Merry Christmas from Southeast Asia!

Greetings from Hanoi, Vietnam! My friend Erin and I arrived here this Christmas evening after a week of exploring and relaxing in Singapore. So far, I have nothing but rave reviews about Hanoi - our hotel is wonderful, helping us set up tours, getting us tickets to the main attractions, and giving us directions to all of the sights around town, including a delicious little restaurant called Little Hanoi, where we just had our Christmas dinner! It was certainly a different kind of Christmas dinner than I've ever had before, but damn, it was delicious! Fried catfish with dill and spices accompanied by pan-tossed green beans. Yum! I'm already excited about all of the amazing food we'll be trying on this trip!

Singapore turned out to be a delight in its own right, though decidedly in a different way than backpacking will. Everyone told me that after going to Singapore, Hong Kong would feel much more like a Chinese city - they were very, very correct. I couldn't really imagine that any place in Asia could be more Western than Hong Kong, but I was proved very wrong. Singapore felt like so many different US cities, much more so than it ever felt like Hong Kong. It reminded in some parts of Los Angeles, Boston, a touch of New Orleans here and there (but not nearly as cool) but the city it reminded me the most of was Miami. But instead of Cubans, you have Indians and Malays.

I will say, though, that the food was fabulous! My friend Su Ching, a native Singaporean, gave me a list of all of the local cuisine to try (roti prata, chicken rice, satay, Milo Dinosaur, etc.), all actually borrowed from other cuisines, but that's neither here nor there. My favorite meal was a trip to the Newton Hawker stalls, where we had sting ray, satay, vegetables in oyster sauce, fried rice, and this business called carrot cake, which is actually made from turnips and actually tastes somewhat sweet because of the sauce they use with it. It was divine. The food alone is worth a repeat trip to the city.

The Christmas decorations in Singapore, meanwhile, are on crack. Like actually. I have never seen such gaudy, over-the-top displays of blinking lights, live nativity scenes, and giant reindeer statues ever. And for those of you who know the Christmas decoration scene where I come from, that's saying something. It was ridiculous. Mom, you would have loved it.

That's all for now, I'm about to go plunk down for a good night's sleep before we get up early in the morning for a visit to Ho Chi Minh's body. I'll probably have lots to report from this trip, just judging from my first night here, so I'll try and give little snippets throughout the trip. Until then, have a merry Christmas!!

Off on a Merry Adventure!

Hello all! Tomorrow evening, provided I get everything graded and packed up, I'll be jumping on a plane for my two-week vacation! I'll be in Singapore for a week, then Hanoi, Vietnam, then Halong Bay, Vietnam (a World Heritage sight!), and finally ringing in the New Year in Ho Chi Minh City. Both are new countries for me, and I am quite excited to get out and travel again! If any of you have recommendations/cool people to meet in these cities, let me know!

Have I packed? No

Have I researched cool places to go? No

Do I know where I'm staying? For part of the time

Have I finished grading papers? Ermmm...

So if you're wondering why this post is short, see above. In case I do not get to post again, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Love!

Jenny

Flat Avery Blog

If anyone is interested, here is the blog I am putting together for Avery's class for her Flat Stanley project. This makes me want to teach second grade!

http://flataveryinasia.blogspot.com/

Enjoy!

Glorious Week!

Hello all! I apologize (once more) for the prolonged absence from the blogosphere. I had my last week of class in the first week of December, and three days later, Max and Ellie arrived! It has been a whirlwind couple of weeks, but ones that have been filled with a lot of joy, laughter, hugs, and good food. I'll be writing a big update soon, more of a review on the past semester, but that will be temporarily put on hold while I work on another very special blog, one that I am creating for a second grade class in Dallas for my Avery Grace! As soon as I get that one up and running, I'll post a link up here so you can see the adventures of Flat Avery in Asia!

Love to all!

Thanksgiving in HK

The title of this post is a bit misleading because it implies that my day consisted of something Thanksgiving-y, which, aside form very briefly explaining the Pilgrims and Native Americans to one of my students, it had very little to do with the holiday. I spent most of the day in teacher-mode, teaching two classes, grading papers, getting my Chinese visa in order, etc. My flatmates and our program director capped off the day at an Italian restaurant. As my dad said, Italian food in China on Thanksgiving. Makes perfect sense, right?

However, I did get one small taste of American Thanksgiving. Today, when I ravenously ran to the canteen for a quick lunch between classes, I spotted a "pumpkin pie" in the display case for sale. I decided, in the spirit of the holiday, to indulge in the American classic, even though I have eaten maybe one piece of pumpkin pie in my entire life prior to today.

Delicious, no?

Well, I'll admit the pie did not exactly strike the same chords as real pumpkin pie (as you can tell from the picture, I think they were closer to capturing the color of pumpkin pie than the flavor, and if the pale orange of the pie is any indication...). However, it was a nice piece of pseudo-nostalgia.

Hope everyone has a lovely Thanksgiving! Hook 'em Horns! And Yale, I still can't believe you went for it on 4th and 22...

These are a few of my favorite things

Today, I had a marathon shopping spree with my flatmates, as we all went after our various prey: for me, more (necessary) winter wear, for Ally, a suit for medical school interviews, and for Annie, an evening dress for the New Asia College 60th Anniversary Banquet next weekend. It was exhausting but fruitful nonetheless.

However, my favorite part of the day was my brief stop at the Landmark Hotel Atrium, which currently is featuring an installation by Preston Bailey, one of the most admired and talented wedding planners in the States (and someone whom I dream of working with someday). It was absolutely lovely. Unfortunately I was not able to stay for very long and see all of the details as much as I wanted, but I hope to return again soon. I had never had the opportunity to see a top designer's work in person, so it was a good reminder of just how talented they are and how hard I will have to work if I want to be a top wedding planner someday as well.

Unfortunately I just had my phone camera, so it's a bit fuzzy, but hopefully you can tell how pretty it is!

Brrrr!

I never thought I would say this, but it is cold here in Hong Kong! It may sound silly to say this, coming from a girl who has lived in New Haven for the past four years, but this cold weather is absolutely abysmal. First of all, nowhere in Hong Kong has heating, or at least the type of heating we're used to in the States. I have a little space heated/mini-plug-in radiator in my room, and that's enough to keep my room bearable, but anywhere else is terrible! There is no refuge from the cold. This means that for the past five days, since this cold snap hit HK, I have been a hermit, not wanting to leave my room, go outside, go out, or anything, because I don't want to subject myself to the cold. Not even my kitchen or living room. I have a bad feeling about the implications of this weather on my social life, if it is supposed to be like this for the next three months! Secondly, because we live on top of a mountain overlooking a bay, we gets lots of gusty winds, making it about 5-10 degrees colder up here than down below the mountain (as well as more central areas of the city). Lastly, because I did not expect the cold to be so invasive, I did not bring an adequate supply of winter wear to Hong Kong. I'm hoping a trip this weekend to raid the sweater/coat rack and winter accessories wall at H&M will fix this problem. So wish me luck in my quest to get warm!

A big, long update on my trip to Mainland China is on its way, as soon as I get a break from grading! Hope everyone is well!

