Hong Kong Work Time

Well, the party's over folks. Job training and flat* hunting have made my second week in Hong Kong very stressful and tiring. Let me be more specific.

On Monday, my fellow Shmatteris teachers and I began our formal job training. I, along with thirteen other CNETs, was placed in a secondary school. I'll be teaching S1-S6, which basically means 6th through 12th grade. So far, training has actually been a lot of fun. We arrive at a local secondary school at 9 AM every day. In the morning, our wonderful project manager Hannah teaches us about the "Shmatteris Approach" to education. Apparantley, said approach is one of fun and wonderment. We brainstorm ideas, learn some methodology, and demo activities for the afternoon. After a lunch break, a small group of local students arrive and we lead various games and exercises. Today, for instance, we turned the classroom into an "English Cafe," serving drinks and playing games with the kids.

It's the other part of the week that blows. We usually get out of school around 3:30, at which time Paul and I head to Mong Kok or Prince Edward or wherever, walk in to a random real estate office, and ask a suprisingly important question, "Do you speak English?" Usually, the answer is, "A little," which really means "no." At the beginning of the week, we had a couple of realators who didn't speak English show us flats. The main problem wa not being able to communicate to the agent what we liked and didn't't like about prospective apartments. For instance, we suspected a communication breakdown after an agent showed us a flat that was about the size of a small closet, filled with bugs, and had only one bedroom. Not being able to get an agent to understand that we have a strong preference for a place without an infestation was quite* frustrating.**

So that lasts until about nine o'clock at night. By that time, we've been on our feet since half twelve.* Justin, I know you work in an emergency room and are on your feet for twelve hours all the time, but you can stuff it. It's tiring. When we get back to the hotel after dinner, it's usually around 9:45. Time to check some email, and maybe write a blog post! Luckily, the internet shuts off at ten. So there goes that plan. At least the search is narrowing down. We looked at a promising three-bedroom place last night, and hope to settle the details with the landlord tonight. Once this week is over and the apartment situation is figured out, I can focus on realizing that I'm going to be a teacher and I have no idea what I'm doing.




*Silly-British-English-That-I-Use-Now to Real-English Conversion Table:
"Flat" = Apartment
"Quite = Very
"Half twelve" = half past twelve = 12:30

**A way to avoid the whole walking into random offices thing would be to go on Craigslist, but I can't do that for reasons I'll explain shortly.



Byeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee.