Ping Pong

 

Tuesday, 11 September 2012

I was out for a walk and I went past the sports centre. I had a peek in the window and I saw this……a room full of ping pong tables. It seemed interesting to me because I don’t think you would see this at home. You might find 1 ping pong table but not a room full of them. It just made me laugh and I had to think to myself – ha, only in Asia. Sometimes it is just the little differences that make my day interesting.

One Month

Monday, 10 September 2012

I have been in Macau for 1 month! I can’t believe it. Time has gone so quickly. I am on to my 3rd week of school and I am starting to fit into a routine. Some people have been asking what my routine is so I thought I would share some details. Here is a look at my Monday – Friday schedule:

7AM: Wake up call in the dorm – proceeded by loud knocking and yelling of “wake up”.

8AM: Go to school – just a quick walk across the street. I counted the steps the other day and it was 236 steps in total.

8:35AM: Period 1 – Marketing & Management class. A fun group of 25 high school students.

10:00AM: Period 2 – Spare or prep time. A chance to grab a coffee and starting planning for classes tomorrow.

11:27AM: Period 3 – Grade 9 Info Pro / ICT. A lively bunch of students who keep me on my toes.

12:10PM: Lunch – Yummy lunch at the cafeteria – I am not joking it is really good and I love that I don’t have to pack a lunch.

12:45PM: Period 3 continues. Back to the air conditioned computer lab.

1:29 PM: Period 4 – CTS Communications class. High school students work on photography, computer science, music recording and video production. It is a real challenge to keep up with this class. They are working on some very cool projects.

3:05PM: School is over. I usually stay in the computer lab working and preparing lessons.

5:00PM: Nature Walk. I usually try to fit in a walk in the nature reserve. It is a 5 km walk from the Dorm.

6:00PM: Dinner. I have dinner at school with the students from the boarding school. It is a good chance to chat with students and find out what is going on in their world.

7:00PM: Homework Club – I help out students with their homework and I work on my lessons.

10:00PM: Quiet Time – Students are in their dorm room and it is finally quiet at the dorm. 20 high school students make a surprising amount of noise when they hang out together.

Surrounded By Hotels

Sunday, 9 September 2012

I am surrounded by hotels where I live in Taipa. I live across the street from the school that I teach at so it is very convenient and easy to commute to school everyday! Our school is surrounded by the City of Dreams casino, Hyatt, the Hard Rock Hotel, the Sands and the Four Seasons. Then across the street from these hotels is the Venetian. I learned that the Venetian is the largest casino in the world and they have 3000 hotel rooms – wow. I had never heard of a Hard Rock Hotel before, I wonder if this is only found in Asia.

The other day I was walking by the City of Dreams and I saw this fountain that was timed to go off in time with the music blasting out of the speakers. I had a laugh because the song that was playing was “Popcorn”. I also realized that the fountain was giving off a light mist and it was very refreshing in the heat. So now I know that this is a good spot to go cool off on a hot day.

This other photo is from the inside of the Hyatt. This shiny orb is located in the middle of the lobby and it is actually a water fountain. It is really pretty and the floors in the Hyatt are so shiny that I tend to get vertigo when I walk through the lobby because the view from the ceiling is reflected onto the floor and it messes me up when I am walking.

Ice World

Sunday, 9 September 2012

Venetian Casino has an attraction called “Ice World” so Evan & I went to check it out. It cost 100MOP for a ticket to enter an ice world, this is about $15 cdn. Inside it was –8C so they gave us big puffy jackets to wear. there was an option to purchase mitts, toques, scarfs and booths but Evan & I were confident that we could handle –8C. In fact we were looking forward to the idea of actually being cool.

I was wearing a summer dress and flip flops so I really wasn’t dressed for the –8C. It took us about 40 minutes to walk through the exhibit. There were interesting ice cravings and buildings made out of ice. In one of these photos I am driving a dog sled! It was +35C outside so it was a nice break from the heat to be inside ice world. My favourite part was the ice maze, however both Evan and I were taller than the ice walls so it was really easy to navigate through the maze. We could see the correct route to take by looking over the walls so we didn’t get lost. Next time I need a break from the heat I think I will go back to visit Ice World!

