Well I'm back in the good ole US of A now and I've had some time to reflect on my trip a bit. Mostly in the mornings because I couldn't shake the jetlag so I woke up at 6:30 for the first 4 or 5 mornings I was home. The trip was so good. It was definitely an experience I wouldn't trade for anything and would do again in a heartbeat if the opportunity presented itself. That being said, if you would have told me back in January when I first started going through the application process that I would be going to Asia and that I would have been teaching and preparing English classes on my own I don't think I would have signed up for the trip. I think I am actually a little thankful for the uncertainty that I had going into the trip because if I would have known all the details of what I would be doing, there is a very good chance that I would have backed out.
I feel like I grew in so many different aspects of my life. It was my first experience being fully emerged in a different culture so obviously that was a huge adjustment, but there is so much more. I have compiled a top 10 list to convey all that I got from the experience.
Top 10 Things I Learned in Hong Kong/China
10. Middle schoolers are the same regardless of culture
We all remember middle school. What an awful time. Middle schoolers are angsty and insecure. This is the same everywhere. They are shy and embarrass easily, but once they are comfortable with you, they are sweet and genuinely want to learn.
9. How to navigate mass transit systems
When I first got to Hong Kong, I thought their mass transit system was the most complicated thing ever and that I would never understand it. However, after 6 weeks, it makes perfect sense. The subway, although incredibly crowded, is the easiest way to get from point A to point B, and if you can find a subway station you are never truly "lost". I now feel like any other city will be a cake walk.
8. Sarcasm doesn't transfer
I learned this very quickly when spending time with my high school students. They took everything I said so seriously. It makes sense though, sarcasm is mainly picked up by the tone of your voice, and in a language that is entirely tonal, it would be difficult to change the tone of your voice to create sarcasm. Don't be sarcastic around Chinese people. Except Albert of course.
7. Language is not a barrier
There is always a way to communicate. Facial expressions, body language, and especially just flailing your arms to make a point always works. If all else fails just play pictionary.
6. Avoiding conflict only creates conflict
I feel like this is so obvious but it's just not something that we as people are not good at. If there's a problem the sooner you address it the better. Otherwise it will get worse. Common sense, but so difficult to follow.
5. I do not want to be a teacher
I have such a new respect for teachers. Lesson planning is hard! And getting kids to listen to you? I never figured that out. I do not have a "teacher voice" and I do not know how to discipline children. Especially when they don't speak my language. Teaching is definitely not my calling, but I learned so much from it this summer.
4. Communication
Living in such close quarters with 9 of my closest friends, it was essential to be able to communicate with them. This goes along with not avoiding conflict, but also to just be able to speak openly with each other about what was on our minds was incredible. I think that will be one of the things I miss most, the team chemistry and comradery and the open lines of communication.
3. Chopsticks
I miss chopsticks! I feel like I want to use them in America too! At first I dropped food all over the place at every meal, but by the end of the trip I felt like a pro. Ok, I still dropped food, but I do that with forks too so no big deal.
2. How to talk to anyone
When you are a foreigner in Hong Kong, it seems like everyone wants to talk to you to practice their English. We encountered so many different people and were forced to talk with so many students/teachers/parents/random strangers on the subway that I don't think I will ever be afraid to talk to a stranger again. At least here they will understand everything I'm trying to say, that should make it about 100 times easier.
1. God is doing things in Asia
Christianity is spreading in Asia, even though it is not very welcome. Churches are growing and it is becoming more and more accepted as a religion. This is so encouraging to see. I am so thankful that I got to be a part of the Christian movement in Asia and I will continue to keep it in my prayers. I would definitely encourage everyone out there to do the same because prayer moves things.
I feel like there is so much more that I could say about this trip, but it is just so difficult to type it all out. I would love to talk to you about it though so drop me a line or send me an email or something. Thank you all so much for all your support during this time in my life. Thank you for your prayers, they have meant so much to me. I have loved being able to share this with you through this blog!
Last day of School!
Today was my last day teaching. I am relieved but sad because I leave on Sunday. I will be sad to leave Hong Kong.
The last few days of teaching were awesome! I think I finally figured out how to effectively teach middle schoolers and that was such a great discovery. Well except I definitely can't take credit for it, all credit goes to the brilliant Rachel and Roper. I stole Rachel's lesson plan for yesterday and was completely floored by how well it worked. I put all the students into small groups and made everything a competition. I also put all the trouble makers into one group and made Roper sit with them the whole time. I think Roper totally bonded with them, as if he identified with them because I'm sure he was a cut up in middle school. Wednesday, Thursday, and today were all awesome days and I'm so glad to end this experience on a high note because after having a couple bad days in a row I was starting to feel discouraged.
Tonight we have our farewell dinner in the Gold Coast and then we will go to the beach with some of our Hong Kong friends to say goodbye. I am so excited because Mandy, my friend from the mainland, has come to visit for our last few days here. It is so fun because she's never been to Hong Kong so we get to show her around for a change! I keep forgetting that she speaks Cantonese though, so I get worried when she goes out by herself but she reminds me that she can communicate with people if she gets lost whereas I cannot. That would make a difference. Tomorrow I think we will take her to the harbor so she can see the beautiful view and we can say goodbye to the view.
I think this will be my last post from Hong Kong. Thank you so much for reading and for praying and for emailing me. I have loved sharing this with you all and I can't wait to tell you more stories in person. See you soon!!
The last few days of teaching were awesome! I think I finally figured out how to effectively teach middle schoolers and that was such a great discovery. Well except I definitely can't take credit for it, all credit goes to the brilliant Rachel and Roper. I stole Rachel's lesson plan for yesterday and was completely floored by how well it worked. I put all the students into small groups and made everything a competition. I also put all the trouble makers into one group and made Roper sit with them the whole time. I think Roper totally bonded with them, as if he identified with them because I'm sure he was a cut up in middle school. Wednesday, Thursday, and today were all awesome days and I'm so glad to end this experience on a high note because after having a couple bad days in a row I was starting to feel discouraged.
Tonight we have our farewell dinner in the Gold Coast and then we will go to the beach with some of our Hong Kong friends to say goodbye. I am so excited because Mandy, my friend from the mainland, has come to visit for our last few days here. It is so fun because she's never been to Hong Kong so we get to show her around for a change! I keep forgetting that she speaks Cantonese though, so I get worried when she goes out by herself but she reminds me that she can communicate with people if she gets lost whereas I cannot. That would make a difference. Tomorrow I think we will take her to the harbor so she can see the beautiful view and we can say goodbye to the view.
I think this will be my last post from Hong Kong. Thank you so much for reading and for praying and for emailing me. I have loved sharing this with you all and I can't wait to tell you more stories in person. See you soon!!
Lost in Hong Kong!
Well I am now entering my final week in Hong Kong... you would think I would have navigating this city under control, but apparently I don't. I am losing track of the amount of times I have gotten lost this week. I think the total may be up to 5 by now. Although let me clear, I have always been fully confident that I could get home, I just have been slightly less confident on where my final destination was. I think it is mostly due to the fact that we have been getting riskier in our methods of transportation. Towards the beginning of the trip we would play it safe and generally just stick to the subway which is super easy to navigate, but now we are branching out and trying buses and cabs and such and it is just ending badly. It is always a fun experience though, very adventurous, and when we find our way again, very accomplished.
Other than getting lost, I have been extremely busy with teaching and lesson planning. This past week was probably the busiest week yet, and this week should be exactly the same if not busier because it is our last week and we will be trying to cram as much fun in on top of all our work as possible. I'm excited and I am anticipating not a lot of sleep. You're only in Hong Kong once right? Maybe not.
My class is crazy. Friday was my best day yet, everything I had planned went incredibly smoothly, the kids were interested and even quiet sometimes! Today, not so much. Today was basically a disaster. At one point I just gave up and sat at my desk playing music while the kids through paper airplanes across the class. I regained control somewhat after that, but it was so overwhelming. I have what I think is a great idea for tomorrow and the next day, so pray that things go a little better than they did today.
Also, as it is my last week in HK, if anybody has any requests that they would like me to pick up while I'm here you should definitely speak now or forever hold your peace.
