The 100th post

I feel like there should be an anniversary for this post or something...some kind of great celebration, for sure. I'm not sure how long I have been away from home exactly because there have been times I have not blogged and there were blogs I put up before I left, but my guess is I've now been out of the country for a solid triple digit number. Wow. My journey here in Macau is roughly 1/3 complete. It has been interesting, at times tiring and frustrating, but overall rewarding and a growing process for me. I have been very blessed to be in my situation. A fellow Fulbright winner from the states and I compare notes about our experiences often, and I find God has put me in a position here that fits my personality well.

Today started out with Dom Bosco. Lauren sat in on my 1st class (her and Athena are splitting up the work in 6th grade), and it was amazing how much better the kids behaved. I taught the class and she just walked around and shushed kids who weren't paying attention (like the Chinese helper is supposed to do). Amazing.

We 4 ETAs went out to lunch today to celebrate that English Lunch was over (and successful) for the semester. The restaurant we went to kept encouraging us to order dog, which is a delicacy and more expensive than beef here. We did not have dog, but we had 3 spicy dishes of tofu, green beans, and beef with bean sprouts.

This evening I got off work around 6! Yay for early evening! I mostly relaxed, took care of some to dos, yoga, watched a TV show (for the first time since I was at the hotel), cooked and cleaned. (Eventful, I know).

Here are some more art pieces from the display yesterday:

this 'arta' be a good day

Teaching often becomes finding out what you don't know. I find that when my university students ask me what specific words mean, I sometimes come up blank at how to define words that I understand in context. I suppose it's about training your mind in certain ways.

Today, Cora had me help her with a piece about/selection from the Da Vinci Code for one of her classes. Somehow this meant me explaining the meaning and pronunciation of Satanism, the KKK, and ghoulish aura. It's always an adventure, aye?

Other adventures today included helping Alice out with her cover letter, meeting about the new Business School program I've proposed, meeting about classes next semester, grading, and other things you probably don't want to read about...on to the interesting stuff!

I was back at it in Cantonese class tonight. We learned about dates (not the walk on the beach, but November 29th). She told us that in Chinese culture before Western influence and birth certificates, the parents would never tell the children the time (ex. 8:49am) they were born. Fortune tellers believed that your future was predestined based on the time and day you were born and that knowing the time was bad luck (perhaps because it meant you could/would try to change your destiny?). Also, Chinese time was traditionally represented by 12 characters. Anything in Chinese time telling consists of 12. Since there were only 12 characters, that meant that time was told in 2 hour blocks. So noon was from 11-1. I don't know if I mentioned in a previous blog, but locals in Macau will only tell time rounded to the nearest number on the clock. For example, 2:43 would be said literally as "2 time 9" because the 9 on the clock represents 45 minutes. Fun fun fun, huh!? We're all about accuracy here ;) Of course, since I work with English speakers and many foreigners, Cantonese class was the first time I experienced this.

The pictures today are from an art exhibit currently on display at work. I cannot post all of the pictures due to limited space on the blog, but here are a few of my favorites:

front of piece

back of same piece

This was one of a set of 4 pieces. Each one had a famous Macau building. This one is of one of the famous churches in Macau...the name of which currently escapes me.

a la dessert box

Today, I was back at Hou Kong again. And I must correct my whining from last week--They only cancelled 2 weeks, one week was agreed to be off in their contract. The kids have progressed a lot this semester.

The debate tonight was "This House believes that the feminist movement should seek to ban pornography." I think this is our final week of debate meetings for the semester, as classes are ending and finals are starting soon. I can't believe we've already completed a semester.

The most exciting part of the day was when we opened our gift from Joycelyn--the supervisor connected with the Shakespeare program. Ray and Athena both got to go to Hong Kong for free as part of the Shakespeare Master Classes last week, but Lauren and I did not. Joycelyn bought us some type of Chinese pie/cake gift box as a gift since we did not get to attend. Here are pictures of the desserts:

It was kind of in the shape of a chick :)

These 2 desserts had red bean paste in them, which is very common in Chinese desserts. It's red beads mashed up and sweetened. It's not super sweet and it takes time to grow on you, but it's not bad after a while.

Have a marvelous Monday!

Perspectives

This morning Oasis had a family church service where the youth did a skit, they had a different person lead worship, and a younger guy led the service. The sermon was on Christmas perspectives. He separated the religious and non-religious parts of Christmas and asked us what we were really celebrating. How did your celebration of Christmas change after you became a believer? He shared a made-up story about Mary talking to Joseph about a weird dream she had. In this dream, she said people were having a birthday party for her son, but they were giving gifts to each other, but he wasn't invited. When He showed up, He wasn't welcomed at His own party. ...It's something to think about.

