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...
Summerbridge
Orientation
Summerbridge Hong Kong started out with a day full of fun icebreaker games. I mean, at first, I was like, meh, because we’ve all had our fair share of icebreakers and name games. But, actually, a lot of them were quite enjoyable, and all the other teachers seem like wonderful people. Well, the ones I've met, anyway. We’ve been divided into three sites, with 24 teachers at each site (fyi I’m at South Island School, in Causeway Bay), which means that you really only hang out with 23 other teachers, and if you're not at the dorms, you probably won't see most of the other people in the program. Sadness!
Anyway, the 24 teachers are divided into 4 departments/committees of 6, loosely based on what subjects we're teaching (and some of us have really fascinating subjects - one girl is teaching Physiological Psych, and someone else is teaching Natural Disasters). So, even though I'm teaching Math Through Literature, I'm in the English Dept. aka Team Spelling Bee! Also, I'm a Committee Head, which means that I'll be running the occasional meeting - I'm organizing Student Teaching Day (ST Day, or STDay, but certainly never STD!). Everyone in the department seems wonderful - we bonded through activities like choreographing a dance to a 50's version of Umbrella (I haven't quite mastered the Lawnmower, but I'm certainly working on it) and a long Scavenger Hunt through Causeway Bay, a busy, hot, and humid shopping plaza. See the picture on the left? There were random Toy Story 3 statues in front of Times Square, so of course we snapped a quick shot! From left to right: me, Nicholas, and Angel. All in all, it was a successful bonding experience, and I'm looking forward to working with all of these people for the next two months. Admin Training
All the Committee Heads and Department Heads (for all three sites) had to have admin training together, so from Mon-Wed, I headed over to a public school in Mong Kong. I was expecting workshops (maybe even interactive ones!) on how to run meetings, or how to delegate, etcetera, but I was totally unprepared for what I was going to find there.
There are two things that seem to really be at the heart of Summerbridge: Support & Cheers. Support involves this hand motion, like you're "throwing" support at someone. This happens any time someone seems to be faltering, or is just in need of a little, well, support. If you forget your lines for a skit, or if you're about to present something, people will show you support. It's a system designed to encourage students. At first, it seemed a little like a silly hand motion, but it goes way beyond that.
The cheers are just like that too. Every day, we teach the students at least two cheers, and we can also use them in our classes, just to keep the students motivated. Summerbridge is going to require a hell of a lot of energy, pep, and spirit (three things which, for me, can be in short supply) - after the first day of jumping around and screaming at the top of my lungs, I was definitely exhausted. I bet I'll lose my voice three or four times, but I'm betting it'll be worth it. Also, I should probably point out that the cheers are silly (B-A-C-O-N, you are my best friend! orrrrrrrrr... PEEL BANANAS! PEEL PEEL BANANAS!), but they really do get you all revved up for the day! :)
This really hit home for me when, after the second day of training, we all traipsed down to Mong Kok (the most densely populated area in HK) for a "special activity." The three sites divided up, and SIS ended up chilling at a very busy intersection. Our task? We could A) go up to a perfect stranger and teach them the Banana Cheer, B) skip around for a minute while loudly singing Happy Birthday (3-4 renditions), or C) act like a monkey for a full minute, and try to get locals to do the same. INDIVIDUALLY. WHILE EVERYONE ELSE WATCHED. Obviously, I went with A.
It was actually a lot of fun. After two people went, I noticed that there was a guy - JAPANESE TOURIST! - standing two feet away and using his super fancy camera to take pictures of us (while people took their turn, we gave them support and cheered madly). So, I decided to go next, and I picked him. At first, he was like, why is this weird girl telling me to put away my camera while she dances around and yells things about bananas? But then he started getting into it too. And you know what? Making a fool out of myself in front of dozens of strangers felt totally natural. This was because everyone was giving me support and cheering me on. And we did the same for everyone else! Here are a few more pictures! (Okay, I took advantage of our task to snap pictures of randos.)
Left: Man with Bicycle! I'm all about the bicycles.
