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
Wednesday, July 8, 2009
I like to eat wegetables, but I don't like to eat fish....
Monumental day today! I learned my first complete sentence in Cantanese. Today was like being in school all over again ( also my kids turned my laundry method on me- modified of course... it was point at an object I'd say English word, they'd repeat English word then they'd say Cantanese word i'd repeat Cantanese word- followed by tons of little giggles due to my poor pronunciation or complete butchering of the word) After today I've decided my laundry method needs a bit more pizzaz.... I guess I did leave out the spin cycle so maybe tomorrow i'll have to add a new component because after realizing what I put them through .... My laundry method is just about as much fun as doing actual laundry....
Now, back to my first full sentence... it was an extremely useful one so prepare yourself for this I will first type it out ( using my own phonetic spelling of course..) and then give the translation.... aw jongee sic chai donhi aw mm jongee sic yuhh.... when I asked Sally what that meant she said it means - I like to eat wegetables but I don't like to eat feesh ( I like to eat vegetables but I don't like to eat fish... v's are very tricky business) Any ways I also learned sit down( very crucial thing to know when working with kids now I can say CHAW DIE! and they will sit riggght down)
Today was a fairly good but verrrry hot and tiring day. It was a full day but for the majority of the day it went quite well and another successful day with my small group I think. Well if you're standing Chaw Die..... Enjoy your Wednesday.
Now, back to my first full sentence... it was an extremely useful one so prepare yourself for this I will first type it out ( using my own phonetic spelling of course..) and then give the translation.... aw jongee sic chai donhi aw mm jongee sic yuhh.... when I asked Sally what that meant she said it means - I like to eat wegetables but I don't like to eat feesh ( I like to eat vegetables but I don't like to eat fish... v's are very tricky business) Any ways I also learned sit down( very crucial thing to know when working with kids now I can say CHAW DIE! and they will sit riggght down)
Today was a fairly good but verrrry hot and tiring day. It was a full day but for the majority of the day it went quite well and another successful day with my small group I think. Well if you're standing Chaw Die..... Enjoy your Wednesday.
Tuesday, July 7, 2009
wash, rinse, repeat
Well camp numero dos is under way and after day one it became very apparent that I needed to change my teaching methods for small group time. On day one Sally, Wendy, Snow White ( yes, I know that's the real deal folks...no joking here) our translator Jonathon and I all sat trying desperately to find a way around ( or through it or over it) this massive language barrier but instead we sat reviewing emotions a concept they haven't quite grasped yet for a solid 20 minutes doing every possible activity I could think of with my laminated flash cards ( that they could see through apparently) and once those had thoroughly been exhausted we talked about their favorite things about summer, favorite foods, etc. ( every normally 2 part question- question and answer- very quickly became a 6 part question- Step 1- I ask English question, Step 2- Jonathan asks Cantanese translation of question, Step 3- one of them responds with Cantanese answer, Step 4 Jonathan gives me the English Translated answer, step 5- I repeat the word/words of the answer to everyone, Step 6 they repeat the word/words in an attempt to learn them) as you can tell conversing is a lengthy process....
After what seemed like hours( poor preparation on my part) small group time ended and my group and Maggies headed down to play squash ( yeah they expected us to teach the kids to play HAH!) thankfully today and for the rest of are time we have a table tennis room( the unfortunate thing about that is that about half of the kids totally wrecked me at ping pong today... on the positive I have a week and half to improve and they've already shown maggie and I how to properly hold a paddle..)
Today, in small group time I applied a laundry theory as I like to call it(yes I'm developing my own teaching theories i'm not quite ready to be published their still in the developmental and testing phases.)....the laundry cycle washes-rinses-repeats ( with some added steps of course) in teaching English today I showed a picture said a word repeat... we went through pictures and I said all the words they repeated... I showed them the words they found the picture that matched it they said the word repeat... We played the matching game and every card they flipped over they had to say the name of what it was... see the card, say the name, repeat . We then attempted full sentences which went surprisingly well. Tomorrow we have an outing including lunch at an American restaurant so phrases included "Please pass the______" followed by thank you. Also I like to to eat_____ and I don't like to eat____ Followed by What Do you like to it? What Don't you like to eat?..... I have this ball and on suggestion of laura I wait to pull it out until the end because it is a distraction but They had to throw the ball and ask What do you like to eat? or what don't you like to eat? and then if they got the ball they had to respond to question with I like to eat or I don't like to eat etc. ( it worked until one of them decided the game was better when she just threw it to herself.... so she threw it in the air to herself a few times and every time ask what to you like to eat I like to eat.... and that ended the game) All in all though a much more successful day than day one. Heading out to do some grocery shopping and wandering... Happy Tuesday!
Cheers,
Tina
After what seemed like hours( poor preparation on my part) small group time ended and my group and Maggies headed down to play squash ( yeah they expected us to teach the kids to play HAH!) thankfully today and for the rest of are time we have a table tennis room( the unfortunate thing about that is that about half of the kids totally wrecked me at ping pong today... on the positive I have a week and half to improve and they've already shown maggie and I how to properly hold a paddle..)
Today, in small group time I applied a laundry theory as I like to call it(yes I'm developing my own teaching theories i'm not quite ready to be published their still in the developmental and testing phases.)....the laundry cycle washes-rinses-repeats ( with some added steps of course) in teaching English today I showed a picture said a word repeat... we went through pictures and I said all the words they repeated... I showed them the words they found the picture that matched it they said the word repeat... We played the matching game and every card they flipped over they had to say the name of what it was... see the card, say the name, repeat . We then attempted full sentences which went surprisingly well. Tomorrow we have an outing including lunch at an American restaurant so phrases included "Please pass the______" followed by thank you. Also I like to to eat_____ and I don't like to eat____ Followed by What Do you like to it? What Don't you like to eat?..... I have this ball and on suggestion of laura I wait to pull it out until the end because it is a distraction but They had to throw the ball and ask What do you like to eat? or what don't you like to eat? and then if they got the ball they had to respond to question with I like to eat or I don't like to eat etc. ( it worked until one of them decided the game was better when she just threw it to herself.... so she threw it in the air to herself a few times and every time ask what to you like to eat I like to eat.... and that ended the game) All in all though a much more successful day than day one. Heading out to do some grocery shopping and wandering... Happy Tuesday!
Cheers,
Tina
Saturday, July 4, 2009
My week in review....
Well as previously mentioned We've officially completed one full 2 week camp and that marks that we've been here for almost 4 weeks ( Friday was our 25th day here I believe). I feel caught in a strange limbo where i'm unsure whether it feels as if i've been here a long time or I have a long time left. It's the rainy season/typhoon season here, so in my mind any heavy rain is a typhoon so i've added some new words to my vocabulary one being typhooning- it's a verb. It's likely not a word, but heavy rains qualify as typhooning outside...currently on this rainy sunday it is typhooning outside so once the rain lets up ( and if it doesn't I still plan to or i'll go stir crazy) I intend to go wandering in Wan Chai
Well this week went well it was just certainly a tiring week. It was Laura and I turn to lead camp this week so it meant taking on a whole new set of challenges and responsibility ( crap.. reality check i'm working here too not just here to explore, shop and enjoy all that Hong Kong has to offer, but of course that is an added perk) Laura and My's theme was sort of like an around the world adventure where we taught kids about the continents and different cultures while also teaching them English. They seemed to like our theme. Day one we studied Africa and baked elephant ears ( yes we baked not fried them... The thought of frying something in an unairconditioned area- fire hazards aside- seemed like a torturous idea so we baked them) the kids helped put the ingredients together and roll their own elephant ear and then we put them in the oven and baked them for them. it was quite the yummy treat. Tuesday we studied Asia and kind of compared cultures. We did 2 different crafts ( generally we try to cook something with the kids and then do a craft because crafts are fun as is cooking and also then they get to eat the snack which always makes for happier kids...) Now on the day we did Asia we didn't even attempt to cook anything because considering what we consider chinese food in America ( fried chunks of chicken and fried dough with crab in the middle or perhaps chicken globbed with sesame sauce.. I've yet to see any of that fine American Chinese cuisine here) we weren't quite prepared to attempt to cook authentic asian food plus we figured they probably eat enough of it as is soo why make them cook more.... Wednesday was a public holilday so we didn't have camp. Instead we went to the beach and some of us ( myself included- mind you this is with SPF 50 sunscreen on) got terribly sunburnt.. ( if you've ever seen or been on Young Life spring break with me i'd say it's comparable to my worst days there...) I've been radiating heat since Wednesday.. Too bad it's not snowy here. Anyways Wednesday was interesting because it isn't celebrated with fireworks or parades instead people flood the streets protesting! The protest marched along and seemed to continue for hours! it was insane! Ohh yes and on Wednesday we went out for Dim Sum with Abby and Amy and ClareBelle - 2 volunteers for mother's choice on a 1 year term ( Abby is from the UK she has a phenomenal accent and Amy is from South Africa- she also has a great accent so basically we spent the entire dim sum just listening to them talk because there accents were so captivating... if I come back with a British accents it's only because I feel as though I seriously wish I had some sort of accent here. Even the guy who reads scripture in church has an awesome Irish accent... It's great!) Anyways Thursday was our outting day and on our outting day we visited a nunnery which was beautiful and also the space museum which was awesome and then we had lunch at the Clearwater bay country club which was delicious. I've discovered a new love for asparagus and especially asparagus soup. It was great to have American food again... After that we played a few games of tag on the playground there ( If you tag someone that doesn't mean you're not it anymore... you're still a tagger. The goal is to be the last one not tagged. Then you become the first tagger the next game. that probably makes noo sense but it does if you play it) It was quite fun I joined in and felt like i was like 7 again... Then Friday we had a rap up day and review and all day the kids were just bouncing off the walls (little did we know it was because they were like mega excited for a party they had planned) they put on a dance for us ( it was to High school musical) and they served some american food ( pasta) and spring rolls, fruit salad, etc. noo fishballs and nooddles! and we didn't have to hide what we didn't want to eat because we wanted to eat EVERYTHING! it was soo great! They gave us precious cards and it was sad to say goodbye. We'll be back at the small group homes for the last week to work with the older kids who served as our translators.
