Hong Kong 2: New Teachers at 9:11 AM

Around January, my good friend Jacob Harlan asked me a favor. He's the guy that runs China Horizons. China Horizons is the program that got me here. Anyways, Jacob asked me to help him help the new teachers sight see in Hong Kong and make their way to their respective schools. So we hung out in Hong Kong for a few days. We went to the temple a lot which was awesome, because that's the first time I had gone to the temple since I had come to China. (LDS Temple, not bhuddist, although I saw a lot of those, and they were really cool)

We also saw a lot of other cool stuff. We went to this place called Ngong Ping village on Lantau Island (other side of the island from the Campbells)  where they have this huge bhudda statue and a cool bhuddist temple. Overall, really awesome place. I went twice. Once before the teachers came and once with the new teachers. The first time was awesome, becuase I had all the time in the world. That day I hiked to the peak of the island by myself in this killer awesome fog and I think I can understand why historically amazing religious things happen on the tops of mountains. It was an amazing experience. About half a mile from the top there was a white out. It was like I was hiking through a really windy cloud. My hair was wet even though it was warm outside. (I think that's what happens when you walk through clouds.) The second time the whole place was under fog (all my pictures are from the second time), and it was just as much as an adventure even though I had already seen it. On top of the awesome Bhuddist temple and the Cool Giant Bhudda Statue (Yes, that's a proper noun, maybe not accurate, but deal with it), they had this really awesome place called The Path of Wisdom. It's a figure eight path you walk, probably only about 80 meters total and as you walk the path they have these giant trees cut in half along the path with writing on them. The writing is the Heart Sutra, which apparently is used by Taoists, Bhuddists, and Confucianists alike. I may not believe what it says, but it's still pretty cool. And it was fun to walk along the path and not read it (I can't read Chinese yet....). I did read it after on a plaque for Americans who can't read Chinese.

Other than that I went to church in a real church building for the first time in a few months. Man is that something I've taken for granted in my life. I'll write a post about how we meet for church in China soon too...

The new teachers were not what I thought they would be. I don't even know what I expected, it's just hard to imagine up a new personality. When I finally met them it was fun to watch all the new social dynamics come together and especially fun to watch people bond because they had no one else. I love all the new teachers. They're fun, they adventurous (they came to China, that would be enough for me to know they were adventurous), and they know how to have a good time.

We also went ice skating, but somehow I didn't document that. Sorry. It was also awesome.

After Hong Kong we went to Shenzhen for a couple days to train the new teachers. We really didn't do anything, we just sat through good trainings on how to teach, but I do have some pictures of us on the town at night playing pool. Sorry you only get to see one.

And Erica, thanks for the note. I will keep writing!