Busy, busy

I've had some more feedback from my parent's observations. (Still confused about the apostrophe! My english teachers didn't do a very good job, obviously.) There were comments about my voice being too quiet and discipline and one parent "suggested" that I should clip my fringe back because it looks scruffy! The first 2 were fair enough, I would agree when they said that discipline isn't my strong point, but that last one is just personal. Hmph.

Patrick came and watched me do a lesson last Monday and he didn't really give me feedback but I don't think he disliked it. I had to teach the children about Aunties, Uncles and Cousins. That's not easy when the kids don't really understand words like "your", "have", "the","is", "a"- the filler words. I tried to describe them as simply as possible and then got the teacher to translate to chinese. There's no way they would have understood without the teacher to do that. I also did "U" words that week which was fun- uncle, umbrella, up and under. For "up" I got them to jump and shout "up!", and for "under" I crawled under my chair, and then got the kids to do the same. They found it really funny! I'm running out of songs to do with them, I kee doing the same ones over and over and it's getting boring. Any ideas? I need more ideas for nursery kids too. They are really adorable but it is so hard to keep their attention.

On Sunday Jo and me went to Disney. Everyone kept telling us how rubbish it was so we weren't expecting much but considering it was so small, and there weren't many rides we still had a really good time! We saw the Lion King Show which was brilliant- even Jo liked it and she's seen the proper stage version. We also saw a 3D film called Mickey's Philaharmagic Orchestra. We queued up to get our picture taken with Mickey, Minnie and Winnie the Pooh. Oh and of course we watched the "Let It Snow" Christmas Parade which was really fun. I'll put films up later. We had a really good view, right at the side of the road they go down. After the parade we stayed for the switching on of the castle lights. Had to wait for about 45 mins but it went quite quick. We were practicing our cantonese numbers and this young couple were helping us, they taught us how to say happy christmas and happy birthday- "Sin dan fai lop" and "san yat fai lop". The light show was really good too- it's done to music and there's fireworks and lasers. I'll finish uploading the pictures tonight. I took over 200!

Last night we went out for a meal with Mandy and Bessa, Jo's colleagues. We ate at Chilli 'n' Spice at the Gold Coast shopping centre. The food was very tasty and not really expensive at all. I have pictures of that too I'll upload. It was really nice getting to meet some of the people Jo works with, and Bessa has invited us to go round for a roast dinner one day.

On Friday we might be going to a house party of one of the girls from 180. All depends on how we feel on the day. I'm so tired atm, just gotten back from town. I had to buy a coat because it's so cold today! I'm sitting here with the heater on full...BBrrrrr

Wow

Disney was great!

True Love

Wedding Meal

On Tuesday we were invited to a friend of a friend of Eben's Principal's wedding party. It wasn't so much a party as a throw-together meal. As you can see in the picture below, we had "Poon Choi." It is a big pot with veg, fish, shrimp, chicken, pork, mushrooms and octopus. It was quite yummy- apart from the octopus.

There were loads of tables full of people just coming and going, having a good time, but no sign of a newly-married couple.

Here's a few more pics of the evening:

Matt looks so funny with that hat on!

In other news: Joel should have landed back in the UK now. His Grandad died last week so he's gone to be with his family. That means 10 whole days without seeing each other. I'm missing him already :(

Here's a few more pics of the Retreat

And here's a video of one of the girls shooting skittles out of her nostril

Retreat

The 180 Retreat. One word: awesome! We made our way to Wu Kwai Sha in the evening and went straight into some worship time. It was really nice being outdoors with everyone singing and clapping. Afterwards we went to our dorms and got to know everyone. I was sharing with Karen, Jess, Suki, Jennifer and Cora. They were all really nice and, apart from Suki, were all Canadian-Chinese. I think we ended up playing Uno and cards before bed too.

