Wednesday, August 5, 2009
I wasn't aware they were featuring an American Humans exhibit at the Beijing Zoo
Well after returning from an exhausting 6 day adventure to Beijing I don't even know where to begin on describing that. We saw sooo much! I now have a new apprecation for animals at the zoo because litterally as Westerners( especially with blondeish hair) we were on display probably about 25 people physically came up and asked one or all of us to take pictures with us and we are in numerous pictures we aren't even aware of because we would randomly notice people taking pictures of us ( The day we visited the beijing zoo I was waiting for one of the workers to start yelling at us in Chinese to get back to our exhibit-- potentially at a Starbucks or something or maybe a McDonalds. ) Anyways besides the random picture taking- which made for a good story- the trip was absolutely amazing!!! We packed in a ton in 3 days. We saw the Great Wall, The Ming Tombs,Tienanmen Square ,The Forbidden City, The Olympic Venues, The Beijing Zoo. We also went to The antique market, the silk market, and pearl market, Took a hutong ride ( it's a cart pulled behind a bike- we went through some of the last remaining narrow alleyway villages.) The guys that pulled our hutong spoke zero English ( come to think of it most people in Beijing spoke zero English which made for an interesting trip) so they kept pointing at things and the describing them in chinese ( So it actually made for an interesting game of charades- plus no worries of cheating because we don't speak the same language. I learned about the temple and the drums outside the temple during charades and also about the school. Very interesting) Eventually tough the trip had to come to an end so we endured the 24 hour train ride home again ( We were all feeling more tired and sickly on the way home) We were very excited to get back to our flat and enjoyed a very relaxing night. I think Beijing in a way prepared me to go home more because it made me realize how much I miss some of the little things about home. Not to say I won't COMPLETELY miss it here Because I will!
Currently I am - packed ( although the likelihood that one of my bags is over 50 pounds is fairly high...either i've lost some serious muscle while I was here or, it's a bad sign when you can't lift it from the bed to the floor.... Perhaps i'll have to do some weight redistribution). The weather is being...Uncooperative and that's putting it kindly. There is a tropical cyclone warning( typhoon) soo it's majorly windy and rainy and cloudy. Today we had intended to head to the beach and just relax etc. (while we may have spent our summer in a super warm climate we haven't exactly picked up much of a tan while we've been here- i've fried a few times but it's long since faded.) Today is my last day here in Hong Kong b efore heading back to the states. I say that with mixed emotion. I'm extatic to see my family and friends. If you know me you know I like routine. I like structure to my day. I like knowing I have things to do ( and I have loooots to do that i'm excited about when I get home.) I'm excited to get to work doing student staff for young life. And to have a bit of consistency ( even if it's consistency to the inconsistency- it's similar to organized chaos...) I really do love it here and I can't wait to come back some day. I've had so many amazing experiences and Hong Kong is this place that offers so many things. One the things I think i'll take home with me is the importance of just getting lost sometimes. Here I can pop in my ipod and just wander... and the sights ( though i've seen them a hundred times) are still amazing and always offer something new. I can't believe my time here is already over. I guess i'll have to find a new adventure. But i'm glad to have shared this one with everyone. I guess this is Zai jian for Crouching Tina Hidden Westra but Ni hao to a new adventure....
Currently I am - packed ( although the likelihood that one of my bags is over 50 pounds is fairly high...either i've lost some serious muscle while I was here or, it's a bad sign when you can't lift it from the bed to the floor.... Perhaps i'll have to do some weight redistribution). The weather is being...Uncooperative and that's putting it kindly. There is a tropical cyclone warning( typhoon) soo it's majorly windy and rainy and cloudy. Today we had intended to head to the beach and just relax etc. (while we may have spent our summer in a super warm climate we haven't exactly picked up much of a tan while we've been here- i've fried a few times but it's long since faded.) Today is my last day here in Hong Kong b efore heading back to the states. I say that with mixed emotion. I'm extatic to see my family and friends. If you know me you know I like routine. I like structure to my day. I like knowing I have things to do ( and I have loooots to do that i'm excited about when I get home.) I'm excited to get to work doing student staff for young life. And to have a bit of consistency ( even if it's consistency to the inconsistency- it's similar to organized chaos...) I really do love it here and I can't wait to come back some day. I've had so many amazing experiences and Hong Kong is this place that offers so many things. One the things I think i'll take home with me is the importance of just getting lost sometimes. Here I can pop in my ipod and just wander... and the sights ( though i've seen them a hundred times) are still amazing and always offer something new. I can't believe my time here is already over. I guess i'll have to find a new adventure. But i'm glad to have shared this one with everyone. I guess this is Zai jian for Crouching Tina Hidden Westra but Ni hao to a new adventure....
