Oh no Canada!

While thinking about Canada (it's almost Canada Day) I came up with a bunch of reasons why I don't feel the need to move back in any rush. Today I was reminded of one major reason...

Rogers sucks!

Well, maybe that's unfair to point out just one company... THEY ALL SUCK! (cellular providers in Canada that is).

One look at their price structure for the new iPhone (i standing for 'i am a piece of crap') made my eyes roll more than once. The cheapest plan is $60 CDN! And all you get is 150 minutes! Are you joking!? It's a phone! And it doesn't even do things that many other phones already can. What exactly is so special about this magical device? Pretty much every phone manufacturer in Asia already has a phone that does what the iPhone does plus more. They also cost a heck of a lot less.

There's so much BS about how Canada is too small a market so everyone has to pay more for everything. I thought we were one of the richest countries in the world? Where's all that money going?

Anyone who buys an iPhone (thus signing up for a 3 year contract) is a fool.

p.s. Did I mention I get 1400 minutes for the equivalent of about $10CDN per month? In Hong Kong, that's a ripoff.

so close, yet so far.

Where have all the emails gone? Has Facebook really become so popular that people would rather share private information with a few million people than send a nice old fashioned intimate email? Does it hurt to actually call someone by their name, not just include them on a list to be forgotten?

I will admit I use Facebook, but the amount of time people waste sending meaningless crap to each other is quite astonishing. It's a nice place to see photos and videos of other people, but there are many other sites that have been around for much longer that do exactly that, and BETTER. So why would anyone use Facebook when there are many more secure and private methods available?

PEOPLE ARE LAZY! (and generally lack web intelligence)

Wow I know it's surprising. Ok, people have been getting more and more lazy ever since the Internet was invented so it's nothing new. What bothers me is how people actually message and 'poke' each other in the same room. Or send a message on a computer to someone they could pick up the phone and hear the voice of.

My main beef is how people can seem to become even less inclined just because of a few time zones. The only reason I continue to put up with Facebook is because I would never hear a thing about what is happening or has happened to my 'friends.' I use this term loosely because that's exactly what it has become. Does anyone in the world actually have over 100 friends? Over 20 even? Not good ones usually that's for sure.

It's annoying how when you move away everyone seems to forget what timezones are, and how easy it is to calculate a good time to call. And I've been in Hong Kong almost 2 years. On a weekly basis I'm still asked what time it is here.

Phone calls I can do without, but not even an email? How lazy has everyone become?

Here's a review:

Hong Kong is 12 hours ahead of Eastern Time, 13 ahead of Central, 14 of Mountain, and 15 of Pacific. (as of the time change) Note: Emailing can be done regardless of what time of night it is

I look forward to not hearing or reading from anyone...

At least someone is reading.

I received my first anti-me comment! I feel special. If you want you can scroll down to the 'Otherside' post about a week ago and read the comments. If wheeling a mouse is too strenuous, I will summarize.

"...Don't blog if you can't get the facts right. Chinese media has been in Tibet the whole time. Why is someone as anti-China as you allowed into Hong Kong. If anything, China is being too soft..."

Maybe we should just send some tanks to smash them all? How about a public execution? I've seen the nice new "bird-cage" in Beijing, I'm sure blowing off some heads wouldn't rattle the IOC. Heck, since no one is going to the opening ceremonies anyway, why not make THAT the opening ceremony. "Free Tibet!...of all Tibetans!"

Alright seriously. I'm not one to really care if someone doesn't like what I write, it actually makes me happy to have some opposition finally. But in all honesty, your comment does nothing but confirm why I blog. People are idiots!

1) First of all, since when does blogging require that one tell the the truth? Ever hear of satire? If the nameless commentator is from China I suppose that's a possibility. Why does everything I write have to be truthful? There's all kinds of crap on the Internet, most of it false information. Still, I'm pretty sure I'm usually just giving my opinion and not preaching any hard truths, and most of what I say has been said by many many others.

2) If the Chinese media has been in Tibet the whole time, why did they choose not to prove it was all the Tibetan's fault and not the Chinese? Does it not seem fishy for the government to come out so strong against responsibility, and then not back it up with proof if they have it? Especially when they made such big promises about human rights? Just saying, seems fishy. I could care less if the Chinese media has been there the whole time, and I'm so sorry I said no one was getting in locally. That's just what the HK media said, but wait...I thought China still thought HK was China, so is China telling lies about China?

