2nd Weekend: Carnival, Island Adventuring, and Movie Night!

I can't exactly put into words the feeling of taking care of 100 kids for 48 straight hours. Tired, exhausted, and drained? Absolutely. But at the same time, it's unbelievable how little events and happenings during the weekend make it all worthwhile. Things like swimming in a beautiful bay, seeing the kids' enjoyment at pie-ing the RAs, and listening to their incessant chatter during their weekend sleepovers (mostly gossiping about boys!) make me remember why CTY is a perfect summer job.

On Friday, we began the weekend like every CTY site does - with a CTY dance. This one was themed "Fashion Disaster", so the kids and RA's dressed up in pajamas, mismatched clothes, or wore clothes of the opposite sex. On Saturday, the RA's organized a "CTY Carnival", where the kids went to different stations to earn tickets to pie the RA's in the face at the end of the day. They participated in water balloon tosses, balloon stomps, "horse races" (really the kids betted on toy cars that moved based on a roll of a dice), and enjoyed popcorn, face painting, and fortune telling. All in all, it was a pretty successful afternoon. I think their favorite part was seeing their RA's get pie-d.

Sunday was by far my favorite day with the kids. We went on a field trip to an island across the bay (Clear Water Bay) by paying local boats to take the kids across. The island was gorgeous, and the kids loved being at the beach. We were able to play in the ocean, and one beach even had a raft that we spent hours on, just jumping off and playing games. The only two downsides to the day was that the beaches had glass in the water and rocks on the beach, so kids (and I) were incessantly getting cuts on our feet. The other downside I realized later...when I was as red as a lobster. I was really burt, and have suffered the repercussions ever since. Those two minor glitches are a small price to pay for a great day though.

Morgan, Me, and Lucas "watching" the kids on the boat ride over to the island.

We passed by this sailboat on the way to the island! Everyday, I can see sailboats in the bay when I'm walking around campus.

This is one of the beaches that we played at during the day. We spent hours jumping off of that raft in the distance! The water was incredibly warm.

The Halfway Point

It's hard to believe that my stay in Hong Kong is already halfway over - time has just flown by. Without a doubt, I think that a tight-knit staff, amazing students, and gorgeous surroundings have attributed to the speed of life here. Even though there have been glitches at camp - food that is comparable in taste and healthiness as Panda Express, to name one - for the most part, I think that CTY has really prospered as a new site (this is CTY's first time in Hong Kong).

Last weekend, we took the kids on a field trip to the Science Museum and the History Museum. Afterwards, we watched "Up" for a movie night. The whole day was extremely low key, and I think the kids had a lot of fun. Here are some pictures:

There was a special dress exhibit at the History Museum. These were incredibly beautiful!

A couple of days ago, it was my day off with another RA, Callie. Because our schedules are so flexible during the day, other RAs and staff members were able to join us and explore the city for a good chunk of the day. Our first stop of the day was a popular Japanese burger chain, called Moss Burger, which are located in a good number of the malls here. After having the same Chinese food for breakfast, lunch and dinner, I was in absolute heaven - the delectable burger was a wonderful change of pace for my tastebuds and stomach!

After lunch, we trekked to the Western district to find "Cat Street", a small market we had read about the night before. Along the way, we stumbled upon a small yet quaint tea shop, and ended up getting a lesson on the Chinese tea ceremony. The woman at the tea shop showed us how to make tea using loose leaves, and let us sample a good number of types of tea. At one point, she asked us if she was boring us because we weren't very talkative. What she didn't realize was after days filled with screaming children, we were completely entranced by the calming atmosphere of the shop and wanted to enjoy the tranquility as much as possible. :)

The woman who instructed us, and who has an incredibly soothing voice!

The group at the tea shop. (L to R: Callie, Morgan, Jonathan, Josh, and Me)

Afterwards, we strolled around, observing Cat Street and the adjacent street, Hollywood Road (the first competed road in Hong Kong). On Hollywood Road, we found the famous Man Tai temple. The incense hanging on the ceiling were different than others that I seen before; they were shaped like spirals, and there were so many of them burning that the temple was completely in a haze.

Next, we went and found a unique little bar for drinks before the other staff members had to go back to campus. After the drinks, we said our goodbyes, and Callie and I went off wandering in the Western District and found ourselves in a sort of farmers market in the street. To end our day, we headed towards TST (Tsim Sha Tsui), and watched boats along Victoria Harbor before turning back in.

The bar!

A video of the market.

Fresh vegetables...how I've missed you!

What's that under the fruit stand?

A cute kitty!

Callie and me at Victoria Harbor

In the evening after dinner, the staff members and the RAs who had the night off all went to the beach one hundred yards from our residential building. We sat on the beach and talked for a few hours, while enjoying some rain, and in the end we ended up all going into the ocean, which was the absolute perfect temperature. It was a perfect conclusion to a perfect day!

