Asia on Speed: Thailand and Hong Kong

Day 4-6 Hong Kong
We bought tickets to go back to Hong Kong, after the ferry was ready to leave, we checked the tickets we had before and realized that we left from Kowloon. So here is the deal with Hong Kong- there is Kowloon, Hong Kong, outlying islands and major territories so technically within 5 mins you can be on a different island. So our suitcases were in Kowloon and we were n our way to Hong Kong, so we laughed went to sleep and decided that we'd figure it out since our hotel was in Kowloon anyways. We checked in to our hotel in Kowloon and 2 stops later on a train we were back to where our suitcases where so it really wasnt a big deal.
While in Hong Kong- this was our plan, go to Man Mo Temple, Victoria's Peak, Stanley Market, Repulse Bay, Jumbo Floating Restaurant, Ocean Park, Chinese New Year Parade, Mong Kok. At night, we would fly from Hong Kong to Bangkok




























This tour guide was the funniest ever.












Dolphin Show



Chinese New Year Lion dance at Ocean Park










Day 6-9 Thailand
We got to Bangkok at 1030pm; dropped off our suitcases, took a taxi to the night market; after enjoying great culture, street food and people constantly trying to rip us off-- at 3am we left the night market and went back to the airport. We had a flight at 7am to Phuket where we would spend two full days; and then return to Bangkok. Phuket was simply amazing- the first day we arrived at 9am and went to a tour desk, we had plans to go on a tour at 2pm so we changed for an 11am tour. We took a taxi to the hotel (so beautiful and the staff- extremely friendly). We showered, slightly and packed and got ready to ride elephants and have them snot all over us, see a monkey show, take pics with a bufflo and ride and ox. We were very excited to ride an elephant but we once we got there we were all ambivalent because we didnt think the elephants were being treated the way we thought they should be treated- whatever that means :( The elephant show was really good, they were dancing, playing football- Sherane was goal keeper; played basketball and gave Sherane and I massages. I was a bit afraid to let the lephant step on my back- ever heard about animals gone wild or just snap and go crazy but anyways- he gently stepped on my back after which he kissed me ewwww so slimy... the monkey show was very funny. At night, we went to a beach, shopping and a night market
Next day was for water activites, we went to 4 other islands (including Phi island and a monkey beach) which were breathtaking and if you ever doubted the existence of God -- the creation and majestic beauty was just awesome. We went swimming, snorkeling and sunbathing- they also had a snake viewing on the beach and a monkey beach with the rudest monkies ever- they would throw the bananas at people and only accept watermelon!
Flight back to Bangkok- stayed in Bangkok for another day- saw the Grand Palace; every kind of buddha- sitting buddha, standing buddha, and other really beautiful places. The thing with Thais- they are the most charming people I have met, they will rob you blind but still smile- I bought something for 200baht (I had bargained down to 200) which is really cheap but while Sherane was still deciding, I started to wander around, I found the same item- starting price 150! I went back before Sherane had purchased and said to the store owner "sweetheart, why did you try to sell me this bed accssory for 500 when they are 150? She smiled and gave me 50baht back! Obviously that was just to woo Sherane to purchase and in any case she wasnt loosing because they prob cost 50 baht!
So we leave our hotel and 5 minutes down the street is the Grand Palace- it was literally across the street except for the fact that there was a huge manmade structure preventing us from crossing (I forget the technical jargon)- so we asked a taxi how much it would be to literally go across the street (he would just have to drive for 2 mins make a left and drop us off) he stated some ridiculous number so we told him to go. We asked a passerby how to get across but he said his english wasnt very good. So another man was passing us and asked us what we needed, we explained and he told us that the Grand Palace was closed because the monks are praying and would not reopen until after lunch. He suggested that we take a tuk tuk (one of those vehicles with the sides open so you can fall out if there is a sharp turn- kinda looks like a golf buggy) to some other touristy places. He said he was an english teacher and cautioned us against taking the pink tuk tuks because they will cheat us but the yellow one was a GVT one so they couldnt. A few minutes after he told us about good tourist places to go, a gvt tuk tuk passes- he hailed it and told them not to charge us more that 30 baht to go to 4 tourist spots and a Thai expo! We were like what???? we paid 150 baht for a 20 min ride home (conversion rate is about 1US:34baht) so 150 for a taxi really wasnt expensive so 20 wasnt even $1! He told us about a thai expo which was ending that day and would be included in the price. Long story short, the entire thing was a scam, the only reason it was so cheap is because if we bought anything at the thai expo (which turned out to be just a jewelry store) they would get a commission. The whole thing we just choked up to experience and laughed about it because at least we went to 2 other places-- one was closed for cleaning! and the tuk tuk driver only spoke english conveniently- as in he didnt understand when we said it was closed but when we told him we didnt want to go to the expo he spoke very good english and tried to convince us to go! So we told him to take us back where we started and then in a taxi on the way to the Grand Place which was not closed for monks praying, we saw them pullin the same scam on a bug group of tourists. I told the driver I wanted to say hi to my friend but he prob knew so he didnt stop lol.
Flew from Bangkok-Beijing







