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