Jenny

Off to Mainland!

Hi everyone, so tomorrow afternoon, the other HK Fellows and I are setting out for Changsha in Hunan Province in Mainland China! This will be my first "real China" experience so far, so I am quite excited! I also am quite curious to see what it's actually like, given all of the stories I've heard! I'll have a full update for you when I get back next weekend. Hope everyone has a Happy Halloween!

Birthday in HK!

I'm 23! I've been looking forward to this day ever since my cousin Lindsay told me about "Golden Birthdays" several years ago, so I had always hoped 23 on the 23rd would a momentous occasion. And I must say, the day did not disappoint! Thursday, Friday, and Saturday all provided wonderful and surprising moments, and I'm just feeling a lot of love from all over the world!

So the fun actually started on Wednesday, when I woke up blissfully early and decided to make my way downtown for some shopping. I had a particular place in mind, a dress shop next to the Travelator (a giant escalator in Hong Kong to get people from Central to the Mid-Levels), which had had this gorgeous blue dress in its display window for the past couple of months. Every time I had passed by, I would always mentally take note of that dress, and since I kept thinking about it, I decided it was worthwhile to go and actually check it out and maybe try it on. So when I arrived at the shop, I browsed for a few minutes, but ultimately decided to try the dress on - it was a bit big, but once they pinned it all up to show how it would look once altered, it took my breath away. After a bit of negotiating, I decided to get it! The dressmaker would even do the alterations for free, and would make it a rush process since I wanted to have it for Friday! I felt very well taken care of, and absolutely thrilled with my present to myself!

Thursday started off auspiciously, as I awoke to an e-mail from Kacie with an embedded video, which featured my favorite 7 year-old and 4 year-old singing and dancing to a song they made up called "Hong Kong Jenny." As you can imagine, it's pretty much the cutest thing ever, and I've been playing it on repeat since. So I head out the door, just hoping to get through the busy day of a double lesson and four hours of faux interviews with my 2nd year students, not expecting anything spectacular until the next day.

I walk into my 1310 (my first-years) class, a couple of minutes late, and no one's there - there are a couple bags on the desks but not a student to be found. I'm seriously taken aback because usually no one in this class is ever late, they're always right in their seats, right on time. So I get a little concerned, wondering if maybe they had all left because they thought I wasn't coming, or if they were just boycotting my class because we had had a "come-to-Jesus" meeting about their latest assignment on Tuesday, and I was starting to think that they really didn't like me. Then Allyson, one of the other tutors, comes in and is like, "Where is everybody? What's going on with all of your students?" And at this point, I'm getting worried and a little upset because I just have no idea why they aren't there - then this random girl walks in and sits on top of a desk and pulls out her camera and points it at me, and I'm like, "Umm... what??" Then, all of the sudden, I hear people start singing "Happy Birthday" and I look over, and my entire class is walking into the room, carrying a birthday cake with candles and a big bouquet of flowers, and all singing to me!!! I was *shocked*!! I just about started crying right on the spot - it was absolutely one of the sweetest things I've ever seen. Not only did they bring me a cake and flowers, but they also brought me a card in which they had all written really sweet notes and gave me a big red Mickey Mouse pillow, which they told me I could sit on when I was grading their papers because they know it takes a long time. I was just absolutely speechless. I literally could not stop smiling all day. My students make me so, so happy.

My flowers!

The day just got better from there, as I received numerous birthday wishes from people in the English department, and after finishing up interviews, I ran down to Central for my second dress fitting. In addition to the dress being perfect, my dressmaker also offered me 50% of manicure the next day for my birthday and gave me her membership number for a show store so I could get a discount on new shoes for the dress? Was this a ploy just to make me contribute more money to the Hong Kong economy? Probably. Did it work? Yep. I came home already sporting a happy glow from the day's events, even though I still had quite some time before my actual birthday. That night, after midnight, my flatmates all came and wished me happy birthday and helped me celebrate as I bought myself my big birthday present. The best part is, I ended up getting a much better deal on my present than I expected, which virtually cancelled out the cost of the dress! So I was most certainly happy that I ended up making my purchase, on both accounts!

Friday began with the family calling me in the morning to wish/sing me happy birthday, which is always a lovely start to the day (as long as it's not at 6:15 AM!). I headed back downtown to pick up my dress and get my wonderfully relaxing manicure and made it back home in time to relax and watch the latest episode of Top Chef before starting to get ready. After a good three hours getting ready, some of which was spent curling my flatmate's hair (sound familiar, Elena and Rach?), we jumped on the bus and MTR and headed down to Tsim Sha Tsui, home of the Peninsula Hotel. The Peninsula, I believe, is the swankiest, most beautiful hotel in Hong Kong (and that's saying something), and one of their main attractions is the bar/restaurant on the 28th floor, featuring some of the most beautiful Harbour views in the city. So the flatmates and I ventured up here first for the evening for drinks and snacks - I had my favorite, Fraises Royale, which is the way-jazzed-up version of Strawberry Andre. It was lovely and a magnificent lead-off to the evening.

Me at Felix, with the Harbour in the background

After drinks, we jumped on the MTR and headed across the Harbour to dinner at Wagyu, an Australian steakhouse in Lan Kwai Fong where we met up with Su and Ren. Now, given that I had been studying menus for weeks (and we know how much I enjoy this activity), I had solid expectations for this place, but oh my gracious goodness, it was PHENOMENAL, even better than I expected!! Here was my menu of the evening:

Appetizers:

Wild Mushroom Camembert (camembert cheese with assorted sauteed mushrooms with thin crackers and cranberry sauce - I expected it to be good, but it was beyond delicious, great flavor combinations!)

Portobello Mushroom Milanese (lightly breaded and fried with yummy greens and sauces)

Entree (get ready):

8 oz. Wagyu fillet

Medallion of foie gras

Whole portobello mushroom

Whole baked garlic

Blue Cheese Butter Sauce

Potatoes Au Gratin

Sesame Honey Carrots

Sweet mustard sauce

Now to be fair, most of the accoutrements came with the steak, but I will admit to ordering an extra side dish. And all I can say is AHHHHSOOOGOOOOD!!!!! I seriously could not take more than two bites without stopping and exclaiming to everyone at the table how unbelievably delicious it was. Could very well be the best steak I've ever had (but that's tough competition). My flatmate Annie also had a phenomenal meal of slow-cooked veal shanks, which when they came out, looked like it was essentially the entire baby cow - it was *huge*!! Overall, I think the meal was enjoyed by all, and I hope that I can return again soon!

My dinner before...

My dinner after! Steak demolished! Yummmm

Happily finishing sipping on my wine for the evening

After dinner, Annie and I decided to stay out a bit longer, and while at first we went wandering for a sports bar so I could watch "football" (by which I mean soccer), but given the lack of games that were on, we settled on going to bar called Tastings. Now imagine this (this is how Annie described it to me): It's basically like a really classy wine vending machine. They give you a card at the beginning, and you go through and browse the various bottles of wine of display, and you can choose either to have a tasting, a half-glass, or a full glass. You then stick your card in, make your choice, the charge is added to card, and the wine is poured from a little spout in front of the wine bottle. It's a brilliant idea, and if there aren't already places like this in the major cities in the US, I think they should be opened. Kacie, get on this.

