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…

Oddly enough, that wasn’t the exhausting bit. We were pretty efficient with the letter writing (well, some of us), and even though I was the CDC reader and I had a CH evaluation report to do (er…my report became a 30 page beast of a thing, but I hope it’s comprehensive enough!), things were okay. Tiff and I blasted music, we snacked a lot…things weren’t bad.

Ronald was productive all the time!

No. The exhausting bit was hanging out with students. That’s right. We thought we’d seen the last of them at Celebration, or maybe even at McDonald’s afterwards (which was a bit of an upsetting way to end things, since students were speaking Canto left and right and it was like all of our work was undone). But…no.

On Monday, several students surprised us at work by bringing cake and keeping us company! (It’s a good thing the admin found a project for them, because writing eval letters for them while they were sitting there was kind of weird and difficult.)

Devily and David on the bus! ^_^

On Tuesday, we had a CDC 1 dinner, since the only SB sponsored thing was a family dinner. I thought that this was the end, actually – we went to an all-you-can-eat sushi place for $44 HK ($6 USD( each (most of it wasn’t legit sushi), took sticker photos, and went for McDonald’s ice cream (so cheap!). We had a great time – our unbelievably sweet students paid for our dinner when we weren’t looking (I think David got slapped, and Rita shoved me out of the restaurant). So then, of course, we had to sneak attack at the photo booth so that they would not pay for all of us again! Ah, so sneaky-ah!

Part of CDC 1! (All the guys took a table, plus Devily and Doris!)

Ricky with the presents we gave him! ^_^

On Wednesday, students showed up to work and hid on the bus so that they could surprise us! We were definitely surprised, except – poor students! It was our last day – we were supposed to finish on Friday, but everyone wanted to get out, so we ended on Wed. Anyway, we ran late, and the students had to wait for us! Ah, so sad! Once we got off the bus, though, it was difficult to extract ourselves and head to Crystal Jade…but we managed at last! After our final hurrah at Crystal Jade, Eve, Tiff, and I headed to Starbucks in order to do work (that’s right – after SB was over, Eve and I were still writing our committee evals).

Thursday found us at Tim Ho dim sum, bright and earl! We were supposed to meet at 9, but due to miscommunications, we had to wait until 10 to catch everyone. It was supposed to be a CDC 1 thing, but it turned into Family C, Family D, and Leo! ^_^ And then, we had 10 minutes to get to the restaurant, since they would give away our seats unless we got there in time…Naturally, the moment we set off with everyone, it started to pour. Just our luck, right? After dim sum came a day of BBQ and cycling at Tai Po Market, where, of course, there wasn’t a cloud in the sky…there, we saw bits of CDC 1, CDC 6, and Family L!

Poor Rita and Ricky, and their wet hair!

Crystal and Ari! <3

Lion and Iris!

Mose, Tiffo, and Tiffany! Lolz

Friday was our break from students – we headed out to Sai Kung Peninsula for our big boat trip! Hurrah! It was a blast, and, naturally, we bought floaties. ☺ Too bad we forgot them on the boat! also, we went to Honeymoon Dessert – the original one, which was, actually, an improvement on the rest of the chain. ^_^

Floaties!

Mhmmmm!

Saturday – I thought it was my last time with the students – Miki, Ricky, Peter, and Devily showed up. As it turned out, however, Miki wasn’t done with the presents she’d made, so she arranged for us to meet up on Sunday. *sigh* I love the students, but spending time with them means ramping up the energy and enthusiasm, and that takes a lot of effort.

Lapsang souchong! Mhmmm...

Anyway, we only spent a few minutes there before Eve and I headed off to 1881 Heritage for afternoon tea! In the States, such a thing just isn’t done by any of my friends – it’s not like, “hey guys, I’m bored, let’s go to afternoon tea!” Yeah, that just doesn’t happen. Here, though, it was kind of our treat after the stress of SB. And, as an added bonus, it only costs about $30 US, which is significantly cheaper than in the States! So we went and had a lovely tea set at this beautiful, recently renovated English hotel – it was all very British colonial and elegant. (It was wonderful.) It was my first time drinking lapsang souchong, and I think it's my new favorite tea!

Delicious dessert! (We really liked the heart-shaped one)

1881 Heritage

Actually, Saturday turned out to be a long day - after tea, Vivi and I shopped a bit, and then I headed to a CDC 5 dinner to help out David (David comes to my CDC things, I go to his...no big deal).

So, this soup is significantly spicier than we thought...
oops.  (We got it at a 2 out of 5, but neither of us could
finish it!) Polly & Angel!

CDC  5, crowding into the photo booth!

Sunday – Met up with the kiddies at Festival Walk, for absolutely the last time (Miki, Ricky, and Rita), and then ran some errands. Honestly, I couldn’t believe that it was the last time I would ever see them again! Weird, right? In a way, though, this whole week was like Graduation after Candlelight – if you cry it all out beforehand, seeing people afterwards isn’t nearly so sad!

Miki and our Ben & Jerry's ice cream!

Monday – Last day in Hong Kong! Evelyn and I had planned to have some more fun in the sun – island hopping, beach napping, cycling around on tiny trails… unfortunately, the weather put those plans out of mind. Luckily, we were armed with umbrellas, but still! Instead of hitting up Lantau, or one of the other Outlying Islands, we decided to go to Lamma, which is, apparently, the least commercial island. So, we shopped a little – Lamma was, surprisingly, a really hippie place, so a lot of the souvenirs there were things we’d find on Native American reservations around home. I mean, dreamcatchers in Hong Kong? What a bizarre notion! 

Afterwards, though, we headed to this little vegan café that Joyce recommended; when I walked in, I could’ve sworn I was back in Boston again – it just had that kind of vibe. Afterwards, we wandered a bit more, before finding this little “shack” that was, according to OpenRice, the place for the best tofu! And it was delicious dessert tofu – too bad I was already full from the vegan chocolate cake! Later on, Eve and I tried to cycle, but we missed the place to rent them, and then we found it too late…oops. Moreover, the island didn’t have the greatest restaurants, so we headed back to HK Island and hit up SoHo for happy hour at Cicada and promiscuous burgers at Shake ‘Em Buns. Lastly, Eve came back to my flat and we watched IT Crowd while packing. I don’t necessarily think she found it as funny as I did – I feel like I might be more of a geek. ^_^ All in all, though, it was a nice, chill way to end things. Goodbye Hong Kong – it’s been a blast.