So Long and Thanks for All the Fish

Friday night, Sorina and I decided to go see a performance at the University where we are staying. There is some kind of international dance and body movement conference going on and this show was one of the highlights. The production was called "The Pearl Sea" choreographed by Robert Wood from New York. About 150 people showed up for it and he gave a little introduction to the piece and described it as a work in progress. It was two hours long without an intermission and I think it could have been half that length. Why do something once when you can do it ten times? It was an interesting combination of classical ballet (burst of exercise-like sequences) and chinese movement. There were some really memorable parts like a simulation a pole boat with the women standing on the men's backs holding long bamboo staffs, but there were other parts that I found kind of long. But overall very interesting and not bad since it was free-will donation. Afterwards, there was a champagne reception with dumplings, noodles, little sandwiches and other fun things. That was unexpected. We were there so late that we just went home afterwards. It made me miss Xing and Simon and my little dance family. I am trying to find a class here but it's like finding a needle in a haystack.
Yesterday, we did a harbour tour on a Chinese Junk boat for an hour. It was made of wood beams and tar. Very authentic. Lots of fun. The buildings of Hong Kong look even more impressive from the middle of the water. After that we took the subway line out of Diamond Hill, then a bus into one of the surrounding villages, and then a taxi through a park to a secluded beach. It was a long trip but worth it just see a place where there are much fewer people. We had the beach almost to ourselves. The water was so warm. No Ontario lake here. We had rented masks but the water had a lot of sediment so visibility was pretty bad. There are coral reefs nearby but I didn't try to swim to them because we didn't have enough protective equipment and I didn't want to get stung by a sea urchin (poor Dan got fifteen stings and had to sit for half an hour while Mischa got them out of his foot).
We were in such a remote place that none of our cell phones got signals so it actually took us quite a while to get back to the village from the beach. We were standing at the end of the road swatting away mosquitos for half an hour or so. While we were waiting I made a trip to the public toilet and can report that it was "just fine". It was sweet how the girls I was with didn't want me to go alone. Although I admit I almost screamed when I saw the lizard on the wall climb behind the paper towel dispenser.
The little village itself was BEAUTIFUL. No time to explore it because it was so late. I had a soft-serve ice cream at 9pm and that was before dinner! There is a boardwalk of sorts along the harbour with seafood restaurant after restaurant. There are massive tanks with massive fish and shellfish everywhere, and the people there will pull out a giant crab and ask you if it is okay. The restaurants there pull the fish from the ocean that day and prepare it fresh. It really was the best seafood I have ever had. My favorite was scallops served in the halfshell covered in garlic and glass noodles. And I'll also add that after the long day and the long wait and traveling, the beer tasted really, really good.
It took us a little over an hour to get back to our hotel and I slept really well last night. Today I hope to go to the Peak or to the Big Buddha. Depends on who I can rally to come with me. Now I don't want to come home.
Love Leslie

One Two Three - Five Six Seven

It's hard to believe that the program is almost half over. Tomorrow I say goodbye to my first group of students and welcome the second group next Monday. It's different spending all day with the same group. I will miss them I think.
Yesterday the other science teacher and I took our classes on a field trip to the Hong Kong Wetlands park. www.wetlandpark.com. It was so incredibly hot and the only fauna to see were dragonflies and damselflies. But the facility is beautiful. It was much more sculpted than I (Ontario girl) was expecting. A very nice sculpted marsh with a very well laid out boardwalk. I saw the famous Pui Pui crocodile. He poked his eyes above the water for us.
Last night I went out for dinner in the Soho area with one of the other teachers. This neighbourhood twists and turns with street leading off of street and each seems more hidden than the last. It's pretty obvious that this is one of the primary tourist destinations for food and it has really earned its reputation. There are people-movers (like the ones you see at airports) and escalators outdoors so you don't have to walk all the way up a long, steep hill. We had a really nice meal at a Thai restaurant called Pukhet. We then had a lychee cocktail before finding the salsa bar that was her ultimate destination. I haven't danced salsa in over a year and it took a few turns on the dance floor before everything started to come back. The place was tiny. Apparently the salsa community rotates locations going to a different place every night. There were only a handful of people who actually knew how to dance. And there were a lot of people there for whom dancing salsa was not so much a priority :) A little Bachatta, a little Meringue, a little Salsa... I'm satisfied. If we do this again I might have to buy a pair of shoes.
Tonight I went down to the harbour and walked around a bit. Sorry about the sound quality - I took this with my digital camera's video function.