See, classy wine vending machine.

Saturday also started in a wonderfully surprising way. I got a call from the Hong Kong postman that morning, telling me to come outside and get a package. Being delirious and not knowing who might be sending me a package, I stumbled out to be handed two boxes. Once I got inside and got them opened, I found out they were boxes of treats from Shijie's family!! It was a wonderful surprise, and a great start to that day! Plus it got me up early enough to be able to witness myself actually turning 23, which didn't happen until 12:03 PM on Saturday. Which of course, birthday 2.0 would be celebrated on Saturday night!

After a chill afternoon, Ally and I ventured out to Ocean Park, one of Hong Kong's biggest theme parks, which is famous for its Halloween Extravaganza (think Six Flags Fright Fest). It was fantastic!! A bit crowded, but still really fun. We walked around amongst the zombies and ghouls that were terrifying the park's visitors all over the place - I screamed at every one that jumped out at me, even if I saw it from a mile away. We went through one of the haunted houses (with lines over an hour, it was all we had time for!) and rode some of the rides, the scariest of which was actually just the cable car over the mountain, which was extraordinarily steep and kind of horrifying! My favorite part of the night was dancing to "I Gotta Feeling" with a giant monster.

At the entrance to Ocean Park with our newly acquired headgear

Dancing with the Monsters

After Ocean Park, I headed back to downtown to meet up with my fellow BR '09er, Brittany and her fellow Fulbright-er Emem for a night of revelry. After several solid hours of dancing, we ended up sitting outside Club 7-11, eventually making our way over to the Flying Pan, a 24 hour breakfast joint, around 5am. The perfect cap to a fantastic weekend: Bacon and cheese grits with good people.

After having a few very busy days with work and Yale-China business, I received two more final birthday joys: the making of the Funfetti cake that my mom had sent over a few weeks ago last night, and then the arrival of birthday cards from the whole family today! I even received a fantastic new Colt McCoy jersey, which a little bird tells me is from my dad - Thank you so, so much Dad!! I love it!! I can't wait to wear it around HK tomorrow!

Overall, this was one of the best birthdays I could have asked for - I only wish all of my favorite people from back home and school could have been here with me, but just know that I appreciate the love I was getting from around the world that day! Thank you so, so much to everyone who made the day/days/week so wonderful!!

Giddy

Today has just been spectacular, from beginning to end. It started off with a fantastic video present from my favorite 7 year-old and 4 year-old and ended with me buying one of the best birthday presents ever for myself, with a huge and wonderful surprise in the middle!! Plus lots of other little surprises and treats along the way! I'll post more details later, but if today was any indication, hopefully I'll have lots to tell you by the end of the weekend! I am so in love with CUHK, Hong Kong, my friends and fam, and life right now. Today is one of those days that makes me realize how extraordinarily fortunate and blessed I am - I realize how rare and wonderful this is, and I am savoring every minute of it!

I apologize for the vague nature of this post, but I will give you a more detailed account as soon as I can! But for now, I need to get some sleep so I can be refreshed and awake for my first birthday in Hong Kong, which also happens to be my Golden Birthday! 23 on 23!!

Long Time, No See!

Hey everyone! It's been quite some time since I've had the opportunity to update, so I thought I would give a quick rundown of life in HK from the past few weeks:

1) Papers, papers, papers - Much of my time in the past few weeks has been devoted to the editing and grading of my students' papers. Since I last posted, I have graded approximately 40 papers, with about 40 papers coming before that. It's craziness! I'm starting to get the hang of grading papers quickly - when I first started, it was taking me about 45 minutes - 1 hour to grade a 5-page persuasive paper, but I'm slowly reducing that time. Or perhaps my students' papers are just getting better, and thus I do not need to make as many comments like "It's not clear what you're trying to say here - clarify!" As I was slugging through these papers at first, I was grumbling a bit, thinking what a thankless job this was. However, many of my students go out of their way actually to thank me for the comments and feedback I give to them, and to say how they really feel they are improving in their writing. I can't believe it never occurred to me when I was in school to thank my teachers for grading my papers, but now that I think about it, I think I owe a lot of people big thank-you's!

2) Information Day - I had a major flashback to my tour-guiding days last Saturday, when hordes of prospective students flooded CUHK's campus to be convinced that this was the school for them. I was stationed in the English department and was able to meet many potential English majors, some of whom were more comfortable than others speaking in English with this chatty American. Many of the prospective kids were curious about how they could improve their English, and we all suggested ideas like watching American TV shows, watching English movies with the subtitles on, and listening to American music. When one student said that the only English writing they had tried to read in school was Shakespeare, we immediately said, "No, try something easier! Then work your way up to Shakespeare!" So we recommended easier books like Harry Potter, Twilight, Confessions of a Shopaholic, and Pride and Prejudice. Apparently this was the approach several of our current students took to improve their English, and clearly it yielded good results! Who knew Twilight could be so valuable? :)

3) Football, finally: Last night, after a particularly long week of work, I ventured downtown for the first time in a couple weeks to have dinner with my friend Brittany and then to meet up with the legion of Hong Kong Texas Exes for the UT-OU game! I had been looking forward to this all week long, and I'm happy to say that the experience did not disappoint! The HK Texas Exes had rented out a restaurant in Wan Chai, and about 30-35 Texas fans converged on the site. I got to meet some fantastic people, some Hong Kong residents as well as some current UT students who are studying abroad in HK, so there was some great company. As everyone knows who watched the game, it was an ugly, UGLY game, but a win's a win!! I cannot even begin to tell you how good it was to watch football and to hang around Texans again. I will definitely be making this a tradition!

Here I am after the game, elated but absolutely exhausted and ready for some sleep!!

All in all, it was a pretty spectacular evening!

Not a whole lot else to report as of now, since I've just been knee-deep in the job for the past couple of weeks. Next weekend should promise some exciting times, though, as I'll be celebrating my 23rd birthday on the 23rd!! I'm currently in the process of deciding what to do for the occasion - mainly just deciding on what fancy restaurants to try! I'm also buying myself the best birthday present ever this week! Hope everyone has a great week this week, and I'll be back again soon!

xoxo,

Jenny

An Exercise in Losing Face

Happy Mid-Autumn Festival, everyone!! Look at the moon! Ahhhh, pretty moon.

And Happy Jenny-Took-Her-First-Classically-Humiliating-Tumble-in-Hong-Kong Day! More on that in a bit.

So Mid-Autumn Festival is this really lovely holiday where you carry around a lot of lights and lanterns, gaze adoringly at the moon, sit around in groups with candles, and eat mooncakes, one of the most famous (and most debatably tasty) desserts in Hong Kong. The typical mooncake has some sort of intricate design on top of the cake, and it is filled with white lotus root paste and an egg - the flatmates and I decided to go for a more modern route with our mooncakes, though, and opted for the Snowy mooncakes (mango, green bean, and tiramisu flavored) and Haagen Dazs mooncakes. The history of the cake is something like long ago, when bad people were coming to steal the glory of China, brave Chinese soldiers found a way to communicate surreptitiously by placing written messages inside of mooncakes, and we celebrate this clever move every year with the consumption of 1000+ calorie mooncakes. Sounds like a holiday to me!

