Summer Fun

Another summer is going by, and I have failed to update this thing for a long time. Everything is going well for me this summer; I'm working my old job as a receptionist, bidding my time until I go back to Hong Kong for my second year. I'll be back there on August 15th for a second round of teaching and excitement!

So what have I been up to since that last post from March? I spent my time working and teaching until the second week of May, when my students were done with their final exam. I have to say that I learned a lot this year about how to really deal with people on different levels, both as a friend, and a teacher. Sometimes I want to be both for my students, but I had to learn, (and I am still learning), how to balance these two roles. My students really taught me a few things and have helped me to be a better person. I really cherish the time spent with them, and with my professor, and I cannot wait to see them in the fall. This year should be very interesting. One of my favorite things about my students is watching them grow and enjoy learning new things. This gives me more drive to become a professor one day, even though I shudder at the thought of all the department meetings that will entail. Those are just unpleasant for everyone involved....

After classes and exams let out, Erin, Paula, and I took the 24-hour train from Hong Kong to Beijing to visit the city and see all that there was to see. There was also a double-plus bonus for me; one of my favorite people, Megan, happens to live there, so I had the chance to see one of my dearest friends that I haven't seen in 2 years. Beijing is a fascinating city to me. The one thing that I loved about it, and I know that this makes me a nerd, was that you could actually walk around and touch things that I've only read about or seen on TV, like the Great Wall, the Forbidden City, and so on. These things have never seemed real to me, and there I was walking inside history. There is no accurate way of describing it, one must go for themselves. Outside of being a huge culture and history nerd, there was the modern city to enjoy. I expected the city serious and somber, as befitting a national capitol. Instead, to my surprise, I spent 90+% of my trip smiling and laughing. You have to have a good sense of humor when the only commonly spoken English is "Welcome Beijing", or if your lucky, "Welcome to Beijing." If anyone is headed there, and would like to experience the heart of the city, and earn some major street cred, rent a bicycle. It works! That was the absolute favorite thing I did on my trip.

After Beijing, I packed, spent some time with friends, and then headed back home for the summer, via Arizona and a two-week visit with my grandparents. That visit was a really treat since I have not been out to visit them in over 5 years. We didn't do much, because I was attempting to defeat my jet-lag, but that doesn't matter. What matters is that I got to spend quality time with the both of them, and I greatly enjoyed myself. Grandparents are such a wonderful thing, and both sets of mine are fantastic. Memee passed along knitting secrets, and Grandpa countless lessons and stories. I can't wait to go back and see them again!

There have been a few lows this summer; one of my aunties had a stroke, and my other grandfather is having surgery today. My aunt is on the mend, and it is amazing how much the family has rallied around her. We are all thinking of her and ready to help.

So that should catch everyone up on what has been happening in my life since March. I hope that enjoy these tibits, and there should be more to come in the near future!

The Postman hates me....

I have no idea what the postman's problem is, but every time I go to that office, he always has something to say to me. This week I mailed home some things for people, including some scarfs, and he had some opinions on that. At first he seemed happy that I was mailing things home to family and friends, but then when he asked me what was in the them, I got a frown and a lecture. I was mailing home a scarf for my mother when this happened:

Postman: "Oh a scarf for Mommy? Very nice......Chinese style?"
Me: "Um, I'm not sure, some are Chinese, some are not."
Postman: (Long pause where I am being judged) "Chinese style better"

Then I got a long drawn-out glare that made me want to run out of the post office in shame. Why, of all people, does the postman feel the need to judge me on what I send back home? Who put him in charge? I'm going to have to find a new post office now, where they don't judge me and glare at me.....

So other than my postal adventures, things are going pretty well here. My friend/former housemate was here for a visit and that was so much fun, even if going to Macau sucked. Its turning to spring here, and I think that I will spend the rest of my day outside reading. Heidi took me to a new yarn store, and I spent some money there, buying lots of yarn. My hostel kids are going to the finals of the inter-hostel debate competition, and I think that I have this job for another year! I'm also putting my summer plans together which should include, (hopefully), some traveling here, a visit with my grandparents in AZ, maybe Bonaroo Music Festival, and of course, working again. That's all the news from the homefront- I'm going to run out and enjoy the sunshine!

February in a flash!

February has gone by so quickly for me, mostly because I have had guests for 3 out of the 4 weeks of this month. Right now my last guest, Jason, is here, and I get to see all the Hong Kong sites for the fourth time. We attempted to go to Macau, and that ended with the conclusion that Macau sucks. My first guests were English teachers from Korea, and former SMCM friends, Lydia and Becca. It was great to have them here because they are both very funny and incredibly good house-guests. Next up was my mother, here for about 9 days. We both strongly enabled each other's knitting habit by going to almost every knitting store in HK and buying tons of yarn! I had to lend her an extra suitcase for how much we spent together. She got to see my HK and meet most of my friends, which meant a lot to me. When people come to visit me, I want to share my HK life with them, because I'm proud of the place that I've made for myself here, and the wonderful people that are a part of it. I was also equally, if not more proud, to show off my mother to the people in my HK life. It was very interesting to see these two parts of my life interact and work out so well. So people, if you decide to come visit me, you will have a great time! I've got to run now and finish some work, but I wanted everyone to know that I'm trying to keep things updated, even though the computer is still broken!

