After the whirlwind of travel we had recently, I guess it's not entirely unexpected that Ella and I have been a bit of homebodies lately. We did travel to Hong Kong (more on that later), but for future me, there's two big piece of life news to get out of the way.

The first is... we wrote a book! I had been working on my other, professional blog, http://123esl.wordpress.com for the last couple of years. If you haven't been over there, basically I am of the opinion that teacher training is honestly, pretty terrible. It's really big on theory, and very little of "When you get into class, do this." I think that's a damn shame, especially for new teachers. Explicit practical advice is what they need. And sure, if you have time back it up with "why this works", and "why research says it's good", yadda yadda. So I set out to be as practical as possible, along with explaining what ESL is, how to get started, and bam - there it was. As it got closer to actually being a thing, Ella contributed a bit, and our good friend Steve popped out a cover in no time. So it's on Amazon, right now, at https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07P2KQ1JK/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1550966511. I'm not looking to make any money on it, it was mostly a passion project I could put on a CV. If you don't want to bother buying it, I don't mind to send you the PDF. I plan to update it maybe 2 or 3 more times, maybe in 6 months or so - I've already got a few ideas.

So in the last blog, I said that we may one day call Shanghai home. Accordingly, the other big piece of news... Ella and I are moving to Shanghai! This is still half a year away, but I got a job at a school pretty close to downtown. I struggled between a few offers before settling on this one, mostly because of its proximity to the city and the metro. I think one of the reasons why I loved Taipei so much was that I could walk to the metro, and how big an impact that was on my life - I was downtown pretty frequently, and it really made me feel much better, like I was part of a large community. But it seems in all my other positions, they've been a bit suburban. And that makes me feel... well, trapped, I guess. Sort of like how I was living in the US, I just find myself going through the same motions every day. I really think I'm a kind of person that needs to be in the middle of the hustle and bustle to thrive, and it's hard to get more hustly and bustly than one of the largest cities in the world.

The job itself sounds challenging, but potentially rewarding - it is definitely more work than here (although, this school set the bar pretty low), but it is an international school with an IB program. If you're not in education, you may not have heard of IB (International Baccalaureate), but it's a big deal in schools right now. Being employed by an IB school when I did not graduate with a certification in IB is also sort of a big deal. And actually, I want to go back to school to get that. Maybe it's something Ella and I can do together next year, as it's about 12-15 credit hours online. Should be able to handle it if I spread it out over a year. This means DELTA will probably take a bit of a backseat for a while, which is fine. I've been pretty frustrated with it lately, and even mulling the idea of dropping it entirely - instead, going with the DipTESOL, an equivalent certification. We'll see.

Whew! If you read through all that, well, you must be really bored or my family. I think we could all use a break, so here's a panda resting on some ice.

Now, in more recent news, we popped over to Hong Kong! We're no stranger to Hong Kong - I've been there twice before. But this time, per Ella's insistence, she wanted to go to the beach. It's not a bad idea, actually - considering we're moving to a colder climate, this would be a good opportunity to see tropical weather one last time before heading to a land with seasons. We decided to go all out, and travel to a beach in a rural area of the territory - the first time there for both of us. We also decided to save some money and camp, a first for Ella. Oddly enough we have camping gear from a teacher that left, so might as well put it to get use.

We started out by going to Guangzhou East to take the train. This is actually the old route to go to Hong Kong, since the South station now has a high speed train there. It's about 40 minutes, as opposed to the old way's 2 hours. But the South station is huge, and quite far away from us. So honestly, I don't think we'd be saving much, if any, time by going there. Fortunately that also means that the train wasn't really that crowded.

Anyway, once in Hong Kong we took the metro, then bus to Sai Kung. This is a sort of rural-ish area of Hong Kong, and is a nice looking port town about 30 minutes north of the metro line. It actually seems like a nice area to live if you're retired or like boats. There was a boardwalk with a ton of seafood restaurants selling whatever they pulled in that day, plus a surprising number of international restaurants for a town about as big as a mall.

Anyway, we were running pretty late, so we just stopped at a bakery to pick up some food for the trip. We were planning to hike, but already being late afternoon, we decided to take a speedboat. It's actually really easy, albeit a little expensive (for us) at $150HK a person. That's like, $20. But considering a bowl of noodles on the street is $4 (compared to $2 in the mainland), it's pretty cheap for HK.

