Hong Kong (and one naughty monkey!)

Once again it's taken me too long to get back to posting. I spent Christmas in Hong Kong with Uncle Brian and Aunt Beth. I flew into Shenzhen (the city in mainland China across from HKG) and crossed the border overland. Entering Hong Kong overland for the first time I finally got a sense that the region really was much bigger than the island plus Kowloon.

Eating constant Chinese food has gotten to me a lot less this time around and I haven't notices as much of a craving for western food. However, arriving in Hong Kong after awhile in China, one realizes it was there. Eating proper pizzas and burgers along with holiday home cooking is quite a treat after 3.5 months in China.

Anyway I spent most of the time hanging out with my aunt and uncle and relaxing. We went to a couple of parties where i was kind of the young guy but of course everyone was friendly and to someone who finds both Asia and business interesting it was fun to listen to the stories and discussions of all of the Hong Kong dwellers.

After one of our shopping trips we had a very friendly cab driver who was into practicing her English. She was really quite cheerful and was letting me know I needed coffee after hearing me yawn. Then she decided I needed strawberries because she had heard something on the radio about strawberries helping people to stay wakeful. Soon she was telling us how she was a 50 year old woman but when the music turns on she "just has to move" like a "naughty little monkey". I suppose I feel precisely the same way about dancing but I had to stifle my laughter at the whole thing while in the cab because it was just so ridiculous and random.

That's the story on Hong Kong. A new post will follow this one soon because I've just purchased a digital camera here and am putting together the basic photo tour of life and sights in Jilin.

A pre-departure post.

I think I was asked for a weather report for the area and failed to include it in our last post. Most days are cold, much like Minnesota this time of year though maybe a bit more of the biting wind to deal with. Often the weather report that comes to my friends' laptops reads "smoky" and often they're quite right. Some days we just breathe a thin haze of smoke. It's not a daily thing ever and the situation is way better than a lot of Chinese cities but it still is a little gross that there's literally smoke all over (from coal I imagine).

I'm getting different rumors now on what I'm teaching. Our bosses have told us nothing and seem to like telling us nothing while our students have had two conflicting schedules released to them. Some students are pretty sure I'm teaching them literature, while others are convinced that I'm teaching them technological English and a Bible/greek mythology class. The possibility that both are true is remote but it could happen.

Upon arriving in Jilin I was shocked at the number of questions I recieved about Jesus and the Bible. Some of this is due to the fact that the students had a Biblical Literature class with a previous Maryknoller. However, there is a rather high-profile group of Christians in town. They run multiple English corners (free, open English practice) and a large portion of Jilin's serious English students seem to know them. I'm sort of intrigued by their presence in this random corner of China. I'm interested to know the story as to exactly how they got here and how they stay.

Between the Christian school in town, the Chinese-Catholic seminary next to Campus, and the old church at the riverfront (looks like a mini St. Francis De Sales) Christianity seems surprisingly noticeable in Jilin.

It's been a long time since I've written and some people have let me know it's time again. Time has gone very very quickly here. I am now thinking about things like giving exams and starting to get final grades together. It's weird to still live life on the semester schedule while suddenly being on the other side of the podium (though I usually move my podium out of the way before class).

I found out the course I'm teaching next semester is something like "Selected Readings in American Literature". If anyone has recommendations on stories, poems, etc. that are worthwhile and not too difficult, I am open for suggestions. (The ideal piece would be one that makes good reading practice [not too easy, but not incredibly wierd], is short, and lends itself to discussion.) I think I'll have a textbook which will be mostly excerpts from American literature Classics. I also have a tenuous rumor that I have an electronic multimedia room, which would be nice.

Anyway I am coming right up to a whole lot of travel. I head to HKG for xmas, return here to finish up with giving examinations and grading everyone, then head with the other foreign teachers north (Yes, north in January) to see the Haerbin ice lantern festival which is apparently quite cool. After a few days in Haerbin we return to Jilin to pick up our salaries and catch a train south. We'll stop briefly for Beijing and two of the most famous mountains in China. I'll then part with my friends and head directly to HKG for a couple days of relaxing before jetting off to Thailand for a month. It all seems kind of unbelieveable right now, especially after how routine things have been for awhile.

Anyway that's about the whole story. Not much new has happened but I'm up for a lot of changing scenery soon. I always love getting e-mails from people so keep me updated.

Kev