The next day we started with breakfast and then some quiet time, where we got to find a nice spot to sit and spend time reflecting or praying or whatever. We then all came together for some group activities including:

Skittle shooting:

Pegging:

Egging:

and Balloon blowing:

After lunch was worship time. Derek Ma, the Pastor, gave a short talk and we sang a load of songs. In the afternoon we played a LOT of dodgeball. We played for nearly 3 hours and I was so good haha! There were loads of times where it was just me left against the other team. I even won it for us a few times- yay! When we started playing it was really, really hot but when we finished it was dark and the mozzies had come out.

For dinner we had to BBQ our own food. We all had so much fun doing that! I think Jo should have won something for the amount of food she set on fire ha. We had sausages, chicken wings, steak, pork chops, fish balls and S'mores. They were the best S'mores ever! We had choccy digestives and extra chocolate as well as the marshmallows. Mmmmmm!

It took us forever to cook everything so while we ate we played games like Charades. We then split into teams again and played Sardines in the dark. Ricky, our team leader, went and hid and we had to go and find him, and then we were meant to hide with him. We never found him. I think we all gave up in the end until he came out hehe. By then it was bed time so everyone headed back to the 3 story "Bungalows". Instead of going to bed a group of about 15 stayed up playing Uno until...err...5am. Every hour someone would ask the time and then we'd say "Just one more game..." It was such a laugh though, and there were so many people that you'd have 6 people shouting "CUT!" all at once. Oh and if people were cutting with the +4 cards someone would end up picking up 24 cards. That someone was me. I did manage to win a few games though!

I don't think anyone got much sleep that night, especially anyone trying to sleep in our room haha. Sunday was quieter- with breakfast, morning exercise, quiet time, lunch and time to pack. We squeezed in a few group shots, then it was on the coach and back to Central. Whew, what a weekend!

Praying

It doesn't have to be

the blue iris, it could be

weeds in a vacant lot, or a few

small stones; just

pay attention, then patch

a few words together and don't try

to make them elaborate, this isn't

a contest but the doorway

into thanks, and a silence in which

another voice may speak.

Mary Oliver

Zzzz

I'm back from the 180 Retreat! Go see the pics on Flickr!

P for Parents Observations

W for Where-does-the-apostrophe-go? Parent's? Good job I'm not teaching high school English! This week is indeed the week when the parents come in to school and watch you perform a lesson. Nerve-wracking doesn't quite describe it. I'm still shaking. They have blue Forms Of Death where they write down exactly what they think of the lessons. I only had one lesson observed yesterday- which I thought went well- the children all understood and joined in. However, according to the parents, that wasn't the case. So this morning Cat greeted me with "We need to change your lesson." My lesson yesterday consisted of me revising the family (again), and then playing a game where they pull a card out of a bag and it has a word or picture on. They then match the word or picture to the right letter. Today instead of cards I used props like a toy dog, a balloon, a box with dolls in. So hopefully the parents will have enjoyed that lesson better than yesterday's. After Cat had basically told me my lesson was rubbish, Ms. Man was really encouraging and said she thought my lesson was fine. She said she gets annoyed because no one tells you if you're doing something wrong, and if they do they leave it until the last minute like when you have a parent's observation. There is a lack of communication. I'm not saying Cat didn't have a point, in some ways she did, but she could have told me before this morning. Anyway, with any luck, they won't be able to criticize this lesson as much.

New name

Serena, the woman who is helping me do the high school Bible study, gave me a Chinese name today! It is Heung Jan Nei. Heung for the first syllable of Hebblewhite, and Jan Nei for Jen-ny. Cool, eh?! I love it!

Buddha

So this is the Buddha. It is pretty big. It's on Lantau Island so we caught a ferry from Tuen Mun and then caught a bus to Ngong Ping. The bus journey is a little bumpy and so sloooow. Most of the way there is only one lane for traffic, so we were constantly stopping. When we eventually got there (an hour later) we headed straight for the monastery. As you can see above there are a lot of steps up to the Buddha. While we were at the bottom this Chinese man starts jabbering at me and Jo in Chinese. He thrusts his camera at Jo and grabs my hand. I was err...slightly startled to say the least. Then he gives the camera to me and goes and stands next to Jo. Instead of holding Jo's hand he leans his head in towards her, resting on her shoulder. Haha- served Jo right for laughing at me :p So now some random Chinese guy has pictures of us! We made the climb to the top whilst trying to get as many pictures as we could. It was such a nice day but because it was late afternoon the Sun was behind the Buddha meaning we couldn't really get any clear pictures of it. Most of mine look like silhouettes.

