Happy Holidays!! Merry Christmas!!
I had TGIFridays for Christmas Eve dinner...and even more surprising I had a salad. *gasp*
And just think: "It's Christmas, for goodness sake. Think about the baby Jesus... up in that tower, letting his hair down... so that the three wise men can climb up and spin the dradel and see if there are six more weeks of winter. "
~Karen Walker
Tuesday, December 25, 2007
Sunday, December 23, 2007
An uneventful week. Wednesday night, I went to see the Nutcracker done by the Hong Kong Ballet. It was good. Very different from what I'm used to, and I didn't tumble to what was queer about it till halfway through the second act. They're not much for petit allegro. There's not a lot of footwork or anything, it was much more elaborate lifts, impressive leaps, and series of turns. The pas de deuxs were all fantastic strings of lifts and dangerous looking poses. The Sugar Plum Fairy's pointe shoe ribbon wasn't tied correctly, and she had to run offstage during the big duet to retie it. The Prince walked, literally, in circles gesturing grandly but awkwardly. Heehee.
The Stuttgart Ballet company is coming to HK in February. They're going to do Swan Lake and some ballet called Onegin. I think I'll go see it. And then the HK ballet is doing an All Tchaikovsky show in March, which I will also try to get to. We had tickets for the second balcony, which is farther from the stage than I've ever seen a show, but it was nice. I could see all the formations (speaking of which, I wasn't terribly impressed with the Snowflake scene or the fight scene...the choreography didn't seem to match the music at times and the fight lacked a certain je ne sais quoi...liveliness if you will. But the Arabian dance was quite fantastic. And the costumes were gorgeous...although tending to run in the white/pink/yellow range, and all very pale). Anyway. Yes, I forgot what I was saying. Oh right, the tickets were only 75 HKD which is crazy cheap, because we got Student Discounts.
For the most part, I've spent the last week reading, watching Friends, and sleeping. And I've done a bit of shopping/making Christmas cards. I sent a package home on Wednesday with Christmas cards for everyone...I hope it makes it there before everyone leaves town.
Mmmm what else...I guess that's about all. Done a lot of Agatha Christie reading, started reading Proust which I enjoy. He's a bit dense to read though. And I took out a Faulkner, just to give him another try.
Anyway, Merry Christmas to everyone!!
The Stuttgart Ballet company is coming to HK in February. They're going to do Swan Lake and some ballet called Onegin. I think I'll go see it. And then the HK ballet is doing an All Tchaikovsky show in March, which I will also try to get to. We had tickets for the second balcony, which is farther from the stage than I've ever seen a show, but it was nice. I could see all the formations (speaking of which, I wasn't terribly impressed with the Snowflake scene or the fight scene...the choreography didn't seem to match the music at times and the fight lacked a certain je ne sais quoi...liveliness if you will. But the Arabian dance was quite fantastic. And the costumes were gorgeous...although tending to run in the white/pink/yellow range, and all very pale). Anyway. Yes, I forgot what I was saying. Oh right, the tickets were only 75 HKD which is crazy cheap, because we got Student Discounts.
For the most part, I've spent the last week reading, watching Friends, and sleeping. And I've done a bit of shopping/making Christmas cards. I sent a package home on Wednesday with Christmas cards for everyone...I hope it makes it there before everyone leaves town.
Mmmm what else...I guess that's about all. Done a lot of Agatha Christie reading, started reading Proust which I enjoy. He's a bit dense to read though. And I took out a Faulkner, just to give him another try.
Anyway, Merry Christmas to everyone!!
Tuesday, December 18, 2007
So the lack of updates has been due partially to lack of internet/computer access and partially to laziness. I was in China last week, Fulbright related, so that was pretty fantabulous.
We left for China at the crack of dawn on Monday. A van picked us up from IEd and took us to the Hung Hom station where we indulged in early morning greasy McDonalds. The train took us from HK to Guangzhou and we got in around lunchtime. We stayed at a hotel/hostel that was on the Sun Yat Sen University's campus. It was nice...two ETAs to a room, tv with Chinese MTV!, our own bathrooms, etc. One thing I will most emphatically not miss about campus living be it IEd or BMC is communal bathrooms. Anyway, we had lunch at the restaurant that was about one minute from our dorm (we had most meals there). It was...an interesting meal. Family style with the lazy susan turny thing. Chopsticks, tea, only spoke Chinese, that sort of thing. Then we had a tour of the campus and a tour of a connected campus. Then we had dinner. Then I think we just had free time after that. Or something. Was pretty much exhausted (not used to getting up at 5:15 in the morning), so I went to bed early. Which leads me into the next awesome thing that occurred.
