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!

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.

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!

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!

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.

Fried rice night! A good way to celebrate a successful Chinese midterm exam.

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."