HONG KONG!

After spending a week of training/meeting the other college students/bonding with our team/spiritually preparing for our summer teaching/learning a whole lot about Hong Kong in short amount of time, we have now arrived in Hong Kong and are staying in dorms on a university's campus here.  We're about a 10 minute walk from the MTR station (Hong Kong's subway system), so we can get virtually anywhere in the city! Life is fast-paced and exciting around here, and we've really only been around the city for a day.  It's Saturday evening as I write this, and we didn't arrive at the college until yesterday afternoon.

First glances of the city as we crossed the bridge from Lantau Island to the actual city/island of Hong Kong.

When we first arrived yesterday, we moved into our rooms and settled in for a little while before heading out to visit the school our team would be teaching in for the next three weeks.  Out of 14 summer college student teaching teams, 9 of us are in Hong Kong.  Another 3 are in China, 1 is in Vietnam, and a final team arrived in Mongolia about a week before I had even left the United States.  My team walked to the MTR, rode the subway for one stop, and arrived at our school within 15 minutes of leaving our dorms.  We saw the classrooms we'd be teaching in, met the administrators, and learned a little bit about what our summer schedule will look like.  Check out our school in the picture below!

The school enrolls over 1000 students, but the English campers we will be teaching will come from five different schools in this area, not just Ming Yin.  The teaching will just take place here.

The staff office is through the door on the left (with the chairs) and our home base will be in the library through the door on the right in the picture (all of the books, of course).  The classrooms are on floors 2 and 3 of the building.

Candy called this one my "excited teacher" face.  There are also "worried teacher," "frustrated teacher," and "confused teacher" faces, but this is my current feelings for the start of teaching on Monday!

That evening, we ate dinner (rice, of course!) at the university's campus "canteen," or dining hall.  After eating dinner as a team, we were blessed to be able to attend a HUGE variety show that our school--Ming Yin College (middle/high school)--put on for the 45th anniversary celebration.  Although we might have possibly been the only Americans (and non-Asians) there, we had a great time watching the 2 1/2 hours of performing.  Since the school teaches English classes, the two longer play/musicals were in English, some of the speaking and singing was in English, and the rest of the speaking/singing in Cantonese was definitely still enjoyable.  The place was PACKED.

Everyone involved came out on the stage for the final curtain call.  Actors, actresses, musicians, dancers, a magician, etc... There were many acts involved in the program!

Today (Saturday) was adventure day.  Well, actually, we spent about three hours planning as a team for the curriculum we'll be teaching during the next three weeks.  For all you teachers out there, just imagine team planning with a group of 9.  There were lots of opinions and ideas, but it all worked out SO well! I'm excited to work with this great team.

This picture is actually from training on Lantau Island last week, but these are all the girls I'm blessed to be teamed with for the summer. From L-R-- Abby, Michelle, Rachel, Me; Front Row--Joy, Candy.

During the afternoon, my roommate and teammate Rachel (from Michigan), Sierra (from North Carolina), and I took the subway to an area called Lok Fu.  We explored a mall/food center, wet market (every kind of sea creature you can think of was alive and wriggling there), and bazaar where we picked up items for teaching, umbrellas (it rains randomly often here), and other little essentials.

Sierra in the pink, roommate and teammate Rachel in the black, and I in a small bakery/coffee shop at Lok Fu.

Yes, there are McDonald's in Hong Kong. No, I did not eat there and am planning on avoiding it if at all possible while in Asia :)

DELICIOUS watermelon slushie drink I enjoyed at Lok Fu!

Tonight, we grabbed dinner at the canteen and made a small grocery run for some breakfast foods.  We've finally gotten internet, so I think the majority of us are spending time writing home or lesson planning for the coming week of TEACHING!