Mosquitos. Or gnats. Or some sort of insect that ate us alive. And we all know how well I react to any sort of bite. It was a bit cold, so I had bundled up in long pants and a long sleeve shirt and was curled up in my blanket, with only my face accessible. And was it ever. Woke up Tuesday morning with about five bites on my face. Itched infernally.
Breakfast (which is an unusual occurrence in my life) was in the restaurant. Since I don't normally eat before 11 or 12, greasy food was kinda rough on my tummy. But it was good. Then we went to the secondary school where we were going to be observing and teaching that week. We sat in on three classes (two junior classes so I think they were like junior high age and a senior class which was more like 16 or 17 year olds maybe? hard to tell...I'm terrible at guessing ages). Then back to the restaurant for lunch. Then back to the secondary school to meet with the headmaster and watch a bit of a performance that the school had brought in.
At the meeting, our contact lady opened up the Fulbright newsletter that had brief bios of all of us. Fulbright had requested them last summer, and I had written mine knowing that people would see it but not realizing that it would be the defining summary of my life for people. And she asks, who is Laura Brymer? And I raise my hand, and then she says something along the lines of oh I see you do hip hop and dance...would you like to do a dance on Thursday at the junior talent show? And because I am not gifted with the ability to say no apparently, I said sure why not? Literally, I actually blushed beet red and stammered out "Sure why not?". *sigh* Anyway, having committed myself to that, I was now stuck with the problem that I didn't have any of my music with me. After dinner, we were allowed to go to their computer lab...where the internet moved at about the pace of snail mail. Once we were on, it picked up a little (an infinitesimal little), and so I found a youtube clip of Justin Timberlake's "My Love" and sent it to our contact and told her that I'd dance to the first three minutes of it. Please keep in mind that I had not choreographed anything to it nor ever performed to it, and that I am not really trained in hip hop, but am in fact and mentality a modern/ballet dancer. We also had to work on a presentation we were going to do on Wednesday...the 16 of us had to talk to the Junio class (around 250-300 students) about school and life in America. We broke into groups, and my group had weekends, family, and recreation to talk about. Rather than straight-up lecture, we had three activities. But that comes later...suffice it to say that we rehearsed for a couple hours that night to the intense amusement of ourselves and fellow ETAs.
Tuesday night. The little bugs were back with a vengeance. Not only did they bite me, they bit my eyelids. I woke up in the morning and my eyes were different shapes because the lids were so swollen. It looked like I had smeared red eyeshadow onto them after I punched myself. And they itched itched itched. I had 11 bites on my face. Half of which have scarred and left marks.
Wednesday morning, I think at breakfast we had egg tarts. Or maybe that was Thursday. Anyway, breakfast, back to the secondary school. Two groups of ETAs taught two different classes while the rest observed in the back. Lunch. Back to give the talk to the students. Okay. What my group did was start off with a cheer, one about spirit, which we taught to the entire group. Then we went into handclap games played by students at school, which they also imitated. And finally, we sang Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer. Hahahahaha. For those of you who don't know, I cannot carry a tune for my life (or so I've been told and to which I wholeheartedly agree). Anyway, it was pretty fabulous. The kids got a kick out it I think. Then I got my hair cut after that! There was a haircutting place right out the door of our hostel, right next to the convenience store, which was really a cluttered small room. It was the most elaborate fantastic hair cut I've had. They shampooed my hair/massaged my head for almost twenty minutes. I've never had a shampoo done while I'm sitting up in the chair...an interesting thing. Then the actual cut, wow. They pretty much followed my previous cut, but they did it slowly and with great concentration, to every single hair, I kid you not. The whole deal took an hour and a half...and cost 25 yuan. That's about 3 dollars. Crazy. Then we had an "English corner" which was incredibly misnamed. There was no corner. There was a huge pagoda like thing with a bell and no lights outside, and we were thrown into it. We gathered and talked to people in the dark, whose faces we could only barely distinguish. Perhaps talk gives off the wrong impression. We shouted for an hour and a half. Soooo many people, all chatting away. And most of them, actually the majority of the ones I spoke with, were not students of the university, but just business people, students from other schools who just wanted to practice English. We finally excused ourselves. Some people were going to get massages. I opted out...I'm not keen to have my muscles beaten to a pulp. I talked with a couple ETAs who stayed behind and went over the lesson we had to teach the next day.
