Hot Pot

Monday night I went out with some Cantonese friends for what they call Hot Pot. The restaurant was in an ethnic Chinese part of town called Sheung Wan (think of a classic Chinatown). There were nine of us and we sat at a big table upstairs. There were two gas burners on the table with big pots of boiling water and cabbage.

They brought out drinks and then someone ordered all of our meats and veggies. The idea behind hot pot is that everything is raw and you cook it in the water or a spicy saute sauce for about thirty seconds and then enjoy. We ate everything from tofu to fresh crab to beef and lamb. The main course lasted about forty-five minutes and I was stuffed to the rafters. Then, the four dessert courses came out. I thought I could find room for chocolate cake or something, but their idea of dessert is way different.

The first dessert was a sweet soup with cubes of gelatin and green beans sans husk. Not too bad, but very different. Then, we had a round of tea followed by a plate of sweet potatoes, a mystery nut and some root I couldn't identify. I didn't exactly go crazy at this point. Another round of tea and some unbuttoning of my pants to make room for the rest. The final dessert was a plate of melons that we gobbled up and then passed out.

The meal was fantastic and the best part was that it lasted for over two hours. The conversation was great and I got to meet some more locals while eating some real Chinese food.

Birthday Weekend

This weekend Andrew and I celebrated our birthdays with a few friends from work. Friday night Carol and Lauren came over a brought a cake. We played trivial pursuit, watched a movie, and forgot about work. Saturday was for sleeping in and running a few errands. That night we had dinner with some more teachers from school and hung out in Lan Kwai Fong all night. We had some fabulous late-nite kebabs and went home to fall asleep to another movie.

Yesterday was my official birthday although the party lasts for days. Andrew and I left the apartment at noon and walked across town to an area called Soho. The first place we came across was called McSorley’s. Unbelievable. We had no choice but to go in and replenish ourselves. The place was nothing like the original, but they did copy some things like the motto ‘Be good or be gone’.

After McSorley’s we walked home and watched some ‘TV’ on my laptop and took part in our annual birthday ritual at midnight.

This weekend wasn’t near as extravagant as last year, but I really enjoyed being with friends and relaxing yesterday.

Quiz Night

If you know me well enough you’ll be able to list all of my self-claimed talents, trivia…and Trivial Pursuit. So, you can imagine how excited Andrew and I were when we found out that Wednesday night is Quiz Night around the corner from our apartment. We prepared mentally for a week and assembled a team consisting of the other two people we know in Hong Kong, Carol and Lauren.

At 8pm last night we walked into Dickens Pub hoping that there really was Quiz Night and that someone else would show up. I was thrilled when we were the last of six teams to arrive. We assessed the competition and thought we had a pretty good chance of winning the curry buffet for six.

The categories were almost picked with us in mind; History, Geography, Name the Building, Music, Movies, and Sports. Cakewalk, right? Wrong. After round two we were tied for dead last with dim hopes of making up ground. The questions were severely British biased and some of the music was unknown to any non-Aussie. There were three Canadians and they were the only three to miss the capital of Ontario question.

We ended up finishing last and got the consolation bucket of Chang. We had a blast though and made friends with some teams. You can count on us being at Quiz Night every Wednesday and maybe walking away with the free airfare to Shanghai and grand prix tickets they awarded last week.

Welcome to Teaching

The last two weeks have been pretty busy, but mostly the same routine. Work is very hard and exhausting. All of the English teachers are frustrated with the school and its disorganization. The students have a hard time understanding us and we spend most of our time on discipline rather than teaching. I’m handling it pretty well, but the more I talk to other teachers the angrier I get.

I just had to go watch my first graders for recess. The worst kid in the school is in my homeroom and I had to chase him down the hall, pin him against the wall and yell in his face for kicking another student. This is a daily occurrence and it doesn’t even faze him. I rarely get angry enough that I yell and turn red, but that happens all the time now and isn’t exactly cathartic. Sometimes I just shut the door and stand in the hallway while the kids run across desks and fight each other.

