Hong Kong pt I

Well, I've been in Hong Kong for over a week now and since I have internet access I suppose that I can put up an update for my adoring fans. Let me just give the highlights.

Things have been great. I arrived sometime in the night of the third and Camber, having arrived only hours before, waited for me and welcomed me as I made my way through customs. It was late so the city was mostly dead. I was starving and had to settle for tuna salad sammiches from the local 7-11. These convenience stores are literally everywhere around HK. They're like Starbucks in that you can find two separate stores in extremely close proximity.

Eventually, I got to have a steak dinner. I decided to play it safe and go with it done medium rather than slightly warmed. I was not that sure how my stomach would take it. Just fine apparently.

One of our first big trips was to the peak, the highest point in Hong Kong. We took a tram up and took lots of pictures. We also perched on a bench and played our favourite game, "Guess where the white people are from." The Americans and Canadians tend to stand out. It's when you get into some of the European groups that things get hairy (sometimes literally?).

We climbed on top of this thing to get all of the good views below. Camber says it's shaped like a rice bowl. I think it looks like a watermelon.

Olde friends reunited. Camber's trying to be sexy or something. I'm just being a jackass. I guess you're right Mike, we are too much alike. There'll never be a good picture of me either.

The harbour.

This is the tallest building in Hong Kong. I forget its name but I went there one night to meet some French bankers and drink beer.

Taken on the hike down from the peak.

We also went to the science museum and spent the day playing with mirrors and testing feats of strength. I was also quite excited to find that Camber's office is right by the headquarters for the Hong Kong Scouts. We went there after lunch with her coworkers (conveniently in the same building) and checked out their mini museum. I even picked up a few badges for pops and myself.

B.P. International. The headquarters for the Hong Kong Scouts. Part hotel, part scouting headquarters, part dim sum restaurant, part museum.

We stopped by McDonald's to pick up some greasy cheeseburgers.

Mmmm... two all beef patties, two slices of pasteurized, processed cheese product. I missed beef a lot. Maybe even more than those two little nieces of mine.

This past weekend we went to the island of Macau. From what I understand, it is in the same sort of place as Hong Kong. It is a sovereign island looked over by the Chinese government. It used to be a Portuguese colony until a few years ago. We met up with some of Camber's coworkers and pretty much ate our way across the island. I never expected a bunch of tiny little Chinese girls to eat so much.

The facade of the Church of St Paul is the only part remaining of this old church built by Japanese refugees. Apparently, it was the also the image used on the world's first postcard.

The Igreja de Sao Domingos. We seem to be stopping at a lot of churches in the area.

Signs of the Chinese New Year are abundant.

Pasta is common in structures around Hong Kong.

Camber hamming it up in front of the pasta Leaning Tower of Pisa.

Egg tarts. They're a lot like peach pie minus the peaches. Also a specialty of Macau.

Merchants also hound you in the streets with this stuff, the finest thing the Lord God Almighty ever gave to man, jerky. They carry these huge strips around and cut off free samples to entice you into stopping by there shop. To quote my students, "It was damn good man. Damn Good." Sweet, sweet ambrosia.

Macau Tower, the highest point from which you can bungee jump... IN THE WORLD ... made out of LEGOS.

And concrete.

On Monday, Camber and I met up with some friends of hers to go on a hike. We had Karen, Dora, and four from China: Jonathan, Isabella, Kat, and Jill. We hiked a little north of the city around these trenches that were used by the British during the Japanese occupation in the 40s. From what we were told, they smuggled gin.

An overgrown airshaft. There were lots of signs around saying to beware of desolate trenches. I'd be kind of weary about putzing around with these huge holes all over the place.

It was good to see they kept their sense of humour. This tunnel was named, 'Shaftesbury Avenue.'

Lots of exploring was done. A lot of it bent over and smacking our heads on the ceiling.

The hikers.

That's it for now. I also went to one of Camber's shows and saw 'Oops I Killed a Penguin' and 'I'm Shakespeare... Get Me Out of Here.' I'll dedicate an entire post to reviewing them. Anywho, we're off for sushi. I'll take pictures.

Reflections

So, it's been five months since I came to India. Perhaps now is a time to step back and take a look at all that has gone on.

I have been teaching since August. A lot of it was pretty tough and kinda rough around the edges. I'm still a learner here and at times it really shows.

