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! :)