Christmas in Thailand- Dec. 2011

Once we moved to Hong Kong we decided it would be fun to do some traveling to nearby countries. So far we had only been to Macau, a small island not too far away from HK, and Shenzen, a city right over the boarder into mainland China. So we thought why not go somewhere for Christmas and have that be our Christmas present. We thought of some options and decided we wanted to go to Thailand. We had heard some great stuff about Phuket, so we decided we would go there. We booked our plane tickets and hotel online. We got our tickets for Christmas day. So we were able to have Christmas Eve and morning at home to open presents. Then we were off to the airport. We called my family at the airport to say Merry Christmas. Of course we had to do a little bragging about the fact that we were going to spend the rest of the Christmas holiday laying on the sandy beaches of Thailand while they were stuck in snowy, cold Utah. We're evil! Muahahahaha

Anyways, we landed got to Phuket late and got into a shuttle van. We arrived at our hotel in the wee hours of the morning and headed off to bed. The hotel workers were awesome and told us if we wanted to book any trips for any tours or anything to just come down to the front desk and ask them for help. This is one thing I loved about the hotels in Phuket. You can book tours and activities (such as boat trips and elephant tours) at your hotel and then the tour group will pick you up at the hotel!! Awesome!!! This was amazing cause we didn't have to worry about finding our way to the places... so we didn't get lost!

So the next morning we went down stairs and looked through the activity brochures and decided that we wanted to go on an elephant tour. The hotel worker booked our tour for a few hours later. So we headed off to eat some breakfast and explore a little while we waited. Then we went back to the hotel and got picked up for our elephant riding extravaganza!! I was sooooo excited. This is one of the reasons why I wanted to go to Thailand... to ride an elephant!!! Let me just say, elephants are now my 2nd favorite animals! They are awesome!! I even got to ride on the elephant's head. At first I was a little nervous because I had heard stories about tour guides being abusive to the elephants and when we got to the place, the guys were holding these rod/cane/hook type things. I thought they would be just like the stories I had heard. But once we got started we realized that our tour guide was very nice to our elephant. He used the hook thing to help lead the elephant around. I think they also used it as precautionary thing?? I'm not sure but the guide was very good and nice to the elephant. Even made sure the people running the tours gave our elephant a break even though they wanted him to go on another tour right after we were done. So yeah riding an elephant is AWESOME!!

After we were done with the trek we headed back to the hotel. Since it was still pretty early we wanted to do something else. So we looked at more brochures and found an ad for Bungy Jumping. I have always wanted to bungy jump so I was totally interested. I really wanted to do it! And heck, we are in Thailand... why not do something crazy!

Here is my video:

Here is David. I love his scream! Sooooo funny!

Tam Visits Hong Kong- Dec 2011

On Dec. 14, 2011 my cousin and one of my bestest friends in the world, Tam, arrived in Hong Kong! It was a spur of the moment decision. She wanted a fun get away and I convinced her to come! I don't remember exactly how many days she stayed for but I think it was between 8-10?? Anyways, we tore Hong Kong apart! It was seriously one of the funnest weeks of my life. The day she arrived we decided to take her to get Indian food at our favorite place at Chung King Mansions. But first we went on the Star Ferry. Both of these things were bad ideas... Tam gets really bad motion sickness. She had taken medicine for it but it hadn't kicked in by the time we got on the boat. After we went across the ferry she started to feel bad. Then we took her into Chung King where it has a very heavy smell of Pakistan and Indian men and food. Then she started to feel really sick. These conditions plus the fact that she was exhausted from her flight were not a good combination. So we hurried and picked up some samosas from the Butts curry place and headed home so she could rest. Here we are on the Star Ferry: (Click on the picture collages to see the images larger)

The next day I had to work all day. So Tam had to hang out with David for a while. I think he took her to Sai Kung that morning. Then he came and dropped her off at my work. I had asked if it would be ok if she came to my afternoon class. Since my class only had a few students my boss said it would be ok. So she came and visited my class. I think she enjoyed it. The next day was Friday. I had to work in the morning. So Tam slept in and relaxed until I got off work. Then I came home and we headed off exploring. First we went to Chi Lin Nunnery and then to the Wong Tai Sin temple. Of course we had to take tons of pictures!