Do I like it here? Of course. I get three square meals a day, an ayah to come and cook/clean/do my laundry, coolies to deliver my supplies to me. It's a relatively quiet life up here and it's very nice to be free of things like an auto, rent, mobile phones, and any other numerous things that are required for living back home. At the same time, however, living in Woodstock is very quiet. Everything dies around 9 or 10 in the evening so you have to make your own fun. That's not necessarily a bad thing but if I stayed up here I think I'd need a new liver in a few years. Then there's the fact that I really feel like I have to tiptoe around this place. Living in such a small community, I feel you have to be careful of what you say and to whom you say it. You also have to be careful of what you do. Word travels fast on the hillside and sometimes staff can be worse about rumors than the kids. I guess we all need our soap operas.

So, how is teaching? I don't know exactly for sure right now. It can be great and rewarding but at the same time it can be too much. I work so hard to get a lab written and set up and it all just blows up in my face (not quite literally, knock on wood). At the beginning of the year it was really nice to have the kids thank me after the lessons. It just felt really good and I was really excited. Now, I feel like we're just going through the motions, both them and me. Don't get me wrong, I love the kids here. Well, most of them. The grade twelves have been pushing my buttons a lot this semester but the grade tens have been overall amazing kids. Anywho, I really do enjoy being with the kids here and have a lot of fun hanging out with them in and out of class. It's been a lot of long days. I get to school around eight and teach until 3.30. Then I stay and prep or grade or reteach kids until 6. I go down to have dinner in the cafeteria and head home finally around 7. I'll relax for maybe an hour and prep some more until usually 10 or 11. Then it's off to bed to start over. It's been quite taxing and I'm hoping to not go through that next semester. Well, not as much anyway.

It's always been the plan that once my contract is up I will go on to grad school. I'm not sure exactly where or what to study yet though. Could be chemistry, teaching, administration (probably not), or I might even look back into engineering. It just all depends on how this next year and a half go. I really do miss working in a lab. Heck, I was all excited when our lab tech went to a wedding b/c I had a lab and had to make up some extra solution. It was just a simple dilution but it was really nice to do. I have been looking into grad schools already. Just a preliminary sort of thing to see what all I would have to do to apply and in the program itself. So far, I've only looked at schools that offer a program in chemistry or engineering (either chemical or biomedical). I'm not going to go into details, but that first year of college that I spent up at da tech was stressful. Not because of the material but because of everything else. I think that if I were to go back in to engineering I would be more focused now and able to pull through with it. I've narrowed things down to six universities mostly in Illinois or Michigan but there are a few elsewhere (and I haven't even begun to look abroad). Nothing is official right now and I'm still just looking. I have about another year before I need to start applying so things may swing and I'll go for something in education. We'll see.

I am really enjoying the people I meet around here. There is just such diversity in the staff. You have Indian nationals, Americans, French, Canadians, Brits, and a few others all working together and somehow making it flow. Everyone brings something and I think I've really learned a lot from so many people with so many different views. I've made a lot of good friends too. The only problem is that there is such a huge turnover around this place that more often than not, they'll be gone in a year or two. Two of my best buds this semester were volunteers and as of today (24.12) they're both gone. One was a seventy-five year old counselor whom I had dinner with just about every night. The other was a twenty-two year old ICT guy that I hung out with a lot. A few others that I've felt relatively close to will be leaving at the end of the year. Luckily, there are a few really cool people that will be sticking around.

So, there we have it. I'm enjoying myself here in the mountains. I may not know exactly where I'll be in a few years but I'm enjoying figuring it out.

Hong Kong pt 0

Just letting you all know that I am still alive. I've been in Hong Kong for just over a week now and am thoroughly enjoying my stay with miss Carpenter. I won't say much now because I'm planning on a post with pictures and whatnot. That, and I need to get up early in order to go for a hike tomorrow. Let's just say that I've seen a lot, my passport has a helluva lot more stamps in it, and I've eaten a lot of really good food (read: beef). With that, let me leave you with a little haiku:

Double Cheeseburger,
Ground muscle and cartilage,
How I have missed thee.

If I can get my butt in gear you can expect an update or two on Tuesday.

I can't get behind any of that!

From my new favourite album "Has Been" by the one, the only, William Shatner.

Christmas

Now that's more like a Christmas tree Charlie Brown.

Christmas up in the hills has come and gone. The weather has been incredibly warm during the day and insufferably cold during the nights. I've been out in tshirts most days and have to bundle up with a fleece, scarf, and hat whilst I light my bukari during the nighttime hours.

