Some class photos

Some pictures of me with the students, since I don't think I've posted any class photos yet.  These are grades 4 and 5.

Children's Day talent show

June 1st is international Children's Day, which you would know if you lived outside the US because apparently all the countries celebrate these holidays but us.  Which meant that my primary school was off for the day, and the day before my kids put on a talent show.  They were so cute!  And some of them are really talented!  There was singing, dancing, recorders and violins and keyboards that are powered by blowing into a tube.  It was a lot of fun to experience, here are some videos and picture for you to enjoy!

I know we're not supposed to have favorites.... But look at these 2nd grade ballerinas!!

A grade five girl performing a Mongolian dance

A very talented girl playing the traditional Chinese guzheng

These are little keyboards you play by blowing air into.  So funny.

The cha cha is pretty popular here

Macau for May Day

We got a three day holiday (which in China actually means we had to work on Saturday and then got Sunday-Tuesday off) and so we again packed our bags and this time headed to Zhuhai and then across the border to Macau.  It's the middle of monsoon season now and the rains were pouring, but luckily the weather improved and only sprinkled a few times for us.  Zhuhai turned out to not be too interesting, but we stayed there because it's much cheaper than Macau!   Monday morning we crossed the border (after a two hour line) and headed to the Vegas of the East.  We started at the Venetian, where Thomas explained a lot of the games to us.  It was my first casino!  And what a choice. It has the biggest casino floor in the world, and is head to toe gilded. 

We did some tours of Cathedrals and architecture, which was interesting because Macau used to be a Portuguese colony so it is a big difference from mainland.  After a delicious feast at Alfonso III, we went to some more casinos, including the Grand Lisboa, the Wynn, and the MGM Grand.  After getting a refresher course from Thomas, I played black jack and won a hundred dollars!  As my first time gambling, it was a great time and I can now say I've never lost :P

  

Rain out my window

Fisher girl statue at Zhuhai

the Venetian

St. Paul's Cathedral ruins

View over the city

In the MGM, an actual live butterfly globe

Lookin at a winner!

Camping in Hong Kong

We decided to invest in a tent a couple weeks ago and took advantage of our three days off to use it.  I went camping with Christiane and Thomas on Lantau Island in Hong Kong.  It took us a looooong time to get there because it turns out everyone was trying to go to HK, but after two buses, a metro, lunch, a ferry, and another bus (four or five hours later) we got there.  The campsite was a lot nicer than we expected; it had campgrounds with tables and laundry lines, not to mention a clean bathroom with showers.  We stayed for two nights and were able to tour the island and see the big Buddha, go to a stilt house fishing town, and hike.  Well, Christiane and Thomas got to hike.  Because...
Only draw back -- I got some kind of food poisoning from breakfast and had to delay the trip an hour to rally, and on top of that had a bad head cold!  Come on, China.  So I stayed in the tent while they went hiking (sad face) but otherwise tried my best to keep up.
We didn't have a lot of things we needed, like fire wood, pads to sleep on (we were literally separated from the rocky ground by only the tent) or flashlights (we found out once we got there that T had forgotten his headlamp).  But we made it work.  By far not the most comfortable nights of our lives, but it wasn't too bad.  We might even go back to another site next weekend if I can recuperate enough (I got another kind of stomach flu this week, COME ON, CHINA!).
It was a little foggy / hazy but the pictures still turned out.
::I know the pictures are orientated strangely, it's a problem with the website.  I'm not able to rotate them, sorry!::

Daylight Savings...

Does not exist in China!  This means two things.  1: Remember that when trying to set up skype dates and other such rendezvous with me  2: I don't have to wake up an hour early mwahaha :P

In other news, some pictures.  Thomas and I stumbled upon a "Dutch Flower Village"  which was a very bizarre little fake town that looks like it's supposed to be an attraction but ran out of money.

Lolz.  Great name.

Complete with fake trolley.

And around our area, the creepiest manikin at the mall

China has some of the creepiest manikins. 

And tut tut looks like rain.  Guess monsoon season's back!  Only this time it's much colder.

It wasn't raining an hour before this, and it hasn't stopped all day.

 Happy DST foreign friends!