Then I walked around the Tsim Sha Tsui area for while just taking it in. Stopping where I wanted to without worrying about a group getting away from me or anything like that. I found some fast Indian food that was hiding in an indoor market that I would very much like to try.
I managed to find my way back using the bus system. In addition to the little Toon Town city buses there are massive double decker buses that serve as the primary above-ground transit.
Everything is air conditioned. I even managed to figure out when to get off without getting lost. That was a first for me.
Thanks for visiting.
Leslie

These bad boys are catalogue only

After Saturday's big day into La-La Land, yesterday was relatively quiet. I stayed in my room all morning working on lesson plans in order to make this week less stressful. It seems to have worked so far even though I am only 7 hours into this work week.
Anyway, in the afternoon I met up with a few of the others and we went for a foot massage/back massage. I have had a few down-to-business massages in my day and this one was by far the most painful experience of my entire life. It was like she found every single knot in my calves and shoulders and tried to rip them out with her fingers. Kind of stiff this morning and I'm sure it will get worse before it gets better.
We then took the subway out to Tung Chung because one guy has a cousin who lives in one of the condos out there. It is at the end of one of the subway lines and then there is a private shuttle to take us to the complex. I felt like I was in Florida. Beautiful palm trees, courtyards, a restaurant and a pool the size Luxembourg. But all this paled in beauty to the actual mountains. There are dozens of giant high rises (60 stories +) all in one little place nestled between the little mountains up there. Our friend's condo is on the 53rd floor and it was all quite breathtaking. We spent the evening in the swimming pool and it was relatively quiet and a great getaway after the bustle of Hong Kong. A large proportion of foreigners seem to live out there. It is the urban sprawl of Hong Kong.
Afterwards we went to the shopping mall there at the edge of the world and it is full of outlets. I bought a pair of Puma shoes and a sports bag for when my duffel bag breaks. All in all a great Sunday. Unfortunately my camera had no battery life so no pictures this time around.
All the best,
Leslie

