering while talking on them. Maybe my hearing is shot - but how do they even hear the other person?

3. City bus breaking down in front of one of the only gas stations in Macau (& yet they were of little help despite the irony of this situation) & having only one tree on the side of the road to shade all passengers in 35+ degree weather.

4. Locals having a stare-down contest with gaping mouths and pivoting bodies against (one of... or perhaps the only) ginger in town.

5. Cockroaches the size of small cats roaming the streets.

6. Flyers littering the underpasses near the casinos selling "Marissa" (from the OC/ or Mischa Barton) for one night, for one low price of 138 Yuen (approximately $25 CAD). (Mischa, you should set your price a little higher...)

7. Tallest bungee jump in the world. I am still working up the courage to take the leap. I sure hope I do it soon :)

8. Tourist attraction (/ghost town, kinda sad) "Fisherman's Warf/ Aladdin's Village/ Colliseum/ Volcano/ Qing Dynasty Palace/ Pellet gun obstacle course/ Portugal street/ etc etc". I think they were confused when they built this area, none of the attractions connect to the others. It's a very random area.

9. Dead fish floating in the windows of the seafood restaurants.

10. World's fastest, most efficient construction. Quality - questionable.

11. No toilet paper + no toilet seat + no water + no soap = disturbing bathroom experiences.

12. Dust mite allergies.

13. Venetian flop.

14. Cab drivers reluctant to let Canadians into their cabs. This one cab we got in (I hopped in the front seat), he opened his door, leaned his body out the door & put on a face mask. (refer to point 15.)

15. H1N1 hysteria - the government even canceled all schools.

16. 4 pieces of sushi for $1.50 CDN. Quality = again, questionable.

17. World's greatest dumplings.

18. Running into students or their parents in the streets.

19. The Red Market. Huge enclosed market with the greatest selection of seafood I've ever seen. Highlights - fresh fish with their hearts still beating (& these people are the fastest fish gutters in the world, hands down) & shrimp jumping to their death out of the styrofoam coolers onto the floor.

I wish I had kept some sort of notebook to record things as they happen, but I think that's one of the best parts about traveling... you go home, return to regular life & unexpected circumstances trigger "instances" you thought you forgot!

Mom & Dad's Travels

Don & I traveled to China this spring to visit with Katey [and Hong] for three weeks. Without a doubt, the entire trip was so amazing. We were so lucky to have Katey & Hong [& Connor] travel with us & share our adventures. We had some doubts about easily travelling in China with language [and written] barriers, population densities, cultural differences as well as the cautionary advice we obtained from various sources prior to leaving Canada. To our surprise though, most of what we did went off without a hitch. [Although we won’t discuss our little excursion to the Forbidden City on May 1st. Navigating around Beijing on May Day, the nation’s most popular national holiday, was no walk in the park!]

When asked what I liked best about China I have trouble as everything we did was so memorable. Each meal was an adventure [food in China is REALLY different] every destination was so unique & the people are fascinating - we had so many positive experiences in our encounters with the people. We have been back in Canada six weeks now – the 700+ photos are now in albums and as I write the anecdotes beside each photo I find myself reliving every moment we had in China and it is like being there all over again. As to what is at the top of my list of all that we did I would have to say our day on the Great Wall, our weekend in Hong Kong, our days in Macau [especially visiting Katey & Hongs school] shopping in the markets, touring Hutongs, our time in Beijing & Shanghai – I could continue on & on as everything is on the list!! We could really only get a small sampling of China in three weeks - Katey & Hong are so lucky to be in Macau for six months & have the opportunity to travel to parts of Asia & see more of what China has to offer. Our trip to China & the time we spent with Katey – definitely the highlight of 2009!!!

Summer term & in between

Despite rumors & fingers being crossed, the show must go on & the summer term is not canceled after all. People were talking like crazy about canceling the program due to H1N1 reaching Macau & also because one of the foreign teachers that was organizing the summer term for the other campus did not come (also because of H1N1). The administration even held a meeting about it, but decided in the end that they would continue with classes as planned until a student gets the virus. It's interesting to see this contrast with how schools react in Canada to illnesses. Hong Kong has already decided to cancel summer classes & even postponed final exams. The government (in Macau & Hong Kong) has also recommended that schools cancel their graduation ceremonies or any occasions where large groups of people gather. There is only a very small number of cases here, but I understand their reaction. The population density here is unimaginable when compared to the wide open spaces & double car garages that we have in Canada. If the virus really was to spread here, it would go like wild fire. As much as I was clinging to the possibility of having an extra month to travel, I do not wish for the virus to spread here (we all know how good I am at getting sick...)

