Day 47: EMAAB

EMAAB: Early Mornings are a Bitch.

That's the thought I've woken up with everyday this past week because I've had to wake up at 5.30 am to make the trek to Narnia (i.e. where my schools are). And seeing as I don't get back from work till around 4pm, it's not surprising that the only thing I want to do when I get home is curl up in a dark corner and mumble golem-style.

But anyway, at the school that I taught at today, I was told that one of their criteria for hiring teachers is their religion. I found that a little offensive and 15th century-esque, but then there you have it. And so when they asked me about my religious background, I conveniently left out the fact that I quit the church many years back. Having a job is more important than proving my religion to people I don't speak with, I reckon!

Today's photo is of my dream catcher in the (extremely early) morning light!

Day 46: Test of English

There's not much to report about today, except that I went to sit the TOEFL exam in hopes of strengthening my university applications for next year and may I just say that it was one of the most tedious and boring exams I've ever had to take, though at least it wasn't as moronic as the GRE. Heck, I was honestly trying not to fall asleep after reading a fourth of six passages about worm innards. And that was just the beginning... the listening, speaking and writing sections were even more dull.

And I know that my English is not world-class, but the fact that I could point out some very basic grammatical errors in the question paper amused me beyond words.

Oh and the picture of the day has nothing to do with anything, but just for information's sake, that's the Wan Chai Market. It's one of the last architectures of its kind in the territory, and yet it's still set down for demolition soon. It's already been evacuated from what I could see... sigh...

Day 45: All's New When Nothing's New?

All's new when nothing's new? What does that mean? I personally don't know... it's just something that popped into my head whilst trying to think of a witty title for today's post. It obviously didn't work, but I'm sure it makes sense to a philosopher somewhere.

But honestly, I haven't done anything today except work and feel extremely exhausted. I realised though that teaching kids really takes a whole lot more out of you than teaching teenagers and adults mainly because when you're teaching adults, you're mostly just exhausting your mind, but with smaller children, you're doing that and exhausting yourself physically as well. Add on top of that, the fact that you're trying to communicate with kids who don't understand a single word you're saying and it can seriously make you want to hit your head on the wall and knock yourself out. Still, when they actually understand you or sing the song you've been trying to teach them, it is a whole lot more rewarding.

Have to say though that work was much better today than it was yesterday. I think I just need to settle into the mindset of being a teacher for younger children rather than the older ones I'm used to working with. We played a lot of games today and they were genuinely happy to see me when I entered their classroom. Some of them even gave me hugs after the class. One of them compared me to his class teacher and called me thin in comparison to her in front of her...First thing that came to mind was "HAHAHAHAHAHAHA oh that's a first", and though I told him it was not a nice thing to say, I secretly kept thinking "bless you! you're my favourite student already!" hahaha

Today's picture was taken at another park near the school where I ate my lunch. I don't know why I find the tiling so interesting, but I noticed that one of the kids dropped their little heart sticker that they'd gotten from an earlier class exactly where it is in the photo and thought it made for a cute shot.

Day 44: Mr. Justin

Today, I started actually teaching instead of just training-and-teaching. The difference being that I nearly wanted to pee in my pants because I never realised little children could be so intimidating. In fact, I wonder if I would much rather teach high-school students (who I hate with a passion on a good day) than 5 year old Tommy who threatens you with crying at the top of his lungs if you don't give him a sweet. But at the same time, they're just so cute that they can get away with it.

So what does this have to do with the picture for the day? Well one could interpret it as "oh god, please help me" but instead, it was just taken at a playground near the school. I thought the floor tiling made interesting patterns and this one in particular is reminiscent of the fact that I am teaching at Christian schools... or something (good to know, my bullshitting abilities are still kind of up to standard).

Oh and I love the fact that the kids call me Mr. Justin because they can't pronounce my last name to save their lives. Bless 'em!

Days 42-43: Out in the Wild

I have not been able to update this blog on time over the weekend because I was out camping in Sai Kung. I know, I know... hiking, camping and Justin? It doesn't really sound like an obvious mix, but truth be told, I love camping, but then again, relaxing out in nature is one of my favourite things. Unfortunately, I can't say the same for the hiking because a day and a half later, I still can't move without groaning.

The hike, as it turned out, was supposed to be a fairly gentle walk as I had heard. It starts from Pak Tam Au in Sai Kung (route map)and surely, for the first hour or so, the trail seems to be innocent enough with its paved paths with minimum incline leading to Chek Keng (half-way). It is at Chek Keng though that the first stage of hell starts. The path is still paved, but the incline becomes very steep until you reach the top of the hill and then there is an equally steep downhill path that leads straight to an abandoned hamlet. Easy enough for most people, but with the thought of possibly dislocating your kneecap and memories of the pain that it causes pounding in your head, while you carry nearly fifteen pounds of weight on your back, things become a little difficult! But thankfully the path from the hamlet Tai Long to Ham Tin is fairly flat and eventually opens out in an enormous beach with a massive surf, stark blue waters and the finest sand amongst any of Hong Kong's beaches I have visited. It was truly an amazing site!