Thursday, breakfast, back to the secondary school. We were the second group to teach a lesson, senior students. We had been assigned the topic of global warming. *shrug* So we did a powerpoint (I thoroughly enjoyed doing the the animation sequences for it) and then had them make posters with ways to exhort people to save energy or save the planet, etc. They got into that, which was good. Always stressful to get up in front of a lot of students and your peers. Lunch yadda yadda yadda (I'll write about the food later). Then the talent show. It was called the Foreign Talent Show or something, so all of it in English or English culture related (mostly American, though). The students were really good. There was some singing (karaoke and then a duo singing Phantom of the Opera), some skits, a duo of hip hop dancers who were great! And my favorite event: they take a movie (we saw Finding Nemo, Ice Age, and Ratatouille I think?) and mute it and then they do the voice of the characters. Pretty funny. Other talents included recitation of memorized speeches. And an impromptu sing-along by two ETAs...they were having computer trouble and asked us to fill the time slot....so it was done with I think Jingle Bells. :) And then me. I did my dance...was crazy nervous. I realize, I'm so not a hip hop dancer. I can do it if choreographed, but I should never never wing hip hop. Ugh. They seemed to like it all right though, so that's good. And then they convinced my co-choreographer and I to get up and do Magalena, which is a song both of us have danced to in our respective College dance careers. Good times. Not so much for the knee though. But! I can say that I have danced to Magalena and Justin Timberlake...in China. :) That night, the secondary school took us on a dinner cruise on the Pearl River. It was great. Buffet style, went up and down the river, lots of lights, good company. I like boats.
Friday morning, breakfast, then we went to a primary school and observed a lesson and talked to students and teachers. We had lunch there...they give you huge portions of rice. I don't know if they do this generally or if it's just us, but we get huge portions of rice. I could eat it maybe over the course of three meals. And I always feel bad about not finishing it, especially since the lesson we sat in on was called "Saving is a Virtue." After that, we went on a tour...kinda. We went to the museum of the tomb of the Nanyue kings, the Chan family temple, and then shopping. Oh and dinner. First time I've been served chicken feet in my soup. We also saw monkeys on a leash! Just walking around the shopping square.
Saturday morning, breakfast, bus ride to another college, talked to some students and teachers, took some pictures, and then came back to our hostels to finish packing. We had lunch in the VIP room of the restaurant with the VP of IEd who was a visiting lecturer that weekend and the Dean of Sun Yat Sen's faculty I believe. A very nice meal, a very nice send-off. Then we checked out, got on a bus to the train station, on the train back to HK, then a taxi back to IEd. Was wiped out by the time I got back. Unpacked and then crashed.
The food. All right, the food was good. But it took a bit of getting used to. I'm still trying to acclimate myself to seafood, the most I will normally partake on my own is a bit of shrimp or some calamari. But they had some great spicy meat dishes, greens of some sort every night, rice of course, huge bowls of congee in the morning, fruit at the end of every meal (and they have these great little oranges that are so sweet and yummy), often a noodle dish, egg tarts twice, lots of grease and oil, yum yum yum. And all incredibly and almost surprisingly filling. But tasty.
Okay, so that bring me back to HK. Sunday I stayed close to campus I think. Actually, I have no idea what I did other than sleep in. I went shopping today for card-making materials.
OH! Wow, totally slipped my mind. Last night, Monday, we were taken out on another boating outing. A yacht, I believe, took us to Lamma Island for a seafood dinner. The ride was so pretty...I love being on the water, with the wind blowing in your face, although as per usual, I wasn't dressed warmly. That seems to be my major issue with boats...the last three I've been on, I've practically frozen. Anyway, the dinner was goooood. Elaborate, well presented, yummy. Started out with ginormous prawns, moved to cuttlefish fried I think, then scallops with tons of garlic, then duck which was fabulous, then ummm spicy I think, then grouper a huge monster of a fish with the head and eyes and all that still attached, then dessert I think. Oh, and a small bowl of fried rice. I couldn't eat the prawn, I couldn't. It had legs, long antennae, and eyes. I just couldn't. Ate everything else though. :)
And that's that. What an incredibly long post. I wonder if it makes any sort of sense. I've been making dozens of tiny paper snowflakes, and my fingers are all cramped. Not that that would affect the coherency of this post, but you know. Yeah I have no idea either.