Computer Breakdown

I have some sad news, well sad for me. My barely 7-month old new laptop has decided to break down on me. I think that I might need to get a brand new hard drive! For those of you who have seen me when my computer has broken in the past, its not as bad as it was. I have a nice computer in the office that I can use, so it should be ok until I get the thing fixed. But that means no pictures uploaded for now. Sorry folks! I did learn some interesting things this weekend though:

• I need to work on balancing myself on one arm
• The movie theater in IFC tower serves hot buttered popcorn AND hot caramel corn!
• It can go below 50 degrees in Hong Kong and not having central heat sucks
• HK people have no idea what a "potluck" dinner means

And thats just happened within the past few days! Its been a fun weekend of eating really good food and trying to stay warm. The 50s might not sound cold to most of you, but here, where are the buildings are made of concrete and there is no insulation, its hard to make heat stick anywhere. I'm just grateful that I have a space heater and a lot of quilts. I hope that when my guests show up within the next 2 weeks that things warm up a little bit!

Happy Year of the Rat! (Kung Hay Fat Choi!)

Adventures in Knitting and Hot Yoga (Not at the Same Time)

The excitement has begun to build this week to the start of teaching again on Monday. Preparing for the semester to begin, while finding more things to do has kept me fairly busy this past week. Sunday was spent in Central at the bookstore and taking a yoga class. Now I have to thank Vira for introducing me to the "hot yoga" concept; its basically yoga done in a large sauna, and it feels great! You get really sweaty and stinky, but it makes you more flexible than usual, and its relaxing for the muscles. The class was really good, and so was the instructor, so I might go back and sign up for 3 month-unlimited class deal. I have to think about it for a while longer. Rose and I then went to the best bookstore in HK, after a nice long shower. Borders has nothing when compared to PageOne! I found a great new journal and a new historical biography to read. Just some more things to keep me busy.

The next day I helped my friend Greg move from his apartment in Wong Tai Sin to Tin Shui Wai, the next town over from Tuen Mun, my town. I think that I threw my shoulders out of whack because the next day, my back ached in muscles that I didn't know I had! That's what I get for doing intense yoga and moving boxes within 2 days! We also met up that evening with friends I haven't seen in about a year, Jessica and Kenny. They are a very happy couple that could be possibly moving to Shanghai soon, because Kenny is a commercial pilot. Maybe I can finally get some cheaper airfare now that I know some one in the industry. We spent a pleasant evening walking around Yuen Long and having desert. I got the most delicious mango cheesecake! All in all, a very pleasant weekend. This week, classes have started back up again, so I should have something more interesting to report by the end.

Holy Crap Fire! AGAIN!

So remember that time I told you that there was a forest fire on the hills in Tuen Mun? Guess what? It happened again!!! This time it was a much larger fire, but also further away from the school. It was also in the middle of the afternoon, so my pictures turned out much better than before. In one of them, you can kind of see the helicopter that is dropping water on it. That's what winter is like here, dry, with a lot of chances of forest fires! A lot of the parkland is being burnt up, which will increase the chances of mudslides come monsoon season. So I thought that I should post some pictures of it, so everyone can see how not close I came to a firey death...again.

Holidays in Hong Kong

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year everyone!!!

The holidays here haven't been too different from what they are back home, the only major difference is that I got to celebrate mine 12 hours earlier than most of you! Haha! The first Christmas away from home was a little difficult, and much money was spent on phone calls back home. It was hard not spending it with my family, but I had a surrogate family of other expatriate friends to spend it with. My friend Greg threw a little get-together at his apartment in Wong Tai Sin where we spent the evening talking, singing, and nibbling on whatever Western Christmas delights we could get our hands on. I was very impressed that Greg managed to bake cookies in his tiny toaster oven! In a tribute to almost every childhood Christmas experience, I listened to Nat King Cole's renditions of Christmas carols for a week. I even managed to find 4-foot tall trees in Central, but these trees were priced at about 5 times the US price, and it would have taken me an hour to get it back to my apartment. Not worth it, but maybe for next year.

New Years Eve was spent in Mongkok with my former roommate Terence and a group of local friends. Again, we spent the night eating, playing games, and attempting to teach me some more Cantonese, which didn't work out, to the amusement of everyone. For this holiday, as it seems for every holiday here, there were fireworks in Victoria Harbour. This year was different because instead of being shot off from a barge, the IFC Tower became one giant firecracker! (Look for videos one YouTube, its quite spectacular) My favorite part of the evening had to be when they showed the Dick Clark-esque countdown with Chinese celebrities, and the post-fireworks song was not Auld Lange Syne, as we all expect, but instead, "Happy Together" Apparently Hong Kong can see itself loving nobody but me for all it's life ;)

These past few days, all that I've managed to do is sleep in and just generally "veg out". Boy does it feel good! I've 2 more weeks until the semester starts, so I plan on catching up on a lot of sleep and relaxation. I'm also going to do some travelling and hopefully get into some adventures so I have something to write about. My knitting has been getting interested, but I know that few of you, aside from my mother, want to read about that on the internet ;) So far the most exciting thing her is getting locked out of my room, yet again, and getting that point across to security. There is also a cat on campus that likes to follow me around because I pet/feed him, but I can't bring him inside. I would love to, because you can tell that he used to be someone's pet, but the hostel association frowns on pets, which I think is lame. Maybe I could get a fish or something...

So anyway, I wish everyone a safe, happy, and healthy New Year!!! 2008 is going to be a wonderful year, I can feel it!