Chi Lin Nunnery:

Wong Tai Sin Temple:

That night Tam went with me to my work Christmas party. I love being with Tam! She brings me out of my shell a bit. I am goofy and more outgoing when she is around. We were goofy at the party... Doing some dancing, wearing fake air sleeve tattoos, and laughing a lot.

The rest of the week flew by. We did so much stuff and saw so many things. Since we took hundreds of photos I made collages in order to fit in a lot of pictures. Since we did a ton that week I get a little mixed up on which days we did each thing.

I think Saturday was the day we went to Monkey mountain and 10,000 Buddha's monastery with David. Saturday was the one day David could run around with us all day so we asked him to choose which things he wanted and these are what he chose. First we got on the bus and headed out to Monkey Mountain. (I don't think that is its official name but everyone called it that.) We saw quite a few monkeys that day in two different areas of the mountain. We got some fun pictures and even better videos.

Next we headed off to one of my favorite destinations in HK, 10,000 Buddhas. There are so many Buddhas with silly faces. So we had fun imitating them and taking pictures. What a fun day:

We went to Clear Water Bay beach on Sunday after church. David and I took a nap on the beach. Tam read a book. We saw some old guy swimming... he was very fit for an old guy.

Here is what went down the rest of the week:

Eating yummy breads at bakeries for breakfast and snacks:

Cable car ride up to the Big Buddha:

Visiting Tai O village and going on a boat ride to try and see the pink dolphins:

Exploring the streets of Hong Kong and Shopping at the Markets:

Going to Stanley Market and Stanley Beach:

Crazy Fun Bus Rides:

Walking Along the Harbor, Visiting Avenue of the Stars, and Taking Pics with Fat Dancers:

Eating Lots of Yummy Food:

Riding the Peak Tram and Seeing the Amazing View at the Peak

Hilarious and Fun Night of KARAOKE!!!!!

Oh man we were pretty tired by the end of her trip but it was well worth it. We had so much fun and made so many memories. I am so glad we took so many pictures to capture all of the fun times. I

Christmas at Garden House Dec. 2011

Christmas is my favorite holiday. I love all of the fun events, parties, and celebrations held at Christmas time. My school held several Christmas events. Some took lots of preparation but each was fun and memorable. The first Christmas event that was held was Garden House's annual Advent Spiral. I had never heard of this before. At our Advent Spiral we put pine type leaves in a spiral shape. Then we arranged candles around the leaves. Then the parents gathered at sat on chairs. Once everyone was ready the "angel" (which was me.. mainly because I was one of the only ones with blonde hair and apparently I am angel-like haha) walked in with a candle lit. The angel then walked through the spiral and lit the middle candle. Then we started to sing Christmas carols. As we sang the kids came up with their parents and were given an apple with a candle in the middle. They then walked through one end of the spiral, lit their candle on the large candle, placed their candle somewhere in the spiral, and walked out the opposite side. It was a fun night. I love Christmas carols and this was a fun way to celebrate.

The next Christmas event we had was our Christmas Fun Day. This is an event where the families come and experience a bunch of fun activities run by the school. There were games, face painting, crafts, cookie decorating, two puppet show stories, a bake sale, a BBQ, and more. I helped with the puppet show stories. I was the story teller during the Gingerbread Man and I moved the puppets for the Elves and the Shoemaker. It was a LOT of work to pull of this event and though it was fun, we were also relieved when it was over. You can see pictures at Garden House's Facebook page. www.facebook.com/gardenhouse.preschool

Next came the performance our class put on for their parents. We decided to put on a Waldorf type Nativity program. Each of the kids was assigned a part. Then we all learned the songs. We worked hard for weeks and the kids did a great job! I think the parents were quite impressed. The best part about the whole thing was me bribing the kids. Right before the performance I told the kids that I would give them candy if they did their best. After the performance and after the parents clapped, one little girl named Mia called out, "Can we have the candy now?" All the parents started to laugh. I was caught! Hahaha So the parents found out that I bribed them with candy and I was a little embarrassed. But it was so worth it cause they did a great job!

