Happy Voyager: Sunday, July 22, 2012

Great day! Wake up at 6 so have 2 hours to get organized before I'm picked up to go to class. We are going right straight through for 5 days (2 to go) of Sensorial because my time is valuable to both. We have Wed. off and then go straight through math for 6 days.

I came back to the hotel and had a delicious pumpkin soup and chicken Caesar salad in the restaurant. It's so fun to people watch and two ladies from Australia came to chat. They had been to Singapore and were now seeing Hong Kong.
Things I notice: all hotel staff are well dressed, professional, and extremely helpful. They go out of their way to show you something and do it with a smile. The Hong Kongers do not look particularly Chinese to me, very cosmopolitan. Every place is very clean. Most people speak English. They use a variety of utensils to eat with- chopsticks, little oriental spoons, knives and forks.

The students are very gracious, polite and have a good sense of humor. They say thank you for everything, look you in the eye, hand everything with two hands, as a gesture of politeness, smile a lot, and are generally great to be around. My swollen foot and ankle were better today, but I decided not to sit on the floor. I explained I would present on a table. That was fine and several times during the day, one student got me ice, and wanted to make me comfortable. Others, went out of their way to be sure I was OK. Many of their husbands and children picked up today and they are outgoing, asked questions about the States and were very easy to talk to. Ralph picks me up every morning and a different student takes me back at night. I get a chance to talk with them on the way.

It is such a pleasant atmosphere. We had Thai food ordered in today and all ate together.

Thai lunch

After lunch, one of the students helped make a pear cake because we celebrated Cheri, the pregnant student's birthday with a traditional Montessori birthday celebration before we went home.