3) Did you know that Hong Kong was British for quite some time? There's actually quite a few people here who aren't too fond of China. Actually, at least a million of them. They all marched in protest against the Tienanmen Square incident. Oh I'm sorry, that never happened, sorry I'm telling lies again... Also, take a gander at the SCMP, or have a look through HK Magazine. If you think I should be deported, you'll love them.

4) If China is being too soft, maybe they should enlist the Dalai Lama, I hear he's quite a mean spirited old guy.

Like I said, I enjoy hearing people's opinion, as long as they are from a country where they are allowed to voice their opinion. I wouldn't want to get anyone in trouble...

Proud to be blocked in a country near you!

The following countries have been tested to block/censor this blog (Lost in Hong Kong) and all other blogger sites at some point in recent history.

• » Syrian Arab Republic
• » Iran, Islamic Republic of
• » Pakistan
• » United Arab Emirates
• » Ethiopia
• » China
• » India
• » Tunisia

Thanks for not looking!

Conflucius

The end is near...maybe.

Continuing on the flu story from Hong Kong >

Today all teachers still had to report to school, in case there were any children that NEEDED to be there. Numbers were down significantly from yesterday, but there were still many kids in class that we know have full-time moms or caregivers. According to the governments warnings they should not be in school. But I guess parents here don't trust the HK Gov (the same one that handled SARS) enough to keep the kiddies home.

There were still around 40 children from the international section that showed up. About 95% of them were Japanese. The Chinese kids are all locked up and stuffed away; with parents fearing another outbreak of some mystery disease. They could be right I suppose. Today the HK gov announced a local scientist had discovered that the flu strains that killed 3 children were not any new type of virus. I stress the local part. With the Beijing Olympics only a few months away, how much money do you think they would throw at Hong Kong to keep a new virus hush hush until after the games. If this seems absurd, look at how much money they have already spent. 300 people died during SARS in Hong Kong. Guess how many people Beijing executes every month? Do you think they would give a damn if a few thousand people died from a new flu? Doubt it.

Anyway, not to be too melodramatic - here's something funny from school today.

We asked a student why she was in class today and not at home with her mom. Her answer,

"Mommy has to play tennis."

Maybe she's warming up for the Olympics?

SARS II - Official Press Release

"
Education Bureau announcement on school closure
*************************************************

In order to prevent the spread of influenza in school campus, the Education Bureau announced that all kindergartens, kindergartens cum child care centres, primary schools and special schools will begin the Easter holiday starting from March 13 up to 28.

During the non-prearranged period of school holiday, these school campus will remain open. Students could go to school as usual, if necessary.
*************************************************
"

"Could" go to school?

I absolutely agree with the first statement, but what the hell are they thinking in the second sentence. What exactly does this mean? Are kids still allowed to go to classes? Who decides if it is necessary? What does necessary entail? As long as they're not dead children are fit for classes? Until they drop dead it's OK to show up in class and infect everyone else? Good call morons...

It's Effoooing Cold!

The locals pronounce the letter 'F' as 'effoo.' Does the title make sense now?

Last night we walked down to the grocery store and I could actually see my breath! It was crystalizing right before my eyes. Children are wearing tuques and mittens, and some Chinese kids at the school are wearing up to six layers. Most of the Japanese kids are still wearing shorts. The one Canadian kid is walking around in his underwear it's so hot.

Despite what the kids may or may not think, it's freeeeeeeeezing! My wimpy little heater cannot keep up. Our laundry is practically freezing solid on the line, and it takes two days to dry compared to the usual one. Washing your hands is like rinsing with ice water, which is actually beneficial at this time as my hand is still sore from rugby - the ice helps the pain.

Next week is the beginning of Chinese New Year. The year of the rat should be funny when all the gross little creatures come out and go belly up by freezing to death on the street. It's somewhat hard to tell if it is the year of the rat, the mouse, or the year of Mickey Mouse. I'm sure Disney is playing it up to rake in some extra cash. Speaking of Disney, one of my kids skipped class to go to the theme park today, and they just happened to be greeted with the coldest day of the year.

That'll teach her.

Banner Changes

I have now finished changing the banners of both my photoblog and 'Lost in Hong Kong.' There are many new images and more variety this time. To see a different banner simply visit another section of the blog or just refresh in your browser. Can you name all 40?

