Snow Day

The correct translation of this image is “NO SCHOOL. PARTY.”

High School

Dang! Being a teacher is fun!  

Okay, time-out… 

I’m not a first-year teacher… or am I?  The school I worked at previously, Options For Youth, was non-traditional… there weren’t classrooms in the usual sense, and I wasn’t doing the whole lesson-planning thing.  My school here in Hong Kong looks and feels, more familiar… think lockers, debate clubs, and after-school sports.  And so far I love it… I may even coach some sports this year.  Am trying out volleyball for the fall.  This afternoon I played in a pick-up game (can’t set well) but who cares?  The Olympics will inspire me.  hehe.   

But yikes, teaching is a lot of work.  Constantly lesson-planning.  And what’s up with grading… that’s just no fun however you slice it.  

More updates to come later.  All I can say for now is that the kids are great.  This should be a blast.

Recipe for receiving angry parent phone calls

I gave an assignment to my students yesterday in which I needed them to each bring an object to class, something that we could use in a simulation involving trade.  My instructions also included the criteria: “Make sure it is PG rated.”  

The kids gave me quizzical looks.  And then someone was bold enough to speak up.  

Turns out in Hong Kong, “PG” ratings are the equivalent to “R” ratings in the United States.  Gooooood to know.  That could have been awkward.  Needless to say, I quickly changed the instructions to say, “Make sure it is not PG rated.”

Oddities

In malls, the symbol for elevators is strangely similar to that for restrooms.  Hmmm… I think I’ll take the stairs.

Tastes like Sweden?

I guess it should be no surprise that chicken feet taste like, um, chicken. 

That was the first thought for the day.  And now for the second…

IKEA makes life for bachelors like me very easy.  Can I get an amen?

Asia

Can’t quite believe the Hong Kong experience has actually begun.  I arrived at the airport Sunday night, proceeded through customs, and found myself looking for the sign that said “ICS”.  I felt more nervous at this moment than at any other time so far on the trip.  This would mark the first real conversation I would have in Hong Kong.  It would give me a sense for who these people actually were… people I will work with closely over the next two years and who previously I’d only known through phone calls and emails.

I’m writing this post from my classroom, two floors below my on-campus apartment.  We haven’t yet hooked up email for the 7th floor residences, but the facility is far from primitive.  Construction finished up last fall, which makes everything here brand new.    So new, in fact, that we have marching orders from our principal to do as much as we can to make this place feel more like “home” (you know how new places sometimes have a certain “sterile” quality).

Hong Kong has impressed me so far in the breakneck speed at which life is lived, and also in its unparalleled commercial success.  I’ve witnessed the efficiency of the public transportation system… don’t think I waited longer than 5 minutes for any of the trains.  Overall, you get the sense that the Chinese are phenomenal entrepreneurs.  

On Thursday we went to Macao to watch the US Basketball team play Turkey in an exhibition at the Venetian.  Got back to the school about 2am but who cares?  It was the Dream Team… and in Macao!!!

People here are great… I’m already stoked about the many new friends I’m making, both among the new group of teachers and the returning ones.  It should be a great couple of years.