My last post from Hong Kong

I'm pretty sure this will be the last post I write in Hong Kong. Though maybe if I get bored at the airport I'll find something to write about... I'm nearly packed now. I have all the clothes I'm taking to Oz in a suitcase but I've not yet finished packing the box to ship home, or even started with the handluggage.

I've had a crazily busy week here. Monday was the last girl's group, Tuesday I went salsa dancing at Sugar. Wednesday I met my friend for a movie. Thursday I went to Olé, a spanish restaurant in Central, with my colleagues and had a very nice meal together.

Oh, Thursday was also my last day "teaching". I just used the lesson times to take pics of the kids hehe. In one of the lesson times I was trying to explain to the children that I won't be here next term when a BIG bug landed in the middle of the floor. Chaos ensues. Mostly because I sit there going "eurrgh! Don't kill it! Argh! DON'T KILL IT!" as all the kids rush forward to stomp on the poor thing. Poor bug was squashed by George. Mean boy. And then I had to wipe it up... yuck. I can't believe I reacted worse to a bug than to seeing a boy being sick into his food bowl though haha.

On Friday it was Parent's Day so all the parents were in school to hear how their kids were. It was a bit pointless me being there since all I did was watch Mock The Week on youtube and get pictures taken with some of the kids. I did have one parent ask me what English exams her 4 year old should be sitting... I was just a little stumped. Exams? At 4 years old? I think my reply was somewhat like "oh I don't know I'm not really a proper teacher..." Haha. I managed to blag it all year and then give it away with that. I'm not sure she was very impressed. I think the parents like to have their children sit exams so they can get into better primary schools. Still seems crazy though! The yi yi's (or Aunties) cooked us a really nice last lunch with desert and everything. Then there was a very long meeting in Cantonese which Cat half translated. Most of it was boring stuff for next year. They did thank me for my year here though and they bought me a gift (box of choccies). And the Principal offered me a job if I come back! Also, when I'm back in Hong Kong (20-22nd August) the principal is going to take all the teachers out for a meal and karaoke to which I'm invited! They're so lovely.

In the evening we went out for a meal, then for drinks, for Joel's birthday. I had a great time! Joel even got up on stage at the Cavern with one of the bands and sang a song. Saturday was spent recovering... After lunch we gave the flat a good clean so it's now sparkling! The yi yi's from school will come and give it an even better clean when we've left though.

As I've already written, Saturday evening was my last salsa lesson. I'm really going to miss everyone there. Murray, who hasn't been for a while, said I've massively improved and Joseph too said I'm soo much better. I still can't believe they made me dance in front of everyone- and with Anton too who is just unbelieveably good. Too good a dancer for me! He's going to be teaching salsa soon, which I'd go to if I was in Hong Kong. Grr!

That brings me to today. I had another lazy morning before making my way to Mong Kong Ladies' Market. It was not a good day to go shopping at an outdoor market- 31 degress and 80% humidity. Gah! And I was so, so tired. I was not in a bargaining mood but I was not paying $550 for 2 pairs of PJs!! I ended up paying $330 which is still a lot more than I would have paid if I wasn't melting and half asleep. I'll probably go again when I'm back in HK to buy more souvenirs. For dinner me and Jo went to the Spaghetti House. Can't believe that was the last meal we'll be having together. Can't believe tomorrow is the last time I'll see Jo for a looong time.

It's just starting to hit me that there's a lot of people I won't be seeing again, so far it's been "Bye... but I'll be back in a few weeks so we'll see each other then!" It's too hard to say goodbye properly. It was very sad to be saying goodbye to the kids at school because I probably won't see them again even if I come back to Hong Kong. I just had a really lovely phone call from Cora saying goodbye, and loads of wall posts and txts. Goodbye Hong Kong :(

Crazy crazy crazy

I've been ridiculously busy lately. Just wanted to post a link to Clara's album of my last night at salsa. It was great! Javed asked me to dance so I got up on the dancefloor- and then Joseph made an announcement telling everyone I was leaving and they were going to miss me etc... which is embarassing. But then they made me dance in front of everyone! It was nice because I'd dance for a bit with Javed, then I danced with Anton (who is amazing and made me look so bad haha), then Dereck, then Joseph and Murray and back with Javed. I had the whole dancefloor to myself hehe. It was very sweet of them! Clara took lots of pics which you can see here.

327

I have been in Hong Kong 327 days! That means there are only 7 days left in Hong Kong, and 36 days until I arrive back in England. Hasn't it gone fast?!