I need to end this post.......
"His destructive programming is taking effect. He will be irresistibly drawn to large cities, where he will back up sewers, reverse street signs, and steal everyone's left shoe."
~on Stitch
We left for China at the crack of dawn on Monday. A van picked us up from IEd and took us to the Hung Hom station where we indulged in early morning greasy McDonalds. The train took us from HK to Guangzhou and we got in around lunchtime. We stayed at a hotel/hostel that was on the Sun Yat Sen University's campus. It was nice...two ETAs to a room, tv with Chinese MTV!, our own bathrooms, etc. One thing I will most emphatically not miss about campus living be it IEd or BMC is communal bathrooms. Anyway, we had lunch at the restaurant that was about one minute from our dorm (we had most meals there). It was...an interesting meal. Family style with the lazy susan turny thing. Chopsticks, tea, only spoke Chinese, that sort of thing. Then we had a tour of the campus and a tour of a connected campus. Then we had dinner. Then I think we just had free time after that. Or something. Was pretty much exhausted (not used to getting up at 5:15 in the morning), so I went to bed early. Which leads me into the next awesome thing that occurred.
Mosquitos. Or gnats. Or some sort of insect that ate us alive. And we all know how well I react to any sort of bite. It was a bit cold, so I had bundled up in long pants and a long sleeve shirt and was curled up in my blanket, with only my face accessible. And was it ever. Woke up Tuesday morning with about five bites on my face. Itched infernally.
Breakfast (which is an unusual occurrence in my life) was in the restaurant. Since I don't normally eat before 11 or 12, greasy food was kinda rough on my tummy. But it was good. Then we went to the secondary school where we were going to be observing and teaching that week. We sat in on three classes (two junior classes so I think they were like junior high age and a senior class which was more like 16 or 17 year olds maybe? hard to tell...I'm terrible at guessing ages). Then back to the restaurant for lunch. Then back to the secondary school to meet with the headmaster and watch a bit of a performance that the school had brought in.
At the meeting, our contact lady opened up the Fulbright newsletter that had brief bios of all of us. Fulbright had requested them last summer, and I had written mine knowing that people would see it but not realizing that it would be the defining summary of my life for people. And she asks, who is Laura Brymer? And I raise my hand, and then she says something along the lines of oh I see you do hip hop and dance...would you like to do a dance on Thursday at the junior talent show? And because I am not gifted with the ability to say no apparently, I said sure why not? Literally, I actually blushed beet red and stammered out "Sure why not?". *sigh* Anyway, having committed myself to that, I was now stuck with the problem that I didn't have any of my music with me. After dinner, we were allowed to go to their computer lab...where the internet moved at about the pace of snail mail. Once we were on, it picked up a little (an infinitesimal little), and so I found a youtube clip of Justin Timberlake's "My Love" and sent it to our contact and told her that I'd dance to the first three minutes of it. Please keep in mind that I had not choreographed anything to it nor ever performed to it, and that I am not really trained in hip hop, but am in fact and mentality a modern/ballet dancer. We also had to work on a presentation we were going to do on Wednesday...the 16 of us had to talk to the Junio class (around 250-300 students) about school and life in America. We broke into groups, and my group had weekends, family, and recreation to talk about. Rather than straight-up lecture, we had three activities. But that comes later...suffice it to say that we rehearsed for a couple hours that night to the intense amusement of ourselves and fellow ETAs.
Tuesday night. The little bugs were back with a vengeance. Not only did they bite me, they bit my eyelids. I woke up in the morning and my eyes were different shapes because the lids were so swollen. It looked like I had smeared red eyeshadow onto them after I punched myself. And they itched itched itched. I had 11 bites on my face. Half of which have scarred and left marks.
