Adventures in China

So I see that I have not talked about going to Hong Kong yet. It was a really amazing place. Obviously, it's totally geared towards tourists, but that made it so easy to navigate around. It was so nice being able to take the subway everywhere since you don't have to wait nearly as long as when you take the bus (Beijing has a nice subway too, and even nicer is that in China you only pay 2 yuan per ticket; Hong Kong was priced by how long of a ride it was). Things are much more expensive there- housing is phenominally higher there. I stayed in the tiniest room imaginable and got a thorough understanding of how Harry Potter felt growing up in a broom cupboard. Despite the higher expense, or maybe because of it, they seemed to have really good community programs like free demonstrations of kung fu at the park and a swimming pool park that was very cheap (but very nice looking). It was also extremely nice having access to western items that we just don't have here in China. There was a lot of different style restaurants; I even got some greek food there. Most people are able to speak enough English to make yourself understood. The weather was perfect: sunny during the day and rainy at night. I stayed in the very commercial area of Tsim Sha Tsui where so much shopping and bargaining takes place. I made sure to get out and visit the more quiet areas, especially the beach and some of the temples. All in all, I loved visiting there and it may just be where we go next year.

I started my new job teaching at a high school. I work with a program called ACES (America China Exchange Society) which prepares high school students to transfer to a community college in America. It's much more enjoyable for me to teach because I am able to talk about more complex topics and get more input from my students. In my ACES classes, I have 15 students; I also teach some regular high school and middle school classes which have around 50 students! Thankfully I don't have to worry about those classes as much; the ACES classes are my main focus. I'm really excited for all of the holidays coming up, especially Halloween since they don't celebrate that here (surprisingly they do celebrate Thanksgiving.... maybe that will change when I teach them about its origins...). They are all really eager to learn about American culture and most of them are highly motivated. There are about 3 students whose abilities are far below the average of the class and that has been the only hard thing about teaching. Well, that and the fact that my translating assistant can barely speak English and is constantly giving me unasked-for-advice to teach only in the Chinese method of teaching (which from his example seems to be lecturing the entire time in Chinese, rather than English). Oh well, other than him, I have a great time with my other co-workers and office mates.

It's National Week in China and we get a whole week off from work. One of the parents of Dave's students invited us to go with them to a city called Cheng De for two days. This is in the mountains and has a very famous summer palace used by former emperors. It's supposed to be very beautiful right now with the trees changing colors. We will finally get to use the video camera I bought in Hong Kong! And we'll take lots of pictures too!