They also had food after church today. I stayed around and talked to a group from Las Vegas who are here for a week on a mission trip to pass out Bibles. I met some very legit people. My favorite of the group was this elderly woman who talked about being where you want to be. If you're going to sit there and complain about it...there's the airport. Perfect. It's true that we get discontent in our situations wherever we are (work, location, etc.). Complaining rarely changes anything, but we still do it. Get up and do something about it if you're not happy. I liked how straight forward she was, though she was not speaking about me directly.

After church I came home and made dessert for Kenisha's birthday celebration tonight. Seen here: one of the pans of artery death I made. It also can be described as white chocolate fudge covered oreos inside chocolate chip cookie dough batter with oreos chopped up in it...like I said, death. I like how the sun hit the pan when I took this picture. It makes them look that much better.

Here's the sunset after a day of beautiful crisp, but sunshiny weather today. Gorgeous view.

We ate dinner at the Shanghai Restaurant again tonight for Kenisha birthday. We had sweet and sour pork ribs, different types of dumplings, rice, and these noodles. The Chinese traditionally eat noodles on their birthday to represent long life. We had a good night with lots of laughs. Happy Birthday, Kenisha!

Live life to the fullest, and live it well. If you look too far ahead, you may trip on the crack in the sidewalk that is directly in front of you.

agape

Today I got to sleep in a bit (score!). After this good start to my morning, I went to the orphanage to help out with English again. I didn't go last week since I was in Hong Kong, and they moved to a new building in that time. The facilities are very nice and I may get pictures someday, though that's not something I can promise. Annie, the girl I normally help was not there when I arrived, and neither were any of the English speaking adults. Needless to say, there was a vibe of 'what's this white chick doing' because I looked a little disoriented in the new building anyway. Annie had gone shopping for a school trip to Beijing and had forgotten to tell me. I called Jeanne, and she arrived shortly thereafter. The founder of Evangelize China Fellowship was in from America today, so she and the other English speaking minister were showing him around.

One of the first thoughts that came to mind was slight frustration. I was offered a free trip to Hong Kong for today from EducationUSA to do a presentation on interviews, etc. I had emailed the minister earlier in the week to see if I was needed this weekend and never got a response--so I stuck with my word and went to the orphanage. So my first thought when Annie wasn't there and it seemed they wouldn't need me was not agape, or 'love in spite of...love no matter what,' because I allowed my own desires to get in the way of serving others. But agape is what Christians are called to do. I say this because of this sermon from Southeast Christian I just finished watching: http://www.southeastchristian.org/?page=3476&project=116707&program=520754. Check it out.

It ended up that I was needed after all. There was a 15 year old girl named Lily who has a test on Monday and needed me to go over some review with her. I spent about 2 hours working with her. Today I was reminded of just how blessed I am to have intelligent parents who love me and prioritize me. I remember when I was in elementary school, I loved practicing long division (I'm a nerd, I know). I would sit in the kitchen, and my daddy would make up problems and check them to make sure I got them right. Even into high school and college, my parents would provide an extra set of eyes to edit papers. Anyone that works a full time job can probably agree that coming home from work to do more work that doesn't directly profit you is not something you want to do. But they did....and they probably didn't realize how much it meant (Thanks mom and dad!). These kids at the orphanage don't have that. There's not someone that can just sit around and help with homework or listen. I appreciate all the love I have been given, and that I have the opportunity to be a little piece of that for someone else.

A group of college students from China came in to do activities with the orphans. I met a husband and wife of Chinese decent from Canada, who translated to me what the students were doing during the activity. At this point, I let the university students take over, and parted ways. I walked around Macau exploring for another 2 hours before heading toward home.

I got a glimpse of the Black Friday experience today when I was in the brand new grocery store near our apartment. The four of us ETAs got really excited a few weeks ago when we saw a Park N' Shop sign go up at the end of our street, and it finally has arrived. Park N' Shop is the grocery store in Taipa that I was going to when I first moved here because it has more brands and selection...and cheese! When a new store or restaurant opens in Macau, they give out loads of free stuff and other businesses in the community send them large bouquets of flowers to sit outside the shop. I didn't go into Park N' Shop the first day it opened, but they were still having really good deals on a few things that made the people mob the store today. Rice (an obvious staple here) was one of the mega deals. I didn't stand in line for that long, but it was really long for Macau. The checkout girls and the people in line were going crazy. Picture a mob milder than Black Friday, but all speaking in a language you don't understand. haha...yeah.

