November in a Nut Shell – it flew..

I’m not quite sure where the month of November went…I’m finding it very hard to believe that we are already into December! It certainly doesn’t feel like it. Of course I have realized yet again how utterly terrible I am at this blogging business, as I seem to have skipped over the entire Month of N…oops. For this reason I offer a glimpse into my past month with the highlights!

November was a great month that was packed full of goodness. Life is still great here in China! Although, the weather has taken a turn to ‘winter’ and it’s been raining for a couple of weeks we are still managing to keep our spirits up and have fun.

The rain will not rain on our parade! Although Lulu’s are being extra appreciated…

We must also be realistic; life is not perfect although sometimes it can come pretty darn close. There is still that little thing that we call work - It kind of gets in the way of life Monday – Friday from 8am-4pm (and some evenings and week-ends). Don’t get me wrong; I love my job and the kids! The grade 2’s are keeping me very busy but each day I see some form of progress, which is very exciting!! Dealing with different languages, cultures and personalities is a difficult yet rewarding task, who knew? The rough days that I leave questioning my judgment of why I became a teacher in the first place pass and the great moments make everything worth it. On a side note: I’m ready for Christmas J

Outside of school we continue to Live the Dream. China is such fun!

Here. We. Go. A rundown of the November HighlightsJ

ISNS Talent Show – Skipped

The day of the Talent Show was an interesting one…I had 4 kids go home on account of throwing up (2 made it to the bathroom) and 1 kid (in Emma’s class) soiled himself (he may be in Em’s class but she came running as her stomach couldn’t handle the mess…and it was a mess). Needless to say it was a bit of a rough day on the old stomach and I needed a few hours to recuperate after school. I wasn’t feeling up to repeating an appearance at the Talent Show (most of us weren’t) so we sat in Patrick’s room, had a drink and slowly relaxed after a long week. The plan had been to go out but after the day I had had I planned on socializing then hitting the sack. Instead, I rallied and Krista and I ended up finishing up the ‘roofie punch’ and having our own party in Patrick’s room (while everyone else had already gone out). This punch had been created with all of the watermelon juice from our Watermelon Carving Contests that we had at school a few days earlier (for Halloween…they don’t have pumpkin carving here…). We danced the night away to a great live band at The Terrace. Thank goodness I was able to rally, we had such a great night! This is an example of yet another evening that I planned to be chill but ended up dancing in Shekou…oops!

Acamis Volleyball Tournament

I helped Katrina coach the girl’s High School Volleyball team and it just so happened that our school got to host the Big Acamis Tournament this year, how sweet!! It lasted 3 days and it was a blast!! Being apart of this tournament made me wish that I were back in High School playing. Of course this tournament was a little (or a lot) more upscale that the tournaments that I have attended. Michael outdid himself as the Athletic Director and had a wonderful tournament planned! We had a wonderful coaches evening at Aulon (all you can eat and drink) as well as a team dinner with more food than you could shake a stick at! Our girls, who had never touched a volleyball before this year lost every game BUT won their last match of the tournament. Everyone went wild!! There were tears, hugs, and lots of pictures taken. This was one of those moments that I will never forget, man were Katrina and I proud!!

 Our own Ping Pong Tournament at the boys’ place – headbands were mandatory.

One week-end, while Patrick and Joel were off coaching somewhere in China with the PingPong team a few of us decided to host our own BeerPong tournament. Headbands were mandatory as they were our ‘uniforms’. We played at the boys’ (Michael and Josh’s) place and my word did we have fun!! 

Kitchen Parties

The 3^rd floor saw a lot of action from all of us through the month of November . Not only with holiday events (Halloween) and special occasions but also with traditional Maritime Kitchen Parties!! You know how we Canadians love the kitchen.

Dinner Parties

Emma, Kelly, Krista, Patrick and I have been having dinner parties at Josh and Michael’s place (which began in November) and my word it’s wonderful. Having a home cooked meal makes such a difference in our lives! These boys have a full kitchen (this means they have a sink, a fridge and a true stove) and it is such a treat!! We’ve been taking turns cooking the meals, who knows what will be made next.  

Epic Medieval Party!

