Cockroachs and Water Bills

Curious what this post is about? Well I have been living in Hong Kong for about three months and by now I actually thought that I more or less know what the city has in petto. Well I was proven wrong today, as we received our first water- and electricity bill.
Nowadays one hears a lot about rising energy prices in Europe, so we payed close attention not to overuse the water heater, air con andof course to switch off the light when leaving the room. We even went that far to set our fridge to "winter-modus" during summerly 30 degrees! But see for yourself what kind of misfortune struck us...

Turns out: Energy is ridiculously cheap in Hong Kong!! Besides the enormously high rent, one does not have to fear additional costs when renting an apartment. As the government subsidise the first 140 HKD of every electricity bill in the city, every month, we did not have to pay a single cent for electricity yet.On the contrary we had to settle a derisory amount of 24 HKD for water, over a period of 70 days! Oh, and of course this bill is defrayable at ever ATM in the city in less than a minute. One just gotta love this city ;)

Well back to the actual story of the protagonist! When my flatmate came home today he found a rather odd guest in our apartment (no, this time it was not a couchsurfer who is commonly found at our place) but a cockroach. Being omnipresent in the city and especially in the crowded partying districts, these little fellows are a common site. But in our apartment?

 Apart from us being tidy and clean people we wondered HOW this daily doze of protein could have managed to reach our flat on the 8th floor. The most rational theory  (2 out of 2 votes) is that our neighbours have a cockroach farm to earn a little extra money to pay the rent. Nevertheless we treated him with best hospitality and gave him/ him a piece of rotten banana. Enjoy! Unfortunately he is no longer staying with us as we threw him back to his world, the dark alley full of eatable waste from the restaurant next door.

Progress Report online

Hey Folks,

One of my countless reports was uploaded to the school's website. For anyone who can handle google translator or is capable of understanding German, enjoy!

http://mygsis.gsis.edu.hk/GSISDept_Erfahrungsbericht%204.aspx

How to survive in Hong Kong: Lesson #1, the Octopus Card

Once, in a  country far far away called Germany there was a traceur, hindered in his movement as he was waiting for a train. He was exasperatedly because the 30 minute trainride cost a small fortune, the service was bad and the train ran only every half an hour, when on time. In addition one always had to carry around change as payment.

The traceur was so furious about this treatment that he flew to a myth-enshrouded place where one could board any of the many different vehicles available and pay conveniently by placing his wallet onto a magic button.

My one and only Octopus Card.

Okay enough of the tails, over here in Hong Kong the public transit system can be described as awesomness²! With the rechargeable Octopus card one can not only pay all public transit by swiping it over a sensor but at all Starbucks, 7-11s and many more stores. In addition you receive one free trip for every 100 HKD you spent (about 10 Euro). Moreover the fair is comparably inexpensive as one pays 2.3 HKD for the tram, 4.8-10.5 for the MTR (Mass Transit Rail) and 5-12 HKD for the bus and minibuses.

Taxis are comparably cheap too. Every Monday I have to switch campuses and therefore take the taxi which takes me about 20 minutes and the charge is only charged with about 75 HKD.

This one being the MTR-logo

The tram being the cheapest vehicle only runs, of course, on fixed tracks on Hong Kong Island. All of the routes go from East to West, covering the northern part of the island.
As one stop is just outside my door, it is really convenient for me to take the tram to most of my afternoon and evening activities. It is always a great sight to just sit on the upper deck and watch the street pass by. Once I have time, I will post some "off the tram shot" pictures.

The MTR is by far the most used public transit vehicle transporting most of the professionals from Kowloon through the tunnel to the many office buildings on the island and back. The reasons why so many people use this way of transportation is because it is fast and really convenient as the waiting time only ranges from 1-10 minutes and the railway area covers most of the urban area.

Every morning I bestow my way to work by bus hence this route is not covered by any other pt-line. Some bus routes are exceptionally busy during rush hour and therefore slow but most of the times the bus is a good way to reach ones destination as well. However during rush hour I prefer to switch to the MTR for some stops hence traffic is sometimes time consuming. Moreover on the bus you can sit on the upper deck up front and enjoy the view while travelling or take a nap.

Tram, double-deck bus and of course a German Benz!

Lastly there is the option to chose a taxi for travelling. The time and money you have to spend for a trip depends mostly on traffic likewise driving skill and English capability vary greatly from one to another driver. So far, the most annoying driving style I have experienced is the constant gas on/off way, at an interval of one acceleration per second. Not only does one have to hold on to a handle but fear for his life as well as the driver is apparently not well schooled. In addition your stomach should not be upset if you board one of these taxis or you lunch/ drinks might cross your mind again.

Challenge the impossible e.g. learn Mandarin

I guess everyone of us has at least one thing in mind which we have been wanting to do since ages but just could not realise it into reality. For me, one of these cogitations is to learn 7 languages.

Now that I finally signed up for a Mandarin course at a language school, I came one step closer in pursuing this goal.I have 10 weeks to study for approximately 400 hours to get into the university course starting in January. This digit should be taken seriously as it is the official guideline recommended for the entrance exam of the course.
Two 120 minutes sessions per week plus homework should give me a good foundation for this challenging task. In addition I got a "private tutor" (a friend of mine who has doubtful and pestering amazing and innovative teaching methods. As I won't be able to speak much Mandarin in Hong Kong I will have to seize every possible practise I can get.

