Logging on this evening (for me over here it is at least) made me extremely excited to see that my blog has had over 1,000 views! That's insane, thank you so much to everyone who puts up with my ramblings and strange adventures that I have over here. It's humbling to know that you guys actually want to hear/read about what I get up to.
One of the things that I have learnt that has been a most entertaining experience while being out here, and no doubt I will experience many times again, has been the idea of learning on the job. This has come in many forms such as learning how to teach as I co-taught with the teachers towards the end of my first week at Siu Lun and then learning about the festivals that are celebrated here in Hong Kong while teaching them to the K2 and K3 children...
On Friday, this proved no exception as Will and I experienced the K3 Chinese Culture Day. On the day, the children came dressed up in a variety of costumes ranging from Chinese traditional dress, to their own clothes, to a Chinese Emporer, to a Communist soldier which was...interesting. We were designated to be serving tea to the children when they came into the playground where tables and chairs were set up. We taught them how to say 'may I have some tea please?' and then when we served it, to say 'thank you'. It certainly showed us who were the more confident children at speaking English and who were slightly less sure. We wore traditional dress, as you can see below but it was good fun and a chance to interact with both the class teachers and the children. Katie played the drums that were there for the children's entertainment and one of the class teachers taught me how to sing the vague translation of We Will Rock You into Cantonese to sing for the children, which I cannot remember any more!
Saturday was spent going to Yuen Long to get our ID cards, meaning that we are now officially allowed in Hong Kong! We have had temporary ones but now instead of having to carry around the temp ones or our passports, if we are stopped, we can show that we are allowed here! In the evening, we travelled to Siu Hong to celebrate the headmistress of Siu Lun's birthday. All around Hong Kong, there are places where you go, pay HK$100 which is less than £10, and you get a spot with an open fire, a free soft drink and bottle of water and unlimited dishes of meat you can choose yourself. Will, Katie and I were there with the headmistress, her husband and their two girls who were very sweet and spoke a little English, the vice principal and two of the deputies so very select! It was a great time and we learnt some Cantonese and taught some English along the way! I discovered marshmallows were for sale and so, to the delight of the girls, we spent time roasting them over the fire after the meat which lead to a good debate about when a marshmallow was cooked enough to eat, golden vs burnt!
Following church on Sunday and a talk about the poor in Hong Kong, it has one of the widest gaps between the rich and poor in the world, I hung around with Murray and Chris who work in a primary school on the island and our new friends Grace and Bella from The Vine and we went back to the guys' place at a theological college not far from church. We hung out in the main area, sung more worship songs as Murray is very competent with the guitar and met some of their neighbours who were all extremely friendly but none of them seemed to be actually students at the college! We travelled then with an American called Will who lived on the same corridor as Murray and Chris, to Lan Kwai Fong to meet up with the other gaps who had come along. We were celebrating Murray's birthday which is actually today and so once a certain amount of alcohol had been consumed, we hit Club 1997.
Now I know what you are all thinking: what on EARTH do you think you lot are doing hitting the clubs on a Sunday night when you have school in the morning? Yes, I know it does sound crazy until I tell you that it is Chung Yueng Festival and so everyone got the day off work today. So it was the perfect excuse to go out on a Sunday night! We managed to get the DJ to put a shout out to Murray just past midnight on his birthday in English and you can see from the pictures below, Murray attempted (and succeeded twice) to take on a drink that involved pouring alcohol down three wine glasses into a cocktail glass and setting the alcohol alight! It looked fantastic but deadly and he got a huge round of applause once he had completed it!
Today involved a nice long lie in following the late night and I have been attempting to get the flat ready for Ruth's arrival on Wednesday morning. It looks alright but I know the flat needs more work on my behalf and I cannot wait to have a flat mate. I have almost completed the collages that I have been working on since I arrived and there will be pictures next week of the completed work of art!
Until the next time,
Batkinson
Cantonese word of the week: pronounced - low see; translation - teacher!
Overheard in the classroom (while getting the children to colour in farms): look Miss Beth! Mickey Mouse is riding a cow!
Quote of the week: 'Ability is what you're capable of doing. Motivation determines what you do. Attitude determines how well you do it.' - Lou Holtz
Prayer points:
- That I will get on well with Ruth!!
Murray taking on the flaming alcohol challenge with success!! So proud, it looked insane!
Chris 'attempting' to be cool Hong Kong style...attempting being the key word here!
Murray bashing out some tunes on his guitar!
The remains of the peach cake we had on Saturday! The cake here isn't like over in England but it's still good!
Our barbeque pit!
Me and Ms Bobo (vice principal) in our almost matching dresses on Friday!
Me and Will in our outfits for Friday!
Katie and Will banging out the drums with interesting degrees of rhythm.
Children carrying the dragon that went around the playground to us on the drums! 
Honey crackers, a rather liked snack. Literally some honey in between two crackers!
The playground at Siu Lun, ready for hte kids to come in and experience Chinese tea!
My latest care package from home bearing cooking utensils, some awesome oven gloves and a jumper I thought I'd lost!!! Thanks family!
No comments:
Post a Comment