Krusty wants off

I love everybody (especially my brother) who will appreciate the title of this entry.
Oh fine you're right I love everybody.
But especially Jeremy
It's Saturday night here. It's hard to believe how the time has just flown by. It's scary to think that my time is here one-quarter over. Kind of sad. But it makes me realize that I'll be on a plane home before I know it.
Thursday night we took the little city bus to Kowloon City. The little city bus is an experience in itself. Remember the movie "Herbie"? Yeah. It's like that. Only on a little bus that is straight out of Toon town, that flies around corners and has a digital display of the velocity in kph so that the passengers can calculate the force of impact using F=ma, and you have to yell out to the driver when your stop is coming and he waves to let you know he heard you. Tough to do when everything looks the same and the streets twist and turn. Also, the return route is never the same as the original route. I don't know why they have to do it this way.
So we arrive and follow the signs to the Walled City Park. The city of Kowloon used to be walled and somehow outside of the British mandate back in the day. It got torn down and turned into a very impressive Feng Shui park. I could have stayed there all night (and I would have if it hadn't gotten dark). To anyone who's seen Dr. Sun Yat-Sen's Chinese garden in Vancouver, it's like that only much larger. I tried to pay special attention to how every window, and every tiling pattern is different. We looked at the little collection of Bonsai trees and peered into the little ponds. Very pretty place and truthfully a welcome break from a very tiring week of school.
We then wandered the streets looking for options for dinner and found a restaurant in the basement level of the shopping mall. I know it doesn't sound very exciting or romantic but it was the best Cantonese food, presentation, and service I've had here. Although I am getting a bit tired of rice. After dinner I followed Barb around as she tried to find masks for all of the students for their excursion to the cookie factory (no I'm not kidding - my brewery field trip is still better). This really cute girl in the grocery store actually ditched her boyfriend with a cart full of groceries led us back into the streets and then on a 10 minute walk to the drug store. He showed up a little while later. She was so excited to use her English. It was really really nice of her. He appeared to be very tolerant of the whole thing.
Friday night, a few of us had a nice Thai/vietnamese meal in the TST area (Tsim Shai Tsui) which is like Yonge street back home. Then one of the other teachers and I walked around peeking into all of the little shops. It's like those little trading companies in Toronto only with way, way more stuff.
Saturday wasa big day. After my first week at work, spontaneously waking up at 5:30 because of jet lag, being woken up at 4:30 by a wake up call that was supposed to come at 6:30, and staying out in the evenings, I can't believe I woke up early enough to be in the lobby by 6:30. Our tour guide picked us up and we drove in a bus to the ferry which took us over to China. We had stickers with the tour company name and each of has a number. We had to line up in order to go through Chinese immigration. I find it strange that there were over 10 people working there but only one agent on duty. They scrutinized our passports and finally let us all through after about half an hour. One of our students got pulled into a room and had to empty her purse. Pretty funny actually, some of them were actually kind of secretly laughing as they watched our reactions. They put her passport under some kind of machine and then one of them brought it to within one inch of his face. So much for Chinese Efficiency.
Shenzhen used to be a fishing village and now it is a city with a population of 14 million. I don't even know what to say about it. Because the urban infrastructure is new there are modern highways and avenues. They are lined with trees and so on. The people live in very, very tall buildings. On the way home I marveled how it is possible to have so many people and no urban sprawl. Just skyscrapers.
First our guide took us to an amusement park called "Window to the World" Apparently it's 18 hectares of reproductions of famous sites from around the world. We didn't go in, we only stopped to take photos that the photographers could try to sell us later on. I don't know what to make of that. There is a little tiny blue monorail that circles the park. Hence the title. I could not wait to get back on the bus.
Next up was a visit to the small collection of terra cotta warriors. The bulk of them are in the north however there were five on display there. They were in different poses with different clothes representing different ranks and positions. We also got an introduction to all of the different types of jade and sample some light, delicate tea that I will try to find and bring home. I had no idea there were so many different colours of jade. There is the green and it ranges in intensity, but there is also red, yellow, pink, and purple. I asked one of the girls in the gift shop how you can tell high quality jade from low quality or fake jade and she explained that it feels cool to the touch, is very smooth and hard, and has a high clarity when put up to the light. They had some beautiful pieces for sale that would cost a fortune in the art shop in Hong Kong and only cost a small fortune there. I knew we had a long day and didn't want to carry around a large rock for the rest of the day. I may regret that, we'll see. However, I did buy a bangle and a dragon pendant. That was a nice spot. We were the only people in the whole museum and everybody was very nice. Sharp contrast to my general experience here (although people are nice here) and a huge contrast to where we went next.
We visited a silk factory and I found out that it takes 33 square meters of mulberry to provide enough food for enough silk worms to produce one silk shirt. And that is probably a small shirt for a small person. Makes you think doesn't it? There were stunning quilts with silk covers and stuffing that were very reasonable considering what bedding costs back at home. I had never even heard of a silk quilt. If I hadn't just bought a feather one, I would have been tempted. Beautiful things. However, not exactly a tourist attraction which made us wonder what kind of scheme our tour company has going here - either that or they think there really is nothing to see in Shenzhen. They don't even know how beautiful the country side is for tourists.
The final stop was a shopping mall. All rules are off here. There are no prices, all the stores are broom closets and sell the same thing, they run after you and grab your arm and yell prices at you as you flee down the hall. Because the Olympics are coming the police are cracking down on fake purses and jewelery so you need to look through a list, tell them what you want, they make a phone call with one eye on the door for police and one eye on you to make sure you don't walk away. Ten minutes later some runner shows up with a garbage bag full of purses and then the haggling begins. Some of the girls have done this before so I watched them, fascinated, and tried to stay out of the way. I then followed one of the other teachers around as I figured things out. She would say how much, and once they told her she would laugh in their face and walk away. They would run after her and cut the price in half. She would then say something like "I have to go" or "You're crazy" or "I only have so much money". She would yell it at them with an angry face but a twinkle in her eye! After watching the first transaction. I informed her and the other teacher I was with that this was a personal circle of hell for me. I might have said "I'm in hell" ten or twenty times. I don't remember. I watched them buyfour 32 gigabyte fake ipods for 20 CAD each. Good deal but the whole process took an hour. You have to love the hunt and love to argue or else you will never survive. The shops crammed together and it's like walking a gauntlet. They grab you and say "missy missy" want sunglasses/belt/pretty cloths/Tiffany jewelery etc..After I got the rhythm of things I went off on my own to buy some junky cloths to wear here. I would not buy anything serious there. You pay for drek...
The amazing thing is how fiercely they argue and how aggressive they are and you have to be. You literally have to walk away and they will chase you. TWICE. After the price is decided however, they settle and become normal, smiling people and want to know all about you. I kept getting asked if I was from Australia. They love to chat and practice English. Then they give you their card and tell you to come back! It's one big annoying game. You can't do any serious shopping there because the whole ritual takes FOREVER!
For the last half hour, I escaped into one of the foot massage/pedicure parlours for 30 minutes. It was hilarious. The size of my bedroom with 10 women in comfortable chairs being tended by 10 people sitting on tiny stools hunched over their feet. When the guy saw my feet, he insisted on scraping away all the callouses and I tell you I was powerless to stop him. Then another girl went behind my chair for a shoulder massage, and when they realized I was running out of time, a third one started on my other foot. All this was going on while a nice woman from Hong Kong was getting to know me and the ladies in the parlour were smiling at me. I must have been quite the spectacle. It was a ridiculous experience. But my feet look much better now, and it really was much better than running around in that crazy place. Thank you Adam/Bernard for suggesting that.
We took a light rail train back into Hong Kong and were all wired/exhausted from that day. I was a little stunned and shocked from the experience and could not make any decisions until I self-medicated with a toblerone bar. Even then a few of us couldn't figure out to do so we ended up at Macdonalds for dinner.
This was a long one. I'll try to post more often. Thanks again for visiting.
Leslie