Moral of the story - I have been taking full advantage of the freedom of summer classes. The students do not have to follow a textbook, they do not write tests & we are essentially allowed to teach them anything that we feel is important. So, Hong developed an overall theme & some activities for both of our classes to participate in (as I believe they are testing the waters with multi-aging this summer... Yeah!) I am happy that I am in this situation, I've never taught in a multi-aged setting.. and I am eager to do so. Our theme for the summer is - FOOD! Yum! The students are going to do many fun & exciting activities involving technology, songs, inventive caps, & so on. I am, surprisingly, looking forward to it all. Near the end of the term (which is actually quite short, only 6 days, about 3 hours long each, spread out over 4 weeks) of course, they will be having a performance. We were originally going to do a camp song that both Hong & I learned while working with the city about Bananas & a play based on the storybook "Stone Soup", but we fear that there won't be enough 'practice' time, so we are going to do 2 songs instead. In addition to the 2 hrs of activity time that students have, P1 & P2 will split up for about 45 min where they will get some more 'official' lesson time of instruction. My students (who are now called P2, I will have the same class & partner teacher - minus a couple of students that left for other schools) will be learning about clothing & will be holding their very own fashion show, which we will video tape & I will test out my editing skills on iMovie & show it during the performance. There's lots to do over the next few weeks, but they will be enjoyable. Time is going to fly!

Our first day of summer planning was to begin this past Monday, but Helen wanted to go to Hong Kong & she had asked if we would take her grand daughter (Elizabeth) to Ocean Park. So, we played hookie for the day & went to Hong Kong instead. Unfortunately for us, it was raining buckets for most of the day & only at the end of the day, did we get to enjoy a few rides. We did however get plenty of viewing time in at the Reef Aquarium, the Jelly Fish exhibit & the Panda habitat. Fun fact - Ocean Park in Hong Kong has the largest aquarium in all of Asia, which is amazing b/c they LOVE their aquariums over here. My favourites were the Jelly Fish (all of them.. I can't decide which ones are more beautiful) & seeing 2 Giant Pandas in real life. Amazing! Elizabeth is quite the intelligent young lady (at only 6 yrs old), so we had a fantastic day with her. I love any opportunity to nerd it up with my natural history fun facts. Although, aquatic life - definitely not my forte.

Hong & I held a little party for the CDSJ staff this afternoon to give our thanks for their hospitality. It was such a minute gesture considering all they have done for us over the past 5 months, but we had to do something. We brought some treats that we bought in Taipei, a "tiramisu" cake (I was so disappointed when I cut into it.... NOTHING like the real thing, it had chunks of canned fruit inside.. blahk!), bear claw fudge & maple popcorn from Canada, PB cookies & some drinks. Hong & I baked the cookies last night, which was quite the experience. We don't have an oven, so we borrowed one from Dave, who lives downstairs. The ovens here are much like an oversized toaster oven at home. It was definitely interesting, we had to rotate the pan about 3 times throughout their cooking time as the back practically lights on fire & the front row is still raw. haha... it was hilarious! Hong even started a fire!!! Serious... we don't have oven mitts, so we were using a cloth & it landed on the element & immediately ignited. It was pretty funny. All I could think of was 'Ryan started the fire'.... look it up (the Office), so great.

Hong & I are traveling to Singapore on Saturday & staying until Thursday. Two of my friends from Calgary are traveling around SE Asia right now & we have decided to meet up there! I have always wanted to see Singapore & not to mention, enjoy my favourite beer (Tiger beer). We don't have to be at school again until the following Friday. Life is rough, we deserve a break, don't we??? :)

I heart Taipei.

This week was a little funny since the kids are going through final exams & we didn't have to actually be present!! So Hong & I decided to hop on a plane for 4 days in Taiwan :) What a beautiful place. Transit is amazing, the train goes absolutely everywhere & their websites, brochures, etc all provide you with detailed information on what to see & how to get to these places.