The day is ending with yoga at home, cooking dinner, listening to a Southeast sermon, talking to my father, and ...to be continued. Check these pictures out from last night at the International Food Festival, and have a great weekend!

 
Apparently the British call cotton candy 'candy floss'? I'd never heard that before being here.

These 2 pictures are of the lanterns that were atop the Japanese food booths. ...so do it.

Love is Never Late

I received a Thanksgiving card from my Ma today. Some might say that it came late, and she even mentioned her concern that it would be late in the card, but I think it came right on time. Love is never late, and a little extra love can be used anywhere at any time. I'm quite glad that I didn't get it yesterday because it helped spread the joy out since I got a card both yesterday and today. Thanks, Ma and Pa!
Tonight, Angie and I went to the Macau International Food Festival...and by international, they mean Asia and Portugal. It was the closest thing to a fair I've been to since home in August, and thus, it was very exciting! The silly thing was that they required us to buy tickets in sets and then redeem the tickets at the booths. This meant that you had to buy at least 100MOP of food or split it with someone. Then they give you tickets in denominations of 20, 10, and 5MOP, so you have to spend the exact amount or you lose money. Fortunately, Angie and I spent well and didn't lose any money. We split some Korean noodles (picture below), some Singaporean fish balls, and something like clam chowder in a bread bowl from I'm not sure where. Dessert was a mango, sticky rice, and mixed fruit dish that was actually quite tasty...not sure what country that came from either. Some of the stands were labeled, others were just local restaurants trying to make extra money. They also had game (like fair games) at the event. Angie was set on winning a big stuffed animal, but failed to do so with the one game she attempted.

You can see the coupons under the bowl--everything was in small portions, as you can see

Inflatable chef and bell on top of building

They had live music--tonight was Filipino night...although they were singing mostly American music. On the list: Shania Twain and Lady Gaga. haha.

This was a game that cost 10MOP to play and where you win a prize no matter what. The game is based on 'luck' (which the Chinese are all about). You pull a string from one of these 4 groups of strings. The string is connected to either a small, medium, or large stuffed animal on the other end. We did not play, but some of the other people we met up with did. They won a small prize (not the best luck, aye?)

Overall, the festival was a great experience to end the workweek, and I'm very thankful to have a Christian friend like Angie to walk and girltalk with for an hour about teaching, life, the future, etc.

Happy Fire Chicken Day! (Turkey is "Fire Chicken" in Chinese)

From around the world, happy Thanksgiving to all!

Although I am not home today, I suppose I got pretty close--tonight I am experiencing Winchester, KY in bottle form. For those of you who are really confused right now, I am currently drinking an Ale8. A good friend back in the states somehow perfectly timed a Happy Thanksgiving package and card to arrive right on Thanksgiving. Here's the wonderful assortment of loot I was surprised with today--including a thick jacket for the chilly nights that have started here. Thanks, Mike!

I also received a 4th lovely handmade card from Debbie and Ray. This one is my favorite handmade card yet :) Thanks you guys! And Happy Thanksgiving to you as well!

For Thanksgiving festivities tonight, I skipped Cantonese and 5 of the ETAs met up to have as close to an American meal as we could. The menu ended up being fried chicken, mashed potatoes, mac n' cheese, baked beans, walnut/cranberry bread, orange juice, milk roasted pork, and some chinese chicken dish. It was amazing! Specifically having mashed potatoes again. Mmmm starches. I'm about to call my mom's family while they are celebrating Thanksgiving brunch, and that will be the extent of the holiday for me.

This morning, I saw this on my way into work.

I'm not sure what it was celebrating, but what I love is the contrast of the traditional Chinese culture on the background of expensive European brands...this is Macau.

On my way to pick up my parcel today, I crossed paths with a lost Australian couple. I decided to help them out, and walked them all the way to St. Paul's Ruins since the post office is not too far away. It just felt so good to help somebody out. I'd like to think that they'll go back to Australia and talk about how nice Americans are....that's part of the Fulbright mission--exchange culture and help people to see a true American, not the chaos they show in the media. I did tell them about the program: what I am doing, a little about my research, and learned some about Australia as well. I just love people, I really do. Plus they're names were Debbie and David--alliteration and rhyming always makes couples cuter. haha, right mom and dad?

The next to last Shakespeare session was tonight. Practice went well, and it was amazing to see the progress they've had. It feels like some sort of small accomplishment, although Ray is really the master artist behind their improved acting. They got their costumes today--they were so adorably excited about them. Here are finally some pictures of Beatrice, Benedick, and Hero (or at least that's the characters they play in Much Ado about Nothing).

