They say time flies when you鈥檙e having fun. Well, this must be one heck of a ride as November has whizzed past at a rate of knots! In fact, we even forgot to pay our rent on time (ah!) - purely because December has snuck upon us so quickly. As ever, this month has been packed full of activity and a whole host of weird and wonderful experiences. My parents visited me for a weekend, stopping over on their way to visit our Australian cousins, which was fantastic - if completely surreal! They managed to get booked into Langham Hotel - the huge modern landmark for Mongkok, which happens to be virtually on my doorstep. The view from their 27th floor room was breath-taking; I had no idea we lived that close to the water - in fact I had no idea how close we are to the island itself.
 | | Neela in Hong Kong |
We spent the weekend packing in all the tourist sights - taking a tram up to Victoria Peak, which boasts an amazing view over Hong Kong, and then catching a bus down to the south side of the island, where we browsed around Stanley market and took a 鈥渟am鈥 boat around Aberdeen harbour. That side of the island is like a different place entirely - dotted with sandy beaches and stunning scenic views of distant islands. For dinner we met up with a friend and took a boat over to the fishing village of Lamma Island, where I got to show off my chopsticks skills over some fresh seafood, before sailing back through the twinkling lights of all the buildings around the harbour. As well as getting to spend time with them again, it was really good to show my parents the variety of my new surroundings - so totally different from home. My mum seemed particularly taken with my honed haggling skills on the Mongkok markets - it鈥檚 amazing how a bit of 鈥淎iya! Fifty dollars la?!鈥 can bag you a bargain! Overall it was actually what I didn鈥檛 know I needed - seeing everything through fresh eyes again can do wonders for making you appreciate being here. | "Seeing everything through fresh eyes again can do wonders for making you appreciate being here" | |
School has been going well, if particularly hectic during the run-down to Christmas. Unfortunately I am stuck doing the oral exams at the moment, which is less fun than my usual songs and games-packed lessons! But I have been getting into the school-spirit in other ways鈥 namely by foolishly offering myself up for the teachers鈥 relay race on Sports Day! It seemed like such a good idea at the time, but the red flag really should have flown when the rest of the teachers exclaimed 鈥淲ah! Miss Jane!鈥 (the Cantonese version of 鈥淲ow!鈥) when I agreed to the offer鈥 I don鈥檛 think they had expected me to actually say 鈥測es鈥! Indeed come the actual day it turned out that the team consisted of myself, the P.E. teacher, the I.T. technician and a maths teacher: three big men and little me, running against a load of parents in the baking sun! Ah. But the day was actually so fun - the kids went wild for us and we even came third, receiving bronze medals and everything! Afterwards the teachers treated me to a traditional dim sum feast around a large spin-top table, making it a truly memorable day. Although I didn鈥檛 dabble in the chicken feet鈥. hmm, maybe next time! Looking back it has all been somewhat chaotic, with English funfairs and speech festivals coming out of everyone鈥檚 ears on top of everything else that comes with the general mayhem of being a Gelt. So although it鈥檚 gone by incredibly quickly, the term has still been long and challenging and we鈥檙e definitely all feeling ready for a well-deserved break.听 It鈥檚 strange not having the same snugly December-vibe you get at home at this time of year - the only snugly thing about it is finally turning the air con off at night! But instead of trying to replicate an English Christmas in Hong Kong we have decided to take it to the next level: Christmas on a beach! Yep, in three weeks time you can find me sunning myself on the sandy shores of Thailand鈥hh!... 鈥oesn鈥檛 get much better than that. :-) Neela | 
