Age shall not weary them nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning,
We will remember them.'
I continue to thank every single serviceman and woman who has fought for our countries and today is a special day. I was fortunate to be free at 11am UK (although teaching at HK time) today to pay tribute to those who sacrificed their freedom so that we may have it. It is a blessing that we take for granted and today is a time to be humbled in knowing that there are people who don't know us and will never know us, who were still willing to sacrifice themselves for us.
This week there has been much counting that has occurred since last Monday evening. The week has proved as hectic and exciting as I had anticipated with three rather exciting events taking place over the week. One of the delights of this week was that I only had to be teaching for two days, on Monday and Tuesday with one PE lesson on Friday which proved to be...interesting...I am slightly running out of ideas for the lessons, it is K2 so 3 year olds so any suggestions would be warmly accepted and considered.
Excitement began on Wednesday with the annual school picnic. We were all assigned a class, I was assigned K2Bam where I met the class teacher and waited for the children and their parents to arrive. The idea of the day was for the families to spend time with the teachers and each other in a relaxed and fun environment. With everyone finally present, we were the last group to leave the school, we got on the coach and spent the hour journey it took to get there, playing Bingo which was good for helping me to learn Cantonese numbers and I led the children in 'showing our mummies and daddies how good we are at singing our English songs' which was limited to only about 4 seeing as not many of them were that keen on singing, despite the promise of sweets and presents if they did...
When we arrived, the English teachers had been assigned different activities. I was on K2 Karaoke where the children could come, sing a song they had learnt in English and in return for 'singing so well' they got a pen! Each station had a different prize and a different thing to do. There were many enthusiastic kids as well as quite a few pushy parents...I moved after lunch to 'English Games' where we showed the children pictures of objects they would recognise and they had to name the objects and then find the one I asked them for once I mixed the bowls around. It was very laborious after you have done it several times and the heat was searing which didn't improve anyone's mood.
As a result of this hard day's work, we got the next day off! Katie, Will and I joined Grace and her friend Cheong on a great trip to Ocean Park, a theme park with a zoo also inside it. It happily coincided with the anniversary of it being TWO MONTHS since Will and I arrived in Hong Kong! There are many photos below of some of the places we went and what we saw. The park is so big and awesome that it requires a cable car or a train ride to get between the two sections of the park! We went on one of those drop down rides where you go to th top, hang and then drop! TWICE! I think it was safe to say that I did things I never thought I would ever do but I am glad I did them. We saw bottlenose dolphins and fed California sea lions, finishing off the day with seeing Giant Pandas in real life and having a mini fireworks display to round off the day. So maybe it wasn't quite 5th November standard but Katie, Will and I were glad to get some kind of fireworks display to make up for it!
Saturday was fairly relaxed but a plan was made for the evening. A group of 8 of us went to Tuen Mun Town Centre and had some delicious sushi at reasonable prices before heading to the cinema opposite for the 9.30pm showing of Thor 2: The Dark World! It was SO COOL!!!! I'm writing a review of it at the moment and will do a special blog update just for it as I think you will get uber bored if this blog update goes on for too much longer so I won't kill you slowly with it! But we thoroughly enjoyed it although the 3D showing we went to go and see didn't really enhance the performance, it was slightly pointless but I had forgotten how cool wearing two sets of glasses at the same time was! However the late showing did mean we got to sleep at ridiculous o'clock but we enjoyed ourselves and I think that was the point of it all.
I have no idea what this week will hold for me, other than a whole load of writing for my NaNoWriMo! It's going well but it is hard work! I have found the journey from home to church gives me a perfect lot of writing time and it's a good time to catch up. Sadly I don't get this weekend off as we have interviews for the new set of K1 children for next year...yes I don't quite understand why they have to do interviews but I'm not going to oppose it if that is what happens and we do get a good lot of children every year and I saw the queues of people lining up to apply for the school...
Well, until next time!
Batkinson
Cantonese word/phrase of the week: pronunciation - nay ya mo see yaa; translation - are you okay?
Quote of the week: 'Hope. It is the only thing stronger than fear.' - President Snow (Huger Games)
NaNoWriMo current word count: 18,457 words!!
Prayer points:
- I really struggled with class control with my K3 classes today, it was very stressful and I fear that my kids aren't respecting me as a teacher. I want them to have fun but they don't understand the idea that if they muck around, they won't get to play games which they enjoy...
- MORE SLEEP PLEASE!!!! I think the hard bed and hard pillow might have something to do with it but I still struggle to keep my eyes open sometimes in the morning.
Bobo, Sandy and Pet in our uniform pink shirts for outings at the school picnic!
Pink Bethia selfie time!!! Pink t-shirt and pink shades, I think I did quite well co-ordinating there!
Will and KC looking 'cool' and rocking the pink!
Another selfie with Gigi
Me, Grace, Katie and Will outside Ocean Park ready to go when it opens!
The cable car ride from one part of the park to the other. Such beautiful views and a great ride.
The front of Hair Raiser, the first ride we went on. The title says it all!
The Flash, perhaps one of the scariest rides I have ever been on...It twisted and turned you and then hung you upside down for a few seconds before bring you down again, I am never doing that one again...
'Please do not sit on the escalator.' They were just asking for it, weren't they?
The drop on the log flume, yeah you can't see the drop it was that steep!
One of the sea lions hanging on the rocks in their enclosure.
Me feeding the sea lions!!!!!
This has to be one of tmy favourite photos I have ever taken, quite proud of this one!
Grace and Will trying out some of the stuff in the shop.
One of the many jellyfish in their own little section. They were all really cool!
Group selfie on the Ferris Wheel! Yes, we went on that and on the swinging chairs!
Grace and Katie posing for the camera
Abyss, the 'rise up, wait and then drop you at terrifying speeds' kind of ride. Exhilerating, terrifying and awesome all at the same time!
Frozen Sprite for three extra dollars than just cold, it is genius and really good!
The dolphins with their handlers at the show.
This was the only shot I could get the dolphins jumping in the water, I always got it far too late!
The interior of the Ocean Express, our travel back down to the start. It was Industrial Revolution meets Asia, kinda cool!
Me with my giant panda! Well, not mine but the first one I had ever encountered in real life.
One of the Giant Pandas just chilling..
Katie and Will mucking around...
Fire and fireworks and water, created a wonderful display of colours and light, this is water, honestly!
The last fireworks about to go off!
Yes, this was legitimately something we could get on the menu at the sushi restaraunt...Chris and I still can't understand what exactly it is...
This week's awkward mis-translation into English. It is supposed to say 'does not stop' as Ocean Walk is the shopping arcade, the other lift does go there..I pass it every day.
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