Now when I started this post I hadn't gone outside but since then i've gone out and done some exploring in Wan Chai and i'd like to share my biggest upset about shopping in Hong Kong.... SHOE SIZES! they never have sizes above like an American size 7. Now I am well aware that I don't have dainty little feet but i'd also like to note that my feet are not awkwardly large either...in fact I can always find shoes in the US no problem. I now understand the struggles that people with large feet face... here I have large feet. FRUSTRATION!
Well new pictures at http://tinawestra.shutterfly.com/
Check them out if you want.
thanks
Cheers
Tina
Well this week went well it was just certainly a tiring week. It was Laura and I turn to lead camp this week so it meant taking on a whole new set of challenges and responsibility ( crap.. reality check i'm working here too not just here to explore, shop and enjoy all that Hong Kong has to offer, but of course that is an added perk) Laura and My's theme was sort of like an around the world adventure where we taught kids about the continents and different cultures while also teaching them English. They seemed to like our theme. Day one we studied Africa and baked elephant ears ( yes we baked not fried them... The thought of frying something in an unairconditioned area- fire hazards aside- seemed like a torturous idea so we baked them) the kids helped put the ingredients together and roll their own elephant ear and then we put them in the oven and baked them for them. it was quite the yummy treat. Tuesday we studied Asia and kind of compared cultures. We did 2 different crafts ( generally we try to cook something with the kids and then do a craft because crafts are fun as is cooking and also then they get to eat the snack which always makes for happier kids...) Now on the day we did Asia we didn't even attempt to cook anything because considering what we consider chinese food in America ( fried chunks of chicken and fried dough with crab in the middle or perhaps chicken globbed with sesame sauce.. I've yet to see any of that fine American Chinese cuisine here) we weren't quite prepared to attempt to cook authentic asian food plus we figured they probably eat enough of it as is soo why make them cook more.... Wednesday was a public holilday so we didn't have camp. Instead we went to the beach and some of us ( myself included- mind you this is with SPF 50 sunscreen on) got terribly sunburnt.. ( if you've ever seen or been on Young Life spring break with me i'd say it's comparable to my worst days there...) I've been radiating heat since Wednesday.. Too bad it's not snowy here. Anyways Wednesday was interesting because it isn't celebrated with fireworks or parades instead people flood the streets protesting! The protest marched along and seemed to continue for hours! it was insane! Ohh yes and on Wednesday we went out for Dim Sum with Abby and Amy and ClareBelle - 2 volunteers for mother's choice on a 1 year term ( Abby is from the UK she has a phenomenal accent and Amy is from South Africa- she also has a great accent so basically we spent the entire dim sum just listening to them talk because there accents were so captivating... if I come back with a British accents it's only because I feel as though I seriously wish I had some sort of accent here. Even the guy who reads scripture in church has an awesome Irish accent... It's great!) Anyways Thursday was our outting day and on our outting day we visited a nunnery which was beautiful and also the space museum which was awesome and then we had lunch at the Clearwater bay country club which was delicious. I've discovered a new love for asparagus and especially asparagus soup. It was great to have American food again... After that we played a few games of tag on the playground there ( If you tag someone that doesn't mean you're not it anymore... you're still a tagger. The goal is to be the last one not tagged. Then you become the first tagger the next game. that probably makes noo sense but it does if you play it) It was quite fun I joined in and felt like i was like 7 again... Then Friday we had a rap up day and review and all day the kids were just bouncing off the walls (little did we know it was because they were like mega excited for a party they had planned) they put on a dance for us ( it was to High school musical) and they served some american food ( pasta) and spring rolls, fruit salad, etc. noo fishballs and nooddles! and we didn't have to hide what we didn't want to eat because we wanted to eat EVERYTHING! it was soo great! They gave us precious cards and it was sad to say goodbye. We'll be back at the small group homes for the last week to work with the older kids who served as our translators.
Now when I started this post I hadn't gone outside but since then i've gone out and done some exploring in Wan Chai and i'd like to share my biggest upset about shopping in Hong Kong.... SHOE SIZES! they never have sizes above like an American size 7. Now I am well aware that I don't have dainty little feet but i'd also like to note that my feet are not awkwardly large either...in fact I can always find shoes in the US no problem. I now understand the struggles that people with large feet face... here I have large feet. FRUSTRATION!
Well new pictures at http://tinawestra.shutterfly.com/
Check them out if you want.
thanks
Cheers
Tina
God Bless America ( celebraiting the 4th China style)
Well happy 4th of July! I must say celebrating here is much different than celebrating at home... there were no fire works and there was certainly no grilling going on ( that is due to the excruciatingly hot temperatures making it unbearably hot to even entertain the thought of eating something hot much less cooking it over smoking hot coals) none the less After a full 2 weeks of camp had come to a close we were feeling really good and decided to celebrate ( this was a celebration of completing 2 weeks of program and 4 weeks of eating pretty much purely asian food) with a veeeeery American meals and what better place to do this than T.G.I. Fridays. So we all get gussied up- made ourselves look presentable( we were mainly dressing up for the food we were about to eat because we were soooooo excited) and all went and ordered 4 very large hamburgers complete with potatoes ( Maggie and I opted for mashed potatoes while Lisa and Laura were more partial to the French Fry variety of potatoes) and proceeded to eat and eat until our plates were clean. Now some might say really? really? and to you I say yes! REALLY! we ate it all and to top it all we all ordered our own dessert and proceeded to finish our desserts as well. We didn't even consider the possibility of walking up the hill to our house( one of us might have popped- in reality we probably should've walked to sweat off some Lb's but at that point in time that just didn't seem realistic.) AnAmerican meal.... Now that's patriotism right?
Well if that wasn't enough patriotism today ( on the actual 4th of July at least here in Hong Kong) we took an excursion to Lantau Island and all dressed up in our finest red white and blue ( or whatever red white and blue we could find- which was mainly t- shirts and shorts so maybe not the finest but whatever) Now on Lantau Island is the Biggest OUTDOOR, SEATED, BRONZED buddah.... ( you see it's not technically the largest outdoor buddah and it's not the largest seated buddah, and probably not the biggest bronzed buddah BUT it's the largest outdoor,seated,bronzed buddah- they're like one grouping it's not like there can be an "and" between those descriptor words) Anyways It was quite a site. Now I know the Bible says you shall have no other God's before me and I have no intention to start worshiping buddah, not by any means, but really this things was crazy big and really intricate. I took lots of pictures but it felt seriously irreverant to take pictures of the temple because I considered what if people came up into my church and gawked and took pictures in an irreverant sense and potentially later looking back at them and saying " Holy crap would you take a look at that..." I mean it seemed just wrong no matter if it's my religion or not to stand there and take pictures... Anyways after buddah and the temple we went to the stilt village on Lantau Island it's called Tai-O It literally is a bunch of houses on stilts all cramed next to one and other and then you have to drive a boat to get to your house or you can walk accross to draw bridge to get to a road It's crazy I always felt like I was invading someones privacy while I was wakling through the city.. wierd. While riding the bus back we saw some cattle grazing by the side of the road- a lovely site I don't know why but it gave me quite a laugh. And then finally we took the ferry back to Central and then walked back to our home sweet home. Lovely lovely day...
Now I promise at some point tomorrow hopefully i'll try and recap last week with camp etc. and also upload pictures yikesabee i'm a bit behind I suppose.... well Enjoy your 4th of July I know I sure did :)
Tina
Well if that wasn't enough patriotism today ( on the actual 4th of July at least here in Hong Kong) we took an excursion to Lantau Island and all dressed up in our finest red white and blue ( or whatever red white and blue we could find- which was mainly t- shirts and shorts so maybe not the finest but whatever) Now on Lantau Island is the Biggest OUTDOOR, SEATED, BRONZED buddah.... ( you see it's not technically the largest outdoor buddah and it's not the largest seated buddah, and probably not the biggest bronzed buddah BUT it's the largest outdoor,seated,bronzed buddah- they're like one grouping it's not like there can be an "and" between those descriptor words) Anyways It was quite a site. Now I know the Bible says you shall have no other God's before me and I have no intention to start worshiping buddah, not by any means, but really this things was crazy big and really intricate. I took lots of pictures but it felt seriously irreverant to take pictures of the temple because I considered what if people came up into my church and gawked and took pictures in an irreverant sense and potentially later looking back at them and saying " Holy crap would you take a look at that..." I mean it seemed just wrong no matter if it's my religion or not to stand there and take pictures... Anyways after buddah and the temple we went to the stilt village on Lantau Island it's called Tai-O It literally is a bunch of houses on stilts all cramed next to one and other and then you have to drive a boat to get to your house or you can walk accross to draw bridge to get to a road It's crazy I always felt like I was invading someones privacy while I was wakling through the city.. wierd. While riding the bus back we saw some cattle grazing by the side of the road- a lovely site I don't know why but it gave me quite a laugh. And then finally we took the ferry back to Central and then walked back to our home sweet home. Lovely lovely day...
Now I promise at some point tomorrow hopefully i'll try and recap last week with camp etc. and also upload pictures yikesabee i'm a bit behind I suppose.... well Enjoy your 4th of July I know I sure did :)
Tina
Tuesday, June 30, 2009
They Laugh at my accent....