I've been quite busy this weekend. On Friday I had a BBQ in Big Wave Bay at Lauren and Marty's new house. Big Wave Bay is on the "back" side of Hong Kong Island and it took us 2 hours on a bus, the MTR, and then a minibus. It's strange to think how far we travel to meet our friends- in England if someone lives 2 hours away then you'd only see them once in a while and you wouldn't travel there just for a BBQ! Lauren and Marty let us kip on their sofa though so we didn't have to do the ame journey home at 11pm. We had a great time with lots of friends from my church Plus group. It was my last ever Plus meeting so Andria made a looooovely Oreo cheesecake, and Lauren bought a delicious chocolate cake, and then put candles on top and sang "Happy Farewell to you"!

On Saturday I made the journey home (stopping at H&M for a good shop) to shower, change and pack for an afternoon of rock climbing and salsa dancing. The 180 summer social was going to be a big bike ride in the New Territories but because of the weather it was changed to rock climbing, so 20 of us met at the YMCA to climb the indoor walls there. It was great fun! I even did a climb blindfolded.

Straight after rock climbing I met my friend and went to the Salsa Congress Party being held at the Cosmopolitan Hotel. There were international guests performing and doing lessons all weekend. We caught the last half of the lesson being given by some instructors, then we stayed to watch the performances. They were amazing! It wasn't just salsa either- there was some African type dance, some Hip Hop and then a guy doing some tricks with a bowler hat. After the shows I did a bit of dancing with people there before heading to Lan Kwai Fong to meet Joel, Jules and Dan.

On Sunday I went to some studio lessons being held by international instructors. The first class was partnerwork and it was very advanced, much too hard for me! But I muddled along and kinda learnt the routine. The second class was bachata- which I love- so it was great to learn how to dance it properly. The last class was styling, so we were kinda taught some body isolation stuff but I was really bad at it. You really need to practise the basic stuff like being able to just move your ribcage before moving on to other stuff. It was all hard work! After the lessons I went straight to church before heading home, exhausted.

Yesterday (Monday) was my last girl's (girls' ?) group meeting at Cora's place. We had a very nice evening of prayer and worship and sharing. This week is a week of "last this and last that." Tonight I'll be going to salsa again (not my last) but on Thursday I'll have my last full day teaching and my last meal with my colleagues, and Friday will be my last day at school...

Here's a picture of the view from my friends Four Seasons apartment. I'm so jealous they get to live there!

Aqua

Last night Derek (a very nice man I met at salsa) took me out to dinner as a way of saying goodbye. We went to an incredibly posh place called Aqua which served both Japanese and Italian cuisine. It's a completely different standard from what I'm used to (although it isn't particularly hard to beat Macdonald's and Pizza Hut...)! The above picture is of the drinks lounge, on a balcony above the main restaurant floor. The picture below is of the restaurant. I should mention the view from our table- the most beautiful scene of the Hong Kong skyline. We had a table seat so we watched the sun set and all the lights come on, and at 8pm we watched the famous light show while eating our dinner.

Derek ordered some amazing food for us- Asparagus wrapped in bacon, asparagus and cheese risotto with truffle on top (my fave yuuuuuuum), a gorgeous fish steak, beef rolls, terriaki pork, and finally some more beef steak. Beyond delicious, I came away stuffed! After the meal (we were very politely kicked out at 8:30) we went to do some salsa dancing at a bar called Heat in Wan Chai. So, a very pleasant evening all in all!

Oops!

Haven't written in ages! Everything is great here. Been doing a lot of salsa (4 times in 7 days! And I bought proper dancing shoes so I can finally dance with worrying about my shoes flying off or hurting after an hour.), did some work at a learning centre (earned half a month's wages in just one weekend), and been packing a box to ship back to England. Seriously can't believe I only have 2 weeks left here. 2 weeks!!! Can't even begin to describe how I feel about leaving.

This week at school I'm going to be giving the kids little parties in their english lessons. For their first lesson (they get 2 a week) they'll be decorating party hats, and then the fun and games will be in the second lesson. I've already done one lesson, with the worst behaved of my classes, and they coloured the hats beautifully! I'll be taking a lot of pictures of the party, and I want to get pictures of the whole class with me too.

Next week I'll be having a lot of farewell things. This Friday will be my last Plus group meeting. Next Thursday I'm having a meal with my colleagues Ms. Man, Ms. Wendy and Ms. Pat, Friday I'll be going out for Joel's birthday with all the gappers, Saturday will be my last salsa class, and Sunday will be my goodbye meal with Jo. Will also be fitting in a meal with Sam hopefully, and a last girls' (girl's?) group meeting too.

