Jungle, Beach, Dress Up day, Nunnery

Hello Beautiful People,
Tuesday was a day off so I took a friend from school and the girls, Elsie and Noelle, on a two hour jungle trek.  It was hot, it was hilly, it was buggy, it was fantastic.  We ended up at a very isolated beach and basically roasted for several hours on the sand and rode the waves.  Great fun.  Later we roller coasted in a little boat over some pretty massive waves back to Sai Kung, a small town near Kowloon.  What a great day.

Later in the week there was a dress up day at school for the primary students.  Many of the kids dressed up in traditional Chinese clothing and there were also some great dresses from Korea, Japan, Africa,  India, and Malaysia.   It was excellent and a great way to build up the CAIS community.

Today we went to the Chi Lin nunnery.  The garden was stunning.  Literally an army of workers keeps it up.  So overall it was a good week.  It is great to have Elsie and Noelle with me and they are certainly enjoying Hong Kong.

Till next week,

Love, Adios, and Peng On,

Dirk

Ocean Park

Hello Great People,
The big news is that after several months of being on my own I finally have company!  Elsie my youngest  daughter (20 going to be 21 June 21) arrived last Sunday and is with me now for the next three months.  She brought her friend Noelle along so my little apartment has been de-bachelorized and rearranged and tidied up.  It is taking me a little while to find things again, but it is great to have the girls here.  Next week they will both be working at an English tutoring place in the neighbourhood.  They will also be offering some private tutoring as well so hopefully within a week or two they will be teaching a lot of English to a lot of people for a lot of cash.

The girls certainly like Hong Kong.  They loved the markets, bird, ladies, and fish, plus they have gone swing dancing twice already.  I took them to a Bible study/potluck at an authentic Chinese family's apartment.  The apartment was in a slummy building, but the actual apartment was nice.  It was a great experience for us all.

Talk about experience I went with a group of guys to a theatre that we rented.  There were only 20 seats but they were all lazy boy recliners.  Popcorn and drinks were unlimited so we watched THOR! in 3d on our lazy boys.  Pretty sweet.  Hong Kong is full of surprises.

On Saturday I took the girls to Ocean Park which is an aquarium/amusement park.  I am not an amusement park type guy, I would rather bike through a jungle, ski down a monster mountain, or windsurf on a wild and windy day for amusement, but once every ten years or so, when every thing absolutely works out I will drag myself to an amusement park.  I find them expensive, hot, and since the patience to wait in lines is not a strength of mine, and I am resigned to the fact it never will be, I find them annoying.  Yet Ocean Park was ok.  I was with Elsie and Noelle, the aquarium was amazing, there was a Panda exhibit, and a few rides were actually ok, especially the rotating spiral tower one which gave an amazing view of the South China Sea.

The girls are also enjoying the weather, plus 30's this week, and we have been cooling off in the Skytower pool every day since they got here.  While they have been adjusting to the time change and weather pretty well the girls are having trouble keeping up to my walking speed.  Since I don't have a vehicle I tend to walk a lot more and with daily PE my walking speed has improved a great deal.  Poor Elsie just can't keep up yet, but I am working on her exhorting her with inspirational words like calling her, "gramma."  I am sure my baby will be able to keep with her almost 30 years older dad soon.

So overall I am happier now and the summer looks good.

Love, Adios, and Peng on,

Dirk 

Interesting Plants

Hello Great People,
Sprained my ankle pretty good last week playing basketball with a bunch of kids.  Ouch!  I was doing pretty good too.  Scoring baskets and awing the young bucks with my moves.  And then…  So I did not do much this week in fact I watched a lot of Hockey Night in Canada with my left foot up.  Except here in Hong Kong it is Hockey Night in the morning due to the time change.  Imagine listening to Don Cherry at about 9:00 am.  It is rough enough in the evening, but in the morning when you are a little sleepy and groggy, it is like a slap in the head.
So this week I am going to focus on the interesting plant life that is here.  It is mainly green all year, but a few trees lose a few leaves, yet nothing like home end of September.  So enjoy and I am sorry that I don't know the names of all the plants.

Love Adios Peng On,

Dirk

I'm not white, I'm sunburnt.

Hello Great People,
A while ago one of my grade one kids, Justin, came up to me and asked me if I was white.  I told him no I'm not white, I'm sunburnt, which is pretty well the truth considering I am outside practically 16 hours a day.  I asked Justin if he was Chinese and he said I think so (he is) and then he got distracted by his white (for real) buddy who wanted to play.  For those who are racist they should come and watch my kindergarten and grade ones play.  Black, brown, yellow, white, pink, red and all in between those kids play and fight and hold hands and hug and are buddies with whoever.  They are colour blind.  The older kids sometimes make a crack or two about their colour or someone else's, but they really don't care and they treat each other very normally, ie. with some respect, some jive, always finding something to laugh or make a crises about.  At my last parent teacher interview I did not have one white guy show up, lots of Chinese, a few Indians (from India the real ones) and a black doctor from Nigeria.  Being a very visible minority, tall, old, and sunburnt has barely registered with me because everyone I have crossed simply does not care.  So it is obvious that racism is learned and I say it can be easily delearned.  Just watch my classes of many colours and within half and hour you will realize: people are special because of who they choose to be not by the colour their genetic code gave them.  End of sermon.  Have a great Easter!