Saturday, July 25, 2009
Laundry Basket+ball= hours of English fun
Well yesterday marks the end of our Summer English Programs with Mother's choice. I say that with shouts of jubilation that it's finished but also a tinge of sadness because I have many memories from the past 5 weeks thanks to the kids who participated in our English Camps ( some good, some funny, some just memorable moments) Our last day of English camp was fairly relaxed and because of that ended up being the best. Because trashketball went over so well with mine and Lisa's small group we decided to expand the game a bit and play boys vs. girls trashketball and with 1, 3, and 5 point questions. The 5 point questions were more like mini speeches. They would be questions like talk for 30 seconds about what you like or dislike about school. Trashketball went over very well.
Also for a last day activity we made mini pizzas ( The girls loved the pizzas and while the girls baked away I played cards with the boys, a game called 7 levels- a variation on the game spoons. Then when it was the boys turn to make pizzas well lets just say it wasn't quite as clean of a project as when the girls made it. They thought it was funny to add like 5 cups of flour to their dough or a table spoon of salt rather than a teaspoon... MESS! MESS! MESS! but it turned out well and the boys apparently had fun ( maybe a bit too much f un with the whole project....) After finishing up camp and heading home and talking to some friends back home for a bit which was great! I went and hung out with a friend who has been working here for the past few weeks but is heading back home to Seattle. On the way to where I met him my taxi cost was $18 HK on the way back it was $36HK I was completely scamed but the cab driver was so funny and spoke some English so I didn't mind a bit of an extra ride. I think he was a bit thrown off when he found out i'd been here for 2 months. He asked for what and I said teaching English but my kids were teaching me some Cantanese ( yeah they were teaching me curse words without my even knowing it.... I left that little detail out....) and he asked me what and I told him and he goes ahhh yes very good very goood. Yes my cab ride might have been a bit more, but the laughter and boost in my self confidence... priceless
Today was a day for wandering, so with my Ipod fully charged and a few new songs added :) I went off to wander Mong Kok for a while. I wandered the Ladies market ( yeah I'm not really sure about the name it seems like a sort of naughty place- I feel like the ladies market should be a place in the red light district in amsterdam not a nice place to wander in Hong Kong. The ladies market gets its name from long ago when women used to bring what they'd made there and sell to other women while their husbands were off at work- little history lesson to anyone interested) It is a market that has just about everything any tourist could want- although technically I don't consider myself a tourist anymore... and i'll give you my top 10 reasons why later. I enjoyed wandering through there( Thankfully I can use my ipod as an excuse that I don't hear the constant " you want copy watch or copy bag... miss miss you want copy shoe"- sorry busy rockin out here can't here you..) After a leisurely stroll through the ladies market and Mong Kok I jumped on the MTR ( not literally jumped because I would look like an idiot- Saw tsi) and I took it a few stops back to Tsim sha tsui and wandered there for a while. And finally got back on the MTR and headed home. It is strange to have to start thinking about packing up and heading back but at the same time I'm excited to see people, just not ready to leave here yet.... This is an amazing place. Anyways enough of the sappy stuff. Hope everyone is having a splendid weekend!
Tina
Also for a last day activity we made mini pizzas ( The girls loved the pizzas and while the girls baked away I played cards with the boys, a game called 7 levels- a variation on the game spoons. Then when it was the boys turn to make pizzas well lets just say it wasn't quite as clean of a project as when the girls made it. They thought it was funny to add like 5 cups of flour to their dough or a table spoon of salt rather than a teaspoon... MESS! MESS! MESS! but it turned out well and the boys apparently had fun ( maybe a bit too much f un with the whole project....) After finishing up camp and heading home and talking to some friends back home for a bit which was great! I went and hung out with a friend who has been working here for the past few weeks but is heading back home to Seattle. On the way to where I met him my taxi cost was $18 HK on the way back it was $36HK I was completely scamed but the cab driver was so funny and spoke some English so I didn't mind a bit of an extra ride. I think he was a bit thrown off when he found out i'd been here for 2 months. He asked for what and I said teaching English but my kids were teaching me some Cantanese ( yeah they were teaching me curse words without my even knowing it.... I left that little detail out....) and he asked me what and I told him and he goes ahhh yes very good very goood. Yes my cab ride might have been a bit more, but the laughter and boost in my self confidence... priceless
Today was a day for wandering, so with my Ipod fully charged and a few new songs added :) I went off to wander Mong Kok for a while. I wandered the Ladies market ( yeah I'm not really sure about the name it seems like a sort of naughty place- I feel like the ladies market should be a place in the red light district in amsterdam not a nice place to wander in Hong Kong. The ladies market gets its name from long ago when women used to bring what they'd made there and sell to other women while their husbands were off at work- little history lesson to anyone interested) It is a market that has just about everything any tourist could want- although technically I don't consider myself a tourist anymore... and i'll give you my top 10 reasons why later. I enjoyed wandering through there( Thankfully I can use my ipod as an excuse that I don't hear the constant " you want copy watch or copy bag... miss miss you want copy shoe"- sorry busy rockin out here can't here you..) After a leisurely stroll through the ladies market and Mong Kok I jumped on the MTR ( not literally jumped because I would look like an idiot- Saw tsi) and I took it a few stops back to Tsim sha tsui and wandered there for a while. And finally got back on the MTR and headed home. It is strange to have to start thinking about packing up and heading back but at the same time I'm excited to see people, just not ready to leave here yet.... This is an amazing place. Anyways enough of the sappy stuff. Hope everyone is having a splendid weekend!
