The Deep Breath Before the Plunge

I spend most mornings at the outside cafe, sipping coffee and listening to the wind carry random sounds pass my ear. People rambling in Cantonese, hellos and good mornings. Cars and buses faintly in the distance. My thoughts mingle with this natural rhythm, while I nod to familiar faces on their way to work and orientation events, and sometimes I think of home for a moment. My mother is back at school, my brother is 3 months away from his 2nd marriage anniversary (yeah, it's been that long already). LeAnthony (a young men I use to mentor) has started his first year in college, and my talented friends are all moving along in their lives, which does nothing but make me smile from time to time. Birds of a feather truly flock together, because I dip my cup into the well of success on occasions, and my friends are never far behind, many are in front actually; and I am just trying to catch up.

The other day, which many of you are still on as I write this, was the induction ceremony of the CLE (center for language and education), which is the dept. I will be working in. Now, induction ceremony really means faculty and staff meeting with two breaks for coffee, lunch, and mingling. Keeping the theme of the last blog, change was definitely the atmosphere of the gathering, and my colleagues and I are a huge part of that change. It is very refreshing to be apart of something new and evolving. Currently, I am a culture/language/psychology/poetry prostitute and will undoubtedly be pimped out to several areas on campus. In fact, Monday I start as a TA(teaching assistant) for a human development class (my resume is going to look so damn good after this trip). I will be spending plenty of time in the Educational psychology department, oh how I miss psychology. Additionally, in the coming weeks we will each be responsible for creating a tutorial (not a formal class) for English speaking and English writing enhancement. The classes will be no more than 5 students. I like to call it a super duper study group. I and three others will also be managers of a new language/cultural exchange venue called Club IEd(institute of education). This will be a place where students can experience casual informal conversation in english, as well as in mandarin, french, and whatever else, while sitting comfortably in a Starbucks type atmosphere (Yes, Starbucks are everywhere here). It will also be an entertainment spot for open mic events, small music performances, guest speakers, and basically anything we can fit into the space. I am very intrigued by all of this and cannot wait to get started.

So that is the near future, as for the past, I have two events to share with you. Yes, yes, there will be pictures. Sadly, I didn't pay alot of attention on this trip so an explanation of the photos may be very simple. On Thursday, we were given a small tour of parts of Hong Kong Island. Of course, we must start with God, there is no other beginning.We went to a lovely cathedral (see what I mean), I actually believe it was St. John's Cathedral.

The picture below is the Anglican Bishop of Hong Kong's house. The first thing I thought when I saw it was, I am in the wrong business. "But, religion is not business", whatever helps the pastor sleep.

One of the most interesting sites, only because I am use to seeing churches, was the temple of the god of War and god of Literature. I have a video below.

One of the administrators/professors told me that students will flock there when exam time comes around. The hanging baskets have incense in them, and there are several altars were those that are praying can place there incense or fruit. Similar to the Taoist temple I posted about earlier. I didn't light any incense this time, my openness only goes so far (John 14:6), but I simply enjoy seeing all the religious sites, and watching the locals pray and such. In the video you will see my colleague Dhwani speaking with an elderly woman with a smile that is warmer than some summer days.

While we are on religion, I went to Church again this Sunday, to the same place as before. Three of my colleagues joined me. Sarah Sebastian and Sarah Kim are in the photo below, and Ramon Mislang, who lives next door to me, took the picture. We all enjoyed the service, and most importantly, I met an African gentleman named Jolt, who said that he could cut my hair (for free by the way, I love being a Christian, I am going to pay him anyway). Yes, I know. God is good to me. Where there are three brothas, clippers won't be far away.

Walking through the small markets of Hong Kong you learn a couple of things. One thing to note is that Hong Kong has wonderful cuisine, and on the streets you may find something somewhat familiar, but just prepared in a different fashion.

And then again, you may run across something that we usually call the exterminator for, creatures that act as the afternoon entertainment for adventurous young boys. We even saw shark fin, someone else has that picture.

The tour was wonderful, but exhausting. We toured from 9am to 3pm, but the day was far from being over. My good friend Shanita and I had been discussing the desire to do some artwork, thus we decided to stay on HK Island (remember I live an hour north of were our tour was), and find an art supply shop. Long story short, about six of us went and found the shop, bought some supplies and I will let you know how that is going for me later. Since poetry seems to not be coming to me at the moment, I have decided to draw and journal more. Later that evening I and the others in my dorm were invited to a BBQ with the Residence Hall Association.
Here are Sarah and Meghan enjoying the festivities. There more pictures, but in other cameras that I don't own.

Here is our dinner.

And, here is the result of a great day that I thought would never end. We did many other activities at the BBQ, like camp fire songs and games. I met alot of students whose names I no longer remember.

This weekend I rest, and try to keep my wallet as tightly closed as possible. So it seems that the orientation/greet and meet part of my trip has ended. Monday the real work begins, and I am nothing but ready to dive right in. By the way, if you ever have any questions, since my overviews are usually quite skimpy, don't hesitate to ask in the comment section. Until I blog again, be well.