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!)

MOAR about my students!

I realize that I have not updated all week, but this is because I am ridiculously busy - out of my flat by 6:40 a.m., and back in by 10 p.m, and then I write up lesson plans until 1ish. But it's rewarding. Anyway, I will try to write/post pictures this weekend, but in the meantime, this is what I want to say about my students:

They're awesome. They do twice as much work as I ask of them, and they try so hard, and they just want to learn about everything. But, mostly, they're really adorable. Next week, I'll try to snag pictures of them. Also, they have such awesome names, like Yoyo, or Devily, or Leo. But no, seriously, I've been completely blown away by what they're capable of.

My Students

Where do I start talking about Summerbridge? I guess it would have to begin with the students.

In the States, the students in Breakthrough Collaborative (Summerbridge is the old name, but Summerbridge Hong Kong has retained it) are most likely middle-schoolers who are highly motivated but come from lower-income homes. They’re extremely bright 12-15-year-olds, who are interested in learning various academic subjects at a higher-level than they’re getting in their schools (mostly math, science, English, and/or a foreign language).

Our students are not those students. Of course, they’re still bright, highly motivated, and come from lower-income homes, but our focus for what they’re learning is completely different. Our students are, many of them, recent immigrants from China, which means that even though they are as advanced as anyone else in their age group in most academic subjects, their English is not that good. And in Hong Kong, your English must be a certain level for you to continue on to Form 6 (senior year of high school). These students, when they move here, are placed into Form 2 (7th or 8th grade). But since they usually go to schools where Cantonese is the Main language of Instruction (CMI), they have a hard time catching up in English. Think of it as any bad language program you’ve ever been to. Did you come out of it speaking that language? Or did you just kind of flounder until a better teacher came along?

Summerbridge aims to fix that. As a result, our students are older than the ones in the States, and while we may try to teach them advanced subjects, we have to attempt to use the simplest terminology in order to explain complicated subjects that they may already understand in Chinese. Imagine “dumbing down” your terms to converse with a foreign scientist, who understood everything there is to know about nuclear physics, but can’t necessarily communicate with you, in English, about it. Yeah, pretty difficult, right?

What this means, for me, is that my students are older than I thought. My subject matter is a little complex, I suppose (I’m just teaching all the random “fun” things there are in math, like fractals, weird geometry things, and math “tricks,” essentially), so I have returning students (students must commit to a two year program to learn English) who range in age from 15-19. The average age is 17, but I’m still a little nervous about teaching people who are older than me. We’ve been told not to tell them our exact age, since they may use that to question our authority. The good news is that the English ability of my students is higher than I thought, so I’ll be able to move at a decent pace with them, I think. Also, I have mostly older girls as students (okay, girls who are essentially my age), so I probably won’t have too much trouble with them. As long as I act authoritative (I am, after all, the teacher), then things will be fine.

Summerbridge is a student-centred program, which means that discussions ought to be run seminar-style, and we want the teachers to be talking as little as possible. Therefore, a lot more work has to go into lesson plans. It’s easy to just lecture a room full of students. It’s much harder to come up with interactive activities that cater to many different learning styles, all the time. I’m going to have to be super creative!

ETA after Student Orientation Day: My students are awesome, even if not all of them can show up for class. Yay students!

The Beginning of O-Week!

Someone once described Hong Kong to me as a series of shopping malls, connected by subway stops. This is, essentially, a true description - after only a couple weeks here, I can name a mall at practically every main subway stop. Now, in general, I object to this, since shopping really isn't my thing, and the air conditioning is seemingly out of control. However, I've found my new favorite restaurant in Hong Kong - I can already tell I'm going to be a weekly regular! This oh-so-wonderful place, Crystal Jade, is, furthermore, a chain. AND it's cheap. I know. It does not get better than that. There are locations in basically every mall, which means it's all over the city (I've gone twice in the last four days). Yessss! They do these awesome soup dumplings, which look like regular dumplings, but have broth inside, around the meat. If you don't know about this soup, it can be a bit of a surprise when you bite into it! Also, there's this lo mian soup, Szechuan style, which is basically spicy and peanut-y goodness. It's actually my new favorite food.

(After the jump: pictures! Food! Yeah!)

When in Hong Kong...