Wish me good perseverance and an alert mind.
www.hk-mandarin-school.com.hk
http://www.cuhk.edu.hk/clc/ssp_series_4.pdf

So far my study material consists of a textbook/ workbook, a phrasebook, podcasts and some software for my audio capability.

This one being my textbook.

As you sow, so shall you reap.

The only thing constant in life is change

Time flies; 5 weeks have passed and I still have not adapted a constant weekly cycle. Maybe it is because there are so many things to do, maybe because rapid change is constant or maybe because I do not wanna define a fixed schedules hence there might turn up something better tomorrow.
My primary goal at the moment is to enrol for a Mandarin course at a language school but the options are vast and I want to make sure that I chose the one which fits me best. In addition I am pondering about my sport schedule...fixed classes?, mood-wise? , 3 times a week?, 5 times a week?

Anyways, in the past week I received my Hong Kong ID-Card,  met tons of interesting people from all kinds of backgrounds, I discovered that the world is indeed a village, my favourite Dim Sum (bite sized delicious snacks) got competition: castle layered spongecake!, I cooked European food for friends for the first time, Southpark was watched extensively and intercultural exchange took place. I do not want to go into detail as the topics were somehow private but we had many laughs and I enjoyed every last minute of my weekend!

More updates and pictures will follow later, work is calling!

We are no slavedrivers

Okay, first of all, I LOVE quotes because it is up to interpretation and context what you make of them. Moreover it reveals in which paradigm people think.  

One of my really nice colleagues mentioned it in a sub clause, hinting that the other teachers and her pay close attention that I have enough breaks, food and room for myself. As there are these very supporting moments, there are others as well…Last week I got asked to laminate a new learning game consisting of din7 cue cards, din6 cue cards and Din4 paper which adds up to 56 pages (Din4). Bad news is, there are 10 of these games!! I have to stuff the smaller cue cards, edge on edge, into a laminating foil, laminate them, cut the page back into 8/6 cards and sort them again. Oh and yes, it is as time consuming and annoying as it sounds.

But as there is always a downside to everything you have to look on the “bright side of life”. For me, the bright side is that I meanwhile listen to Chinese podcasts or audio companions. In addition I dare to believe that this is a onetime only situation hindering me only for some time to work with the kids. I would have liked though, to be informed about this prior to the beginning of work as my field of work  was defined like that “ It might happen that you will have to produce some worksheets and other material for lesson, maybe even a little more in the beginning”.

Besides that one task there is not really anything at all I can complain about at work. My colleagues are always chatty and helpful, the kids are tiring but it’s a pleasure to work with them and even my boss is far away from the klischee-tyrant.  She updates my knowledge about school frequently, provides me with information about town and gives me advise how to live life over here.
In conclusion I am like my work, all the teachers around me and of course the school staff.

As normal as it gets…

In this post I want to give you a broad overview about my daily life; especially my work at the Pok Fu Lam campus of the German Swiss International School. My work consists of authoring teaching materials, assisting the teacher in class, break duty, bus duty,extra tutoring for weak or strong students, PE lessons and an afternoon activity at the Peak campus.

Generally I get up at 6am or earlier, if my body comes to an agreement with my mind that it is a good idea to push my heart rate by accelerating my legs to a fast pace. Either way, I need to have breakfast and shower until 6:35am to leave the flat and shift to the next bus stop.

The following 25 minutes are mostly used to chit chat with colleagues on the bus or to repeat some Chinese vocabulary by audio guide. At school I can still enjoy 5 to 10 minutes of silence until the children arrive by bus. As we have close to 300 students ranging from three to six years of age, a mornings bus duty is no bed of roses. I have to help every single student to depart from the bus, whereas some of them just learnt to walk recently. After my bus duty I have a long breakfast break in which I mostly do research on the Internet, write blog-posts, private mail as well as work mail.  I do look forward to the day where my have-to-do-list is blank.

After the break I have five lessons and two playground duties following the regular German Schedule of two lessons, break...At the moment there are still many office wise things to complete so I do not work with the kids as regularly as I would like to since they are mostly exceptional cute and have good manners. Some are only really cute and behave nicely though, screw them ; )

Playground duty is still stressful hence the new kids do not know about the rules and it is not easy to keep an eye on all of the kids around me. Tidying up the toys after the break is another point where there is still a need of improvement

After the 6^th lesson the whole fun starts again as all of the kids have to get onto their bus again. To ensure a smooth flow, all of the kids gather at their bus location in the gym and wait for their bus to arrive. Depending on the bus number, one has to shepherd the children for 5 to 30 minutes.  After the children are gone I have my second break of the day.

Later on, afternoon activities, private tutoring or, if neither of these apply to my schedule, office hours begin and last till 3:20pm. Normally I would be allowed to leave at that time but I generally stay longer as there is still stuff to be done. My free time activities after work (yes I still have a life over here outside of school) will follow in the next days.

FINALLY, my registration got approved and I will be a regular Hong Kong resident soon :))))

Learning by heart at the language exchange group over a German Meisel!

An important note at the end: If you send me your home address or a post card, you will get at least one post card back from me for each one of the two. It does not matter if I know you in person.