Random side note: I am sitting in the common room now with Rebecca because we are done teaching for the day and she is on Facebook. She made the hilarious observation that all our "People You May Know" on Facebook are Chinese. I would call that a successful summer.
Other than getting lost, I have been extremely busy with teaching and lesson planning. This past week was probably the busiest week yet, and this week should be exactly the same if not busier because it is our last week and we will be trying to cram as much fun in on top of all our work as possible. I'm excited and I am anticipating not a lot of sleep. You're only in Hong Kong once right? Maybe not.
My class is crazy. Friday was my best day yet, everything I had planned went incredibly smoothly, the kids were interested and even quiet sometimes! Today, not so much. Today was basically a disaster. At one point I just gave up and sat at my desk playing music while the kids through paper airplanes across the class. I regained control somewhat after that, but it was so overwhelming. I have what I think is a great idea for tomorrow and the next day, so pray that things go a little better than they did today.
Also, as it is my last week in HK, if anybody has any requests that they would like me to pick up while I'm here you should definitely speak now or forever hold your peace.
Random side note: I am sitting in the common room now with Rebecca because we are done teaching for the day and she is on Facebook. She made the hilarious observation that all our "People You May Know" on Facebook are Chinese. I would call that a successful summer.
Youngest group
So many pictures like this were taken. I love the little boy in the front. I named him Cyrus.
Practicing my Cantonese at the night class.
Teaching!
Night class!
We're back!
To Hong Kong, that is.
Let's talk about China.
We were there for 11 days so forgive me if I can't remember the order of some events or if this entry just seems like one big jumbled mess.
There was a typhoon that was supposed to hit the day we left Hong Kong to travel by ferry boat to the mainland. Seems like an adventure right!? Well it was underwhelming. I was pressured into taking Dramamine because apparently everyone on this team gets motion sickness. So we all took loads of pills (just kidding) and embarked. The water was a little rough, but not bad. I don't even think it was raining. I was drowsy. When we arrived we were welcomed by our wonderful translators/hosts/friends Hilda, Gloria, and Mandy. We drove to the church that we stayed at for the rest of the time. It was a large building, very tall, and we stayed on the fifth floor. No elevators. 96 stairs.
Our meals were all prepared for us by a cook that lived at the church. They were all so delicious. We got to eat lots and lots of veggies which I had been craving and I was so relieved that we didn't have seafood at all while there. I was getting so tired of eating so much strange seafood in Hong Kong that it was a nice change of pace. Unfortunately, about half our team fell due to stomach troubles and they were pretty much out of commission for a good 3 days or so. Thankfully my iron stomach was fine.
I loved how structured everything was in China. When we arrived, Hilda gave us all a printed schedule of everyday we were there broken out as to what was expected of us every hour of everyday. I love structure! It was so nice compared to all the uncertainty that we deal with in Hong Kong. Everyday we would wake up and have breakfast at 8:30. Usually Rebecca, Kristen, Rachel, and I would make a McDonald's coffee run in the morning before breakfast, and a couple times we bought our own breakfast from vendors on the street. It was awesome and so cheap. After breakfast we would have an hour or so for team time, as well as some time set aside for planning for classes. Lunch was at noon and then the students arrived at the church around 2. We ran VBS style classes, which wasn't exactly what I was expecting, but it worked out fairly well. There were 90 students total and they were broken up into 3 groups by age. The youngest group was 5-7 years, then 8-11, then 12-18. The most challenging thing was how to present the same material to all age groups and still have it hold their interest. I led the music class. The youngest kids were so easy because even though they couldn't read and they didn't have any idea what they were singing, they tried so hard and they would always do the motions. The oldest group was the easiest to communicate with and they were so good, but I could tell how disinterested they were in singing the same songs that the little kids were, so I had to mix it up a little bit. We sang for about half the class and then we would play some sort of game like musical chairs or something. They loved musical chairs because the first time we played, the coolest kid in the class named Bruce Lee got up and started playing the guitar instead of me playing music off of my ipod. In addition to Bruce Lee there was also a Michael Jackson (who could actually moonwalk, the day we did the story of Peter walking on water, MJ moonwalked on water) and Jackie Chan. These three boys were so funny and so helpful with translating stuff because their English was really good. The middle aged kids were the worst. They were so out of control and I had no idea how to keep their attention. We would play games but they would just yell and terrorize each other. Especially the one kid that I nicknamed Tom Riddle. Once, when playing musical chairs, he ended up winning, but all the kids were complaining about how he had been cheating the whole time. I was confused because I thought I had been paying attention the whole time, but when we played again I watched him closer. He would, very subtly, but very effectively, shove, drag, throw little children out of the chair before he sat down in it. I'm not sure how he did it without them getting upset or anything which is why I named him Tom Riddle because I'm pretty sure he was manipulating them using dark magic. The one way to get the middle kids to focus was to just ignore them and start singing. For whatever reason that always worked. They would stop screaming and just join in the song. I liked that about them.
The first day we taught classes we realized that only about half of the students had English names. So the next day, Adam and I took to naming all the ones that didn't have English name. It was awesome. It was so easy to remember their names after that, because I had named them in the first place! Except there were a few that I could never remember, and I could tell that they were very offended when I forgot because I was the one who picked it in the first place. I wonder if Adam (Bible Adam, not team member Adam) ever forgot the names of the animals he named when he was in the Garden.
I roomed with Catherine and Mandy at the church and I'm so glad I did. Mandy and I became really good friends. She is starting her 3rd year of college in Jiangmen and she's studyng international trade business. She also loves Spanish so she thought my Spanish Bible was awesome. She taught me some Cantonese and every night before going to bed she would come to me with a list of questions about the English language that she encountered in that day and I would go over everything with her. Most of them were just words she didn't understand, but it was so much fun trying to explain some of the English slang she overheard us using when talking with each other. So now we have our lives all planned out- next summer we will both get an internship is Spain (don't worry, Amy it won't be during your wedding) and then when we graduate we will both move to Hong Kong together. Ok, so it's a long shot, but at least I have options.
In the evenings, I taught an adult Bible study/English class with Luke. There were 3 college-ish aged girls that showed up regularly. I think this was my favorite part of the trip. We didn't do a whole lot of lesson planning, but we mostly just came and talked about whatever they wanted to talk about. Generally some stupid aspect of American culture that they were curious about, and then we would try to explain how even though that is an American cultural norm, it wasn't necessarily the way that Christians were called to live their lives. It was so much fun to get to know them and to build relationships with them. I feel like that's what I was hoping for when I signed up for this.
That's about it for our mainland trip, that I can remember anyway... I would post pictures, but I'm not typing this on my computer so I don't have access to all my pictures, but within 24 hours I will post some. That is a Laura McLeran promise.
As far as the rest of my time in Hong Kong, I will be teaching a group of about 18 middle school students every morning from 9:15 until noon. I started this morning, and it was great! The students were shy at first but by the end of the class they were interacting really well. My lesson was way too easy for them, but I'll be ready for tomorrow with something challenging. I'm excited to work with the same students everyday for the next 2 weeks.
I hope all is well back home, thanks so much for the continued prayers. It means so much to me!
Let's talk about China.
We were there for 11 days so forgive me if I can't remember the order of some events or if this entry just seems like one big jumbled mess.
There was a typhoon that was supposed to hit the day we left Hong Kong to travel by ferry boat to the mainland. Seems like an adventure right!? Well it was underwhelming. I was pressured into taking Dramamine because apparently everyone on this team gets motion sickness. So we all took loads of pills (just kidding) and embarked. The water was a little rough, but not bad. I don't even think it was raining. I was drowsy. When we arrived we were welcomed by our wonderful translators/hosts/friends Hilda, Gloria, and Mandy. We drove to the church that we stayed at for the rest of the time. It was a large building, very tall, and we stayed on the fifth floor. No elevators. 96 stairs.
Our meals were all prepared for us by a cook that lived at the church. They were all so delicious. We got to eat lots and lots of veggies which I had been craving and I was so relieved that we didn't have seafood at all while there. I was getting so tired of eating so much strange seafood in Hong Kong that it was a nice change of pace. Unfortunately, about half our team fell due to stomach troubles and they were pretty much out of commission for a good 3 days or so. Thankfully my iron stomach was fine.
