It has been the most wonderfully almost week but this week was the last one I had with Lucy as she left for Vietnam on Monday 10th, after 25 days in Hong Kong. It has been a week of trying to cram in lots of things and having a great deal of fun. This included throwing a surprise party for Katie's birthday, bowling, MacDonalds and a good night out in LKF. All of these added up to being a wonderful week that had a multitude of different emotions, mostly happy.
We were celebrating Katie's birthday on Wednesday but because she had decided not to celebrate it, Lucy and I decided that she had to celebrate it somehow. Plotting on Monday morning with Chris over Skype messaging, the three of us managed to persuade Mike to let us use his centre where he tutors which was the perfect place to have it. Once Lucy and I had sent around the message, we gathered at the centre on Tuesday. Lucy was keeping Katie at bay as a great group of us, half of the people I had actually never met, gathered at Mikes. Having hurriedly made a paper chain made from the paper strips I had left over from making the paper chain at Christmas, we hid in the next door room, turned out all the lights and waited.
It wasn't long before Lucy and Katie arrived. I had forgotten to tell Lucy what excuse Mike was going to make for him taking them to the particular room, it was some poor excuse about having just dinner with the three of them, before we burst out from behind the window of the adjacent room and thoroughly surprised her. With great local food and cake with her name, it was an awesome evening and Katie felt thoroughly surprised. It was a chance to meet new city, celebrate the life of a fantastic friend and get some AWESOME karaoke in! Turns out that Jeff has got an incredible voice and was blowing us all out of the water with his vocals.
On Wednesday, Katie's actual birthday day, further surprises greeted her. We had ordered pizza for lunch which we managed to persuade her from going out to buy lunch and instead lured her to the office where an abudance of pizza and snacks greeted her. Furthermore, she had a lesson at the end of lunch with the K3 whole day class. In the morning, I wrote 'Happy Birthday Miss Katie' on a huge sheet of paper that Sandy had provided and we hid in the classroom. When Katie came in, a chorus of Happy Birthday rose up which was a nice surprise for her and the children all wrote their names on the paper for her to keep.
On Friday, in the midst of packing and getting to say a few goodbyes, Lucy and I managed to have an evening where it was just the two of us, getting a final evening together. We decided to forfeit the idea of cooking and made our way down to the McDonalds by the boys at Melody. The options in Hong Kong are slightly different from England and we both settled on something that we both knew we like, I had the McSpicy Chicken Burger which is really delicious, a little kick to the chicken separates it from a regular chicken burger. Another the great additions to Hong Kong McDonalds, are the McCafe's. These are, as you can guess, little add ons to a McDonalds chain and serve a multiude of drinks as well as delicacies. I have discovered the joys of the New York Cheesecake that is served there and so Lucy and I treated ourselves to a slice each and took them to the bowling alley where we got in a good hour and three games of bowling in. I managed to win the first one, by some strange way, but Lucy thrashed me the next two times. It was a wonderful evening that was relaxed and full of laughter and sass.
It was only fair that Lucy got another night out before she left and so on Saturday, we met up with Chris, Jeff and two of the latter's friends for a night on the town. We headed first to The Globe pub, a fairly noisy proper pub that felt very British in the midst of Hong Kong and served a range of drinks of all kinds and we had great fun trying to decipher what exactly was in these concotions. Afterwards, we had to hit LKF and so went to Graffitti, a club I hadn't stepped inside. It was very packed and there was a lot of people there. However the energy was high and it was hard to tell where all the time had gone when I called it a night and went home, not feeling amazing.
On Sunday, Lucy and I woke up beautifully late and made the decision to get food on our way to The Vine. I realised that Lucy had yet to be treated to Ebeneezers and so we dropped by LKF where we knew there was an outlet and ordered the chicken curry and rice that they produce so well. Great food and company, we went over to The Vine where it was Seeds For The Future Sunday, the annual review looking at what the church's finances were and how we could help. it was actually really interesting to hear what was going on, in the financial aspect of the church, and then to hear about Andrew's heart for the future of the church.
This morning it was a rather heart-breaking but warm goodbye to Lucy. I had to rush off to school and she had packing to do so we were both up and early but we managed to get a final photo together to commemorate 25 days of awesomeness.
It will be strange not having a flatemate for the first time since Christmas, and then before that since October. But I look forward to seeing what the next four months that I have left in Hong Kong will bring.