We arrived in the afternoon on Monday & found our hostel 'Camel's oasis'. It was a cute place, much like an apartment with a few rooms, a bathroom, a couple of common areas, and a kitchen. The guy who owns it, Shawn was amazing! He kept the place absolutely spotless & gave us advice on all of the touristy spots we wanted to visit. That first night we went to the Shilin market which is the largest of the night markets in Taipei. HUGE! Neither of us bought anything.. it's the usual clothing, shoes, hats, nicknacks, etc.. but it was great to see. We did however sample lots of the local treats, such as sausage wrapped in glutinous rice, stinky tofu, crispy almost pretzel-like doughnut, and some milk tea.

Tuesday we slept in (actually we slept in most mornings.. our room was very dark & the hostel was really quiet so we just kept on sleeping!!). We went to see the Taipei 101 - the tallest building in Taipei & used to (I believe...) hold the record for the tallest building. I need to google this stat ASAP. :) The building encompasses so many things that are important to the Taiwanese i.e. growth & strength as is represented by the bamboo design, the antique coins depicted on the outside of the building (wealth?? maybe), & the name 101 - 'to represent its more than perfect aura...' I can't quite remember this description but I do remember chuckling slightly.. it was pretty cute! The coolest part were seeing one of the passive dampers, which dissipate & stabilize the building during earthquakes. After 101 we went over to Maokong to enjoy the serene atmosphere of the tea plantations & tea shops. We took the MRT to the Taipei zoo station (sadly... I did not visit my friends at the zoo.. maybe another time. I blame Hong) & then took a bus up to Maokong (the Gondola that used to run up there is out of service for some reason.. there weren't really any tourists up there, so I'm wondering if they shut it down because they weren't making any money on it anymore?). Our bus driver was very sweet, she could obviously tell that we had no clue where the heck we were going... so she kept slowing down in front of various secluded looking tea houses asking us if we wanted to get off the bus yet. We ended up stopping at this really cute tea house, enjoying some food & a glass of iced green tea, hanging out reading our books, chatting, and enjoying the mountainous view! It was a wonderful afternoon, definitely one of the highlights! That night we went to Ximending trendy area where all the cool kids hang out. Literally.. it was packed with teens hanging out. We didn't do any shopping, but found a korean/hot pot restaurant to have some dinner. It was all you can eat for a few bucks CDN but was absolutely AWFUL! All the food kept sticking to the grill & then spontaneously heating up, burning absolutely everything. We looked like the biggest newbs in the place.

Wednesday we went to Danshui (which is a little town inside of Taipei county) to take a ferry ride over to Bali where we rented some bikes for an hour & strolled around the area. Both of these towns are on a river, so it was a beautiful day filled with sunshine & scenery! After Danshui we went to the Beitou for some tea & an evening dip in the hot springs. We went to a public bath for about $1 CDN, but only lasted for about 1/2 an hour b/c it was so hot!! Very hot & humid weather + hot hot springs = sweaty, lethargic Kate. :) I was excited for bed that evening b/c I thought after biking earlier in the day & relaxing in the hot springs that I would sleep like a baby... turns out the opposite happened & Hong & I were awake until about 2am trying to fall asleep. We tried playing Jenga, Hong made up my fortune with playing cards & we even tried to solve rubics cubes!!! Luckily we didn't really have anything to do the next morning.

On the way home we flew over Hong Kong on the descent & it was so neat because I could pick out all of the buildings & other spots (i.e. IFC, Bank of China, the sea turtle opera house one, Victoria peak & I even saw the giant seated buddha!)

Great holiday this week, but back to reality tomorrow :( We're going to a brunch for the P6 grads tomorrow & then on Saturday we're having our students come in for a rehearsal. They are performing two songs at the P6 Graduation ceremony in a week. Our teachers are very nervous that they are going to be silly, so they want them to come in on a Saturday & every day next week. Oh gosh, this should be interesting.

Connor's Travels

Here is a piece written by Connor about his time in China.