Our Haagen Dazs mooncakes - yum!!

So as you can imagine, with the Haagen Dazs mooncakes, the evening got off to a very nice start. Ally and I then ventured down the mountain and made our way to Tsim Sha Tsui, one of my most favorite areas of Hong Kong (the best Harbour view in the city), which was having a large lantern and light display. It was also a gathering point for people to come together, light candles, run around with lanterns, and look at the moon. We walked around for a while, taking pictures of all of the sights, enjoying the peaceful merriment that was taking place around us.

Much to my delight, we run across a band of musicians playing awesome Mandarin songs while a number of people in the crowd either danced or sang along. It made me really happy, as it reminded me of the street bands in New Orleans that I loved so much last year. I was particularly excited when a bunch of people started doing what looked like a Chinese form of line dancing. I immediately pulled out my camera and took a clip of it so I could bring it home and share it with all of you. Check out this action:

Well, I wish that the story could just end here, with me enjoying the jovial sight and then having a nice, uneventful rest of the night looking at the moon. But of course, it did not.

While watching the musical scene, I was laughing and clapping along with everyone else, which one of the ladies who was dancing took to mean that I wanted to join in. She came over over and said something to me in Mandarin, followed by "Dancing?? You come!" I smiled and told her no thanks, I just wanted to watch. After a few times repeating this, I just shook my head so she would get the message. I was sure that if I made a foray onto the dance floor, as the only non-Chinese person out there, I would make some sort of horrific mistake or cultural misstep and embarrass myself as well as everyone there. I figured there would be some sort of calamity, and then I would go from that funny American who was appreciating and engaging in the culture to that horrid American who made a fool of herself and disrespects Chinese traditions. But then, after listening to a few more songs and watching the lovely, uninhibited dancing of the crowd, I figured, you know what, I'm probably just being too self-conscious and I should just embrace the experience, embrace the culture, and not worry so much. "Just say yes!" kept ringing through my head. So when the lady once again invited me to dance, I threw caution to the wind, handed my bags over to Ally and joined her for the next song, a fun, uptempo number that brought out a good group of dancers and attracted some new folks to the crowd.

At first, it was great - we were twirling around, bopping up and down, having a great time. My dancing was absolutely wretched, but I didn't really care, the people in the crowd didn't seem to be judging me too harshly. We kept spinning each other around a lot - I was pulling in some old moves from swing dancing and each time, we both giggled and then kept bopping. Well, about 2/3 through the song, I was in mid-turn, in about my 12th twirl, when SPLAT!! My sandal lost all traction and I fell smack down onto the pavement, wiping out for the whole crowd to see. I heard a gasp from the people around me, but I got up quickly and laughed as loud as I could and continued dancing, just to show everyone that I was ok. I was trying not to "lose face" (aka absolutely humiliate myself) - but the damage was already done.

The lady and I kept dancing, but when we went in for the next spin, an older lady in the crowd started loudly chastising my dance partner for twirling me, thinking I had fallen because I was dizzy. People were now looking at me like, "What the hell are you doing out there?" I kept smiling and laughing to try and allay and awkwardness, but as soon as the song was over, I understood why people had seemed concerned: my knee, which had taken the brunt of the fall, was BLACK and RED, with a sizable bruise having already formed on the spot where I had hit the pavement and a nice big scrape that was oozing blood. Ally immediately started shuffling around in her purse to get Band-Aids, and one nice boy in the crowd rushed over to offer additional bandages. We stepped back a bit, away from the crowd, so I could properly examine the damage and apply the Band-Aids, but when I looked up, I saw that a number of the people in the crowd were no longer watching the dancing but were now STARING at me trying to fix my bloody and banged-up knee. I threw them my winning-est smile possible and gave them the thumbs-up to indicate that I was ok, the show's over, etc. and they then, to my relief, laughed and smiled, returned the thumbs-up, and turned their attention back to the music. I then limped off with Ally, finally realizing just how much my knee was hurting. Did I mention that this was my already-messed-up left knee? I'm just glad I did not do more damage to it, or else I would have been the American who ruined Mid-Autumn Festival when an ambulance had to come pick her up and ruin all of the festivities... Luckily, I think the worst damage of the evening was confined to my pride.

So I've managed my first adequate dose of humiliation in Hong Kong, with quite a crowd of witnesses to boot. I think I played the part of the foolish American quite well this evening - hopefully I haven't permanently damaged these people's views of my country with my terrible dancing and clumsy moves, but oh well, I guess that's one of the risks of living abroad! All in all, it was a pretty great evening - Mid-Autumn Festival was fantastic, and now I'll have scars/souvenirs with which to treasure the memories. I'll be posting more pictures from this evening, as well as some from the past month, on Facebook later in the week, and Mom, I'll send you pictures of the gnarliness that is my knee.

Happy National Day!

Happy 60th Birthday to the People's Republic of China! For people all over Mainland China, this is a day to celebrate national pride and bask in the glories of the PRC, plus it marks the beginning of a whole week off so that they have proper time for gaiety and reverence. For people in Hong Kong, it means a day off work. Most people, it seems, just take today to enjoy not working and save up their party spirits for Saturday evening's holiday, Mid-Autumn Festival. Nonetheless, the fireworks display over Victoria Harbour is supposed to be pretty spectacular, so I'll be joining in the festivities downtown later this evening.

When I asked my students what their plans were for National Day, most of them replied that they did not plan on getting out much because they wanted to avoid the crowds. "Crowds?" I asked. "Yes," one guy said, "All of the Mainlanders who come in and go to Disneyland and pee in the streets." Uh-oh. Looks like I've just had my first classroom brush with HK-Mainland stereotypes. While I have yet to see anyone actually pee in the streets, it will definitely be more crowded than usual this week, as visitors from the Mainland come to HK to shop, sightsee, and contribute to the HK economy.

I'm off to go enjoy my day off from teaching - sort of. I still have to grade about 20 papers when I get back, such is the life of a teacher. Hope everyone is doing well! Elena, aren't you glad that I finally updated ? :) And happy beginning of October, the best month of the entire year!!

If only it were a common misconception...

So as part of the icebreaker that I played with my 1310 (first-year) class, I mentioned that I had once auditioned for American Idol (this was one of my truths for "Two Truths and a Lie"). They all seemed pretty impressed and asked me if I was on TV, did I like it, etc. I laughed and told them that I wasn't on for very long, but that the experience and the audition were really fun.

Well, fast-forward to Tuesday night's English Department Welcoming Dinner: I'm talking with some second-year students, and when the topic of shopping and fashion in Hong Kong comes up, one of them pops up with, "Oh yes, you know! We heard from the first years that you were on America's Next Top Model!" I started laughing hysterically, and corrected them, saying that it was only American Idol, and that I was only onscreen for about half a second. They looked a bit disappointed, but still managed to boost my ego by telling me that they thought I should be a model in Hong Kong and that I had great fashion sense. They also requested that I start wearing more high heels to class.

Have I mentioned that I love these kids? Because I do.

