killing time and viva italia!

Warning: this post is being written solely for the purpose of killing time. I will be going to Macau later today with Susie, but she realized on her way to meet me that she'd forgotten to bring her passport... which leaves me with an hour to kill. At least I'm in a Pacific Coffee that has a whole network of available computers (yes, that's on the collective noun list for computers...) We're still not sure if she needs her passport, but then the thought of arriving in Macau and being sent back to HK because we can't get through immigration is a pretty good deterrent against just taking our chances. I know that I've gotten into Macau a couple of times before with just my HK ID, but I have a permanent card, and the lady at the Macau ticket desk seemed to think only permanent ID card holders could get in without a passport. We'll see. I definitely think it's best to play it safe on this one.
Well, there's a torrential downpour outside right now, so it should be an interesting trip. I've never seen Macau in the rain, so it will be a new experience. Yes, that was an attempt at positive thinking.


On a completely different subject, I was pleased to find out this morning that Italy are the 2006 FIFA World Cup champions! I caught a couple of World Cup games this time around, but must admit that I'm not much of a football fan. I think my attention span is too short to allow me to concentrate on a whole game, which results in my eyes usually being focused on something else when goals are scored... doh! In spite of all this, I was going to watch the final game (even with the 3 am HK broadcast), which, like the two semifinals was shown on a local channel. But in the end, I wasn't able to find the channel on the Shepherds' TV... lame, I know.
I also have to admit that I wasn't really pulling for any team in particular this year. I might have cheered for Poland had I known they were in the competition, which is something I discovered after they were already out of the running... But thankfully, like the majority of caucasian Americans, I have a variety of European roots to pick and choose from. So as a good Pardini, I'm happy that my team won!

snail collective noun crisis averted!

Thanks must go to Anish for answering my snail query. Apparently, a group of snails is a "rout."

And here's a link to one of the coolest lists I've ever seen!

http://bvio.ngic.re.kr/Bvio/index.php?title=List_of_collective_nouns_for_fish%2C_invertebrates%2C_and_plants

And here's another very cool list.

http://bvio.ngic.re.kr/Bvio/index.php/List_of_collective_nouns_for_non-human_mammals

I'm going to try to start using these collective nouns as much as possible... be warned!

snail alert!

Recently I've seen a lot of large snails around the apartment complex where I'm house-sitting, but I usually only see one or two at a time. Well tonight I walked by -- for lack of a better word (this will be addressed later) -- a LOT of snails... there must have been about 40 of them, no joke, all in one small area. The picture above only shows a few because the darkness made it hard to capture the grand scale of the snail gathering that was going on. It looked as though someone had collected all the snails in the complex and put them together for a party or something... but who would collect snails, none-the-less throw them a party?
So here's my question: what is a group of snails called? My research has irrefutably shown that snails are social mollusks... but are they a herd? A flock? A school of snails?
Snail experts of the world: your help is urgently needed!

chocolate chip cookie conversion

I was never a big fan of chocolate chip cookies (hereafter refered to as CCC). I know that they hold "favorite cookie" status for a lot of people, but I always seemed to prefer ginger snaps or oatmeal, or even an occasional peanut butter.

Well, things have changed. I had a discussion with Susie the other day about this very topic, and she expressed her opinion that I just hadn't found the Mr. Right of CCC Recipes. I conceded that that was a possible explanation, but still had my doubts.

Well, today I received her CCC recipe over email, and as I was in the mood for some baking this evening, I decided to give it a try. Well, let me just say that I have never consumed so much chocolate chip cookie in my life. I just couldn't stop myself, and ended up eating an ungodly amount of the stuff, in both cooked and uncooked states. Didn't I post something recently about maybe having a problem with self-control? Well, I think that was confirmed tonight... But, to ensure that I don't finish the entire batch on my own, I think I will take the remaining cookies to school tomorrow.

miscellaneous photos from last week...

I had my last lessons at Science Workshop on Friday. Below is a picture of me with my math class, white lab coats and all.

Here is my science class -- they're holding up recycled paper that we made the week before.

Athania and I had a little birthday fiesta! on Saturday. We had promised lots of guacamole to our guests, and wow, did we come through. We made it in the large pot you see below, and used a whopping 14 avacodos. Unfortunately, this was the only fiesta-related photo I took in the course of the evening. No pictures of people... just guacamole. Yummm....

The Shepherds' cats are a lot more comfortable with me now. I think Chester (below) was trying to get some attention this morning. He followed me into the bathroom, jumped up on to the sink, and quickly curled up inside it. I'd never seen a cat do anything like this before...