Bi-Weekly Update

This just in - I'm lazy!

Not having my own computer at work is really taking it's tole on my broadband social life. I'm always on the computer at home in the evenings, but it's not as fun to blog when you're not getting paid for it.

Hong Kong is currently stuck in another cold-snap, so illegitimate warnings about the harbour freezing and skating rinks forming are starting to surface. Rumour has it they're going to have an outdoor NHL game here next year.

Rugby News - We lost our oppening match of the season, to Valley. The score was only 26-14, but we played like stuffed turkeys and never really got rolling. This week's clash promises to be much more intense. We have an army of 24 put together for our run-in with Football Club tomorrow. Let me fill you in on how much we like Football Club. Our last pre-game chant >

"WHO HATES FOOTBALL CLUB?" OI!"

or quite elegantly during the half "FECK EM!"

We really loathe Football Club. Everyone does. They're a bunch of white towel tossing pomps with too much Jockey Club grass stuffed up their behinds. This game is not so much about winning, as it is shattering their ego and making them shrivle and tremble on their home turf. Referees tend to bow to the pressure of the rich bastards, so we'll be up against it.

Also new this week - Tai Po train museum is still really really boring. We took the K2 classes there today for 2 hours of train filled fun! It was cold and cloudy, and there were creepy old people lurking around. Fun!

Mr Lazy Hong Kong / China

I have been crowned the new king of lazyness. With all my spare time and the amount of hours spent on the Internet you might think I could blog slightly more often.

First and foremost I should update on the trip to China with my co-workers this last weekend. We went to Zhuhai - it's only about an hour by ferry from Central, HK. Holidays to me mean sleeping in at least later than you get up to go to work. This was not the case. We were to arrive at the ferry pier by 7:40am to catch a 8:40am boat. I was actually on time, unlike the Japanese Sports Day which I was 1.5 hours late for (didn't even matter in the end btw). The boat ride over was the best example of pollution I've seen yet in this country. You could see maybe 50m outside the boat the smog was so thick. Everyone tends to blame the pollution on factories in China, but a lot of it actually comes from unregulated ship and ferry traffic which there is a huge amount of.

Due to the awesome view and the early departure, the ferry ride was for sleeping. No one dared come near to the 2 "Big White Guys." That was the nickname given to me and my other male co-worker Mark. We stuck out very obviously (for various reasons) the entire time. I should mention now that we had a Hong Kong tour guide, and a Chinese tour guide the whole time (waste of $$$ - glad I wasn't paying). My boss told them they would have to babysit me and Mark, ooh how little they knew (or maybe they knew too much).

Now in China, the group was set to go go-carting. This had been the plan, and I really wish I had put down some serious money on winning. Not only did I work at a go-cart track in Canada for 4 summers, I knew how to make the cars go "illegally" faster. With my luck the carts in China were already unregulated. Wow where they fast. At two points in the race I actually skidded off the track, across gravel and grass, and back onto pavement. It happened twice, once on purpose because it was so much fun. The staff weren't exactly bothered by anything. Had one of us blown up they might have gotten off their chairs under their umbrellas. The fools had also given me the pole position, ha, the win was in the bag. I won the race easy, even lapping a few other co-workers. This was a big deal on a 10 minute race with 1 minute lap times. I didn't get the fastest lap time though, this was stolen by the cheating Japanese teacher, cheating because he only weighs about 100 pounds. Oh yes, there were two Japanese male teachers as well, so Mark and I were not the only men.

After carting we cruised down the dirt/metal/gravel/deadbodyparts "road" to our hotel resort spa dealy. The hotel itself was very nice, a 5 star in China. Meaning it was more like your average 3 star American hotel. It was funny how out of place everything in Zhuhai was. There were huge gaps of nothingness and then bam! a huge hotel.

We stayed in the Ocean Springs Resort. Along the tour of the grounds we saw the hot springs, the pool, the restaurants, the 'bar,' and got a run down of all the stupid rules we were not allowed/supposed to break. After the tour we went straight to a massage about 5 minutes away from the hotel. It was more like 2 people who didn't have a clue what they were doing punching you in the back for 1 hour. I'm glad I didn't get the 2 hour option. It was super cheap, about $10 CDN for 1 hour. After our lashings Mark and I went over to this really weird restaurant beside the massage place (the only two buildings within 10 minutes drive - weird). We ordered and drank their remaining beers. You don't need to know how many they had. Some we took back to the hotel as well. The hotel bar was not stocked very well and for China it was way over priced.