Week 2 at the group home has thus far been going quite well. Last week in the process of making flash cards with my group they would teach me the Cantanese word and then I would teach them the English word... Wow Cantanese is a difficult language... Now let me preface this by saying when I entered Calvin I had to take a Spanish Placement test- I didn't place in any of the classes( and that's not because I was soooo far ahead of everyone) now that was a fairly basic language and somewhat close to English in the sense that some of the words are similar etc. Anyway, it ended with the 2 girls in my group splitting a gut with laughter after listening to me struggle for about 5 minutes over the Cantanese word for passport... This is a language with tons of highs and lows and short and long sounds theres basically 6 different inflections ( i'm not sure if that's the proper technical word but whatever)
In an effort to at least learn some Cantanese in our time here ( mainly so that my students don't bust a gut every time I attempt to pronounce something and so we spend more time on their English than my Cantanese) I purchased a learning Cantanese guide and CD it is a pocket book with phrases with English and Cantanese translation. Tonight the 4 of us sat around my lap top as it played words and oddly repeted the sounds and then laughed histarically at ourselves.... It was quite a site.... Well another week is coming to a close and the completion with one group of kids which is sort of sad. I'll try and do a total recap of this week later when I have a bit more time. Thankfully the scare of a typhoon is no longer level 3 and after a just a 4 day week ( wednesday was a public holiday and Thursday we had an outting) we're all feeling well rested ( slightly sunburned from our day at the beach on our day off) and ready for a weekend full of sight seeing! We plan to celebrate our patriotism on Friday with a trip to get some American food hopefully a steak or burger( we figure if we're in a place that doesn't celebrate the 4th of july then it probably isn't a huuuuge deal if we don't celebrate it exactly ON the 4th either.) Saturday we hope to head to Lantau Island to see the Giant Buddah, and Sunday we're hoping to visit a stilt village. Should be a busy but fun packed weekend! Hope everyone has a lovely and patriotic 4th of July. Happy Birthday Jilly Hutch! Hope you have a great day!
Cheers
Tina
In an effort to at least learn some Cantanese in our time here ( mainly so that my students don't bust a gut every time I attempt to pronounce something and so we spend more time on their English than my Cantanese) I purchased a learning Cantanese guide and CD it is a pocket book with phrases with English and Cantanese translation. Tonight the 4 of us sat around my lap top as it played words and oddly repeted the sounds and then laughed histarically at ourselves.... It was quite a site.... Well another week is coming to a close and the completion with one group of kids which is sort of sad. I'll try and do a total recap of this week later when I have a bit more time. Thankfully the scare of a typhoon is no longer level 3 and after a just a 4 day week ( wednesday was a public holiday and Thursday we had an outting) we're all feeling well rested ( slightly sunburned from our day at the beach on our day off) and ready for a weekend full of sight seeing! We plan to celebrate our patriotism on Friday with a trip to get some American food hopefully a steak or burger( we figure if we're in a place that doesn't celebrate the 4th of july then it probably isn't a huuuuge deal if we don't celebrate it exactly ON the 4th either.) Saturday we hope to head to Lantau Island to see the Giant Buddah, and Sunday we're hoping to visit a stilt village. Should be a busy but fun packed weekend! Hope everyone has a lovely and patriotic 4th of July. Happy Birthday Jilly Hutch! Hope you have a great day!
Cheers
Tina
Sunday, June 28, 2009
Just one of those days ( in a good way)
Yesterday was one of those really good days. Those days where you're just feeling good about life ( you could step in dog poop and think optimistically think while these shoes needed to be cleaned anyways... This was just a good reminder and besides i'm picking that dog poop up off the street Yay for me! thats all completely exaggerated but really I mean one of those good days)While the rest of the girls went to the Union again I went to church at a different church it was located in the YMCA in TST so that I could go see my friend Dan lead worship and hang out with him for a bit. It was a really great service and he did a great job. After church I went out for lunch with him and some of his friends. We went out for Korean food ( After eating professor Lee's amazing Korean cooking I have a serious love of Korean food so I was like majorly excited for Korean food) It was amazing! I don't even know what I ate and to be honest I don't really care all I know is that it was quite tasty!
Following a nice leisurely lunch I took the MTR home ( yes mom all by myself- I've learned to navigate parts of the city decently well by myself or at least the MTR...) Anyways Lisa Laura and Maggie and I did some program planning, and also watched some movies. Now, if I could add noise I would add a drum roll at this point because this is my most exciting piece of news...
( this is a delayed post I started writting this Sunday it's now Tuesday but) on Sunday I figured out how to get my internet working on my lap top! For the longest time the wireless here was working on Maggie and Lisa's lap tops but Stewart couldn't get it to work on mine :( and on the desktop computer I was unable to send e-mails or use the mouse for extended periods of time..very peculiar. Don't get me wrong I'm still very gracious to have been able to have been able to use the computer at all, but to actually have internet on my laptop is amazing because now I can e-mail upload pictures to my shutterfly for everyone to see etc. It's quite phenomanal! If I could even convey my level of excitement to you all! ( maybe you're getting the point with all the exclamation points? maybe not either way I'm excited) All in all A superb day!!!!
Mmm Goi ( thanks in Cantanese)
Tina
P.S.- New pictures from Hong Kong weeks 2 and 3 at http://tinawestra.shutterfly.com/
Following a nice leisurely lunch I took the MTR home ( yes mom all by myself- I've learned to navigate parts of the city decently well by myself or at least the MTR...) Anyways Lisa Laura and Maggie and I did some program planning, and also watched some movies. Now, if I could add noise I would add a drum roll at this point because this is my most exciting piece of news...
( this is a delayed post I started writting this Sunday it's now Tuesday but) on Sunday I figured out how to get my internet working on my lap top! For the longest time the wireless here was working on Maggie and Lisa's lap tops but Stewart couldn't get it to work on mine :( and on the desktop computer I was unable to send e-mails or use the mouse for extended periods of time..very peculiar. Don't get me wrong I'm still very gracious to have been able to have been able to use the computer at all, but to actually have internet on my laptop is amazing because now I can e-mail upload pictures to my shutterfly for everyone to see etc. It's quite phenomanal! If I could even convey my level of excitement to you all! ( maybe you're getting the point with all the exclamation points? maybe not either way I'm excited) All in all A superb day!!!!
Mmm Goi ( thanks in Cantanese)
Tina
P.S.- New pictures from Hong Kong weeks 2 and 3 at http://tinawestra.shutterfly.com/
Friday, June 26, 2009
" We've got a level 3 typhoon on our hands..."
The title reads correctly... Currently in main land China there's a tropical storm sweepin on through, meanwhile Hong Kong is feeling some of the effects as well. Yesterday the Typhoon level got moved up from level 1 to level 3 ( now please make note that it goes up to level 10 but a jump from level 1 to level 3 is big because there is no level 3 in between. Why is beyond me) Anyways, I'm preparing to go down to Hong Kong park and start collecting the birds ( two of each kind ) and I believe that there is some bamboo that could be suitable for an arc...Justtt kidding but really the rain has been pretty persistant since yesterday.
Yesterday we completed our first week of camp ( i'd lable it a succesful learning experience for both the kids and for us) My cantanese is improving.. I can't tell you how to say anything useful but I can say blueberry and chocolate sooo should anyone ever be in Hong Kong and need to buy some blueberrys or perhaps chocolate ( which is difficult to find.... Hong Kong hasn't exactly mastered the whole dessert thing- their idea of a good dessert is coconut milk with red beans in it... mmmm yum- I'd rather head to McDonalds for a vanilla icecream cone thanks) I can tell you the word for either them... I think we're all developing good relationships with the kids in our groups so next week will hopefully run more smoothly. Also, we have a better understanding of their individual learning styles ( like speaking to them in rapid English hasn't been a succesful method of teaching..) One of the last activities we did was one where we shared Cantanese words we had learned and they shared English words they had learned, and they all seem to have learned a decent amount. I think we were all ready for a weekend of recouperation, but also we're ready to face another week and the challenges it might bring... We have a shortened week next week due to public holiday so no camp on Tuesday. Our outting day will be on Thursday and we will take the kids to a nunnery, the space museum and then a country club to practice manors for lunch( The menu includes some sort of mesclun leaves nashi pears and feta salad followed by asparagus soup and tarragon cream and then chicken more asparagus and warm eggplant caponata- talk about your kid friendly meal... Egg plants delightful as a color but as a food not really on the top of my list of favorite foods....)
After a long while inside Maggie and I ventured into the rain umbrellas at the ready so that I could get a new pair of headphones... mine have become well worn( they might have become some what of a fire hazard... the wires are showing and the danger of electricution is always right around the corner, but I suppose that does make listening to music a bit more interactive and a bit more adventurous.... who knows when you'll truly be moved by the words- whether it's from a massive shock or truly emotional words is yet to be determined...) anyways apparently they don't sell plain old earbuds so I purchased a stylin pair with some killer lightning bolts on them... doesn't get much better than that( they're like neon lightning bolts- they make a statment that says welcome to the eightys on this new age technology.) The rest of the afternoon has been spent planning, lounging, and yes that really sums it up... The evening is yet to be determined but it has been an eventful week in Hong Kong and so some time spent relaxing is always enjoyed. Hope everyone is coping well with the recent death of Michael Jackson.... It's been quite a story here in Hong Kong as well... Well Have a good night/ day!
Cheers
Tina
Yesterday we completed our first week of camp ( i'd lable it a succesful learning experience for both the kids and for us) My cantanese is improving.. I can't tell you how to say anything useful but I can say blueberry and chocolate sooo should anyone ever be in Hong Kong and need to buy some blueberrys or perhaps chocolate ( which is difficult to find.... Hong Kong hasn't exactly mastered the whole dessert thing- their idea of a good dessert is coconut milk with red beans in it... mmmm yum- I'd rather head to McDonalds for a vanilla icecream cone thanks) I can tell you the word for either them... I think we're all developing good relationships with the kids in our groups so next week will hopefully run more smoothly. Also, we have a better understanding of their individual learning styles ( like speaking to them in rapid English hasn't been a succesful method of teaching..) One of the last activities we did was one where we shared Cantanese words we had learned and they shared English words they had learned, and they all seem to have learned a decent amount. I think we were all ready for a weekend of recouperation, but also we're ready to face another week and the challenges it might bring... We have a shortened week next week due to public holiday so no camp on Tuesday. Our outting day will be on Thursday and we will take the kids to a nunnery, the space museum and then a country club to practice manors for lunch( The menu includes some sort of mesclun leaves nashi pears and feta salad followed by asparagus soup and tarragon cream and then chicken more asparagus and warm eggplant caponata- talk about your kid friendly meal... Egg plants delightful as a color but as a food not really on the top of my list of favorite foods....)