Gotta dash but will update again soon!

I Wanna Love You

If you look in the sidebar to the right you should be able to hear a track that's been in my head all week. It's a cover of Akon's I Wanna Love You by Pablo Bachata ft. M. Sosa. It's a bachata song and it's my fave to dance to.

I've been dancing twice this week already- I went to my regular class at the Cosmopolitan Hotel on Saturday and then on Tuesday I went to a class at Sugar in Lan Kwai Fong. The class at Sugar was run by the same guy who does mine but he did it at a much faster pace, and there were a lot more complicated moves to learn. Oh- and Javid the DJ put me on the guest list so I didn't have to pay...yay! I had a LOT of fun, and Javid reckons I've really improved. There were a lot of more experienced dancers who turned up for the party after the lesson at Sugar. One guy was just too good for me! It was a fast song anyway but he did everything really quickly and he was doing a lot of moves I'd never done before. There were a few times and we got out arms tangled which made us laugh. I taught Edmund a bachata (to the track above actually)... and I say taught but it's pretty easy to pick up. Left, right, left, kick...right, left, right, kick.

Not really been doing much else this week. It was the flea market a church on Sunday, and I think we raised about £1000! I should be going to salsa again on Saturday if my budget allows. I'm down to $800 now :( I'm going to cover for Jules in a couple of weeks at his learning centre. They pay him $2000 for 8 hours!! Such easy money!

7 weeks and counting!

It's nearly the end of the year! Nearly time to go to Australia! Everything is winding down now at school, or I am anyway. The K3's will be "graduating" at the end of the month and we get a 4 day weekend. Each year the school organise holidays for the staff- it was Taiwan, Thailand, and China. Except the Taiwan one got canclled so they've arranged for a 2 day trip to Disney with a stay in the hotel. I put my name down for the Disney trip because it's free. The Thailand trip would have cost me a couple of thousand dollars because you only get a $1500 voucher and you pay the rest. The china trip is free too but the visa to get in the China would have cost me $800! That's double what I paid before! So 2 days in Disneyland... I hope I don't have to stay with the other teachers all the time otherwise I'll be so bored.

Haven't been doing a great deal lately. Last weekend I went to salsa as normal at the Nooch bar, but the regular instructor was away and there were only 3 of us in the lesson. There was this other guy there who was a really good dancer and he took me to the Jubilee bar, near Lan Kwai Fong. Omg I saw soo many amazing dancers there! It was a bit intimidating at first, but i had a few dances and was fine. When you dance with the good people they don't mind telling you where you're going wrong- I spent one dance just doing the basic back and forward step because I couldn't get it right. Or the guy didn't think I could. I met Joel and Dan later on in LKF and we went to a few bars and clubs.

On Sunday Lauren and Marty arranged a junk boat trip. Lauren won the raffle at the Canadian Chamber of Commerce ball for the trip so she invited all the Vine people who helped out- me, Jo, and Lynette- as well as her brother and sister-in-law, Anthony and Esther from the Beijing mission trip, and Gabrielle, Skip and Kathryn. We all had a really good time. The driver (sailor?) took us to a small cove thing Lamma Island. We got to jump in and swim to the beach, where we explored the little rock pools and looked for pretty shells. The water was really clean and warm. I've put the pictures up on flickr now. Baby Zara came along (Lauren and Marty's little one) and Anthony took this adorable picture of us:

We all brought along some food so we had a feast on board, and the weather was fantastic. A great day methinks!

Bed bugs

I'll start off with the bad news this week- I'm sure you all already know- of the earthquake in the Sichuan Province in mainland China. There's tens of thousands of people dead, and millions left homeless. Chengdu, where we visited the orphanage at Easter, was badly affected. Robert Glover (of Care for Children) has told us that the children from the orphanage are safe. However, in another town where a lot of children had been put in foster families, was badly hit too and they don't know if those children are safe. I've already donated money to Care for Children and if you want to too go to www.careforchildren.com.cn I don't know about in the UK, but here in Hong Kong HSBC are giving like for like when people donate money through them to the China appeal.

It's been a quiet week this week. I've had my second term observation by the parents and it went well! There was one class and I thought they behaved terribly- they were very overexcited, kept turning round to wave at their mom, dad, or gran, kept shouting and talking- but the parents all marked me "excellent" or "very good"! I did notice that this time I didn't get stage-fright like before. I didn't look at the parents, but last time I didn't need too and my hands were shaking and my legs felt like jelly, so that's good too!