Dinner Club

Tuesday, 4 September 2012

Last night some friends and I went out for dinner at a Korean restaurant. Dinner started with these little dishes and these were re-filled during our meal. One of these dishes was lotus root – which you can see in the dish with slices of round roots. I really enjoyed the lotus root. It doesn’t have much of a taste but it has a hard, crunchy texture which I enjoyed. The other dish is full of mini sardines that are deep fried and covered in a spicy hot sauce. 

I have admit that we didn’t need any refills on this dish as we all sampled one little sardine and then on one was willing to finish the rest. Some of the other dishes included eggs, bean sprouts, some green veggie, something like a potato salad, egg plant, pickles, spam, chick peas and Kiamichi. We also ordered some beef ribs that we were able to BBQ at our table. It was a wonderful meal with good company! I look forward to going back to this restaurant again.

Where is Taipa?

Tuesday, 4 September 2012

I thought it might help to show everyone a map of Macau. This might help make sense of my journeys and wanderings. As you can see I live in Taipa and I have to cross over a bridge to go to Macau Proper. This is where the “Red Market” is. Most of the newer casinos are in Taipa. However, the MGM Grand and the Wynn casinos are in Macau Proper. I haven’t explored much in Coloane yet. However, I hope to go there sometime soon because they have a park with 2 panda bears. I can’t wait to go see the pandas. I have a visa for Macau but I don’t have a visa to go to Mainland China. 

This is on my to do list – organize my visa for China. Then I will be able to go to the crossing and walk over to Zhuhai. Mainland China is very close as you can see on the map it is in orange. I can see Mainland China from Taipa. I read that the crossing to Zhuhai is only 300 metres wide. So it is easy to think of Macau as an island, although technically it isn't. Hong Kong is directly north and it is a one hour ferry ride away. A weekend trip to Hong Kong is also on my list of things to do. I have been informed that I can just pay at the boarding crossing to get a day visa for Hong Kong.

A Saturday Shopping Adventure

 

Sunday, 2 September 2012

On Saturday Evan & I went to Macau Proper – this means we went over the bridge - to have a look in some shops. We didn’t walk across the bridge this time we took the bus after stopping at Cuppa Coffee for a to-go latte. We spent the day walking around looking in shops. We found the Red Market and we had a chance to see some of the different kinds of food that they sell at the market. There are 3 floors at the market. The first floor sells vegetables, fruit, flowers, and chickens. The second floor sells seafood and the third floor sells beef and pork. 

We didn’t buy anything at the market but we thought it would be fun to come to the market one weekend to shop for our dinner. I really can’t describe the smells at the market. On the first floor with the veggies there were also lots of dried herbs and squid and fish. So there is a very distinct smell that reminded me of China-town in Vancouver. Then the area where the chickens has a different smell. The second floor with the seafood had all kinds of sea creatures in bins of water. There were fish, crabs, snails, clams. Of course the third floor probably had strongest smells with the hunks of meat hanging on the metal hooks.

Basketball

Sunday, 2 September 2012

After school on Friday a bunch of students & teachers decided to play basketball. We had fun shooting some hoops and a student snapped this great photo of me taking a shot. I was impressed that this photo captured me in mid-jump and my feet are off the ground. We played outside until we were a sweaty mess. The sun goes down around 6:30pm. As it got dark out and we could see bats flying around swooping for bugs. Luckily the casino lights came on so we could still see and the full moon started to raise so we were able to stay on the courts till about 8pm.