Tina
Thursday, July 23, 2009
Pardon Me, but you've got to be S**tin' me
Well it turns out they were putting it kindly when they said that what I was saying meant feces.... turns out quite literally it means well you can probably guess by the title of this post it's not a very nice word.... that would likely be the reason this little not so angle of a child thought it was sooo funny when I said it. It also turns out I didn't simply miss pronounce it and she encouraged it she intentionally told me the wrong world... yes sweet little innocent child is not so innocent any more! The proper word is quite far from what she told me....
Today was an extremely successful day with Lisa and I's group of boys and in general with the kids. After our outing day yesterday( which I will describe more momentarily- Lets just say after I told my sister all the things I'd eaten she told me she wouldn't share a straw or utensils with me any more) we realized that the kids knew very little about us. The only things they knew were trivial things like our favorite colors and our favorite foods.... so today as a fun exercise to practice English during our opening we had everyone write down at least one question they had for us. It could be about our families our friends the activities we were involved in outside of school ( They must have all been talking in cantanese about asking the same question or have ESP - we had them be anonymous just in case and we proof read them to make sure they were appropriate anyways we got 7 questions that all basically said the same thing... they said said things like do you have boyfriend? Whats your boyfriends name? how many boyfriend do you have? Do you like handsome boys? We would've attempted to make a joke out of it but we've quickly found sarcasm is easily lost in translation) The other questions outside of relational questions were do you like Hong Kong? How did you come to Hong Kong? Do you like Chocolate? Who is your favorite pop star ( justin Timberlake -duh)? What do you like and dislike? Do you like your school? Do you like the NBA if so who is your favorite team? and so on and so forth. We answered questions for about 20 minutes which actually turned out to be a good exercise in English( I'd have to say my favorite question was when you have boyfriend what do you do with them- now this was asking about what we do on American dates basically so we talked about different things you might do on dates like going to the movies or going ice skating- very cliche things I suppose, and then one of the girls said and you meet up at school ohhhhh sooo romantic... Yeah completely the ideal picture of romance right there meeting up in Johnny's )
Following our little question session we split up into small groups. Now after 2 extremely unsuccesful days of small groups Lisa and I decided it was time to totally revamp our techniques. If they want sports, we can do that( on a certain level) so based on a game I actually learned in Spanish today we played trashketball. For one point we would give them 2 words and they would have to use the 2 words in a sentence and for a 3 point shot we would give them a gramatically incorrect sentence on a piece of paper and they would have to correct it. They got pretty into it .
Today equals a big success.
now in regard to the field trip we went to the history museum followed by the ladies market and then finished the evening by a lengthy but delicious dinner at a Korean BBQ. Now the Korean BBQ was amazing. You go up and pick out meat and then put it on a hot skillet that's in the middle of the table. The kids made me try raw salmon and octopus tenticles...yummmmy
It was quite an evening.... Seriously i've never seen kids eat so much( I also learned it is important to teach them about idiums because when I used the phrase bottomless stomaches they looked at me strangely ..... I'm unsure if that's because they didn't understand or because they litterally thought they had bottomless stomaches.) It was a delicious but interesting evening....
All in all a wonderful 2 days and I'm looking forward but feeling a bit sad about tomorrow... Tomorrow marks the end of our camps. So this is a major marker and is very exciting and i'm very glad to be done, but at the same time a bit sad because it means the end of our time here is near and it is a bit sad to be done with the camps and done at the small group homes.. Well hope everyone is having a good week!
Tina
P.S. My Most recent Cantanese phrases i've picked up ( and these were taught to me by the cook and the 15 year olds that i'm teaching this week) are sit down idiot..... Chaw Die Saaw Tsi
The cook is like the funniest woman and speaks no English at all but she yells a lot of funny things in Cantanese....