Wednesday morning, I think at breakfast we had egg tarts. Or maybe that was Thursday. Anyway, breakfast, back to the secondary school. Two groups of ETAs taught two different classes while the rest observed in the back. Lunch. Back to give the talk to the students. Okay. What my group did was start off with a cheer, one about spirit, which we taught to the entire group. Then we went into handclap games played by students at school, which they also imitated. And finally, we sang Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer. Hahahahaha. For those of you who don't know, I cannot carry a tune for my life (or so I've been told and to which I wholeheartedly agree). Anyway, it was pretty fabulous. The kids got a kick out it I think. Then I got my hair cut after that! There was a haircutting place right out the door of our hostel, right next to the convenience store, which was really a cluttered small room. It was the most elaborate fantastic hair cut I've had. They shampooed my hair/massaged my head for almost twenty minutes. I've never had a shampoo done while I'm sitting up in the chair...an interesting thing. Then the actual cut, wow. They pretty much followed my previous cut, but they did it slowly and with great concentration, to every single hair, I kid you not. The whole deal took an hour and a half...and cost 25 yuan. That's about 3 dollars. Crazy. Then we had an "English corner" which was incredibly misnamed. There was no corner. There was a huge pagoda like thing with a bell and no lights outside, and we were thrown into it. We gathered and talked to people in the dark, whose faces we could only barely distinguish. Perhaps talk gives off the wrong impression. We shouted for an hour and a half. Soooo many people, all chatting away. And most of them, actually the majority of the ones I spoke with, were not students of the university, but just business people, students from other schools who just wanted to practice English. We finally excused ourselves. Some people were going to get massages. I opted out...I'm not keen to have my muscles beaten to a pulp. I talked with a couple ETAs who stayed behind and went over the lesson we had to teach the next day.
Thursday, breakfast, back to the secondary school. We were the second group to teach a lesson, senior students. We had been assigned the topic of global warming. *shrug* So we did a powerpoint (I thoroughly enjoyed doing the the animation sequences for it) and then had them make posters with ways to exhort people to save energy or save the planet, etc. They got into that, which was good. Always stressful to get up in front of a lot of students and your peers. Lunch yadda yadda yadda (I'll write about the food later). Then the talent show. It was called the Foreign Talent Show or something, so all of it in English or English culture related (mostly American, though). The students were really good. There was some singing (karaoke and then a duo singing Phantom of the Opera), some skits, a duo of hip hop dancers who were great! And my favorite event: they take a movie (we saw Finding Nemo, Ice Age, and Ratatouille I think?) and mute it and then they do the voice of the characters. Pretty funny. Other talents included recitation of memorized speeches. And an impromptu sing-along by two ETAs...they were having computer trouble and asked us to fill the time slot....so it was done with I think Jingle Bells. :) And then me. I did my dance...was crazy nervous. I realize, I'm so not a hip hop dancer. I can do it if choreographed, but I should never never wing hip hop. Ugh. They seemed to like it all right though, so that's good. And then they convinced my co-choreographer and I to get up and do Magalena, which is a song both of us have danced to in our respective College dance careers. Good times. Not so much for the knee though. But! I can say that I have danced to Magalena and Justin Timberlake...in China. :) That night, the secondary school took us on a dinner cruise on the Pearl River. It was great. Buffet style, went up and down the river, lots of lights, good company. I like boats.
Friday morning, breakfast, then we went to a primary school and observed a lesson and talked to students and teachers. We had lunch there...they give you huge portions of rice. I don't know if they do this generally or if it's just us, but we get huge portions of rice. I could eat it maybe over the course of three meals. And I always feel bad about not finishing it, especially since the lesson we sat in on was called "Saving is a Virtue." After that, we went on a tour...kinda. We went to the museum of the tomb of the Nanyue kings, the Chan family temple, and then shopping. Oh and dinner. First time I've been served chicken feet in my soup. We also saw monkeys on a leash! Just walking around the shopping square.
Saturday morning, breakfast, bus ride to another college, talked to some students and teachers, took some pictures, and then came back to our hostels to finish packing. We had lunch in the VIP room of the restaurant with the VP of IEd who was a visiting lecturer that weekend and the Dean of Sun Yat Sen's faculty I believe. A very nice meal, a very nice send-off. Then we checked out, got on a bus to the train station, on the train back to HK, then a taxi back to IEd. Was wiped out by the time I got back. Unpacked and then crashed.