To be honest, the holidays just haven't been the same for me for a while now. Christmas is a great time to be a kid when you get all of those toys and games and you can sit around the tree admiring your loot. Once I stopped getting the toys I think that Christmas just sort of lost the luster it once had. Things were only made less lustrous when mom died with Christmas being her favourite holiday and all. That being said, in recent years I've really tried to just treat it as any other day. Of course, being in India and away from family, it was still difficult to treat it as such.

I was fortunate enough to be invited by one of the families still on the hillside over to their house on Christmas Eve. We sat around talking and drinking mulled wine. One of their visitors plays accordion semi-professionally, so I chatted with him a bit and promised to bring the accordion to the festivities the next day. That night, two English teachers and myself went to the local Catholic church for Midnight Mass. I primarily went out of tradition and was expecting all of these familiar carols and the typical stuff like that. However, I stepped into the church and literally felt like I had entered a chapel in Las Vegas. There were blinking lights and gaudy decorations all over the place. Also, I did not realize that the service (and most of the carols) would be in Hindi. I was able to follow along via the motions and everything but I had no idea what the sermon was about. It was nice to go and see how a mass is done in India and now at the very least I can say I've gone to a Hindi Midnight Mass.

I didn't bother getting up early the next day since nothing was going on until after 12. Since so many of us were still on the hillside during Christmas we decided to have a progressive dinner. I had done this once before in high school and I was looking forward to it. We started off down at the bottom of the hill at my head of department's home. It was just snacks. Crackers, cheese, etc. We then headed up the hill past my place and up to the home of one of the social studies teachers. We had soup there. I had been craving chili for a while now and when I heard they had some there I immediately jumped on it. The next stop was down to one of the math teacher's place for the main course. We had ham, sweet potatoes, corn and peas. It was prepared nicely and tasted great. From there we climbed up the hill to one of the counselor's homes to have some dessert. It was here that we busted out the guitars and accordion and sang some carols. Afterwards a few of us made it to the end. The last stop was just coffee and light snacks to round out the evening. We were going to watch a movie but got into just talking instead. We had a young couple here that eloped over the break so we toasted to them and wished them all the best. Afterwards, we all parted ways I lit my bukari and put on some Bing. Overall, it was a good day and I was glad I was able to spend it with so many people.

Here's some photos I took. I'm not the best about taking pictures (I usually forget I even have the camera.) but I tried.

The accordion was a big hit (duh); everyone wanted to give it a go.

Chatting it up with the newlyweds.

Carols. Notice the accordion. Notice it's not me playing it. I've only recently gotten a chance to play with it and I still am not comfortable at all with my left hand.

Singing.

A few views of the mountains from the top of the hill.

Seeing these always reminds me of Eurythmics.

Apparently, this house is for sale. For a pretty penny too.

This would be your view.

Louis

I had to share this video. Chris Cooke, our head of highschool showed it at the last school assembly of the semester before the kids left. There were lots of teary goodbyes and what not. I must admit, I was kinda miffed. I had planned on using the song as one of my devotions for next semester.



The semester is officially over and people are scattering from the hillside. I'm still figuring out just what exactly I will be doing. I'll let you know when I do. Expect some updates in the next few days. I have to cover activity week and I was going to recap my first six(ish) months in India.

Update

So it's been a little over a week. Neglect, I know, but technically, I'm still doing better than Becky. (There are too many commas in that last sentence. Meh...) Having Matt post on her blog does not count. Here's a few to throw back as an update.

I'm not sure if that even means anything.

Anywho,

The first semester is officially over. The kids have left. Well, most. Not the day scholars and the Koreans, Bhutanese, and a few others are still around until tomorrow. I only had a few setbacks with grading but everything got done and on time.

I got my accordion straps today. They were made by one of the local cobblers. They're adjustable and seem to be pretty strong. I'm pleased as punch that I am actually able to play the accordion now. We'll see about a performance.

I went down to Dehra Dun today with Maureen and Jane, two of our 'more aged' staff members. I wasn't looking for anything in particular but if I was able to find something to get for Christmas gifts I'd pick it up.

All I got was this damn tree.


It cost me Rs.100 or about $2. It's very Charlie Brown-esque. That's why I just had to have it. I saw it there, small, lonely, and I could just envision placing one red ball ornament on it and it would sag right over. That tree needed me.

I should start working on xmas presents in the next day or two. No promises, but I may document the process. I've chosen to be somewhat ambitious this year. Now, I've made lobsters before so I'll let you guess how ambitious I am. It promises to be frustrating.

I'm not sure, but I could be rambling. Probably has something to do with the amount of sleep I've had recently. I haven't slept a full night in about a week. Woke up at 3 this morning. Gotta love it.