So when Kate returned to work I headed to the West, a common theme, and enjoyed the bustling city of Chengdu. There I enjoyed the cities pace before heading out to Emei Shan, a sacred mountain. I took the bus and a cable car up like most other lazy folks and it was gorgeous at the 3000 M peak. I stayed with an American I met at the highest monastery and enjoyed meals with monks, good conversation and several return trips to the summit before returning to Chengdu. Another sidebar trip was to Kangding. This was interesting as I moved further west and stayed and relaxed at an American run hostel. I enjoyed a nice hike and some good company for a couple of days. The area is truly beautiful and eclipsed by Mt. Gongga and its river valley. Half the fun was the crazy buses, non verbal communication and the like. I was in Chengdu for a bit and made several fun friends along the way to share drinks with. I even enjoyed a visit as a guest speaker at a Chinese university for kids coming to study here which I hope will be a source of continued Chinese cultural exchange. Fun FUn Fun....

Thanks Connor! :)

Keepin' on!

Connor flew to Chengdu (capital of Sichuan province) on Sunday, while I flew back to Macau for a week of teaching. He spent a day or so in Chengdu & then hopped on a bus to Emi Shan, where he lodged at a monastery, climbed one of the most holy/spiritually significant mountains in China on a very narrow monorail the entire way up! & made a great friend from California. (Connor... if I got any of these details wrong, I am sorry!!) I met up with Connor on the Friday of that week back in Chengdu. We had a fantastic weekend - went to a football game, at some spicy sichuan food, went to the Mau statue, watched a Chinese Sichuan opera, walked around the Tibetan areas, ate Korean BBQ & went to what would have been a crazy open market (but it was closed :( I left Chengdu Sunday afternoon (... although my flight was delayed a few hours due to black rain in Macau & HK) & Connor hopped on a bus on his way to Kunming (Yunnan province).

We had a short week due the dragon boat festival, so we decided to meet Connor in Xi'an. Hong & I did the bus to Guangzhou, cab to the airport dance to take advantage of cheap flights again. I don't know if it was just the day that we arrived, or the poor timing. But it was near impossible to find a taxi & one that would use the meter. We made it to the airport with plenty of time, especially because our flight was delayed. Little did we know that right at that very moment, Connor was suffering what was supposed to be a 6 hour bus ride, ended up being about 12 hours I believe. Torture!

We successfully made it to our hostel in Xi'an & it turned out to be gorgeous!! Hong & I slept in a private double the first night with a shared bathroom & then got a triple en-suite for when Connor arrived. The hostel is in a 300+ year old Chinese style housing complex with original stone & wood furnishings. It was so cute (although quite large)! Our first day of touring, we went to the bell tower & the drum tower & wandered around the Muslim quarters in the evening. On our second day we took a local bus to the Terracotta warriors, where we spent most of the day. This was absolutely amazing!! This area is an archaeologist's dream! The first vault was by far the most spectacular as many of the warriors have been restored and have been put back into their 'original' position. On our third day, we went to see the Big Goose Pagoda, but opted out on going inside. (I think I was just being lazy!!) Our forth day was a great day. We spent it renting bikes at the top of the Xi'an city walls & biked the 14 km around. There were some amazing views of the city! That evening, we returned to the Muslim quarters & had hot pot! Mmm.. it was very tasty & the waiters were so friendly to us. We left for Zhuhai early the next morning & made the long trek back through the border gate lines into Macau (this was the most exhausting part of the whole trip, I think)!!

I have been so blessed over the past month & a half, having so many wonderful visitors to experience this part of the world with. Now that everyone's gone, I have way too much time on my hands, I don't know what to do with myself!!! Luckily, Hong & I have some time off next week, so we are going to Taipei (Taiwan) from Monday to Thursday!

I am slowly having to delete some older photos from my albums as I have maxed out my storage allowance... just in case you are wondering why they have disappeared - that is why :)

Traveler extraordinaire!

I am sure that you have all given up hope that I will write any more entries on my blog (I know that you all just LIVE for my whitty posts! haha) but I am going to surprise the HECK out of you all with this one :D

It has been such an amazing month and a half having my parents & Connor here! I thought I should fill everyone in on what we did!

First, while my parents were here we spent a few days in the incredibly huge city of Beijing. We stayed at this amazing hotel & my folks even treated us to some upgrades including free access to the lounge with happy hour, full breakfast, internet, hang out spots, etc. It was so awesome! We did the typical touristy stuff there - Great Wall (amazing!!), Forbidden Palace & Tiannamen Square, Olympic grounds, Temple of Heaven, trendy shopping districts, peking duck, and so on! There is so much to do and see in Beijing, I don't even think we scratched the surface. I feel that way with a lot of places in China - it's just too big!! We definitely took advantage of the time we had there & enjoyed ourselves thoroughly.