And here are the recycling bins downstairs from the Shepherds' place. I took some glass bottles down there this morning, but was disappointed to find that though there are bins for paper, plastic, metal, clothing, and computer hardware (!), there is no bin for glass.

a couple scenic shots from the past...

Just felt compelled to post some pictures taken a while back. These are on my laptop, which I don't use much anymore, but am using while house-sitting. I think this is probably the best sunset picture I've ever taken. And interestingly, it was taken in a Safeway parking lot... not exactly a place you'd expect to get a good shot of the sunset. It was 2 years ago in Rocklin, CA, where my aunt and uncle live.

And this is another shot that I really like. Taken in the hills of Danville, CA, in the morning, before the mist had burnt off. Also 2 years ago.

I think I've missed using my computer these past couple years -- it's nice to be looking through stuff like these pictures that I had forgotten about. And maybe I'm getting nostalgic for the States, since these pictures were taken the last time I was there, which now seems like ages ago! But it looks like I will probably be going back this summer, though I have yet to buy tickets. I do know from my travel agent friend that there are still tickets available in August... so we'll see if I actually make it!

"within walking distance"

I mentioned in my last post that the place where I'm house-sitting is within walking distance of my school. Technically that is true. But yesterday I discovered that the 15-minute walk caused me to sweat so profusely that the back of my shirt was completely soaked with sweat by the time I arrived at school to conduct oral exams.

So today I discovered another perk of living within walking distance. The close proximity between home and school means a 3-minute taxi ride costing only a flag fare. Nice.

house-sitting

I moved into the Shepherds' apartment yesterday and began my Summer o' House-Sitting Fun 2006. I'll be here for about five weeks, until the beginning of August. I don't have too many resposibilities -- look after their two cats (both of which were given to them by me), water a few plants, empty dehumidifiers, etc.

After one night here, the cats have started to warm up to me a bit. Before coming I held a secret hope that they would both remember me from their kittenhoods, but that was not the case. The two of them went into hiding as soon as I brought my stuff over yesterday morning, and I didn't see either of them until last night, when I caught a glimpse of Tiger (or TCFKAKF -- The Cat Formerly Known as Kitten Face -- as I like to call him...) running down the hall. Then this morning I was relieved to finally see Chester (a kitten that went nameless until he went to the Shepherds), because I was beginning to wonder if he'd disappeared or expired somewhere...

So, the house and cat-sitting is off to a good start. I'm enjoying having a place all to myself again after 2 years of living at home (which, don't get me wrong Mom and Dad, has been great). And the Shepherd's place is within walking distance of my school, which will be convenient for the next few days at least. Students finish exams on Wednesday, and then next week they start a 2-week "post exam period" (which is basically half-days of field-trips and activities), and I'm really not sure if I'm expected to be at school for that. Guess I should check on that...

cable tv and addiction

Big news -- my family has signed up for cable. A PCCW guy came by our house tonight to offer us a "today and only today" deal of free channels based on the amount my parents are already paying for internet. My dad was pretty tired, and told the guy straight off that he didn't want what he was selling. But Mr PCCW was persistent, and quickly had my dad under his spell with promises of free ESPN. So we got a number of channels free for 18 months, some other channels free for 12 months, and eventually, if we want to keep any of them after that, we'll be paying a monthly fee.

So, I guess in a couple of days (when the cable box is installed) I'll be saying goodbye to the simple two-English-channel life that I've been living. Though I'm excited at the prospect of seeing some good movies on HBO and a couple other shows that I've been interested in watching, the thought of having cable does frighten me a little bit. Why? I think the fear goes back to a six-month furlough in the States that my family took when I was 10. In theory, I was homeschooled during that period, but in reality, I spent virtually every waking moment watching TV. And then in college, I gave into hours of comedy central and TLC. So, with this in mind, living in places with limited English TV access has been good for me. Sure it's meant TV binges when I'd be in the States (Ji, if you're reading this, you'll know exactly what I'm talking about!), but then for the most part, my TV addiction has been under control. So we'll see what happens... Hopefully I won't turn into a full-fledged TV addict. I think I'll just have to be very intentional (ugghh... I don't like that word) about what I watch.