Until next time,
Batkinson
Cantonese word of the week: pronunciation -
Quote of the week: 'Mama always said life was like a box of chocolates. You never know what you are going to get.' - Forrest Gump
Prayer points:
- I am still in great need of sleep, I want to go to sleep earlier again
Tuesday, 25 March 2014
Wednesday, 19 March 2014
Easter Plans - 24th February-3rd March
I am getting so excited now!! It is such a joy to be able to look forward to another
holiday just two months after I have already had another holiday. I always looked forward to the weekends and holidays when I was a student, now I look forward to them more than anything. I know that I have said this a few times but now I can totally sympathise with my teachers, understanding how much work they had to put in to make sure that we behaved in class and that we learnt something.
This last week has been a fairly quiet with the break of noise and excitement on Wednesday. On Monday I realised that I really was in Hong Kong. I know that sounds really cheesy, you're all saying 'well you've known you were in Hong Kong for the last six months'. What I mean is that there are times when I am in Hong Kong, when I am constantly reminded that I am in Hong Kong and in Asia rather than in Europe. This incident came as I went to get lunch on Monday lunchtime. I grabbed a box of salad from 7/11 and when I went to the counter to pay for it, I was asked (through use of hand language) if I wanted something to use to eat it. I nodded, naturally thinking that I was going to be given a fork. Imagine my surprise then, I really shouldn't have been though, when I was handed a pair of chopsticks...
On Tuesday, after a particularly long day, Lucy and I decided to treat ourselves. One of the things that I have to treat myself rather once every few months (like once every three or four months at the least) is a box of pancake mix. I use Betty Crocker because..well it's Betty Crocker, is there any other explanation needed? So we grabbed some chocolate and procceded to melt it, cooking a good deal of mini pancakes. And then, in true full immersion into the culture around us style, we proceeded to use chopsticks to dip them in the chocolate and then eat them. Admittedly it was more amusing to try than actually successful but it was a great time to relax in each other's company.
On Wednesday, Chris had organised a group to go to the races. The races at Happy Valley are extremely well known throughout Hong Kong and huge crowds swarmed to the arena on the island on Wednesday, as they do every week. After having a bit of trouble trying to find the meeting point, Lucy and I joined the group and we made our way to Happy Valley. I, slightly ashamedly, have to admit to breaking my lack of ever eating Subway and had my first sandwich. Despite all that had been said about it, I really enjoyed the meal and it was full of flavour, meat and vegetables I hasten to add.
The atmosphere in the area was electric. I had never seen so many Westerners in one place in Hong Kong, it felt both very homely and very strange all at the same time. We managed to find some seats and had a good place to view the races which happened every half an hour. We got a chance to bet and while I only placed bets on two horses, just to get the experience and have a shot at winning any money, only Chris was successful. Apparently this was to be expected as every time he has been to the races, he has won the most amount of money. There was no pressure to spend money and it was most certainly the electrifying and infectious atmosphere that was the best part of the night.
On Thursday Lucy and I met up with Katie to head to our Plus Group. A Plus Group is a part of The Vine and the idea is that a group of people from the same area meet up to eat, discuss the previous week's talk and pray for each other. We went to a friend's house in Goldcoast and while not everyone was there, there was still a good group of us. We were treated to chilli con carne and then some gorgeous homemade cheesecake. It was a delicious combo and then we watched the first installment of a series called The Truth Project, looking at what is truth and how we can find it in the Bible. While I didn't agree with everything that was said in the video, it made for an interesting watch and the company was wonderful and a great use of a Thursday evening.
The rest of the week was fairly peaceful in comparison. We heard an awesome talk from one of the pastors, Mark Nam, on Sunday about relationships which was really interesting, aiming at the difficult listeners of those in relationships AND those not in.
I look forward to seeing what March will bring now that we are in the third month of the year.
Until next time,
Batkinson x
Cantonese word of the week: pronunciation - ho yam; translation - drink
Quote of the week: 'No matter what anybody tells you, words and ideas can change the world.' - John Keating from Dead Poets Society
Prayer points:
- sleep, more sleep!! I'm struggling at times to get much sleep
- for more control over some of my classes
holiday just two months after I have already had another holiday. I always looked forward to the weekends and holidays when I was a student, now I look forward to them more than anything. I know that I have said this a few times but now I can totally sympathise with my teachers, understanding how much work they had to put in to make sure that we behaved in class and that we learnt something.
This last week has been a fairly quiet with the break of noise and excitement on Wednesday. On Monday I realised that I really was in Hong Kong. I know that sounds really cheesy, you're all saying 'well you've known you were in Hong Kong for the last six months'. What I mean is that there are times when I am in Hong Kong, when I am constantly reminded that I am in Hong Kong and in Asia rather than in Europe. This incident came as I went to get lunch on Monday lunchtime. I grabbed a box of salad from 7/11 and when I went to the counter to pay for it, I was asked (through use of hand language) if I wanted something to use to eat it. I nodded, naturally thinking that I was going to be given a fork. Imagine my surprise then, I really shouldn't have been though, when I was handed a pair of chopsticks...