I loved how structured everything was in China. When we arrived, Hilda gave us all a printed schedule of everyday we were there broken out as to what was expected of us every hour of everyday. I love structure! It was so nice compared to all the uncertainty that we deal with in Hong Kong. Everyday we would wake up and have breakfast at 8:30. Usually Rebecca, Kristen, Rachel, and I would make a McDonald's coffee run in the morning before breakfast, and a couple times we bought our own breakfast from vendors on the street. It was awesome and so cheap. After breakfast we would have an hour or so for team time, as well as some time set aside for planning for classes. Lunch was at noon and then the students arrived at the church around 2. We ran VBS style classes, which wasn't exactly what I was expecting, but it worked out fairly well. There were 90 students total and they were broken up into 3 groups by age. The youngest group was 5-7 years, then 8-11, then 12-18. The most challenging thing was how to present the same material to all age groups and still have it hold their interest. I led the music class. The youngest kids were so easy because even though they couldn't read and they didn't have any idea what they were singing, they tried so hard and they would always do the motions. The oldest group was the easiest to communicate with and they were so good, but I could tell how disinterested they were in singing the same songs that the little kids were, so I had to mix it up a little bit. We sang for about half the class and then we would play some sort of game like musical chairs or something. They loved musical chairs because the first time we played, the coolest kid in the class named Bruce Lee got up and started playing the guitar instead of me playing music off of my ipod. In addition to Bruce Lee there was also a Michael Jackson (who could actually moonwalk, the day we did the story of Peter walking on water, MJ moonwalked on water) and Jackie Chan. These three boys were so funny and so helpful with translating stuff because their English was really good. The middle aged kids were the worst. They were so out of control and I had no idea how to keep their attention. We would play games but they would just yell and terrorize each other. Especially the one kid that I nicknamed Tom Riddle. Once, when playing musical chairs, he ended up winning, but all the kids were complaining about how he had been cheating the whole time. I was confused because I thought I had been paying attention the whole time, but when we played again I watched him closer. He would, very subtly, but very effectively, shove, drag, throw little children out of the chair before he sat down in it. I'm not sure how he did it without them getting upset or anything which is why I named him Tom Riddle because I'm pretty sure he was manipulating them using dark magic. The one way to get the middle kids to focus was to just ignore them and start singing. For whatever reason that always worked. They would stop screaming and just join in the song. I liked that about them.
The first day we taught classes we realized that only about half of the students had English names. So the next day, Adam and I took to naming all the ones that didn't have English name. It was awesome. It was so easy to remember their names after that, because I had named them in the first place! Except there were a few that I could never remember, and I could tell that they were very offended when I forgot because I was the one who picked it in the first place. I wonder if Adam (Bible Adam, not team member Adam) ever forgot the names of the animals he named when he was in the Garden.
I roomed with Catherine and Mandy at the church and I'm so glad I did. Mandy and I became really good friends. She is starting her 3rd year of college in Jiangmen and she's studyng international trade business. She also loves Spanish so she thought my Spanish Bible was awesome. She taught me some Cantonese and every night before going to bed she would come to me with a list of questions about the English language that she encountered in that day and I would go over everything with her. Most of them were just words she didn't understand, but it was so much fun trying to explain some of the English slang she overheard us using when talking with each other. So now we have our lives all planned out- next summer we will both get an internship is Spain (don't worry, Amy it won't be during your wedding) and then when we graduate we will both move to Hong Kong together. Ok, so it's a long shot, but at least I have options.
In the evenings, I taught an adult Bible study/English class with Luke. There were 3 college-ish aged girls that showed up regularly. I think this was my favorite part of the trip. We didn't do a whole lot of lesson planning, but we mostly just came and talked about whatever they wanted to talk about. Generally some stupid aspect of American culture that they were curious about, and then we would try to explain how even though that is an American cultural norm, it wasn't necessarily the way that Christians were called to live their lives. It was so much fun to get to know them and to build relationships with them. I feel like that's what I was hoping for when I signed up for this.
That's about it for our mainland trip, that I can remember anyway... I would post pictures, but I'm not typing this on my computer so I don't have access to all my pictures, but within 24 hours I will post some. That is a Laura McLeran promise.
As far as the rest of my time in Hong Kong, I will be teaching a group of about 18 middle school students every morning from 9:15 until noon. I started this morning, and it was great! The students were shy at first but by the end of the class they were interacting really well. My lesson was way too easy for them, but I'll be ready for tomorrow with something challenging. I'm excited to work with the same students everyday for the next 2 weeks.
I hope all is well back home, thanks so much for the continued prayers. It means so much to me!
Last post for a while...
Tomorrow we are traveling to mainland China. There won't be internet access so I am not bringing my computer so don't expect another update until at least August 1st. I am actually very excited to be computerless in China... sometimes I feel like we all rely too much on facebook and such to be happy. It will be a nice break.
Today wrapped up the camp at LCK secondary. My class performed the story of Zaccheus and tied for first prize! I was so proud of them. Especially little Zaccheus who was officially the cutest little boy I have ever met. I want to take him home with me.
I will hopefully take lots of pictures in China so I will have lots to share with you when I get back. Keep the prayers coming, we will definitely need them!
Today wrapped up the camp at LCK secondary. My class performed the story of Zaccheus and tied for first prize! I was so proud of them. Especially little Zaccheus who was officially the cutest little boy I have ever met. I want to take him home with me.
I will hopefully take lots of pictures in China so I will have lots to share with you when I get back. Keep the prayers coming, we will definitely need them!
I am Hong Kong people.
Today was a great Hong Kong day. After today I feel like if I wanted to, I could move to Hong Kong, teach English, and be happy here for a very long time. I feel like I would even have friends!
I was so nervous going into today because it would be our first time with a classroom full of kids all to ourself, meaning we were not paired up with each other or anything like that. We were given Bible stories to teach our middle school students with the end goal that they would act them out tomorrow at the end of the day. Given the way our drama teaching went last week, I was not looking forward to it. However, it went so well. Not flawless, still a little nerve-wracking, but all in all I am very pleased about how it went and I am actually looking forward to tomorrow. I even had kids volunteer for parts in the play!
After teaching, I went to lunch with the same group of high schoolers that took me out on the town a couple weeks ago. They are still awesome. They invited me and my friends to their volleyball game. It was so much fun! We watched them play a few games, then we went to eat dinner at this awesome restaurant that didn't have any English menus let alone employees that spoke English, so we had to drag one lady outside where there were pictures of food on the windows and point to what we wanted. I think it was my favorite meal I have had here with the exception of the buffet in mainland China. We went back to the volleyball games and played some pick up basketball and just hung out with some people. I legitimately feel like these students are becoming my friends and that I could hang out with them on a regular basis and be fine. It is so cool to have this group of students constant while we are here. We bounce around from school to school and from age group to age group and it feels like we are not able to make any sort of connection with any of the students because we are only working with them for such a short time, but then there are these high schoolers that we keep interacting with outside of school. I love it and I think I am going to miss them most when this is all over.
I was so nervous going into today because it would be our first time with a classroom full of kids all to ourself, meaning we were not paired up with each other or anything like that. We were given Bible stories to teach our middle school students with the end goal that they would act them out tomorrow at the end of the day. Given the way our drama teaching went last week, I was not looking forward to it. However, it went so well. Not flawless, still a little nerve-wracking, but all in all I am very pleased about how it went and I am actually looking forward to tomorrow. I even had kids volunteer for parts in the play!
After teaching, I went to lunch with the same group of high schoolers that took me out on the town a couple weeks ago. They are still awesome. They invited me and my friends to their volleyball game. It was so much fun! We watched them play a few games, then we went to eat dinner at this awesome restaurant that didn't have any English menus let alone employees that spoke English, so we had to drag one lady outside where there were pictures of food on the windows and point to what we wanted. I think it was my favorite meal I have had here with the exception of the buffet in mainland China. We went back to the volleyball games and played some pick up basketball and just hung out with some people. I legitimately feel like these students are becoming my friends and that I could hang out with them on a regular basis and be fine. It is so cool to have this group of students constant while we are here. We bounce around from school to school and from age group to age group and it feels like we are not able to make any sort of connection with any of the students because we are only working with them for such a short time, but then there are these high schoolers that we keep interacting with outside of school. I love it and I think I am going to miss them most when this is all over.