After a long while inside Maggie and I ventured into the rain umbrellas at the ready so that I could get a new pair of headphones... mine have become well worn( they might have become some what of a fire hazard... the wires are showing and the danger of electricution is always right around the corner, but I suppose that does make listening to music a bit more interactive and a bit more adventurous.... who knows when you'll truly be moved by the words- whether it's from a massive shock or truly emotional words is yet to be determined...) anyways apparently they don't sell plain old earbuds so I purchased a stylin pair with some killer lightning bolts on them... doesn't get much better than that( they're like neon lightning bolts- they make a statment that says welcome to the eightys on this new age technology.) The rest of the afternoon has been spent planning, lounging, and yes that really sums it up... The evening is yet to be determined but it has been an eventful week in Hong Kong and so some time spent relaxing is always enjoyed. Hope everyone is coping well with the recent death of Michael Jackson.... It's been quite a story here in Hong Kong as well... Well Have a good night/ day!
Cheers
Tina
Wednesday, June 24, 2009
Proper etiquet... or at least presentability?
Today was outting day at the Mother's Choice Fun With English Cultural Exchange program( A lengthy name for a program where we play games mostly, do some crafts, and then toss in a half our "English time" - and when asked what there least favorite part of the day is they say the English time. sounds like a lot of fun with English to me) Lengthy parenthesis. Anyways Today we started our morning later than normal( 9:00) because we met the kids at the art museum. It was quite rainy out to start today which was making for a pleasent morning ( The thought of attempting to take 3 kids through an outdoor market in the rain and making them say words in English ... yeah I didn't think that would go over real well) Anyways we first went to the art museum where we received a tour( in Cantanese of course- it was very informative I can safely say I know the exact same amount exiting that museum as I did entering- i'd dare say many of the kids feel the same way because the guide was a bit long winded)
Following the museumt we headed to the American club for our lunch. Yesterday we had talked and Maggie and I did a very succesful skit, might I add, on proper and improper manors. So we thought that the lunch would go fairly smoothly. Things went ok until kids went into the bathroom. It was a downward spiral after that as far as lunch goes so much for proper etiquet ( although we did get some pretty good laughs over it all) There were combs in the bathroom which i'm pretty sure probably every kid has like 4 of now, and they all went to the bathroom at least 4 times and burped at the table(we failed to mention that was poor manors). And they certainly have different taste on food, the tomatoe soup was too sour, the chicken fettucini was too spicy because of the pepper( it really wasn't spicy at all it was simply ground pepper they just have different tastes) yet they were soo fascinated by the pepper grinder that they continued to add more pepper, the brownie was too sweet. For Lisa, Maggie, Laura, and I the food was Amazing!!! we haven't had American food( other than McDonalds) since we've been here and trust me we( politely) devoured everything! After that we headed to stanley market which actually went better than the early portion of the day.
Finally, after we had gotten the kids back on the bus to head back to the group home, we headed back into the market for what you might call some retail therapy... very stressful day. Also, an amazing Almond croissant from Delifrance( yeah wierd i'm not in france so why is there a deli from there here right? I've been asking myself that too) but this croissant would've put even the best bonquet to shame... it was amazing! Tonight, we're doing a little planning and relaxing because rather than a half day camp today we spent a full day and were all exhausted( good thing none of us were education majors!)well you live and learn soo hopefully next week will go a bit smoother.
Cheers.
Tina
Following the museumt we headed to the American club for our lunch. Yesterday we had talked and Maggie and I did a very succesful skit, might I add, on proper and improper manors. So we thought that the lunch would go fairly smoothly. Things went ok until kids went into the bathroom. It was a downward spiral after that as far as lunch goes so much for proper etiquet ( although we did get some pretty good laughs over it all) There were combs in the bathroom which i'm pretty sure probably every kid has like 4 of now, and they all went to the bathroom at least 4 times and burped at the table(we failed to mention that was poor manors). And they certainly have different taste on food, the tomatoe soup was too sour, the chicken fettucini was too spicy because of the pepper( it really wasn't spicy at all it was simply ground pepper they just have different tastes) yet they were soo fascinated by the pepper grinder that they continued to add more pepper, the brownie was too sweet. For Lisa, Maggie, Laura, and I the food was Amazing!!! we haven't had American food( other than McDonalds) since we've been here and trust me we( politely) devoured everything! After that we headed to stanley market which actually went better than the early portion of the day.
Finally, after we had gotten the kids back on the bus to head back to the group home, we headed back into the market for what you might call some retail therapy... very stressful day. Also, an amazing Almond croissant from Delifrance( yeah wierd i'm not in france so why is there a deli from there here right? I've been asking myself that too) but this croissant would've put even the best bonquet to shame... it was amazing! Tonight, we're doing a little planning and relaxing because rather than a half day camp today we spent a full day and were all exhausted( good thing none of us were education majors!)well you live and learn soo hopefully next week will go a bit smoother.
Cheers.
Tina
Tuesday, June 23, 2009
I like to move it move it .. You like to move it...
Well, 2 days into English Camp and it's very apparent that the kids know less English than expected. They are amazing though! they are soo much fun and are teaching us Cantanese in the process and are laughing at our mistakes which is a good things because it makes the whole process much easier! Because right now communication is difficult we incorporate lots of sensory activities and things that include movement. The first day Maggie and I were preparing muffin batter because we were going to have the kids decorate cupcakes( the ended up decorating burnt blueberry muffins made with peanut oil instead of cooking oil and decorating them with frosting we concoted out of powdered sugar and water.... you work with what you're given they loved it no matter what.) because we were talking about the different ways we celebrate birthdays. As we stood in the kitchen it was clear that the 5 or so kids watching our every move had english levels all accross the board. One girl was fairly articulate compared to the others, while one little boy said nothing the majority of the time until he out of no where said " I like to mov it mov it I like to mov it mov it ... you like to move it" in semi broken English.... of all the things this kid knows how in the world does he know that is my question? I got a good laugh out of it.
The first 2 days have been interesting and day 2 was much better than day one. After day one we came back after a loooooong debriefing session with Siu cho and Don and then did some serious planning and napping because we were all exhausted from the day( I fell asleep on the way home) Monday night we watched a movie and spent some time just hanging out and then Last night we met up with some friends and went to dinner and around Lau Se Fong . It was a lot of fun.
Today is our outting day with the kids so we're headed to the Museum of Art, then to the American Club for lunch and for the kids to practice table manors( and we're all pretty excited for some decent American food anything McDonalds) and then finally a trip to Stanley Market... We're also ( this is not with the kids) hoping to head to the horse races tonight just so we can see them before the track closes for the season.
An update on our camps... Schools have officially suspended so as of now it appears as though we will do 2 weeks in the small group home we are in how. 2 weeks with Foster care children and then 1 week with older students with lower English levels... So each week we will need to make new adjustments and new changes to fit with the level and the skills and abilities of the kids. should be interesting...
Hope summer is treating everyone well!
Peace
Tina
The first 2 days have been interesting and day 2 was much better than day one. After day one we came back after a loooooong debriefing session with Siu cho and Don and then did some serious planning and napping because we were all exhausted from the day( I fell asleep on the way home) Monday night we watched a movie and spent some time just hanging out and then Last night we met up with some friends and went to dinner and around Lau Se Fong . It was a lot of fun.
Today is our outting day with the kids so we're headed to the Museum of Art, then to the American Club for lunch and for the kids to practice table manors( and we're all pretty excited for some decent American food anything McDonalds) and then finally a trip to Stanley Market... We're also ( this is not with the kids) hoping to head to the horse races tonight just so we can see them before the track closes for the season.
An update on our camps... Schools have officially suspended so as of now it appears as though we will do 2 weeks in the small group home we are in how. 2 weeks with Foster care children and then 1 week with older students with lower English levels... So each week we will need to make new adjustments and new changes to fit with the level and the skills and abilities of the kids. should be interesting...
Hope summer is treating everyone well!
Peace
Tina
Sunday, June 21, 2009
I'm sorry Donald Duck for paralyzing you...
well it has been an eventful few days... Compeltely with very odd eating and all. Friday and Saturday we had traditional style banquets that we attended Friday's was the mother's choice diner and Saturday we attended a traditional baptism..Normally it consists of about a 10 to 12 course meal Fridays was a 12 course meal and Saturday was 10 and both days there was pleanty of seafood ( my favorite.... not) It was quite an experience though and now I can say I tried tons of things I"ve never tried before! including... Shark fin soup, Duck feet, some sort of fish that looks like a tounge and starts with an A. I enjoyed the company probably more than the food. ON saturday night we were seated with the Treats staff which is all of the people Don used to work with. They are great! Winnie is this great woman who is going to show us lots of stuff in Hong Kong and met us at the beach on Sunday. She's like really funny. Also on Saturday we learned to play Majong ( spelled that way wrong) anyways it's a game that supposedly prevents altzimers in elderly... It's like the card game set in the us but played with tiles so sort of like dominos and with chinese symbols instead of English. it's very fun. We also provided entertainment for many people while learning... I'd like to note... I won...( may not win at games in America when I play with my family but I'm bringing this one back and I will...)
In about 2 minutes we head out for our first day in the small group home.. A little nervous but mostly excited.. prayers are appreciated! Thanks
The weather is pretty cloudy and gloomy here but it can change in an instant we've noticed plus cloudy is good after the sunburn I got yesterday.... Welll better go get ready for camp!
peace
Tina
In about 2 minutes we head out for our first day in the small group home.. A little nervous but mostly excited.. prayers are appreciated! Thanks
The weather is pretty cloudy and gloomy here but it can change in an instant we've noticed plus cloudy is good after the sunburn I got yesterday.... Welll better go get ready for camp!
peace
Tina
Thursday, June 18, 2009
We're not in Kansas any more?
Well I never was in Kansas but the reality in every instance that i'm certainly not in Michigan anymore continues to set in. The internet is extremely spotty here so i'm nabbing it from the local park right now, but hopefully Stewart will come this afternoon to help us sort out the whole WiFi thing. It's hard to remember what we've done in the past however many days, but it has been fun. We went the the Temple street night market which would be a whole post in and of itself i'm afraid. All I can say is that the people watching there was phenomenal...
We also visited one of the primary schools we'll work in if the schools are not suspended. Yesterday afternoon they were supposed to make a decision if they would shut down all of the schools until next year or if they would lift the suspension, but siu cho and the woman at the school both seemed to think that they would close the school until next year in which case we would hold several camps in the group homes for the children there. We're still optamistic maybe they'll lift the suspension...
