My Closure

I’ll admit it – I’ve been a bad blogger. I recorded events almost a week after they happened, I really didn’t think about writing anything insightful/witty, and I mastered the art of the photodump.
Apologies.

But my last post is no different, really. Even though I arrived home about a week ago, I’ve been putting off writing/thinking about closure, but now that I’m finally on the way back to Yale, I figure I should probably wrap up my summer adventures for good. (Yeah, I’m on the plane right now – how last minute is that? Also, the guy behind me is apparently feeling the urge to bother my feet with his own; I keep having to move out of range.)

Well, I guess I’ve also been holding off because I feel like I haven’t really left Hong Kong. Once a Summerbridge teacher, always a Summerbridge teacher. When I close my eyes, I’m walking home to my flat or standing in my classroom, my backpack slung over one shoulder and my laptop cradled in my arm. I can hear all the chaos of the traffic, and the noise settles over me like a thick blanket. And when I wake up, it takes me a moment to remember that I don’t have to get up at the crack of dawn anymore, and I don’t need to run and catch the 115 bus anymore…nonetheless, when I open up my e-mail, I find letters from students sitting in my inbox, and the landscape of Facebook has forever been changed for me (I really wish I could read Chinese.)

Eval Week - The Beginning of the End

Er…at the beginning of the summer, it was my understanding that Eval Week was long and dreary. We have to write evaluation letters for the students, clean up our classrooms, wrap up Summerbridge…

Celebration: Yet Another Photodump!

I know, I know - I suck at this blogging business. The truth is that it's time consuming! Here are some photos:

Week 5: Celebration Preparation!

Well…I’m on the way home, so I suppose that I should try to wrap up these blog entries for the last two weeks! :D


Here’s the weekly photodump – though I’ve split up Week 4 into two parts!


Week 4 was…whack. I mean, wrapping up ST Day was one thing, but Celebration was a chaotic beast of a thing. A “student generated show” actually means “a lot of teachers making sure their students focus long enough to generate content.” Our students are wonderful, but we forget sometimes that we’re teaching them to be loud and outgoing and creative, and when those lessons are put into practice…yeah. I love my CDC 1A and 1B separately, but if you put them all together, they are impossible. So, this week was a bit tough. But it was also one massive tearjerker. Enjoy the photos!


Included below: Food, our trip to Shenzhen (yeah, China!), and various student goings on!



Sneak peek:

I think Doris snapped this photo – this is basically what Tiff and I did every day, right before we chased the bus!! :D

Week 4: Student Teaching Day

Right, you know the drill! It's been a busy week, I'm rather tired, etcetera, etcetera. But, y'know, here are stories about students, pictures of food, pictures of craziness...anyway, I think last week was the worse, since I'm a Committee Head and my event was Student Teaching Day, which was on Friday. So...yeah. No sleep. Oops. Anyway, this week is much more chill (for me), so check out my fun pictures! Yay!

A Big Photo-Dump (or, I'm Still Alive)

Hi. Still here. :) I realize that it's the end of Week 4 (or 5, depending on how you look at it), but I haven't actually written anything about Week 3. Week 3 was, well, stressful, but also happily busy. So, here are a few pictures. :D LOOK, CHILDREN!

One Long Meandering Ramble

So...I spent a good 40 minutes on the bus, typing up a long, long blog post. But then my internet died and I thoughtlessly decided to restart my computer. So...yeah. The blog vanished. Oops. But since I truly truly love my students, and I want to share that love, I'll try my best to rewrite it. Here's my blog-dump.

First of all, I would like to apologize for not writing for the last, oh, week and a half. Basically, ever since our classes actually started, things have been hectic. In fact, tonight is the first night I've actually had time to just...sit. And think for myself.  Even then, I basically had to set aside time (that's right. I could've been at the arcade, or at dinner at a friend's house). But this is important. I mean, I've averaged about 4-6 hours of sleep a night lately, so hopefully I can get 8 tonight, yay! That would be amazing. Sorry, family/friends - I know I've been getting a few concerned emails, since I haven't exactly checked in with anyone for awhile. But my internet's been spotty, and it's not like I've had much time, anyway.

After the jump: Stories, a ridiculous amount of pictures (like 15 of them?), and lots and lots of fun! Yay!

Teaser:

Ocean Park, Hong Kong, the How to Train Your Dragon exhibit (look, Ma, no hands!)