By the time eight p.m. rolled around, I was in the kitchen, making stir fry out of noodles, choy sum, a few other vegetables, and chicken. Even though the place was pretty clean, I was wearing my house slippers, and I had also put on the new Winnie-the-Pooh apron I'd just acquired (Bebe, you can have the apron when I get back!). When I reached for the oyster sauce, though, a thought suddenly occurred to me: the apron, the slippers, the dress I was wearing underneath...dude, I was starting to look like an HK local.

Among other things, I've discovered how the locals stay cool. At first, I was completely mystified - there I was, sweating buckets, wearing only shorts and a tank top, and there they were, cool as cucumbers, sporting long sleeves and thick leggings and looking incredibly comfortable (spotted: woman in her 60's, wearing a long-sleeved zebra-striped ROMPER). Even the men in suits were sweat-free! How were they doing it?

Well, for starters, people don't actually use much deodorant here (although I really must pick up one of the miniature ones that they sell). Instead, there are aisles of aisles of "Antiperspirant body spray," and I hear that there are antiperspirant "lozenges," though I've never actually seen them. Also, I went shopping the other day (with Binh), and ended up buying long shirt-dresses. Add a pair of leggings and fun sneakers, and you know what? Now, I can pass for any other HK girl. And, surprisingly, these long, drapey "dresses" (oversized shirts, okay?) are incredibly light and breezy. You just hardly sweat at all!

(Okay, I haven't quite figured out how the guys in suits do it. Maybe they've just got mad skillz?)

Also, on a side note, one of my fellow Summerbridge teachers goes to HKU (Hong Kong University), and she's been telling me all about "uni" (university) life here, which sounds crazy busy, since they only go to school for three years, not four. Also, the dating scene here is apparently just like it is at any other college - pretty much kind of a fail (except for the long-distance relationships). Of course, all the Asian girls are in relationships with tall white guys, while the Asian guys at uni are apparently not so attractive (short, scrawny, etcetera). Also, while I've noticed a large number of lesbian couples, I have yet to see even one gay one. C'est la vie.

A Looooooooong Post...mostly about food!

Edit: Blogger photo layouts actually suck. I knew I should've used Livejournal! Or Wordpress! Sometimes, push-button blogging is just too easy. 

Apologies for not blogging sooner. But if I don’t write today, then I will probably never write again; I’ve been absolutely overwhelmed since Summerbridge started! But, to make up for the lack of entries, here is a ridiculously long one (or maybe two), full of pictures and stories and awesomesauce! For the record, I’ve been having an absolutely fantastic time, even if I’ve been totally out of my comfort zone lately.

After the jump: more pictures of Binh and of food! THERE'S ALSO A VIDEO.

 

Right after I picked Binh up, we headed for dinner...at around 1 a.m.? This is Binh, waiting for foooooooooooodddd...

Checking In!

Apologies for not updating in the last few days, Mom and Dad. Since I'm stealing wifi from across the street, it's mad unpredictable, and my email refuses to function at all. So, just letting y'all know that I'm alive and well. :) Things are pretty busy/stressful/awesome, but that also means that I'm exhausted. :( Will promise to update in length tomorrow. Got some pretty awesome pictures to share!

- Peace out.

Day 5 - Hitting Up Causeway Bay

Well, I had plans to go to the HK Science Museum today, but those plans were quickly derailed by Roy, since he had free time today. Since I haven't seen Roy in, oh, more than a month, I figured we should have lunch instead. :) I can always go see the science museum some other time! Also, he was off the Causeway Bay MTR stop, which is where my school is.


(After the jump: sushi! the library! birds nests!)

Day 4 - Adventuring on One's Own

T-2 to Orientation Day! I've just been assigned to South Island School, in Aberdeen (unfortunately, Roy is elsewhere), so I'm probably going to need to figure out how to get there tomorrow. Apparently, it's going to be a loooooooooooooooong commute. :(

Anyway, the science museum was closed today, so I decided to check out the space museum instead. Also, I went to IKEA for the first time. :)

Note: This is an image heavy post. And for the record, I hate Blogger's formatting options.

Update: Graduation Photos!

My mum, who is really the target audience of this blog (but I love all of you guys), just sent me pictures of Bao Phong. I present to you...THE FIRST PICTURES OF A CUTE ASIAN CHILD.