Elephant giving me a massage


Sherane and I in a tuk tuk




I saw this lil boy and Sherane and I were taking about how cute he was, so I touched his hair and he responded "20 baht"! We told him to take a pic with us and then we would give him money, so he did and we did. Check out the pose.

Cockroaches anyone?




Some temple with some random people and monks

The Grand Palace


They made us change to go into the Grand Palace, hence the skirts

Amy and Brad

Thinking of you

You will be missed by Yichang, the people you have touched along the way, your students and the family you have created here in China.


I will miss you (will being the operative word because I haven't started yet :)- I love you!)

Sincerely,
The Grinch!

January 10th

Katie, Jingjing and I in a mamu on the way to meet up for dinner.Then we go to KTV (karaoke) with a few friendsDuet with FrostKatie and I sing "She will be loved"My supervisor, Mrs. Liu (Alice) and I hit the dance floor

Katie's visit

At 11am I go to see my friend Erica and helped her to grade papers. We were then invited to a banquet with a few parents and some teachers from the grade 7 office. The food was delicious, not sure what the conversation was about but we had a good time.

Jingjing, Sally and Erica met me and we went to eat at one of our favorite restaurants. Later, we went to Bble study at the local chrch. My friend Katie was supposed to come visit me from Yichang so we met up with her later.

Katie, Jingjing and I stayed up and talked for a while then went to bed.

The next day- Katie, Erica and I went shopping and after a while Erica left. Katie and I got hungry so we decided to go to a restaurant. We went to a dumpling restaurant confident that with her knowledge of chinese and mine put together, we could order something edible. We both started living in China at the same time and lets just say we haven't been as diligent in studying chinese as we should be!

I knew the characters for pork and one for vegetable so I deciphered that I was ordering some kind of meat and vege. She knew the character for carrots and a knew mutton so we ordered mutton and carrot dumplings. Then we decided to get chicken dumplings because we have never tried it. She knows the character for chicken and I knew another type of vegetable so we ordered that. We did well and were pretty impressed with our progress except for when the egg dumplings came. We then realized that while the first character was chicken; the others were actually signaling that it would be egg that comes from a chicken! Big deal, one mistake- we were proud!

Normally, we cook at home, eat out with big groups and normally one person orders or buy food we know how to say. This place in particular, they hand you the menu and you write your order so we couldn't get away with just butchering the characters!

January 8th

I was invited to eat lunch with a few teachers today.

Erica came to visit me around 5pm, we went to the phone store and ran into two teachers. They invited us to eat so we met up with them after we went to pay my phone bill. We had delicious dumplings; then we played games.

We separated around 9:30pm and Erica and I talked until around 11pm.