So back to the hotel for dinner. Lack there of I should say. There was lots of rice, and lots of......mystery dishes I'll call them. There wasn't anything crazy like dog as you're all thinking, but the chicken could have tasted a little more like, I dunno, chicken! Also the soups were puzzling, I stayed away from them. Why not order something I like, you ask? I wasn't given a choice, it was all pre-ordered package deal stuff.

***ADVICE***

DO NOT order from set meals in Hong Kong or China unless the restaurant is very expensive and well regarded for having good meals. Why? Because usually it is cooked for the masses, has been sitting, tastes dull and chewy sometimes, and lacks display points.

After dinner we were still hungry - the 2 BWG at least.

From dinner until about 10ish we had free time before the whole school staff went to the hot springs together. Oh yes, I went to China with my entire school staff in case I didn't mention it. There were 25 on the trip I think, some stayed home. During our free time Mark and I decided to go and check out the 'bar hub' (as it was labelled) section of the resort. Wow, that took about 5 seconds. Everything was closed! Bar hub my behind! Instead we raided the convenience store and purchased a few of their finer vintages for our evening festivities. I'll mention it once and I'll probably mention it again, DON'T EVER DRINK BIJO! (Beejo? Beijo? Beigo? Some Chinese paint stripper drink it was nasty)

At 10 we all went to the hot springs. This was probably the most unique part of the trip (at least the most unique aspect I will print). They had all kinds of weird pools from the likes of Red-Wine to Chocolate hot springs. The water wasn't actually pure wine, but it was scented or something along that line. In total they had about 90 different ones. No, they were not all natural. My favorite one was the fish hot spring. This was the weirdest feeling I've ever had. You would sit in the hot spring, much like a regular hot tub, and these tiny little minnows would come up to you and eat away at your dead skin all over your body. Eeeehehehehehe it was the strangest feeling. I have to say my skin did feel better after about 30 minutes of fish feeding.

After the Hot Springs we had the evening to do whatever we wanted, and seeings how there was nothing to do at the hotel other than eat and drink (pfff or go to bed like sissies), we ate and we drank. Everyone ordered these special chickens that are unique to that area of China. Our tour guide recommended them. Can you say CASH GRAB!? The chicken was quite tasty, it came with the head and everything. I ate a whole chicken, as did Mark. As did Mark I say. Yes, Mark and I did nothing other than eat chicken all night like the nice boys we are. Some might tell you otherwise, but they are all liars. Fighting with hotel staff members and stealing fake flowers are all just figments of sober people's imaginations.

So "everyone" retired early to their rooms by midnight and the Chinese tour guide did not almost get fired, and the Japanese section supervisor was not hit on by Mark, it never happened. It was a win win situation for all involved and we awakened to a glorious smog enhanced sunrise, the END.

A Thought on Chinese Goods

For all you North Americans who think you have it bad with all your poisonous dog food and cancer causing toys, BOOHOO!

Guess where I live? And guess where absolutely anything and everything we eat/drink/breath/sleep comes from?

P.S. I'm going to the epi-centre of it all in November...awesome!

Lost in Kornhill

Living and working within the same 2 blocks definetly has it's perks. Like waking up 30 minutes before you have to be at work, and being able to walk to and from work. It is also fun running into students who live in the same building as you in the grocery store as their dad sneaks up on me to scare the crap outta me waving his kid in my face (that's another story - I will avenge my fright tomorrow).

As much of a perk as it is, I am starting to feel a little cluttered. I don't 'get out' as much as I used to when I was working at every other corner of Hong Kong. I can't even remember my last bus ride. My MTR pass lasts me up to 2 weeks now on $100. It used to take 3 days to go through that much. Some people may have even noticed my photo production has receded into nill. I rarely took my camera to work before, but sometimes I found places on the way to and from that I could go back to for some photos. I need to make a point of going out more just for taking pictures.

Like I mentioned above I ran into one of my students while buying water at the Wellcome across the street. He lives in the same building as me and I see him at leat 3 times a week it seems. I was waiting in line and his Mom and Dad decided it would be fun to sneak up on me and lift him up so he was at eye-level behind me. When I turned around it was slightly startling. I vowed revenge at school tomorrow.