Ironically, I just finished reading A Million Little Pieces by James Frey, the pseudo-memior of a man overcoming drug and alcohol addiction. I say "ironically" because as insensitive or just plain wrong as it may sound, I saw some parallels between his addictions and my own. I liked the book, it was a good read, and it helped me to sympathize (maybe even empathize on some level?) with people who are struggling with substance abuse. I'm not sure if what I felt could really be called empathy, but I could relate on some level to the desire to consume... though in my case it's probably in relation to certain foods or television more than drugs and alcohol... I think I'd recommend the book to most people, not to everyone, because it is a little on the raw and explicit side. However, one thing that annoyed me just a little bit was the way Frey portrayed himself in the book. Yeah, he goes into great detail about the horrible things he'd done to himself and to others while he was using, but in the end, I think he comes across as being a bit smug and self-important, not quite "self-critical," as some reviews claimed. But then the reviews I read were most probably written before the fact-vs-fiction controversy, so maybe the reviewers assumed he was being more honest than he actually was? Which brings me to another point -- the inaccuracies that made the book so contraversial did bother me a bit. Sure it's OK with me if an author takes some creativie liscence with his memories. BUT it's annoying that he (or some publisher) didn't think his story was interesting enough on its own, and felt compelled to sensationalize it in what seemed like a cheap ploy to increase sales. All that said, I liked the book and could hardly put it down this past week. And now I feel like I'm going through book-withdrawal and am eagerly looking for my next fix. Maybe a reading obsession can keep me from turning into a couch potato (though technically, I guess that reading and sitting on the couch are not mutually exclusive...).

fun with kitten

Most of these pictures speak for themselves. But just in case you're wondering, yes, that is a miniature yak (complete with genuine yak hair) that the kitten is sniffing in a couple of the photos... it's a souvenir that I picked up in Yunnan last summer.

It looks as though the kitten might be here to stay -- I don't think my mom is willing to give him up! In spite of this, he still remains nameless, though we do have a shortlist. Right now it's down to the following:

Spencer, Wolfgang, Rico, Theodore, and Sebastian

Any other suggestions?

26 and counting...

Well, I turned 26 today... or I guess, technically yesterday. For some reason, this feels like a big year for me, maybe because I'm definitely out of my early-20s, almost to my late-20s... and then I feel like before I know it, I'll be 30 (which will not be a bad thing, just a bit of a shock, since I still occasionally forget that I am no longer 18). But rambling about feeling old (!?) is not why I'm updating right now. I want to post some pictures from my very spontaneous birthday bash! The plans for this par-tay came together yesterday, when Joanna asked me what I was planning for the day. Athania and I have been planning a joint party for later in the month, so I said that I wasn't planning to do anything on the day. But as soon as Jo suggested going for a nice vegitarian Indian dinner, I was convinced that I should have an actual birthday party. And luckily for me, some friends were willing to join in the festivities on extremely short notice.

Here we are at Woodlands, a vegitarian Indian place I recently rediscovered. We have a nice, paper masala dosa on the table (the first of two that we attempted to consume), as well as mango lhasis all round.
We ordered some of my favorites -- paneer masala (they didn't have spinach for palak), and baingan bhurtha (sp?). And that's a northern Indian thali in the middle.

And for dessert (or maybe I should say the first course of dessert -- you'll see what I mean later), we had gulab jamun (sp?). I think the description for this dish was something like "sweet sticky milk balls." Yumm...

And then we walked over to the Star Ferry to XTC gelato, where Salome joined the party. It turned out that I was the only one who actually wanted ice-cream (caramella and chocolate hazelnut!), so I decided that we should take a photo of everyone else watching me eat it. Right after we took the picture, we realized that it would make great promotional material for the ICS alumni association (most of us had attended the ICS alumni dinner the evening before...).
And then we ended up at Hard Rock Cafe to catch some of the Ecuador vs. Costa Rica World Cup game. Anish, Kaiser and Salome had a good view of the game, but from a very small couch.
My accidental third course of dessert was this ridiculously sweet drink I ordered called "pickled tink." I forget what was in it exactly, but boy was it sweet! I like this picture, because for some reason, my camera was focused on Kaiser's shoe instead of the beverage in the center of the photo. So much for autofocus.
So, that was my big day! Thank you to everyone who made it out to celebrate with me -- I had fun, and hope you did too! And to those of you reading this who wish you could've been there, but couldn't because of physical distance or previous plans, thanks for um, taking the time to read this...? :)

goodbyes

Here are a few more photos I took this morning (at 5:30!!) before my sister and her family left for the airport.

Gabe and Olivia checking on Anna.

Little Anna sleeping peacefully.

