So yay! I had my birthday, obviously, and it was good times. I celebrated by teaching a couple classes at the primary school (they both sang happy birthday to me because my co-teachers knew it was my bday), a rousing dinner at McDonald's, and then bowling!
Since then, I have been predominantly working in the primary schools both on this campus and the other. I have also been to the beach a few times...back to Repulse Bay, then Shek O, half-hearted beach trip to an island whose name I forget, and Lantau. I think I could make a habit of going every Friday, assuming it doesn't rain. I've been wandering around Hong Kong some, doing a bit of shopping, sightseeing, eating. I went to the Bun Festival on Monday, which was at the above island. It was crazy crowded, there was a long parade, lots of buns, etc. It was fun, although incredibly overwhelming.
I've been doing a lot of reading and studying as well. I started Dostoevsky's Brothers Karamazov about a week and a half ago. It's really good, but of course incredibly intense. And sometimes, I'm just not quite up to a good theological and psychological discussion of everything and anything. Which is why I got The Phantom Tollbooth from the library today. I'm partway through several books right now: Brothers K, Phantom Tollbooth, The Woodlanders by Hardy, starting a book of Robert Browning's poems, have started Umberto Eco's Faith in Fakes, am almost consistently somewhere in the middle of The Secret History, and I'm about to start a Concise History of the Catholic Church. I really do need to make a list of what all I've read in HK. I think it would be illuminating.
The LSAT studying is happening, and it's having a slow but much needed effect. Although I'm still missing quite a few questions, first off I'm missing less, secondly I feel like I have a better grasp on the test (that is to say, I'm not guessing on half the questions), and finally I don't hate it quite as much as I used to. Today alone I've spent about three plus hours with it. Yesterday I worked for about three as well. Either Monday or Wednesday I'm going to make myself sit down and take a full-out test (five sections instead of four). Less than four weeks now...the panic has *finally* kicked in.
Many primary school lessons this week, lots of studying, hopefully a beach excursion, and I'd like to knock out a couple hundred pages of Brothers K if possible, read some poetry, finish the Hardy book because it's not long or hard but I've been reading miserly bits for almost three weeks, etc. And I want to take either the 271 or the 307 and get lost in TST or Central respectively. I mean, my purpose is not to get lost, but rather to wander. Although knowing me, the getting lost is bound to happen.
Sunday, May 18, 2008
Friday, May 2, 2008
Been awhile.
So China. I went there again. We had our second teaching attachment trip, and I was in Nanjing. We flew out of Hong Kong on Thursday morning and came back not that Sunday but the Sunday after that. So 10 days.
We were lodged comfortably in Western style at the Green Tree Inn, which, unlike the hostel in Guangzhou, pretty much opened onto a main street with stores, taxis, and food. We were responsible for most of our own meals, although we did have some arranged dinners which were usually Chinese style banquets. And the hotpot we had the first night. Solid mushroom hotpot. I've never eaten that many mushrooms, being not a huge fan, and to be honest, I'm not sure I even was aware of the fact that there were so many edible mushrooms.
I got, as expected, what I shall refer to as the Tour Guide syndrome while in Nanjing. Hanging out with a bunch of people who, not to put to fine a point on it, are clearly foreigners, all people turn to me to translate. Which makes it even funnier when one of the other ETAs busts out their putonghua instead. I can pretty much only say thank you, and even that I manage to mess up by thanking people in Cantonese instead of Mandarin. Of course, now that I'm back in Hong Kong, I want to thank everyone in Mandarin now.
Our duties were pretty straightforward. We were teaching at an Institute that was across the Yangtze River, so we took a bus back and forth twice a day. It is a huge river, and the bridge is forever long, and the traffic is crazy. Also, interestingly, there are bus stops in the middle of the bridge, which doesn't make a lot of sense to me. You'd think that once you were on a bus on the bridge you would just want to cross all the way over, not get off midway and catch another bus. Anyway, we mostly worked with small groups of students...intensive talking and such. They had some questions already developed, but a lot of it was just impromptu. We also did a games morning which was pretty fun. Sack races, three-legged races, limbo, relays, etc. We ate at the canteen on campus for lunch. And we had a guest room on campus so that during our long breaks we could go chill out (literally...I was not prepared for how cold it was).