After leaving the store, within the 20 feet between it and my house I saw another one of my students out with her parents walking with her new Autumn Festival lantern. It was a giant Mickey Mouse inflatable blinking contraption. Speaking of Mickey, someone at school was wearing Meikcy Mouse flip flops today. Yes I said Meikcy Mouse. I love fake crap!

International Man of Mystery

Just call me Austin Powers. I'm now working at an International Kindergarten in Hong Kong. It's the / school about 2 minutes outside my front door. It is to be honest, quite awesome! Not only do I get to sleep in even more than usual, I don't have to spend any money whatsoever on transportation. Also I'm not subjected to the gazillion people on the MTR everyday, so the chance of catching SARS has probably gone down considerably.

I'm still teaching kindergarten, but in a somewhat different role. Being an international school, the main language of study is English. There are 5 other Westerners working there and we all have our own class. This means I teach all subjects (mainly arts crafts and playtime) to the children. Being 3-6 years old they don't really have subjects, but we will do some basic math and reading and things like that. In the mornings I will assist a K3 class that I teach oral English lessons to, so this will be the same as what I did last year. In the afternoon I have a K1 class that I am in full charge of. There is still an assistant teacher in the class I believe. The class is a huge mix of 6 children from Hong Kong and Japan. Hopefully they won't overwhelm me too much.

The thing I like most about the school so far is the more Western style of teaching, which basically means the children are taught like children a little more than in the local Chinese schools. They still have a heavy work load, but there is already more emphasis on having fun and playing games etc. Last week we took the whole school to the beach and the kids played in the sand all morning. A few other field trips this year will be going to various parks, libraries, and the Coca-Cola factory. I only went on two field trips all of last year with 10 schools!

I also have already been out on a 'social event' with most of the staff. This included sampling some local beverages (tropical juices of course) and getting to know everyone. Summer school had just concluded so it was more of an end of summer thing, but it was great to actually get to know the people I will be working with. One of the other teachers also plays rugby in Hong Kong, on the team the Typhoons train with. He's in a different division so we won't end up smashing each other's heads in.

All in all it's been a pretty busy first week and a half back in HK. I hadn't expected to be back at work so soon, but I couldn't pass up this new school. It's such a good situation. My old employers were nothing but helpful (although sad) to see me leave, but with such short notice they handled it well.

This coming weekend sees the return of the Typhoons. We are going on an all night pub-crawl to recruit new team members. It should be a fun time. The season starts at the end of September so maybe I should think about getting into shape a bit. Maybe lifting little kids all day will be a good thing.

Updates from July!

Before I left for Canada I did a walk around of our neighbourhood and had forgot to post these pictures. The photo below is of our area called Kornhill. It is made up of approximately 20 buildings all around 30 stories.

In the picture below you can see our building on the left and behind it is Mt.Parker. There are many trails and you can climb up to the top, and continue on all the way to Tai Tam Reservoir if you like, it's only a couple hours hike.

This is what one the pathways look like. They are relatively well kept considering the jungle nature and vast amount of vegetation over-growing the trails.

Below is one of many barbecue areas along the paths. Here you can have a fire or just a quick picnic. They are very frequent with at least 5 barbecue areas along the way to the top of the mountain.

This is about as far away as you can get from skyscrapers on the Island. The views are quite nice and it actually feels a bit like you are out in nature away from the hustle and bustle.

Also back in July Mai and I went for a bike ride around the Taipo area. We rented a weird 3 wheel bike that almost fell apart. It was quite fun and very hot.

Back in the Big Lychee

After a 1 month hiatus from HK, I have returned to report on the happenings of my life as an expat. The city seems nice and clean, a recent Typhoon made sure of that as all the streets appear to be rid of their 'blackish' coating at least a little.

It remains ungodly hot and humid, but that did not affect my plans to hike up a mountain today. I was ridiculously sweaty by the end of it all, but rugby season calls and it says I'm not in shape yet. I can only wait with glee for the first game in +35 degree weather.

Having been in Canada for a month I have gained a greater appreciation for space and clean air. Also I have once again been overwhelmed by the huge masses of people and how little privacy there is to be had in Hong Kong. It is a huge switch, but I am glad to be back. The more I travel back and forth the more it seems like an everyday habit. Not the biggest deal changing 10-15 hours from the clock once in a while.