Gabe smiling for me one more time. I think I started to try their patience with all the picture- taking, and will probably be remembered as "the strange aunt with the camera". It was fun to think of interesting (and manipulative?) ways to get them to pose or smile. Our method of choice was to ask them to "say MT*"

*MT

from the mouths of babes...

Here's what I heard Gabe saying to no one in particular this evening:

"The kitty's name is Jock. His name is Jock.

The kitty's name is Jock. This is Jock.
His name is Jock. He has a long tail. He has a long long tail."

And here's Anna and her dad. I like the face she's making in this picture.


Unfortunately, the family reunion will soon be coming to an end. Amy, Aaron and the kids will be leaving bright (or possibly still dark) and early tomorrow morning. But on the bright (hehe) side, they'll be coming back in July, on their way back to China. I wonder how much Anna will have changed with another month under her belt... I mean, onesie.

another note from aunt michelle...

I've got a couple more photos to share.

Here are Olivia and Gabe getting ready for bed. I took some pretty-darn-cute videos of them singing today. And sort of tricked them into doing it. I knew that if I asked them to sing for me, Olivia at least would probably have refused. So instead, I told them about a special project that I had for them to do. It was so amusing to see how seriously they took their performances after I refered to it as a "project." Olivia sang "Jesus, name above all names," complete with a series of very intricate hand motions , and Gabe chose "Ba ba black sheep." I'd heard him sing this song before, but was happy to finally have his rendition -- "Ba ba black sheep, have you any woof?" -- recorded for posterity. Maybe I'll get the videos online eventually.

And here are Amy and I with our babies. Hehe.

a note from aunt michelle...

My sister, Amy, and her family of 5 arrived from Tianjin yesterday, and I got to hold baby Anna for the first time!

Now, without further ado, I'll will loosen a screw in the proverbial dam, and let what's sure to be a torrent of pictures begin its flow...

This is Gabe giving his little sister a kiss. There was an earlier kiss that I wasn't quick enough to catch on camera. But because of his aunt's urgent pleas, Gabe agreed to give Anna a longer kiss, which resulted in two things: 1) Me getting a nice picture to post here and 2) Anna starting to cry.

And here's another one of Gabe. He is sleeping on the futon in my room while they're here, and when I came home tonight, I found him asleep like this -- the little picture book that he'd been reading still in his hand. Gabe's 2 1/2 now, and he's really grown up a lot since I last saw him. I've been taken aback by some of the things he says -- he talks in complete, almost adult-sounding sentences now! I think I'd gotten used to him saying cute little things like: "Doing Aunt Shell doing?" Which would translate to: "What are you doing, Aunt Michelle?" Well, now it seems like he's saying things like: "Excuse me, Aunt Michelle. Would you possibly be so kind as to tell me what you're doing?" OK, so that might be a slight exaggeration, but that's how dramatic the change seems to me! I'll try to document some more accurate Gabe-speak in my next post.
Photos of Olivia are noticeably absent in this post. She's almost 5 now, and is quite particular about when and where she allows herself to be photographed. I've noticed that she's become a lot more independent and self-sufficient than she was only a few months ago... maybe the result of going through pre-kindergarten this past year? This morning she wanted to use some stamps of mine to make a card for her dad. I started giving her some directions and help, but stopped when she gave me a tired look that seemed to say, "Please stop patronizing me. I can do this on my own."

I guess I'm not the only one who has a hard time keeping up with growing children. All of this reminds me of childhood trips to the States, where it seemed that endless streams of vaguely familiar adults would approach me, and with the appropriate hand motions, say, "You've grown up so much! I remember you when you were this big!" Now I understand the feeling.

reality check

My brother, Steve, is home from college. He just finished his freshman year at Biola, and is really enjoying it. As you can see from this photo, he's experienced a lot of change in the 12 months since his graduation from high school.


In case you're worried that my little 19-year-old brother has really tied the knot, you can put your mind at ease. This is a picture from a show that he and some friends at Biola did called "Reality Check." In the 6th and final episode, Spencer (his character), and his girlfriend, Gwendolyn, get married.

Though completely fictitious, this photo does do a little reality check on me. It makes me want to light candles and sing "Sunrise, Sunset."