Today was an extremely successful day with Lisa and I's group of boys and in general with the kids. After our outing day yesterday( which I will describe more momentarily- Lets just say after I told my sister all the things I'd eaten she told me she wouldn't share a straw or utensils with me any more) we realized that the kids knew very little about us. The only things they knew were trivial things like our favorite colors and our favorite foods.... so today as a fun exercise to practice English during our opening we had everyone write down at least one question they had for us. It could be about our families our friends the activities we were involved in outside of school ( They must have all been talking in cantanese about asking the same question or have ESP - we had them be anonymous just in case and we proof read them to make sure they were appropriate anyways we got 7 questions that all basically said the same thing... they said said things like do you have boyfriend? Whats your boyfriends name? how many boyfriend do you have? Do you like handsome boys? We would've attempted to make a joke out of it but we've quickly found sarcasm is easily lost in translation) The other questions outside of relational questions were do you like Hong Kong? How did you come to Hong Kong? Do you like Chocolate? Who is your favorite pop star ( justin Timberlake -duh)? What do you like and dislike? Do you like your school? Do you like the NBA if so who is your favorite team? and so on and so forth. We answered questions for about 20 minutes which actually turned out to be a good exercise in English( I'd have to say my favorite question was when you have boyfriend what do you do with them- now this was asking about what we do on American dates basically so we talked about different things you might do on dates like going to the movies or going ice skating- very cliche things I suppose, and then one of the girls said and you meet up at school ohhhhh sooo romantic... Yeah completely the ideal picture of romance right there meeting up in Johnny's )
Following our little question session we split up into small groups. Now after 2 extremely unsuccesful days of small groups Lisa and I decided it was time to totally revamp our techniques. If they want sports, we can do that( on a certain level) so based on a game I actually learned in Spanish today we played trashketball. For one point we would give them 2 words and they would have to use the 2 words in a sentence and for a 3 point shot we would give them a gramatically incorrect sentence on a piece of paper and they would have to correct it. They got pretty into it .
Today equals a big success.
now in regard to the field trip we went to the history museum followed by the ladies market and then finished the evening by a lengthy but delicious dinner at a Korean BBQ. Now the Korean BBQ was amazing. You go up and pick out meat and then put it on a hot skillet that's in the middle of the table. The kids made me try raw salmon and octopus tenticles...yummmmy
It was quite an evening.... Seriously i've never seen kids eat so much( I also learned it is important to teach them about idiums because when I used the phrase bottomless stomaches they looked at me strangely ..... I'm unsure if that's because they didn't understand or because they litterally thought they had bottomless stomaches.) It was a delicious but interesting evening....
All in all a wonderful 2 days and I'm looking forward but feeling a bit sad about tomorrow... Tomorrow marks the end of our camps. So this is a major marker and is very exciting and i'm very glad to be done, but at the same time a bit sad because it means the end of our time here is near and it is a bit sad to be done with the camps and done at the small group homes.. Well hope everyone is having a good week!
Tina
P.S. My Most recent Cantanese phrases i've picked up ( and these were taught to me by the cook and the 15 year olds that i'm teaching this week) are sit down idiot..... Chaw Die Saaw Tsi
The cook is like the funniest woman and speaks no English at all but she yells a lot of funny things in Cantanese....
Tuesday, July 21, 2009
Wait I thought you were LOST?
They say it's wrong to play favorites ( but lets face it everyone does it) Everyone has those favorite campers, favorite coworkers and favorite on and on and on because they make up for the ones who annoy the crap out of you and you really have to act like you like.... Well i've discovered I have favorite campers today ( though my rational as to why they are my favorites may not be so good..) They are brothers and the one brothers name is John and the other's name is Lock.... Together their names are John Lock one of the great ( well actually he's really turning rather evil and bizarre) characters on LOST one of my favorite shows! I'm completely kidding about the whole favoritism thing they're all great kids and i'm learning equally as much about teaching English this week from these 5 boys as I am actually teaching English( if that makes any sense)
Monday started out rough we read an article on Michael Jackson and things went ok but 2 of my kids ended u sleeping on the couch( and included a very pronounced exclamation that NO ENGLISH LESSON THIS BORING!) so yesterday( on Tuesday) I tried to incorporate more of their interests by using 2 articles on sports since they all said they enjoyed sports ( yeah they failed to mention they like PLAYING!!!! sports not WATCHING sports and they all HATE reading!!) so after going around the circle each reading a paragraph ( from an article about Shaq's new reality show and then one from an article about soccer.... I get not wanting to read about Shaq who would? but they said they liked soccer so I was a little baffled on that one) I asked them to tell me anything they remembered from the article any names any words anything anything......I got nothing..... nothing so I started asking specific questions .... nothing finally we played hangman( I gave someone else a turn to create a puzzle it was a 2 word puzzle the first word was 2 blanks the 2nd word was 6 with an exclamation mark at the end... it spelled SO BORING!) finally I just outright said what can we do that would be a fun way to learn English for you.... he came out with his Chinese book he said look loook and I said I can't read that and he said we can't read that you're asking us to do the same thing! no fun So we agreed I would bring more interesting stuff and play more interactive games( like trashket ball) for secondary students not primary students( which is how they were feeling) and they would focus more. Also were trying yet again to teach me chinese.... When I attempted to say what I thought was what I had learned last week ( from this little cute 8 year old girl) I found instead of eat I was saying feices.... And on that note it's time to get ready to start the day.