The week after Beijing, Connor arrived with bells and whistles on (not really... that flight is deadly... he was so pooched!) I had made this awesome sign saying "Wilbur missed you" (my blow up moose that he gave me) & had the sign strung around his neck. It was perfect! & then I came to the ferry late thinking that he would take longer at customs then he did... anyways, long story short - I didn't get to stand at the waiting area looking like a crazy person with an inflatable moose :(

That weekend we took off to Hong Kong for some sight seeing. It was a fantastic weekend, jam packed with the best tourist sights in HK. Because there were three of us (Hong, Connor & I, my parents stayed in a very nice hotel), the three of us decided to get a room in a hostel than impose on Mr. Rizkalla. We got a room at the Cheung King Mansion. This place is infamous for the many hostels inside one building & they even offer the ever so classy "by the hour" rates. The outside of this place is just lined with guys trying to take you to other hostels to receive a commission. We were like bullseyes for them with our backpacks. Our hostel was ... interesting...lined floor to ceiling in bathroom tiles (everywhere!) I think that it was the most expensive place we have stayed at to date, but one that was not worth the money. I guess that's what you get in HK though - so pricey! We all went up to the Victoria Peak, rode the 360 Gondola up to the giant seated buddha, had Korean BBQ, rode the star ferry, saw the light show of HK Island, whipped through the night market, Cosway Bay bars, Lau Kwei Fung (sp??) street, etc. I always love going to HK.. it was a great weekend!

Back in Macau we took Helen & Virginia out for some Hot Pot, had a little birthday dinner for me at a Sushi restaurant & had some RNR. &... there was a little teaching in between all of these events. haha... that's what I'm here for - right?

My folks left in the morning of May 14th :( & headed back to Canada. The next day, Connor & I took off on an adventure to hopefully land in Guilin for the weekend. Flights are sometimes tricky to book here as many websites & airline companies will not accept foreign credit cards unless in person at the airport. We wanted to fly out of Guangzhou (which is about 3 hrs drive north of Macau, inside of China) so we had to just show up at the airport hoping to purchase a ticket! We had decided beforehand that even if we couldn't go, that we would still have a fabulous time in Guangzhou. (not the most exciting place in China to say the least). Connor's wonderful investigating skills managed to get us to the Guangzhou airport in the nick of time (after 1 hour waiting at the border in Macau/Zhuhai, a 3 hour bus ride from Zhuhai - Guangzhou, and a one hour cab ride to the airport!!). We purchased tickets about 45 min before the plane took off & headed to security, only to be harassed (for their own amusement we were presuming). The lovely security officials ransacked Connor's bag, only to find books & clothing, confiscated my hand sanitizer while scolding me & then mocking my response to each other, and pretty much just wasted our time. It was brutal. Anyways... that experience was not going to spoil our excitement over actually making it onto the flight!! Got to the gate & it was empty except for this one gentleman & another guy. This one guy just clung to us like static & wanted to be our new best friend. For the next journey to the plane & then from Guilin airport onto the shuttle bus - this guy creeped the crap out of Connor & I. I'm sure he was just trying to be nice.... but you don't ask strangers to rent a room with you & then proceed to ramble on about how foreigners never trust Chinese people & that we should trust him. It was just a very strange experience!

We didn't stay in Guilin for very long as we wanted to hop onto a Li River cruise ASAP & get to Yangshuo. Stayed in a very run down, eery hostel that night in Guilin & got up bright & early the next morning to get on a ferry! We didn't exactly know that you had to go to a travel agent, book a ticket beforehand & then go to the piers, so the taxi driver (very sweet lady) was so confused when she was asking if we had tickets in Chinese & we were producing absolutely nothing. She even called a friend of hers to try & speak some English to us!! So, in the end she took us to a travel agent, booked something very last minute & basically ran to catch the bus & then onto a boat. Connor was stoked to experience the Chinese tour.. it wasn't that bad, but didn't start out good! ha We apparently didn't get the 'upgrade' that everyone else on our bus did, so we got dropped off separately first. When we got to our seats, I was placed beside a lady that took up her seat & half of mine. We tried to escape outside, but these camera guys kept yelling at everyone to go back inside (we're assuming) & not to come out onto the decks (the boats were much like house boats). At this moment we were thinking it was going to be a long day. Luckily!!! We were actually aloud outside later on, had such a wonderful afternoon meeting folks that were on a business trip, drinking beers, having some lunch & getting friend by the sun :) The scenery was gorgeous & the friends that we met were great.

