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Chinese candy flavors: red bean, corn and sweet potato.

Macau

This weekend we made our way to Macau- the Las Vegas of Asia. We weren't able to buy ferry tickets in advance so we were nervous about getting our tickets and making it here at a reasonable hour. We left as soon as we finished classes and made our way to the Fuyoung Pier. We got there at 5, bought our tickets and hopped on the ferry which left the pier at 5:25. Perfect timing. We arrived at Tapia Macau about an hour later. What we didn't account for was that the ferry brought us to an island, and not the island we were staying on. Luckily there were tons of free shuttles from fancy hotels for their patrons. We found out which one went closest to ours and snuck on hoping to not get questioned. No issues though and we arrived at the Star World Hotel- which was really pretty. We made our way to our hotel, which felt like a bit of a walk but once we did the walk again today we realized how close we really were. It took us to find the hotel but we turned a street corner into an ally type of street and I saw the electronic sign. We were so happy and we proceeded to check in.

We walked around the area of the hotel which is very close to Senato Square and then had dinner at an over priced Pizza Hut. It's one of the fanciest pizza huts I've seen. Pictures will be posted later for sure. We called it an early night (it was a long day) and went to sleep on rock hard beds. Ouchie.

This morning I awoke really early so I did some research on what was worth seeing and doing. We found a little cafe for lunch where we had really good food. We wanted to save on lunch because we made dinner reservations at a buffet which was on the pricey end. We then went to a casino because we wanted to gamble a bit. Unfortunatly the cheapest BJ table we found was $200 HK so we passed and played some slots. Some tables went as high as $75,000 CDN! Stephen lost a bit and I won about $120 HK. After lunch and casino-ing, we walked to the Macau Tower, which looks very similar to the CN Tower but not as tall- and decided to do the "edgewalk" type of activity. We got more nervous as we made our way outside but the experience was awesome! At first we watched someone bungee jump (which I wanted to do but it was too expensive) with our feet over the edge, and then he walked us around as we had more photo ops with his guidance. We got a CD full of pictures which we'll have to share once we get home or reach a computer with a CD drive (since stephen's is broken and I don't have one).

We made our way back to the hotel but we stopped for some pastries on the way. We heard egg-tarts were delicious so we decided to have one. While wandering the bakery, almost each cookie had a sample box so we sampled a lot and eventually bought the egg-tart which was soooo good! We're off to our buffet dinner and hopefully a show! We also decided to go to HK Disney Land tomorrow since it will be closed until May (or so the site seemed to indicate?). We heard good things and we don't want to wait that long to see it! So tomorrow- we're off again to HK.

#macau

Shopping

After our trip to HK, a teacher that we came back with showed a shopping area at the last subway stop of the line (where the border out of China is). It's huge. There's 4 levels of stores and a markety type of area on the 3rd. We bought a few things and headed home because we were exhausted but we went back the following weekend to do some more shopping. We bought Beat headphones which we're happy with and Stephen got himself some cufflinks. I was looking at some of the jewlery and one of the booth owners comes to me with 3 catalogs. One purely for LV, and the others were a collection of brands. They each had their own section (anything from LV, Chanel, Tiffany and more) and you could ask for anything in the books and they would get it from the back for you. Stephen bought me a fake Tiffany necklace to match the real one he got me a few years ago. I'm excited to wear them together when we get home! We also found a shopping mall type of place really close to our apartment so we visited there twice and we were able to find a little something for everyone back home too! We're excited to share with everyone what we got. :)

VisaVisaVisa

In regards to the last post. It really was a crappy time. And for some reason the people who got the good representative from our company get to go with her again :), how fun. Additionally, for some reason we were at a different hotel than the last group (which was more expensive, and worse (good planning there guys!!). The worst part of the entire thing was that she pretty much relied upon two of the teachers from our group to get us directions and know what we were doing. HOW THE HELL CAN YOU HAVE YOUR EMPLOYEES BE TELLING YOU WHAT TO DO/WHERE TO GO? Seriously. Shows you know nothing, and are completely out of your depths. Gosh, what a hassle. Hong kong is bright and shiny though, lots of fun to just walk around. Except for the fact that my feet hurt, and shoes don't come in my size in hong kong either. Fuck.

Visa visa visa...

We're back in China with a 2 entry visa (1 left) which means that when we return from our Macau trip, we will have 1 month to go till we need a new one. Our time in Hong Kong was a headache! The representative from the company was going to Hong Kong for her first time EVER, so she had zero knowledge on what or where we should be going. She asked at least 20 different people how to get to our hotel. We had a crappy budget for food because the previous trip of teachers spent too much (aka had a really good time) and since she didn't know where anything was, we had to find our own way to the grocery store, and didn't go see anything interesting. All the frustrations are building up.