The boat was a bit of a rush, actually. It was a 30 minute ride, and it more or less skipped over the top of the waves. But we eventually got to Ham Tim Beach, only to find... nothing! Well, not nothing. It's kind of the idea for a beach to have nothing. There were a few people there, along with two small shops/restaurants. They were pretty expensive, with a plate of fried rice being $70HK ($10 US). But considering everything here needs to be delivered by boat or on foot, it was expected. A beer however, is still $2 for a massive, 1-liter bottle. Hong Kong and Macau - your beer industry is hilarious. It really is cheaper than water.

 

 

 

Of course we didn't do much there. Just walk along the beach, enjoy the weather. Hong Kong is about as far from the equator as Hawaii, so the weather was amazing. The water too, was almost crystal clear. I dare to say I put it up there with some of the beaches in Thailand, although those have a much more social, party kind of atmosphere. This was a "family camping trip" kind of beach. In particular at night, the once empty beach just became a sea of tents as hikers started to arrive.

The next morning, we decided to start our hike out. It was probably about a two hour hike to the nearest bus station. There were a few hiccups, as Google Maps and Gaode (A Chinese app) both were a bit inaccurate, showing trails that just did not exist - so I'm glad we didn't try going this way the day before when the sun was setting. But we stuck to the "main" trail, and along the way we passed another beach, a canyon, bamboo forests, and who knows what before arriving at Sai Kung Pagoda - basically just a small covered bench that serves as a bus stop. We took the bus back to Sai Kung, got some lunch, and then took another bus back to Mong Kok.

 

Mong Kok is an interesting part of the city. I have briefly passed through it, but this time Ella and I explored it. It is the most densely populated area in the world - I know it sounds like I've made that claim before. But as I understand it, Macau is the most densely populated administrative division (state/province). Manila is the most densely populated city. And here in Hong Kong, Mong Kok is the most densely populated neighborhood. Got it? Good. I think. Moving on.

I think when people picture typical downtown Hong Kong, they're thinking of Mong Kok. It's a sea of neon, narrow alleys, and just full of people. Like, really full. I can see how this may give some anxiety. For me, I love it. It's like an endless discovery of what's around the corner, all the while feeling like you're part of a big community. We didn't do anything special in Mong Kok. Mostly just walk around, snacking on all the street food options available. After checking into our hotel, we got a long overdue shower, and Ella had a nap. That evening, we went out for some Thai food. While not 100% authentic, it was pretty close, and scratched an itch I've been feeling for a while. My green curry was spot on, but Ella's Kha Phrao Moo had a bit of a Chinese tilt to it. Still good.

That night, we went up to The Peak. I've been there many times before, and I've said in the past how it's my favorite spot in the world. That's still the case. Maybe it's just the contrast between the very suburban, green feel in comparison with the bustling city you were just in. But the view is just second to none, and is definitely my favorite thing to do in the territory.

And that's about it. We had a wonderful breakfast at a jam packed American diner. I had bacon, eggs, and hash browns, and whew - it's been a long time since I've had that. Ella got a Zhu Pai Bao, a sort of pork cutlet sandwich famous in Macau, and it was also really amazing. Back to the train station, there were probably only a couple dozen people on the way back to the mainland. We had almost the entire car to ourselves, which was a nice change from the shoebox sized hotel we were in the night before. And so begins another week back at school. We're about halfway through the semester, and I'm anxious to start to the next stage of my (our) life.

By the way, future Weg - on April 4th, Ella asked you to do the dishes when it was her turn, and she would "owe you one". I'm sure you've forgotten about it, so I hope in 10, 20 years when you read this, you get it back.

The next day in Shanghai wasn't in Shanghai at all. We ventured out towards Suzhou, a city you've probably never heard of. But nevertheless, it's been described as "The Venice of Asia", which oddly enough has been applied to Bangkok as well. Whereas Bangkok does use the rivers and canals for transportation, for Suzhou, it's pretty much just for tourists. The upside then, is that it's kept pretty clean. Anyway, after a quick train ride, we got out at Suzhou station and saw... snow! Wow! I've not seen snow in probably 6 years, so I had to build a little snowman to celebrate. The first stop was at Beisi Pagoda. A little temple with a big pagoda, it's pretty but overall forgettable.

