Day 39: Starting School

Tomorrow, I will start work on my first full-time contract...ever. Sure, I've freelanced and had my fair share of part-time jobs, but there is a strange excitement about starting something new...even if it is just a different type of contract (right?). And though, I'm sure that this excitement will last me a total of one day before I get on my knees and pray to god that the end of semester come closer, I'm also hoping against hope sure that I will enjoy the experience.

Oh and while we're on the topic of god, I have to mention this: most people who have known me for a while, know that I quit the Christian church a good long while back. I am not an atheist; I just simply disagree with certain concepts the religion has to offer. But what schools should I get landed with? Well here are the names...lets see if you can guess:

Shan King Estate Baptist School

and worse...

The New Territories Assembly of God Church W.Y. School

In fact, this past summer, when I first started teaching, I was offered a full time contract with another school called the Christian Alliance SW Chan Memorial College that I turned down in hopes of securing a stable contract with Cirque du Soleil, which didn't happen because they started firing people instead of hiring them. So technically, I could have had a contract since the beginning of September...but anyway...the point is that either Hong Kong only has strangely named Christian schools or I am just destined to be stuck in this religious wormhole...Whatever the case may be, at least I have a job!

And I am truly thankful for that. So let's see how it goes tomorrow! Hope it'll be as much fun as my mother claims!

Day 38: Light and Dark

Today, I did nothing of consequence. Surprised? Well don't be because it is the second last day before I start working full time as opposed to the part time work that I have been doing so far. I took the afternoon and evening off especially to do nothing and by nothing, I mean nothing. I slept, when I shouldn't have and I'm almost sure that I will have trouble sleeping tonight, but the good thing is that I don't have to go to work until later in the afternoon tomorrow since I finished everything I needed to get done for the week today and e-mailed all the stuff to the boss.

So why the lamppost? No reason, really. I just thought it was pretty. The photo was taken at the docks in front of my apartment building. Speaking of lampposts, I remember reading this quote a long time ago and it still makes me laugh so I thought I'd share it: "Asking a working writer how he feels about critics is like asking a lamppost how it feels about dogs" (John Osborne). And same is the case with art and design! So true, so very true!

Day 37: Polarity

"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to heaven, we were all going direct the other way - in short, the period was so far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only."

Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities

Day 36: Wisdom and Lactic Acid

I went to take a walk out to cover central Lantau Island today... in particular, the walk started from Shek Mun Kap village and ended at Ngong Ping, home of the Po Lin Monastery and the Tian Tan - or Big - Buddha (route map here). The walk was listed in my book as being moderately strenuous and sure there were some very steep climbs along the way, but the weather was so perfect today that in general it was a very pleasant hike! Heck, it was even really chilly by the time it was all over!

Along the way, there was a lot to see as always including views of Chek Lap Kok airport, some secluded monasteries, rock pools and streams, HK's longest standing bamboo grove (yikes, snakes!) and of course spectacular views of the Big Buddha and the Wisdom Path (pictured) at sunset!

My only disappointment was that most of the path was paved as I honestly prefer walking on unpaved paths, even if they're beaten down trails. I've come to realise though that most of the public trails in Hong Kong - and China from what I hear - are paved! Why? I don't know. But anyway, it was a great walk and the pictures have been added to the backlog, which is getting smaller as we speak thankfully! But just for the heck of it, I've posted a list of the upcoming photo sets in order on the side-bar of the blog! Check it out!

Today's Flickr Uploads: Mist on Dragon's Back

Unfortunately I went to Dragon's Back on a day when the mist decided it would be a good idea to sit on top of Shek-O, so these are the only pictures that I thought were good enough to post. Hopefully I'll go back to this trail in a few weeks to get better shots, but obviously with the backlog I have at the moment, I don't think taking new photos is a priority!

Day 35: School Days

Today was my first day at the new job. I was extremely scared at the start of the day wondering if I would be good enough or if I would find the students annoying, etc but my god, as soon as I got there, I switched into this strange teacher-mode that I did not know existed in me and started working...calmly! It was amazing!

I was really happy with how my classes turned out in the end as well. Two of them are extremely active (though in a good way) and one of them is very quiet, but only because they're shy...not because they've been conditioned to sit and listen all the time... I was also really impressed by their command of the English language coming from a Chinese Medium of Instruction (CMI) school...The discussions we had in class were hilarious... One of the things I was trying to do with them was to ask them to imagine their ideal school environment including the types of teachers, facilities, transport to-and-from, subjects, etc and they came up with things like wanting boxing arenas and a section of HK Disneyland in their schools as well as wanting to go to school on spaceships and including Supernatural Studies as part of their core curriculum. It was all too cute!

All in all, good day! The photo to the right is the school building... I think I had the colour temperature setting adjusted to tungsten, hence the bluish tinge under sunlight, which I thought was interesting. Below are also a couple of photos of the smallest of my three classes (hyper!):



Today's Flickr Uploads: Hamlet at Peng Chau

Day 34: The End of Another Road

Having been in Hong Kong, I always have liked to think that I am immune to the pain one feels when someone close to them moves away. After all, people come and go so often here that it's almost impossible to live here and make friends unless you build up that emotional barrier... the only thing is that over the past year or so, I've felt my barrier slowly fall apart as people I have been very close to have moved away one by one...from the best of my friends to my family... It's really not a nice feeling.

Unfortunately today, I had to say goodbye to one of my dearest friends as she is moving out of the country... I've only known her for two years, but as with most of my close friends, it feels like I have known her for an age or more already and though I wish her all the best, I know that I'm going to miss her a lot!

And hopefully soon it will be my turn to say goodbye to Hong Kong...

Tips, Tricks and Turn-Outs

I found this a very useful website with tips and tricks to maintain a Project 365 blog. The writer is very strict with his rules, but they are definitely helpful I think. For example, I don't always take a-photo-a-day (like yesterday) because I don't always feel inspired and when that happens, I look for a cop-out (as he suggests), which in my case involves taking an older photo and editing it to suit the general mood of the day. Since my photos most often depend quite heavily on post-processing, I feel like I have made just as much an effort as I would just to take a cop-out photo and so that is how I justify it, although I am trying to keep it to a maximum of 3 times a month.

Also, while searching for random 365 groups on Flickr, I came across Project 365; looking into a few of their discussion topics, this particular topic where people post their first and 365th photo caught my attention because I found it amazing to see how much improvement has been made in the posters' photographic skills. That is exactly what I am hoping to do with this project, so I feel even more motivated now!