On Tuesday, after a particularly long day, Lucy and I decided to treat ourselves. One of the things that I have to treat myself rather once every few months (like once every three or four months at the least) is a box of pancake mix. I use Betty Crocker because..well it's Betty Crocker, is there any other explanation needed? So we grabbed some chocolate and procceded to melt it, cooking a good deal of mini pancakes. And then, in true full immersion into the culture around us style, we proceeded to use chopsticks to dip them in the chocolate and then eat them. Admittedly it was more amusing to try than actually successful but it was a great time to relax in each other's company.
On Wednesday, Chris had organised a group to go to the races. The races at Happy Valley are extremely well known throughout Hong Kong and huge crowds swarmed to the arena on the island on Wednesday, as they do every week. After having a bit of trouble trying to find the meeting point, Lucy and I joined the group and we made our way to Happy Valley. I, slightly ashamedly, have to admit to breaking my lack of ever eating Subway and had my first sandwich. Despite all that had been said about it, I really enjoyed the meal and it was full of flavour, meat and vegetables I hasten to add.
The atmosphere in the area was electric. I had never seen so many Westerners in one place in Hong Kong, it felt both very homely and very strange all at the same time. We managed to find some seats and had a good place to view the races which happened every half an hour. We got a chance to bet and while I only placed bets on two horses, just to get the experience and have a shot at winning any money, only Chris was successful. Apparently this was to be expected as every time he has been to the races, he has won the most amount of money. There was no pressure to spend money and it was most certainly the electrifying and infectious atmosphere that was the best part of the night.
On Thursday Lucy and I met up with Katie to head to our Plus Group. A Plus Group is a part of The Vine and the idea is that a group of people from the same area meet up to eat, discuss the previous week's talk and pray for each other. We went to a friend's house in Goldcoast and while not everyone was there, there was still a good group of us. We were treated to chilli con carne and then some gorgeous homemade cheesecake. It was a delicious combo and then we watched the first installment of a series called The Truth Project, looking at what is truth and how we can find it in the Bible. While I didn't agree with everything that was said in the video, it made for an interesting watch and the company was wonderful and a great use of a Thursday evening.
The rest of the week was fairly peaceful in comparison. We heard an awesome talk from one of the pastors, Mark Nam, on Sunday about relationships which was really interesting, aiming at the difficult listeners of those in relationships AND those not in.
I look forward to seeing what March will bring now that we are in the third month of the year.
Until next time,
Batkinson x
Cantonese word of the week: pronunciation - ho yam; translation - drink
Quote of the week: 'No matter what anybody tells you, words and ideas can change the world.' - John Keating from Dead Poets Society
Prayer points:
- sleep, more sleep!! I'm struggling at times to get much sleep
- for more control over some of my classes
Thursday, 13 March 2014
On The Mend? - 17th February-24th February
This last week has been an extremely relaxing one which has been certainly a blessing. Having returned from Chinese New Year in England and having spent the first week of school feeling absolutely rubbish and being off for two days of the week (almost), it was still extremely weird to go back to school and do a full week of lessons.
This week didn't profit much activity until Saturday which was actually a blessing as I am still in recovery and want to get better as soon as possible. My chest X-ray came back clean which is incredible and wonderful but I have still got a persisting cough and cold which of course may be as a result of the poor weather we have had, only on Saturday did it start picking up.
Friday saw February's birthday party! I think these are one of the highlights of the month because as well as different food to what we normally get, this month it was sushi and spaghetti with warm Brosch soup, it is all about celebration and making it all about the kids and especially those who have birthdays in February, or whatever month it is. I was pleasantly surprised by the wonderfully adorable class that is K1Cpm. With the photos of the children that are taken, are a variety of different delicacies, normally sweets and chocolate, that the children bring in to share with their classes. We had borrowed a collection of sweets from 1C and 1D for the afternoon birthdays. When I went to go and deliver the food back to them, the teachers insisted on giving some of the food to me. Win! I can't say that I was complaining about the presentation with me of food! Especially as I reckon it's the cutest class in the afternoon! Of course, I'm not supposed to have favourites but you know...when I don't actually teach them, because then that would really be unfair. But K1 is fair game!
That evening, having been given a lot of food which is always a bonus in the day, I headed over to Melody Gardens to help celebrate Willow's birthday! Of course with the amount of food, which was a good bag full of sweet foods, it was wonderful company and food, as we ordered Ebeneezers which provides extremely good curry and chips (I haven't had the latter yet but I hear it is very good) and then spent the time relaxing in each other's company and the alcohol (of course, what dd you expect?).