This weekend I booked a hostel room for Saturday night, so I could stay out later after salsa, and I could go to the 9:30am service at church. It wasn't a great room. There were ants and there was mould on the wall. And when I woke up I felt very itchy... I hope the bed bugs enjoyed me... Salsa was great though! I didn't see Jo and Eric, but there was a nice couple originally from Sussex who came with their neighbour (who'd been to our salsa class before). I'm trying to remember what we learnt last night...we mostly built slightly on whatever we did last week. It was good during the after part because I got to dance with Javid and another guy who'd been dancing for longer and they were teaching me new moves. I finally got the hang of the bachata dance too! It's sods law that last night most people left at 11:30pm, and there were only 6 of us left at 12pm... I needn't have booked a hostel room haha. Ah well. I got an early-ish night and woke up nice and early for the sunday service.

Ohh yeah, on Saturday during the day I went to a new 180 women's group being run by Cora and Gabby. It's basically a women's accountability group where we can go and have good, strong fellowship and be able to grow through that. It sounds like it's going to be really good. We'll be able to bring up topics that we feel we need help with or need to talk about, Gabby wants to do some study on women in the Bible and she's been reading books aimed at Christian women which she thinks is really useful and wants to share too. I'm really excited to be a part of it!

Sa-sa-sa-salsa

I had sooo much fun again last night! When the lesson started it was literally me, another older woman, and the instructor. But as the lesson went on more people arrived. Jo and her boyfriend Eric, who I'd met last lesson, came with their friend who I think is called Edison or Anson or something. This week we learned the left turn and built the moves into a little routine which ended with the girls being dipped and our leg in the air (apparently we're meant to keep them on the ground but mine always ended being up haha). It's really exciting, and it really makes me happy, to master a new move. Like when we first started doing the left turn I just couldn't get it right but by the end of the night it felt so easy!

At the after party I danced with a few of the more experienced men. No russian guy this week haha! I learnt a few more moves and the Bachata dance. When I was dancing with the instructor we were just making up moves, it was so fun! Me and Eric were doing that too, and practicing the last little bit of the routine with the big finish a lot, oh doing lots of turns and spins!

Eric and Jo went to Sugar which is a salsa bar in Lan Kwai Fong during the week. They said that there's a lot more people and it's a bit more lively. It's only $120 (with 2 free drinks). So I might give that a try too. I want to be good enough by the time I leave for Australia that I can go to a salsa bar and just dance. It's going to take a lot of practice though.

I didn't stay too late that night because I was staying at Lauren and Marty's place in Sai Wan Ho. I'd mentioned to Lauren at Plus that I'd booked a hostel room so I didn't have to go home, and she phoned me later on and offered to let me stay at theirs! They're so sweet :) They let me have a key and they pulled out the sofa bed. I was so tired by the time I got back I just collapsed. All I could hear in my head though was "1,2,3...5,6,7 and 1,2,3...5,6,7 and..." grrr!!

I have tomorrow off because it is Buddha's Birthday...so err...happy birthday Buddha. Me and Jo are planning to go down to the beach if the weather is nice enough. It's started getting very hot lately- on Friday it was 31 degrees and the humidity was ridiculous. It was a bit cooler this weekend though. We're going to go to a restaurant at the beach too make an afternoon of it.

Wow

I've been having so much fun!

On Thursday (May Day) I went for dinner with Sam Ko, Bomi and JP at a very nice Thai place, somewhere in Tsim Sha Tsui. I met Bomi briefly at the last 180 and she is the nicest person ever! So easy to get along with. We then met up with a guy called Nick and did some window shopping- Bomi needed some new jeans. Apparently it is impossible to buy good jeans in Hong Kong, I'm glad I'm not the only one who thinks that! I recently had my Mum post me some jeans I ordered from Dorothy Perkins. After we browsed through some shops we headed to the harbour to watch the light show. It was great to finally see it- I've seen it from Hong Kong Island side but it's nothing compared to watching it from TST. They use lasers, spot lights, and the actual lights on the buildings. It's all set to music which you can vaguely here if you stand in the right place at the harbour. It's pretty impressive, although I did get bored after 10 mins of it. I then caught the Star Ferry with Bomi so I could catch my bus home.