My friend Carol is miserable at work and says she wants to quit in a month or two, which makes me sad already because she has quickly become one of my best friends here. She has an education degree and says this is nothing like teaching should be. Phil is from Australia but taught in Japan for five years. He says this is the hardest teaching job he’s ever had. Hopefully we’ll all stick it out through the year. I have to keep myself from thinking about the end of school because the summer seems like five years from now.

This all sounds bad, I know, but I really love it here. Hong Kong is fabulous and the weekends are great. I love the apartment and we had some fun times so far. I’ve been hanging out with a few of the other teachers on the weekends and having a great time. We try to avoid thinking about the week ahead, but the school inevitably seeps into the conversation. Carol and I spent yesterday afternoon together in the city. I found a great grocery store that sells some great food for really cheap. They even sell Brooklyn Lager! We wandered around SoHo (south of Hollywood Rd.) and had some food and drinks in a little café. Andrew and I had steaks for dinner and drank the lagers while we watched Green Street Hooligans.

Back at work now though and just trying to take it day by day. Hopefully some problems will be solved this week and everyone will start to enjoy work a little more.

Miracle on Paterson Street

A miracle has happened in Eastern Asia. After only three days of easy shopping, Andrew and I have found an apartment on Hong Kong Island. Comparatively, a British girl at our school has been looking for three weeks and is still homeless. After we made an offer on the place we were out bid but then gained it back. So knowing that it was a hot find, we emptied our bank accounts and rushed to make a deposit after work. We only had enough for about half of the deposit, but a wink at Ivy, our landlord, smoothed everything out.

Our place is in an area called Causeway Bay, which is just east of Central Hong Kong. Twenty-seven floors below home is the central shopping area for all of Hong Kong with virtually every store you see in Soho or Fifth Avenue. A Starbucks is conveniently located across the street and there is a 24-hour supermarket in our building. I guess its worth mentioning that we have a view of the harbor out of our apartment, but it hardly compares with my view of Manhattan from Jersey.

Unfortunately, we can’t move into the apartment until October 1, but there is an empty apartment at the end of the hall that we can have on Sunday. The living room provides ample space for guests and our first major purchase will be a sofa bed for all of our Asia-bound friends.

I Live in China

I made it! Unbelievable. I flew into Hong Kong from L.A. on Thursday. The flight was surprisingly easy and fast. As soon as I got off the plane they handed me a cell phone and a list of errands I had to run that night. We slept about 5 hours and the went straight to school for our first day. They told me to just prepare a 15 mintue game to learn names. I ended up teaching a full day and was at the school for 11 bloody hours.

The school/job is very different from what I expected in a good way. I actually work at a private school called Pegasus Philip Wong Kin Hang Christian Primary School. It is a very expensive and recognized private school. We aren't really English teachers. I am actually an elementary teacher that teaches in English. I really fooled them. My home room is full of 26 adorable first graders. Some speak and read English very well and some speak to me in Cantonese. We rotate classes and I'll be a math teacher for the most part. I think I actually teach a Bible class too! The staff is Christian and at least half the teachers are too. There are 15 english teachers and about 20 Hong Kongers. As for the english teachers, there are a few Americans, a Canadian, one Brit, one Dutch/Asian, two Ausies and a Turk. They seem very cool. I'm actually on my way to a party to get to know all of them. The invitations says there will be 'chicken wings and 12 dozens beers'. I don't know what that means, but it sounds yummy.

We haven't spent very much time getting to know the city, but from what I can tell, it is exactly what I expected. Weather just like Houston, bleh. The streets look exactly like the pictures and feel just like New York only filled with Chinese. The subways are spotless, quiet and air conditioned. We went to a hip area called Lan Kwai Fong in Central Hong Kong last night and hung out in an expat area filled with a ton of American and Brit bankers/students/people like us. It felt amazing to sit there and realize I am in China. It really doesn't feel that far away from home. I think I'm gonna love it here. The next step is to find an apartment today in a sweet neighborhood and make some expat friends.

My ride to the party is here now. Stay tuned to hear about the weekend and first few days of school.