Long Week!!!
This last week was intensely busy! I finally have time to sit down and update you all about all we have done lately.
Mon/Tues
These were the GEOs last 2 days in Hong Kong so we helped out with a 2 day program right here at the primary school we are staying in. It is so nice to be able to wake up, roll out of bed, and walk down stairs and be right at our destination. I was in the music room teaching songs about David and Goliath. It was really fun. We were working with 3rd or 4th grade students which I think is my favorite age group that we've worked with thus far. I like them because they aren't afraid to talk to you for the most part and their English level is very impressive for their age which definitely says a lot about this particular primary school and its teachers and what an awesome job they are doing.
Monday night we got to travel into mainland China, just for fun. We went to a giant mall to practice our bartering skills. I think I did alright, I bought a watch for $80HK (about $10US) but she started out at $350HK and I got her down to 80 so I'd call that a success. I also bought a beautiful oil painting of downtown Hong Kong for $40HK (or $5US) and I can't remember what that painting started at, but it was higher than $150HK. I really enjoyed bartering. For dinner that night we went to a real Chinese buffet. It is my favorite meal I have eaten this trip. The buffet was never ending, I don't think I ever saw all the food. I just kept getting side tracked by the chocolate fountain.
Wed-Fri
This was our first real challenge. Without the GEOs we had to come up with all our lesson plans and everything on our own. I miss our 3 GEOs so much! Each of these 3 days we had to commute over to a secondary school on Hong Kong island (an hour and a half commute both ways) and we ran a camp for middle school students to get them excited about attending that particular school. The camp was on the fruits of the spirit, but I'm pretty sure we were the ones getting to really understand the meaning of the fruits, especially PATIENCE and SELF CONTROL. Wednesday was such a frustrating and discouraging day because we showed up with our detailed lesson plans and positive mental attitudes only to find out that there was a communication block and just about everything we had planned wouldn't work. I was leading the drama room, along with Luke, and I think we really had to adapt and be okay with throwing out our well-planned out lessons and just being flexible. Wednesday night was definitely a low point but we bounced back and the rest of the week was great. It was still very challenging because we were dealing with middle schoolers with an extremely low English level, who were very shy, and didn't really seem to want anything to do with us, but I think overall we did our best and hopefully the school saw a boost in their enrollment.
This weekend is going to be awesomely relaxing because we have nothing at all to do (except some planning). We will just be hanging out and enjoying some nice rain from the TYPHOON! Don't worry it's not a real typhoon anymore.
As promised, here are some pictures!
Mon/Tues
These were the GEOs last 2 days in Hong Kong so we helped out with a 2 day program right here at the primary school we are staying in. It is so nice to be able to wake up, roll out of bed, and walk down stairs and be right at our destination. I was in the music room teaching songs about David and Goliath. It was really fun. We were working with 3rd or 4th grade students which I think is my favorite age group that we've worked with thus far. I like them because they aren't afraid to talk to you for the most part and their English level is very impressive for their age which definitely says a lot about this particular primary school and its teachers and what an awesome job they are doing.
Monday night we got to travel into mainland China, just for fun. We went to a giant mall to practice our bartering skills. I think I did alright, I bought a watch for $80HK (about $10US) but she started out at $350HK and I got her down to 80 so I'd call that a success. I also bought a beautiful oil painting of downtown Hong Kong for $40HK (or $5US) and I can't remember what that painting started at, but it was higher than $150HK. I really enjoyed bartering. For dinner that night we went to a real Chinese buffet. It is my favorite meal I have eaten this trip. The buffet was never ending, I don't think I ever saw all the food. I just kept getting side tracked by the chocolate fountain.
Wed-Fri
This was our first real challenge. Without the GEOs we had to come up with all our lesson plans and everything on our own. I miss our 3 GEOs so much! Each of these 3 days we had to commute over to a secondary school on Hong Kong island (an hour and a half commute both ways) and we ran a camp for middle school students to get them excited about attending that particular school. The camp was on the fruits of the spirit, but I'm pretty sure we were the ones getting to really understand the meaning of the fruits, especially PATIENCE and SELF CONTROL. Wednesday was such a frustrating and discouraging day because we showed up with our detailed lesson plans and positive mental attitudes only to find out that there was a communication block and just about everything we had planned wouldn't work. I was leading the drama room, along with Luke, and I think we really had to adapt and be okay with throwing out our well-planned out lessons and just being flexible. Wednesday night was definitely a low point but we bounced back and the rest of the week was great. It was still very challenging because we were dealing with middle schoolers with an extremely low English level, who were very shy, and didn't really seem to want anything to do with us, but I think overall we did our best and hopefully the school saw a boost in their enrollment.
This weekend is going to be awesomely relaxing because we have nothing at all to do (except some planning). We will just be hanging out and enjoying some nice rain from the TYPHOON! Don't worry it's not a real typhoon anymore.
As promised, here are some pictures!
Many many tours!
I spent all day Thursday touring around Hong Kong with my group of secondary students. It was awesome! Such a long day, but so much fun. I hope they didn't think I was too lame because by the end of the day I was totally beat and I think they could have kept going on for hours... I left around 8:30am and didn't get back until 10pm. During that time I got to see a little bit about each part of Hong Kong. We went to the island (where the city is) and shopped a bit and wandered around the city until lunch. We ate lunch at this place in what seemed like an sketchy alley, but my group assured me that the food was famous. So I ordered something without actually fully knowing what it was, and they brought me something that closely resembled Ramen. but really really good and authentic Ramen. The lady didn't speak English, but she brought me chopsticks and a fork and when I took the chopsticks and not the fork she was very impressed. She kept coming back and patting me on the back for using my chopsticks so well, and apparently told my students that I was very smart. It was exciting! I feel like it was my initiation into the Proficient Chopstick Users Worldwide club. We should get shirts. After lunch we went over to Kowloon to the Space museum, which was entertaining to say the least, and then we watched an IMAX movie about the Grand Canyon. I thought it was hilarious that they took me to watch a Grand Canyon movie while in Hong Kong, and they kept apologizing because they thought it was very boring, but I thought it was pretty cool. I even spotted some Wilderness River Adventure boats!! I got to see the beautiful harbor that you see in every picture of Hong Kong ever. I promise I'll post pictures up soon, I just haven't had a chance to hook up my camera in a while. But rest assured my next post will be mostly photos!
Yesterday we also got to go sight-seeing, this time we were taken out by Ken and it was just team USA. I saw a lot of the same stuff, but this time we had a private bus so it was much less walking. The best part was going up to The Peak and seeing the city at night. It was completely gorgeous.
Yesterday we also got to go sight-seeing, this time we were taken out by Ken and it was just team USA. I saw a lot of the same stuff, but this time we had a private bus so it was much less walking. The best part was going up to The Peak and seeing the city at night. It was completely gorgeous.
it takes different strokes to move the world
I had an amazing day today. Singing and jumping and being overly enthusiastic in front of 600 middle school Chinese students was incredible. Some might even say life changing. I am so exhausted now but also incredibly energized. On the way home from the YMCA camp that we were working at I took a private bus with the rest of Team USA back to our home. On the way home at a stop light, the bus pulled up next to a truck with 2 little boys in the back seat. The younger of the two boys was staring out the window and he caught my eye. Seeing that I was American he started enthusiastically waving and hitting his brother to get his attention so that he could see the bus full of Americans too. We stick out like a sore thumb and everybody notices us. At the camp the braver of the kids cannot wait to get a chance to talk with us because we speak the language that they so desperately need to learn in order to be considered successful in this culture. It is such a weird feeling, especially since we have done nothing to attract their attention- we are just DIFFERENT. It got me thinking. What if we stuck out like at home like we stick out here? Not because we look different or speak a different language or anything physical at all, but simply because we ARE different. What if people noticed us in the United States for our love for each other and our love for Jesus? Isn't that the best evangelism there is?
Fourth of July!