Anyways the new flat is very nice we're adjusting nicely and It's as if we have done so much and have so much to do before next week that I feel a bit overwhelmed... Thankfully Don is here to help this week and help us to adjust our programs as needed. Once Stewart or rather if stewart fixes the wireless then hopefully i'll be able explain the temple night market...Ok Cheers
Tina
We also visited one of the primary schools we'll work in if the schools are not suspended. Yesterday afternoon they were supposed to make a decision if they would shut down all of the schools until next year or if they would lift the suspension, but siu cho and the woman at the school both seemed to think that they would close the school until next year in which case we would hold several camps in the group homes for the children there. We're still optamistic maybe they'll lift the suspension...
Anyways the new flat is very nice we're adjusting nicely and It's as if we have done so much and have so much to do before next week that I feel a bit overwhelmed... Thankfully Don is here to help this week and help us to adjust our programs as needed. Once Stewart or rather if stewart fixes the wireless then hopefully i'll be able explain the temple night market...Ok Cheers
Tina
Tuesday, June 16, 2009
McDonalds and Moving Day...
Yesterday was moving day so the night before we attempted to pack up our stuff as neatly and as carefully as we had brought it, but as Stewart the delightful Brittish man that's a full time volunteer for Mother's Choice ( He does everything from moving luggage to changing ink cartridges-that's likely spelled horribly sorry) put it " have you already packed away more things in one week?" ( I imagine he was thinking about carrying my 49.5 Lb bag down the series of 40 stairs and then small hills and then back up 3 flights of stairls once in the building- and yes mybag was just under the weight limit for the airline) We indeed did have to carry all of our luggage down some hills and up 3 flights of stairs, but stewart and his helper carried all of our massive bags. Stewart is one of those people you just feel happy when your around.. Maybe it's his chipper accent or maybe it's his helpful manor either way he's super.
Our new flat is right accross the hall from the CEO of Mother's Choice and his wife( they're American) and 3 kids who we met on the way. We also met their " domestic assistant" the technical name for a nanny who we share the volunteer flat with. The volunteer flat is lovely and hopefully at some point i'll be able to put up some pictures. Currently we don't have wireless, but when Stewart stopped by to put in new ink cartridges he said he would see what he could do about that since 3 of us have lap tops with us( again exemplifying Stewarts amaziningness) So because we don't have wireless i'm typing from our desktop computer which the view isn't too shabby from :) it over looks quite an amazing skyline which at night produces some sort of laser light show... very interesting.. Anyways our new flat is delightful. Yesterday was spent moving in since this will be our home for the rest of our stay in Hong Kong. We unpacked napped, and then ran several errands including the purchase of a blow dreyer ( necessity) and then last night we watched Just My Luck with Chinese Subtitles... Stupid movie entertaining with the subtitles that we couldn't read...
Because we're so high up the lights from the skyline seriously light up our flat even when we don't have any lights on so it was an early morning this morning. Sui Cho picked us up at 8:30 and we all headed to the MTR station took the blue line to the end got off, took mini bus 48 walked through the hospital to sector F up to floor 8 where we were then at one of the Mother's Choice Small group home ( all in all the commute took approximately 1 hour each way I believe) We got to see the facilities we will be working in as well as meet some of the staff and meet some of the kids. It was great ( although admittedly there so called play ground is very sad) Each small group home is has 8-10 kids and then 1 special needs child. The home also has a house good and a house parent and then a social worker. After our site visit we came back and Wenda picked us up and took us out for a delightful lunch at the Chinese buffet...( strange I think i've seen those in America- but they were nothing like this!) It was very good all except the beef ball and there were a few things I avoided eating because I either couldn't pronounce or they were clearly internal organs... Lunch was very informative we had the opportunity to ask Wenda many questions about Mother's Choice and other things as well( Most people come home with kimonos or chopsticks.... after hearing her talk i'd consider taking home a child) Mother's Choice truly does amazing work. We have spent the afternoon relaxing since the weekend is sure to be busy. I walked down to Hong Kong Park for a bit and also to a book store which was fun. Hong Kong Park is very peaceful and incase I haven't mentioned I love the waterfall and the turtles... Don Comes tomorrow so that will be good and helpful as well. Pretty sure that's up to date although i've likely forgotten a lot. Thanks!
Tina
Our new flat is right accross the hall from the CEO of Mother's Choice and his wife( they're American) and 3 kids who we met on the way. We also met their " domestic assistant" the technical name for a nanny who we share the volunteer flat with. The volunteer flat is lovely and hopefully at some point i'll be able to put up some pictures. Currently we don't have wireless, but when Stewart stopped by to put in new ink cartridges he said he would see what he could do about that since 3 of us have lap tops with us( again exemplifying Stewarts amaziningness) So because we don't have wireless i'm typing from our desktop computer which the view isn't too shabby from :) it over looks quite an amazing skyline which at night produces some sort of laser light show... very interesting.. Anyways our new flat is delightful. Yesterday was spent moving in since this will be our home for the rest of our stay in Hong Kong. We unpacked napped, and then ran several errands including the purchase of a blow dreyer ( necessity) and then last night we watched Just My Luck with Chinese Subtitles... Stupid movie entertaining with the subtitles that we couldn't read...
Because we're so high up the lights from the skyline seriously light up our flat even when we don't have any lights on so it was an early morning this morning. Sui Cho picked us up at 8:30 and we all headed to the MTR station took the blue line to the end got off, took mini bus 48 walked through the hospital to sector F up to floor 8 where we were then at one of the Mother's Choice Small group home ( all in all the commute took approximately 1 hour each way I believe) We got to see the facilities we will be working in as well as meet some of the staff and meet some of the kids. It was great ( although admittedly there so called play ground is very sad) Each small group home is has 8-10 kids and then 1 special needs child. The home also has a house good and a house parent and then a social worker. After our site visit we came back and Wenda picked us up and took us out for a delightful lunch at the Chinese buffet...( strange I think i've seen those in America- but they were nothing like this!) It was very good all except the beef ball and there were a few things I avoided eating because I either couldn't pronounce or they were clearly internal organs... Lunch was very informative we had the opportunity to ask Wenda many questions about Mother's Choice and other things as well( Most people come home with kimonos or chopsticks.... after hearing her talk i'd consider taking home a child) Mother's Choice truly does amazing work. We have spent the afternoon relaxing since the weekend is sure to be busy. I walked down to Hong Kong Park for a bit and also to a book store which was fun. Hong Kong Park is very peaceful and incase I haven't mentioned I love the waterfall and the turtles... Don Comes tomorrow so that will be good and helpful as well. Pretty sure that's up to date although i've likely forgotten a lot. Thanks!
Tina
Monday, June 15, 2009
Question Games and a Sound Track to Hong Kong
Well another day is finishing up and today was slightly less eventful than the past several. Whether that is due to a loss of energy and gusto for sight seeing or the realization that we have a lot of things to accomplish work wise before our camps begin next week I'm unsure but either way today was spent meeting with Wenda and Siu Cho to discuss the upcoming week and camp changes( there have been many due to new government school closings- currently we have just 3 camps that are scheduled and we hope to schedule more in the secondary schools since the closings have been mainly in the primary schools) our first week of camp will be with the Mother's choice Small group Home and we will have just 10 kids... compared to the 40 we were scheduled to have previously. Wow how things change quickly.
After meeting with Siu Cho and Wenda we headed down to put more money on our octopus cards, do some work on our programing stuff at Star Bucks, and then a bit of grocery shopping. Now it would seem that most grocery stores would carry at least some form of soap and/or lotion, but lo and behold this very europeanized grocery store carrys neither soap nor lotion, but it does carry "crazy feet" A.K.A Fruit by the foot.... amazing. So we had to go to The Body shop to find Soap and lotion- very unimportant facts but I just find it all very interesting. After our excursion we made the trek back to our flat Maggie counted that the distance from Kennedy Road to Borret Road which isn't even the all the stairs probably about 2/3 of the stairs we climb when going any where on a given day is 192 steps. I better have some buns and thighs of steel by the time I get back...These aren't even nice steps. They aren't steps that you can take with nice consistency and even stride, no no they are like babysteps that you really have to work your muscles including your arms and be intentional about stepping on each one and you can't take them 2 at a time or you end up in this awkward half step where you are half on one half on other with an intense pain moving up your calf muscle.... very dangerous...Anywho After making it back we spent some time just hanging out I painted my nails which are shockingly long due to the fact that things are a bit dirty here and illness is always just around the bend( and besides my mother always reminds me what a filthy habbit bitting my nails is :) )
While hanging out I started throwing out questions that are stupid get to know you questions like " if you were stranded on a desert island .... " those types of questions anyways One of the question was if you had a 5 song sound track to your life thus far what would it be... It could be just random songs you like or fitting to things that have happend... that got me to thinking about what songs would I use to describe this trip thus far....
My pretrip song I would say would be I Shall Not Walk Alone by Ben Harper
then we've got the plane ride- Peter Paul and Mary Leaving on a Jet plane ( solely because the chorus says I'm Leavin on a jet plane don't know when i'll be back again... seems fitting right?)
Then I'd say Probably Street Lights by Kanye West ( We went to the peak where you can seriously see what seems like all the lights. We went at night so it was spectacular. The first few days were exhausting. It seemed like we were constantly going constantly moving and sometimes it seemed fairly sureal and I didn't really experience it all. Anyways this song besides being quality is decently fitting) then i'd say We all need saving by Jon McLaughlin. My Family wrote me this stack of letters with one to open every Sunday and by the time Sunday rolled around I was missing home a bit thinking about what my family and friends were doing, but then I remembered the stack of letters and opened one up. It was perfect. Not only did I nearly have tears because was laughing so hard. My sisters like really funny :) We'll see what songs pop up for this week. I'll attempt to keep the soundtrack for Hong Kong up to date...