For the time being I will continue my teaching duties commencing in September. We shall see how that goes. I intend on exhausting my shutter this year so hopefully a few more photographic experiences will come my way, or I will make my way to them more forcefully.

In any regard, it should be another exciting year with many stories to wow the Canucks with back home.

OD-ing on Cough Drops

A Fisherman's Friend I am!

So I mentioned the new mold and everything at our new apartment. What I forgot to mention was that it had been recently renovated, so there is a lot of dust as well (dust that could contain a number of different things that should not be inhaled).

Before we moved in we spent a couple of days cleaning and trying to get all the dust and mold that had grown since the last owner moved out. Everywhere in Hong Kong is so moldy, but it can't be helped. It's so humid and hot it's just bound to happen. We disinfected everything and put in some funky smelling de-humidify-ing bags in our closests. Still the AC's are full of wonderful particles and the end result is me sneezing all day.

Also, as our hot-water heater for the bathroom seems busted, we can't take hot showers. I think the first cold shower I had made me sick. It doesn't make much sense, as Mai and I both had hot showers the first day we moved in, but it doesn't work anymore. The gas guy is coming tomorrow to hopefully fix it, or show us what we are doing wrong.

My throat didn't feel so great yesterday, it feels a bit better today, but I am still consuming vast amount of cough candies.

- 3 more weeks until clean Canadian mountain air! My lungs aren't gonna know what hit them.

Moved!

"We are moving, we are moving, we are moving to a new house!
Chairs and tables, beds and pillows, we are moving, Hurry Up!"

That's the uber-wonderful song I have had to sing about twenty million times teaching so far. I guess families in Hong Kong move a lot so the kids need to learn at a young age what moving is all about. I have to point out one major error in the song though - a new "house?" Hong Kong does not have houses. Unless you are a super-mega-tycoon, you do not live in a house.

Why am I talking about moving? Because we just moved! Everything went really smooth, the moving company spoke no English whatsoever, so the over-use of the word FRAGILE on all our boxes went mostly un-detected. Nothing was broken, so I can't complain - too much... We took a taxi over to transport Taco/Takuro-Chan (pet birdy), and my computer. Despite my warnings to the taxi driver about my suitcase being very heavy and very FRAGILE he still thought it was a good idea to toss my suitcase into the trunk as if it were a dead body. Good thing my computer isn't made of glass and it's old enough that I wouldn't mind replacing it. Still I would like to know how people in Hong Kong do not know the meaning of FRAGILE. It seems as if everything/one is so easily replaced in HK that it doesn't matter if things are broken. It also doesn't seem to matter if what is FRAGILE is an object or a human life. But that's another matter, back to moving...

The moving company took all of 2 hours to load all our belongings into their big-ass truck and haul it over to the new place and unload. Although they were quick, like I said before their sense of respect for FRAGILE property and belongings was non-existent. They constantly dragged furniture across our new hard-wood floor and threw things around. I know why they were so cheap. But again nothing was seriously broken, only mainly because we had nothing to break really. The English speaking rep at the company is gonna get a "nice" letter from me explaining what the definition of FRAGILE is. Even if they don't speak English, a moving company of all people should know what FRAGILE means!

After all the boxes were unloaded, we had a massive amount of things to unpack and put in place. The living room was a bit crowded. Our new apartment has an extensive amount of storage, so it didn't take long for it to look good and it is now feeling like quite a large space. The kitchen is small, but the old one was as well, and the washing machine and water heater seem to be busted, but in a couple of days that should be taken care of (The dude who hooked up our Gas must have done something wrong, because we can only take cold showers for now, which isn't too bad when it's like 35C).

I really like the new neighbourhood. It's very quiet, and is set up a hill, hence the name Kornhill. I found out it was named after some military guy name Korn, haha. It's really close to everything, tonnes of shopping and the MTR. It only took me 35 minutes to get to work today! That's the quickest ever! I even slept until 7:30am! Then took a cold shower, haha.

The next week or so will take some getting used to, the new noises, the new people, the new mold (eww-HK is gross sometimes) but overall I like it much better than Island Resort. We don't have a rock-climbing wall or a bowling alley anymore, but who really needs those things in their apartment?