Hakka Village

So tonight, the fellow Fellows and I ventured out to Sai Kung Country Park, one of the more remote and green-tastic area of Hong Kong, for a Yale Club of Hong Kong barbeque. The drive out was lovely, as Dr. Man took us to one of the piers by the beach to get a good view of the water and we stopped by the Visitors Centre, which features an entire wall of plastic turtles. We finally joined about 30 other people at the home of a Yale alumnus who lives in a Hakka village, which are these great, tiny little villages that used to subsist on farming - in fact, on the 10 minute trek to his house, we passed by an old, abandoned rice patty. We also passed a huge, gigantic spider that was about the size of my head.

Wall of turtles

As usual, we got to meet a fun array of people at the event, and the alum's wife took us on a tour of the village, which included a smattering of old houses, an old temple, an old cistern, etc. It was cozily rustic, and I actually felt quite at peace there. However... that all changed when out tour guide told us that critters of all shapes and sizes often find their way up uncomfortably close to the houses. Now, we had already seen several cows walking around the park, just chillin, so that was not unexpected. But apparently it doesn't stop with cows - they also have lots of fun spiders, wild boars, and of course my favorite, snakes. Oh, but not just any snakes, no - freaking CHINESE COBRA SNAKES. Apparently there is also a pink cobra snake? Yes, there is, and this lady once had a 10-ft long cobra in her front yard. HO-LY-HELL. So you can imagine how much fun the trek back to the car was after that, especially since it had already gotten dark, and I could just hear the evil army of giant cobra snakes plotting my imminent demise just off the concrete path. I don't think I breathed the entire time.

So will I go back to Sai Kung, now that I know that a populace of monster cobras awaits me there? A few people reading this know how I froze when we saw a small snake in the Everglades - if I saw a 10-ft Chinese cobra in front of me, it would definitely have the Medusa effect. Yet somehow, I feel like I must swallow this fear, and not let my phobias get the best of me. I shouldn't miss out on one of the most beautiful areas of Hong Kong just because *gulp* there are huge, giant, poisonous snakes who want nothing more than to suck out my soul living there... right? Maybe I just need to grow up, face my fears, and move on to enjoy the beautiful parts of life... but I might be enjoying these beautiful parts of life with a machete in hand.

Hope everyone is doing well and enjoying the school year! I'm working on quite a long-winded post about all the craziness and loveliness of teaching, so as soon as I get a break from lesson planning and paper-grading, I'll try and get that to you. In the meantime, have a wonderful week!

xoxo

Jenny

Eeee!!

One of my students just addressed me in an e-mail as "Dear Professor." While I am totally undeserving and unqualified for this title, I still squealed with delight! It feels very surreal to be teaching college courses... but I love it!

So pleased

Written to me by one of my students in his introductory letter:

"I have the typical reason for my choice of doing an English major: I love the language and sometimes I feel the letters begin to like me too. We then fall in love."

My students are brilliant. They also love emoticons. I am so lucky. :)

Are You Excited or Nervous? ...Yes.

First day tomorrow - I have my lessons planned out, my outfit picked out, and I'm about to go straighten my hair and do all possible night-before primping since I don't anticipate much time in the morning (my first class being at 8:30 am and all). I can't really recall a first day of school that brought such fluttery emotions, at least since my first day of high school. I wasn't too nervous on my first day of school at Yale, because if I embarrassed myself in the classes I was shopping, I could always just not take those and find other classes. But no such luck here! My students will be stuck with me for the next twelve weeks, come Hell or high water. Now let's hope I don't completely drown tomorrow.

Here we go!

Banquets A Plenty

One of the most fulfilling (haha) aspects of this Fellowship is the constant stream of banquets, dinners, and special gatherings we are invited to throughout the year. In the past week alone, we have gone to two special gatherings, one with the President of New Asia College, as a means of welcoming us and getting us off to a good start for the year, and the other with a visiting alum of the Yale-China program who took us to his favorite restaurant in Hong Kong, Spring Deer. In addition to these two gatherings, we have received and responded to invitations for no less than seven events in the next three weeks. Most of these are welcoming receptions for new staff or are part of the New Asia College 60th Anniversary Celebrations (which will be going on all semester). So in addition to preparing for classes, we have quite a busy schedule!

I actually really enjoy these events, for three distinct reasons:

1. The mass amounts of delicious food that are heaped upon us. Dr. Peter Man, the Secretary of New Asia College, and our closest supervisor in HK (and all-around wonderful, amazing man) usually does the ordering at these gatherings, and he is an absolute genius at choosing the cuisine for the evening. We always leave extremely full, loaded with leftovers, and quite satisfied. Though you always have to be careful to leave a little bit on your plate, lest you get the jovial reprimand of "Jenny! Why are you not eating??" from Dr. Man. Several of the alums we ate with tonight happily warned us that Dr. Man is responsible for any and all weight gain while in Hong Kong. This just makes me like him more, since his attitude towards food, making sure everyone enjoys it and eats way too much of it, is very much like the Southern attitude towards food.

2. Getting to dress up for special occasions. It just means there are more excuses to find dresses!

3. Meeting all of the illustrious alumni. I really do love to meet all of the people who come to these events, hearing how they ended up in Hong Kong, how they got involved with Yale-China, what they're doing now, etc. Everyone has a really interesting story and background, so the conversation doesn't turn stilted as much as you might expect when you throw 12 strangers together at a table. I've started to ask everyone who lives in Hong Kong what restaurant recommendations they have, since Annie and I are trying to put together a comprehensive list of the best places to hit while in HK. The best part is when everyone starts telling stories from previous years of Yale-China Fellows - we heard several interesting stories tonight, but I probably shouldn't be broadcasting too many of those online! Wouldn't want to harm the good name of Yale-China :) I'm looking forward to all of the upcoming New Asia Anniversary events, as there will be tons of alumni coming in and out of Hong Kong in these next few months, so hopefully I'll get to hear some great history of the place!

All in all, tonight was a nice break from an afternoon of lesson planning - hopefully I'll have a good report card on my first class to present to you this week! Wish me luck!

How 'Bout That!

Yesterday, as anyone who stumbled across my Twitter, Facebook, or Skype accounts knows, was truly a banner day. First and foremost, I am now officially on the path to solving the mystery of how I ended up in Brad Paisley's song, "All I Wanted Was a Car" - after sending him about 10 tweets over Twitter, he actually Tweeted me back!! Apparently, it's a really big coincidence but he'll be checking with his co-writers. He also said that he'll have to get me to one of his shows so I can come say hi!! Hopefully my visits back to the States will coincide with some of his tour dates and we'll be able to make it work! Ahhh, I might get to meet Brad Paisley! Maybe he and Carrie Underwood will be touring together again, and I'd get to meet her too! Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go sink into a reverie of day dreams, where somehow my meeting Brad Paisley turns into my becoming a country-folk singer as well, becoming BFFs with Carrie Underwood and Taylor Swift, and meeting some gorgeous, twang-y country boy crooner. Wouldn't it just be lovely?

...

...

...

...

...

Ok, back to the real world now!

That Only Took Two Months...