The food. All right, the food was good. But it took a bit of getting used to. I'm still trying to acclimate myself to seafood, the most I will normally partake on my own is a bit of shrimp or some calamari. But they had some great spicy meat dishes, greens of some sort every night, rice of course, huge bowls of congee in the morning, fruit at the end of every meal (and they have these great little oranges that are so sweet and yummy), often a noodle dish, egg tarts twice, lots of grease and oil, yum yum yum. And all incredibly and almost surprisingly filling. But tasty.
Okay, so that bring me back to HK. Sunday I stayed close to campus I think. Actually, I have no idea what I did other than sleep in. I went shopping today for card-making materials.
OH! Wow, totally slipped my mind. Last night, Monday, we were taken out on another boating outing. A yacht, I believe, took us to Lamma Island for a seafood dinner. The ride was so pretty...I love being on the water, with the wind blowing in your face, although as per usual, I wasn't dressed warmly. That seems to be my major issue with boats...the last three I've been on, I've practically frozen. Anyway, the dinner was goooood. Elaborate, well presented, yummy. Started out with ginormous prawns, moved to cuttlefish fried I think, then scallops with tons of garlic, then duck which was fabulous, then ummm spicy I think, then grouper a huge monster of a fish with the head and eyes and all that still attached, then dessert I think. Oh, and a small bowl of fried rice. I couldn't eat the prawn, I couldn't. It had legs, long antennae, and eyes. I just couldn't. Ate everything else though. :)
And that's that. What an incredibly long post. I wonder if it makes any sort of sense. I've been making dozens of tiny paper snowflakes, and my fingers are all cramped. Not that that would affect the coherency of this post, but you know. Yeah I have no idea either.
I need to end this post.......
"His destructive programming is taking effect. He will be irresistibly drawn to large cities, where he will back up sewers, reverse street signs, and steal everyone's left shoe."
~on Stitch
Wednesday, December 5, 2007
Things that amuse me:
1) I was leaving the hospital this morning and saw a bus which said: Spastic Association of Hong Kong.
2) My PT today asked me which exercise hurt more: the one where they rig me up to a pulley or just pulling my bent leg into me. I said the latter. She then told me "Oh, then you need to try harder. You must hurt yourself more."
3) Making gingerbread houses and decorating cookies! (or rather, watching students make gingerbread houses and eating all the cookies)
4) my new boots! Fantabulous. They completely change the way I walk, and I realize how much I've missed making click-click-clicks as I walk.
5) Students mispronouncing (in a story they have to read for a pronunciation test) words. Eeyore is really hard. And another ETA heard 'Pignet' for 'Piglet'.
6) Adorable kindergarten students. Every time I work the kindergarten class, it makes me want to be a young-children's-teacher. Hahahahahahaha. Can you imagine?
Things that are frustrating and yet still amusing:
1) Waiting an hour to meet with my surgeon for him to spend less than five minutes with me. And then he just tells me that I'm still off on my extension by 5-10 degrees and he'll see me in six weeks. But! He makes me so nervous! And it's hilarious! On a medical level, I completely trust him and think that the procedure went quite well (as far as I know)...no massive swelling or bruising, off crutches within two and a half weeks, etc. But on a personal level, he makes me nervous...he seems flustered (maybe because of the English, but his English is really good) when he meets me, and then he stares me straight in the eye when I'm talking but his eyes flit all over the place (wall, charts, ceiling, papers) when he's talking. He also told me that if the screw in my leg bothers me, they can take it out in a year. Hahahano.
I guess that's the only thing I find frustrating at the moment.
Things that make life awesome:
1) Watching the scene with Genie and Aladdin Monday night. And then teaching and practicing "Friend Like Me". Let's say that during one of the run-throughs we couldn't even finish the song because I was laughing so hard I couldn't count it out for them and they missed the musical cue.
2) Going to China on Monday!!!!!
3) No PT for twelve days!!!!!!!! :-)
4) Getting a real meal for the first time in four days tonight!!!!!!!
Sometimes I have to go through and remind myself that there's so much more to my life than the hospital and my stupid stupid knee. I've been three times this week already to the hospital. *sigh* It hurt so bad today. I blame having to be on my feet for work for several hours yesterday.
But but! Life is good! Fun! Awesome! And pain that makes you cry isn't enough to be a problem, yeah?
The sun on the meadow is summery warm
The stag in the forest runs free
But gather together to greet the storm
Tomorrow belongs to me
The branch of the linden is leafy and green
The Rhine gives it's gold to the sea
But somewhere a glory awaits unseen
Tomorrow belongs to me
1) I was leaving the hospital this morning and saw a bus which said: Spastic Association of Hong Kong.