As I write this, I am at my desk listening to John Mayer and watching the rain pour and pour outside my window. There is a possibility of a typhoon this weekend!

An Afternoon Adventure

The kids have finally arrived! The past few days I have spent going through orientation and welcoming the students. My typical weekday schedule is: taking the kids to breakfast and then dropping them off at class; attending an RA meeting; free time until 5; taking the kids to dinner; activities; social time; hall time. We are given about 8 hours of free time during the day to explore!

Yesterday, some of the RAs and I took a ten minute bus ride to the fishing town of Sai Kung. I'll tell the rest of the story through these pictures:

We were very excited with the different kinds of seafood they had in this town. One store owner happily let us stand in his store and take pictures...as long as we promised to come back and eat there!

We found the beautiful harbor to be a perfect backdrop (we are the only female RAs at camp).

As we were gazing at the beautiful harbor, we fantasized about taking a boat trip...

As we were fantasizing, one woman approached us and told us an hour ride would cost $200 Hong Kong dollars...so splitting it would be about $3 American dollars per RA. We had to take her up on the offer! This was our boat.

Our captain didn't speak any English, but we managed to communicate with him that we would like to be dropped off at our University. He agreed (how convenient!).

The water was pretty open, and we saw that the driver was pretty nonchalant (he was driving with his foot, see the above picture). So we decided to ask if we could steer...

Score! All in all, a very successful outing.

Second Day of Sightseeing

Yesterday, 3 other RA's and I went to Victoria Peak. It's one of the tallest mountains in Hong Kong, and is located on Hong Kong Island (where my mom was born). To get there, we took a bus and the metro like we did the day before.

The metro is probably the best kind of public transit that I've ever been on - the ride itself is amazingly smooth, and the stations and trains are impeccably clean. Another positive aspect of taking this public transit is that economically, it is cheap (only about a dollar per ride!). It is funny being on the train and looking down the train corridor - you can see the train going up and down, and bending both ways. I took a video to try to show you, but it's not super obvious. In this clip, it's mostly going up and down.

To get to Victoria Peak, you have to take the cable car to get up the mountain. On the way up, there was a sign saying that the incline is only 14 degrees....but the RA's and I thought it was more like 30. When we arrived at the top, we were spit out into a mall. That is pretty typical of Hong Kong in general - lots of stations are next to or attach to malls.

Me, Callie, Brianna, and John

The view! We are on Hong Kong Island, and in the distance you can see Kowloon and the New Territories.

After Victoria Peak, we took the ferry to Kowloon to go to a dim sum restaurant one of the RA's looked up. The ferry was also inexpensive (under a dollar US - I have no clue how they make money since there were about 10 riders on the ferry that could hold hundreds). The restaurant was pretty good, and I tried my best to use my dim sum experience to order dishes! Of course, I asked for ha gao, su mi, and bok choi. I was a little surprised that we ordered the dishes instead of picking them out from carts like I have experienced at home. The attention that we got from the servers was pretty funny - they definitely hovered around the table to show us how to properly eat the food. Some of the RA's were eating the rice noodles plain - and one server practically shoved one RA's hand that was holding chopsticks out of the way so he could correctly dress the noodles in soy sauce! Let's just say that they definitely wanted to show their ignorant American diners how to eat their food properly :) .

We returned in the evening for the mandatory traditional chinese banquet dinner for staff members. All CTY staff seems really nice, and the dinner was delicious!

This is the last picture of the post. I thought that everyone would enjoy seeing what we spotted on our walk to the trolley:

I hope that my posts haven't been too lengthy, and that everyone's summers are going well!

Settling In

Hello humidity, massive amounts of people, and a gorgeous countryside! When I arrived in Hong Kong yesterday morning, it was amazing to see the contrast between the urban parts and the rural parts of the island. Not only are the urban parts just packed with people, the each and every building seems to rocket into the sky - which explains how Hong Kong is one of the most densely populated areas in the world (6,339 people per square kilometer, according to their government's website).

I'm staying at Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, which is located in the rural part of the island. It's absolutely gorgeous here! Here are some pictures.

My dorm room

The view from our campus. We are living further down towards the track.

Yesterday, 2 of the RAs and I explored a little of the city. We took the bus and metro system into Mong Kok St., which is basically a few streets within the city known for specialty streets. For example, there are is a "Tile Street" where every shop on that street sells different kinds of tiles. There is also Fish Street, Bird Garden, Flower Street, and Women's street. We didn't see it, but I believe there is also a "Red-Light" Street....

A bird's eye view of Women's Street

Bird Garden

People looking at the fish on Fish Street.