Is this the little girl I carried?(well actually, I've never met her)
Is this the little boy at play?
I don't remember growing older. When did they?

fire drills

Some new, non-cat-related material came to me (or should I say "rang" to me) today when we had a fire drill at school. I think it was my first fire drill in years -- probably since college, in fact. I've got to say that fire drills haven't really been something that I've missed very much... especially since during my junior year of college they happened quite frequently, and were always of the middle-of-the-night variety. Actually, I guess that they technically weren't fire drills, they were alarms caused by real fires. Or at least real smoke... which was usually a result of popcorn or pizza forgotten in the microwave or oven, respectively, billowing up to a smoke detector somewhere in the dorm.

Well, back to today's fire drill. When the alarm went off and the lights started flashing, the chaos and pandamonium that you might expect in such a situation was noticeably lacking. I looked around the staff room to see other teachers looking slightly perplexed, but still smiling. The overwhelming response from teachers was, "I don't remember getting a memo about this one." But then, of course, the fact that it was not a planned fire drill left the possibility that the alarms could be the result of a real fire! I resisted the urge to panic, and remembered the slogan posted in all elevators across Hong Kong: "In case of fire, do not use the lift." Though I never use the elevator to go down the one floor from the staff room to the playground, today it suddenly became a huge decision, and something I felt the need to remind myself of repeatedly. Do not use the lift. Do not use the lift. In case of fire... I very purposefully walked past the elevator lobby and down the stairs, joining the hundreds of ecstatic, lined-up students who had the priviledge of missing the last 10 minutes of class.

Now that I've got you on the edge of your seat asking, "Was there a fire?!" "Were there any casualties?" "Heroic rescues?" I'll put your fears at rest by informing you that the fire alarm was triggered by one of my prized pupils, Bruce, "accidentally" putting his elbow into one of those glass-covered alarm buttons. Way to go, Bruce. Thanks for giving me some much-needed material!

mon petit chat

Yes, this kitten really is growing on me (not literally, though in the photo below he could pass for a tumor -- the type with teeth and hair, of course).


He's been eating a lot, and is a lot more energetic and playful now than when I first brought him home.


Cute!


And in an effort not to completely overlook the other cats in my life, here are a couple other choice shots:

MT very skillfully grooming his tail.


Jock in his favorite hot-weather sleeping position.


Right when I think I've gotten past the cat-obsessed reputation/stigma that I've had for so many years, I go and do two cat posts in a row. I will make a concerted effort to find some new material for my next update...

new kitten

Here's my latest kitten. He has no official name yet, so I've been calling him generic kitten names like "Baby Cute Kitten Thing." I found him a couple of days ago while I was on a walk. I actually found him with his mother -- a wild stray cat -- who looked really sick. Her eyes looked so bad that I think she was virtually blind. I decided it was in the kitten's best interst not to grow up a stray, and since his mother looked so sick, I wondered if she would be around much longer to look after him. I guess I say all of this to justify the fact that I took a kitten from its mother -- something I wouldn't usually do. Anyway, when I approached the two cats, the mother quickly ran away, leaving the kitten there alone. He looked up at me and hissed at me. Since he was so small, the hissing didn't do much to deter me. In fact, it gave me my first view of his face, which is so incredibly cute! I grabbed him up immediately. I think he must be part persian, because his fur is very long, and he has enormous eyes. I don't think it will be very difficult to find a home for this cat. But since he's still so small (we bottle-fed him the first day -- yes, we actually had kitten formula and kitten-sized bottles on hand for such an occasion), I think I'll keep him for another couple weeks at least.


And thanks to Salome for being such an excellent hand model!

Bei bei, Jing jing, Huan huan, Ying ying, Ni ni

This will be a marathon post, so prepare thyself!

Here a couple of students and I posing with stuffed midget-sized Beijing 2008 mascots. From left to right: Bei bei the whale, Jing jing the panda, James, Ying ying the Olympic torch, me, Jing jing the goat, Hugo, and Ni ni the swallow. Yes, that's a grand total of 5 mascots for the next Olympic games. And, very cleverly, when read together in the correct order (Beijing huanying ni), their names mean "Beijing welcomes you." Brilliant!

We arrived in Beijing around noon on Monday, and after a quick lunch, went straight to the Forbidden City. All those figures with blue tracksuit pants and T-shirts that you can see are my students. 31 twelve to fourteen-year-olds + 3 teachers = good times

Here's one of the 10 students that I was personally responsible for. As a teacher, I usually try my best not to have favorites... but I just had to make an exception with Lvin. Lvin is a really friendly kid, and on the trip he soon became best friends with our tour guide. Throughout the week, the tour guide kept refering to him as "my favorite fat kid," which I found slightly offensive, yet secretly amusing. He was my favorite too, but mainly because of his name.
Dinner on the first night was delicious -- we even got Peking duck!
Here's my very excited student, Jessica, using one of the tortilla-like wrappers for the Peking duck to wrap other food. Yes, that is a wedge of watermelon in there.