In Hind Sight

Thursday, 30 August 2012

Today I volunteered to help out the cross-country running coach. I joined a group of Grade 4-6 students in a 5 km run. In hindsight, I don’t know what I was thinking. I don’t know if that was a good idea. It is not easy running when it is 30 degrees outside with 80% humidity. Wow. At the end of the run I was almost a puddle. I was dripping with sweat. To make matters worse I am not even a runner, so all the students were way ahead of me. I began to fear they were going to lap me. I would like to say that fear made me run faster. That is not true. I was already running at my max speed, which is not very fast at all. Probably more like the speed of a fast experienced walker. The cross-country team runs twice a week. Luckily for me the week is almost over so I won’t have to run again till Tuesday. The good news is that maybe I will get in shape with all this running. I was the only girl in the club. I think I am going to have to put some posters up to recruit some girls to the running team.

While we were out running – we were on the nature preserve trail, so I didn’t have to worry about getting lost when I was so far behind the others – we saw this cage. I can’t read the sign but I think these are brooms. I am guessing that if there is a forest fire then people are suppose to take these brooms and attempt to whack the fire. I am guessing the idea is to smother the flames? I can’t think what else these are for. I saw 2 more of these cages along the trail. Maybe on Tuesday I will ask one of the students to translate the sign for me to find out if my guess was right. I looked for toads in the hill side as I ran along but I didn’t see any. I even stopped to look right in some of the holes but I couldn’t see anything. Maybe I will also bring a flashlight next Tuesday so I can get a better look into these little tunnels on the hill side. I am half afraid that I am going to find some creature that I don’t really want to find, like a huge spider, cockroach or a rat. Hummmm, do rats live in tunnels in hill sides? Maybe it is better if I don’t know what is living in these holes/tunnels. Some of them are really big. Like the size of a softball.

Day #3

Wednesday, 29 August 2012

Ah ha! I saw this little guy in the bathroom. There was no where for him to run except up the wall to the ceiling which he did after I snapped this photo. I wish I would have had time to put a coin down to show you how small this gecko was. He is tiny - maybe the length of my pinkie? He would be in big trouble if he was matched against the cockroach. I am sure that cockroach was 2 or 3 times his size, however he probably does eat the small little ants we have crawling around in the kitchen. I was amazed that he stood still long enough for me to get close and snap this photo. I love his eye. It looks so cool.

I have survived day #3. Everyone is starting to get use to the routine of class and bell times. I am still rushed to get to the cafeteria and through the line up in time before the bell rings. However, it is getting easier. I just have to rush out of class with the students. That is key. My classes are going well. I am teaching Marketing & Management and Communication Technology which are high school CTS courses. I am also helping with Grade 9 ICT/Computers. This is keeping me busy. Luckily I am working with some excellent teachers so they are helping me out which is great! I am working on my planning still and I am finding that I still have a lot of details to sort out. I am hoping I will have more time this weekend to get most of my plans finalized.

Street Art

Tuesday, 28 August 2012

On Sunday I went out for a walk to my local coffee shop and I snapped a few photos of the graffiti that I saw. I am curious to see if these change over time or if they are painted over. I am guessing the graffiti in the first photo has been around for a while since it is dated 2007. 

 I thought these stencils reminded me a lot of Banksy’s work. 

[ http://www.banksy.co.uk/outdoors/bb2.html ] I will watch to see if this bear shows up anywhere else.

The First Day

Monday, 27 August 2012

Today was the first day of school for the middle school and high school students. It was a fun day as all the students were buzzing with excitement. It was a high energy day at school for sure. I learned that a 30 minute lunch break goes by fast. It is going to to be a challenge to get to the cafeteria and through the line up and then finish eating before the bell goes. I made it today – barely. Perhaps I will be faster tomorrow.

I have lots of new names to learn. I am already confused about who is in what class. Tomorrow we are jumping into the various CTS modules as time will go quickly. I only have about 17 school days to teach each credit. My class is going to have to move through the content at a fast pace. It will be interesting to see how we do tomorrow with staying on target. The students are all very friendly and I am looking forward to working with them. I think I lucked out with some great classes.

