Vi's New Job

Sorry about the lack of blogging lately but it's been a pretty uneventful couple of weeks. I'll start with the big news that just happened a couple minutes ago...Vi has a new job!!

She hasn't been happy at her job at the American company and has been looking for something else. She's been doing the job of a business AND personal assistant, sourcer, salesperson and host for visitors. Her boss has been in America the last month or so and she's been quite bored at work. She also doesn't like the environment at the office because it's mainly guys and she doesn't have any friends there. Also, it's about a 40 minute commute everyday for her.

Anyways, she just got back from an interview where the boss hired her on the spot after a couple minutes. There were even people waiting to interview after her but the boss didn't need to meet anyone else, Vi was her girl (she wanted to make sure I mentioned that). It's a Turkish company consisting of 3 women in the same field she's been in, exports. The best part of this job is that it's across the street from our building. It's not even a 5 minute walk from our door so that's great. Plus, I'm no longer tutoring during lunch so we'll both be able to come home for lunch everyday now.

She starts on Thursday next week and now she's building up the courage to call her boss and tell him she quits...this phone call should be interesting. She'll write a blog after a week or two to tell about her new job.

In much smaller news, school starts Sept 1st so I'm looking forward to getting back to school and the kids. I realized that I haven't really explained how's the summer been here so I'll tell you how the summer break was. I spent the summer teaching private lessons rather than resting and vacationing. I taught 3 or 4 classes most days but on Tuesdays 6 or 7. When school starts, I'll continue with some of the private lessons which is nice because I'll be making a lot more money than I was last semester.

My schedule, starting next week, will start with me at the preschool from 7:50-11:30, then a lunch break. I'll actually teach more this semester because I'll be teaching an extra class. I'll have my class, INT2A (INT means international, which means they get a foreign teacher, 2 is the level and A just means which 2 level class) and INTK4. Last year I taught K3 for 30 minutes; this year I'll teach K4 for an hour. Last semester I had a private lesson during lunch but this semester I won't so I'll be able to go home during my 3 hour lunch break and have lunch with Vi...also a little nap. I have to be back at the school at 2:30 and teach from 3:00 to 5:00. My actual classes will be from 9:00-9:30, 9:40-10:10, 10:15-10:40, 10:45-11:10 and 11:15-11:30 in the morning then 3:00-3:30 and 3:35-4:00. At 4:00, we just wait for the parents to come pick up the kids. I'll also have a 1 hour private lesson after school everyday, except Tuesday when it will be a 2 hour lesson. Needless to say, I'll be making $1,000 more this semester than I made last semester so I'm very happy about that.

The last update is that we're taking a trip to Thailand (Bangkok and Phuket) in October for my birthday. I'm now tired of writing so I'll update more on this when it happens.

Hiking in Hong Kong

Sorry about the late post, but as I've said before, accessing the blog has become difficult. A couple days ago, Vi and I went to Hong Kong with plans to visit Tan Long Wan beach, on Sai Kung peninsula. I've seen pictures of it online and it's beautiful but the main reason is because it's harder to get to so there's less people. Anyways, after crossing the border, riding the metro train and 2 buses later, we were at the trailhead. We started walking, enjoying the beautiful views until we came across a lady who looked exhausted and was desperate to know where she could meet the bus. We asked her how far the beach was and she said almost 2 hours away!!

Needless to say, we weren't happy. We ended up hiking up a mountain on the second hottest day in Hong Kong of the year...awesome. I did enjoy finally getting outside and seeing some greenery. After hiking through some little villages, we finally came around a corner and were amazed to see a white sand beach sitting in front of us.

We were exhausted and covered in sweat so we sat in the shade for over an hour and relaxed, enjoyed the view. We were too exhausted to hike to the bus so we just paid for a little speedboat to take us back to the first pier. It was about a 40 minute ride over choppy waters but we got to see amazing islands and expensive yachts.

We will definitely be going back there soon. You can rent a tent for just under $15 per night. It's a beautiful, beautiful beach surrounded by mountains. Incredible.