In Yangshuo we met some folks right away & found a nice little hostel to stay in. We were right smack in the middle of all the action, which was lovely in the day time but very loud in the evening. Thank you earplugs!! There was so much to see & do in Yangshuo, but the absolute highlight was when we rented some bikes & biked around the country side for a few hours. Wow... what an amazing day! Guilin and Yangshuo are quite popular with tourists, so with that comes a lot of hackers & pretty much everyone just trying to make an extra buck. Although it was exhausting arguing for every dollar, as they saw us & immediately thought they could rip us off, it was such a beautiful trip! This is definitely one of the must see areas of China. Our last day was spent inside the Guilin airport & exploring around it (even to the very empty airport hotel & surrounding) as we had to ensure that we were going to be able to catch flights to our respective cities. I was heading back to Macau & Connor was continuing on to Chengdu (in the Sichuan province). We spent the day researching Connor's next destination, eating food, playing some crib & catching some rays! ... oh and did I mention that we did this for about 8 hours?? We made the best of it however & ended up having a really great day.

It's about 2:20am here... so I think I will try to get some sleep tonight & continue on tomorrow :) Goodnight!

P6 English Camp

So this was the event in April that I had been dreading ever since I read about it on Geoff's blog (the fellow who came to Macau last year). I know I shouldn't have let his experience influence my own... but it sounded like it was pretty crazy last year! All I remember was that students didn't sleep, they broke things in the convent & the teachers were exhausted!!!

Hong & I didn't know the students before going on this camp, so we knew that we were in for a challenge. We all met at the school early on Monday morning, had a meeting about the camp, sent some girls home to change because they were dressed inappropriately, and waited for the bus to pick us up. During the meeting Mr. Wong (the gym teacher) was scribbling down things & pointing to students, I assumed he was writing down names, but we didn't know what he was doing.. until later.

When we first got to the camp, we split up into our colour groups (I was team Blue) & made name tags, did some ice breaker activities, etc. I could instantly see a difference with these students compared to those in Grade six in Canada. They behaved like junior high students.. attitude & all. I later found out that many of the students have failed in the previous years so some of them are as old as 15!!! In Grade six!! I had this one boy in my group (who I was warned about before... that he is 'quite naughty'), he's about 6'3'' & about 300 lbs (wait, who am I kidding, I am HORRIBLE with guessing weight... he could have been 350-375 for all I know) :).

All of the groups got together to play some large group activities... which... did not go well. For about 2 hrs Hong & I tried to play many different games to figure out what the heck these kids were going to do for 3 days... but with every activity, they were 'too cool' to participate. It was frustrating. Only the morning had passed, and we had a long while ahead of us.

The first day was quite long as we were restricted to the convent & it appeared as though everything we tried, the students didn't respond to. Near the end of the day, we set up a relay which surprisingly went very well... I think we tapped into their competitive sides. So, pretty much everything from then on involved some form of competition within their teams. That night we played pictionary, card games, etc giving points to the winning teams. While we were planning the camp, we had made up a tentative plan to keep score of the games & give a prize to the overall winning team of the camp. We weren't sure if this would work though... my Grade ones don't enjoy competitive games, they get very upset when they lose, mock losing teams, etc... so I thought this may be true of the Grade sixes as well. Turns out - they loved it!

After dinner, the students showered & got ready for bed. It was during this time that we found out why Mr. Wong was scribbling names at the meeting!! He arrived at the camp around 9pm to help with the 'naughty boys' rooms'. Immediately once he arrived, he pulled some students out of the room & set them up at a table to do some work. We initially thought they had homework for them... but turns out they were being punished for not listening during the meeting or for not going to sleep, so he made them write lines. I haven't seen anything like it! Mr. Wong was a HUGE help. He stayed in the room with the 'naughty boys' and floated in & out of the other boys' room (there was a total of about 30 boys & 12 or so girls, girls were upstairs).