We walked towards the Administrator's Garden, which I know sounds boring, but is reportedly one of the most beautiful gardens in China. Especially with the snow, I thought it would be really pretty. So did the rest of China, because ohhhhhhhh myyyyy gooooood. The line was bonkers, and probably would be a 3 or 4 hour wait. In the snow. Just... no. Why would anyone do that? Like, even if you came from the other side of the country, there are other gardens. Yes I'm sure it's pretty, but it's not like this is some world famous landmark. I don't get it, especially because Chinese people suck at lining up. It's not an orderly, 3 or 4 hour queue. It's a disorderly 3 or 4 hour battle to push to the front.

No. A million times no. I would rather walk back to Shanghai.

Instead we went through Pingjiang Road, the walking area of the town, which was quite pretty. We had a snack of crab balls (crab meat in ball form, fried... I think), before stopping at a restaurant I had heard about. This restaurant has a bit of a reputation, for being older than America is a country and serving the best squirrel fish in the city. Squirrel fish is a Suzhou specialty, or so I am told, that's sort of a diced and fried fish, laid out in such a way to look like a squirrel's tail. I... guess it does? Sort of? Anyway, it's basically sweet and sour fried fish, which I mean, you can't go wrong. Combined with eggplant, which has constantly been mom and dad's favorite food on this whole trip. I gotta agree, China does eggplant right. America has been utterly defeated in the eggplant war.

After numerous shops and photo taking, we took the metro over to another canal at Shantang Street. This one was a little more picturesque, in that the canal actually ran through the buildings, serving as a kind of street, and not just something for tourists - although it was that too. But honestly, that's about it for Suzhou. We just walked around, took photos, shopped, and ate. Nothing wrong with that.

Back in Shanghai for the last full day, there were some odds and ends to clear up. We began at Jingan Temple, maybe the most impressive in scale of the Buddhist temples I've seen. But because it was Chinese New Year, they were charging insane admission - 100 yuan. Even their regular fee of 50 is nuts. I mean, this is a temple. IMO if you're not letting poor people into your religion, you're doing religion wrong. Maybe one day we'll go, because it is an impressive building. But the extortionate pricing doesn't sit well with me.

Continuing the religious theme, the next few places were churches. Something Ella really digs, the best one was probably Xujiahui Cathedral, which is HQ of the Diocese of Shanghai. It's a really pretty building, and they were giving out flyers of stuff to do in that district. It's a bit out of downtown, so I was a bit surprised at how much there was to do around there. Nice of them to do that, and I'm sure one day we'll be back and have a chance to explore the area.

Maybe a combination of Ella fighting a cold, but at that point the two of us were exhausted. We went back to the hotel for a nap, something I hardly ever do, to get ready for the evening. We had booked a cruise up and down the river, which, is something only tourists would do in the middle of winter. It was cold for sure, but that also made the air much clearer. We got some pretty great views of the skyline at night. Ella said she liked it more than Hong Kong. I admit it's good, but I don't know - I still maintain The Peak at night is the most beautiful place in the world.

And for mom and dad, that was it for Shanghai. The next morning, we took them to the airport. Ella and I had a flight that evening, so we had some more time. Still exhausted, we tried to do the Art Museum - closed for CNY. There was a pedestrian area I had heard about called Tianzifang. As soon as I walked in, I remembered "OH, I've been here and love it!" It's a network of alleys filled with coffee shops, boutique stores, and bars. A bit touristy, but nonetheless pretty, it's too bad mom and dad didn't get to see it. It's a great part of town, provided you're not claustrophobic, because the side alleys are quite narrow. But it makes for neat photos, anyway.

We had thought about going to another art museum, but at this point, after weeks of constant traveling... we had both had it. We went to the airport very early, and just sort of decompressed from a crazy whirlwind of a holiday. Back here in Guangzhou, I have a newfound appreciation for Shanghai. I like it there. It's much more international, which is odd considering Guangzhou's history as the only port open to the west. But times have changed, and maybe we'll change too - who knows, next year we may be calling Shanghai home.