Because we are moving to volunteer housing tomorrow we've been doing laundry which has been interesting.. complete with white shirts dyed pink and loads of fun( yeah that was a sad attempt at a pun) anyways today the extremely odd thing I missed from home- oreos... Wenda was such a dear and brought us oreo's, but oddly enough the oreo's here taste seriously wierd. Like the filling or something is different. It's like a bad attempt at an April fools joke. Anyways please eat an oreo for me:)
Cheers
Tina
After meeting with Siu Cho and Wenda we headed down to put more money on our octopus cards, do some work on our programing stuff at Star Bucks, and then a bit of grocery shopping. Now it would seem that most grocery stores would carry at least some form of soap and/or lotion, but lo and behold this very europeanized grocery store carrys neither soap nor lotion, but it does carry "crazy feet" A.K.A Fruit by the foot.... amazing. So we had to go to The Body shop to find Soap and lotion- very unimportant facts but I just find it all very interesting. After our excursion we made the trek back to our flat Maggie counted that the distance from Kennedy Road to Borret Road which isn't even the all the stairs probably about 2/3 of the stairs we climb when going any where on a given day is 192 steps. I better have some buns and thighs of steel by the time I get back...These aren't even nice steps. They aren't steps that you can take with nice consistency and even stride, no no they are like babysteps that you really have to work your muscles including your arms and be intentional about stepping on each one and you can't take them 2 at a time or you end up in this awkward half step where you are half on one half on other with an intense pain moving up your calf muscle.... very dangerous...Anywho After making it back we spent some time just hanging out I painted my nails which are shockingly long due to the fact that things are a bit dirty here and illness is always just around the bend( and besides my mother always reminds me what a filthy habbit bitting my nails is :) )
While hanging out I started throwing out questions that are stupid get to know you questions like " if you were stranded on a desert island .... " those types of questions anyways One of the question was if you had a 5 song sound track to your life thus far what would it be... It could be just random songs you like or fitting to things that have happend... that got me to thinking about what songs would I use to describe this trip thus far....
My pretrip song I would say would be I Shall Not Walk Alone by Ben Harper
then we've got the plane ride- Peter Paul and Mary Leaving on a Jet plane ( solely because the chorus says I'm Leavin on a jet plane don't know when i'll be back again... seems fitting right?)
Then I'd say Probably Street Lights by Kanye West ( We went to the peak where you can seriously see what seems like all the lights. We went at night so it was spectacular. The first few days were exhausting. It seemed like we were constantly going constantly moving and sometimes it seemed fairly sureal and I didn't really experience it all. Anyways this song besides being quality is decently fitting) then i'd say We all need saving by Jon McLaughlin. My Family wrote me this stack of letters with one to open every Sunday and by the time Sunday rolled around I was missing home a bit thinking about what my family and friends were doing, but then I remembered the stack of letters and opened one up. It was perfect. Not only did I nearly have tears because was laughing so hard. My sisters like really funny :) We'll see what songs pop up for this week. I'll attempt to keep the soundtrack for Hong Kong up to date...
Because we are moving to volunteer housing tomorrow we've been doing laundry which has been interesting.. complete with white shirts dyed pink and loads of fun( yeah that was a sad attempt at a pun) anyways today the extremely odd thing I missed from home- oreos... Wenda was such a dear and brought us oreo's, but oddly enough the oreo's here taste seriously wierd. Like the filling or something is different. It's like a bad attempt at an April fools joke. Anyways please eat an oreo for me:)
Cheers
Tina
Sunday, June 14, 2009
Llama Island... no me llama Tina
Soo This morning we headed down to a 9:30 service at The Union which is a small non denominational international church. It was lovely so lovely and truly beautiful to see people from all nationalities, walks of life, ages , race, etc. all coming together to worship the same God. They had this amazing 20 person choir that sounded like it was made up of like 50 people and the pastor was a woman that truly understood who she was speaking to. One of the guys that read the scripture truly should've had the theme from boondock saints playing while he read he had an awesome accent...
After church we came headed back to our flat for some lunch and to change clothes and then around 12:00 we walked down the the MTR at Admiralty and took that to the ferry and then took the ferry to Llama Island ( I have no idea how to actually spell Llama island but I know that's how it sounds) Now the thing is there is no llama's at llama island, which is a bit disappointing, but it was still a fun afternoon none the less. we meandered through a bunch of little local shops and while on our way t owards the beach it started raining quite hard( not just a light dusting of rain but rather a fairly consistent shower) and who wants to sit in wet sand when it's raining... so we decided this would be a good opportunity to expand our pallet by enjoying some more Hong Kong food. We sat and shared several dishes and I gave one of Hong Kong's libations a try... verdicts still out on whether it tasted good or not either way it had a sweet bottle.... Anyways we had some pinapple and pork,( American name- Sweet and sour pork) some steamed buns( loosely translated as hunks of dough steamed dipped in condensed milk.) and then fried noodles and beef ( no easy translation for that it's exactly what it sounds)
After food we went to a place that over looked where the ferry comes in. While there a "police car" and "fire Truck" if you can call them that passed by in actuallity they were 4-wheelers with flashing lights on them painted the respected colors ( police- blue fire truck- red) and with a ton of equipment on the back. I guess you use whatever works and gets the job done, but it was the most interesting police and fire truck i'd ever seen and I would hope that they wouldn't have to take back any criminals in the back of the police car because there was absolutely no room... We sat outside in this little Brittish woman's bar and drank cokes for a while and then we hopped on the ferry and headed back to Hong Kong.
After a quick stop at the grocery store to pick up brownie mix (neccessity), cereal, gold fish crackers, bread , cheese, peanut butter, and orange juice we took a taxi back to our flat to hang out for the evening, make brownies and watch Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants. It was over all a very enjoyable day.
One thing that i'm continually amazed by is the mix here. The mix of people, mix of buisness, rainforest water undeveloped and overly developed land, mix of socioeconomic status. It's all this major mix and theres just no way to really figure it out as an outsider. hopefully with time that willl be something we can gain insight into.
This week we hope to have some sight visits to our schools which we've recently found out will be about an hour to and hour and a half away by bus each morning :) The site visits will depend on whether the government opens the schools up again and also if one of the schools decides they want us the run the English program there. We move into our Volunteer flat on Tuesday which is exciting it will be our permenant housing for the rest of our stay in Hong Kong and to top it off it is farther down the hill so biiig hills/sets of stairs we have to climb when heading home from anywhere. which is amazing! Wednesday Don comes which we're all excited about because we're hopeful he can give us some insight into what we must do while we're here and our program etc. It should be a busy week. As of right now though, it has been a very nice and leisurely morning:) The word leisurely and chill had sort of drained out of my vocabulary up until yesterday. Glad to see it could be reintroduced. Still sweating buckets but I think I'm adjusting to that a bit I don't know if i'm adjusting to the heat or to the amount i'm sweating.... Either way I hear it is quite warm in Michigan( this I heard when skyping with my housemates and then some friends who were over at the house which was super fun to talk to all of them!) they said they were all quite toasty at Franklin...which isn't uncommon in our airconditionless home in Michigan... Well Happy Monday, or Sunday depending on where you are...
Peace
Tina
After church we came headed back to our flat for some lunch and to change clothes and then around 12:00 we walked down the the MTR at Admiralty and took that to the ferry and then took the ferry to Llama Island ( I have no idea how to actually spell Llama island but I know that's how it sounds) Now the thing is there is no llama's at llama island, which is a bit disappointing, but it was still a fun afternoon none the less. we meandered through a bunch of little local shops and while on our way t owards the beach it started raining quite hard( not just a light dusting of rain but rather a fairly consistent shower) and who wants to sit in wet sand when it's raining... so we decided this would be a good opportunity to expand our pallet by enjoying some more Hong Kong food. We sat and shared several dishes and I gave one of Hong Kong's libations a try... verdicts still out on whether it tasted good or not either way it had a sweet bottle.... Anyways we had some pinapple and pork,( American name- Sweet and sour pork) some steamed buns( loosely translated as hunks of dough steamed dipped in condensed milk.) and then fried noodles and beef ( no easy translation for that it's exactly what it sounds)
After food we went to a place that over looked where the ferry comes in. While there a "police car" and "fire Truck" if you can call them that passed by in actuallity they were 4-wheelers with flashing lights on them painted the respected colors ( police- blue fire truck- red) and with a ton of equipment on the back. I guess you use whatever works and gets the job done, but it was the most interesting police and fire truck i'd ever seen and I would hope that they wouldn't have to take back any criminals in the back of the police car because there was absolutely no room... We sat outside in this little Brittish woman's bar and drank cokes for a while and then we hopped on the ferry and headed back to Hong Kong.
After a quick stop at the grocery store to pick up brownie mix (neccessity), cereal, gold fish crackers, bread , cheese, peanut butter, and orange juice we took a taxi back to our flat to hang out for the evening, make brownies and watch Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants. It was over all a very enjoyable day.
One thing that i'm continually amazed by is the mix here. The mix of people, mix of buisness, rainforest water undeveloped and overly developed land, mix of socioeconomic status. It's all this major mix and theres just no way to really figure it out as an outsider. hopefully with time that willl be something we can gain insight into.
This week we hope to have some sight visits to our schools which we've recently found out will be about an hour to and hour and a half away by bus each morning :) The site visits will depend on whether the government opens the schools up again and also if one of the schools decides they want us the run the English program there. We move into our Volunteer flat on Tuesday which is exciting it will be our permenant housing for the rest of our stay in Hong Kong and to top it off it is farther down the hill so biiig hills/sets of stairs we have to climb when heading home from anywhere. which is amazing! Wednesday Don comes which we're all excited about because we're hopeful he can give us some insight into what we must do while we're here and our program etc. It should be a busy week. As of right now though, it has been a very nice and leisurely morning:) The word leisurely and chill had sort of drained out of my vocabulary up until yesterday. Glad to see it could be reintroduced. Still sweating buckets but I think I'm adjusting to that a bit I don't know if i'm adjusting to the heat or to the amount i'm sweating.... Either way I hear it is quite warm in Michigan( this I heard when skyping with my housemates and then some friends who were over at the house which was super fun to talk to all of them!) they said they were all quite toasty at Franklin...which isn't uncommon in our airconditionless home in Michigan... Well Happy Monday, or Sunday depending on where you are...
Peace
Tina
Saturday, June 13, 2009
Stars and Sights....