At last!  Today, after a strenuous, two-month process, I finally got my phone!  Mind you, it won't actually start working for at least three more days, but the point, I have something tangible in my possession now, and for that, I am content.  But Lord Almighty, could it have taken any longer to get??  Here's the rough layout of what I had to do to get this crazy thing:

1)  Sign up for a Hong Kong bank account (did this the first day I arrived)

2)  Get my Staff ID card, which involved:

2a.  Going to the personnel office and giving, receiving, photocopying, signing lots of paperwork

2b.  Waiting for my staff ID number confirmation (this took four more days than anticipated)

2c.   Going to pick up my staff ID card  (this finally happened two weeks in)

3)  After receipt of staff ID card, go to apply for HK residence card

3a. Try to make phone appointment, get confused by directions, get flatmate to interpret directions for me 

3b.  Go to immigration, apply for card in person

3c.   Wait four weeks for card to process before I can pick up real thing

3d. Get paper copy of card to tide me over for four weeks

4) Go back to bank and apply for HK credit card

4a. Do preliminary paper work

4b. Come back when I have real HK residence card, make copies of said card

4c. Wait for confirmation letter in the mail

4d. Receive two letters over three weeks, both telling me to return to bank to give them more information (both times they just needed HK residence card, which I had already given to them...)

4e. Finally receive confirmation letter, go to bank to pick up new HK credit card

5) Go to Shatin 3Mobile store to buy new iPhone and 24-month contract

5a. Get told that store is out of iPhones, will have to register online and wait up to three weeks

5b. Throw a hissy fit in the store

5c. Check with other 3Mobile stores in Shatin and Mongkok, turns out that yes, I have to register online and wait if I want an iPhone in Hong Kong

5d. Register for iPhone on 3Mobile website

5e. Receive text message two days later that phone is ready for pick-up

5f. Go to store, purchase iPhone and contract - now wait three days for phone number to transfer from old sim card to new

Was this story long, arduous, and frustrating to read?  Good, because it was twice that to go through.  I am once again reminded that bureaucracy sucks anywhere, but bureaucracy in a very loud, crowded place with a language barrier sucks even more.  However, the saga has hopefully come to a close now and my iPhone and I can be very happy together.  

On another note, classes start in nine days!   So I'm off to go look through some material so I can seem like I know what I'm doing that first day.  Hope everyone's having a good start to the beginning of the school year!

Reflections of Training and Looking Ahead to Teaching

This past week brought with it some magnificent experiences, not the least of which was my first time "teaching" in front of a class, even if that class was composed of my fellow Yale-China Fellows.  We focused on film reviews and descriptive, sensory language, so I had the students watch a clip of "Transformers" and write down both descriptive terms and their impressions of the clip.  We then did a sentence expansion exercise, where we took the sentence "Transformers is loud" and had each student add a little extra something to the sentence, so it ended up something like "Transformers, unlike the silent movies, is so loud that the audience has tinnitus but is filled with euphoric anguish and is not unable to enjoy Megan's urban foxiness."  I can only hope that my CUHK students can make puns like this - I'd be so proud!  I received a lot of great feedback from the fellows, so even though they say all teacher training flies out the window the moment you step into your first real class, I still pretty confident and really excited as the start of classes approaches!!!  

Orientation and TEFL training were exhausting (though I'm sure nothing like what my TFA counterparts went through!), which is why I haven't had the chance to update much recently.  TEFL training was basically a solid week of learning different pedagogies and practicing different activities for language learning - I definitely came away with some ideas for my own classroom, but again, we'll see how these actually play out once I actually get up there.  Orientation/Conference was three solid days of meetings and classrooms, with people sharing their experiences from the past year as well as guest speakers talking about everything from health and safety in China to genres in linguistics (the latter lecture was from a gentleman named Ahmer Mahboob - great speaker, even better name).  Chrissy and Katie, our two direct supervisors for the fellowship, set a professional, more business-like tone for orientation, which, while some people complained about last year, I actually really enjoyed.  One, I got to try out my fun teacher clothes and two, it really drove home the point that this fellowship isn't just about flitting around Asia for two years, but really working hard at your teaching post and constantly trying to think of ways to improve your teaching skills.  

To be honest, the teaching aspect of this fellowship had been slightly overshadowed in the past few months by other aspects, such as the whole moving-around-the-world thing and trying to learn Cantonese - It was always, "Oh, I'm moving to Hong Kong," not "Oh, I'm going to be a teacher."  But now I think my head is where it needs to be now, and I am so ready to get in there and meet the students.  Even now, as I write this blog post in my flat, I hear some of the first year students running around outside, banging on drums and singing, practicing for some sort of performance, I assume.  I can't wait to get to know them.  I always felt nervous around new students at the beginning of every year at Yale, just because they had so much ahead of them and were about to go on such a huge roller coaster, and they had no idea what they were in for.  But now, I'll be in a different role, one that will hopefully play an integral role in their academic lives here, and I hope that I can inspire them, challenge them, make them think and write and speak in ways they didn't think they were capable of - or at least not make them feel like they are flailing and absolutely lost during their first semester.  

I think one of the extraordinary things about this position is that it allows me to work with students whose position I was just in four short years ago, so I still remember that feeling of coming into college with great excitement but great fear, and that initial "Oh s***" feeling after my first class.  I hope I can strike a balance between challenging them academically and pushing them to the point where they need to be for the English major while still being sympathetic to the crazy upheavals of their lives and if possible, helping them with this jarring transition as much as I can.  I think if I learned anything from Yale, it's that we can be incredibly resilient and can push ourselves further than we ever thought we could (or should) go, so while I don't intend to be lenient with deadlines or grading, I do plan on being as encouraging as possible, letting the students know that as difficult as everything seems in the beginning, they will be able to not only manage it but ultimately succeed in it.  Hopefully they won't just interpret this as I'm going to give them all A's....  

But they're smart kids, so I'm sure they'll be fine.  After all, CUHK is ranked #2 in all of Asia, and #42 in the world, so we're talking the best and the brightest here.  Holla!!

On a lighter note, I also ate a pigeon head last week.  Actually, I ate two.  Don't worry, it's a tradition, and it was at a restaurant that specializes in pigeon.  It was actually pretty good - brains and all.  I'll post pictures as soon as I get them!

Love to all my other Yale-China fellows!  I miss you crazy kids being in Hong Kong already!

More reports soon!

xoxo

Jenny

Many stories to come, promise!

Hi all,

I've been doing teacher training and orientation all this week, and it has been exhausting!  I'll post some thorough updates soon, but I need to get some sleep in the meantime!  

See you soon!

Seeing the city through new eyes

Over the past few days, I've come to develop a new round of warm, fuzzy feelings for Hong Kong.  I've been volunteering to take the visiting Yale-China fellows out and about the city for the past few days, so I've been able to show off my favorite parts of the city - at least the ones that I know so far!  But it's been great, and every time they exclaim how pretty, how bustling, or how clean the city is, I get another little jolt of excitement, thinking that I ended up in a pretty good city :)  I definitely feel like I have a bit of ownership over the place now - I don't feel lost and clueless as much anymore!   I've also found that I have yet to tire of just gazing at the skyline, as the dazzling lights on the buildings provide endless entertainment.  Maybe I'll get sick of this eventually, but given how much I enjoy skylines in other cities, and how HK's skyline basically trumps all others (IMHO, hehe)*, I don't think that will be happening anytime soon.  So!  I'm posting some more pictures for you to enjoy!