We found out the next morning that the boys didn't sleep until about 1 or 2am & then some of them woke up at 5/6 am. So Mr. Wong didn't get much sleep. Before breakfast, he held a gym class for the boys & made them do their 'exercises', it was pretty funny... while the girls stumbled out of bed, showered (AGAIN!) & took an hour to do their hair! haha

There wasn't much served for breakfast, each student only had about one piece of bread with some PB on it & some fruit... so they were pretty hungry. I felt so bad for this one little boy who kept trying to sneak some more food (even though there were still some kids that had yet to eat) because he was so hungry!

We spent the day at Hac Sa beach, which I went to with my parents & Chelsea the weekend before to show them around Taipa. It was a beautiful day at the beach & the kids had a lot of fun. We BBQ some food, played some competitive games & also gave the kids some free time to roam around & come & go as they please. We got to know the students a little bit better on this day, and it was much less stressful!

That evening we were anticipating Ms Ng to come after our "Awards ceremony" to drive us back to Macau so that we could pack and get ready for Beijing. I think we were slightly eager to leave because as soon as she arrived we threw on our backpacks & waited at the door for her. ha! She told us that we would leave later... so we went and watched the movie with the kids for a bit & hung out with all of the other teachers that came that evening as well. Carlos (the assistant VP) came as well (... for a photo op only) & so we talked with him for a bit as well. & he was just so hilarious (I'm being sarcastic). He whipped out his calendar & was like 'Oh I'm running a camp in June & since you guys won't have lessons then, I would like you to run the 5 or 6 day camp with me'. My mouth dropped and I was boiling over on the inside. I did not want to do another camp. haha Technically, according to the University, we are only supposed to be working for 12 hrs/week, which is great. So this 3 day camp exceeded this by a lot - a 5 or 6 day camp????? NO thank you!!! I don't know if he was joking or not... but I sure wasn't when I kindly declined the offer. :)

We were exhausted when we got home from the camp, but eager to get on that plane to Beijing!!

Falling behind...

So I just realized that it has almost been a month since my last entry!! I am terrible!

But good news - I am posting some pictures from when my parents were here (although they are still in China... but pictures from when we did some sight-seeing in Macau), an English camp with P6, & our trip to Beijing!

Enjoy! & I will blabber about the trips soon! :)

Teacher's uniforms

So, I've been here for two months, right? This next story demonstrates how unobservant Hong & I are. haha

Once the students switched to summer uniforms (which was about a week ago) Hong & I started noticing that all of the teachers were wearing almost the exact same grey skirt. We couldn't figure out what was going on. & Then the next few days, they were all wearing the same pants and skirt. So, at our meeting on Thursday when all of the teachers were gathered in the staff room to indulge on Ms. Lao's delicious culinary skills (she made us Creme du Caramel b/c she found out that we really enjoyed it!), we noticed that they again were all wearing the same grey pants, so we finally piped up & asked about it. Turns out they have a mandatory uniform policy for the Elementary teachers. They have to wear grey bottoms & a while blouse. Huh! Who would have thought? Thank goodness we aren't forced to do this... 1. I don't own any grey pants (I kicked that habit after 4 solid years of grey pants wearing at St. Ignatius High school) & 2. I own one white blouse, which I've already managed to stain & I DID own a white golf shirt but threw it in the wash with brand new red bed sheets. Brilliant move, I know. I'm really good at getting white things dirty.

Bought tickets to the Zaia Cirque du Soleil show tonight! We go next Thursday night & we snagged third row seats :) Word on the street is that this show isn't doing so hot & there are plenty of empty seats each night, but still I can't wait!!! I've never seen a Cirque show, so I have nothing to compare.

Going to Hong Kong for the Easter weekend. I am very excited to have a little RNR away from Macau. Don't get me wrong, I really do love this city, but I need a change of scenery/ in search of other things to think about other than my Inquiry Project & teaching.... Oh no... my life as a teacher is just beginning, isn't it? Living, eating, sleeping, dreaming with teaching. Oh bother!

Allergies - who would have thought?