I'm currently scanning the synonyms for the words hot and tired on Microsoft word and coming up empty handed for something that properly describes the extent to which i'm currently hot, sweaty, and tired... Today was quite the full day and still has more to come... I think I mentioned that Laura has a friend named Dianne that lives here in Hong Kong and she offered to show us some things in Hong Kong. So we all woke up fairly late this morning ( late for us right now is 7:30 because we've recently been waking up around 5:00) and had breakfast got ready and met Dianne at Olympic park in Hong Kong Park- about a 15 minute walk from our house- and we then walked to Admirality station where we met her friend Jeff. She invited Jeff because they're friends but also because she felt he spoke better English so incase she didn't know how to say something he could help translate etc. We all headed to dim sum which was verrry interesting.... Some of it waas really really good other things were not exactly up my alley. It's similar in concept to tapas in that it's small portions and you take a little bit of each etc. We had Jasmine tea and then another more bitter tea. I'm trying to think of all the things we had to eat. We had a pork bun with a more fluffy light dough around it, and then 2 shrimp things one with smaller bits of shrimp wrapped in dough and one with a whole shrimp wrapped in dough( those were not my favorites) We had a soup that was made out of some type of egg something with beef or pork one that tasted like an elephant ear, we had spring roles, and then we had some desserts including a mango pudding, sugar roles, and coconut cake as well. It was really all quite amazing... I'm so thankful they didn't make us try any of the pork knuckles or ox liver. While it looked appatizing it felt more appropriate for a more special occasion like... Chinese new year or something ( bummer that we won't be here for that)
After dim sum we took an hour long bus ride to stanley market. There were some great beaches that, but Stanley market's actual market is comprised of local people who set up shop for tourists and have a wide range of items from souvinere chopsticks and fans to knock off gucci bags... It's like being in new york.... a whole lotta stuff in a little space.
We wandered and chatted and sweated a lot. After a while we stopped at Starbucks- You can't escape starbucks.... At one point I thought it was a visa slogan that said " It's everywhere you want to be" turns out they stole it from starbucks.. Starbucks- It's everywhere you want to be- yes much more fitting
As we wandered out Jeff told us that the gentleman we passed while walking out was a Hong Kong Movie Star.... So i've seen American movie stars but really this is kind of the chron boo bon that now I can say i've seen a Hong Kong movie star... not many people can say that. After our star sighting we took a mini bus( which Jeff and Dianne told us you always take ones with green tops not red tops the ones with red tops are crazy drivers) to Causeway Bay which is a place with lots of shopping, lots of restaurants, and lots of people. We wandered around and finallly they decided they wanted to take us to have a few more authentic Hong Kong dishes so we went to what they described as the "IHOP" of Hong Kong. We tried what is litterally translated as a "pineapple role" but there is no pineapple in it it's like a role with butter in it and sweet flakey crust on the outside, one that is like bread dipped in egg similar to french toast but more egg flavored, and then finally a bun with condensed milk on it. All of which were dilicious. After that we headed back to the MTR station and took the MTR back toward Hong Kong Park and tonight we hope we still have the energy to take the tram to the peak. Today was a packed but really great day. We learned a lot about navigating the area and Hong Kong in general.
I realized I think I forgot a lot of stuff probably and as a side note my appologies for any spelling and/or grammer mistakes... I kind of just write things as they come through my brain for fear that i'll for get things and I don't think the spell check is on right now so chances are I've mispelled quite a few things so sorry and hopefully everyone can get past that :) Cheers
After dim sum we took an hour long bus ride to stanley market. There were some great beaches that, but Stanley market's actual market is comprised of local people who set up shop for tourists and have a wide range of items from souvinere chopsticks and fans to knock off gucci bags... It's like being in new york.... a whole lotta stuff in a little space.
We wandered and chatted and sweated a lot. After a while we stopped at Starbucks- You can't escape starbucks.... At one point I thought it was a visa slogan that said " It's everywhere you want to be" turns out they stole it from starbucks.. Starbucks- It's everywhere you want to be- yes much more fitting
As we wandered out Jeff told us that the gentleman we passed while walking out was a Hong Kong Movie Star.... So i've seen American movie stars but really this is kind of the chron boo bon that now I can say i've seen a Hong Kong movie star... not many people can say that. After our star sighting we took a mini bus( which Jeff and Dianne told us you always take ones with green tops not red tops the ones with red tops are crazy drivers) to Causeway Bay which is a place with lots of shopping, lots of restaurants, and lots of people. We wandered around and finallly they decided they wanted to take us to have a few more authentic Hong Kong dishes so we went to what they described as the "IHOP" of Hong Kong. We tried what is litterally translated as a "pineapple role" but there is no pineapple in it it's like a role with butter in it and sweet flakey crust on the outside, one that is like bread dipped in egg similar to french toast but more egg flavored, and then finally a bun with condensed milk on it. All of which were dilicious. After that we headed back to the MTR station and took the MTR back toward Hong Kong Park and tonight we hope we still have the energy to take the tram to the peak. Today was a packed but really great day. We learned a lot about navigating the area and Hong Kong in general.
I realized I think I forgot a lot of stuff probably and as a side note my appologies for any spelling and/or grammer mistakes... I kind of just write things as they come through my brain for fear that i'll for get things and I don't think the spell check is on right now so chances are I've mispelled quite a few things so sorry and hopefully everyone can get past that :) Cheers
Thursday, June 11, 2009
Hope you're watching the news....
I'm currently living in a level 6 world pandemic... or something in of the sorts. Currently in the news headlines will read that Asia is taking extreme measures to prevent the spread of the Swine flu, but indeed it is spreading, people area getting quarantined to hotel rooms, airplanes, schools, and now one of the schools we were supposed to run a camp at for 2 weeks is closed for 2 weeks by the government and then they will reevaluate. The 2 week closing will only affect one of the weeks of our camp, but still we were unaware of the severity of the situation. Siu Cho came and talked to us yesterday more about it and told us that because of the Sars out break everything is taken very seriously.... So if you see us in the news you'll know to be more concerned...
Anyways, yesterday we had our firstday of training which was fun and very exciting. Siu Cho came to our flat and we had the chance to as her a whole bunch of questions that we've developed both about our program, expectations, resources, etc. We literally have had no idea what kids English level is, background, or schooling is and so we're pretty much going into this blind and hoping we've put together good programs. After a day it's pretty easy to judge what kids are responsive to and what they aren't but I mean right off the bat it's pretty hard so right now we're trying to incorportate a lot of things and that way we can see what might work and what won't and then also we'll be able to evaluate then for future camps for our other 5 camps. Being able to talk to Siu Cho was a huge help. We found out we have a lot more resources than we expected which is such a great suprise. We spent a few hours working on what we need still for our camps and planning and then decided to do a bit more exploring.
We walked down into Central which is a very upscale and main area of Hong Kong. It is a hub with tonnnnns of shopping. We wandered around and people watched in a park for a while which was sooo great! I'm continually amazed at the number of seemingly permenant or semi permenant foreign residents there are here. It seems that many people who are non-asian are here on a perminant or semi perminant basis... Which I guess is for some reason to me very unexpected... After some wandering around including a trip into the coach store( mainly for my sister Kate and Jenny so I could report back to them) we headed for some what we thought was semi authentic food, turns out it was like what we think may have been comparable to the Hong Kong version of Waffle House..... It was interesting to say the least and a few of us left feeling less than pleasent... We intended to go see a movie, but the only movies showing were either in random language subtitles, which as appealing as that sounds we were much to tired to even attempt to try and follow a crazy plot( or make up our own plot if we couldn't actually follow it), and so we instead went to the harbor for a bit took some pictures and then tracked down a taxi for an adventureous ride back to our flat... After a few wild and somewhat dangerous games of egyptian rat screw we were all tired. All in alll a very eventful and fun day. Today we are heading to Stanley market which should be... memorable... We are taking one of our camp groups there for an outing day. Here you are encouraged to barter and they sell lots of random crap soo we will see. We are going out with Dianne who is one of Laura's friends who lives here. Also More pictures from yesterday :) at
http://tinawestra.shutterfly.com/
Happy Birthday Jules Steph and Kendall!! Wishing I could be there to celebrate with you all!!!
Tina
Wednesday, June 10, 2009
You want copy watch or copy bag?
Who needs an alarm clock when mother nature will more than happily wake you up at 6AM with Raucous storms.... They were phenomenal thunderstorms. We woke up yesterday and spent the morning getting ready having a leisurely breakfast and so on and then around 10 we headed out to catch the subway. We took the subway to the Salisbury YMCA to meet Professor Bays and his wife who both work at Calvin and were kind enough to offer to take us out for lunch. So went to the pound to pick out our lunch... juuuust kidding we actually went to the spaghetti house. A little Amerasian or maybe more Amitasian ( American Italian Asian) They served a little bit of everything but really a whole lot of seafood and a whole lot of Italian food. It was quite interesting.
We had lots of pleasant conversation and a very fun time and after a very nice lunch
Mrs. Bays walked us down to where the market was where we could do some shopping while Mr. Bays walked back to get their luggage. We walked around and the markets and stored for probably a good hour or hour and a half and it's amazing because you see everything from Gucci and Tiffany's to this little side alley's full of street vendors with tons of just stuff! And the funniest part was - which Mrs. Bays had warned us about- the people who come up to you and say" you want copy watch or copy bag" and they just get right up in your face and are extremely persistent... After an unsuccessful shopping trip ( it was more of a fact finding mission in the words of my mother) we decided to continue on and explore some more. We knew if we headed home we would all want to sleep and at this point we're still all adjusting to the time so sleeping at 2:00 in the afternoon likely won't help that too much...
We walked down to the Avenue of the stars which is like Hollywood Blvd. but in Hong Kong. It has starts like Jackie Chan and Bruce Lee and stuff like that it's quite fun, so we wandered around there and took lots of pictures like tourists and of course we took some jumping pictures. I mean as if we weren't literally standing out above the crowd enough we decided it would be fun to jump.. It was fun. After we'd exhausted the Avenue of the Stars we took the ferry across to Central which is the area where our flat is. After a bit of searching and the successful purchase of a very strange umbrella in the process we ended up at the revolving restaurant which literally did revolve it was up on the highest level it was amazing you could see the harbor, the peak, tons of buildings and in general just survey the city. We sat and enjoyed a cool libation. It was quite enjoyable. We hiked it back up the mountain to our casa and after some hanging out decided to watch a movie which I proceeded to fall asleep during the first 5 minutes...None less it was a great day I'll add some pictures from today and a few from yesterday as well.