But this beach, despite its seclusion seems fairly commercial and so with an aching back and legs that felt like they should belong to somebody else, we started looking for the trail that went over a little hill that separates Ham Tin Wan (where we were) from Tai Wan (where we wanted to be). And as it would, with our luck, the trail was steeper than steep, reaching at least a gradient of 60 degrees at it's steepest points... and it was off road... through an overgrown path. But with determination, we managed to cross over and any pain we might have experienced while we made our way up there left immediately because the view was spectacular! I'm not even going to try to describe it. Here is an unedited photo of the beach:

After arriving at the beach and finding that we were unable to move much, we realised that there is an easier, more beaten down trail behind the hill we had just crossed, but like I said, the off-road path was worth it even though we might have broken every bone in our body if we'd fallen off the edge.

So at the beach, we set up our tents and got to making a fire, which was easy enough. From there, my memory's just full of barbecued food, wine, horrible songs and trying to name constellations as they rose over us. Yes, we saw stars... lots of them... in clear light. It was probably the first time in Hong Kong when I've appreciated the night sky! It was simply too beautiful.

And so after a good long rest and catching a very beautiful red sunrise at the beach, we trekked back (over the deadly hill again for some bizarre reason) and got back to Ham Tin Wan where we decided that it would be too boring just to go back the way we had come and so took the way towards Sai Wan, hearing that the path was shorter and easier from there. Oh how very wrong we were. The path (though thankfully paved) started with a billion stairs that crossed two hills, and then flattened out as we walked over some cliffs and finally rose and dropped again into a smaller, but equally beautiful Sai Wan beach. We thought that we had reached a bus stop by this point, but again, as our luck would have it, we found out that it was a long walk back to civilisation. And so we walked. And walked... over a mainly uphill path that never seemed to want to end until we reached a junction. Here the option was to either walk along the foot of the hill (fairly level walk with slight incline), or to take a steep off-road walk that makes a short cut from one side of the hill to the other. Now, any sensible person would have said "look, there's many people here at the junction, but no one is using that path; the foliage is so overgrown that it would hinder visibility and the fact that it looks so steep is probably just the least of our problems...plus, if there's anything you learn from watching films about people taking short-cuts, it's that you should never take them...so lets take the flatter road." As it turns out, we were not like these sensible people and decided to take that path anyway because...well because we could and if I would have had the energy to hold my 5000 pound camera at this point, I would have taken photos, but I was on my last energy bar and no water, so I left it in my bag. But I have to say that I am so glad we walked up that trail because the views from there were again...dare I use this word I overuse now, beautiful. The hike looked over the High Island Reservoir and the islands that rest within it. But with determination and an increasing need for water and clean clothes, we made it to the other side in no time from where we took a bus to Sai Kung Town for some fresh seafood and ended the day there.

All in all, the hike and camp was so much fun that I think I can officially say that it was one of my favourite weekends in Hong Kong, and that Tai Wan beach is one of the most amazing places I have seen here. I'd really like to do it again!

Oh and here's a photo of Sharp Peak that was behind the beach we stayed at.

Day 41: Embers

I originally wanted to write something about this day from the book that I am currently reading (Talk to the Hand: The Utter Bloody Rudeness of the World Today, or Six Good Reasons to Stay Home and Bolt the Door by Lynne Truss), but I can't seem to find the excerpt. Unfortunately, the verse had wrapped up my feelings about humanity as they stood on the day, but ah well! haha

Day 40: Nothing but the truth

“Quotes are nothing but inspiration for the uninspired.” - Richard Kemph

This is exactly the reason why I sometimes use quotes to back up my pathetic blog entries... because no matter how busy my day might have been, sometimes it is just hard for inspiration to come by. Take today for instance, I went to teach today - I had a whole range of emotions flowing through me before, during and after the lessons, but I just could not translate them into a photo. Heck even while I walked around a part of Hong Kong that I've never been to before (Yuen Long) and went on a transport system that I did not even know existed here (Light Rail), I still could not see anything that I wanted to take a photo of.

And so I came home and dug into my humongous book of quotes, poetry and information that I used to use during those uninspired days at university where we were required to spit out a new design concept at the click of a button and came across this quote by Richard Kemph which I thought was hilarious and so true. Then I went out to the harbour in hopes of taking a picture of total darkness at night with a bit of a reflection from the surrounding buildings and ended up with this quirky Rothko-esque image! It has not been photoshopped at all, but I think I shook the camera while I was shooting it. The ISO for sure was at 800-1200 (hence the grain) and the purplish/bluish lights are the reflections in the water from buildings across the harbour. It's not pretty, but I found it interesting!