It was quite different celebrating the fourth of July in Hong Kong since, you know, no one celebrates it here... but we woke up (some of us earlier than others) and went to a church service held entirely in Cantonese!! It was so cool! The service followed the same order of service of most Lutheran churches back in the states so we were able to follow along fairly well, plus we had a translator, whom I couldn't hear/understand very well. During the sermon we took the children out to teach them a Bible story in English and sing songs. They were so cute! We mostly just watched as the GEOs taught, but starting next Sunday it will all be on us to lead it entirely since the GEOs are going home for the summer.
After church we ventured over to a giant shopping mall mostly just to get a feel for using the mass transit. Apparently it is a huge mistake to go to any sort of public area on the weekends because that is when EVERYONE goes. It was so crowded, but we found out that it wasn't nearly as bad as usual. I thought it was the most crowded place I'd ever been... but then again I hate crowds. Highlight of the day: the bubble tea. I got mango green flavored (in honor of Meagan, of course) and it had chunks of mango at the bottom. SO much better than Lollicup or Bento! After we got home we began our Independence Day celebration with Pizza Hut! Except even that wasn't too terribly American since one of the pizzas had octopus on it. Needless to say, I didn't eat it. Then the GEOs came over to give us a briefing on teaching ESL and using the mass transit. For those of you who have never visited Hong Kong before, their public transportation system is absolutely incredible, but also absurdly intimidating. To get to many places in HK you have to take 2 or 3 different types, like train, light rail, bus, or cab. It's all very cheap (even the cabs) and you just scan your octopus card to get on. It's super efficient but very confusing. I now have at least 3 different maps and I have been studying so I'm sure I'll pick it up quickly.
Today we started our "work". We went to a Lutheran secondary school in the area to meet our new group of form 6 (equivalent to US 12th grade) students. My team got divided up so we are each in a different group with about 8 Chinese students, the goal being that they would get to talk to us and practice their English because in order to go to a university they must be fluent in English, Cantonese, and Mandarine. My students were awesome. They were so interested in American culture and they loved Michael Jackson. Thursday they are taking me out to some place in Hong Kong for one of their school summer projects. I'm not entirely sure where we are going, they kept telling me it was a secret, although I'm pretty sure they just didn't know how to explain it to me in English. After my team and I all met with our separate teams we wanted to go to lunch (yum cha) so I invited my team to come with us because we weren't familiar with the area or the restaurants. They took us to their favorite Indian restaurant. It was good! I'd never had Indian food before but I liked it! I even tried some of Adam's ox tongue curry, which was absolutely repulsive. Now we are all just hanging out in the common room and we're going to a very fancy restaurant for dinner tonight (the same one we ate at for lunch on the first day) and I'm pretty excited because that place has the most delicious traditional Chinese food ever.
Sunday school
The church
My group!
After church we ventured over to a giant shopping mall mostly just to get a feel for using the mass transit. Apparently it is a huge mistake to go to any sort of public area on the weekends because that is when EVERYONE goes. It was so crowded, but we found out that it wasn't nearly as bad as usual. I thought it was the most crowded place I'd ever been... but then again I hate crowds. Highlight of the day: the bubble tea. I got mango green flavored (in honor of Meagan, of course) and it had chunks of mango at the bottom. SO much better than Lollicup or Bento! After we got home we began our Independence Day celebration with Pizza Hut! Except even that wasn't too terribly American since one of the pizzas had octopus on it. Needless to say, I didn't eat it. Then the GEOs came over to give us a briefing on teaching ESL and using the mass transit. For those of you who have never visited Hong Kong before, their public transportation system is absolutely incredible, but also absurdly intimidating. To get to many places in HK you have to take 2 or 3 different types, like train, light rail, bus, or cab. It's all very cheap (even the cabs) and you just scan your octopus card to get on. It's super efficient but very confusing. I now have at least 3 different maps and I have been studying so I'm sure I'll pick it up quickly.
Today we started our "work". We went to a Lutheran secondary school in the area to meet our new group of form 6 (equivalent to US 12th grade) students. My team got divided up so we are each in a different group with about 8 Chinese students, the goal being that they would get to talk to us and practice their English because in order to go to a university they must be fluent in English, Cantonese, and Mandarine. My students were awesome. They were so interested in American culture and they loved Michael Jackson. Thursday they are taking me out to some place in Hong Kong for one of their school summer projects. I'm not entirely sure where we are going, they kept telling me it was a secret, although I'm pretty sure they just didn't know how to explain it to me in English. After my team and I all met with our separate teams we wanted to go to lunch (yum cha) so I invited my team to come with us because we weren't familiar with the area or the restaurants. They took us to their favorite Indian restaurant. It was good! I'd never had Indian food before but I liked it! I even tried some of Adam's ox tongue curry, which was absolutely repulsive. Now we are all just hanging out in the common room and we're going to a very fancy restaurant for dinner tonight (the same one we ate at for lunch on the first day) and I'm pretty excited because that place has the most delicious traditional Chinese food ever.
Sunday school
The church
My group!
Day 1
First of all let me say that I am completely wiped, so if this post isn't entirely cohesive let's all just agree to chalk it up to jet lag.
This place is incredible. We have been completely submerged in a totally different culture. There's really no easing into it, it's just boom. Culture. We ventured over to the marketplace right across the street from our school and I'm not exaggerating when I say that I did not see a single other white person in the entire place other than our group. We are not by any means in a touristy part of Hong Kong. And the whole "most people speak English in Hong Kong" thing is a blatant lie. They don't. At least not where we are. They do however love interacting with westerners. I feel like a celebrity because children point and yell and stare at us. It's so cute. The GEO missionaries who have been showing us around say that knowing how to speak English is such an asset as far as going to college or getting a job that people will do anything to talk to you or to get you to talk to their kids because they think that if we speak English to them it will rub off or something. I've never been anywhere with such a huge language barrier, but so far no huge problems. Signs clearly state how much everything is, so purchasing things are simple enough. I guess I'll just get used to having to gesture a lot to get people to understand.
So far the food has been great! I am being as adventurous as I can. The great thing about it is when a Chinese person takes you to a meal, they don't expect you to order anything for yourself. Meals are all family style and the host (or the person that invited you to attend the meal) makes all the ordering decisions. This is great because 1. I can't read the menus and 2. I am a horrible orderer. I suffer from post-order regret syndrome. For lunch we went to a very formal traditional Chinese restaurant and got all your traditional Chinese foods, all delicious of course. Dinner was a bit more interesting... we got hot pot. Which is essentially boiling flavored water that you dump raw meat into and then fish it out and eat it. Some stuff was good and some foods were just bizarre. I did try everything though. Except oysters because I hate oysters. Dinner was especially funny because we were on our own without the help of our Chinese hosts. Everyone was staring at us because we were being very entertaining. Especially when they brought out the raw shrimp that still had all its legs, tail, and head including the eyes and whiskers. I just watch Camden, the 8 year old son of Roper and Rachel, and if he tries it and likes it then I know it's safe to try it too. That kid will try ANYTHING.
Ok here are some pictures (there are a few more on Facebook):
HOME
Beach
Lunch
Shrimp before being boiled.
This place is incredible. We have been completely submerged in a totally different culture. There's really no easing into it, it's just boom. Culture. We ventured over to the marketplace right across the street from our school and I'm not exaggerating when I say that I did not see a single other white person in the entire place other than our group. We are not by any means in a touristy part of Hong Kong. And the whole "most people speak English in Hong Kong" thing is a blatant lie. They don't. At least not where we are. They do however love interacting with westerners. I feel like a celebrity because children point and yell and stare at us. It's so cute. The GEO missionaries who have been showing us around say that knowing how to speak English is such an asset as far as going to college or getting a job that people will do anything to talk to you or to get you to talk to their kids because they think that if we speak English to them it will rub off or something. I've never been anywhere with such a huge language barrier, but so far no huge problems. Signs clearly state how much everything is, so purchasing things are simple enough. I guess I'll just get used to having to gesture a lot to get people to understand.