After that we had our Christmas party during school hours, for the kids. On the last day before Christmas break we had a combined snack. The kids brought tons of goodies and we gathered in the kitchen of the school. All the kids wore Christmas crowns that they made. We sang some songs and then we ate... So much food... so yummy! We also did some Christmas gift giving.

I think it was later that day we had a staff Christmas party. We all came back to the school that night and celebrated with lots of food and a gift exchange. I was lucky enough to get this scarf that I am wearing in the following picture. What made the party extra cool was that my cousin Tam was in HK and she came with me! We had so much fun.

Thanksgiving 2011

Of course Hong Kong doesn't celebrate Thanksgiving but since a lot of the people we went to church with were from the US they did celebrate. So they organized a Thanksgiving pot luck dinner to be held at the church. Of course we wanted to go! Thanksgiving is the best and we definitely wanted to eat yummy homemade foods on this wonderful holiday. So we went to the dinner to celebrate. There was so much yummy food! Lots of amazing cooks in the branch so of course it was all delish! We filled ourselves to the brim! Awesome celebration... unfortunately I don't think we got any pictures.

Days at the Farm 2011

One thing I liked about working at Garden House was the farm. I would have loved that as a kid. The kids really enjoyed getting to pick veggies, plant, and dig. The farm also has a small pond with fish. I have lots of my own pictures of the kids from school and pics from our outings. I didn't want to put any pics on my blog for privacy reasons. Since my first year parents posted pics on my facebook of their kids I felt they would be fine with me posting pics. I didn't know if my Garden House parents would feel the same but... Garden House has a facebook page with pictures of us on it so... if you wanna see some you can go to their facebook page and look at them.... The kids are adorable! www.facebook.com/gardenhouse.preschool

Halloween 2011

Halloween 2011 was awesome! We went to two different Halloween parties. One was with a bunch of our friends at Hayley and Derrald Stice's house, the other was our Branch party at the church. First came the party at the Stice's on Friday Oct. 28th. All of those who came were:

Matt and Michelle Wright

Betsey, Richard, Nora, and Calvin Hawkins

Scott, Brooke, Drew, Taylor, and Olsen Gordon

Hayley and Derrald Stice

And us!

So the night started out with watermelon carving. Pumpkins in HK are quite expensive. So instead of carving pumpkins, we carved watermelons and ate the insides as part of our dinner. We got the idea from Derrald. His family lived in HK when he was younger and they used to do that on Halloween.

Next we had a yummy dinner full of sausages. It was technically a sausage party so we ate a variety of sausages. We also had some other side dishes and desserts. I remember Brooke brought some very yummy carmel apple dip and apples. We had such a fun night. It was our first time meeting the Gordons. We became good friends with their family and ended up hanging out with them a lot.

So next came our branch party the following night. Of course it was a costume party so we had to dress up!! David and I wanted to dress up as something the kids would love. We thought it would be fun to be an angry bird and one of the piggies. Since Angry Birds was extremely popular we thought they would enjoy that. So I made some costume pieces out of felt and this is how our costumes turned out:

The costumes were a hit! Of course everyone knew what we were right off the bat. Well the night started out with dinner. We filled up on food and then it was off to the games. In different rooms of the church were different carnival type games. David and I were in charge of the nerf gun shooting range. At first we set up the vest targets on chairs for the kids to shoot at. Then David got the great idea to put on the vest and have the kids shoot at him instead. So the kids started shouting stuff like... "Shoot the piggie!" Of course David got really into it and of course the kids loved it!! From then on David was known as piggie. Mainly it was Drew and Taylor who called him that. The night ended with trick or treating. Kind of like a trunk or treat but the kids just went to different rooms and knocked on the doors. David and I helped pass out candy as well. What a fun night!

BBQ With Friends

Whenever we hung out with our friends in HK we usually went to their houses or out somewhere. We figured we needed to invite our friends over to our place. Plus we had an awesome deck with lots of space so we decided to have a BBQ. We invited the Rockin' Hawkins and the Stices. I think we may have invited other friends too? I don't remember. But they came over and we had some yummy food. We also brought out some toys for the kids to play with... You will see in the pictures below what our living room looked like after the kids got done with the toys. Haha David showed Nora and Calvin his remote control helicopter. We also had some chocolate cake for desert. Calvin and Nora were a little crazy with the cake and got it all over the place... All over the floor, couch, other furniture. It was so funny! It was a fun get together!