To say good-bye to November and Hello to December we had our much anticipated Medieval Themed Party. It was Incredible!! If you didn’t know better you would have thought you were in a scene from A Knight’s Tale – Patrick outdid himself again!! All we did was help put up the decorations that he had his students make for us. Haha This was a party that I will never forget! Who is lucky enough to go to an all you can eat/drink Medieval Party where they have wooden tables and stools, a pig-roast, a foe-fire-place and flags and drapes hanging from the ceiling? It was Wild!

 

Needless to say, November was a wonderful month!!

HIGHLIGHTS of Halloween

Well folks, Halloween 2012 is one for the books (my books anyway). Being in China offers so many costume possibilities (if you can find those possibilities in a normal size)! Normally Halloween, for me anyway, is often a last minute decision costume and I often say 'ugh, next year I am going to think of a good costume and be proactive'..never happened. Until this year that is!! A group of us thought about the copious amount of possibilities for a great deal of time coming up to the Big Day. We were constantly throwing out ideas to see the reaction, I threw Highlighters in there and it wasn't until the week before that we decided it was a good idea. 
We transformed Highlighters to 'The Highlight of Your Night' to 'We'll be the Highlight of The Night'! A group of us girls set off on a costume mission to Luoho, the craziest shopping centre (if you can call 6 floors of market style shops where people are constantly grabbing you and yelling "missy missy" a centre)....We wavered between costume ideas once we arrived, overwhelmed with the possibilities. In the end Emma, Kelly and I left with Neon outfits that would do us from Head-to-Toe...that's right folks. Neon Wigs exist in China! 

Once our costumes were ready we had to ensure that the Punch for the big Halloween Party would be wickedly yummy. To make sure it would be perfect, a few of us went to Patrick's room for a taste testing. We each made different concoctions and spread them around to find the perfect mixture. We may or may not have dragged it out a bit but found the perfect mix. Danger!

The Halloween Party was epic. Patrick yet again outdid himself (we're still not sure why he's wasting his time in teaching when he should clearly be throwing parties for important people) and the 3rd floor lounge looked wild! He even had lasers and a disco ball that went off and on with the music...

After our 3rd floor lounge shinanigans we all headed to D-Club where we danced the night away as the Hightlights of The Night...
'Oh What a Night' 

City Lights

 

Krista's Birthday Plan...
Plan A: a night out in Hong Kong. 
Depending on: our pocket books.

Plan B (made the week of the birthday): A surprise party on the rooftop of our place. 
Depending on: if Plan A couldn't work due to us being poor and pay-day not coming soon enough. 

Needless to say, we had to go with Plan B!! We were all both poor and pay-day didn't come soon enough. 

  Upon the realization that Plan A was not going to work-out at the beginning of the week I threw out the idea of cleaning up the roof and throwing a surprise party. Of course Patrick took my idea, ran a marathon with it and with his magic planning skills went to work on creating the best birthday celebration I may or may not have ever attended. THe rooftop turned out more beautiful than I had ever imagined! I had thought 'do a sweep, get rid of the broken chairs and rusting bbq.' He took the space and took it from drab to fab in an afternoon with a little help. I have never turned on so many fake tea lights in my life. All of his work was well-worth it when Krista walked onto the rooftop and saw us all standing there wishing her a Happy Birthday with the white tables, bar, music, and city lights behind us. It was hilarious and perfect. We ate, drank and chatted for what seemed like a good long time. The weather was perfect and it was such fun being dressed up and chatting on the roof with the beautiful lights all around us. When it came time we shifted the party to Coco Park where we danced and sang our way into the wee hours of the morning. 

It was a spectacular evening here in Shenzhen!!