*IMHO = In My Humble Opinion.  Apparently our students at CUHK like to use this phrase a lot in class discussions and e-mails to the teachers.  I think the sheer gumption of using an acronym like IMHO negates any actual humility in the statement, but I think it's hilarious.

(Sorry that they are fuzzy, I had the night setting camera but couldn't hold it still long enough for the picture to come out smooth!)

The HSBC Building, a crazy, modern building designed by the ubiquitous Sir Norman Foster, of Wembley Stadium fame.  This is the view of it from the China Club (12th floor of the old Bank of China building).

Here are the HSBC building and the new Bank of China building squaring off against each other.  The story is that the Bank of China building was purposefully designed to be intimidating and to send bad feng shui vibes to HSBC, one of its main competitors in HK.  So which building do you like better?  

Here's the Bank of China building with the Hong Kong Legislative Council building, built in 1912, in front.  Old school British architecture vs. hot, sassy Chinese architecture.   

The view from Tsim Sha Tsui, across Victoria Harbour.  I could sit here for hours and just watch people, watch the ferries go back and forth, and look at the lights.  Plus, there are always lots of brides in this area, posing for their portraits in front of the skyline, so it's always a fun fashion show as well!

Me in front of the old Canton-Kowloon Railroad Station clock tower - the station no longer exists but they decided to keep the tower around.  I'm enjoying a treat from the friendly ice cream truck right by the Star Ferry pier.  There was something sweet about having all of these quaint, old-fashioned things (the Star Ferry, ice cream trucks, old bell towers) in the midst of all the craziness in downtown HK.  This area is by far one of my favorite spots in the whole city.

So if you haven't noticed, I've fallen back into tour guide mode with everyone here, so if these passages sound different than the usual posts, that is why!  Well, I must be off to read about being an effective teacher - we're getting to plan and teach an actual lesson on Friday, so hopefully I'll have reports of how Camille and I dazzled the whole class and were awarded tons of gold stars.  But it's more likely I could come back with stories of me forgetting and/or losing my lesson plans, giggling nervously in front of the classroom for a few minutes, and ultimately dancing a jig in front of the classroom and calling it a lesson in extemporaneous performance.  That's acceptable for a college professor to do, right?   ...hmm, yeah, I should really go study some more...

I'll report back soon!

xoxo

Jenny

TEFL Time

Excellent news:  The other Yale-China first year Fellows have descended upon Hong Kong!  I am so happy to have them here, just to add a new spark to things.  I'm excited about having guests who have never been to Hong Kong before, so I can show off the city, and I am totally falling back into Tour Guide mode.  It's probably really obnoxious, but I'm enjoying it nonetheless!  We've started slow, taking them to Shatin, the nearby shopping metropolis, to go for Western food and go to City Super, our equivalent of Whole Foods.  It made me grin when everyone was running around picking out cheese, chocolate, and fresh fruit, as it was basically a mirror image of how I looked when I first arrived in Hong Kong and realized I would have so much familiar food all around me.  

We've begun teacher training, so I am two days closer to being qualified to teach at CUHK (as baffling as I find this fact sometimes).  While we're learning some really interesting techniques and methods of teaching English as a foreign language, much of it won't be applicable in my class because our students will already have a very high working knowledge of English, so we won't be doing a ton of pronunciation and grammar work (hopefully).  That being said, we will still absolutely have our work cut out for us!  For example, one of the units we'll be teaching in English 1330 (the 3rd course in a 3-part series for English majors) is on business English, so we're going over proper e-mail and phone etiquette, which is something that I, a native English speaker, still struggle with - I often get flustered when writing e-mails to important people, then err on the side of informal and funny, only to realize in a second reading (after it's been sent) that I sound like a doofus.  So I guess we'll just be learning this valuable skill together.  We actually were able to do a sample lesson plan for this very assignment today, however, and it did not seem so daunting anymore.  

Tonight our homework was to read about reading, and then write about reading - which I need to go finish up now.  This class is very meta.  

I like having a job.

Wow...

Tonight I went to a swank-tastic bar on the 28th floor of the Peninsula Hotel in Hong Kong, with absolutely incredible views of Victoria Harbour and Hong Kong Island.  As I sat there sipping on a strawberry champagne cocktail and taking in the gorgeous view and my decadent surroundings, I started to giggle, thinking how this was just a teensy bit different than drinking Strawberry Andre from the bottle while nestled in my cold Yale dorm room.   

Oh what a difference a year makes...

Shopping, A Quest

As Carrie Bradshaw once said (and I paraphrase), one of the true tests of your foreign language ability is a day spent shopping.  This past Sunday, I decided to venture out to Causeway Bay, armed with my fresh paycheck and a few choice phrases:

"______ geido chin a?" ("How much is ______?")

"Nigo saam hou leng!" ("This dress is very pretty")

and 

"taai gwai" ("too expensive")

Causeway is one of, oh, about 735 shopping hubs in Hong Kong, but I thought I'd give it a try since it had everything from Prada to Probably-I-Can-Afford-It.  I hopped off the MTR into, surprisingly, a mall, and ventured around the various make-up and face care counters for a bit as I tried to find a zen place amongst the hordes of Sunday shoppers.  I found my way outside and ran across the street, right into the first shop I spotted with dresses in the window, a little place called "Moiselle."  It was a dream - it smelled like roses, the decor exuded a soft pink glow, and I was suddenly surrounded by dozens of dresses featuring various combinations of rhinestones and ostrich feathers.  A salesgirl with eyeshadow that can only be described as the cosmetic embodiment of a bird of paradise came up and inquired where I was from, if this was my first time to Hong Kong, etc, and we chatted a bit as I casually thumbed through the dresses.  It was only when she went to greet another customer that I glanced at the price tag for a particularly fabulous frock - $19,999 HKD.  Suddenly it looked like this wasn't quite the store for me.  After a few more wistful looks at the gowns in the back, I sauntered back out to the crowded street, ready to find a few shops a bit more on my level (though this did not stop me from sneaking into Hermes later in the day).  

I walked about, from store to store, alternating larger chain stores with smaller, cute boutiques, but for the life of me, I could not find anything.  Most of the clothes were free-flowing, not very body-conscious, and were either not very exciting (blah colors, uninteresting cuts) or a bit too interesting, following the idea that if a few sequins are good, than a lot of sequins are great.  After walking out of the eighth or ninth store, I was losing motivation and just about ready to call it quits for the day when I wandered into a boutique called Charcoal, which seemed to have a larger selection and some interesting window offerings.  Thinking that one more browse-through couldn't hurt, I stepped inside to take a look.  Almost immediately, one of the salesgirls came up and offered a few outfits to try on, but I smiled and declined, just wanting to look.  She then said, "No, you try on for us!"  So, of course I said ok!  