They have been an amazing group to work with, and I'm glad to see how far they've come--who knows, maybe they'll place in the festival! That would be great. :)

That was pretty much my Thanksgiving away from home. I am so thankful to have the life I have. I had a fantastic conversation over breakfast, found out that many Chinese don't use vacuums/have carpet from Poppy, met some new people, had good food, saw the fruits of my labor, got gifts that reminded me of all the people that care about me, and I'm ending the day talking to my amazing family (well, part of them). Thank you, God, for ALL of it. :) 1 Thessalonians 5:18. Don't let today be the end of your thankfulness.

Love you all.

the power of language...all 6 that you speak

Teaching 5th grade came early this morning. My first class was the worst as usual, and I finally kicked a kid out of class. This always makes me love my 2nd and 3rd classes more though because they are so much better. It makes teaching them fun! It's amazing how when we experience the negatives, the positives just stand out. Tonight, Lauren and I were talking about this exact subject. A girl Lauren knows in Zhuhai (the city in China right across the river) works at a university where 40 students were sent to the hospital for food poisoning from the school cafeteria today...and that means probably many other students had a less severe case of food poisoning as well. Fortunately, the standards in Macau are higher. Yes, I have found bugs in my food at some restaurants, but nothing too severe...and some restaurants are very clean. Our canteen does not have the greatest food, but I will take a lack of flavor to food poisoning any day! I had Yang Zhou style fried rice at the canteen today, and it wasn't half bad...though it didn't touch my Ma's fried rice....then again, no one's does that.

I was reminded of the power of words today when I was grading at Pacific Coffee Company. They post a quote of the day each day. Today's was "If you must choose between two evils, pick the one you've tried before."...or so it was handwritten on the chalkboard. They also had a TV with looping video, and the quote came up on the TV as well. Though, this time it read, "If you must choose between two evils, pick the one you've never tried before." ...complete change of meaning just by one word missing. I let the baristas know about the error, but I wonder how many people read that today. So just remember, there is power in your words; choose them wisely. Proverbs 18:21, "The tongue has the power of life and death, and those who love it will eat its fruit."

Some of the students from Debate went to a competition in Taiwan this weekend. One of the students brought back the ETAs some candy from Taiwan. It was a salt water taffy-like consistency with almonds in it...and it was quite delicious. Here are the wrappers. Interestingly they have multiple languages which seem to have little to nothing in common. This pink one is my favorite.

We had dinner with a guy from Malaysia who's doing research here for 6 months on Macau culture as part of a masters program from Denmark. Next, he's going to Singapore. Impressive guy and easy to talk to, even though English is one of 6 languages he speaks...He jumped on the boat with Lauren and Ray making fun of Kentucky and where I'm from. Interestingly, he did an internship in Cleveland, so he wasn't too far away. After joking back and forth about where I was from, he came back later in the conversation to say that he thought my accent was quite sexy. Haha. That's not how I would have described it, but I guess that compliments a lot of you readers as well.

One interesting fact that the Malaysian friend (Alvin) shared was about the dialect of language that was spoken my traditional Macanese people. I can't remember the name of it, but I suppose it was a fusion of Cantonese and Portuguese from what I can understand. There are very few people left that still can speak/read this language.

My classes at Hou Kong being cancelled this week has turned into a blessing. I have had more opportunities to work directly with the university students, the nursing professor came forward with some essay grading for us to do, and today I was able to attend a class the ETAs help lead called Speaking with Confidence. I may be helping out with this class next semester if Hou Kong does not renew their contract, so I was glad to see what all it was about. Today they worked on emphasis and intonation....like instead of saying, "I had a nice weekend," saying, "I had a REALLY fantastic weekend." It was fun, and these students were far more open and willing to participate than any of the other student groups I've worked with. Most of them were first year students as well, which generally means that they have a low level of English and are therefore shy. The atmosphere of the class was productive and fun, and I'm excited about the potential of working with them in the spring.

I Can Show You The World...but Maybe Not North

Today was a much better day than yesterday. It consisted of attending a database research information session, grading papers, lesson planning, one-on-one student tutoring, English Salon, meetings and Cantonese class. In and among this very busy day were a couple of unique experiences.

The first was on my way to get food before class. I walked past a couple who looked lost and decided I might be able to help. The husband asked me which way was North...and I kind of laughed. I'm very good with my sense of direction, but I still have yet to figure out which part of the island is technically North...long story. When I was finally able to point them toward a particular hotel, he asked me what state I was from. When I told him, he smiled and responded that he was from Georgia--fellow southern accents! That's totally why he asked me; he picked up on my accent. It was a sweet and brief encounter helping fellow Americans.

