Hong Kong Adventures, Part 1...

For our first evening in Hong Kong we were salivating at the thought of having some infamous dim sum at The Palace, which was recommended from one of my favorite blogs, Anthony Bordain's No Reservations on the Travel Channel...unfortunately they only serve dim sum for lunch but we had a fantastic authentic Chinese meal, then headed out to Lan Kwai Fong for some beers and some fun. We found both in copious amounts...

This morning we slept in, then had some very tasty McDonald's burgers and fries (the best in China yet) then hit the subway which runs under the Victoria Harbor and over to an island (there are over 200 here) called Lantau. Lantau is home to the Po Lin Monastery featuring the largest seated outdoor bronze Buddha in the world, over 100 feet high and HUGE.

The cable car was quite an adventure in itself, easily the longest and highest we have ever been on - spectacular views of Lantau and Hong Kong International Airport.

The Buddha is impressive to say the least. We climbed exactly 208 stairs and enjoyed the peace and quiet despite a fairly heavy crowd of Chinese and Westerners. Pictures say it much better than words...

After relaxing with the big guy we headed back to the subway and got out in Kowloon which is directly across from north Hong Kong island separated only by the harbor. We were still craving some dim sum and on another recommendation from TripAdvisor we ended up walking about half an hour to the Marco Polo Prince hotel and right across the street is Sweet Dynasty.

Hong Kong is famous for their dim sum and we were not disappointed a second time! We whoofed down several plates of some of the best dim sum ever; lightly fried pork filled dumpings, small egg roll wrappers stuffed with shrimp and dipped in sesame seeds, slices of peppers, eggplants, and taro root filled with cheeses, and some of the richest, smoothest tea in China.

With our bellies stuffed, we headed down to the harbor to watch the light show at arguably the most famous skyline in the world. We both agreed we have seen no other city that comes close to the beauty and breadth of Hong Kong harbor, and it is certainly the longest, stretching almost 180 degrees from left to right...gorgeous.

After a few beers at Felix, an uber-chic bar at the top of the Peninsula Hotel with a view so stunning it literally took our breaths away, we trotted back down and hopped on the Star Ferry and were back on Hong Kong island in less than 10 minutes.

Our first day here also happened to be the hottest on record in the last 100 years for this day in April, and we barely broke a sweat - guess we are used to hot weather being from Tampa...the whole day confirmed that now Hong Kong is our favorite city in China, but we will always have Shanghai...:)

Here are some highlights...

Hello Victoria Harbor, Hong Kong...

As I write this I am looking out at the view of Victoria Harbor from the 15th floor of our hotel. It's foggy this evening but that isn't dampening our spirits one bit as we are enjoying a bottle of Penfold's Shiraz/Cabernet, dancing around our hotel room to the Black Eyed Peas blasting from the ipod portable boom box provided by the hotel, and Nancy Pelosi is gloating about something pseudo-democratic on CNN. Yep, definitely not in DanYang anymore...we are in hot, sexy, neon-rich Hong Kong.

Hong Kong! Special Administrative Region. Juilong...

As with practically all communications from our host schools here in China, I got the word that I didn’t need to teach for the whole week ahead, late last Thursday evening. I told Jennifer the good news but it seems she had not been told any such thing by her school. Hmmm. So with the opportunity of nine days off to explore the country dangling like a dumpling in front of us, Jennifer called her host, Cynthia, personally, and after some wrangling and hemming and harrumphing Cynthia confirmed that indeed, we both have the next week off due to student exams.

Okay, it was late Thursday night, and we did have to confirm the information otherwise we would not have been told, but, we looked at each other and just grinned like two fat cats who were sharing a canary – all of the sudden we had nine days off to explore China! And although frustrated, yes, we know they are not irritating us on purpose; our hosts simply have no concept of planning and preparing so to let us know any more than absolutely necessary and not until the very last minute possible is simply not on their list of priorities. It’s just the way things are here and we deal with it be being very flexible and thinking fast on our feet. Yes!

So within a few hours Jennifer had put together a nine-day trip starting with a quick 40-minute train ride from our lovely city, DanYang, to Shanghai for an evening in our favorite city so far, and then our adventure really began – at Shanghai we hop on a fast train (with sleeper) for a 20-hour ride from Shanghai through some of the most sceneic and beautiful provinces in China; Zhejiang, then Jiangxi, and Juangdong, until we eventually disembark at Kowloon, one of the four distinct sections of Jiulong (Hong Kong).