So far the food has been great! I am being as adventurous as I can. The great thing about it is when a Chinese person takes you to a meal, they don't expect you to order anything for yourself. Meals are all family style and the host (or the person that invited you to attend the meal) makes all the ordering decisions. This is great because 1. I can't read the menus and 2. I am a horrible orderer. I suffer from post-order regret syndrome. For lunch we went to a very formal traditional Chinese restaurant and got all your traditional Chinese foods, all delicious of course. Dinner was a bit more interesting... we got hot pot. Which is essentially boiling flavored water that you dump raw meat into and then fish it out and eat it. Some stuff was good and some foods were just bizarre. I did try everything though. Except oysters because I hate oysters. Dinner was especially funny because we were on our own without the help of our Chinese hosts. Everyone was staring at us because we were being very entertaining. Especially when they brought out the raw shrimp that still had all its legs, tail, and head including the eyes and whiskers. I just watch Camden, the 8 year old son of Roper and Rachel, and if he tries it and likes it then I know it's safe to try it too. That kid will try ANYTHING.
Ok here are some pictures (there are a few more on Facebook):
HOME
Beach
Lunch
Shrimp before being boiled.
I made it!
Well we got in to Hong Kong last night around 8:30 (the time difference from home is 12 hours so pretty easy calculation) after the longest day and then some of traveling ever. I got up at 6am on Thursday and went to bed at 11pm on Friday. Ok yes I lost 12 hours in there but still it was painful. The flight to Newark was uneventful, and I was so excited to see NYC because I didn't realize that the Newark airport was literally right across the river from New York. Rebecca and I met up with another boy from our team, Luke and we got lunch and waited for our plane. The flight to Hong Kong was also uneventful but also one of the weirdest experiences ever. We flew over the north pole so the entire flight the sun was bright and shining. Except people were not thrilled when I opened the window shade to look outside because the plane was very dark and they were blinded by the light. So after the 3rd withering stare I received, I stopped trying to peek. I watched quite a few movies: Valentine's Day, Alice in Wonderland, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban and part of Wall-E until I FINALLY fell asleep. We landed in Hong Kong just after the sun had gone down. The city was absolutely stunning to see from the sky. It's huge!!! and then there are random hill/mountains in the middle of huge sky rises. It's so funny. We then proceded through immigration and customs and then met our greeting party.
The school that we are staying in is very large, although as of now I've really only seen the second floor, but no worries there will be pictures to come. I woke up this morning around 5am and was wide awake... stupid time zones. Apparently our agenda today is pretty open: we have a meeting at 8am and then the rest of the day to explore and get accustomed. I hope to take lots of pictures and I'll have them up here sometime soon!
The school that we are staying in is very large, although as of now I've really only seen the second floor, but no worries there will be pictures to come. I woke up this morning around 5am and was wide awake... stupid time zones. Apparently our agenda today is pretty open: we have a meeting at 8am and then the rest of the day to explore and get accustomed. I hope to take lots of pictures and I'll have them up here sometime soon!
Am I forgetting anything?
I leave on Thursday. Thursday! I am a huge mixture of emotions. Mostly excited, with a twinge of anxiety. Although I feel like the only thing I can think about right now is packing. Man I hate packing.
So stay tuned blogosphere! I'll be sure to update often, and let you all know what's going on in Hong Kong. I'll try to post some pictures when I can, but hopefully this will just be a place where I can talk about how good God is.
Oh but one last thing before I go, I am going to have to ask you not to text me after Thursday afternoon at 3:15 as I will have to pay for them since I will be international. I'll keep my phone on periodically because I can use the WiFi feature, but I won't be able to make calls and/or send/receive texts. So that means I'll be expecting e-mails and facebook messages! Preferably encouraging ones! Thanks for all the prayers and support. See you on the flipside!
So stay tuned blogosphere! I'll be sure to update often, and let you all know what's going on in Hong Kong. I'll try to post some pictures when I can, but hopefully this will just be a place where I can talk about how good God is.
Oh but one last thing before I go, I am going to have to ask you not to text me after Thursday afternoon at 3:15 as I will have to pay for them since I will be international. I'll keep my phone on periodically because I can use the WiFi feature, but I won't be able to make calls and/or send/receive texts. So that means I'll be expecting e-mails and facebook messages! Preferably encouraging ones! Thanks for all the prayers and support. See you on the flipside!
New Life Goal
I just stumbled upon some guy's blog and found this picture and his plans to hike all 4 trails in one calendar year. He is going to start on Jan 1, 2011. I am impressed and inspired. I didn't even know that half of those trails existed or were that long. It's already one of my goals to do the Appalachian Trail all the way through at some point but now I want to do all of them! Not necessarily in one year, I wouldn't mind spreading them out.
My problem is, as soon as I graduate from college I will (God willing) get a real job. Maybe even a career. I do not know what that job will look like... it could be anywhere from some crummy sales position to something in the non-profit sector to something entirely different. Then what? It's not like these places will just give you several months off at a time so you can just go out and hike across the country.
So I'd have to wait until I retire to do it, but then who knows if that would even work. What if I'm too old or I have health problems or I'm married and my husband doesn't want to go with me? I don't want to have to put things like this off.
Now I've been talking to Maureen lately about my dream job of moving to Arizona and running the Colorado river like the trip I went on with my family last summer. Now I could only do this job in the summer, and then I would move to like Colorado or something and work at a ski resort. There are several issues with this plan: 1. I don't know how to run a river. 2. I can't ski well enough to be a ski instructor. 3. None of this requires a college education so this whole college thing would have been a waste. However, a life like that seems like it would be more conducive to accomplishing things like the Appalachian trail and other things as well. Like relationships with people. I imagine the people that I would meet doing jobs like that would be pretty interesting and they would have such a different perspective on life than my own. I love meeting people and getting to know what makes them tick... It's just a thought.
To my dear parents who are probably reading this and freaking out because they are worried I'm going to drop out and move to Arizona: Don't worry. I'm just thinking. I'm just trying to picture my life in 10 years and I'm concerned because I have no idea what it looks like... and I refuse to go into sales. I don't want to grab the first job offered to me just because I'm afraid there won't be another one. I want to build relationships with people and feel like I'm doing something meaningful with my life.
Chinese Culture
Not praising the worthy prevents contention,
Not esteeming the valuable prevents theft,
Not displaying the beautiful prevents desire.
In this manner the sage governs people:
Emptying their minds,
Filling their bellies,
Weakening their ambitions,
And strengthening their bones.
If people lack knowledge and desire
Then they cannot act;
If no action is taken
Harmony remains
I am attempting to study for my Chinese Culture exam tomorrow, which could possibly be one of the most intimidating exams of my college career to date because it is not all multiple choice! It also has fill in the blanks, short answer, and essay questions! I haven't taken an exam like that since my AP days and I am quite nervous. I am pretty fascinated with Chinese history so far, which is incredible because I am NEVER fascinated by history. I love learning about their different religions (the above poem is a Taoist poem) because you get a better understanding of why they are the way they are today and what events and thought processes influenced them.
That being said, some of this stuff is pretty scary to think about. Taoism is all about non-action. Meaning it is best to just accept what life has offered you because striving for something new distorts your own nature. I can't imagine having that kind of outlook on life. I can't imagine simply accepting my circumstances and not striving to be the best I can be in everything I do. Ambition is a driving force in my life, not necessarily for my own selfish gain, but hopefully for the good of those around me. I don't know what I want to do with my life, but I hope I can do something that changes the circumstances of those around me for the better. That is why I am in school. To gain knowledge that will feed my desire to do something. Because, "If people lack knowledge and desire, they cannot act."
Not esteeming the valuable prevents theft,
Not displaying the beautiful prevents desire.
In this manner the sage governs people:
Emptying their minds,
Filling their bellies,
Weakening their ambitions,
And strengthening their bones.
If people lack knowledge and desire
Then they cannot act;
If no action is taken
Harmony remains
I am attempting to study for my Chinese Culture exam tomorrow, which could possibly be one of the most intimidating exams of my college career to date because it is not all multiple choice! It also has fill in the blanks, short answer, and essay questions! I haven't taken an exam like that since my AP days and I am quite nervous. I am pretty fascinated with Chinese history so far, which is incredible because I am NEVER fascinated by history. I love learning about their different religions (the above poem is a Taoist poem) because you get a better understanding of why they are the way they are today and what events and thought processes influenced them.