Autumn Festival School Celebration Sept. 2011

The school I worked for, Garden House, holds a celebration every year for Autumn Festival. This year we gathered at a park. First, we all gathered around and spent some time chatting with the parents and their kids. Since I had missed the first week of few days of school, I still had not met a bunch of the parents. So this was the first time I spoke to them. Next, we passed out the kids lanterns that they made at school. We then walked around in a large circle singing songs and carrying our lanterns. Fun time getting to know my fellow co-workers, the parents, and the kids.

Birthday Sept. 2011

I got back to Hong Kong from my US trip for my Grandma's funeral on Sept. 4th. The day before my birthday! So I was pretty exhausted on my birthday. Jet lag and tired from all the emotion from the previous week. So on my birthday I wanted to do something relaxing. So after I got off of work around 1, we went to a late lunch and a movie. Then when we got home I went to bed early, around 7 pm. I did get an awesome present from David though.... This!!!!:

A Hong Kong Disneyland Season Pass!!! WAHOO!!! I had been wanting one of these for a while and I finally got one! Yippee!! Since I worked less hours at my new job I had lots more time to go to DL! I was so excited... So to celebrate David and I went to Disneyland with some friends and their kids on the 14th of Sept. I loved going to DL with kids. Fun!!

New Job, New School, New Philosophy-Garden House Aug. 2011

On Aug. 8, 2011 I started a new job at a school called Garden House Pre-school and Kindergarten. Garden House is a Waldorf inspired school. Waldorf is an education philosophy developed by a guy named Rudolph Steiner in Germany. This philosophy/school is completely different than most schools in Hong Kong. Education in Hong Kong is high pressured. The kids start going to school really young and start learning concepts super young. At my previous school I was teaching phonics to 2-4 year olds. Stuff that in the US you normally start teaching at 4. But at Garden House the learning is play based. They don't learn through traditional teaching/learning methods. Activities we did at school were: Baking, Singing, Dramatic play, Puppet show story telling, Outdoor play, and SEWING. Yes we taught our 3-5 year olds how to sew. With real medal needles. They do such a good job doing it too!

So I find a lot of the Waldorf philosophy to be strangle. Some of the ideas I really like, but some not so much. In the Waldorf philosophy they don't start teaching kids to read and write until age 7. I think that is a little too old to start. I agree that 2 or 3 is young but 7 is a little too long to wait. Also in Waldorf they sing a lot. They sing instructions to the kids sometimes like... "Quiet voices." In a sing song voice. I found all the singing a little strange but I kind of liked it as well.

Another thing that I got frustrated with was I felt the kids weren't being challenged enough. Since I wasn't allowed to do traditional activities like centers, I felt the kids got bored. The free play time during the day lasted between 25-40 minutes. During this time the kids are free to roam around the classroom and choose what they want to do. There is a kitchen play area, quiet reading corner, toys they can use to create their own puppet show stories, blocks, materials for creating houses, and other toys. During this time we also had crafts and baking activities available. Later in the school year the kids started to get bored during this time. Some kids were able to keep busy for the whole time. Other kids would start to get crazy. I believe that the Waldorf philosophy weren't good for these kids. I think some of these kids would benefit more from a school that had more structure. One of my students named Xavier was so clever. He was already learning to read, write, and do math. He would get a little bored during the free play time but if I kept him busy drawing, writing, sewing, or playing phonics games he was so well behaved. So I think the Waldorf philosophy is good in some ways but its definitely not best for all kids.

But anyways, I was immediately in love with the environment at Garden House. Most things were made out of wood. The walls were a soft pink color. When you walk into the school there is a kitchen where stuff is frequently baking, making it smell really good. I also liked that it wasn't a high pressure school. At Greenville there was a lot of pressure to make sure the kids were learning everything and that all the work was getting done. At Garden House it isn't rushed. The kids are free to learn at their own pace. I also liked that the school had a small farm where we would take the kids.

