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Tuesday, August 19, 2008

day 16?

currently, i am sucking on a lozenge called dequadin (see image HERE). produced by GlaxoSmithKline, so it seems legit. this also means .... i have a sore throat!!! which is a way bummer. i don't fancy it much. hehe. i just randomly decided to use more british terminology during my stay here. this includes words like the dispensary (pharmacy), fancy (like), brilliant (great), bloody (expletive ...), etc.
today, i woke up and skyped a bit with the bf. then i went to TESOL class which was, once again, muy painful. today, we were working on error correction, with a focus on grammar. the one thing to take away from all this is error correction has to be systematic and focused. blah blah blah. during break, i went to get myself peanut/fish/pork congee. it was like HK$9! after TESOL, i went back to my room to read, but kinda fell asleep instead. i woke up at 2 PM, just in time for canto class and did the usual -- sat there and surfed the net. after canto class, i bolted off campus and took the green mini-bus to tai po centre where i got myself the dequadin (HK$15.50), dinner at jusco (fish&tomato, not-so-hot&sour soup, mango sago for dessert --> HK$38), a bottle of OFF!, and a mini-basin (which i've discovered is a neccesity!). then i caught the regular bus (#275) back to campus.
i think the rest of the ETA gang are just hanging on campus or at shalamar (this indian restaurant in old tai po market) for dinner. i shall ... probably go for a swim tonight. the pool, afterall, is olympic sized and outdoors. swimming outdoors at night is just... a nice luxury i have come to appreciate.
that's all folks! tomorrow i get to meet with angel lin, so we'll see how that goes. i really hope i get to help her do some research or something ... we shall see...

Monday, August 18, 2008

day 15

so yesterday morning, i saw a hong kong TVB actor, kevin cheng. his close-up HERE. his blog: http://blog.tvb.com/kevincheng/. stared at the scene they were filming for a few minutes, then got bored and walked to wellcome to buy laundry detergent which i have yet to use.

yesterday, i woke up late, after sleeping in til 10 am. skyped a little. bought snackies at wellcome, then got ready for church. gabi, leah, and i explored a new way of getting to central via the 307 bus. it was very successful. church lasted quite a whiles -- but only because after service, the 3 of us went to explore the IFC mall. it's .... extremely posh and ridiculously. but also serves to confirm our suspicions that hong kong is indeed a series of malls and MTR stations.

today, we has TESOL class again, and it was quite painful. after that, some of us went to the canteen for lunch and then i hung out in our office until cantonese class, which was equally painful. i really wonder if there's a better way for me to spend my time during this "training" period. thankfully, TESOL classes end this friday. and i will get to meet with angel lin this wednesday. i wonder what i should talk to her about. ergh. i should read up on her research. i also have to get a voice recorder and start doing informal research on hong kongers' perceptions on written cantonese/the role of cantonese [in education].

blah blah. tonight, lindy (rm 920), the tutor, cooked dinner for all of us. it was muy delicioso! i met angela (equivalent to house dean) and "ks" AKA dr. so (the warden ... which is equivalent to faculty master, in the penn system). they were nice. i also met agnes (the physics major) and sarah, the ECE major with a concentration in math. they all seemed very nice. i got to see another side of the ETAs & ramon and it just reminded me how our relationships have developed over the past ... 2 weeks. we'll see where the year goes as i continue to work with these people.

i'm learning a lot about how god is the same god here and in philly. and to really understand what church is without renewal. i miss renewal a lot. and i miss sunday school a LOT! and it's a completely new experience trying to find my niche at a new place. but it's a good stretching experience, i am sure. the vine is a very cool church. cool to the extreme. it literally seems like a place where all the cool kids go. and honestly, i wasn't really expecting it, so i am learning. what it means to find a new body, to grow in it, even though i feel like that awkward wallflower at the school dance sometimes when i am at such a "cool" "hip" place like that.

that's all for now. currently fighting off a sore throat! eep!

