Food, Fun, Farewells...

Hello Boys and Girls,

Orientation wrapped up today. It was a fun, but busy week, thus the lack of recent posts. Things have gotten much more streamlined since I first signed up three years ago. Before, orientation lasted two whole weeks. That was a bit much, so only having one week this year was a welcome change. It was a great group this year, and everyone worked really hard to make it a fun time.

One of the many highlights of the week here in Hong Kong is all the delicious food we get to eat. Tuesday night, like I mentioned earlier, the Dongbei Veterans went out to a really great burger & fries joint...

The bacon was super thick, and the fries were really good too. Then on Wednesday night we all went across to the Kowloon side of Hong Kong to have a meal at my favorite Indian restaurant in the world:

The Taj Mahal

Then on Thursday night we had a traditional Chinese banquet:

And tonight, for our "Last Supper," we had an American classic:


It was divine. Topped off with a big bowl of chocolate ice cream, I think I'm ready for some real Chinese food now.

Despite the somewhat hectic nature of the last week, I did manage to find time to go swimming down in the bay each day after lunch. As you can see, it's quite the little swimming hole...

That was a habit that I would love to be able to further develop. Somehow, though, I doubt the Chinese beach will quite as pristine. We also spent a lot of time exploring the city, seeing the sites, etc. Today I took some people down to the local Market to buy some last minute supplies.

And tomorrow morning we'll be heading out for the Mainland at 6:30am. While we all had a tremendous week, I think everyone is pretty anxious to get into the classroom and start teaching. I know I'm super excited to meet all of my new students, and explore my new city.

Zhanjiang, here we come.

P.S. For those of you who are reading this and haven't eaten yet, my apologies. :-)