Valentine's Day

My house 6pm- dinner and a movie (While you were sleeping- bwoy that movie had me emotional!)
and oh, thanks for the flowers you know who :)

Vacation Videos

Baby pandas and dolphins in Hong Kong-- Ocean Park






Elephant Show; an elephant giving me a massage and Sherane playing football with the elephant

Wo Ai Ni (我爱你)

Make a Smilebox greeting

Back to school

So yesterday, Feb 12th was my first day back to work for the New Year. We decided to drop the grade 9 students so they could have more time to study for the big exam and split the grade 8 classes so they can benefit from smaller class sizes.
So we did just that, and its working out well.

Today two of my students came by to visit me during their dinner hour and brought me flowers. They are so cute! We looked at pictures from my vacation and talked for a while. I asked them if they had eaten and they replied "no"- I said "well aren't you hungry?" they replied "yes". So I told them to play on the computer while I went to cook. The three of us had dinner together, listened to some music and then I left to go to church.

The pastor asked Mary, Jingjing and I to take complete responsibility for the Bible studies starting next week! I am so excited about it :)

Asia on Speed: Beijing

Asia on Speed: Yidu/Yichang, Guangzhou and Macau

Sherane met me in Yichang and then we went to Yidu, where I live. We went straight from the airport to the shopping strip to a restaurant and finally to my home only with just enough time to take a shower and get ready for karaoke. Now when "foreigners" are on the loose, there is no peace, so I was dragged on the stage so that everyone could say "Happy New Year" to me. And then for the rest of the night, random people would approach Sherane and I to take pictures with them. The next day, a high school student came to visit me and we all went shopping as Sherane got the grand tour of Yidu. Eat, pack, lets go- we havea flight to catch. We got to the airport with lots of time to spare before or 945pm flight to Guangzhou (Southern China).


Day 3- Guangzhou (GZ)
Sherane was in charge of Thailand and I was in charge of China. While researching things to do in GZ, it was very hard for me to find anything. When we go there, we realized thats because there is nothing to do there. The place is beautiful though and the people seem to be alot friendlier which is really friendly because I have had all good experiences since I have been here. We spent the night there and met a man who we didn't know until later that he was a "God-send"- he was very familiar with the area since he was a frequent visitor to the city to do business. He saved us lots of time for our trip to Hong Kong by suggesting an alternative means of transportation. He gave us some dodgy directions and when we looked completely confused; he told us to give him 5 minutes, we went to the lobby to check out of our hotel and he came down dressed for the weather. He hailed a cab, took us to the train station, paid for our cab and train tickets and sent us on our merry way. Two hour later, we got to the last stop which read "Hum Hong" or something like that. We looked at each other with a look that declared, this was just the beginning of our crazy adventure. We went upstairs to find exactly how far Hong Kong was from this place the train had deposited us (our tickets clearly said Hong Kong!). We spoke to a man who after patching his English sentences together gave us seemingly decent directions. So after diligently studying Chinese for 5 months (ok maybe in total it was about a month with the amount of work I put in)- my chinese was no use- because in GZ and Hong KOng, they dont speak Mandarin; they speak Cantonese! So anyways, we then compared notes with another random person and then finally with a tour desk. We had a plan, leave our suitcases in the train station, buy tickets and head to Macau.
Day 4 Macau
We took a one hour ferry jet from wherever we were to Macau- which was just as scheduled (except we were supposed to arrive in Hong Kon not Hong Hum or whatever. Macau is China's version of Las Vegas -it was simply beautiful,very posh and fabulous architecture. We called the hotel while on the train to get directions and confirm our reservation. We took a shuttle from the ferry station and someone from the hotel met us so that we would not get lost. Met us- only to let us know that after we had called to confirm the reservation and he made sure that he met us, that he did not have a room for us. So I explained to him that since he had guaranteed a room and failed to do so, he would provide me with a map, internet use and his telephone to find another hotel. Aftera while, we found a hotel which was on another island in Macau. It was great because it was beautiful, we got to stay on another island which was only 15 mins from the city center and tons more posh than the original one and 5 mins from the gorgous Venetian Hotel. The next day we visited the Ruins of St. Pauls, Senado Square and wondered around in other gorgeous hotels to see people act a fool losing all their money gambling.