Sick Day

I am currently at home sick for the day. This is nothing new (being sick). It's practically amazing if you are not sick in Hong Kong. I'd try and count how many people are hacking and coughing on the MTR trains every day to work, but I'd need an abicus or something mathematical and it would get way out of hand. But good news, Hong Kong and China have 'promised' to start cutting pollution in the area by 2010, just in time to realize that every single ex-pat has left due to the disgusting air. Good luck Hong Kong. The pollution has only increased about 10000% since the Brits left power, yet the government thinks HK is prospering so much more. How many more people are dying of lung cancer?

Oh ya, I'm supposed to be talking about being sick...

Today I thought would be a good day to fill everyone in on how the past few weeks have been going and what I have been up to. It's actually been a busy few weeks.

To start I have been doing some video work for an online based style/fashion/university type of magazine from London. (LifeAtUni.com) I am creating a 'Video Lookbook.' Note: I have ONLY been doing video work, I have absolutely NOTHING to do with how the website looks. I will not comment on what I think of it's look for fear of being fired. Oh wait, can you be 'fired' from something you do for free? Not sure, anyway, the site has improved a lot but I think it could use some work, the intent is there at least. There is lots of good content on the site, it just needs to be presented better. I am happy to say that the videos I have been shooting/editing for them are looking awesome.

The process and idea for the videos is somewhat random. I go wander around HK's trendier areas with a girl Anna from London (also teaching English here) and she interviews them. It's my job to make them look good on film and edit out all the gibberish...er...Honglish. We are supposed to find good looking, trendy, fashionable etc. people and Anna asks them a few questions about what they wear etc. It's not superficial at all, haha. I quite enjoy it, and it will give me a great experience even if it's not paid. I have already improved my editing skills.

The videos are not currently on the site yet, but in the next weeks or so they should be. I will let you know.

Also something I will be doing, possibly later today actually, is creating some banner images for a Hong Kong website called HipHongKong. This site is really well done, it looks great, and it has some good tips. Also I am going to submit some photo album series for them to post on their site. And guess what, the girl who runs it offered to pay me for the banner images! Woohoo. The banner will consist of images and drawings somewhat similar looking to my paintings I did at ACAD. They should turn out really awesome. I hope to finish them ASAP and get them posted on the site.

So that is what I am doing in terms of creative work in the next little while. I continue to take tonnes of photos, and I continue to be lazy about doing anything with them. Check out my photoblog if haven't in awhile, it's been updated quite a bit in the last week.

Holidays are never long enough.

Yes I just came off of my 11.5 day Easter holiday, but that's still not enough time to remove myself from the fact I still have to teach English. Summer is only what? 3 months away? Let's just say I can't wait to be done with this year. I enjoy a few of my classes, well only one really, and that is the one where I am the only teacher in the room and it's Grade3 students. It gets really annoying having an assistant teacher. At first I thought it might be nice, but now I quite loathe them. They're are nice to talk to and have run errands for me, but when they try to help me teach English it just doesn't work. To teach English would require one to speak it first, but that's just my overall feeling.

What else is new? Yesterday I saw the horizon for the first time since being here. 'Squally Thunderstorms' are quite a nice way to blow away all the crap in the air. I almost felt like I was back home in Canada. That thought was erased when I looked towards China and all you can see is a brown line across the sky. Yuck...

I also encountered my first crazy man on the bus yesterday. Everyone was sitting peacefully on the 2nd level when this man (whom I was sitting beside) answered his cellphone like it was across the city from him. He yelled so loud almost everyone in the bus turned around to look. I wanted to ask what he was saying. The conversation lasted only about 20 seconds, but he must have said at least 3000 words. If only I spoke Cantonese. Also George Lucas(Star Wars) must have spent some time in Hong Kong, because some of the sounds coming out of people's mouths are quite hilarious. I'm not making fun of Cantonese people, just the sound they make. It's not my fault that 4/5 people here are rude, loud, mumbly and generally messy and disrespectful. It's not a stereotype, it's a majority. The other 1/5 are really nice though.

Amazing Race Asia!

It's official! We've applied to be on the Amazing Race Asia II! I mailed the application yesterday.

The video turned out really well so I hope they love and it select us, it'd be totally awesome! They said interviews would be in April/May, so we should fine out soon whether we're shortlisted or not.