Today is an outting day.... We head out to the science museum, The ladies Market, and then a Korean Barbeque. Should be very exciting. Hope everyone is enjoying summer.
Ni Hao
Tina
Monday started out rough we read an article on Michael Jackson and things went ok but 2 of my kids ended u sleeping on the couch( and included a very pronounced exclamation that NO ENGLISH LESSON THIS BORING!) so yesterday( on Tuesday) I tried to incorporate more of their interests by using 2 articles on sports since they all said they enjoyed sports ( yeah they failed to mention they like PLAYING!!!! sports not WATCHING sports and they all HATE reading!!) so after going around the circle each reading a paragraph ( from an article about Shaq's new reality show and then one from an article about soccer.... I get not wanting to read about Shaq who would? but they said they liked soccer so I was a little baffled on that one) I asked them to tell me anything they remembered from the article any names any words anything anything......I got nothing..... nothing so I started asking specific questions .... nothing finally we played hangman( I gave someone else a turn to create a puzzle it was a 2 word puzzle the first word was 2 blanks the 2nd word was 6 with an exclamation mark at the end... it spelled SO BORING!) finally I just outright said what can we do that would be a fun way to learn English for you.... he came out with his Chinese book he said look loook and I said I can't read that and he said we can't read that you're asking us to do the same thing! no fun So we agreed I would bring more interesting stuff and play more interactive games( like trashket ball) for secondary students not primary students( which is how they were feeling) and they would focus more. Also were trying yet again to teach me chinese.... When I attempted to say what I thought was what I had learned last week ( from this little cute 8 year old girl) I found instead of eat I was saying feices.... And on that note it's time to get ready to start the day.
Today is an outting day.... We head out to the science museum, The ladies Market, and then a Korean Barbeque. Should be very exciting. Hope everyone is enjoying summer.
Ni Hao
Tina
Sunday, July 19, 2009
Hong Kong Illness, Typhoons and other experiences...
Well I spent much of Saturday in the bathroom. It would seem i'd acquired a case of the flu or dehydration... I'm not exactly sure what, but whatever it was I know that it kept me from going to ocean park which is seriously disappointing and I felt quite gross and have continued to feel quite gross since then. Anyways since my bout with this mystery Hong Kong illness I was awake in the middle of the night and during the night there was this massive storm.. It was amazing! The typhoon level was raised to level 3 and the wind was blowing like crazy and it was raining cats and dogs... not literally of course. Then Sunday after church I continued to sleep most of the day. Now you have to understand when I take Nyquill I generally have very vivid dreams and do very strange things in my sleep ( yeah apparently it's not just when I take Nyquill because Sunday night I must have been having an especially frightening dream because I woke myself up I was talking so loudly in my sleep...)
Today( Monday) was our first day of camp at the Small Group Home with the High schoolers. They pull off that whole "I'm too cool for this" act real well( i'm praying it's just an act!!!) We started our small group time and 2 of my kids from my group up and decided they really did wan't to learn English any more so they went and slept on the couches ( On their interview questions I asked them to make up 3 of their own questions one of the kids own questions was how are you the response was so bored I could die... he read this out loud then announced " I go to toilet" yeah yeah yeah sure you're going to toilet that's what they all say) After day 1 Laura, Lisa, Maggie and I all made a mad dash for the room we debrief in and sat in a mix of hallelujah that's over with and oh crap we have another 3 more days of this.... My group is composed of all boys whos main interest is sports( yeah they didn't even enjoy the article I brought today on Michael Jackson... ) so likely i'll come home with a wealth of knowledge of sports mainly the L.A. Lakers.... I've now started searching like mad for articles revolving around sports( i'm open to any and all suggestions)
Anyways that's fairly up to date as of now. Currently solidifying all plans for Beijing which should be very exciting and looking forward to a lengthy train ride :) yeah i'm going to finish a book I think.... Well hope everyone is well
Cheers.