Dinner tonight was at the vegetarian place because I decided not to get sick off free Pizza Hut at English Salon for the 3rd time. My meal was pretty bland this time, but there was this exciting fungus (that's what they call mushrooms, etc. here) in my meal. Every time I would eat it, it reminded me of a blueberry muffin. I figure if you combine blueberry and fungus it makes 'funberry,' and it was very funberry for my tongue. I like that this restaurant gives me free tea with a cheap meal. The ability to just sit, relax, and drink tea is one thing that really attracts me to this place over and over.

Other than that, my late late night mostly consisted of my mother helping me out across the sea as she normally does. There is something quite fantastic about that woman. No mater how far away I am or how piddly my issues, she takes care of them. No worries, nothing wrong, just paperwork type of stuff--but a miracle worker she is! I'm giving some credit for her awesomeness to her awesome mother as well (pssst...that's you Ma).

Today was good. There just isn't enough time in the day anymore--I suppose that means I'm having quite the packed adventure here. Tomorrow night we are having dinner with a Malaysian whose living in Macau. His name is Alvin, but he is not a chipmunk.. Details to come! Stay tuned. Love you guys!

Frustration's Station is oh so Patient

Last night, my Hou Kong contact emailed me and told me that my 1st and 2nd grade classes were cancelled...for the 3rd week in a row. This is starting to get old. Most of you are probably thinking that it would be wonderful to have part of your work load removed--and I agree a lighter workload is good, but we built our schedules at the beginning of the semester, and since this is 3 classes I built my schedule around preparing, teaching, and walking too and from. It's the bulk of my work. So when my week's schedule is redirected the evening before, it makes it difficult to fill in the empty parts of my schedule (specifically because I've been doing 'catch-up and fill in' work for the past 2 weeks they've cancelled)...and I still have a quota of hours to work. Meh. They keep telling me that they're starting up the following week, so I'm assuming it's a school issue and not taking it personally as if they don't want me to teach at all. Plus, they already paid for the classes up front--I'll just have to reschedule and teach them later. This has been midterms for most schools, and they had sports day as well. Not sure what the reason is this week, but she said we'd start up again the 28th.

I went into work this morning only to leave an hour and a half later. I needed to buy my ticket for my trip to the Philippines, so I just clocked out and went to conquer something since work in the office felt less than productive. When I arrived at the ticket sales place, they were closed for another hour and a half for an early lunch. It was one of those post-fabulous weekend kind of Mondays. Fortunately, there was a Pacific Coffee Company at the bottom of their building. There is something about the smell of espresso, the taste of the creations, the environment of the coffee shop, and Norah Jones playing over head that I just love. So I got a vanilla latte and cinnamon bagel/donut thing for brunch and got back on the clock doing research for my Fulbright project. Productivity and coffee make me very happy :)

This was the quote on my coffee hugger...it explains so much

While doing my research, I discovered many interesting facts about Macau. Here are a few I remembered:

1. The Venetian Macau is the 2nd largest building in the world.

2. Sands (which owns many casinos in Las Vegas and Macau) is the largest casino in the world, based on the number of gambling tables.

3. Macau is in the Pearl River Delta next to the sea. The sea water drains back into the delta and causes Macau's water to be more salty than normal fresh water.

The debate I adjudicated tonight was "This House would restrict parents' ability to name their babies." This seems somewhat absurd to Americans (at least it did to me), but apparently it's somewhat common. The topic arose from my colleague reading an article about a New Jersey family losing custody of their child (whose name was Adolf Hitler).

Thanks for reading my sharing/venting. I know my woes are small, but I'm glad the day ended much better than it began...and it gives me a better tomorrow to root for, right?

Enjoy your Thanksgiving week!



The Lamma Getaway

Wowwwwweeeeeeee.

This weekend was absolutely fabulous. It's late, and I have lots of pictures (most of which this page does not have space to hold) so I will not keep you with too many words here.

This was our first stop: delicious coffee beverages at Pacific Coffee Company. This is my Rocky Road Chillino (like a Frappucino). I decided to try something new, and sure enough it was a delicious surprise. Every once in a while I would find a marshmallow with my straw and get really excited. Lauren said I looked like a kid who just got a present.

For lunch, we were supposed to go to this Michelin Star dim sum restaurant. The line for the restaurant was 3 hours long (clearly they earned that star, huh?). We ended up going to a Japanese restaurant instead. This is my tomato based noodle bowl with grilled chicken. A lot of the noodles in Macau are chicken broth based, so this was a welcome change.