The view from the top is spectacular:

There are cablecars from Tung Chung (the town where the Ferry docks) but they've been closed for quite a few months. There was quite a bit of trouble with them apparently but it would have been great to be able to get to Ngong Ping on them- the views really are amazing!

I don't really know what to tell you about the Buddha. It's big and it's bronze. It sits on top of a building that is filled with offerings. On the walls there are memorial tiles. There are a few gift shops inside too selling little Buddha statues, gem bracelets, keyrings and postcards. There's a part which you have to pay to get in so I don't know what is in there. Maybe if I were Buddhist I'd be slightly more interested in it.

In Tung Chung there is a nice shopping mall with a cinema, restaurants and loads of outlet shops. There's a hotel too which probably has very nice views. I think it is the main town centre. Yesterday we went to the big Taste supermarket they have there. Taste is a shop which imports a load of stuff so we bought Marmite, Walkers crisps, Bisto gravy and cheese. Cheese is so expensive! Some of it was $100/lb. We bought a small block of New Zealand cheddar which is OK I guess...I miss good British mature chedder though. How about for Christmas someone?! We used some of the cheese today, along with the gravy, for our cheesy mash and veg dinner. Ultimate student meal haha!

One more week until the 180 retreat! I'm just a little bit excited hehe. I hope this week goes quicker.

Day 77

Yesterday was fun! Despite being bogged down with a cold. The school did a trip to Tai Po, to one of the nature parks, for a family picnic day. It was a really good opportunity to meet the parents- and endear myself to them before the parents observation next week heehee. They put on lots of activities for the children like bread making, face painting, balloon animals, and puppet making. I took a video of a group throwing a monkey around:

I did spend a lot of the time being bored, because there's only so much I can talk to the children about in their limited English. I talked to a lot of the parents though, and I had lunch with the other teachers. They kept offering me food and I felt really bad for not eating much but I had no appetite at all. Here's a picture of me with a girl called Ingrid and her mother. She's got really good English and she's pleasant as long as she's getting her own way.

The other picture is of a girl called Olive, who kept running up to me and showing me her balloon dog then running away again but forgetting to take her dog with her. Then she'd climb to the top of the climbing frame, jump down and run back to me and jabber away in Cantonese. Her helper looked like she was having a nightmare trying to keep up with her! I did find that strange- a lot of families here have Filippino helpers who look after the kids, cook and clean- and they brought them with them to the picnic. I suppose they are part of the family though.

We got back from Tai Po around 3:30pm and I was absolutely shattered and looking forward to a lie down, when I was told that we had to have a meeting about the trip. Grrrr! The meetings are always in Cantonese so I'm not going to have a clue. (un)Fortunately for me I had Cat interpret for me so I couldn't have a sneaky nap at the back. I eventually left about 4:45pm.

On the way home I popped into the dentist. Thought I'd have to make an appointment for next week but I got one straight away! Turns out I do have an abcess on my wisdom tooth. The dentist cleaned it or something and has give me antibiotics. He was a really nice dentist, really gentle and explained everything to me. If they abcess keeps reacurring I'm going to have it removed which will cost me $1600 (£100). That's nearly half a months wages! Luckily that time it only cost me $200.

I was going to tell you all about today but I'm far too tired. I'll do it tomorrow. We're planning on giving the apartment a really, really good clean. The bathroom is disgusting- as is the kitchen. It's not wonder we're getting cockroaches really when the washing up gets left for days. Good night!

Lantau

Today we made a trip to Lantau and, as you can see, went to the Po Lin Monastery to see the Tian Tan Buddha. Was good. There's lots of pictures up at my Flickr account. Go see!