On Saturday, Lucy and I got to do something that I have missed out on several opportunities to do and now I finally got to do it, go to The Peak. On the island, it is a peak (funnily enough) with wonderful walks and stunning views. We went up a rather steep hill and found some beautiful gardens with an added extra little trail called the Governor's Walk which had picturesque views but had a ridiculously steep drop on one side with the cliff face on the other. We then joined another trail which we weren't sure how long it would take to walk. It turned to take a good hour or so but the views were incredible stunning and Lucy and I had a lovely time chatting and getting to know each other even better. We made it back in time to catch sunset which was absolutely stunning, one of the best sunsets I have experienced in Hong Kong and that is saying something as I have experienced many a beautiful and gorgeous sunset here.
I am glad to report that my cough and cold have been getting better!! While it hasn't completely gone away, I am now just accepting that I will have to let it get better and wait until it goes away, I feel much more on the ball and I think that the next couple of weeks will see me out of the mask and into warmer clothes, hopefully as the weather has been extremely cold lately.
Until next time,
Batkinson xx
Cantonese word of the week: pronunciation - Hi sam a; translation - the next stop is
Quote of the week: 'it is during our darkest moments that we must focus to see the lgiht.' - Aristotle
Prayer points:
- I need to get more sleep as I am struggling to get early nights...
- one of my K2 classes are very curious and always ask questions but it deters from being able to complete all the things in the lesson - I want to allow them to ask questions but I also want to finish the lesson
This week didn't profit much activity until Saturday which was actually a blessing as I am still in recovery and want to get better as soon as possible. My chest X-ray came back clean which is incredible and wonderful but I have still got a persisting cough and cold which of course may be as a result of the poor weather we have had, only on Saturday did it start picking up.
Friday saw February's birthday party! I think these are one of the highlights of the month because as well as different food to what we normally get, this month it was sushi and spaghetti with warm Brosch soup, it is all about celebration and making it all about the kids and especially those who have birthdays in February, or whatever month it is. I was pleasantly surprised by the wonderfully adorable class that is K1Cpm. With the photos of the children that are taken, are a variety of different delicacies, normally sweets and chocolate, that the children bring in to share with their classes. We had borrowed a collection of sweets from 1C and 1D for the afternoon birthdays. When I went to go and deliver the food back to them, the teachers insisted on giving some of the food to me. Win! I can't say that I was complaining about the presentation with me of food! Especially as I reckon it's the cutest class in the afternoon! Of course, I'm not supposed to have favourites but you know...when I don't actually teach them, because then that would really be unfair. But K1 is fair game!
That evening, having been given a lot of food which is always a bonus in the day, I headed over to Melody Gardens to help celebrate Willow's birthday! Of course with the amount of food, which was a good bag full of sweet foods, it was wonderful company and food, as we ordered Ebeneezers which provides extremely good curry and chips (I haven't had the latter yet but I hear it is very good) and then spent the time relaxing in each other's company and the alcohol (of course, what dd you expect?).
On Saturday, Lucy and I got to do something that I have missed out on several opportunities to do and now I finally got to do it, go to The Peak. On the island, it is a peak (funnily enough) with wonderful walks and stunning views. We went up a rather steep hill and found some beautiful gardens with an added extra little trail called the Governor's Walk which had picturesque views but had a ridiculously steep drop on one side with the cliff face on the other. We then joined another trail which we weren't sure how long it would take to walk. It turned to take a good hour or so but the views were incredible stunning and Lucy and I had a lovely time chatting and getting to know each other even better. We made it back in time to catch sunset which was absolutely stunning, one of the best sunsets I have experienced in Hong Kong and that is saying something as I have experienced many a beautiful and gorgeous sunset here.
I am glad to report that my cough and cold have been getting better!! While it hasn't completely gone away, I am now just accepting that I will have to let it get better and wait until it goes away, I feel much more on the ball and I think that the next couple of weeks will see me out of the mask and into warmer clothes, hopefully as the weather has been extremely cold lately.
Until next time,
Batkinson xx
Cantonese word of the week: pronunciation - Hi sam a; translation - the next stop is
Quote of the week: 'it is during our darkest moments that we must focus to see the lgiht.' - Aristotle
Prayer points:
- I need to get more sleep as I am struggling to get early nights...
- one of my K2 classes are very curious and always ask questions but it deters from being able to complete all the things in the lesson - I want to allow them to ask questions but I also want to finish the lesson
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