I picked this photo of the turtles for my post because here in China the turtle (龜) represents longevity. I saw these turtles in a moat around a temple that I visited a week ago. I thought this idea of longevity might be a good fit with the first day of school. The start of a school year – maybe this is a new beginning and a new start. These turtles also remind me of the turtles that my mom & dad have at home. We always had pet turtles when I was a kid and my parents still have turtles. I guess turtles are a kind of pet that has a long life or have some longevity to them!

A Lazy Sunday

Sunday, 26 August 2012

School starts tomorrow! Wow. I am excited and nervous at the same time. I went out for a walk today and headed over to my new favourite coffee shop – Cuppa Coffee. It is cloudy and muggy today but it is still warm at 31C. I was happy to hang out in the coffee shop for a bit to have a quiet place to read my book. The students arrived to the boarding school yesterday and that changed things. There are 20 students and boy-oh-boy are they loud. They like to hang out in the hallway and visit with each other. It is nice to have some more people around but it will take me a few days to get use to the noise. It will be interesting to see how things go living with students. So far I am impressed how polite and respectful they are.

I snapped this photo as I walked over to the coffee shop in Old Taipa. It is nice walk along the lake and through the old village. I am able to dodge most of the traffic and noise and people once I get away from the casinos. Now I am back in the boarding house and I am going to try to get organized and prepared for tomorrow. It is going to be exciting to meet all the new students and to see how things work with the bell schedule. The bells were turned on last week but all the teachers ignored them since classes hadn’t started. So I am still not sure which bells are for middle school and while are for high school. I am guessing that will make more sense tomorrow. I will keep you posted. Wish me luck with my first day…..

Macau At Night

Thursday, 23 August 2012

I went out for a walk to the 7/11 store tonight to get some ice cream. It was so hot out and I decided that I wanted some ice cream. It is pretty walking around Macau at night. The casinos are all lit up with light shows on the outsides of the buildings. One of these nights I want to walk over to one of the bridges to get some night shots over the water. I bet it is a great view from up on the nature reserve trail. I didn’t feel like walking around the nature reserve this time. My motivation was to get a drum stick from 7/11. I have started carrying my camera with me when ever I go out just in case I can find something to take a photo of. I hope you enjoy this night scene.

Evan the Cockroach Killer

Wednesday, 22 August 2012

Living in a tropical climate means that there are bugs and when I say bugs I actually mean cockroaches. Yuck! I haven’t seen one in my room but there is one in the kitchen. Luckily it is just one, but it is a BIG one. I am so freaked out by how fast they move and how long their antennas are. They wave these long antenna back and forth and it is so gross. You can see the length of these antennas in my photo. This is a Macau dollar which is the size of a loonie and this dead guy is clearly bigger than a dollar coin. You can’t even see his legs because they are all folded in.

One morning I was standing at the sink washing my dishes when I looked down on the floor and I saw this antenna sticking out from under the cupboards. I couldn’t see the cockroach but I knew he was under the cupboard. I stomped my feet and yelled at it and it disappeared back under the cupboard. Gross.

Anyways, Evan is my hero because he killed the cockroach for me. I can’t kill them because I don’t want to go any where near them. The cockroaches give me the creeps. Evan doesn’t like them either but he has no problem chasing them around the kitchen whacking them with his shoe. These critters move fast too. Luckily for me, Evan is faster. He is deadly with his shoe and he has already killed 3 of these critters. I have named Evan “The Cockroach Killer”. Someday I hope to be just like Evan but until that day arrives, I just scream and run out of the kitchen when I see one of these cockroaches.

A Busy Place

Wednesday, 22 August 2012

On the weekend I explored more of Macau and I crossed over one of the 3 bridges to Macau Proper. As you can see it is a little busier over here and I managed to find myself in some large crowds of people. There were lots of Chinese tourists visiting from Mainland China. It is very popular to travel to Macau on a group tour. I also found some more casinos with Casino Lisboa, Wynn Macau and the MGM Mirage. There are 34 casinos here in Macau giving the city the title of the "Monte Carlo of the Orient".