Hee Hee

Jo is being made to wear a SARS mask! Don't worry- it's only a cold. We like to share our illnesses, me and Jo. Luckily for her she's got another day off school. Get well soon, Jo!

Poorly

I have a cold. Ugh.

Food, School and Shopping

I did my first full Friday and my gosh it was booorriing. Even after being given 2 lessons to do. Luckily I had a nice meal with Joel to look forward to! He took me to New York's for dinner and we had the best steak ever there. And cheesy potato skins. And chocolate brownie for pudding. Mmmmmm. I love going to New York's cause the owner Randy is pretty cool. He knows Angus from when he was there as a gap student and so now he knows all of us through him. He'll have a laugh with us and do us any drink we want.

Saturday me and Joel went shopping in Mong Kok. I told you basically what happened the other day- we browsed the markets and then went to a few shopping centers. I bought Jo's birthday present, and a few Christmas gifts for people. We went to the cinema to see Shoot 'Em Up when we'd done shopping. It was seriously a bad, bad film. So full of cliches I was left wondering if they'd done it to take the mickey? I don't know... but I'm not really into films where they randomly shoot everyone for no reason so I didn't stand much chance of liking it. Afterwards I left Joel on the train and met Jo in Central and went to 180.

Sunday was our lazy day. We dragged ourselves up to do a bit more shopping in Tuen Mun and then made our way to St John's Cathedral for the service and curry supper. We met Patrick, Matt and Eben there and had a nice chat. The dean (deacon? I don't know) came and chatted with us and was asking about the Vine. He annoyed Jo because he was basically saying "the cathedral is better than the Vine, the Vine isn't a proper church...blah blah." I just thought he was jealous that so many people go to- and enjoy- the Vine. He didn't really do himself or the cathderal any favours by talking like that. I've arranged to meet Patrick tomorrow so we can have a proper chat together. He's already met Jo and Joel, and Jules I think.

Last night Joel came round (after finally being woken up by Zoe) and we watched Evan Almighty. Such a funny film! He cooked me a stir-fry becayse his always taste better than mine, and we made a tiffin cake (?) together. It's got biscuit, marshmallow, and dried fruit in it. Should taste yummmmmmy :) We haven't got an oven so this is like the first cake I've made here. I really, really miss having an oven because it limits what you can cook so much :( I'll be an expert at one-pot dishes by next summer though!

This week at school I'm teaching about the family. It's a tough lesson, mainly because I haven't done any proper lessons in a while. I brought in a picture of my family to show them which they loved- "There's Miss Jenny!" Miss Chan thought Dad was my boyfriend though :/ !!! "He looks so young...your boyfriend or your Dad?" He's 50-something Miss Chan! The kids also all think Katy is my bigger sister. Hmph. So to make it easier for them she has been my big sis this week. I'm doing about grandparents next week which is going to be another tough lesson. It's all talking and not really anything fun for them. Also, I'll be being observed by loads of parents. Argh!

Oops, time to go! I'm going to beg for more help with nursery now- I'm still really stuck! Ideas? Please?!

Pak Ho

Today, before going to St John's Cathedral for a curry supper, we went into town for lunch and shopping. Whilst we were there some guy called Pak Ho was performing. No idea who he is, but I videoed him anyway hehe. He was a really good singer and it was a really good song, even if I didn't know what he was singing about.

Just thought I'd share :)

180

Here's the promo video:

http://www.oneighty.hk/popups/promo_v2.htm

Not sure if that will work :/ Check it out anyway though!

What I Did Today (In Brief)

• Took train with Joel at 11am to Mong Kok
• Had hot-choc and shepherds pie in Starbucks
• Browsed the market
• Bought tons of gifts
• Went to Langham Place shopping mall.
• Bought Jo's birthday present.
• Went to cinema.
• Saw awful film (Shoot 'Em Up)
• Went to Festival Walk shopping mall in Kowloon Tong
• Got train to Central
• Went to 180 at The Vine
• Had beef stew
• Got bus home