I'm a Working Girl!

It's with mixed feelings that I give up my 'lady of leisure' days for a return to the working world...

Tracy and Tom Dicker

First, last weekend (the week after returning from Bali) we had house guests come to stay with us for 5 days.  Tom and Tracy Dicker (friends from Toronto) were here for a visit on their way to a vacation in Bali.  It was wonderful having guests from home, who arrived with Ketchup Lays in tow (key to my heart!).  We went out for dinners, had a late night in LKF (bar/club district), and saw some of the favourite HK sites.


The day before Tom and Tracy arrived was my first day at work.  I looked for a while last year for a part-time teaching position for an English Language school.  With my main qualifications being in Business Studies, and being choosey about how far I was willing to commute, I found that pickings were slim.  Most teaching positions here are full time, unless they involve teaching English at a 'learning centre'.  I had no interest in working at a learning centre because their hours are primarily on evenings and weekends, which is exactly when I didn't want to be working.  I ended up finding a part-time position at The Island School, an English-instruction school not far from our home.  However, it isn't a teaching position, it's as an EA (Educational Assistant) position, working within the classrooms, supporting the higher needs students.  I'm happy with the role because it allows me to focus on kids in a way that is difficult to do when I normally have 30 kids in a class back home.  The role is also much less responsibility than teaching (minimal planning, no marking, no reports), with the tradeoff being that I miss actually teaching and I earn a dismal pay.  Overall I'm quite happy to be back in a school setting and to get exposure to the education system over here, although I am slightly sad to let go of my leisurely lifestyle.

My new school

Signs we're not in the TDSB anymore Toto...
* they never even HEARD OF lockdown drills here - crime isn't an issue in HK (uber safe here, minimal street crime or drug issues, only real crime is the white collar variety)
* it's a private school with eager students, wireless internet and every student with their own laptop, every classroom has a data projector, and all lessons are kept on line... it a whole new world for me.
* the high schools here go from 'year 7' to 'year 13', and they start school one year earlier than home.  I'm primarily supporting year 7's and year 8's.  These are kids the age of grade 6 & 7 back home, as young as 10 years old!  A BIG adjustment for me.  I feel like I don't even know how to talk to these kids.  Most of them are just little kids who forget instructions and can't work alone for more than a couple of minutes.  I don't know how my friends who teach elementary school do it... props to you all.
* the students are split up into 'houses' called names like Flemming, Rutherford, Wilberforce, etc.  It's similar to Harry Potter where these kids will stay in these houses for their entire 7 years at Island School (best to get along with your housemates).
* the entire teaching staff is made up of expats from all over the world which is very cool.  The only local people on staff that I know of are the Chinese subject teachers (Cantonese and Mandarin)
* I'm pretty sure there are more 'white kids' than any class I taught in Toronto, but that said, these are truly international kids.  Today we did an exercise about identity, half the kids were born in HK, but only half of those hold HK passports (half are expats), and the 27 kids in class were born in 11 different countries.  Amazing.
* all hallways and staircases are outside, with only classrooms indoors.  School is organized in 'blocks', which are connected by foot bridges... it's a maze, but beautiful.  However, it's so hot here right now (111 degrees today with humidex) that when I have to climb 5 flights, outside, I'm sweating excessively when I arrive in class... classy.

Brian Wilson rocking out at 70 years young.

After the first week of work, we had a lovely low-key weekend.  The highlight was definitely going to the Beach Boys concert on Saturday night.  We went with friends Rina and Dustin (from Canada) and Gillian and Pat (from NYC).  It was a riot grooving to the oldies (with, admittedly, many oldies in the crowd).  The Beach Boys (getting on 70 years old) had excellent harmony and sounded absolutely great.  Imagine dancing to tunes like Kokomo, Surfin' USA, Wouldn't It Be Nice, and California Girls in the Convention Centre downtown Hong Kong.  A hilarious and fun night.