Tina
Today( Monday) was our first day of camp at the Small Group Home with the High schoolers. They pull off that whole "I'm too cool for this" act real well( i'm praying it's just an act!!!) We started our small group time and 2 of my kids from my group up and decided they really did wan't to learn English any more so they went and slept on the couches ( On their interview questions I asked them to make up 3 of their own questions one of the kids own questions was how are you the response was so bored I could die... he read this out loud then announced " I go to toilet" yeah yeah yeah sure you're going to toilet that's what they all say) After day 1 Laura, Lisa, Maggie and I all made a mad dash for the room we debrief in and sat in a mix of hallelujah that's over with and oh crap we have another 3 more days of this.... My group is composed of all boys whos main interest is sports( yeah they didn't even enjoy the article I brought today on Michael Jackson... ) so likely i'll come home with a wealth of knowledge of sports mainly the L.A. Lakers.... I've now started searching like mad for articles revolving around sports( i'm open to any and all suggestions)
Anyways that's fairly up to date as of now. Currently solidifying all plans for Beijing which should be very exciting and looking forward to a lengthy train ride :) yeah i'm going to finish a book I think.... Well hope everyone is well
Cheers.
Tina
Monday, July 13, 2009
Hop on the Dragons back for a world of adventure
Well once again I've failed to update for several days and many important things have happened in those days. Today we had the day off of camp because they couldn't book the venue so Jon and I went hiking up dragons back in Shek O ( yeah I was pretty shocked as well that I went hiking to so try and close your mouths after reading that... because the big news is that I enjoyed the hike amidst the 90 degree heat plus added humidity.) There was beautiful scenery and although there were some very frustrating false peaks it was amazing. So before proceeding onward let us hop on the dragon's back and take a ride back a few days to the adventure of the asian movie expierience as well as a day in Macau.
Last week we enjoyed a luxurious evening at the movies ( although the movie was in Cantanese and seriously bizaare ). It was a thriller action murder suspense filled movie and lets in the end it ends up being the man who is suspected all alongs son who's actually his long lost brother with an aging disorder( talk about a whacked out movie. I'm really hoping that I don't have any long lost siblings who are going to come back to frame me for murder.. although the likely hood of having one with an aging disorder seems highly unlikely.) Also last weekend we enjoyed a rainy but still fascinating trip to Macau. Macau is this great little island that either still is or used to be owned by the portuguese and highly influenced by both Portuguese and Chinese culture (It's like like the esscence of Eurasia- a bit of European influence a bit of Asian influence and you get Macau) We spent the day sight seeing eating tastey Portuguese food and of course taking lots of pictures( it's an unwritten rule that if you're not from that area you must take pictures so to fit in with the crowds of people with cameras perminantly attached to their hands we also perminantly attached our cameras to our hands and snapped the living daylights out of those pictures...)
On Sunday I went to the airport to pick up Jon ( for those of you who don't know Jon he was easy to pick out being as he stood a solid foot above most other people ) Jon stopped by Hong Kong for a 2 day visit on his way back from a year in Cambodia. So we took all his stuff to his hotel ( the famous Chung King mansion- via recommendation of Don- despite my friends who live here saying they would never recommend that someone stay there. But it did turn out to be nicer than expected although my change in opinion may have been swayed by the free pair of slippers they offered. And also proof that it wasn't so bad was that Jon showed up alive the next morning and then also Tuesday afternoon when we met up after I got done with program.) Anyways Monday morning we met up around 8 and after some delicious dim sum( at the russ' of dim sum restaurants we decided- it's mainly filled with older people and is inexpensive yet sooooo good) we headed to Stanley Market to wander around there for a while. After we'd had our fill of wandering ( and of course a stop at my favorite shop to visit the man who sells rugby shirts) we headed to the library to do a bit of research on how to get to this hike called dragon's back( you see as Jon quickly discovered i'm not much of a directionally oriented person. I get myself places usually by just walking there and taking some side streets following some signs and some how I end up there... Maybe a miracle maybe just plain dumb luck, maybe i'm secretly gifted with directions and that's how I get places- yeah the last one is seriously unlikely i'd say one of the first 2 is far more likely all I know is I get where I need to go and I usually have to wander a bit I don't usually think about having to give directions to other people) So although i've been here about a month and a half and know my way around quite well Jon rapidly became the owner of a Hong Kong map( and i'm pretty sure he might have studied it the night before for fear that I would get us lost the next day) after I had accidently taken us the wrong way while we were dragging around all his luggage the first night. At the library we looked at some books and found the hike we wanted so we jumped on a bus where we got dropped off and decided to go explore some random stairs mean while we missed our bus so we waited for a half our finally a minibus stopped and told us they would take us to where we wanted to go( it was a red minibus they told us never to trust the red minibus but we were a bit desperate we were in the middle of no where and our bus had passed and me missed it and we hadn't seen one pass since) ... we ended up at a bus station and got on another bus finally ending up at the park to start our hike after a bit of backwoodsin it ( following a dried up river bed because we couldn't find the trail) we finally ran into the path and we hiked up to the dragons b ack and along the dragon's back. It was quite the hike with amazing scenery. ( No panda or dragon sightings but we saw bamboo and we hiked on the dragon's back so i'm pretty sure we just weren't far enough away to actually see him...) After hiking down we jumped on a bus to Shek-o beach and while Jon went swimming I rented the most relaxing beach chair in the world and parked it in the sand along with a diet coke ( i'm pretty sure they were the 2 best purchases i've made this trip. that may be because i was exhausted or maybe because it was nice to just relax but either way it was simply amazing to sit and relax. ) So while Jon went swimming I took a nice nap in the shade. later that night Laura Lisa Maggie our friend Winnie Jon and myself all went to this thing called Drum Jam it was at the Fringe Club ( as the guy next to me - who please note was a drummer for belly dancers- informed me the Fringe Club is basically a hangout for hippies and flower children and other artsy folk but they put on some pretty great things that people can get really into.) The Drum Jam was basically like they had allll diffferent kinds of drums everything from tamberines to bongos to practice drum pads to bells mostly they were bongos and those kind of drums but any ways sometimes there was a rhythm we would follow by the leader or we would get quieter or louder or you just follow your heart whatever your soul tells you to do ( yeah I guess that would lead towards a hippy-esk sort of thing) It was sooooooooo fun though and actually we met some people peole who are interning here for the summer who are from Detroit. Which is fun because it's rare to find people who have heard of Michigan much less live there! Anyways it's fun to have found people who are familiar with our home...
