One Month In

One month gone......it seems like its gone by so fast for me. It has been such a whirlwind of catching up with friends, eating good food, learning my new place, and re-aquainting myself with Hong Kong. I'm sorry that I haven't been better at keeping in touch and everything update, but I really have been that busy, but I'm sitting down and doing things properly now. So what has one month brought me?

• The joys of having my own apartment




• A new appriciation for how hard teachers work




• Suprising emergence of cooking skills




• The desire to remain here for a significant amount of time

Having my own apartment has been the nicest thing about coming back here. I've had my own room at points, but never my own entire home! It might be tiny, but I love it. The apartment the university gave is on the 9th floor of one of the student hostels, with an amazing view of parts of Tuen Mun, Fu Tai, and the mountains. The day I moved in was hazy with pollution, heat, and an insane level of humidity, so much that it looks cloudy, but no folks, that's a sky of hot ickiness. Thank god for working AC. A living room, kitchen, bathroom, and bedroom make up the apartment. It sounds lovely, but you have to keep in mind some space has to be sacrificed in room size, when you have 7milion people living on 25% of the land in Hong Kong. For example, my kitchen is so small that I have to close the door in order to open most of the cabinets and the fridge. My bottom counters are only about 3 feet tall, so that means I either squat to cook, or sit on my very short stool. The living room is spacious, filled with free furniture, and I'm not one to turn down free furnishings. (My couch holds the honor of being the most comfortable couch out of all the tutors) From the living room, there is a short hallway for the bathroom and bedroom. On a good day, with a little bit of optimism, the bathtub is about 4 feet long and 2 feet wide. The interesting thing about the tub is that when you step into it, its actually a few inches higher than the rest of the bathroom floor- I think that it has something to do with drainage. I also get my own personal hot water heater, which for some reason was put inside the shower. This translates into showering sideways most of the time. There was also a two-week long epic battle between myself and the hot water heater; it didn't want to give me hot water for longer than 3 minutes, but I was bound and determined to figure it out, and I feel that I have. Some time it blasts me with a sudden jet of ice-cold water, but most of the kinks have been figured out. Next to the bathroom, there is my bedroom, about 10 feet by 10 feet, so maybe a little bit bigger than the dorm rooms at St. Mary's. What is really nice about the bedroom is that there is a queen-size bed in it, while the rest of the tutors have twin beds. (Suckers! ahahaha) For as tiny as it is, my apartment feels rather spacious. And I have lovely wood floors. The laundry room is conviently right across the hall, as is Paula, one of the other English tutors. It turns out that I'm not the tutor for this hall, Hall B, but the tutor for Hall C, but when they were contructing the building, the contractors neglected to build a tutor apartment. It makes is a little more difficult to meet my students and plan hostel activities, but I think that matters will be much easier after this week, and the Becca-Bash my hostel is throwing me.

As lovely as the apartment is, what I love most about it is that it is my first home, all to myself. I don't have to share with siblings, or roommates, (though I love all of those mentioned), which feels incredibly liberating. I can walk in my front door and know that I'll have my own space that is just mine. This might sound a little selfish of me, but I've been sharing almost everything since I was small, and I know I'm not the best roommate- just ask Greg about sharing a room back in Towson, or any of my college roommates about my cleaning habits- (or lack thereof......) Maybe this is just the way that everyone might feel this way about having their first place, or its just me- I don't know, but it's all mine and I love it!

The excitment of having my own apartment faded as the first day of classes. As it got closer, so did my feelings of panic and fear that I would be a terrible tutor. The constant thought that went through my head that week was "What am I doing here? I have no teaching experience. Just because I'm a native speaker doesn't give me expertise!" The first time I met the professor I was working with was one of the most tense lunchs ever.......at least for me.........he seemed fairly relaxed. Now that we are three weeks into the term, I'm still having my doubts, but I feel a bit more secure in my position. Watching the professors lecture in class, and outside of class, I realize why they say teaching is one of the hardest jobs on the planet. In truth, sitting through my first department meeting is what really made me appriciate all the work St. Mary's professors put in. I just have question- Are they all that boring?! I was close to taking my pen and jamming it into my hand in order to make the meeting even slightly more interesting. Thank goddness we only had to go to the first one. But seriously folks, teachers work haaaaaaaaaaaard! I had no idea how time-consuming it was- one of the several reasons I've been terrible at keeping everything updated. I kneel before you-I'm not worthy, I'm not worthy!

The other area of my that I've been pleasently suprised in is how well I've been able to cook an take care of myself (Thanks Mom) I love being able to cook everything for myself and planning all my meals. The most fun part about this is going to the wet market daily to buy ingredients and talk to the vegetable ladies. The wet market is a place about a 10 minute walk from the university that is reminescent of a farmers market in the States, but everything is much more fresh. So fresh, you could take home a live chicken, kill it, pluck it, and eat it if you wanted to. I don't know about you, but I don't like my meat that fresh. The ladies that work there have gotten to know my face fairly well, and we have a good time teaching each other to count in our respective languages. I can count to 3 in Cantonese now. I love be able to be creative with my food! Just tonight, I made myself some chicken stir-fried with green beans in a black garlic sauce- very tasty! Some American dishes are going over very well here too, especially mashed potatoes and chili. Its seems to be a hit whenever I make it. I've already made it for my old roommates birthday, and I've been requested to cook for another hostel party later this week.

The other thing that I find myself thinking on quite often is how comfortable I could be in spending a couple more years of my life here. My students are just wonderful, and it helps to know that English teachers here live fairly comfortably. Its not something that is definite in my mind, but I wouldn't be too upset if that's how things worked out. I love being independent and Hong Kong has the perfect environment for me to be fairly independent. Now don't get me wrong, I love living at home, but its high time that I go out into the world, on my own, as scary as that can be. When I come home, that might be a little bit more difficult than I want it to be, one of the many reasons why Hong Kong is more appealing to me. Well, it remains to be seen yet- it really depends on how the rest of this year and this job go. I'm loving Hong Kong at the moment, and I don't think that's ever going to change!

I miss all of you dearly, and I'm encouraging everyone to come and visit, if you can! Please keep me updated with news from home.