2) My PT today asked me which exercise hurt more: the one where they rig me up to a pulley or just pulling my bent leg into me. I said the latter. She then told me "Oh, then you need to try harder. You must hurt yourself more."
3) Making gingerbread houses and decorating cookies! (or rather, watching students make gingerbread houses and eating all the cookies)
4) my new boots! Fantabulous. They completely change the way I walk, and I realize how much I've missed making click-click-clicks as I walk.
5) Students mispronouncing (in a story they have to read for a pronunciation test) words. Eeyore is really hard. And another ETA heard 'Pignet' for 'Piglet'.
6) Adorable kindergarten students. Every time I work the kindergarten class, it makes me want to be a young-children's-teacher. Hahahahahahaha. Can you imagine?
Things that are frustrating and yet still amusing:
1) Waiting an hour to meet with my surgeon for him to spend less than five minutes with me. And then he just tells me that I'm still off on my extension by 5-10 degrees and he'll see me in six weeks. But! He makes me so nervous! And it's hilarious! On a medical level, I completely trust him and think that the procedure went quite well (as far as I know)...no massive swelling or bruising, off crutches within two and a half weeks, etc. But on a personal level, he makes me nervous...he seems flustered (maybe because of the English, but his English is really good) when he meets me, and then he stares me straight in the eye when I'm talking but his eyes flit all over the place (wall, charts, ceiling, papers) when he's talking. He also told me that if the screw in my leg bothers me, they can take it out in a year. Hahahano.
I guess that's the only thing I find frustrating at the moment.
Things that make life awesome:
1) Watching the scene with Genie and Aladdin Monday night. And then teaching and practicing "Friend Like Me". Let's say that during one of the run-throughs we couldn't even finish the song because I was laughing so hard I couldn't count it out for them and they missed the musical cue.
2) Going to China on Monday!!!!!
3) No PT for twelve days!!!!!!!! :-)
4) Getting a real meal for the first time in four days tonight!!!!!!!
Sometimes I have to go through and remind myself that there's so much more to my life than the hospital and my stupid stupid knee. I've been three times this week already to the hospital. *sigh* It hurt so bad today. I blame having to be on my feet for work for several hours yesterday.
But but! Life is good! Fun! Awesome! And pain that makes you cry isn't enough to be a problem, yeah?
The sun on the meadow is summery warm
The stag in the forest runs free
But gather together to greet the storm
Tomorrow belongs to me
The branch of the linden is leafy and green
The Rhine gives it's gold to the sea
But somewhere a glory awaits unseen
Tomorrow belongs to me
Monday, December 3, 2007
Music I have heard in the last couple days:
- A Tori Amos song from the album "Little Earthquakes"...sung in Cantonese.
- "Amazing Grace" at PT, sung in Cantonese and English
- "Phantom of the Opera" immediately following "Amazing Grace". Nothing like balancing on the Biodex while the best duet ever comes straining through a tinny boombox.
I returned my crutches today! I saw some other kid, probably at secondary level, getting coached on how to use crutches today. I felt so sad for him.
- A Tori Amos song from the album "Little Earthquakes"...sung in Cantonese.
- "Amazing Grace" at PT, sung in Cantonese and English
- "Phantom of the Opera" immediately following "Amazing Grace". Nothing like balancing on the Biodex while the best duet ever comes straining through a tinny boombox.
I returned my crutches today! I saw some other kid, probably at secondary level, getting coached on how to use crutches today. I felt so sad for him.
Sunday, December 2, 2007
Sunday night again, and the days are just flying.
The week went fine. Nothing terribly exciting Mon-Thurs. We got to try on our costumes for Aladdin. The white ones are really pretty...long silky white skirts and short tank tops with sequins. The ones for Friend Like Me are hilarious. Bright Christmas red frilled button down shirts with paper-thin glittery silver tuxedo jackets. And silver top hats with glittery. Amazing.
Tuesday night there was a nail painting event at the dorm...I did French tips! :)
On Friday a few of us went on a shopping trip for our dorm Holiday party. We had to go to Ikea far far away (all right, Kowloon Bay, but it's a lot farther than Sha Tin) for gingerbread house kits. We're going to make houses, decorate cookies, make snowflakes, and have holiday songs. I've been making snowflake decorations yesterday and today. I'm getting better at them, which doesn't say much considering how the first ones started out.
