Saturday, April 7, 2007

...What a two days!!!!




It's around 3:00 Hong Kong time and we just got back from our camping trip...wow was it an experience. Before we left we had a welcoming ceremony at Aw Boon Secondary School (picture of school is below) where we were all presented with gifts, after the welcoming ceremony the group then headed off too eat complements of the school...tyler and barber along with myself and others got a taste of chicken foot....for those of you who have never had it, you aren't missing much! After eating we went back to the school and then got ready for our camping trip, in all about six teachers and thirty some studnets went. We took mass transit to get to the Island (mass transit = a double decker bus and a charter bus). Lets just say the charter bus experience was wild...it was almost like a roller coaster, it would be like driving a bus to stamping ground...going 70 mph! Once we got to Lan Tau Island we hiked to our camping spot which was a youth hostel located close to the famous Po Lin Monastery (home to buddhist monks). We got settled in our rooms at the hostel (about as big as the bathroom at school, inch thick matresses, double beds with about 8 people in each room)...lets just say this allowed us to appricate home alot :) After getting settled in we played some "ice breaker" games like the human knot (below is a picture of the kids doing the human knot) and games to learn each others names....then came the night walk. The entire group was seperated into three smaller groups and each group had to complete a different task along a trail called "Wisdom Path" (hopefully the kids and myself will have more wisdom after being on this path). The picture above is the SC Kids at one of the landmarks on Wisdom Path. The tall things are carved in half trees each include a Buddhist saying and they are in the shape of an eight (infinity) if looked at from the aerial view, these were made by the monks that live on site! The students worked their way through different tasks in the adventure camp that was set up by our Hong Kong Educators. At this camp the students learned many new skills that dealt with collaboration, teamwork, communication (with students of different cultures). The eduators from Hong Kong have really gone out of their way to make this trip a memorable trip for our students, while camping our students were even featured on a radio call in show for all most a full hour! This is definately going to be a once and a life time experience for all of all students and adminstrators!-DTW

Thursday, April 5, 2007

Good Morning!!


We woke up around 5:30 and offically could not get out of bed, not sure if that was because of the brick hard bed or because of the time difference. We are about to head out for breakfast and then to the opening ceremonies (at Chung Sing Benevolent Society Mrs. AW Boon Haw Secondary School) http://www.csbs.edu.hk looks like the temperature today is up in the high 70's (that came from a chinese weatherman..uuuggghh), it is more muggy than any place I have been, looks really overcast(the picture from above is out of our hotel window). For those of you that are looking at my posts for spelling....you aint going to get it, remember I teach social studies...was that you Mrs. Haney??? Not a good time to try to exchange money, basically all of Hong Kong is shut down until next Tuesday for the Easter Holiday...that is except for all of the tourists stops!

Ladies Market


Here is a picture of "souviner ally" tourists can find anything they want on this street!

TIme for Bed


It's about 1:00 AM Friday Morning here (You guys are eating lunch right now in 5th Hour), I am hitting the bed...my stomach is a little uneasy...may have to stick to purely rice. I just got about 1170 Hong Kong Dollars to buy some things this week down at the Ladies Market...anyone want to figure out how many American Dollars that is? I will see all the kids again tomorrow morning for opening ceremony and will be staying with them until Saturday Night...No worries parents all kids were in good spirits on the way out (i thought i was going to have to get my ear plugs out on allie, deanna, and nicole....they made good friends with a male flight attendent that was bringing them ice cream and other snacks....having some trouble accessing my school email so if anyone is trying to email me..be patient! I have got some awsome pictures already, if this stupid thing doesnt let me post them I will just have to show you all when we get back! Finally...I got it to work! Hope all is well at school...behave-DTW

We Made It!!!!

After a fifteen hour flight and a trip across the North Pole our group arrived in Hong Kong today (Thursday) around 5:00 PM (5:00AM US Time). After getting our bags (thank goodness none got lost) the kids were picked up by their host familys and we went to check into the hotel. Directly checking in a couple of us headed down to eat some traditional chinese food, and yes I do mean traditional .... probably to the suprise of my mom I even tried pig blood soup(uuuggghhhh). Lets just say I have a feeling that may be coming home a little lighter than I left! After we got done eating we headed down to the Ladies' Market which is where all of the souviners are located, it is unbelivable how big of a city this actually is....it would be like cramming 3x Kentucky's Population and putting everyone in Scott County! Looks like we have some opening ceremonies tomorrow and then I am off on a two day one night camping trip on Lan Tau Island. After camping in cabins there tomorrow night we will then be off sight seeing to Tai O Fishing Village, Ngong Ping 360, as well as the Giant Buddha as well as a Monastary....if you want to check those places out you can go ahead and visit www.discoverhongkong.com each of those places can be found on there. I have been trying to post some of the pictures that I took today but have had no luck so far. Will probably have my next post up Saturday Morning US time when we get back from our camping trip....gosh I forgot to pack my fishing pole...maybe I can borrow one-DTW

Tuesday, April 3, 2007

Time to start packing!!

Leaving school now...time to start packing for the big trip, I sure hope this storm blows over. It would make for an interesting plane ride. You little bloggers need to get to bed! Remember you behave I bring you back something...you dont behave....you get notta! Have a good break, next time I post I will be in the big city of Hong Kong. Lets hope I can get some free internet access or I am going to be a poor man! Take Care, look forward to getting your messages!-DTW

Monday, April 2, 2007

Weather in Hong Kong

Check out the weather in Hong Kong for this week...looks like I am going to pack some shorts...its in the upper 70's!-DTW

http://www.weather.com/outlook/travel/businesstraveler/local/CHXX0049