Random things on random days

My students
In class one day a student was reading another English textbook, I am not sure why but it wasn't my required text so I took it away from her. After class, I would give the book back but she took too long to come outside so I gave the book to her Chinese English teacher and went home. Later, I went to her class and two of her classmates saw me, one looked at me very seriously and said "Rose, do you have a problem?" I said "excuse me" and she repeated herself. She saw that I wasn't smiling anymore and looked at me confused, so she said "on Dec 25th we will have something for Christmas, do you have a problem"; I said "oh, a program!" she burst out laughing and affirmed after apologizing 2000 times in between laughs. I thought she was asking me if I had a problem why I took away her friends book! So yes, I am still in honeymoon stage with teaching, China and my students :)

Animal Kingdom
I have a new rabbit; ok so if you remember I bought 2 rabbits one Sunday and they died on Tuesday of the same week! My friends and I decided that I was incapable of having a pet; I couldn't agree more. So my student asked me to take her rabbit and I told her I didn't think that it was a good idea and I would feel bad if they died; she said I really want you to have a pet and my parents dont like the rabbit; so I knew that if I took the rabbit she could come to my house and see it whenever she wanted to; so I agreed. On Sunday, she brought the rabbit and as she was taking it out, I was like "aww how cute, its so small" and I told her to go because she had class. When she left I looked at the rabbit and no it was not dead but it was a hamster! I do not like mice, rats, moles or anything gerbil/rodent like.
So the next morning I go to use the bathroom and I am half asleep; I see a line flash but I figured my eyes haven't adjusted. I go to check on the little evil and he is gone! I am freaking out now because that thing could be on my bed and that's just gross! 'So I look in the bathroom again and he is in there. By the way, I still don't know if its a girl or boy so we wil just say "it". Now the lid was on the cage thingy so it must have muscled up and got out.

My friend's dog died a month or two ago and she recently got another one; I tease her when I go to her house and say it is animal farm because she has a cat, dog, hamster and she's thinking about getting fish. Then when I go to her house to eat or watch movies; the cat and the dog just lie on me; and I don't like being touched by animals :(


I went to the supermarket and I saw this cute little girl. So I said to her in chinese, "hi small friend" and she screamed. So I said to her in Chinese "I'm sorry, I know I look very weird!" So she came to me and started growling and gritting her teeth. I was taken aback so I burst out laughing. Then I kneeled down in front of her and started growling back at her. She looked at me and started laughing; so I started laughing and then she growled again. We played this game back and forth until I decided to leave the little possessed baby girl.


Babies

My Chinese friend recently converted so Mary, Jennifer and I are doing Bible study with her on some Sundays. I gave her a chinese Bible and she decided that she would start reading Genesis. When she got to chapter 5, she came to my house and said; "I am reading Genesis and I learned about the Creation but then I got to the part where this one and this one had a baby and another one had another baby, and its just too many babies!"

MY Descendants

Whenever people see me, they would say in chinese "foreigner"- after a while you either get used to it or get utterly annoyed that they haven't gotten used to you being here. I went to a primary school to see some children and a few ran by calling me a foreigner and running away.
One girl was so afraid because all she has ever seen for her 9 or so years of existence- Chinese people. So I started speaking to her in chinese and that made her more in awe. I said to her, I am a real person, really. I asked her if she agreed, she didnt know. So she started walking around me in circles checking me out. So I stretched out my hand and she touched it, then she touched the other hand. Then I bent down so we could see each other eye to eye and she touched my cheek, then my hair then rubbed my face. I said to her, am I real? She nodded her head assuredly. Later I went to talk to some of the students. She mumbled something as if she wanted to tell me a secret and I bent down and she kissed me on my cheek.

A while later two came beside me, pointed to me and said "African" and ran away. So I called them and a group of children swarmed around Jingjing and I and we explained that in America, there are white people, black people and yellow people (chinese); some of them were like "ohhh" but those two boys insisted I was an african. I was cracking up I thought it was so funny. I mean what can I say, they see me in their history and social studies book. In fact, their books say africans are black, americans are white, chinese are yellow and some say that indians are red, others, yellow!

The next day I saw that same girl who thought I wasnt a real person and she pushed through everyone to come and give me a hug. These children warm my heart.

Mary, Jennifer, Jinjing, Erica and a new Chinese English speaking student teacher (Sally) came to my house to ring in the new year. We ate Mexican food; decorated sugar cookies, watched a Bollywood flick Bride and Prejudice. I laughed so much, there were just random comments and silly faces.