I spent the next hour trying on a vast array of outfits that the salesgirls kept bringing to me, each slightly more outrageous than the last.  With each new outfit, they would bring over a new pair of shoes and new accessories to dress it up a bit.  I tried on everything from blue sequin minidresses to black lacy shirts with bedazzled Las Vegas logos to super tight black snakeskin leggings to gigantic thigh-high black leather boots.  Whatever they brought me, I put on.  They had me walk up and down the length of the store like I was on the runway, saying "Hou leng!  Hou leng!" ("very pretty!") or "Pretty teacher!" or "Many, many boy will love you!"  They also continually complimented my skin, my legs, my hair - either the nicest salesgirls ever or one hell of a sales tactic.  Was I absolutely eating this up and loving every minute of it?  Was this exactly like a shopping montage in some chick flick?  Did this totally make my day and boost my ego after a month of feeling like an ugly sweaty mess?  Did this sales tactic result in the purchase of new clothes?  Um, YES.  

So I collected my new black, red, and white dress from the store (its usefulness for both work and play and its convertability from dress to top justify the cost) and walked out in the sun.  It just seemed like a brighter day after that!  After initially thinking that Hong Kong shopping just would not get along, I'm now happy to report that I think we'll be good friends over these next two years!  But hopefully not too good... :)  

And on this very vapid and materialistic note (the best kind, really), I'm happy to report that I'll be starting teacher training on Sunday!  That's right, kids, two weeks from today, I will be ready and qualified to be a college professor!  *Insert hysterical laughing here*  As everyone starts to arrive and we get to learn the joys of teaching, I'll hopefully have some more good stories for you.  For now, I'm going to go enjoy my waning days of summer!

XOXO,

Jenny

Look what showed up...

So the Yale-China website has posted the profiles of the new English Teaching Fellows, and I found mine kind of amusing, mostly because it turns my loud cheerleading presence at a few Branford IM Volleyball games into my being "active in intramural sports for her college."  I also sound like I am from New Orleans, which is ironic, given that I'm wearing my Texas necklace in the picture.  Nonetheless, I hope you all enjoy!  

Jennifer McClain, '09

The Chinese University of Hong Kong

While at Yale, Jenny was a tour guide and office staffer for the Yale Visitor Center and a Branford College Master’s Aide. She also worked as an event hostess for the Henry Koerner Center for Emeritus Faculty and spent a summer as a festival intern for the Tennessee Williams/New Orleans Literary Festival. Jenny was a member of the a cappella group Out of the Blue and was active in intramural sports for her college. She also previously spent time as a summer camp counselor for the Waco Children’s Theatre in Waco, Texas. Jenny would eventually like to work in the non-profit sector and hopes to return to New Orleans in the near future. She hopes to pursue community involvement in Hong Kong in environmental causes or related to the fine arts.

An important moment...

I got my first paaaayycheck, I got my first paaaayycheck, I'm now an aaaaaaadult, I'm now an aaaaaadult!!!!!

I wanted to take a picture with it, but I resisted the urge.  Instead, I deposited it and will now watch half of it disappear on imported French cheeses, tops from H&M, egg tarts, various Clinique products, and dresses from the Ladies Market in Mong Kok.  The other half will, naturally, be scrupulously saved and put towards the important things in life, like a nest egg for post-Fellowship life and a future trip to Australia.

Reaching the point of self-sufficiency (or something like that):  A watershed moment in post-college life.   

(But yes, Mom and Dad, you can still send me presents if you so choose - this just means I can return the favor now!)  

Exciting Times Abound!

So here I am, sitting in my living room, eating brownies, drinking wine, avoiding the all holy mess that is my room, which can only mean one thing:  I'm finished with classes!!  Yes, that lovely day I have been looking forward to has arrived, and to be honest, I'm a little sad to be leaving our class!  Our teacher Terry is one of the funniest teachers I've ever had (I spent at least 1/4 of every class laughing hysterically), and I really enjoyed spending time with all of the people in our class.  Ngoh hou jung yi Terry sin saang tungh ngohdeih baan!  I think the final exam went decently well, and I managed to understand all of the questions on the oral exam, so that in and of itself is a triumph!

This weekend was just about everything you could hope for in a Hong Kong weekend.  On Saturday, Camille and I decided that we needed to reward ourselves for getting through the last full week of Cantonese classes, so we met up with her friend Pablo and ventured out to Cheung Chau Island, one of the small outlying islands in HK.  The town was just precious, just what you would expect of a laid-back beach town; though it turns out, the island is known historically for being a pirate hang-out, which makes it definitively bad-ass, don't you think?  After a bit of a trek, we managed to find the beach and spend the next four hours lounging there.  After that exhausting day, we dined at this little seafood restaurant overlooking Cheung Chau's harbour that had the most spectacular view of the sunset behind the mountains.  Check out Camille's photos on Facebook, if you get a chance!  The seafood we had at the end of the day was so, so fresh and delicious (scallops with black beans, lobster & garlic, fresh crab and ginger) - but then again, it should be fresh, given that the decor of the restaurant was the giant tanks that housed the fish and crustaceans we were about to eat.  

Sunday was just as eventful as Saturday, as I met up with good family friend Denver!  He was in town on business but luckily had a day to spare so we could go explore HK.  Now I have to say, as of now, I am a pretty lousy tour guide of the city, given that I have not had the chance to see much of it in this past month (a wrong I hope to right in these next few weeks), so I was a bit nervous when I thought I would be called upon to show off the city.  But luckily (!), Denver had been here a few times before, so it turned out that he was the one showing me around!  We ventured into Central and then took a cab to Stanley, on the south end of Hong Kong Island.  Stanley is known for its lively market as well as scenic views overlooking the sea, and it was definitely a sight!  Every time we thought we had seen all of the shops, it seemed like dozens more sprang up out of nowhere in another pathway or alley we hadn't been down yet.  And yet, with all of this, I have yet to go on a shopping spree in HK, for which I think my self-control deserves a gold star.  After Stanley, we hopped on a bus back to Central and (after a long, slow, painful hour of essentially sitting in traffic), made it back to grab the MTR to go to Mong Kok!  I have to say, I think Mong Kok is becoming one of my favorites spots in HK, it's always so lively and entertaining.  We managed to find the restaurant that I ate at with the girls several weeks ago (with the best BBQ pork buns ever, OMG) and had dim sum.  I was able to put my fledging Cantonese skills to use here, though to mixed results.    I actually knew enough Cantonese to ask if they were serving beer though!  This is truly a triumph - also a sign that they taught us the essentials in our class.   I promised Denver that he would get a shout-out in the blog, but I thought I would do one better and also include photographic evidence of the day in HK:

True, we didn't get much scenery behind us, but I guess the walls of the Mong Kok East MTR station will have to do.  

The past few days have not been as eventful as the weekend, given that a tropical depression decided to plop itself down over Hong Kong for the past 48 hours.  Boo.  It's totally harshing on my free time here - but it's supposed to clear up by tomorrow, meaning that I can go all tourist-y on this town!  Hopefully I'll have some fun excursions to report on in the next couple of days!   And just think, if I get in any trouble and get thrown in jail, at least we know now Bill Clinton can always come bail me out!  

Have a good one!

Jenny Mc