Also as I mentioned previously illness is taken very seriously here more specically the swine flu, and because of that our first week of camp was canceled beacuse of a swine flu case in the school. The goverment closed the school for 2 weeks so we will still run a school but it will likely be for a smaller group and we are not praying that we are all healthy. Also that this doesn't happen in any of our other school. The 2 weeks is conditional. The goverment could decide not to reopen the school in 2 weeks in which case we wouldn't even get to run the camp there which would be a major disappointment. Your prayers for health for us and within the schools would be appreciated. Thanks! missing you all a lot! Love
To see pictures visit http://tinawestra.shutterfly.com/
Tina
We had lots of pleasant conversation and a very fun time and after a very nice lunch
Mrs. Bays walked us down to where the market was where we could do some shopping while Mr. Bays walked back to get their luggage. We walked around and the markets and stored for probably a good hour or hour and a half and it's amazing because you see everything from Gucci and Tiffany's to this little side alley's full of street vendors with tons of just stuff! And the funniest part was - which Mrs. Bays had warned us about- the people who come up to you and say" you want copy watch or copy bag" and they just get right up in your face and are extremely persistent... After an unsuccessful shopping trip ( it was more of a fact finding mission in the words of my mother) we decided to continue on and explore some more. We knew if we headed home we would all want to sleep and at this point we're still all adjusting to the time so sleeping at 2:00 in the afternoon likely won't help that too much...
We walked down to the Avenue of the stars which is like Hollywood Blvd. but in Hong Kong. It has starts like Jackie Chan and Bruce Lee and stuff like that it's quite fun, so we wandered around there and took lots of pictures like tourists and of course we took some jumping pictures. I mean as if we weren't literally standing out above the crowd enough we decided it would be fun to jump.. It was fun. After we'd exhausted the Avenue of the Stars we took the ferry across to Central which is the area where our flat is. After a bit of searching and the successful purchase of a very strange umbrella in the process we ended up at the revolving restaurant which literally did revolve it was up on the highest level it was amazing you could see the harbor, the peak, tons of buildings and in general just survey the city. We sat and enjoyed a cool libation. It was quite enjoyable. We hiked it back up the mountain to our casa and after some hanging out decided to watch a movie which I proceeded to fall asleep during the first 5 minutes...None less it was a great day I'll add some pictures from today and a few from yesterday as well.
Also as I mentioned previously illness is taken very seriously here more specically the swine flu, and because of that our first week of camp was canceled beacuse of a swine flu case in the school. The goverment closed the school for 2 weeks so we will still run a school but it will likely be for a smaller group and we are not praying that we are all healthy. Also that this doesn't happen in any of our other school. The 2 weeks is conditional. The goverment could decide not to reopen the school in 2 weeks in which case we wouldn't even get to run the camp there which would be a major disappointment. Your prayers for health for us and within the schools would be appreciated. Thanks! missing you all a lot! Love
To see pictures visit http://tinawestra.shutterfly.com/
Tina
Lessons from the Konger...
Well after only a day I've learned quite a bit in the Konger....
1. Coughing here is a very serious offense. One who coughs must wear a surgical mask....
-never joke about any sickness or pigs. AkA Swine...
2. American Money is like toilet paper compared to Hong Kong Money...
- May it be clean or dirty toilet paper it is simply boring and not pleasant to look at( just like american money) where as the HK Dollar is quite pleasing to the eye...
3. When all else fails nod and smile- When at the bank and faced with a question in broken English- nod and smile, when at the supermarket trying to decide what food to buy- nod and smile, when the street vendor asks if you'd like chicken or cat meat- nod and smile( that was a joke I haven't had to deal with that yet)
That was only in like a day! imagine what 2 months will bring...
I'd like to personally thank Melanie for allowing me to bring the book "stuff white people like" it's currently giving me a good hardy laugh.
1. Coughing here is a very serious offense. One who coughs must wear a surgical mask....
-never joke about any sickness or pigs. AkA Swine...
2. American Money is like toilet paper compared to Hong Kong Money...
- May it be clean or dirty toilet paper it is simply boring and not pleasant to look at( just like american money) where as the HK Dollar is quite pleasing to the eye...
3. When all else fails nod and smile- When at the bank and faced with a question in broken English- nod and smile, when at the supermarket trying to decide what food to buy- nod and smile, when the street vendor asks if you'd like chicken or cat meat- nod and smile( that was a joke I haven't had to deal with that yet)
That was only in like a day! imagine what 2 months will bring...
I'd like to personally thank Melanie for allowing me to bring the book "stuff white people like" it's currently giving me a good hardy laugh.
Tuesday, June 9, 2009
If I'm missing my posterior it's because I sweat it off...
Because Wenda Isn't coming to pick us up until 1:30 we had some time so we decided to go exploring... Because we're living on the peak we started walking down and walked down about a hundred stairs along song roads through some rain forests that over look some cities ( it's all quite bazaar actually) and finally into Hong Kong Park which has gorgeous water falls, flower gardens, bird aviaries, etc. It is a beautiful park. We spent about an hour and a half wondering around there mean while I think I seriously lost about 5 pounds via sweating.. It feels like it's 90 degrees outside and it is deathly humid out... That aside it was lovely to see the city... we looked very American and touresty with our cameras and snapping pictures like what finally when we had all thoroughly saturated our shirts with sweat and were parched beyond beliefe we found a store to buy water and then ventured back up the hundred stairs and big hills back to home sweet home... when i'm not so sweaty and tired i'll put up pictures from the park and stuff....hopefully Michigan isn't this unbareably humid... I think with time we'll adjust to the time and the weather. Love
Bright Lights...
Well after about 16.5 hours on a plane, 3 movies( technically 4 because we watched the pink panther twice), and a 25 minute van ride we finally made it to our Mother's Choice Guest Flat. Wenda and Philip greeted us at the air port and took us on an exciting drive back to Mother's Choice. I say it was exciting because they drive on the other side of the road here so every corner was a bit of an adventure where we sort of thought maybe we were going to die..For one week we live on the 2nd floor of a building that's way up on a hill it's gorgeous. Through the trees we can see the city it's amazing! Sleeping is a bit of a challenge with the time change and everything, but i'm sure with time I'll adjust to that.
Wenda( who is our contact person at Mother's choice) is so precious... she's at least a full foot shorter than me( which is saying something seeing as back home I'm generally a smaller to medium height) One of the first things she said before we walked out side was ok ready? and I didn't really think anything of it, but then the instant we walked outside we understood what she meant.... Although the temp. was only around 77 degrees ( I think that's what it is - they said it in Celsius so that was what my calculation came out to in farenheit) which is cooler than normal due to rain , It was freakin hot outside!! I mean we're talking every inch of you starts to sweat the instant you step out of the air conditioning and into the heat! But I guess i'll get used to that pretty quickly too. Right now we're in the mother's choice guest housing where families who are adopting stay and then next week we move to the volunteer housing. THis is so that if we have the swine flu we don't give it to any of the other volunteers right now.... And yes if you were wondering it's just as the pictures on the news show... People really do walk around with those surgical masks on ALL the time! it's semi rediculous and I don't really get it but whatever! ANyway It's a new day and I think i'm going to try to get another hour of sleep and then sit on the front porch for a bit.... Hope Home is good. Love and miss you all!
Tina
The above picture is of a box of tissues- in english and chinese, and a can of coke also in English and Chinese, our living room and finally Maggie and I's room. Laura and Lisa's room is up stairs... I figured considiring the number of times I have to go to the bathroom having a room upstairs wouldn't be logical... thus the room downstairs...
Also, This morning we discovered a pet.. Maggie went outside to check the weather and survey the city in the daylight and in came a small lizard... Then when we tried to find it and send it back outside... it went missing, so now somewhere in our house is a small lizard. It's a little Nast...
Thursday, June 4, 2009
The final Countdown...
According to my "igoogle countdown" I have approximately 3 days 9 hours 7 minutes and 53 seconds until departure on the adventure of a life time, and that time is rapidly decreasing.... I was on the phone with my Sister In Law tonight telling her that I was a bit nervous about heading halfway across the world to Hong Kong for 2 months, and that in a sense i'd rather just go now. Her response was that it would be better if rather than having this anticipation and waiting time you could just be ready and then not know when you were going to leave, but rather just know that at some point you were going to have to go.
She was so right! This whole anticipation, saying good bye, worrying I forgot something, packing, repacking, lists upon lists upon lists of things to do, things to buy, things to pack, etc. It's just so complicated, and so really when it comes down to it i'd rather just not know when I have to leave just know that I'll be going sometime within the week.
I"m so excited to go I'd just like to go now! I'm excited for some serious people watching ( airports are prime people watching places) I'm excited for a new culture, new experiences, and new adventures. I'm excited to use chop sticks ( although admittely I still at times stab my food with the chop sticks rather than actually use them to pick up the food....)
So, In just 3 days 8 hours 31 minutes and 43 seconds ( I got fairly distracted while writing this so it took me a while) I will be on my way to an adventure of a life time in Hong Kong!
She was so right! This whole anticipation, saying good bye, worrying I forgot something, packing, repacking, lists upon lists upon lists of things to do, things to buy, things to pack, etc. It's just so complicated, and so really when it comes down to it i'd rather just not know when I have to leave just know that I'll be going sometime within the week.
I"m so excited to go I'd just like to go now! I'm excited for some serious people watching ( airports are prime people watching places) I'm excited for a new culture, new experiences, and new adventures. I'm excited to use chop sticks ( although admittely I still at times stab my food with the chop sticks rather than actually use them to pick up the food....)
So, In just 3 days 8 hours 31 minutes and 43 seconds ( I got fairly distracted while writing this so it took me a while) I will be on my way to an adventure of a life time in Hong Kong!
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