Love, Adios, and Peng On,

Dirk

Jungle Ride

Hello Great People,
I always thought Hong Kong was a concrete jungle.  In reality that is true, although I find the buildings amazing here, but 70% of the Hong Kong territory is covered by a real sub tropical jungle.  On Saturday I went with my friend and fellow PE teacher guy, Ryan and his wife Jill on a monster six hour bike/hike through a jungle.  Ryan and Jill were varsity athletes at the U of Saskatchewan, Ryan football, Jill basketball and since they are only @ 30 and keep fit it was a massive challenge for my 50 year old bones to keep up.  Most of the time I managed to keep up with Ryan, but Jill was another story.  A lot of times we boys were trying to keep up to her.  Wow.
The first part of our trek was relatively easy.  A raised cement trail through a marsh, along the sea coast , and into the jungle was no problem, but man if you weren't paying attention flying off that trail would not have been good.  The middle part was up and up, over rocks, up steps, down little patches, then more rocks, shale, and steps.  It was only about 2 kilometers but I would say we had to carry the bikes for all but 200 meters of it.  So why did we go on this trail?  It is one of the few trails that mountain bikes are allowed because the powers to be give the bikers the worst ones, while the hikers get all the sweet ones.  Not good!  Nevertheless we survived what Ryan called the Ho rri ble   trail, lame joke trying to make it sound Chinese.  The last third of this trek was on a paved trail again and we ended up at a quaint village, near a campground.  We biked the campground then had a replenishing meal before having to go back on the Ho rri ble trail to get back to where we started.
I have biked some mean trails before with Rochelle back in Canada, Kelowna, Kimberly, Crowsnest Pass, Canmore, but this baby was by far the most challenging.
Still summer is pretty well here, it is hot @26, and the sounds, sights, and smells of the jungle were amazing.  It was like being in the jungle greenhouse at the Calgary zoo yet the sounds of monkeys, birds and loud cricket like bugs made the experience unique and wonderful.
Next week I am going camping with a group from the school on Monday and Tuesday, then I am taking them windsurfing on Wednesday, and body boarding on Thursday.  Then it is Easter holidays and my Elsie will be with me on May 2nd.  So there are a lot of great things going on in my life.  Thanks for your concern and prayers.  God is good.  All the time!

Love Adios and Peng on!

Dirk

Its a little weird.

Hello Once Again,
The weather here in HK is getting hotter.  Had to turn on the air conditioning for the first time in months today.  Kind of like back home when you have to turn on the furnace for the first time in the year.  Summer is a comin.
On Tuesday I had a day off due to Ching Ming festival.  That is a day when Hong Kongers visit the graves  or vaults of deceased love ones.  They clean up the graves, put flowers on them and spend time reflecting.  Due to the limited space here graveyards are build on steep hills and it is really expensive to have a grave.  Must opt for the cremation, put in an urn, stick in a vault option.  Any way I visited a graveyard and I was a very visible minority taking a few pictures.  Ok on to happier things.
Came by a doggie pit stop and kids and dads playing cricket.  It is a big sport amongst those from India and Pakistan.

On Friday night there was a carnival at the school and I was asked to get dunked.  It was for a worthy cause so for half an hour I endured some very cold water being dumped on my head.  My life is kind of weird at times.

 I also went up the peak at night and sadly did not get great pictures.  It was amazing seeing all the lights and it will be a required trip for guests coming here.  I will also figure out how to take better pictures next time.  Big miracle happened after the peak.  I left my camera on the bus.  I ran for about a kilometer to the Central Bus Terminus and sure enough, after some hassle,  found the camera again.  Thankfully the bus that I had ridden on had been shut down for the night.  Whewww.  I was thanking God for that.

Today I went to a church that is located in a district called Whampoa.  There is a store that is built like a boat there.  What more can I say.  Totally weird.  But that is Hong Kong.  Every day I discover some thing different and weird about the place.  Hong Kong is great.  Have a great week everyone.

Love, Adios, and Peng On!

Dirk

Hong Kong Views

Hello Everyone,
This will not be a really long or in-depth blog.  Spent an afternoon with a teacher friend , Gary, who is one of the few teachers I work with that is older than me, by 12 years!  Despite his age he is in great shape and he kept up with me easily, in fact at times I had to keep up with him!  I have a new hero.  He bikes, hikes, and swims all the time, so there you go.  Exercise regularly and you will be spry for a long time.  Ok I know it is snowing in Alberta and I hear that some are believing that summer is likely to be cancelled this year and I feel sorry for you, but man was it hot here yesterday.  Gary and I sat outside at a Thai restaurant and I had to move into the shade cause I was roasting.  Then we hiked up to the peak and took some good pictures from on top.  So that is all, sorry, not that exciting, but I wish you a great week and thanks to all of you who check in with me.  And for those of you who feel sorry for me due to the heat I have to endure, which is probably no one, I appreciate your sympathy.
Love, Adios, Peng On,

Dirk