I also went to the Nanjing Massacre Memorial, twice actually. Once with just a couple other ETAs and once with my group of eight. It's intense, gloomy. I have no idea how it compares to the Holocaust Memorial, but this one did not beat around the bush and had a fair amount of brutal photographs and stories in addition to more innocuous artifacts.
I got sick upon returning...tummy troubles. Went to the ER and when I had told them that I had been in China, they just nodded and said 'Ah, so you ate dirty food.' *shrug* I'm feeling better, but still pretty shaky. I just ate my first decent meal in a couple days, and it may or may not have agreed with me. But then again, curry fried rice may or may not have been the nicest thing to give it. I'm just so sick of bread and crackers.
We're starting up projects at new primary schools next week in addition to continuing our duties at the primary school on campus. Much of the other responsibilities are falling off as students leave campus. And I...I need to crack down on the whole studying thing.
Anyway, it's Friday, I've spent the majority of the last five days in my bed feeling miserable. It reminded me uncannily of the early parts of September and November. *shudder*
So China. I went there again. We had our second teaching attachment trip, and I was in Nanjing. We flew out of Hong Kong on Thursday morning and came back not that Sunday but the Sunday after that. So 10 days.
We were lodged comfortably in Western style at the Green Tree Inn, which, unlike the hostel in Guangzhou, pretty much opened onto a main street with stores, taxis, and food. We were responsible for most of our own meals, although we did have some arranged dinners which were usually Chinese style banquets. And the hotpot we had the first night. Solid mushroom hotpot. I've never eaten that many mushrooms, being not a huge fan, and to be honest, I'm not sure I even was aware of the fact that there were so many edible mushrooms.
I got, as expected, what I shall refer to as the Tour Guide syndrome while in Nanjing. Hanging out with a bunch of people who, not to put to fine a point on it, are clearly foreigners, all people turn to me to translate. Which makes it even funnier when one of the other ETAs busts out their putonghua instead. I can pretty much only say thank you, and even that I manage to mess up by thanking people in Cantonese instead of Mandarin. Of course, now that I'm back in Hong Kong, I want to thank everyone in Mandarin now.
Our duties were pretty straightforward. We were teaching at an Institute that was across the Yangtze River, so we took a bus back and forth twice a day. It is a huge river, and the bridge is forever long, and the traffic is crazy. Also, interestingly, there are bus stops in the middle of the bridge, which doesn't make a lot of sense to me. You'd think that once you were on a bus on the bridge you would just want to cross all the way over, not get off midway and catch another bus. Anyway, we mostly worked with small groups of students...intensive talking and such. They had some questions already developed, but a lot of it was just impromptu. We also did a games morning which was pretty fun. Sack races, three-legged races, limbo, relays, etc. We ate at the canteen on campus for lunch. And we had a guest room on campus so that during our long breaks we could go chill out (literally...I was not prepared for how cold it was).
I also went to the Nanjing Massacre Memorial, twice actually. Once with just a couple other ETAs and once with my group of eight. It's intense, gloomy. I have no idea how it compares to the Holocaust Memorial, but this one did not beat around the bush and had a fair amount of brutal photographs and stories in addition to more innocuous artifacts.
I got sick upon returning...tummy troubles. Went to the ER and when I had told them that I had been in China, they just nodded and said 'Ah, so you ate dirty food.' *shrug* I'm feeling better, but still pretty shaky. I just ate my first decent meal in a couple days, and it may or may not have agreed with me. But then again, curry fried rice may or may not have been the nicest thing to give it. I'm just so sick of bread and crackers.
We're starting up projects at new primary schools next week in addition to continuing our duties at the primary school on campus. Much of the other responsibilities are falling off as students leave campus. And I...I need to crack down on the whole studying thing.
Anyway, it's Friday, I've spent the majority of the last five days in my bed feeling miserable. It reminded me uncannily of the early parts of September and November. *shudder*
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