First Day of "real" work

Yesterday, we went to the secondary school to sit with some Form 6 students (essentially twelfth graders) and talk to them about Hong Kong to give them a chance to converse in English. They're taking us around Hong Kong on Thursday, each of us with a group of about 8 students. I was really nervous talking to them, and they were a bit nervous too, so we were kind of awkward, but I think on Thursday it'll be easier making conversation when there's more stimulation and things to point at and ask about. At one point the boys asked me, "Which of these three ladies (the 3 girls in our group) do you think is the most attractive?" and the girls were like, "NO, which of the boys?!" And I said, "I'm not answering that question!" with a smile. It was pretty funny. They also asked if I had a boyfriend. They also asked if I was a Christian or Catholic.

I answered that I was a Christian, and a Lutheran (their school has Lutheran in the name, and even though they take religion classes, a lot of them aren't Christians).

After that, we invited some of the students to go to lunch with us, and about 8 of them took us to their favorite Indian restaurant. The waitress brought out glasses of water for everyone, and the Americans, being used to this at home, all promptly took a drink or two (or downed the whole glass). The Hong Kongers didn't say anything, so we were just chilling and talking about what we should order (I got the beef curry and actually bit the bullet and got sprite because they gave us the fishy tap water). When our food came out, one of the boy dipped his silverware (we had forks and spoons) into the glass, and then the other students started grabbing our silverware and dipping it into their glasses (not ours, by the way). All the Americans were just like, "Uhm... whoops". That was our first major gaffe. :-P No one said anything so it was even funnier when we realized we all drank dishwater.

In the evening, we went out for a welcome dinner. I was under the impression that it was going to be a big event, with a lot of administrators and stuff, but it was our group, the GEOs and the Seminarian Adam, Ken and Monica (the couple that picked us up from the airport), Albert (who is the only sarcastic Chinese man I've met), and a translator and teacher, Mary. It was a very swanky place, and it turned out everything had some form of seafood in it (I only eat fish). I got extremely embarrassed because everyone was making a big deal about me not eating, and I'm used to everyone just kind of not paying attention or not caring. When they finally served fish, Mary gave me practically half the thing. She also gave me both of the fish cheeks. Giving someone a fish cheek means your honoring them, and giving me BOTH of them was a very big deal. And I felt horrible because I could barely eat any of the fish (though it was quite delicious) because eating fish scales is almost on par with eating mushrooms for me. It just FREAKS me out. I've been trying a lot of new things here, but some things I just can't get over my inhibitions. I'll try very hard when we go out on Thursday, if for no other reason than to entertain my students by an American trying things that are totally normal to them but crazy to us.

They also, thankfully, had fried rice so I was a happy camper. They also had fruit slices (dragonfruit, kiwi, oranges, and watermelon, so I was even happier. I love dragonfruit!) for dessert, and these weird jelly coated egg custards, which weren't too good. At least not nearly as good as the egg custard we had at yum cha.

In the taxi on the way home, Victor, the team leader of my group of students called me to tell me he was picking me up at 8:30 here at this school. He told me some other stuff but I didn't get it and I don't like talking on the phone at home, even. He sent me a text message soon after (but I missed it until this morning), telling me that they're all eating breakfast beforehand (I eat breakfast at 7 here so I'm good). I tried to reply, but either the phones they gave us don't support text messaging, or his phone or something was unavailable, so I couldn't get it through.

In a great twist of fate, I was the first in bed as opposed to the last, and I crashed pretty early. I don't know if it's the heat combined with walking everywhere and not eating much, but I've been sleeping like a baby these past several nights. Or it could be the fact that I've finally hit my real circadian rhythm? At home I never sleep well, and here I've just been falling asleep with no problems. I don't know the reason, but I'm certainly not complaining.

Shrimp salad. The little orange beads on the top are crab roe. No thank you.

My place setting. That green colored drink tasted like jolly ranchers, it was so awesome.

Mr. Grouper! (Pronounced 'GA ROUP AH!!!). I wish I would have gotten the chicken head they had in the next course. :P

Rebecca, Laura, Me, and Kristen. Please ignore my awful hair. Monica took these last three pictures.

I'm actually not too bad with chopsticks when I try. That thing was slippery and gelatinous (it also tasted pretty icky. Not offensive, just icky).

Ugh, awful hair.