First Day of School! (Written on Monday, August 13th)

We have now been here for 2 weeks!

Last week the rest of the teachers came back to work.  I worked on a lot of projects such as doing an instrument inventory to see what we had and realizing that I need 5 more cellos for the students to be in orchestra!  It is a good problem to have.  :)  I have 1 beginning orchestra (5th grade), 2 middle school orchestras (an intermediate and advanced) and one high school orchestra right now.  It seems to be manageable numbers (88 total).  I wish I had a violist in high school and a bassist at other levels but this program is really new and things will balance out eventually.  Like Tim Gunn, I'll "Make it work." :)

Temple Street Night Market

This past weekend was an awesome one full of adventures!  Friday night we went to the Temple Street Night Market and tried some spicy and sour stuff and that was bad news!  It was soooooooo hot our lips were burning and then when Tim was slurping up some noodles the sauce splashed in his eye and ruined his contact.  It was pretty intense.  The night was cut sort of short and thankfully by the time we made it home Tim's eye was feeling better.

Saturday we got to move to our own apartment (not the temporary one we have been in the past two weeks).  This is sooner than we thought it would be and it was nice to get it done before school started. We slept in until about 11am!! and then got the news we could move after noon.  We just kind of hung out and had a slow morning and afternoon and it was great and much needed.  We then went with our neighbors to go explore Ma On Shan which is a shopping center a few stops up the line from where we live.  We spent HOURS there exploring and seeing all that there is to see!  The malls here are ridiculous!  They just keep going into other malls and generally are organized in sections such as clothing stores, electronic stores, home furnishing stores, accessory stores, etc.  About the only type of store that is sprinkled around malls is a grocery store or convenience store.  I got matching scarves with a friend and then we explored the Wellcome grocery store and stocked up on water and other groceries.

Big Buddha

Sunday was a big adventure day!  We went to the same church as last week and enjoyed it and then met up with friends once again to go see Lantau Island and the Po Lin Monastery that is on top of the mountains there.  We were originally going to take the cable car but it was a crazy long line to get to the cable car so we hopped on a bus right away.  The bus ride reminded us of roller coasters.  There were times where you could hear the engine groan and we were barely making it up the mountain side and then as soon as we got to the top it was a crazy almost free fall to the bottom.  These bus drivers all make me think of the Knight Bus from Harry Potter!  Once we got to the top Big Buddha was sitting up there.  It was 250 steps up to get to Big Buddha and then 250 down to get to the bottom.  It was quite the hike but thankfully the wind was blowing and it was a cooler day :)  We also had dinner at the Vegetarian Restaurant run by the Monastery and ate some ice cream while exploring.  The weather was kind of strange and because we were so high up the clouds were going all around us and everything around us was shrouded in mist which made it seem more mysterious.  It was sooooo awesome.  There were also lots of wild dogs that just hung out and didn't pay any attention to humans.  That was strange to see.  We went back down the mountain on the bus and it avoided all of the wild cows that just roam across the road :)  We then got some dinner and headed back home ready to go to bed and have:

The First Day of School!!
(I am sure this is the part you all were dying to hear about)

The mountain road

Well the first day was much like any other first day of school I have ever experienced.  There was confusion about where to go, what comes next, Tim and I took forever to figure out how the lunch line worked, my room was double booked (but its now fixed).  We got through the day and got through it well!  I think it is going to be a good year - different than others that I have experienced - but a good year overall.  All of my orchestra classes are held in the Chapel and it overlooks a beautiful mountain scene :)  Its hard to believe that is my room for the year.  My students all seem really nice and I am excited to see them in action in a week or so.  The classes in Middle and High school are on a 6 day rotation and I see them every other day for orchestra :)

I am excited to see how the rest of the week goes! :)

Ok here is Tim's 2 cents:
I finally found my first squatting toilet.  I was really surprised when I found it and then I couldn't decide whether to flush it with my hand or my foot.  So I didn't flush...don't judge...

Much love and warm wishes to all our friends and family.  We smile a lot when we think of you all or stumble across a fun candid photo.

Love,
Christine and Tim

A sleepy puppy at Po Lin

We were in the clouds!

Wild Cows!!!