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Page 3 of abilucas Travel Blog Posts
July 22nd 2012
Today I visited the world's biggest Budda with my new GBF Francis. After travelling on the Disneyland line (Francis was very excited about this) to Tung Chung we took the Ning Ping 360 cable car up the mountain to reach the Budda and the monestary. I had forgotten quite how frightened I am of cable cars and this added to the high wind and the Typhoon warning really didn't make for the most enjoyable 25 minutes of my life. However, the views were excellent and Francis' comments just made it even better; "Look at those buildings there just so vertical!" Francis observes the skyscrapers. "Yes, what do you expect? Jeez, we're not in Pisa!" I snapped. Turning past the airport proved highly entertaining as the cablecar opposite us was stopped and evacuated. There was a rather ... read more
July 20th 2012
We left the bar and got into “the magic machine” (also known as the lift to the sober people present). Girl A asked why we were leaving and we told her it wouldn’t be particularly dignified to throw up in the Ritz Carlton. One of the boys had helped us taking A to the entrance and was insistent that we sit on the steps in front of the hotel to let her get some fresh air – NO.“One does not simply pass out on the front steps of the Ritz Carlton.” Getting into the cab, I said our Hong Kong address in my best Cantonese and the driver set off, knowing full well that we would probably never make it to our destination. Girl A was talking gibberish in the backseat and kept repeating how she ... read more
July 20th 2012
To celebrate surviving our first week, we decided to put on our glad rags and head to the world’s highest bar in what must have been Hong Kong’s swankiest hotel, The Ritz Carlton. Having our taxi door opened for us, been lead to the lobby and into the uber cool, mirrored lift (which confusingly had no buttons inside it) and welcomed into the bar I felt like someone who could actually afford to stay there! I did manage to smash a glass which prompted the staff to come over shining a torch at me, expecting the worst, I was thinking I would have to pay for the glass or leave or even both; to my surprise the staff took me to one side and checked my hand and asked me if I was ok, did I ... read more
July 20th 2012
Lak kwai Fong was exactly as expected; full of girls taking advantage of the free drinks and full of even more guys trying to take advantage of the girls! I was looking out for our TA’s as I’ve heard that it’s easy to go overboard when the drinks are free! Despite my initial reservations, I actually had a really good evening, we all stuck together (safety in number and all that) and managed to save each other from the futile attempts of the numerous “Jimmy Neutrons”’ (chinese guys with the most ridiculous hairstyle who seemed to be making an attempt on every girl in the room.) I decided that since it was highly unlikely I’d see any of these Jimmy Neutrons it was time to test out ‘the face’ and I was quite impressed that it ... read more
July 19th 2012
I hate it when you have to put on a serious face but inside you are in fits of giggles! Today, the boy who I had inadvertently called fat decided it would be funny to rip his nametag up so he was walking round with the word bus on his stomach, I clearly have the sense of humour of a nine year old. Wow, I couldn’t believe my eyes when I came back into my classroom to find all my kids sat in silence reading through their lines and practicing, we then did a seated run through to check who had learnt their lines and (surprisingly) the majority of them knew them pretty well and a few even knew the whole script! I managed to get through half the play as a proper run through which ... read more
July 17th 2012
First of all, I apologise for any typos in this entry, I’ve stayed up writing Toy Story 4, the amazing play that my class are going to perform on Friday and planning tomorrow’s event, which will hopefully run like clockwork. Today I have so much to write and rant about that I’m not quite sure were to begin! At 8.40 am team 2 said hi to Billy our bus driver (I still find it bizarre that our bus driver has the same name as my dog). Rosa had an announcement to make: during the afternoon we must not let the children use scissors! It turns out that yesterday evening, one of the parents had sent a photo to the school director because their child had tried to give himself a cheap haircut which had resulted in ... read more
July 16th 2012
So my first day of attempting to teach went as well as expected, 120 children confined to one room for three hours was never going to be stress free. However, sat here listening to other conversations is making me feel slightly better! One guy just walked in and announced that the one thing he’d learnt today was to always use condoms and he then asked where he could get a vasectomy. After introducing ourselves to the camp and finally settling down the rabble we took our form groups to do drama for an hour, other than the kids being quite shy at first, there were no major problems with my class and I quite enjoyed them calling me Miss Abi! For the next lesson I taught the weather to the younger class, this also went well ... read more
July 14th 2012
In order to avoid the midday heat, I decided it would be a good idea to get up early and go for a swim in the outdoor pool in Towloon Tsai park, however, at 7am my rumbling stomach had other ideas! After a trusty, peanut-free bowl of porridge I fell back asleep and finally made it to the pool for 10.20 am. Having barely swam two lengths; I was waved over by a fat, t-shirt-wearing, moustache-bearing thing (I wasn’t sure whether it was a man or a woman at this point). Being the friendly idiot that I am, I swam over and said hi but as the conversation progressed, I began to wish more and more that I wasn’t so willing to go off and do things on my own and that I had fought off ... read more
July 10th 2012
Today we had to be ready bright and early to start work at 8am. Being an early-riser, I spent an hour running around the park across the road and found the local track, an outdoor swimming pool, the fitness corner for the elderly (this was hilarious) and hundreds of people doing Tai Chi, I may join in at the back just for a laugh one day! After everyone had turned their noses up at the breakfast offering of noodles or rice (again), we met our teaching assistants and began with some drama activities. Our team were then the first to leave on our school visits, they all seemed really nice until we found out that during week four we are expected to teach science and maths and that next weeks school doesn't have any of the ... read more
July 9th 2012
Mong Kok was our destination for the day, the place was teeming with tourists and locals all trying to explore the numerous street markets selling all sorts of things at ridiculously cheap prices! I bought a towel and a rucksack and managed to haggle (well, someone haggled on my behalf) on both occasions. I also found lots of inspiration for gifts but I figured I'd wait for Mong Kok round two later in my trip, even if it is just so I can snigger immaturely at the name. Mong Kok is also home of a Michelin stared dim sum restaurant with a very stressful ticketing system! Whilst we were waiting for our number, we explored more of Mong Kok's back streets and found dogs in very small cages in petshop windows, pizza dough sold rolled up ... read more
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