Weekend Outting

On Friday evening we made our way back to Shekou to visit the bar-in-a-boat called Ex-Ta-Sea. Stephen and I wore our morphsuits as our costumes which means we were eligible for a free drink! Which was cool because it came in a syringe for the halloween theme. Last time we visited, the owner told us that his mexican food was cheaper AND better than the one we had next door so we gave it a shot, but the group consensus was that the real mexican restaurant was better. The live band went up at 11, which played good music- a lot of new twists on old songs which was enjoyable. We continued the outing till 2, while we celebrated the birthday of one of the teachers in our group. Due to the time, we, of course, stayed the night at Vicki and Dales. We woke up on Saturday morning, and while Dale went to deal with bank errands, the three of us chatted, looked at some PPT games (teachers, eh?) and discussed lunch ideas. We decided that sushi was a go, and made our way out as soon as Dale walked in. Unfortunatly, when we got there, we saw that not only did they not have their dishes going around on the conveyer, they also weren't serving California rolls. For anyone who knows us, you know this is a must have for Stephen and myself, so we left and went to eat Korean BBQ instead. This KBBQ was different than the last one we went to in that it was not all you can eat, but stranger than that, was that there was someone at your table cooking the food for you- weird! It came with lots of little side salads and dishes which were reloaded for you. Since Vicki and Dale had spent a few years in Korea, they ordered some new food for us to try which included a really good rice dish and an egg dish. Both delicious! Afterwards we made our way to METRO (of course) to buy more pizza, Parmesan and other goodies. Then it was back to their place for cards! We taught them a classic game that we play at Stephens house all the time (clobyosh) but it was late, so though they learned the rules, we didn't spend too much time on it and decided it would be a game for another night- a night of more brain energy. They taught us a game called Phase 10 (from the makers of Uno) which was lots of fun and kept us busy till about 11:30, when we went to grab a taxi and made our way home. A good weekend indeed :) Now we have Sunday to sleep it off, do some laundry, and get ready for the week ahead of us.

104 words later.

In a few days we will be finished the alphabet and our students will have learned 104 words! Then we're giving them a test and moving onto the next book. Tomorrow is halloween! Since we have class on Friday though, we will be going out on Friday night to a bar and then Saturday we will go watch another soccer game. We plan on bringing candy for our students tomorrow so we hope they know what's going on!

Chinese Lesson and Mexican Dinner

The other day we went to a Chinese lesson provided by our recruitment company. Their e-mail stated that it would be a by a Chinese teacher, but when we got there, we quickly realized that the teacher doesn't speak a word of English which makes the lesson near to impossible. Thankfully, another teacher from our group who speaks Chinese, was there so he was able to translate. We decided we will just hire him in beer and get a better lesson next time. A good part about the class was that we met two girls there (who strangely enough came from a different organization but for some reason were directed to come to our class) who live really close to us, so that'll be fun! After class we made our way down to Shekou, which is a little ways away and expensive- but also very Western. There is a white face every which way you turn- WEIRD. We went for Mexican food since many of the teachers were craving it. As you know, not ree's particular choice in food so I got a burger, which was delicious. We didn't want to end the night early so we found a bar (in a boat!) and sat down to enjoy one anothers company. We met the owner who told us his Mexican food was cheaper and better so we promised to come to his bar next time we were around for dinner. He bought us Chili Cheese Dog type things which everyone enjoyed. Now it's about deciding how we want to celebrate Halloween. :)

Our Not So Shopping Day

We arrive at the school to meet with the other teacher and the principle, thinking we were going "shopping". As we see coach buses and all the students lined up, we quickly assessed that in fact we are not going shopping, but on a field trip with the students. We were looking forward to it none the less because we were bound to see things we hadn't seen yet. Our first stop as at a Technology Museum which looked like it came from the 80's. Half the lights were off as well which made the place look even less-alive. From the UFO, to the MTV Superstar Booth, to the awful simulators- It was interesting experience and gave a good laugh. We were glad we were only there for an hour, but, still glad we were there at all. Next stop was an indoor-amusement park in the "New South China Mall". The park itself (from what we saw, though the map said otherwise) wasn't that big. We had fun on some of the rides, and I even went on one that made me puke (which was a shocker for a roller coaster lover such as myself). The ride was one where 2 people sat together and had to pedal, the faster you pedal the higher you went which led us to do flip after flip. Blahh. After getting myself back together, though I felt dizzy for 40 minutes afterwards, we made our way to lunch. On our way there, we saw how big the actual mall was- big and EMPTY. I'm usually down for Chinese food but I didn't want to try much given how my stomach was feeling. A teacher asked me if I wanted to go for pizza after which I happily accepted. We ended up finding a Pizza Hut and I had a delicious personal pan mushroom-pizza. There was no actual mushroom pizza (or plain cheese pizza for that matter) on the actual menu, and you wouldn't believe how hard it was to order what I wanted. But I got it, and it was good. Upon seeing the option of a Cesear Salad in the menu, Stephen ordered it, excited to get a taste of home ( we were also just discussing the other day how we missed salads). Not only did it arrive last, but after pouring the "dressing" onto it, Stephen told me it didn't taste right. I tried some of the dressing and sure enough, it was some sort of vanilla pudding. We asked our teacher to communicate this to the waiter, who replied with telling us that they didn't actually have any more cesear dressing. Oh jeez, thanks for letting us know. So it was quickly removed from our tab. When we returned, it was just about time to rally the students up and make our way to the bus for the ride home. It was definitely not what we were expecting the day to be, but it was still an interesting experience and an awesome day with the kids.

