Wed. July 25, 2012

Today was my day off between courses so I slept in a bit and then Ralph picked me up for sight-seeing.  We went to the eastern part of Hong Kong Island to Sai Kung and "Clearwater Bay golf and country club".  Actually, we were very high up at a fantastic "country park" and hiked through some trails and saw wonderful plants, many I'd not seen before.  There were many branches and leaves down from the storm yesterday.  We drove through the most gorgeous countryside, with green hills, windy roads and very few people.  He said 80% of Hong Kong is country.  The Brits helped set it up that way and they hope developers don't spoil it.  We also went to a small museum and saw many turtles swimming up to be fed, and cows sitting in the middle of a round-about.  He said the cows are wild now since the farmers set them free and they just wander around.  We came back through a village near the water where rich foreigners and Hong Kongers live and have their yachts nearby.  There were also some "dragon boats" there from the recent festival.  I think we celebrated that festival in Tampa, too.

Early in the morning it was quite foggy, but it cleared up some for our trip.  Coming back into Kowloon, we got into pouring rain.  We met some others from school for lunch at the Jasmine Restaurant. We've eaten there before.  Ralph dropped me off before that to go to the bookstore at the Festival Walk shopping center.  It is just huge, about 4 levels, and every store imaginable.  The bookstore was very big and had a wonderful variety of books.  I wanted picture books of all I'm seeing and found three that show just about everything.  They were not expensive at all.  After another delicious variety lunch, he dropped me off at the hotel.  They were having a teaching day for parents and teachers from other schools.  

I took a short nap and I think I figured out how to put pictures into the blog but I'll try another day, since it's past my bedtime now.  I sat in the lobby with my coffee and snacks, reading for class.  Then spent many hours reading lessons and getting organized.  If I were teaching at home, I just do it after all this time.  Pamela's manuals have slight differences in each presentation and I want to do it her way so they can learn from and follow the manuals when they get home.  It's a great brain stretching activity and I'm enjoying it and getting new ideas.  I'm off to bed and up early tomorrow to get back with the students.