Chinese Thanksgiving

Katriena, Myself, Kelly, Emma, Gina

Thanksgiving Means…Family and friends, delicious food and wine, out-door activities, the changing colours of the leaves, scarves and boots, among many other things. It means happiness and togetherness. For all of these reasons I found it a bit tough missing out on the festivities of Homecoming Week-end. This year Thanksgiving dinner was held at my Aunt Sue and Uncle Jack’s house. Although I missed the delicious meal and hilarious and always interesting conversation that the Hooper’s have, my day was made when the entire Hooper Family (well, those present) called me at school yelling “Happy Thanksgiving Kateeeee, We Love and Miss Youuu!!” I love my family and couldn’t help but laugh and tear-up at their beautiful screams. I think they must think that because I’m across the globe they had to yell over skype so that I can hear them. J Because we all missed Thanksgiving here in China we had our own ISNS Family Thanksgiving the next week-end. It was Amazing!! We did a Thanksgiving potluck, we all had to sign-up for something and I couldn’t believe all of the food that arrived on the day of. I signed up for desert…Panamie (the bakery down the street) made a delicious cake for me to bring. I thought this would be easier than trying to cook/bake something in my rusting microwave or on my hot plate.  There turned out to be so much food that we got to have leftovers (my favourite). Of course we ate too much and couldn’t eat desert. So, we saved our pies and had them with tea on the roof the next night. While sitting on our rooftop and enjoying each other’s company I realized, for maybe the 5^th time that day that I am very thankful for all that I have. I am a very lucky girl!

Bug Pasta

Oh, PS: thank goodness we had such a delicious Thanksgiving meal that night, I hadn’t eaten at all that day. This was because when trying to make pasta for lunch uncooked noodles and live bugs came out of the bag that I had just opened….not ok. 

The Teacher @ Parent Teacher Meetings...

I have survived my first round of Parent Teacher Meetings and I am thrilled to report that I was overly prepared! 

Evening #1: I had 6 meetings booked, 2 cancelled at the beginning of the week and I was stood up by my first. They showed up an hour later, thank goodness it wasn't a dinner date as I would have been starving. They all went well and thankfully the parents were well aware of their children's behavioural struggles (no surprise is a good surprise). 

Day #2: Today went really well, again parents were well aware of who their students are...although in a few meetings both yesterday and today I felt as though I was giving parenting advice. It all makes so much more sense when parents admit to me (while laughing, like it's a joke) that their child has the run of the household and that they 'have no control' over their kids. ANYWAY, parent teacher was an enlightening experience to say the least. 

We decided to celebrate earlier today (since we all survived our meetings) with a game of vball. Our game turned into us playing the Chinese school which we won (luckily, since it was all on film). Then we went for celebratory drinks at KingWay. We're now 'prepping' for an evening out. 

It's still very strange having been the teacher at Parent Teacher...WILD! 

Welcome to the 21st Century...

Well, I've gone and done it. I am the proud owner of a China Mobile! 
(Of course I have a number that I will never be able to remember)

Back Story: Katrina happened upon a large LG mobile a few weeks ago in a cab and after weeks of searching for its rightful owner she gave up. It was sad sitting alone in her desk so I adopted it. I bought it a nice cord and SIM card and it's now happily picking up bars when it chooses to (what a pain). 

Whether it works or not, I have a mobile. 

That being said....Boracay, you Hurt So Good.

Writing about Boracay makes a few things very clear to me. 

1. I truly loved my October Holiday and, 

2. I am now acutely aware of why my body hates me right now.

It has been a long week trying to get out of vacation mode and back into teaching mode but then again, tomorrow is Friday! I have spent the week fighting a cold, the urge to sleep, and my own clumsiness. The number of times that I have fallen up the stairs this week has increased an embarrassing amount. My runs have become significantly more dangerous; I seem to run into everything that I'm trying to avoid including branches, strollers, curbs, and the occasional corner of a wall (while climbing the never-ending stairs to my room). I even popped a reeses pieces butter cup in my mouth with the wrapper still on it today. Not ok. 

 

It’s More Fun in the PHILIPPINES!

First, I am using Time as my excuse for being Such a bad blogger. Time is moving at a terrifying clip here in China. I thought I posted yesterday when really it was about 2 weeks ago. Like I tell my students, ‘Time Flies when you’re having Fun!’. In the past 2 weeks I have been to Boracay and back, needless to say my life is improved and my body is exhausted.