I also worked with a lot of cool people. The other teachers, housekeepers, and office staff were all very nice. I taught some great kids. Here is a link to Garden House's website if you wanna take a look at what the school is all about. There is a picture gallery. I'm in one or more of the pics:

www.gardenhouse.hk

Farewell To The BEST GRANDMA EVER!! July-Aug 2011

The night before we went back to Hong Kong we had a farewell BBQ at my parents house to say goodbye to family and friends. Little did we know it would be our final farewell to my Grandma Foster. When my grandparents were getting ready to leave the party to go home, my grandma fell on the concrete and broke her hip. My grandpa heard the bone break and knew she was in trouble. We called for an ambulance and they got there quickly. They loaded her up in the ambulance and took her away to the hospital. Sadly, that is the last time I would ever see my dear ol' Granny Dee alive.

She underwent surgery and went to a rehab center. Her condition continuously deteriorated and about three weeks later she passed away. Unfortunately I was way far away in Hong Kong and couldn't be there in the rehab center with her as she passed. I had been texting my dad and sisters that day and got the news right after she left. I was devastated. I curled up in a ball on my bed and just bawled.

My dad told me when her funeral would be and I was determined to go. Since we had just spent a LOT of money on our trip to the US my parents and grandpa told me they understood if we couldn't come to the funeral. They knew it would cost a lot of money and they didn't want me to feel pressure to go. But there was NO WAY I was NOT gonna go!! Are you serious? This is my Granny Dee we were talking about. Of course I was gonna go... No matter the cost. First I needed to call my boss, Cannie, and tell her the situation and ask for the work days off. Since I would be needing the first week of school off, I was a tiny bit nervous about what she was going to say. I was still in tears from the whole ordeal and didn't really feel like talking to my boss, even though she is a total sweetheart! So David called her and told her the situation. She was a little worried about me missing the first week, like I suspected, but she said she would make some phone calls and call us back. About 5-10 minutes later she calls back and tells me not to worry about work and that they will be fine if I go.

During this time I had been in contact with my sister, Suzi. She had just purchased her ticket from Dallas to Utah. She was the only one I told that I was working on getting my ticket to come out there. So I search for a ticket. I was really worried that they would be super expensive since I was looking for one for the next morning! To our utter surprise, we find a very decently priced ticket leaving the following morning. Another amazing thing was it was due to land in Salt Lake City only about an hour or so before Suzi's would. Since my parents were picking her up all I needed to do was wait in the airport and I would have a ride home too!! So we quickly bought the ticket and I started packing. Since it was late at night and it is a long bus ride to the airport, we would be needing to leave our house in a few hours.

We decided that we wanted my whole family (except Suzi) to be totally surprised when I showed up. So David text my family from my phone and said something like... I'm so sorry but I won't be able to make it to the funeral because of work and such. They totally thought it was meaning both of us and they told us not to feel bad and that Grandpa understands. Little did they know that I was about to get on a plane!!

David dropped me off at the airport and I found my gate. I had a little time before my flight was scheduled to leave so I got on the internet to check Facebook. When I did I saw a post from our good friend, Betsey Hawkins. She said that she had just dropped off her husband Richard and daughter Nora at the airport. Richard's grandma had passed away and they were heading off to Utah for her funeral. When I looked up from my IPod guess who I saw standing at my gate? Richard and Nora! So I went over and asked if they were going on this flight? They said they were! I told them that my grandma had passed away too and I was going to her funeral in Utah. So there I had two good friends going on the same flight! I was so happy that I wouldn't be traveling alone. Even though we weren't sitting right by each other we could hang out during the layover and say hi during the flight. It was awesome and just what I needed right then!

I arrived in Utah in the late morning/early afternoon. Suzi and I decided that we would meet in the bathroom right by the luggage pickup area. Since I didn't know if my mom would be coming in to the airport to help Suzi with her luggage or if they would pick her up at the curb, I told Suz I would wait in the bathroom stall. I told her to come in and say the key word, Hong Kong. Then I would jump out of the stall and surprise her and my mom. So I hid in the stall waiting. Then I hear this really quiet whisper saying, Hong Kong. I knew then that my mom wasn't with her. So I come out of the stall and say hi. Then we thought of a plan to surprise my parents.... She would go out to the pick up area and wait for my parents. I would hide closer to the builder behind a large column. She would then wave at me signaling me to come over and surprise them.