That being said, some of this stuff is pretty scary to think about. Taoism is all about non-action. Meaning it is best to just accept what life has offered you because striving for something new distorts your own nature. I can't imagine having that kind of outlook on life. I can't imagine simply accepting my circumstances and not striving to be the best I can be in everything I do. Ambition is a driving force in my life, not necessarily for my own selfish gain, but hopefully for the good of those around me. I don't know what I want to do with my life, but I hope I can do something that changes the circumstances of those around me for the better. That is why I am in school. To gain knowledge that will feed my desire to do something. Because, "If people lack knowledge and desire, they cannot act."
Top 10 ways I'd rather be spending the first half of my summer...
Don't get me wrong, I love Gainesville. LOVE. I am so thankful that I am not here all by my lonesome, BUT... that being said it is still school in the summer, which seems like a sin. So in a successful attempt at procrastination, here are the 10 places I'd rather be.
10. The Rocky Mountains
Yes, even horseback riding in hail storms in the rocky mountains.
9. Chicago
Best. Pizza. Ever.
8. St. Pete
Specifically, I would like to be at that resort we went to one night with my horse, Fiddle. Only this time, I would like to be an actual guest, not an impostor.
7. San Antonio
Mission Trip 2005: We know drama.
6. Alaska
Internship summer 2011???
5. Camp Travis
Some of the greatest and most edifying times in my life have happened at Camp Travis, I wish that I could go back!
4. The Grand Canyon
My favorite place in the whole world!
3. Home
Because I miss my family.
2. Hogwarts
Just plain wishful thinking...
1. Hong Kong
I CAN'T WAIT!
10. The Rocky Mountains
Yes, even horseback riding in hail storms in the rocky mountains.
9. Chicago
Best. Pizza. Ever.
8. St. Pete
Specifically, I would like to be at that resort we went to one night with my horse, Fiddle. Only this time, I would like to be an actual guest, not an impostor.
7. San Antonio
Mission Trip 2005: We know drama.
6. Alaska
Internship summer 2011???
5. Camp Travis
Some of the greatest and most edifying times in my life have happened at Camp Travis, I wish that I could go back!
4. The Grand Canyon
My favorite place in the whole world!
3. Home
Because I miss my family.
2. Hogwarts
Just plain wishful thinking...
1. Hong Kong
I CAN'T WAIT!
Tour de Gainesville?
In an attempt to tackle all the Gainesville hotspots that I have never been to before, my friend Meagan and I went to Ichiban Sushi downtown last weekend. It was very good. Here is my review:
Lovely establishment. We should have sat outside though to get the bustling downtown Gainesville atmosphere. Sushi was good, I got the Mexican roll and Meagan got spicy tuna. The chopsticks were more challenging than usual, but I think that may have been my fault. Seaweed salad was interestingly good, once I got past the slimy-ness of it... The wait staff was great. Our waiter passed on much knowledge about Chinese culture, for instance, NEVER point your shoes at someone in China. It is highly offensive. Also, don't leave your chopsticks in your rice bowl, because that is how they grieve their dead. He said this was only Japanese cultures, but after looking into it, it's for Chinese cultures as well. The only negative thing: shy bus boys. I think I can look beyond that. I will definitely be back.
Next stop on the Tour: Gator's Dockside for wing night. I can't believe I've never been there!
Lovely establishment. We should have sat outside though to get the bustling downtown Gainesville atmosphere. Sushi was good, I got the Mexican roll and Meagan got spicy tuna. The chopsticks were more challenging than usual, but I think that may have been my fault. Seaweed salad was interestingly good, once I got past the slimy-ness of it... The wait staff was great. Our waiter passed on much knowledge about Chinese culture, for instance, NEVER point your shoes at someone in China. It is highly offensive. Also, don't leave your chopsticks in your rice bowl, because that is how they grieve their dead. He said this was only Japanese cultures, but after looking into it, it's for Chinese cultures as well. The only negative thing: shy bus boys. I think I can look beyond that. I will definitely be back.
Next stop on the Tour: Gator's Dockside for wing night. I can't believe I've never been there!
Pack Rat
It feels weird to be back at school so soon, after a whopping 12 days of summer break. It's completely different though. Everything is bizarre. Only one roommate, longer classes, less people on campus, less people on the road, more free time, hotter, less friends, new friends, and no business classes. I have been in the process of cleaning out my room from the last semester, which generally makes me extremely nostalgic. Also, I have the hardest time throwing ANYTHING away. I have saved all the notes I've ever taken in every class ever. Even high school- I'm pretty sure I have all my notes from HS stashed away back home somewhere. It's not that I think I'm going to need to look something up sometime, but I just have an odd amount of pride in my notes. It represents all the hours I have spent in a class actually learning. My stacks of old notes symbolize my education in process. It's like I can physically hold my education, and the heavier the stack of notes get, the closer I am to being done and the smarter I am getting. Not that I want to be done... I'm actually dreading that moment like the plague. Graduation does not seem like a reason to celebrate to me because the very thought of it terrifies me. What the HECK am I going to do with my life? I hope it involves Spanish... I love Spanish so much. Not sure why, I just love the language. I love the idea of being able to speak 2 different languages. I can't help thinking about the MILLIONS of people that I cannot communicate with right now but I will be able to in a very short amount of time. What an incredible thought. If only I could speak Chinese... summer goal :)
Other summer goals:
-Raise as much money for the Hong Kong mission as I can
-Bike
-Get A's in my summer classes
-Play golf
-Bond with my HK team!
-Learn to swim (like real strokes and stuff)
-Visit all the cool Gainesville places that I've never been to before
-Play my flute
New Layout.
New purpose.
I love the idea of blogging, but P90X is too limiting. Yes, I am still doing it (maybe not this week) but I don't want to write about it anymore. I have bigger things to think about. I am leaving for Hong Kong in just over 7 weeks and I am getting SO excited. Every time I start to get overwhelmed something happens that makes me totally jazzed about it again. When I was scared about having to face all the fundraising and planning stages myself, I found out that a good friend of mine from UF was randomly going to be on the same trip as me. When I was worried about who was going to be on my team and whether or not I would make friends with them, I got an e-mail with their names and began connecting with them on Facebook. Most recently, when I was beginning to panic about how I was going to raise $3000 in time for the trip, I received 50% of the total cost in the mail from various families that had responded to my support letter. These things are all completely from God. Even when I am doubting the reasons behind going on this trip, He is there urging me forward, assuring me that I don't have any say in the matter, this was His plan from the beginning. It is comforting knowing that I am not in control.
I love the idea of blogging, but P90X is too limiting. Yes, I am still doing it (maybe not this week) but I don't want to write about it anymore. I have bigger things to think about. I am leaving for Hong Kong in just over 7 weeks and I am getting SO excited. Every time I start to get overwhelmed something happens that makes me totally jazzed about it again. When I was scared about having to face all the fundraising and planning stages myself, I found out that a good friend of mine from UF was randomly going to be on the same trip as me. When I was worried about who was going to be on my team and whether or not I would make friends with them, I got an e-mail with their names and began connecting with them on Facebook. Most recently, when I was beginning to panic about how I was going to raise $3000 in time for the trip, I received 50% of the total cost in the mail from various families that had responded to my support letter. These things are all completely from God. Even when I am doubting the reasons behind going on this trip, He is there urging me forward, assuring me that I don't have any say in the matter, this was His plan from the beginning. It is comforting knowing that I am not in control.
This is getting difficult.
In Donald Miller's book "A Million Miles in a Thousand Years" he talks about an inciting incident. An inciting incident is a literary term about an experience or event that forces a character into action, forces them to move, to change. For example, Miller wanted to hike the Incan trail, which is extremely grueling and physically taxing, and then he asked a girl he was interested in to accompany him and she agreed. This became his inciting incident to join a gym and get into shape so that he wouldn't make a fool of himself in front of the girl that he liked while on the trail.
I had an inciting incident that made me decide to do this silly work out regime. There's this kid in my speech class who did a speech on the P90X and I thought, "he's in shape. I could be too." Then I came home and John and Maureen were talking about starting the P90X and I thought, "what a coincidence, I'll do it too!" Thus began my commitment.
Now I need an inciting incident to force me to do yoga today. I am overwhelmed with school work and I know that the workout is an hour and a half which I'm not sure I have time for right now. But I don't want to flake out on another workout this week because then I would be making a habit out of it. I wish I had more time today.