Vacation
I have time on my hands; China does vacation right! I was off for Christmas break; then taught Mon-Wed (Wed I only had one class so finished at 10am). I will be off until Jan 4; my students will take their exam on the 4th; we will grade papers on the 4th and 5th. Then I will be off from January 6- Feb 12th for Chinese New Year which is on January 26th. So I will pretty much be off from Dec 30-Feb 12th! Gotta love China!

Christmas in Yidu

Even though China does not celebrate the meaning of Christmas as in Jesus' birth; there is Santa Claus and an abundance of Christmas trees everywhere. My contract allows me to have two days off, not including weekends. So Christmas Eve, I went to get a deep tissue massage with Mary and Jennifer after eating delicious food.

I asked my friend,Yuan Mao (Erica) who recently got saved to come to my house. I had a basket of goodies for her, a frame and some girlie makeup stuff. I said to her in chinese "this is for you" - she said "oh,pick one?" I said no, everything is for you. She exclaimed wow, so much. Thank you thank you. She loved her gift- now obviously presents are not the meaning of Christmas but it was a nice welcome to the Chritian family. Then she hugged me and we both knew that meant a lot because she is not sentimental at all! Even for teachers day, the students would come and hug us and she would extend her hand :) I love her though, she is so good to me and she makes me laugh.
ugh, she is so good to me and she makes me laugh.


Later 10 of my grade 9 students came to my house with hope in their eyes and asked me to do their makeup for the dress rehearsal which was in an hour! I had previously agreed to do their makeup the day of but now they had a new plan for the day before and the day of. So Mary and I did makeup for the girls. They were so thankful, looked so cute and are very sweet.


Later- Mary, Jennifer and I got dressed to go to a Christmas Eve program at our local church. The performances were very good and we enjoyed it; one of the church members then came to ask us to sing Away in a Manger and Amazing Grace; five minutes later she came back and said, "ok you're next"! So we sang and then left a while later.

After running to my grade 8 class to give them chocolate (and being mobbed by them), I joined Mary and Jen in sipping on some hot chocolate with marshmallows. We then opened one Christmas present and watched Miracle on 34th St. Aubree, the teacher who left before I came called and we all spoke to her. I spoke to her for so long, it was if I already knew her. She is super sweet, she knows the things we miss as a result of living here and she would send them to her friends. How thoughtful! Then we spoke about some of my curent students which are her old students and she gave me insight and advice. I really wished I could have met her, but God has a plan. After the movie, we made a plan to meet at 930am the next day to open presents.

The next morning, I did a bit of cleaning, made some breakfast, apple sauce and a fruit salad and took it down to Jennifer's house along with all the presents for Mary, Jennifer and Jingjing. We opened presents from around 10-2pm! I had so many presents from them, teachers, my students, supervisor, etc! Everything from hair accessories to rice cookers, electric blanket and sweaters!

By this time, I had to meet my students to do their makeup and then get dressed to have mine done.

OK girls, do you want it girly and very feminine...

or do you want smokey or smokey with a lilac color?Then after we were finished, they smiled for the camera

The school puts on a show at Christmas day and this year Jingjing was one of the hosts. Wow, how beautiful!All the students perform and the foreign teachers (Mary, Jennifer and I) did a dance to an S.H.E. (Taiwanese girl group) song called Remember: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rYoexSAInQY. Here is our version! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SUPgkpP0k9s

Check out the hat man!
Look at these hideous outfits!
We walked in with our heads down because our performance was a secret (they didnt know we would be dancing) and we were dressed up with crazy hairdos etc. Jennifer said that she looks like a psychic with her red sequin headband so I called her Cleo for the night and told her I would "call now for a free reading". The students started screaming and everyone turned around and then they started screaming! We were like so much for sneaking in! They loved the performance; they screamed through the whole thing (as you can hear)!

Christmas in Yichang

On Jan 21st, I went to celebrate Christmas with my Yichang family; we caroled for a while. The songs we sang were so beautiful and it was just an amazing time. Later we ate (we did a potluck dinner and everyone brought 2 dozen cookies so that you could leave with the same amt you came with- just a wider variety!). The food was delicious and we had a great time.