Friday was an easy day at work- the Olypmic Torch was in Hong Kong so we had an Olympic themed day. They had a mini torch run through school! A child from each class had to run the torch to the next class- it was so fun! They were all chanting "Cheer for China!" (in cantonese) or "Go China!" would be a better translation. All the children and teachers wore red too and had sticks with the same slogan "Cheer for China" on. Ms Kong made me put one on- despite my protests at not being Chinese :p Throughout the morning they had class pictures taken in front of a big "Olympic torch" made from shiny paper on the wall of the hall. I had my picture taken with Ms Lee and Ms Kong's class. My favourite class by the way hehe. In the afternoon they did a similar thing with the afternoon classes, but instead of running round the school (because of the nursery children) they just passed it round the children, who were sat in a big circle. The K2's and K3's then ran around the school with it.

In the evening Jo and me babysat the gorgeous baby Zara. Lauren and Marty didn't need us to babysit but we wanted to because she's so adorable! They went to the cinema while we looked after her. She's only 6 months old and she's so well behaved, and gorgeous...everyone loves her! And she was so easy to look after. Seriously when she started getting a bit moany, we gave her a dummy and put her on her babymat. When we put her to bed at 7:30 she cried a little but once she had her dummy in, and her teddy, she was fine and settled down really quickly. We kept checking on her because we loooooove her and she's just too cute! Marty and Lauren came home around 10:30, and we were home by 12:30. About 10 minutes into the bus journey a man at the back of the bus was sick. Euuuuuurrrggh it was disgusting! And it was the second time in a week we had it happen! We moved upstairs to escape the stench, but we could still smell it. Not nice on an hour bus journey.

On Saturday morning I had to go in to work to help at the "Parents appreciation day" thing. I think it's Mothering Sunday here soon. Anyway, the children had all been working on dance routines, so I helped do kid's hair. You know when you're a kindergarten teacher when you can ignore a child crying for it's Mom. It sounds really mean but it's true. Two little girls from the nursery were bawling while the teachers were trying to get them ready. After an hour of doing hair, make-up and changing their clothes they were ready. The dance by my afternoon K1 class was so good! Here's a video:

After the performances (held in the church next door) I went back into the school. They had different activities in the classrooms so I spent a while watching the kids. It was really boring. In the hall they had a mini talent show, so I watched Ingrid and Candice dance. Ingrid sang "Pizza Hut" for me :) although her Mom had to really convince her to get up! She also sang "My Bonnie Lies Over The Ocean".

That night, after deliberating all afternoon, I went salsa dancing! I loooooove salsa dancing, it is so much fun! I couldn't convince anyone to go with me so I went on my own. I was really nervous but everything worked out well- I thought I was going to be late but the bus driver was driving really quickly, and I found a taxi driver who knew exactly where I needed to be, and when I got there the instructor hadn't even arrived! It was held in a bar and it was a nice small group who were mostly beginners. I think there were 12 of us including the instructor. When I did salsa classes back in the UK it was massive group of over 30 people, so it was a big difference! Everyone was really friendly- I met a great young couple called Jo and Allen, and we swapped numbers so Jo is going to give me a txt if she's going next week. After the class there is a "salsa party" at the bar so more experienced salsa dancers came and danced and we could practice ourselves. I danced with a kiwi guy who was really good, he was helping me with the turns. Then this Russian guy wanted to dance with me, which would have been ok if he actually had turned up to the lesson and tried to learn a bit of salsa. He was hopeless. Really, really bad! During the lesson you rotate partners so you never get stuck with one really bad person which is good of course. And also it means if you come alone, like me, you get to meet new people. It didn't cost too much either $150 (£10) and you have an hour lesson, 2 drinks, and then the after party which goes on all night I guess! I was home by 1am though.

Today I went to the 9:30am service which meant I had to be up at 7am. I didn't think I'd be able to do it after having a late night but as soon as my alarm went off I was wide awake. After the service I went for lunch with Lauren, Marty and baby Zara. We had a delicious brunch of Eggs Benendict and talked about my trip to Australia. They're going to put me in contact with people they know in the cities I'm visiting, and maybe even try and persuade them to put me up :p It will be really great to have people I can contact while I'm there. I've been busy booking flights and checking out hostels- only 78 days to go- and I'm getting very excited!

After lunch I met up with Jo (who I hadn't seen since Friday) and we went and watched Iron Man. I don't know if it's out in the UK yet but you HAVE TO SEE IT! I'm not an action movie fan at all but it is just soo good! Me and Jo both came out of the cinema saying "Wow...just wow...that was amazing!" I hadn't seen any trailers so I had no idea what to expect, but whatever I was expecting I was pleasantly and amazingly surprised! Go and see it!!