So I stand behind this column and peek over while she is waiting at the pick-up area. I look around the column and see my parents car down a ways from where she is standing. My mom was standing by the car looking around. I was wondering why Suzi wasn't going over there? Then I realized that Suzi probably didn't know that they were driving a different car that they had just purchased. So I look over to my mom again and see that she is looking over in my direction. So I decided I was just going to run in myself. So I pick up my back, run past Suzi, and tell her "I'm going in". Then I run over to my mom and shout, "Can I get a ride?" She then screams, "SHELLY!!" and then grabs me in a big hug! She screamed so loud that lots of people around were just staring at us! It was so awesome! My dad then looks over at me and says... You tricky trickster! (Or something like that.) They had NO idea I was coming.

After that my parents took Suzi and I out to eat at Cafe Rio. While there we think of a plan to surprise the rest of the crew. Most of them were at my grandpa's house cleaning while my Aunt Trena and Uncle Dan were out with gramps. So we thought of a plan... I would drive over to gramps house with Shane (we went and picked him up at my parents house.) They would get to the house first and gather everyone in the living room. Shane would then drop me off at the corner and I would sneak through the yard to the back and go through the back door. I wait downstairs until they were ready.

So I get to the downstairs of the house and wait. Shane comes and gets me and says they are ready for me. So I quietly creep up the stairs and wait by the door. I then hear my dad say, one more time. Lets shoot that one more time. The rest of the group was complaining... let us go in the kitchen. We need to hurry and finish cleaning before gramps gets back. Then Suzi says just one more take. We wanna film this for Shelly. Then she says the key words... I'm glad my flight was only a couple of hours and not 20 like it would have been from Hong Kong. When she said that I ran in the room and shouted... Did someone say Hong Kong?! Everyone starts shouting... Shelly!!! They were so surprised!! It was awesome!!

Then it was time to surprise my grandpa. I hid in his bedroom. He arrived a little bit later. Once I heard him come in I popped out of the bedroom. He saw me and I went over to hug him. I don't remember exactly what he said... all I remember is that he burst into tears and held me in a big hug for a long while. He said thank you so much for coming. It was one of the best moments of my life. A moment I will never forget... I'm crying now while I'm writing about it. It meant so much to me that I was able to be there and I know it meant so much to him that I was willing to sacrifice to be there. It made me realize just how much my grandpa loves me.

The next few days were filled with some sadness but a lot of joy. We spent a lot of time reminiscing about the good times. Grandma's viewing and funeral were perfect. The funeral wasn't sad but happy. We remembered the amazing life Grandma had. There were lots of fun stories told. We heard Grandpa speak and it was amazing to hear him talk about Grandma. He truly loved her and still loves her. He is the best example of how you should treat your spouse. It was awesome. I was so glad and grateful that I was able to go to her funeral. Here is the link to her awesome obituary:

http://m.heraldextra.com/lifestyles/announcements/obituaries/article_87e2fc73-0298-5998-ba87-1596be5319cf.html

I don't remember if it was the night of the funeral or what? But one night before I left to go back to HK, we had a cousin's gathering at Stephanie's house. We sat around the fire and told stories of the good days with Grandma. Since there were kids of all ages, we got to hear a lots of different stories of how grandma was at different ages in her life. When she was a little younger and able to take the grandkids to Lagoon, to when she was older and still taking us kids on camping trips. Grams really was an amazing lady... One that will never be forgotten! Love and miss you Grams!!

Summer Vacation 2011

After I finished my contract at Greenville Kindergarten in July 2011 I had a few of weeks before I had to start my new teaching job at Garden House. So David and I bought plane tickets and planned a trip to visit family in Utah. We spent the first week or so hanging out with my family.