Although it would be deliciously convenient, we are not able to purchase train tickets all the way to Hong Kong from our little city, so we agree to pack for the best and hope for more good luck and plan on buying our tickets once we are in Shanghai. For my part, I volunteer to navigate the treacherous Shanghai train station which means I end up standing in three different lines, over 40 minutes in each, until finally shuffling up to the window where I use every Chinese word I know and some I even make up to go with my sign language and thankfully(!), walk out with two tickets (655 yuan each, about $85 ea.) in a soft sleeper, which means a small room with four bunk beds (luxury here in China!). On the way home we hit a Pizza Hut and have a huge Supreme, original crust, and some Heinekens to celebrate our fleetfootedness!

Yesterday. We are feeling quite worldly and pleased with ourselves as we haggle with the vendors around the train station and pick Jenny up two sexy, hippie-traveling-the-globe sort of way, gauze skirts that you see on granola-eating tree huggers everywhere these days. We roll our little caravan luggage to the station and then calmly and efficiently jostle and elbow our way in the early Spring Shanghai heat through the crowds to the immigration screening and deportation process to get over to the Special Administrative Region known as Hong Kong.

Once screened, departure-formless, stamped, and approved, we are herded through a maze of tunnels and end up pushing our way to the front in the waiting room, nestle in with our luggage and look at our passports.

We giggle like school kids on an all-day field trip as we compare passports. The blue, black, pink stamps and seals and visas, all in different languages and codes, are beginning to look like the graffiti of jet-setters, world-travelers, explorers. I take a light nap while Jenny reads up on our destination and a few hours later we are rolling our luggage through a puddle of urine left by a toddler who couldn’t wait, and why should he(!), find our sleeper car, and are elated when we meet our traveling bunk mates, a young couple from Argentina, who speak better than average English, who are backpacking their way down to Thailand, from Shanghai via Hong Kong.

So we had a good train trip, got to speak some English and catch up on a few episodes of our latest obsession, ABC's Lost!, and now we are putting our first evening in Hong Kong together, after a much needed nap.

Talk soon...

From 0 - 60 in one lesson...

Hello, Ms. Jenny here...Of all the things that are challenging here in China, I did not think that teaching would be the most difficult. I knew I would have difficulty with the food, and the language, and even the loneliness from feeling, and actually being, so far away from home and family.

But I'm realizing now that my new career is the most challenging aspect of my time here in China.

Let me begin by saying that last week, I did not have to teach at all! Well, initially I was first told that I would have to teach on Tuesday and Friday only. It was not until I got prepared on Tuesday, dressed, then biked over to my school and showed up to teach that I was casually told I was not needed today. With a smile they said I had a holiday. Grrr...

When the same thing happened on Friday I bit my tongue and just accepted that this is not a communication problem; it is just how it is here in China. From another casual broken English explanation, this time it was because of exams and then there was also a “Tomb Sweeping” holiday that my students had a few days off to celebrate.

So they decided to let me know about it when they could(?)..Sigh...

Sean also had a few days off as well, and the same communication issue happened to him too, but we did relax about it and ended up taking a few trips to some local towns, Nanjing and Suzhou. I will talk about them in another blog.

During our few days off I took some time and prepared a few good lessons for my students. I came up with a game called “The Alphabet Challenge” which is fashioned after the board game, Scrabble. The alphabet is written up on the board and points are awarded according to the first letter of the word used by the students and the amount of letters in a word. As soon as a letter is used it can't be used again so I felt like this game would be a good way to get my class enthusiastic and perhaps creative about English - I think I went overboard.

They went fanatical!

I chose to split the class into two teams... the Chinese are very competitive. And I mean competitive! And no matter how many times I explained that I only wanted one person from each team up at the board to write a word - they would not (maybe could not) listen! It was Mayhem!

They were as driven as I have ever seen them. I think that I even saw a few elbows. Lets just say, it was not how I pictured the class would play out, but it sure was fun to watch. Sean and I discussed the progression (or sheer loss of control - 55 Chinese students yelling and pushing is loud!!) of our classes during lunch and even after making a few adjustments, I am still finding myself being attacked by word hungry (point hungry) students.

I will bring my camera with me tomorrow and take a video of a class as they attack the board like hyenas on a lion’s carcass. Like I said, it sure is fun to watch.

“Are they learning anything?” you may ask... yes, I think so. We do review the words that are written and correct any spelling mistakes and I also give them new words to think about.

At least I am not hearing “This is boring!”.

Next week, I have decided to bring in the lyrics to some American songs by bands such as ColdPlay, Avril Lavigne and Back Street Boys. I will bring in the music and we will sing songs together while reading the lyrics on the overhead. Yes, I will sing with my class. This is something that every teacher is expected to do, the students absolutely love to sing, and I have put it off until now. I did sing a song (by myself) in our English Club two weeks ago. I sang Desperado and Sean sang a song by Stone Temple Pilots (of all groups!). They loved it...at least they clapped and cheered like they did.

Until next time... Keep smiling! :)