Kicking it ex-pat style

Apparently, Hong Kong's population is 10% Canadian. I guess that's because of the Hong Kong Chinese with connections in Vancouver.

It's now Wednesdayafternoon and I've been here for a little over 3 days. It's hard to believe it's only been that long because these have been long, long days. On Sunday, I spent a quiet morning organizing my room and that sort of thing. Sunday afternoon I met up with the son of one of my mother's friends. His phone died in the middle of our conversation so I had to follow my principal around the giant shopping mall all morning because I left Adam her number on his voice mail. He told me that he, his business associate and some friends were heading to the south side of the island to so some beer-pushing shmoozing at the local tiki bar there (he imports beer from Laos into Hong Kong). I said "I'm sorry there is no south to Hong Kong island because my maps end after the downtown section". It was an adventure.

The landscape is beautiful. Much more like what I've seen in pictures of the South pacific than any part of the west coast of Canada. The water was warm but filthy so sadly I didn't go in despite having carried my bathing suit and towel and other stuff all around the Mong Kok shopping mall waiting for him to call Bev's phone. By the way, the shopping malls here just go up and up and up. They remind me of the Victorian houses in Toronto. Very small plot of land but with many tiny tiny shops piled one on top of the other (and I mean 40 stories high). And they all have ridiculous names like "Me love Princess" jewelery, or "Ju-C Sushi".



As it turned out, the dj they were in contact with wasn't there that day because the weather was poor. So we went back to Central station and split up temporarily to get ready for a typical shmooze party. I tried to find an outfit to wear to this because I was dressed like a bum. I am not good at shopping under pressure especially since I don't understand the currency. And furthermore, the styles here are not designed for my body type. Chinese girls have this way of making a potato sack with a sash look elegant and winsome but I just looked like a washed-out white girl in a potato sack. So I went dressed as a bum but lucky for me the bars in Hong Kong love girls no matter what you look like.



I love parties and I chatted happily with a couple of Chinese guys who were their contacts. Turns out one of them went to public school in Brockville and was delighted to learn that I was from Ottawa and Adam, having grown up in a small town too, actually guessed the name of his high school. The party was in a swanky place in the bar district near Central station. It is a pedestrian-only series of winding streets with lights and signs everywhere. People get their drinks and stand in the middle of the street. This party was for a restaurant owner named Massimo and every now and again a group of drunk girls and boys would yell out "Eh! Massimo" and toss back their drinks. I had some very nice Pinot Grigio and pizza. There was a DJ that played re-mixed 80s songs and they had a violinist who was plugged in to the stereo system and he just improvised on top of the music mix while he wandered around the room. He wore those giant black-rimmed glasses with slicked-back hair. It was awesome.

The ex-pat lifestyle is a bit more than I can handle and I am looking forward to some Ontario peace and quiet.