Tuesday, August 12, 2008

day 9, i think?

today, i woke up at 8. showered. ate oatmeal for breakfast (again). went to TESOL class (ew). met mabel who lives on the 6th floor of grantham (my dorm). had lunch in the canteen with some ETAs. hung out in the arthur samy language learning center (ASLLC) from 1-ish to 5. talked to cool peoples (lindy & leo, ramon, natalie, kelvin, and betty). met up with gabi @ 5:30 to go to tai po centre for dinner at this viet place. got noodles for afternoon tea time prices :D. walked around jusco, looking for an alarm clock and an air fresherner. that failed. went to japan home for both. went to hui lau shan for mango dessert. caught the bus back to campus before 8:30. went swimming til the pool closed at 9:30. outdoor swimming = very cool. gabi/alice/leah's flat at jockey club = super cool. got a small mosquito bite. no swelling. previous (3) mosquito bites have all but disappeared. currently sitting in office. learned that air-con (yes, i am turning fob) turns off at 10 PM.
-end transmission-

Sunday, August 10, 2008

day 8, almost

it's almost 1 AM over here, so it's sorta the 8th day. and sometimes it is easier to blog/type than write in my journal, which i find myself doing more often here.

today (or sunday, rather), i went to a meeting with the rest of the ETAs to hear two ex-ETAs talk about their teaching experience in Thailand working with refugees in a refugee camp. (http://www.bathstudent.com/volunteer/holiday/thailandsummercamp/SummerCampinThailand/) after that, we all went to lunch at festival walk with manie at Amaroni's Little Italy. food was eh. sorta like ... olive garden. then leah, alice, gabi and i set out on an adventure to find the vine [church] in central. we came out the wrong exit from the MTR and ended up in a massive crowd of filipino maids. the vine seemed pretty cool. in fact, it seemed to pride itself on being cool and hip. not quite sure if that jived with me, but i guess that's better than wallowing in my sweat in a local bilingual church where i can't connect to anyone cuz of language barriers. it was kinda funky, in a good way, to hear the pastor's aussie accent. and he did reference louie giglio and tim hughes. next next week, the are having a conference called "one thing" with jaeson ma. the 4 of us went to ikea at sha tin then dinner at cafe de coral. then home to HKIEd, where we bumped into some other ETAs.

will reflect more later. but suffice to say, i was glad i went to the vine today. we sang how great is our god. and when i closed my eyes, it almost felt like i was home again, at renewal. i told g, l, and a i was a little homesick today at dinner, but they didnt seem to resonate. o well.

love you all very, very much,
w

Friday, August 08, 2008

day 5

so my previous entry was very dramatic. sorry!
don't worry, don't worry. things are fine. just a bit .... surreal and overwhelming. i am currently sitting in the library ... which means (1) i am in my comfort zone and (2) i am not in my tiny depressing dorm room. i LOVE LIBRARIES! especially this one, with all it's amazing resources! the genius, they've combined english and chinese books together so basically there are twice the amount of resource available for educational research.
i also currently have 3 mosquito bites. 1 small, 1 medium, 1 big. the small one is a centimer wide. the medium one is like 1.5 inches. and the big one is sorta scary. it's currently close to 3 inches long and 1.5 inches wide (an ellipse). i hope it doensnt grow. if it does, i might have to go to the health center. but aside from that, i am a much healthier person. eating more regularly and getting my fluids in :)
today we had a photo shoot. i am now part of two departments! :) and that makes me happy. i am party of ECE and CLE (early childhood education and center for language in education). i also got to meet dr. jane lockwood! so that's exciting. i still haven't made contact with dr. angel lin of cityU yet because she's away. maybe i shouldn't be putting their names out there on the internet .... o well!
yesterday we explored tai po centre and tai po market. two days before that (before the typhoon), we got to explore sha-tin mall and it was fun watching my new friends learn to "hover" to get seats at the mall food court. lots of mundane details, which i shall not bore you with ... but i think adjusting to life here will .... go well. just gotta work on making new friends. this whole being introverted thing will work to my disadvantage if i don't get over it. i miss people at home though. just the special ones of course :P
alrighty, back to stalking my superstar professor. i think i have in my hands her ph.D dissertation!
much love from the TP, NT, HK (tai po, new territories, hong kong),
-w