The last couple of days have been quite a nuisance as I am allergic to something lurking in my house. I went to the school doctor, and he believes that it's dust mites. These are apparently quite common in Macau since it's so humid here & they just looove the humidity. I'm beginning to think that I should live in a bubble for the rest of my life. There isn't much that I can do about these little critters except wash my things again (although this wouldn't get rid of them because we can only wash our things in cold water & you need hot water + a dryer to kill them), or you could use a de-humidifier, or get a vacuum & try to vacuum everything up (which we don't have one). So they next morning I washed all of my things & then went early to school. Because I had washed all of my things, I must have stirred up my new friends & inhaled them all because my eyes got so bad... I left school, I looked like a freak & it stung so bad.

I went back later for a meeting, but it was quite unbearable. They were able to scramble up a de-humidifier for us though, which was great. We then went out for dinner with Ms. Mou, and the entire time I was trying not to scratch my eyeballs out. On the way home, we went over to a Japanese home store to buy some shower curtains so that I could wrap my mattresses in plastic. I also bought a new pillow, and all together it was quite expensive, but I thought that it was going to worth it. Got home, opened up the shower curtain & realized that it was polyester... so that wasn't going to work. Went right back to the store & the lady tells us that we can't get our money back but can exchange for something else (after many confusing gestures & words). There was nothing really that we needed so we ended up buying $70 worth of toilet paper. haha - we are set!!! I went to the grocery store & found some plastic shower curtains, so I bought 2 just in case. & thank goodness I did b/c it took two to cover both of them. Thank goodness for Hong's magical present wrapping skills, I couldn't have done it without her (& I was too busy wanting to pass out/vomit from the pain). Took a couple of Benedryl's & then passed out at 8:30pm.

The doctor told me not to sleep with my comforters b/c they are probably infested & that I should have my A/C on to make the place dryer. So lastnight I had to sleep in my long johns, two hoodies (with the hoods on), wool socks, a toque, and a couple of towels to cover me. I was sooo cold! I woke up about 10 times in the night b/c I was so cold! This morning, two men from the school came to deliver the de-humidifier & some new comforters, a mattress mat, blankets & pillows. We also wanted to show them the awful noise that our toilet makes when you flush it. So we flushed it for them & of course it didn't make the noise right away, so they were probably like what the heck are these girls talking about? But when it finally did make the noise, the man said that in Macau, it's normal. It seriously sounds like the toilet wants to explode & the pipes & faucets shake & everything when it happens. It's kinda freaky.

For our last mission to get rid of these stupid bugs in my room (oh & btw, they are most likely everywhere in our appt, including in our drapes, but Hong isn't allergic to them, so she is fine), there was a whole stack of wooden pieces (for a bed) underneath my bed which were attracting handfuls of dust, so we took them all out & shoved them behind the sofas in the living room. Now I have a beautiful, clean pristine floor underneath my bed! :)

My eyes still look hideous, but I think they're getting better!

We learned some interesting things about cemeteries over dinner lastnight (& keep in mind that were discussing this over dinner!!). Tomorrow is the Ching Ming festival, and this is a time where the Chinese go to visit their ancestors. So we were talking about how Ms. Mou had her ancestors brought across the border to be placed in a cemetery in Coloane (which is a neighbouring island of Macau) instead of across the border in Mainland, because it was just too hard to visit them every year with the hundreds of thousands of people that cross the border during this time (after a certain amount, they actually close the border completely). Throughout this conversation we found out that when you pay to have your family buried, you are only paying for them to be there for 7 years. After the seven years, the body has decomposed enough so all that remains are bones. These bones are put into an urn & then you either rent out or buy a little cupboard inside of these rows & rows of walls in the cemetery. How crazy is that?? (& remember, we were eating while talking about this hahaha). But it makes so much sense. Hong & I were actually wondering & just baffled at where do they fit all of the people that die? There's no space for cemeteries! & now we know how! Another thing that I learned is that if someone has passed away in your family, then you can not visit another person's house or attend a wedding for a certain period of time (I think it was about a month), as it is believed that you would pass on this bad luck to the other families.

Ms. Mou has been so great to us. She helps us with our butchering attempts at Chinese, she always treats us to food, & she is a very good friend to have here. I definitely want to do something for people here before we go - but I just don't know what! Any ideas?

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!