On our trip, we swung by Taste at Festival Walk and got a baguette, Brie, and Edam. Yum! Haven't had cheese like that in ages. So delicious.
Friday night I went bowling! My first game was terrible, even by my standards. My second game wasn't terrible, but it wasn't great either. The place was really nice...clean, brightly lit, etc. It was also in a place called The Wonderful World of Whampoa. Across from a mall in the shape of a boat, sitting in about half a foot of water.
Saturday I went to Tai Po for a bit of shopping. I got boots! Boots that I can actually wear...ie without enormous heels like the ones I have. And opaque tights for warmth! I might even go back and get another pair. I've been wearing a lot of skirts here (my dress pants are too long to be worn without heels, can't wear heels because of my knee, and so), and with the weather getting 'colder' my legs are always cold. And a great black and white skirt...a little thin and perhaps thus summery. But considering it really isn't that cold here, it shouldn't be a problem. I also got a new blanket, and I've realized that one of the reasons I haven't been sleeping well the last couple nights is because I'm cold. I slept so well last night. Despite the fact that I am coming down with a cold. *pouts* Sore throat, sneezes, head and body aches. Hopefully I can shake it before China! We're leaving in a week. Very exciting!!!
Today I slept in for hours...and then I got up and did laundry and went back to sleep. So I've been awake for a total of maybe five hours today. *beams*
Arabian niiiiiiiiiiights
Like Arabian daaaaaaaaaaaays
More often than not
Are hotter than hot
in a lot of good waaaaaaaaaaays
Arabian niiiiiiiiiiiights
'Neath Arabian mooooons
A fool off his guard
could fall and fall hard
Out there on the duuuuuuuuuuuuuuuunes
*pleased face*
The week went fine. Nothing terribly exciting Mon-Thurs. We got to try on our costumes for Aladdin. The white ones are really pretty...long silky white skirts and short tank tops with sequins. The ones for Friend Like Me are hilarious. Bright Christmas red frilled button down shirts with paper-thin glittery silver tuxedo jackets. And silver top hats with glittery. Amazing.
Tuesday night there was a nail painting event at the dorm...I did French tips! :)
On Friday a few of us went on a shopping trip for our dorm Holiday party. We had to go to Ikea far far away (all right, Kowloon Bay, but it's a lot farther than Sha Tin) for gingerbread house kits. We're going to make houses, decorate cookies, make snowflakes, and have holiday songs. I've been making snowflake decorations yesterday and today. I'm getting better at them, which doesn't say much considering how the first ones started out.
On our trip, we swung by Taste at Festival Walk and got a baguette, Brie, and Edam. Yum! Haven't had cheese like that in ages. So delicious.
Friday night I went bowling! My first game was terrible, even by my standards. My second game wasn't terrible, but it wasn't great either. The place was really nice...clean, brightly lit, etc. It was also in a place called The Wonderful World of Whampoa. Across from a mall in the shape of a boat, sitting in about half a foot of water.
Saturday I went to Tai Po for a bit of shopping. I got boots! Boots that I can actually wear...ie without enormous heels like the ones I have. And opaque tights for warmth! I might even go back and get another pair. I've been wearing a lot of skirts here (my dress pants are too long to be worn without heels, can't wear heels because of my knee, and so), and with the weather getting 'colder' my legs are always cold. And a great black and white skirt...a little thin and perhaps thus summery. But considering it really isn't that cold here, it shouldn't be a problem. I also got a new blanket, and I've realized that one of the reasons I haven't been sleeping well the last couple nights is because I'm cold. I slept so well last night. Despite the fact that I am coming down with a cold. *pouts* Sore throat, sneezes, head and body aches. Hopefully I can shake it before China! We're leaving in a week. Very exciting!!!
Today I slept in for hours...and then I got up and did laundry and went back to sleep. So I've been awake for a total of maybe five hours today. *beams*
Arabian niiiiiiiiiiights
Like Arabian daaaaaaaaaaaays
More often than not
Are hotter than hot
in a lot of good waaaaaaaaaaays
Arabian niiiiiiiiiiiights
'Neath Arabian mooooons
A fool off his guard
could fall and fall hard
Out there on the duuuuuuuuuuuuuuuunes
*pleased face*
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