Then we spent a week in Bear Lake for the McGrew family reunion. David's parents rented a large house up at Bear Lake that had plenty of space for the whole McGrew Crew. Each of David's siblings and their families were there except for Scott and Anna. They couldn't come because their son Jason was battling cancer. The house we stayed in was amazing. It had three floors. One floor had a theatre room filled with comfy seating. Another floor had a ping-pong table. The bottom floor had an indoor basketball hoop, trampoline, and playground set. The house also had slides that went from each floor of the house. Amazing!!! We had so much fun that week. We played games, watched movies, did crafts, had a secret santa gift exchange, and ate lots of yummy food! It was a great week!

The next part of the trip was spent at my family's house. My cousin Christopher and his wife planned a family concert for my grandpa to perform at. They had been wanting to do one for a long time and fortunately they planned it for when we would be there. Unfortunately the night of the performance, I was stuck sick in bed with a really bad sore throat. Seriously I got sick on vacation! So lame! But the concert went well and David was able to get part of it on video:

School Graduation

The school year at Greenville where I worked ended in the middle of July. Craziness!! They also held a graduation for the K3 students (5-6 year olds) that were finishing kindergarten and getting ready to go to primary school the next year. The graduation was ridiculous! I think it was a bigger deal than my high school graduation. It was a combined graduation for like 4 or 5 schools. A couple of Greenville schools and Greenfield schools. (Owned by the same people.) They had speakers and then the kids had to put on a presentation singing songs and performing skits. Needles to say, it was ridiculous. It was the longest day ever. I think the graduation was on a weekday. So we had to teach in the morning and then we had to take off to the place where the event was held. We had to wait around for the event to start and had to help the kids get ready. After the event started we had to watch our kids and wait for their turn to go on. Since there were so many schools participating it took a long time to get to our kids turn. Finally it was their turn and we finished up the night. Fortunately that was the last time I would have to endure a graduation like that because I signed a contract with another school starting Aug. 8, 2011.

Dragon Boat Festival- June 6, 2011

I love the holidays in Hong Kong. They have so many fun ones that you don't usually get in the US. One fun holiday they have is the Dragon Boat Festival. They hold dragon boat races which are fun to watch. They have teams who practice a lot to get ready for these races. In 2010, soon after we got to HK, there was the festival. I don't remember why but we didn't go watch the races that year. So the next year we decided to go watch them. So we headed out to Sai Kung and found a place close to the pier to watch. It got crowded but luckily we are taller than most people there so we were able to see what was going on. We even got a little video:

2010-2011 School Year in Review

We moved to Hong Kong because I got my first teaching job after graduating from BYU. I was scared to death! The first few months were quite stressful and I had no idea what I was doing. I continued to work hard and I finally started to get the hang of things.School in HK can be pretty intense. The kids start attending school at a very young age and they push them hard. So here I was trying to make learning fun for the kids while trying to finish all of the silly workbooks I was supposed to have them do. It was tricky but I worked out a system. We were able to fly through their workbooks and have lots of extra time for the fun hands on learning I wanted to do. We had lots of sensory activities, dramatic play activities, games, crafts, P.E. activities, and the kids favorite Show-and-Tell. The kids learned a lot and I was amazed at the improvement they made in their English speaking skills. It was awesome to think that I helped them learn all those things. Teaching really is such a rewarding career. I really fell in love with all of the kids in my class. I will always remember my first year of teaching. I learned so much and had a blast. Here are some pictures I took throughout the year.

Jeff and Suz Visit HK April 2011

When we moved to Hong Kong I hoped that my family would be able to come visit us. I knew it was expensive to fly that far but I still hoped. I was so excited when my sister Suzi and my brother in law Jeff said they would be coming to visit!!! We did lots of research and planning for their trip. We wanted to be able to show them as much of Hong Kong as we could. So they came for a little over a week and we had a blast. Even though we had been in Hong Kong for almost a year, we hadn't explored much of the city. So their first time experiencing everything was our first time too. We also took a trip up to main land China to a city called Shenzen. There we did a lot of shopping. I ended up buying like 8 pair of colorful glasses for a super sweet deal. We also met up with David's friend from when he lived in mainland named Linda. She took us out to eat to get some very yummy Chinese food. It was delicious. We ran around like crazy during their trip. We would leave in the morning and would not get home til late at night. Needless to say, we were exhausted by the time they left. It was well worth it though! We had a BLAST. Here are some highlights: Click on the collage for a larger view of the images.