Watching For Signs

Tuesday, 21 August 2012

I saw this sign on the walls of a public school in Macau and it made me laugh so I thought I would share it. Time is going quickly and things are getting busy at my school. All of the teachers have returned from summer holidays and everyone is getting ready for the students to arrive next week. There is still lots of work and planning to finish. We have meetings every morning to finalize details and set deadlines on projects. Today at lunch I was chatting with other teachers that are also feeling the crunch of time. This week is going so quickly and time is running out. I am nervous for my classes to start. I think it will be interesting to see who is more nervous on the first day – me or my students!

Nature Trails

 

Tuesday, 21 August 2012

Today on my walk around the nature preserve I saw all these holes in the dirt hill side along the walking trail. I stopped to look in one of these holes and I realized that there was something in the hole. It was a toad. I think it was the Asian Common Toad (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duttaphrynus_melanostictus) . It was really cool to see this toad on the trail. I started to watch as I walked along the trail and I found other holes with more toads in them.

A Walk in the Park

Monday, 20 August 2012

I went for a walk today after school and I came across this exercise equipment. There was a variety of different kinds of equipment. It was interesting that this equipment was spread throughout the park. I realized that I had also seen these same type of exercise equipment in the Garden Temple that I visited last weekend near the “Park & Shop” grocery store. While I was wondering who might use this exercise equipment a guy jogged up and sat down. I thought it was a good chance to snap this photo!

Cell Phone Vending Machine

Sunday, 19 August 2012

Today I got a cell phone from a vending machine. I wondered around Macau for an hour before I found the cell phone store that has these special vending machines. The vending machine sells cell phones for 500 MOP or about $65 Canadian dollars. It was so neat to be able to get a cell phone out of the vending machine. It was so easy, just slid in some bills, press the code and wait for your phone to drop out. It is a pay as you go phone and I will be able to go to the 7/11 store to buy more credit for my phone. Now I just have to learn how to use my new cell phone and that could be a challenge. The good news is that I was able to find the setting to change everything to English so that is helpful.

Views from the Nature Trails of Macau

Friday, 17 August 2012

A few photos from the nature trail that is out behind our school. You get a chance to walk a 3km loop in the green jungle. 

Macau Snail

Friday, 17 August 2012

I went for a walk today after work and I decided to walk around the nature reserve. It is a big hill that is covered trees/jungle. It took me over an hour to loop around the hill. On my walk I came across many snail shells. I didn’t actually see the snails but I was impressed by size of the shell. Other teachers at the school had told me about the giant snails but I had not seen one till today.

As I was walking along the trail I heard something moving around in the leaves beside the trail. So I stopped and looked into the bushes. I wondered if it might be a lizard or a snake. What ever it was moving around and making a lot of noise. I keep staring and staring in to the bushes. Finally I spotted an eye, then a round little body and I wondered what it was. A mouse, a squirrel? Nope. The animal finally turned and ran into the forest and I clearly saw it’s tail. It was a rat with a long, thin rat tail. Yuck. I had been standing there staring at a rat. I was disappointed.

I didn’t find any other animals on my walk. Maybe next time.

I walked to the top of the high which is called Taipa Grande (http://www.geonames.org/6611656/taipa-grande.html) which is 160 meters or 525 feet. That doesn’t sound very impressive compared to the tall peaks in the Banff National Park. But let me tell you with 80% humidity it was still a sweaty climb to the top!

T8 Typhoon

Thursday, 16 August 2012

Well today I arrived at school to find out that Macau has a T8 typhoon warning. It seems hard to believe since it is sunny outside. It is a little windy, but no that windy compared to the winds of Lethbridge. The typhoon was rated as a T1 yesterday and then in the evening the rating was changed to T3 and early this morning the rating went to T8.

The T8 warning means:

"The centre of a tropical cyclone follows a pattern of movement that winds to be experienced in MSAR may possibly range from 41 to 62 km/h and gusts about 110 km/h.