You guys wish you had an uncle who was this cute. ;)

Sneak Peek:

(Bao Phong and my sister)

A Room of One's Own

Well, the original flatmate is leaving for Thailand tomorrow, so I got to move in today - yay! Anyway, this is my room - it's quite large, and there's just enough room for me to practice, too! :)

 

Since today was some sort of public holiday (there's Dragon Boat racing on the river? It was at 9 AM or something, so we all missed it), there wasn't really much to do. So, after waking up ridiculously late (since I got here, I've been sleeping from like 3-8 a.m. and 6-9 p.m., weird, I know), I ended up just running a few errands, practicing, etcetera.

(See pictures of my view and boring stories...)

Good news!

I'm a complete idiot. I should have obviously assumed that, though one pipe was red and the other was blue, the controls for the shower were reversed. D'oh. I have now achieved a mildly lukewarm shower, which is better than bone-chilling, so I'll settle. For this same reason, I have walked towards the wrong escalator at least a dozen times, and thank goodness the streets have signs that say which way to look, or else I would be road kill by now.

Day 2 - The early education of children

Erm...look what I found in the drugstore last night! I think it was on sale! (Also, my flatmate took me out for a nice sushi dinner in Tsim Sha Tsui. XD)

 

See pictures of food (mostly for Nikita) and stories of babies! (After the jump) 

Day 1 - Welcome to the flat

Well, I'm finally in Hong Kong! Yay! I'm staying in an area called Hung Hom, Kowloon, which is a pretty decent area. My flatmate, Joyee, is an absolute sweetheart - I'm looking forward to living with her. Anyway, there's another girl who has to move out before I can move in, so I'm currently camped out on the couch-bed, which is actually quite comfy. :) Anddddddd... here are a few pictures:

 

A Graduation Ceremony

In creating this blog, I promised that there would be stories. About cute children.

Well, even though I haven't even left the US yet, I already have one such story.

Yesterday,  I had the pleasure of meeting my great-uncle’s son (which makes him my uncle?) for the very first time. His name is Bao Phong, or Pierre Louis, and he was graduating…from preschool.

(After the jump)

The Attractiveness of Airports

"It can hardly be a coincidence that no language on Earth has ever produced the phrase, 'as pretty as an airport.' Airports are ugly. Some are very ugly. Some attain a degree of ugliness that can only be the result of a special effort." - D. Adams

Thing is, after many, many hours of travelling, I’ve found that I don’t even give a damn. They’re ugly, they’re pretty, they’re quiet, they’re loud…(For the record, Vancouver airport is beautiful in a faux-wilderness style, while Tokyo is strangely quiet. Also, LAX definitely makes that special effort to be very ugly.)

In my infinite hours of free time, I have figured out how many hours I’ve traveled.

Driving from Vegas to LA: 3.5 hours
Flying from LAX to Vancouver: 3 hours
Flying from Vancouver to Tokyo: 9 hours
Flying from Tokyo to Hong Kong: 5 hours

All in all, that’s 20.5 hours. Factor in all the layover time (of which there was quite a bit), and I’ve been sitting in various places for more than 30 hours straight (you can only wander around an airport for so long). Tomorrow, I am going to go for a seriously long walk around HK, even if those T-storms happen for real.

Fun facts:

- Air Canada’s in flight entertainment system is AWESOME. I watched How to Train Your Dragon and 500 Days of Summer in French, and still had time for a couple episodes of Modern family and 30 Rock. (In between all of this, I catnapped like crazy.)
- For the first time ever, I didn’t have to sit next to a fat person who would take over most of my seat, but a cute Japanese boy. Too bad he didn’t speak English and seemed to actually like watching Tom Cruise movies. Ah well.

Peace out.

Intro Post (it has to be done)

Hi everyone! In a few short days, I will be heading to Hong Kong, in order to teach for Breakthrough Collaborative. In my spare time, I plan on playing violin, doing yoga, and meandering along trails with names like Dragon's Back and Lion Rock. Also, HK nightlife is supposed to be great, and I'm definitely looking forward to fantastic dim sum! I'll admit, this whole little adventure is a bit of a first for me: I've never been out of the country on my own (or for such an extended period of time), and this is my first summer without a music festival since the age of six. Not going to lie - I'm a little nervous. Additionally, I decided not to live in the dorms because I wanted "the full experience," so I'll be bumming around a tiny apartment for the next nine weeks and trying to figure out how to live abroad, yay!

Anyway, I'm not much for blogging, but I wanted an excuse to post a few pictures somewhere and, while I'm at it, maybe write a few lines too. I guess I might as well start now.

What I wish I could take with me: