It was nice to have our whole weekend after having to work last Saturday. Jill and I spent this Saturday at Ikea. They recently opened the restaurant there and the meals are really good and cheap. I had the salmon and Jill had the roast beef.
Sunday was spent on the mountain. While I was flying, Jill did some hiking. The wind direction was off when we arrived so we had to wait 45 minutes then it was flyable. A brushfire started around then too. A helicopter was flying back and forth to the water to douse the flames.
It was a great day for flying. I was up to around 800m and flew for around 1hour and 20minutes. I made a video with Jill's help. I hope you all enjoy it.
Monday, March 29, 2010
Saturday, March 20, 2010
Cheung Chau Island
Our co-worker suggested that we explore some of the outlying islands around Hong Kong this weekend. So, we consulted our Lonley Planet guide, got up early and headed out to Cheung Chou Island. It's only about 2.5 sq km but the population is somewhere around 30,000. It's main industry is fishing and it used to be used by pirates who attacked merchant ships in the 1800's.
It was really foggy in the morning when we were leaving Victoria Harbor. I snapped this pic of a Sampan (the boat) in front of one of HK's enormous sky scrapers.
There were no cars on the island and the waterfront was full of seafood restaurants and small shops. Actually the first thing I saw upon arriving was a McDonald's so it's not that isolated. The Lonely Planet suggested a walking itinerary so we followed it and we got to see all the main attractions.
Our first stop was Pak Tai temple, built in 1783.
On the other side of the village was a Tung Wan beach. I bet it is really nice in the summer.
Lots of little statues all over the island.
Near the end of our walk we saw this sheltered bay with sunken boats.
A little farther on was the Cheung Po Tsai cave. This is supposedly where pirates buried their loot.
This old lady was fishing from her small boat. She was just using a bit of bait and a piece of fishing line. I wonder if she caught anything.
It was a pleasant day trip and also really cheap. But more importantly it was nice to get out and do something touristy again.
It was really foggy in the morning when we were leaving Victoria Harbor. I snapped this pic of a Sampan (the boat) in front of one of HK's enormous sky scrapers.
There were no cars on the island and the waterfront was full of seafood restaurants and small shops. Actually the first thing I saw upon arriving was a McDonald's so it's not that isolated. The Lonely Planet suggested a walking itinerary so we followed it and we got to see all the main attractions.
Our first stop was Pak Tai temple, built in 1783.
On the other side of the village was a Tung Wan beach. I bet it is really nice in the summer.
Lots of little statues all over the island.
Near the end of our walk we saw this sheltered bay with sunken boats.
A little farther on was the Cheung Po Tsai cave. This is supposedly where pirates buried their loot.
This old lady was fishing from her small boat. She was just using a bit of bait and a piece of fishing line. I wonder if she caught anything.
It was a pleasant day trip and also really cheap. But more importantly it was nice to get out and do something touristy again.
Friday, March 19, 2010
Open Day
Well last weekend was Open Day at our school. A lot of prospective students and their parents came on Saturday to walk around the school and take part in some mock classes. Jill was lucky where she was doing interviews all day. Sometimes is was busy but she had a few no shows and could relax.
I, on the other hand was super busy. First, all of the teachers and a few of our students took the stage to do some "Music and Movement", some actions or dancing with music. I never do this with my class because we have no time. Jill does it everyday. Again she was doing interviews at this time.
Don't the kids look so enthusiastic?
Next, it was time for my "Cooking Class". Now I only had around 20 minutes so I couldn't actually cook anything. I decided to make smoothies. First I did a little lesson on Healthy Eating so we brainstormed fruit. Luckily I had some older kids here too so there were lots of suggestions. It went smoothly (no pun intended).
Some of the kids went really crazy when I turned on the blender. It reminded me of a dog reacting to a vacuum cleaner.
Everyone loved the samples.
I did the same cooking class with smoothies again in the afternoon and not 1 minute after that I had to run to another classroom to do a Story Telling class. I used the book "Over in the Meadow", it was a nice counting book and it was fun for the kids too. Half of the kids were actually my students who were there helping another teacher with his phonics lesson earlier that day. It was nice to have a familiar audience to answer my questions and actively participate.
The day was long and for me and the other male teacher. It was way more work than the first open day we had. Another problem we had is that there are 2 other teachers who don't get used that much in public because they are Chinese/Canadian and the school doesn't think their English is good enough (we sort of agree though). It just makes more work for us.
Because Jill was in a classroom away from all the hustle and bustle, she wasn't in any of the pictures they took that day. I'll gladly exchange my job for hers next time.
I, on the other hand was super busy. First, all of the teachers and a few of our students took the stage to do some "Music and Movement", some actions or dancing with music. I never do this with my class because we have no time. Jill does it everyday. Again she was doing interviews at this time.
Don't the kids look so enthusiastic?
Next, it was time for my "Cooking Class". Now I only had around 20 minutes so I couldn't actually cook anything. I decided to make smoothies. First I did a little lesson on Healthy Eating so we brainstormed fruit. Luckily I had some older kids here too so there were lots of suggestions. It went smoothly (no pun intended).
Some of the kids went really crazy when I turned on the blender. It reminded me of a dog reacting to a vacuum cleaner.
Everyone loved the samples.
I did the same cooking class with smoothies again in the afternoon and not 1 minute after that I had to run to another classroom to do a Story Telling class. I used the book "Over in the Meadow", it was a nice counting book and it was fun for the kids too. Half of the kids were actually my students who were there helping another teacher with his phonics lesson earlier that day. It was nice to have a familiar audience to answer my questions and actively participate.
The day was long and for me and the other male teacher. It was way more work than the first open day we had. Another problem we had is that there are 2 other teachers who don't get used that much in public because they are Chinese/Canadian and the school doesn't think their English is good enough (we sort of agree though). It just makes more work for us.
Because Jill was in a classroom away from all the hustle and bustle, she wasn't in any of the pictures they took that day. I'll gladly exchange my job for hers next time.
Saturday, March 6, 2010
School
We've been busy getting ready for another open house at school. Here's a pic of Brian and our coworker decorating their class walls. This task takes at least two full afternoons of work.
Here's my finished wall.
This was a group project for my class in preparation for our open house. As my students are two years old, you can imagine how much of it they did. They sponge painted the big box while I did the others. They glued on the stripes that I cut for them. They did a good job, actually. They listened to me when I told them they had to go up and down, not sideways. I positioned everything else while they pushed on the various parts using double sided tape or glue.
Here's my finished wall.
This was a group project for my class in preparation for our open house. As my students are two years old, you can imagine how much of it they did. They sponge painted the big box while I did the others. They glued on the stripes that I cut for them. They did a good job, actually. They listened to me when I told them they had to go up and down, not sideways. I positioned everything else while they pushed on the various parts using double sided tape or glue.
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