Tuesday it was back to work with another day at camp and then I met up with Jon again after that. Jon and Maggie and I headed to the Time Square of Hong Kong ( yes there is a Time Square in Hong Kong and the first time we visited it I I asked people here which came first and they were appalled at the concept that the one in New York would've come first and they weren't even familiar with it either...) We also opened Jon's eyes to one of Hong Kong's most tastey treats the pineapple bun.. so we sat in a park and people watched for a while and then headed up to the peak ( where we ran into some interesting Brittish people techno dancing... I wish I had had more time to pick up some of their moves they would've been a real crowd winner at a wedding or something i'm pretty sure.) Finally we ended the evening at Lan quai Fong where we sat for a while and listend to everything from Michael Jackson to the Eagles to Usher to Justin Timberlake and the Blackeyed Peas....Very little consistency to their music selection here. It wasn't just oldies or just new music. Not simply slow jams or upbeat tunes just this massive mixture with a foot in every genre of music and a hand in each era.... very interesting....
Today was outting day in program so we headed to The Museum of Costal Defense followed by lunch at Helena May and then finished the day off by a visit to the peak ( that's right this was my 2nd time to to the peak in 2 days and my 3rd time over all but keep in mind it was my first time during the day so I mean lets just count it as my first then because it's like seeing it in a whole new way... ) After a long weekend I'm simply exhausted and ready for another weekend! Tomorrow is our last day of program and then Friday we're touring the mother's choice facilities and meeting with people from all the services offered. I will attempt to put up pictures in next day or so of Macau and Jon's visit. ALSO HARRY POTTER- That's my plan for tonight! Although it might be a bit odd with Cantanese subtitles I DON"T CARE! Hope everyones doing well!
Cheers
Tina
Last week we enjoyed a luxurious evening at the movies ( although the movie was in Cantanese and seriously bizaare ). It was a thriller action murder suspense filled movie and lets in the end it ends up being the man who is suspected all alongs son who's actually his long lost brother with an aging disorder( talk about a whacked out movie. I'm really hoping that I don't have any long lost siblings who are going to come back to frame me for murder.. although the likely hood of having one with an aging disorder seems highly unlikely.) Also last weekend we enjoyed a rainy but still fascinating trip to Macau. Macau is this great little island that either still is or used to be owned by the portuguese and highly influenced by both Portuguese and Chinese culture (It's like like the esscence of Eurasia- a bit of European influence a bit of Asian influence and you get Macau) We spent the day sight seeing eating tastey Portuguese food and of course taking lots of pictures( it's an unwritten rule that if you're not from that area you must take pictures so to fit in with the crowds of people with cameras perminantly attached to their hands we also perminantly attached our cameras to our hands and snapped the living daylights out of those pictures...)