After this, we took our new German friend Andrea, who surfed our couch the night before, to her hostel. Staying in Hong Kong is very expensive, and for about $70 a night she got a room in a sketchy area that was about the size of a bed. The toilet and sink were part of the shower. She dropped her stuff and then continued on with us to JCCAC, an art museum/school/studio of sorts sponsored by the Jockey Club of HK. We didn't have enough time to go through all of the art (the building was several storeys high) but here's one of the pieces I was fond of-- a mixture of the modern and the ancient.

After the museum, Andrea departed and we went to the ferry to head out to Lamma Island, our final destination. We met our couch surfing host at the ferry pier. She was a lovely British girl in her late 20s who works in the banking sector of Hong Kong. She had a lovely flat that, although small like all places are in HK, had a couch for me and a fold out bed for Lauren to sleep on. The couch at her place was better than my bed at the apartment and my back was so grateful.

The community of Lamma Island has a lot of ex-pats and westerners, and thus the little shops and restaurants cater accordingly. The place we went for dinner was called the Bookworm Cafe--an organic, vegetarian restaurant. I had a meal of hot tea, baked beans, a bagel, scrambled eggs with avocado and vegetarian ham. During dinner, Claire (our host) talked to us about her experience teaching in China, her childhood growing up in the UK with a father in the Navy, etc. She's quite an interesting person. We went back to her flat and talked the night away. Here's a quote from the cafe:

This morning we slept in, and then Claire got up and made us coffee. I'm telling you, she was an amazing host! (And couchsurfing is also free, btw...) We then set out on our way to hike the island. Lauren and I saw many neat things, but the best part was being in nature and taking in the sound of crickets, the fresh ocean air, and the greenery....plus, we got exercise :) There is a windmill for power on Lamma Island with lots of neat little information about saving energy and such. I finally got to stand at the base of a windmill (which I've only seen on the drive to Chicago in parts of Indiana). This was pretty neat, and it was huge.

We had a late lunch at a Turkish Kabob restaurant before departing back to central Hong Kong. Here is my lamb kebab meal--it was AMAZING...healthy may have been a different story.

Back in downtown Hong Kong, Lauren showed me to the City Super, an upper scale international grocery store in HK. Fortunately my budget left only money for the ferry, or I may have gone broke in the place. They had baked goods, familiar brands, and plenty of other new foods to try...most of you should know by now that new foods (especially healthy ones) REALLY excite me. Grocery stores are a weakness of mine! haha. This is a picture of a Christmas display in the mall where the grocery store was located. I think HK must get far more excited about Christmas than Macau does...we shall see. It's still very early.

We arrived back in Macau with enough time to catch part of the Macau Fringe Festival. The acts we saw included some Indian modern dancing and two Irish guys singing. The Irish guys were fabulous, and I found myself wishing I were in a small cafe sitting and taking them in rather than standing in Senado Square. It also made me think the cafe/coffee shop I may own someday is going to need some Irish bands to play there.

Alright, this kid better get to bed. This weekend was amazing, but I burned plenty of energy too.

snail mail, roach kill, and bug juice

Today was not too long nor too eventful. Fridays are my late days, so I went to work around noon. Speaking and Debate class followed soon after and took up most of my work hours today. The debate today was 'This House would ban all motor sports." This is extremely relevant because the Grand Prix is currently taking place in the lovely city, causing traffic issues, rerouting people, filling the city even more with tourists, and majorly increasing noise pollution. I was amazed to hear how loud the cars were. Fortunately, we live a good ways from campus so the noise has not affected our sleeping habits as it has many of our students.

Mail time! Here are 2 lovely cards I received today. One wishing me well for the Thanksgiving holiday. I've decided that since I did not attend the international food festival tonight that maybe I might do it next Thursday as my own sort of fancy Thanksgiving food experience. We'll see.

Haha. I bet you're all thinking, 'what a great adventure she's having over there!' right now. :) It's actually a pretty small roach, so I'm not concerned. I'm thankful we've only found 3 roaches in our apartment in 3 months here (and 3 small ones at that). In Macau, I will take that any day. I found this little guy on a roll of paper towels from Lauren's room--she'd seem him in her room a couple of days ago, so I'm glad we found him in her room and not mine. The funny story (and why I posted this) is that when we went to kill him Lauren had her hairbrush and she hit the roll of paper towels toward me, making the roll hit me, and sending the bug toward me. WHAT!? I'm not sure why she did it, but the flight and landing somehow smashed the roach, and we found him across the room. Thankfully, he did not hit me on his way there...so she told me to take a picture and post it.

...and you limited Sunkist's soda making ability in your mind to orange... These were delicious. Interestingly grapefruit flavored things are very popular here, though sweeter than grapefruit itself of course. All sodas here are made with sugar (as opposed to corn syrup in the U.S.), so you don't have to buy the special 'natural' or 'throwback' version to get the sugar sugar.