Classes of all schools are suspended. Children should remain indoors. Doors and windows should be safely bolted. Conclude all precautionary safety measures. Bridges will close to all traffics at any moment, pending prior notice. Television and radio stations broadcast round-the-clock."

http://www.smg.gov.mo/www/cvm/typhoon/fe_typhoonmain.htm

Looking at the path of the typhoon I can see that it not going to hit Macau so I don't think I have to worry. Inside the school I can't hear the wind so I feel very safe. None of the other teachers are concerned. They are surprised that it is not raining here.

I will keep you posted but I think we are safe this time. Looking at this website I can see that we don't have worry about this typhoon. This is a new experience for me to track typhoons and watch to see where and when they are going to hit. I have never been in a typhoon before. The other teachers told me that we will probably have another one as the typhoon season lasts until the end of September.

http://factsanddetails.com/china/cat10/sub64/item398.html

Lunch

Tuesday, 14 August 2012

Today at school we were introduced to some new Chinese foods. One of the dishes for lunch was chicken feet. I was not brave enough to try it. Other teachers told me that it was yummy and really it is just like eating a chicken wing. You nibble on the bone to get the yummy bits. Evan gave it a try. I watched him eating one of these and thought wow he is brave. I just keep looking at it and all I could see was a chicken foot. There was no way I was going to take a bite out of that. I just couldn’t talk myself into trying it.

I wonder if I will be brave enough to try chicken feet before I leave China. I hope so. I guess it will be something to work towards. Getting use to new & interesting foods. The other dishes were noodles and rice dishes. Nothing scary. I was able to eat the other dishes. However, I learned about the bird nest soup, which I think I have heard about before but I didn’t realize it is made from the saliva from birds. 

See Wikipedia for more details: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bird's_nest_soup

I am not sure if I will be brave enough to try that dish. It sounds so strange. I think part of the problem is just talking myself into trying it. Getting over the mental hurdle of eating something that I wouldn’t normally think of as food.

Out & About

Tuesday, 14 August 2012

Today I went out for a walk after school and I saw this construction site. I thought it was worth taking a photo or 2 to show everyone a slightly different way of working on a building. These bamboo structures did not look that strong to me. However, these workers didn’t seem concerned and they even stopped their work to watch me take a photo. They were probably wondering why I was taking a photo of them.

I am starting to find my way around the city. There are half a million people in Macau yet it is not a big city. I have been told that I should be able to walk from one side of the city to the other side in just over an hour. I haven’t tried yet. I have figured out the fastest way to the get the food court in the casino and this seems to be my most walked route. I have also sorted out a route to get to the “Park & Shop” food store. I am headed there next. I am enjoying sitting in the school at the moment in the air con. It is now 3:30pm and it is hot outside. The sun is blazing.

I can’t believe how fast time goes and I have already been in Macau for 4 days. It feels like I have been here for weeks. I guess that is probably due to so many new things. Everyday is an adventure. The goal for today is go shoe shopping. I need to find some comfortable shoes that I can teach in. The dress shoes that I brought are going to be way to hot. I need something that with straps so I can wear without socks but not a flip flop. I saw some shoe stores in one of the casinos so I am going to go check out the prices. I am wondering how expensive shoes might be and I am also wondering if they have size 10???? I will keep you posted on my shoe adventure.

It Will Knock Your Socks Off!

Monday, 13 August 2012

I saw this sign when I was walking around downtown and it made me laugh as I think something was lost in translation when they made this sign. I thought this would be a good way to describe the heat and humidity of Macau. It is warm here. I like the heat but I am still getting use to it. I tried sleeping last night with my air conditioner turned off. 

Well, that was a mistake. I woke up at some point in the middle of the night sweating and way too hot. I had to turn my air con back on. I have started to pack a sweater in my bag where ever I good because most of the time I find the air con too cold. So I am always pulling my sweater on when I enter a building and ripping it off when I leave a building. Perhaps one of these times I will adjust to the heat and I won’t feel the heat “knocking my socks off”! Time will tell.