On Sunday I went to the airport to pick up Jon ( for those of you who don't know Jon he was easy to pick out being as he stood a solid foot above most other people ) Jon stopped by Hong Kong for a 2 day visit on his way back from a year in Cambodia. So we took all his stuff to his hotel ( the famous Chung King mansion- via recommendation of Don- despite my friends who live here saying they would never recommend that someone stay there. But it did turn out to be nicer than expected although my change in opinion may have been swayed by the free pair of slippers they offered. And also proof that it wasn't so bad was that Jon showed up alive the next morning and then also Tuesday afternoon when we met up after I got done with program.) Anyways Monday morning we met up around 8 and after some delicious dim sum( at the russ' of dim sum restaurants we decided- it's mainly filled with older people and is inexpensive yet sooooo good) we headed to Stanley Market to wander around there for a while. After we'd had our fill of wandering ( and of course a stop at my favorite shop to visit the man who sells rugby shirts) we headed to the library to do a bit of research on how to get to this hike called dragon's back( you see as Jon quickly discovered i'm not much of a directionally oriented person. I get myself places usually by just walking there and taking some side streets following some signs and some how I end up there... Maybe a miracle maybe just plain dumb luck, maybe i'm secretly gifted with directions and that's how I get places- yeah the last one is seriously unlikely i'd say one of the first 2 is far more likely all I know is I get where I need to go and I usually have to wander a bit I don't usually think about having to give directions to other people) So although i've been here about a month and a half and know my way around quite well Jon rapidly became the owner of a Hong Kong map( and i'm pretty sure he might have studied it the night before for fear that I would get us lost the next day) after I had accidently taken us the wrong way while we were dragging around all his luggage the first night. At the library we looked at some books and found the hike we wanted so we jumped on a bus where we got dropped off and decided to go explore some random stairs mean while we missed our bus so we waited for a half our finally a minibus stopped and told us they would take us to where we wanted to go( it was a red minibus they told us never to trust the red minibus but we were a bit desperate we were in the middle of no where and our bus had passed and me missed it and we hadn't seen one pass since) ... we ended up at a bus station and got on another bus finally ending up at the park to start our hike after a bit of backwoodsin it ( following a dried up river bed because we couldn't find the trail) we finally ran into the path and we hiked up to the dragons b ack and along the dragon's back. It was quite the hike with amazing scenery. ( No panda or dragon sightings but we saw bamboo and we hiked on the dragon's back so i'm pretty sure we just weren't far enough away to actually see him...) After hiking down we jumped on a bus to Shek-o beach and while Jon went swimming I rented the most relaxing beach chair in the world and parked it in the sand along with a diet coke ( i'm pretty sure they were the 2 best purchases i've made this trip. that may be because i was exhausted or maybe because it was nice to just relax but either way it was simply amazing to sit and relax. ) So while Jon went swimming I took a nice nap in the shade. later that night Laura Lisa Maggie our friend Winnie Jon and myself all went to this thing called Drum Jam it was at the Fringe Club ( as the guy next to me - who please note was a drummer for belly dancers- informed me the Fringe Club is basically a hangout for hippies and flower children and other artsy folk but they put on some pretty great things that people can get really into.) The Drum Jam was basically like they had allll diffferent kinds of drums everything from tamberines to bongos to practice drum pads to bells mostly they were bongos and those kind of drums but any ways sometimes there was a rhythm we would follow by the leader or we would get quieter or louder or you just follow your heart whatever your soul tells you to do ( yeah I guess that would lead towards a hippy-esk sort of thing) It was sooooooooo fun though and actually we met some people peole who are interning here for the summer who are from Detroit. Which is fun because it's rare to find people who have heard of Michigan much less live there! Anyways it's fun to have found people who are familiar with our home...
Tuesday it was back to work with another day at camp and then I met up with Jon again after that. Jon and Maggie and I headed to the Time Square of Hong Kong ( yes there is a Time Square in Hong Kong and the first time we visited it I I asked people here which came first and they were appalled at the concept that the one in New York would've come first and they weren't even familiar with it either...) We also opened Jon's eyes to one of Hong Kong's most tastey treats the pineapple bun.. so we sat in a park and people watched for a while and then headed up to the peak ( where we ran into some interesting Brittish people techno dancing... I wish I had had more time to pick up some of their moves they would've been a real crowd winner at a wedding or something i'm pretty sure.) Finally we ended the evening at Lan quai Fong where we sat for a while and listend to everything from Michael Jackson to the Eagles to Usher to Justin Timberlake and the Blackeyed Peas....Very little consistency to their music selection here. It wasn't just oldies or just new music. Not simply slow jams or upbeat tunes just this massive mixture with a foot in every genre of music and a hand in each era.... very interesting....
Today was outting day in program so we headed to The Museum of Costal Defense followed by lunch at Helena May and then finished the day off by a visit to the peak ( that's right this was my 2nd time to to the peak in 2 days and my 3rd time over all but keep in mind it was my first time during the day so I mean lets just count it as my first then because it's like seeing it in a whole new way... ) After a long weekend I'm simply exhausted and ready for another weekend! Tomorrow is our last day of program and then Friday we're touring the mother's choice facilities and meeting with people from all the services offered. I will attempt to put up pictures in next day or so of Macau and Jon's visit. ALSO HARRY POTTER- That's my plan for tonight! Although it might be a bit odd with Cantanese subtitles I DON"T CARE! Hope everyones doing well!
Cheers
Tina
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