I had an inciting incident that made me decide to do this silly work out regime. There's this kid in my speech class who did a speech on the P90X and I thought, "he's in shape. I could be too." Then I came home and John and Maureen were talking about starting the P90X and I thought, "what a coincidence, I'll do it too!" Thus began my commitment.
Now I need an inciting incident to force me to do yoga today. I am overwhelmed with school work and I know that the workout is an hour and a half which I'm not sure I have time for right now. But I don't want to flake out on another workout this week because then I would be making a habit out of it. I wish I had more time today.
This is the face of a girl...who's working hard!
So when I said thirty minutes what I actually meant was an hour and thirty minutes. I forgot how bad Friday's workout sucked. Legs and back plus abs. Zero fun.
But then I made dinner and it was so delicious. Big shout out to Allison on that one for thinking up the marinade. I marinated pork chops in root beer and soy sauce for a few hours and then cooked em up. Seriously so good. I spent my whole life trying to convince my dad to marinate meat in soda and he never would. Well he's missing out. One time I convinced him to let me separately marinate my steak in Dr Pepper... best steak ever. I want to drop out of college and go to culinary school. Is that such a bad thing? No. I just want to cook delicious meals and bake cakes. And do p90x so that I don't get fat from all the food I would be eating. Life would be perfect. Ojala.
But then I made dinner and it was so delicious. Big shout out to Allison on that one for thinking up the marinade. I marinated pork chops in root beer and soy sauce for a few hours and then cooked em up. Seriously so good. I spent my whole life trying to convince my dad to marinate meat in soda and he never would. Well he's missing out. One time I convinced him to let me separately marinate my steak in Dr Pepper... best steak ever. I want to drop out of college and go to culinary school. Is that such a bad thing? No. I just want to cook delicious meals and bake cakes. And do p90x so that I don't get fat from all the food I would be eating. Life would be perfect. Ojala.
30 minutes
I was having a little bit of trouble motivating myself to do my workout today because I just want to nap some more, but I was trying to motivate myself by telling myself that it's only like 30 minutes and that I can handle 30 minutes of exercise. As I was thinking this I was reminded of a great speech that someone very special to me once made. Maybe you'll recognize it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d-qodBTlMtA
Now I'm motivated. 30 minutes for the rest of my life. Ok maybe not entirely accurate, but whatever works right? More like 30 minutes until you can have lunch and then nap. Now that's motivation. Thank you Tim.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d-qodBTlMtA
Now I'm motivated. 30 minutes for the rest of my life. Ok maybe not entirely accurate, but whatever works right? More like 30 minutes until you can have lunch and then nap. Now that's motivation. Thank you Tim.
SMELLS like fitness
Today my abs cramped up in the middle of the ripperX. One of the more painful things I can think of (second only to finger injuries obviously). I'm not sure why finger injuries affect me so much... I start to lose consciousness. Like the time at the McDonald's on the way to NC. How embarrassing. I think it's just one of those quirks that my body has. Can your body be quirky? I have a quirky sense of smell too. Is it weird that I can recognize people by their scent? Even if I smell a perfume in the store I can recognize "oh, so and so wears this." My mom just recently switched perfumes and the first time I smelled her wearing it I told her that her sister wore the same perfume. I see my aunt MAYBE once a year... My mom didn't believe me, so she called her sister and sure enough. My nose wins again. Even weird things. I can tell when someone switches laundry detergent. Or if someone doesn't use laundry detergent. And then I get this weird memory trigger when I smell certain scents... like warm vanilla sugar from bath and body works reminds me of when my brother and Kelly were dating in high school and my brother couldn't drive yet so my mom had to drive them on dates and I was stuck in the backseat. I'm pretty sure that's what she wore. That was a long time ago so Kelly, I hope you don't think I'm creepy... I just have a super sensitive nose.
End of week 1!
Yep that's right. 1 week down, 11 more to go! I have to say, my favorite workout is kenpo. It starts out kinda slow but then it really picks up. I definitely broke a sweat. Now I want to fight someone. Well, mostly just hit someone in the face. I want to know what it feels like. Too bad I'm a pacifist.
Today I started the week over again with core synergistics, but this time I had real weights that I brought up from home. Let me tell you, that makes things harder. MUCH harder. On the plus side, I already have seen an improvement in my flexibility! Way to go p90 X!!!
The tip of the day: DON'T DO THIS EVERYDAY
Being home is rough on the diet. So I'm not eating healthy until after Easter (which seems a little counter-intuitive with Lent being all sacrificial and all). Today I did some yoga when I woke up, which is surprisingly challenging. I only did half of it, because I had to go to breakfast with my family, but even that was enough to make me sore. Or maybe I'm sore from a previous days workout. It's very difficult to tell. Then later my sister in law and I did the ab ripper x. I think I already made progress in it. We shall see how sore I am tomorrow. So stoked to do Kenpo tomorrow which I think is like karate or kick boxing. Should be awesome.
Hopefully by the end of this I will be as good of a hula dancer as my hero, Tony Horton.
April Fools
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OK just kidding I'm not quitting. Today is day 5 and I'm doing yoga. I switched days 4 and 5 because I am home now and originally day 5 required a pull up bar (which I do not have at home, but do have at school) so I'm a little out of order but that's ok. My legs are extremely sore from yesterday. But as the great Tony Horton would say, "I know it hurts, but keep going!" So here's to hoping that the yoga is nice and leisurely. I seriously doubt it.
I am weak.
I don't think I can handle the P90X anymore. I give up. I don't even really like blogging. Sorry.
Don't forget to eat...
Yesterday I accidentally ate 5 doughnut holes. I feel like Tony Horton is very disappointed in me. I can just feel him giving me that look that your parents always give you after you bring home a not so decent grade in high school. Or for me it was when I was accused of plagiarizing in my US history class in 10th grade (I didn't plagiarize by the way). However, I think I may have redeemed myself by the excellent dinner I created on my own. I felt like a chef because I didn't use a recipe. Well ok, I glanced at a recipe to see if my ingredients were in the right ballpark, but that's it! I made pasta with tuna and broccoli with a parmesan cheese and milk sauce. So delicious.
Today is day 3 and I have just woken up. My body hurts, but it's a good hurt. I've got arms and shoulders today plus the anxiously awaited Ab Ripper X! Seeing as my abs/core are already just about as sore as I think they've ever been, I'm going to post a warning: Don't make me laugh. It hurts too bad. If you do, I will make you pay in 88 days.
My core feels synergized
DAY 1
I went to the grocery store this morning to stock up on all the healthy foods recommended by the nutritional guide. Who knew that eating healthy was so darn expensive?? I dropped about $115 on groceries and sadly that will probably only last me about a week. However, I am very excited about what I did get. Salmon, tuna, pork, fresh veggies, whole wheat pitas, hummus, fruit, and much more. Maureen and I did the first work out which was Core Synergistics. It synergistically kicked my butt. In a good way. I am already sore. We don't have weights yet so we had to make due with items around the apartment: 64 ounces of Gatorade, a full water bottle, peanut butter, and two cans scotch taped together. As you can see from the picture the Gatorade was much bigger than our other "weights" so we had to rotate that one around. Post work out I had some hummus for lunch. It was very tasty but I was afraid to read what the ingredients were. For some reason I confuse hummus with that thing that means sheep's stomach. Haggis. Similar right? Turns out hummus is mashed chickpeas plus some other stuff. I can handle chickpeas, I don't think I could handle sheep stomach.
Before I begin...
Alright I'm about to accomplish 2 life goals here:
1. To be in the best possible physical condition
2. To blog
The goal is to use this blog to keep track of my progress along the way, but I will admit that part of the reason I agreed to do P90X with my 2 roommates and friend was because it would give me an excuse to start a blog. But that's enough about the blog.
The official starting date is going to be this Monday (March 29) which would make the ending date somewhere around June 30th. Just in time for my trip to Hong Kong. Before Monday I need to get some weights and resistance bands, as well as make my way to Publix to weigh myself so I can keep track of whether or not I'm loosing any weight. To be clear, my goal is not to lose weight, but simply to be in better shape. I also have a lot of reading material and nutritional guides to go over. Honestly, I am anticipating the most difficult part to be eating right... I struggle in this area.
So keep checking in, I'll try to make this as entertaining as possible.
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