Beijing traffic was pretty bad, especially at rush hour. Our tour bus was enroute to Tiananmen square in this picture.
A shot of Tiananmen gate. We were all waiting for the PLA soldiers to march out and lower the flag in Tiananmen square.
Soldiers marching out to lower the flag at sunset. I wonder how many sunsets can actually be seen in Beijing. As you can see from this picture, the air isn't exactly pristine.

After the flag ceremony, we walked through an underground walkway to get back to our bus. Suddenly, in marched a few dozen soldiers. I unintentionally had my flash turned off for this picture, but I like the effect and the feeling of movement that it has.
On Wednesday we visited quite a famous local school. The school seemed to have a pretty nice campus, and in some ways it was even quite high-tech (see the billboard in the previous post). But there was one part of their campus that I just couldn't understand. This is a shot of the courtyard that can be viewed from the school's underground library. You'd be right if you wondered how they can grow palm trees at such a high latitude. They can't. No less than all of the foliage in this picture is fake.

After the school visit, we went to see an acrobatics show which was pretty crazy. At times it was quite painful to watch because of the unnatural contortions that some of the acrobats had to assume for extended periods of time. No pictures of that... just a nice picture of students stimulating the mainland economy after the show. I scream, you scream, we all scream for mashed snow cream!

On Thursday morning, students had a 3-hour Mandarin class, so my friend and colleague, Carmen, and I took the opportunity to head out to some old hutongs ("alleys") for some sight-seeing and shopping. Here I am in front of an old building that is now a cafe.
Surprisingly, the hutongs were a pretty hip place. There were artsy little coffee shops and boutiques everywhere. We decided to get some coffee at a cafe that doubled as a photo gallery (note the photograph of the male nude hanging from the ceiling -- impressionable individuals, look away!). The coffee wasn't very good, but the ambiance was nice and homey.

This is Carmen posing with my fake Y50 note. I obtained it last summer from Brian, who received it as change from a street vendor in Beijing. I had kept it with the rest of my Chinese money and had forgotten that it was fake. Well, at the first store I tried to use it at, I was quickly reminded that it was in fact not genuine. Unfortunately, it is no longer the only fake Chinese money in my possession. I wish I'd gotten a picture of the lady who switched my real Y100 note for a fake at the Summer Palace! She had a whole routine down for cheating people. Actually quite genius, when I think about it now. I didn't have Y10, which was the price of what I wanted to buy, so I gave her Y100. She told me she could make change, but gave me two notes that weren't even Chinese money! I thought I was clever in exposing them as fake RMB. She then said that she had no other change, so I borrowed Y10 from another teacher who was there, gave it to her, and she gave me back what I thought was my Y100. I was a little suspicious that maybe she'd switched my bill, but wasn't sure that it was fake until later, when I compared it to a real one. Oh well, one more lesson learned.
On a more positive note, here's my favorite northern Chinese dish -- di san xian, or as I once saw it translated so memorably, "three shreds on earth"-- which I was lucky enough to get to eat twice while in Beijing!! It's the best combination of eggplant, green pepper, potato (and of course a lot of oil) imagineable!

On Friday we went to the Summer Palace and the Great Wall before heading to the airport to fly home. Here's our whole group in front of the Great Wall. There's a big basketball on the banner because our group traveled to Beijing under the guise of being a sports trip. This wasn't completely false, because the students did play basketball on two different afternoons. I got some playing time in as well, which was fun... especially because most of the boys I played against are still shorter than me!

Me and three Form 1 girls that I hung out with a lot during the trip. Out of the 31 students, that went to Beijing, only 5 were girls. I'm assuming that's mainly because of the basketball "focus" of the trip.
Here are students and teachers enjoying some ice-cream after hiking up and down the Great Wall.
To finish the Beijing story, we arrived at the airport to find that our flight was delayed. We ended up landing in HK just after midnight (about an hour later than planned). I was very happy to hand over my student-related responsibilities to the group of parents that were waiting for us so eagerly in the arrival hall. One of the fathers looked especially pleased to see his son back safe and sound. I said, "You must be happy to have him back." He replied, "You look exhausted!" Somehow that conversation made a lot of sense to me at the time.