Me and Jo

At the beach. Taken on Jo's Mac because neither of us had our cameras. Jealous?! The beach is literally 3 minutes away on the LRT.

Last week

I've just sat here for 20 mins trying to decide where to start. I had my first lesson last Thursday which was shaky. On Friday all I did at school was help in the classrooms. I get Friday afternoons off (yay!) so I went to change what I thought was a faulty mp3 player- turns out I wasn't pressing the right button or something! Felt a bit of a silly sausage :p I also went to the bank to try and get some money back. (Short version: ATM machine said it gave me $2500 when it didn't, but the money came out my account.) It's being investigated, yay! Joel came round that evening to watch Saw 3. He didn't want to watch it but I made him heehee. Jo went and read a book. Only me who's into gore films then!

On Saturday Jo, Zoe and me went to the Ladies' Market in Mong Kok. It was great! Not as big a selection of things as I'd expected but still some good stuff. I bought some gifts for my parents and sister, and shoes for myself. I even did some bartering! Felt cheeky at first, but it's fun when you get used to it. We bought some food from a street thing as well- Jo bought something that was bright orange and looked like intestines and said it was nasty, and I bought pig-in-blankets on a stick and they were really good! In the evening we had all the Gap group round to our flat and got through a few drinks. Had a really good time! Angus, a guy who is now a proper NET teacher at Jule's school, was giving us loads of advice. Dan was sick into a glass after drinking a bit too much cheap vodka. He phoned when he got back to apologise! Eurgh. I'm so glad I didn't see it.

Sunday was recovery day! The guys who stayed over brought us up MacDonalds for breakfast, and we stayed in bed till lunchtime. Me and Jo attempted a swim, but only managed 10 lengths. We met Zoe at St Andrew's in the evening for a really nice service. They had great hymns and the minister is good. It was a relaxed service, no communion and there's wasn't much liturgy. At the end we chatted to some "regulars" and we put our names down for the Welcome Meal next week. Everyone there is really friendly! We came home very tired and ready for bed that night.

Today was school day. I'm shadowing Ms. Man this week, and she's getting me more involved with the classes she does. Today I danced in front of the children and did silly actions and things! Ms. Man teaches K3 so they understand and can speak a decent amount of English. Wish I was teaching K3, so much easier than K1 and 2! I did another lesson alone with the same K2 class as last week. Didn't go very well again. There's only 6 children and they're all really quiet. They do understand English, I know because all the other K2 classes I've been in do, they just don't seem to want to cooperate! I'm struggling to engage with them I think, don't really know how to talk to them. Also, they all seem to know the stuff I'm teaching them like "bag" and "book", they can spell and recognise the words for them. Argh! They liked it when I did the songs with them, I can make them laugh that way. Does anybody know any simple songs to do with school? I don't think I can keep getting away with "Heads, shoulders, knees and toes" or "If you're happy and you know it". Maybe having a bigger class will help?! More children to get involved and all that.

After school me and Jo found the beach! We sat for a bit in the sand, basking in the sun and enjoying the sea air. We'll definitely be back with the others to show off :p We got the best deal with regards to our location and what we have literally on our doorstep! I'll take some pictures next time we head down.

Au revoir for now!

The Beach

Gosh it's been hot today! We had a wonderful thunderstorm Monday night, and ever since the sky has been clear and the sun's been out. We had to go to the bank today in the town centre to sort our accounts out. To get there you take the 610 LRT to Ferry Pier, and then change to the 614. We hung around Ferry Pier for a while because we were early and look at the views!

We walked all the way along the coastline until it was time to head back to the station. We met Pet in town and she took us past the town hall and the post office. We've picked up some leaflets for shows and stuff showing soon- we're thinking of seeing the Cinderella Ballet, Over the Rainbow which is show songs, and a musical contest. There's also a dance called the Butterfly Effect but that's showing at the Hong Kong Concert Hall so we might not get to see that if we can't get there and back. Transport seems to be very efficient though- there's LRT trains every few minutes until very late at night.

When we got to the bank we were told that we needed our job contracts and proof of address. So it was a wasted journey! We were also told that we need $2000 deposit to open the accounts, and there is a base limit of $5000 otherwise there is a $50 monthly charge! Bearing in mind we are only left with $4000 after rent! I'm OK because I was going to transfer most of my savings to that account anyway but if you drop below that limit, you have to make sure the next day you deposit enough to make it back up to $5000 plus however much you took out. eg. If you spent $200, you would have to put back in $400. I think. I'm a bit confused! We'll work it out though. I've got to ask the school to print out a letter stating my address as proof. Argh!

Jo and I cooked for the first time last night. It was fine in the end but we had a bit of drama with the jar. We tried everything to get it open, even knocked on the neighbour's door! All it took in the end was a bang on the floor. Tasted so good after all that hehe. And I didn't have to do the washing up :p

OMG the gym today! We walked past a gym in the mall so we thought we'd pop in and ask about monthly prices...bad idea. The woman wanted our details- and having pst experiences with gyms bugging me- gave them fake details. Then we were sat down and asked questions about what we wanted to achieve and how often we could go...and then we were told that a personal trainer would come and weigh us and tell us our body fat and muscle percentage! We weren't comfortable at all so Jo started saying, "Jenny what time is it? We have an appointment soon don't we?" "ohhhh yeah...sorry we haven't got time to do that today! We have to be back by 2" And the woman was going "Can you come back tomorrow? We're having an open day" Jo: "No, we're working tomorrow...we'll come back Friday" and we start to leave and the woman was going "Ask for me when you come on Friday!"...We were like "Don't look back, keep walking! Keep walking!" I only wanted to know the price for a membership! We're not joining that gym anyway heehee. We are going swimming later! We bought costumes in town, and it's really cheap to get in. Can't wait!