We got a phone call a few hours ago from our principal asking if we wanted to go shopping at a market tomorrow, so we said yes and asked when to meet (assuming it would be after school). She replied with, "8 am" so I asked, "What about our classes?" which then explained weren't running tomorrow due to a festival. Always good to know these things in advance, thanks ;) So am impromptu shopping trip tomorrow! Which we are actually just discussing doing earlier today so that worked out nicely for us!

Fooood

Yesterday after meeting with our friends for lunch (and a really yummy western restaurant), they took us to a grocery store that had so many things we were looking for. We bought ourselves a toaster oven, frozen pizza, maple syrup, granola bars, CHEESE (Parmesan and mozzarella) and a bunch of other goodies. Sometimes it's the little things that can get you super excited :)

Street Food Vendor

Yesterday Stephen and I decided to get a wrap-type snack a street food vendor outside of our buildings. After Stephen got his with everything on it, I explained that I wanted none of the veggies- just the wrap and the yummy tortilla chip like things they put on the inside. His reaction was the same as the ones given to me by Subway employees when I order my sub. It felt like home. :) Half a wrap (which is a decent size) cost 3RMB (.50CDN) so if you're really hungry you can get a full one for about $1CDN.

Local Teachers Class

The other day during my local teachers class, she taught the students description words that they can use to describe themselves and others. I thought it was kind of cool that fat was just a description, and not condemned for being a negative thing to say about someone. A student can identify as fat, and that's that. They're not told not to say it or anything of that nature. They can say they're fat, and we can move on to someone describing themselves as tall or short.

1) Stephens Co-Teacher- Gillian and Vanessa at the Stephens Bday Celebration 2) Chris and Sarah at the Stephens Bday Celebration 3) A few nights ago we went out to the Brewery and some Chinese men invited us over to drink and insisted on taking tons of photos. This was one that I got. This guy puked at the table twice. 4) Jon, Vicki, Dale and Rey at the Stephens Bday Celebration 5 & 6) Korean BBQ on our way back from HK. So good!

Early Birthday Celebrations & Second Extention

Last night we went out to the Brewery to celebrate Stephens upcoming 23rd birthday since his birthday lands on a Monday (and it's not a long weekend here like it is in Canada). We were happy to have 4 teachers from our school come out to with us (our co-teachers and 2 that went mountain climbing with us). Two of them brought him gifts which was really sweet, and our co's said they will have something for him on Monday morning. As well most of the teachers from our recruitment company came out, which is always a good time. The table only fell over twice, breaking a few pitchers and glasses, and by the second time it was added to our tab (oops!). Today we headed out to Hong Kong again to extend...again. It was a quicker process this time even though we had one more person but unfortunately since we met in the afternoon, we weren't able to do any shopping. We're hoping next time it can be a weekend trip. It was a good feeling to be back on mainland soil. We are legal for another month, which is an odd way to measure the length of time you've been here for however 2 trips, 2 months. Once we arrived back we went for Korean BBQ which was delicious! On our way to the restaurant, by the subway station, a woman was selling kids toys. One of them was an army man, crawling on the ground and shooting his gun while holding the China flag. It was hysterical. We made it back at 9:30, just in time to put together tomorrows lesson plan and head to bed. When we awake it will be Stephens birthday!!!! Yay!

We've been back at work this week since finishing our little holiday and this weekend will mark our 2 months of living in Shenzhen! :) Happily some of our classes have been getting canceled since they are practicing for a show. We stayed to watch them rehearse one day, which was fun because it's only our students so we knew them all, and they're so darn cute. Our student's vocabularies are expanding every day and it's been really rewarding teaching them. When Stephen walks into his classes, I hear almost 36 children screaming his name, while some of my students won't let me leave class without a hug goodbye so I think it's safe to say that they like us as much as we like them. This Saturday we are excited to be celebrating Stephens birthday since it falls on a Monday this year (specifically a long weekend Monday back in Canada!), even though we actually have class on Saturday during the day. Definitely not something that would happen back home! We'll be going out to a bar with a group of teachers from our school, as well as the other expat teachers. I'm excited for our local teachers to come out and meet everyone. Monday will be a little more low-key as we head to dinner and celebrate his 23rd together. This Sunday we are going back to Hong Kong...AGAIN...for another visa extension. This time we're hoping to stay a little longer and stock up on some yummies. Which also means we'll be going back to the police station on Monday to update our records. Last night we went to grab a couple of drinks at a nearby outdoor bar. I woke up today with more than 30 mosquito bites...30!!!!!! Ohhh the itch. :( I look forwarding to updating you after this weekends/birthday festivities!!

1) Window from the Temple Staircase 2) Giant buddha made from gold 3) Lunch! 4) Us on Wutong 5) Where the incense were placed 6) Goddess of 1000 hands 7) All of us before going into the temple 8) View of the temple from above at Wutong 9) Stephen and I goofing off 10) Library at Temple

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