The school is a concrete block with courtyards that are open to the sky and walkways that have no exterior walls. Everything is rusty and ancient except for the computer rooms which would make Morris back at Earl Haig cry. It's a good thing I remember what all of the tabs in Microsoft word are because I tell you the commands in Chinese are totally un-guessable. I have class of 21 students. I don't know what I was expecting but they are spirited, cheeky, happy little guys and girls who love to chat and play fight and so on. It reminds me of teaching ESL grade 9 back at home only without the emotional problems that come with being yanked or thrown halfway around the world.

Last night a big group of us went for dinner in the Central station area and I had some fantastic Thai food on a tiny cobblestone twisty street. We walked through a crummy little alley past all of the junk to get back to the subway entrance. All this right around the corner from the giant Coach store.

That's all for now.
Leslie

No plane should be able to stay in the air for that long....

Back by popular demand, it's this travel blog! I hope those reading this can appreciate the lengths I went to to remember my ancient username and then create a google account just so I could post here.

I woke up at 5:30 on Thursday to finish cleaning the place and left Nimue under the bed and hiding. I'm sure by now she has figured out that I'm not around. Whose ankles will you attack now? Huh?

I took a taxi and was at the gate two and a half hours before boarding. How was I supposed to know that the traffic would be light, customs would have no line and security would be a breeze. They made me take my shoes off and all I could think of was "D'oh. I have holes in my socks."

The flight to New Jersey was in a tiny plane with almost no overhead storage or leg room, and tiny yet very cushy leather seats. It felt like one of those old boat cars from the 70s only in airplane form. It roared and swayed and hiccuped as it made its approach into New Jersey.

We then had a couple of hours before boarding our flight to Hong Kong. We had to take a shuttle bus to terminal C and then find gate number C123. As we walked along the little concourse, I had to stop in the Body Shop and was happy to take advantage of the sale on body butters. I had actually been sad that I would be going to Hong Kong without taking advantage of that sale so I was very pleased with myself. We wandered through duty free and I decided that the new Burberry scent is a good one. We had to check in with the desk at our gate because the Boeing 777 was oversold. It was one of those giant double aisles things. I had been dreading it because the thought of flying over the Pacific on Continental Airlines really didn't appeal to me at all.

In the end we were on that plane for over 18 hours. The lights were off most of the time. It was one of those new planes with individual televisions on the seat in front of you with a choice of over 350 movies and various tv shows and games. After watching 27 dresses, princess bride, step up 2 - the streets (and yes, it sucked), and pirates of the caribbean, and then playing solitaire over and over again until I won, and trying to play galaxy quest, I just could not stand to look at anything anymore. I do not want to talk about the food. Just let me say that a hot cheeseburger in a vacuum-sealed bag thrown onto your tray mid-flight is a crazy, crazy idea and who ever came up with it should have to eat one.

We passed over the polar ice caps and since it's midnight sun season, a lot of us had a look out of the back window. Sheets of broken ice as far as they eye could see. And so bright that my entire vision was in a purple haze for a minute or so afterwards.

We took a shuttle from the airport to our residence and for some reason the shuttle did not have a storage compartment under the bus so we had to lift all of the luggage onto the bus with us. It was hilarious. My first views of Hong Kong were lit up bridges and skyscrapers with lights. I didn't really see the mountains until this morning.

We are staying at the Baptist University in a ghetto area in the New Territory. The university is all concrete brick that smacks of iron curtain slovakia. The skyline of the city is very promising and I hope to do some exploring of that tomorrow. When I walked into the room they assigned me, it was like being hit in the face with a blast of mildew shot out of a blow hole of a whale. I kid you not. Even after turning on the air conditioner, the room was really really bad so I actually complained, and asked for another room, and, after being told that there were no rooms, to they didn't know, to they had to check, to come back to an hour, to "oh yes here you go", I moved into my current room at midnight. At this point I had been up for 32 hours. Anyway, the new room is fine and I write to you looking out some of the city. Check the video.


So far I've learned that people drives like maniacs and it's hard to orient yourself because there are beautiful steep mountains and water all around. It's rainy season and there are fingers of clouds that have been hovering over the mountains all day. It's very beautiful.

We visited our school today and all of the hallways are outside and everything is open concept. Very hard to describe. A very different place. I hope to arrange a field trip to the Wet Lands for my class and the other science class. They look breathtaking.

That's all for now. Thanks for visiting.
Leslie