Tomorrow we depart early to go on an HK adventure. No internet may very well be the break I need.

Y'all in-joy yer weekins!

the zOOm zOOm slide

When it rains, it pours, or at least it did today. What's more interesting about this natural waterfall from the sky is that the Grand Prix is in Macau this weekend, so those suckers were slipping around the roads. A lot of roads were shut down today, so I was rerouted on a different walking path. All those tourists are probably not so happy with the weather.

I learned today from the Dept. of State website that there are an estimated 4,000 U.S. residents in Macau. Wow, I certainly haven't seen that many. Lauren suggested maybe some of them are from Macau but have dual citizenship because of their parents or something. It's possible. The site also reports that there are over 30 U.S. companies here. I'm wondering how many of them are connected with the hotel and casino industries as Las Vegas Sands owns several of the casinos and I've seen a Holiday Inn, Four Seasons, and Sheraton.

I helped Poppy with English today, and we talked about a wide range of topics. Somehow a discussion about her friend going to Japan led to the earthquake led to a discussion about how some Chinese think salt can protect you from nuclear radiation. She then was breaking down chemical compounds to explain to me why they believed it would help, but how you'd actually have to consume a whole ton for it to work. The supermarkets apparently cleared out of salt because of the demand after the earthquake and nuclear power plant issues. She said there's also a joke about people that believe that though, that they have to make themselves like a salty fish (which is a type of salt preserved fish popular in parts of China).

I also helped Cora with her English today. Shakespeare was cancelled because they are doing special classes in Hong Kong this week. Cora asked me a lot about American culture and English, and it was really enjoyable to share with her. She asked me to explain soccer to her and I feel I failed horribly. I told her I haven't played in 5 years now. Wow, I can't believe time has flown....but indeed it has. I've been out of the U.S. for nearly 3 months now. My adventure is about 1/3 done.

My most exciting moment of the day was when we got the call that Cantonese class was cancelled. I know, it sounds bad, but I didn't want to go and wouldn't let myself skip. Italian from my kitchen was dinner again tonight...it was even better this time (and more veggies because I have to eat them up). HK is this weekend, so no blogs while I'm gone FYI.

Picture of the day: I was in the middle of a conversation when the power went out. I realized I still had internet, which meant that Ray's power was still on. We have a girl from Germany who's working in China and a girl from Canada staying with us tonight, and the German attempted to plug her non-Macau phone into the plug, causing a breaker to flip. After Lauren went and talked to the maintenance guy in Mandarin, we got our electricity back on and I gave her an adapted to plug into Lauren's Macau adapter. Turns out that it fit loosely, so she had to hold it it for it to charge. Rather than hold it all night, we rigged this up with our fantastic multinational minds and resources. So, voila (notice the books are in French holding up a German phone charger plugged into a Northern Europe adapter from the U.S. plugged into a Macau adapter). We are the champions.

the terrible and the terrific

Today my 5th graders were surprisingly marvelous. I handed their tests back and maybe they either realized that they needed to whip it in shape or that I was nicer than they thought. Two of the words we worked on today were 'terrible' and 'terrific.' We worked together as a class to come up with a list of things that were terrible (homework, math, etc.) and things that were terrific--Ms. Hawww got included in this list. Ha! They've learned something ;).

We had different students show up to English lunch today. Cora and Swiky joined us at the table, and somehow we talked more about nutrition than anything. I shared many of the facts that my brother taught me as a result of his exercise science classes.

The motion in debate this evening was, "This house would give the Confucius Peace Prize to Hello Kitty rather than Vladmir Putin." Interestingly enough, Putin is actually in the center of controversy right now because he's being presented this peace prize for his 'peace' in not supporting the bombing of Libya by NATO. We got to hear some interesting perspectives on the issue...and other weird 'facts.' One student mentioned that President Obama was given the Nobel Peace Prize to prevent him from going to war as a result of the financial crisis. ...What?? It's true, one of the students claimed he read it in a Chinese newspaper. This then led to a rant by an unnamed colleague about how Chinese press is what the Chinese government says it is because there's no freedom of press, so it's always tilted a certain way. I took what my colleague said and tried to restate it a little better by saying that the students should always look at multiple, reputable sources because there are varying opinions across issues. I used the Courier as an example of a paper tending to lean one way.

Dinner tonight was Italiano from my own kitchen. Marvelous! I found green peppers, mushrooms, and cherry tomatoes all on a good sale last night, and after buying onions and garlic today was ready for a marvelous dish--and marvelous it was! I love when I can have something warm, healthy, and tasty.