Boracay was a spontaneous decision made by Emma and I after a long day at school a few weeks before October Holiday. This decision is ranked highly on my list of spontaneous decisions. We flew out on the 29^th (Saturday) from Hong Kong, spent an interesting night in Clark, Manila and flew to Kalibo the next day. Clark was an interesting place, perhaps one I might not choose to vacation in. The drive to our place ($8 CAN a night) was an interesting one that made us wonder if choosing the cheapest hostel was a good decision but of course it all worked out. We had a television with English channels and a comfy bed…enough said. We got a van back to the airport in the morning and some jokes were made about me not getting my morning run in. We laughed too soon as I quickly realized my wallet was gone. Instinct told me to run, so I did. I started running in no clear direction. Did I mention there was a long line of tourists watching? I had no idea in what direction I should go or who to chase, I just kept running. Finally I found our van; it turned out my wallet had fallen in between my seat and the door. Crisis averted, I got my run in, and I even experienced a minor heart attack all before 10am. We flew to Kalibo and after a bus ride, boat ride, sitting in the back of a truck made for people below the height of 5ft and paying god knows how many fees we made it to the Bonzai Resort (our home for the next week).

From then on it was True Love! It is a spectacular island and the Filipino people were out-of-this-world! I would go back in a heartbeat, no question. Although we did get hit with a typhoon in the middle of the week we didn’t let that rain on our parade. We spent a few afternoons standing in the ocean yelling various things at Mother Nature such as, “Is that ALL you’ve got” and “Come Onnnnn, Hit Me with your Best Shot”, etc. Although a few days were wet we still found delicious food (real breakfasts and PROTEIN were highlights), fun markets to look through, and bars to have afternoon drinks in (it was always Happy Hour somewhere). Except for Tuesday night (we decided our bodies deserved a small recovery) we were out on the beach every afternoon/evening. We would have drinks on our wonderful patio or on the beach, which would then lead to more drinks and dancing…lots of dancing! Our first night we found ourselves on the other side of the island at a Full Moon Party. It was then that we discovered our love for racing around the island on the backs of motorbikes and in TukTuks.

Luckily, the sun decided to shine for our last couple of days of vacation and the 15 of us from ISNS took advantage! We all went in and rented a catamaran for the better part of the day on the Saturday, which was fantastic. After doing some island hopping and swimming in caves, we took to the ocean for some snorkeling. It was by far the best snorkeling I have ever done. I could have stayed in there for hours!! The coral was beautiful and there were so many neat fish to watch. At the end of our day on the boat we stopped on a remote island to eat lunch (everything was cooked by the fire) and when we asked for the bathroom we were sent to the woods; it was hilarious. With the sun still out we hit the beach once we were back on land for what turned into a 1.5 hour nap, oops. 

On the Sunday we were all very sad to leave our island of Boracay, the island we spent the week falling in love with. It was such a treat being able to see Sophie and we met truly wonderful and interesting people from many walks of life; Australia, Ireland, France, the US, etc., ate delicious food, and sang and danced the majority of the time.

Boracay, until next time!! 

From the Mouths of Babes...

Miss. Hoopa, people say I’m good at eating (comes to my desk to tell me this after I finish telling the class that we have to do our best to eat all of our food)

Miss. Hoopa, basketball people are horrible (the ending to a long story about a basketball practice that happened a week previous to the story)

Miss. Hoopa, even though they promised they won't really do it because last time they promised me and they didn’t do it but maybe today they will do it because they promised you they would. (this child was not breathing or making any sense. Sometimes they just like to chat.)

Miss. Hoopa, I only write true (after I asked if his story was real or make-believe)

Miss Hoopa, I Looooooove Math (Me: That’s fantastic! Me too!...Grade 2 has turned me into a liar)

In the day they all good but in the night, it’s all party (enough said)

A Double Period of Math!!! Oh Miss. Hoopa, I soooo excited!!

Why are we practicing Read to Self?

To become Longer Stronger Readers! (Best answer!!)

Mom!! Oh…I mean…Miss. Hoopa (giggle)

Miss. Hoopa, I have a really hard core!! (Speaking about her math pattern core being difficult)

Miss. Hoopa, I want to be on your team! (We were in the middle of silent reading, there were no teams)

Sooo Gooood Miss. Hoopa, So Good!

Miss. Hoopa, I a wild car (speaking about having a wild card while playing Canada Food Guide bingo)

Miss. Hoopa, I want long har (hair) just like you one day. Sooo beautiful. 

(after a very long winded story:) Miss. Hoopa, I sorry. That was a tattle, not a tell. - walks away    (we're working on the difference between tattling and telling, it's necessary)