Right: The three schoolboys that my co-director talked into doing the Banana Cheer with. It was much easier for the small Asian girls among us to get strangers to listen - the guys had difficulties accosting schoolchildren, unfortunately.
The young boy that Sally got for her Cheer. I've just noticed - I think he's the first kid that's not in uniform! They seem to wear them from sunrise to sunset, and beyond, even. Isn't he cute? His two friends didn't want to cheer, so they crossed the intersection, watched, and took out their cameras. What great friends he has!Below: a video of Race's Banana Cheer.
Also, BINH WAS HERE! YAY! I had admin training, so I couldn't hang out with her as much as I would've liked, but I guess she hit up a few museums. When we spent time together, we shopped a bit, walked around a bit, but mostly just went on extended food adventures. The picture above is from a Hot Pot restaurant which is apparently only a block away from my flat, AND it closes at 2! (Yeah, it's my fancy shmancy version of Ivy Noodle. You know you're jealous!)
On the left, we have my Seafood Tofu soup from a Korean restaurant in TST East (we also had Lemon Soju there, which was quite delicious). On the right, Binh with an ad for Jay Chou, her favorite star, apparently. Who knew that Binh was so into HK dramas? She knew who all the actors/actresses in the advertisements were, which was very surprising.
Left: Me and Binh, yay! (We're working on dressing more Asian - more on that later)
Right: So...after going to that delicious Korean restaurant, we headed to the only desert place that appeared to be open after 11:30. Since we'd sort of missed lunch and hadn't had a large dinner, we figured we had the right to order two desserts each. Also, the menu had pictures for every single item, so how could we resist? Binh ordered Green Tea ice cream with Red Bean dumplings and a Caramel Shaved Ice thing, whiel I had Warabi Green Tea Mochi a la mode (yeah, I'm still confused about which bit was the mochi, but it was quite delicious) and a Citron Soda Milkshake. Everyone there was totally judging us - especially the waitress! But it was okay. To be fair, Binh did a lot more damage to her desserts than I did - the milkshake wasn't so good (soft serve ice cream in sparkling water? No thanks!), although the few bites I had of the mochi were quite good! In the end, I think we spent as much on dessert as we did on dinner. :)
This morning, we hit up what is supposedly the best dim sum place in town. I have to say, it was pretty darn amazing, and ridiculously cheap, too! On the left is a deep fried BBQ pork bun, but on the right is, well, everything else we ordered. Suffice it to say, we both have a thing for banh cuon, although Binh is alone in her love of chicken feet. I think we only paid about 7 dollars each, for all of that food? Fantastic. I'd love to go back, but it involves a long queue - people were lined up more than half an hour before the restaurant even opened.
We discovered a farmer's market just 'round the corner - here' s a picture that Binh took. The one on the right is what the Ladies Market (a long street of touristy stalls) looks like before it sets up. This is utterly in contrast to the crowded street that it becomes in just a few short hours.
I ended up at Pho Quan An with a few friends on Monday night, in a quest for some decent Viet food. What can I say? I was seriously missing some Vietnamese cuisine. However, this place wasn't so great (my bun cha gio didn't come with bun, and com thit nuong had no com either. Also, the pho was served dry), everyone was Chinese, and there was a boy running around with an electric fly swatter, aggressively attacking the air while we ate dinner. Oh well - I'll keep searching for Vietnamese food, since I've recently discovered OpenRice.com , which is like Yelp! for Hong Kong. The amount of reviews that are up on this website is ridiculous, but I'm so glad the website has so much information!
Anyway, we're off to retreat (Retreat to Move Forward!!) tomorrow, so you ought to expect a blog post on Saturday, perhaps. :)
Remains of the Day:
- we failed to find the Hello Kitty café today, malheureusement
- still working out the details of a China adventure, but I did pick up my double-entry visa today!
- killed a cockroach that was lurking in the medicine cabinet. Hopefully there aren't any more!
Aw Paulina and friends, you're making me hungry. Wish I could have stopped in HK to eat last week. I was stuck in the HK airport. There was good good food but not as fun as roaming the streets of town!
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