Pictures of the day: These are also things I pass on my way into work. I would like to call this set of pictures "cause and effect." On the left, you see the Grand Lisboa Casino--probably the largest and most noticeable of the casinos on the Macau Peninsula. On the right, you see Cartier--the place where loaded men send their demanding wives while they gamble, the place where gamblers blow any money they may have won after they've won it, and/or the place where Richard Gere buys things for Julia Roberts...oh no, wait most prostitutes aren't that pampered....darn you, Pretty Woman! Prostitutes can be acquired right next door though...unfortunately.

Tonight we have a couchsurfer staying with us from Canada. She took a year off to travel and apparently owns her own film company. I'm amazed by all these people taking a year off just to travel the world and not work while traveling. Lauren was explaining to me that this is not actually that uncommon for Europeans. Well you learn something new every day.

Up on a hill top...there's a school...where we present (now aren't we cool)

Sing that title to the Christmas song "Up on a roof top, click, click, click, down through the chimney, Old St. Nick." And stop shaking your head, you're smiling even if I'm silly!

Today Lauren, Ray, and I were presenting on interviewing for American college entry and jobs. Ray met at our apartment right before we got ready to leave with this:

It's breakfast...in a bag! It's actually pretty good, though I'm sure you think it looks disgusting. It's some sort of rice based dough with peanut butter, some sweet sauce, and you can see he put hot sauce on part of it. I ate a bite without the hot sauce--tasty and filling. I had already had breakfast, as had Lauren. Our theory is that he brings it after he knows we've eaten so that he can eat all of it and still look nice (he brought 2 bags).

Ray started out the day EducationUSA had put on at the University of Macau with an hour long presentation. We had about 15 students show up I think. We then proceeded to lunch, followed by mock interviews. This was my favorite part. I helped a masters Translation student who wants to go to the U.S. in a few years to pursue a PhD. She was a very sweet lady, but she had difficulty marketing herself, as it seems many Asian women do. I told her:

"listen, Suzy is smart, she's got a great heart, she's got passion to help the world of researchers better communicate and thereby improve the world...she has all these things that I've dug into and gotten from you. You just have to bring that to the top because interviewers aren't going to dig. You need to sell Suzy--I know that sounds bad 'selling yourself', but when I list these things about 'Suzy' you're like 'who's Suzy? I love Suzy! Right?' That's just it, there are people out there that love you and there are reasons why. What you need to do for your interview is stop being modest and let these interviewers know why they should love you too--why you are the one they want for this position."

It's stuff like this that makes my days in Macau worthwhile. It's those moments when I see something light up in a student's face that might just change their future that makes all the other moments fade away. Suzy had that look.

After interviews were over, I jumped into the lovely grocery store near UMacau called MamaCare and bought myself an American treat (they don't have this store in Macau, Macau). Below you will find the tummy wonders :) 

I mostly bought the Snapple for the Real Fact under the lid. And in case you didn't know, this is your fact of the day.

Lauren had some loose leaf green tea at work today, so I snapped a picture of the leaves after they've unfolded. This is green tea as you've probably never seen it:

On the bus back to the office, I crossed paths with 2 sweet, fragile looking little ladies from Hawaii who were pushing 70 years old if they were a day. I talked to them for just a bit. The 2 of them were travelling by themselves and had been to Hong Kong, Macau, and Lantau. I was so impressed! Go get 'em girls!

Tonight, I helped Alice worked on her resume and cover letter. She is a third year accounting student who is super bright, has great English, and a good attitude. She wants to go for grad school in the U.S. and also do an internship there. We have a lot in common as far as challenges and goals, and it felt great investing in another student who definitely deserves it. If anyone hears of summer accounting internships opening up, let me know!

Last, tonight we learned about time in Cantonese. What's interesting is how we think of past as behind and future as in front of, but the Chinese think of time in up and down. Future is down, past is up. Our teacher asked us, "which way will you go when you die?" Of course, the Christians in the class were like 'up, I hope,' and others (Portuguese) claimed they weren't religious but hoped it wouldn't be down. The teacher responded by saying that Chinese think they will go down. Now obviously this is a generalization of beliefs and there are plenty of Chinese Christians, but that's how she introduced the topic. Apparently Chinese believe in 18 levels of hell (or the equivalent to hell) and that you go to a worse level of punishment based on the wrongs you've done. Up is where the 'gods' are, and no humans can go up there. So basically, life is just about getting less punishment... She also talked about the tie in with reincarnation.

This ties in with the burning of (normally fake) paper money that is common here...someone comment and remind me to explain this on another day's blog. You've learned plenty for one day ;)...and it's late here.

Your goal of the day: inspire with words.