The week of busyness

This week has been crazy for both of us! We just didn't seem to spend that much time in the apartment.

Monday: I had a test, which meant studying in the morning and then going up to the university so that Colin's adviser, Chris, could proctor my exam for me. Luckily it only took 15 minutes and I got a good grade. Colin had Chris' class that he's TAing for. This felt like the least busy day this week. That night I got an email about a last minute interview from a friend, so I had that to look forward to the next day at noon.

Tuesday: Colin had his first tutoring session and I had to prepare during the morning for an interview up at the university in the linguistics department. Emailing resumes, getting there on time without asthma attacks to make all the makeup and getting well-dressed worth it, arranging schedules for after interview... Finally, I got up to the interview which went very well. I was offered a full-time position on a two month trial basis with the option of extending it after that. Olga is an interesting person - very intense. She's always got a hundred and one things going through her mind and her to do list would put many listers to shame. She expects good work done independently and in good time. Granted, she said this from the perspective of the people that work for her now.... so she expects it in a reasonable amount of time. After my interview, I met up with Colin for a few minutes before his tutoring group, which also went very well. It was a little unexpected, but he was pleased with his group of students.

Wednesday: I had to get up early to go to immigration to get my Hong Kong ID (a city ID card can get you so many benefits). They open at 7:45, so I was there at 7:30. After waiting in line for an hour so that the building could have a fire drill, it took 2 minutes to get the card. By the time I got home, Colin was ready to head to the university, so up the hill we went. He printed my resume off for me and went to class while I started the employment process of trying to get a work visa via university sponsorship. Brand new HKID in hand along with my resume and passport, we started working it out with the department of humanities. Not long after all of that was finished, Colin made it out of class and we ate a quick lunch before the next two classes that we're both auditing/sitting in on. That's a 1pm-5pm venture, followed by coffee for an hour of more, so we didn't make it home until 7:30 at which point my not-quite-yet employer had already put a journal article in my inbox for proofreading, which I put 3 hours in on.

Thursday: I had a skype session with my professor back at NCSU from 8 to 8:30 and then put another three hours into the journal article before Colin and I had lunch with our friend Donald. Luckily, we met him at the Thai restaurant at the bottom of our building, so I could work all morning. After a quick lunch, I left the boys to talking while I completed another journal related assignment. In the afternoon, I started feeling ill, so Colin went to this week's lecture alone.

Friday: It's Friday morning and I can only imagine what Olga might have for me today. She said she would probably send me a more complete draft today to be proofread one more time. Colin's starting to feel what I felt last night and has a tutoring session today from 4- 5:30 and it's date night. It might be a good time to actually do some grocery shopping for this week so that we have food for the weekend. We spent all week up at the university eating at Oliver's Super Sandwiches, which is a lovely change, but doesn't need to become a habit.

How busy has your week been?

A Good Week

This week hasn't been super exciting, but it's been good.

Colin met up with his adviser and is starting to get some of the details he needed about completing his project here. He's also gotten his first taste of being a TA. Students have been filling his email all week and about half of them didn't follow directions. He finally sent out a class-wide email explaining the process again (to good reception from his adviser).

The two of us have been attending two classes given by Chad Hansen, one of the big names in Chinese philosophy. Great classes. One is on Chinese Humanism and the other is a comparative of Western Rule of Law and Chinese 'fa'. They've both been providing us with some good food for thought. We've also attended the coffee sessions after class, which have led to us meeting a study abroad student from the US, Larry. We had a great meal with him last week. Very funny and articulate.

I've been trudging away at my classwork as well. This week we discussed students with behavioral and emotional disorders (BED to those in the teaching world). There was a lot to learn about an extremely heterogeneous group of students that I'll no doubt encounter in the classroom. Next week is my first test, so we'll see how I'm retaining it all.

I'm pretty excited about tomorrow. Saturdays are usually lounging/working days for Colin and I. We don't usually plan too much, particularly since Friday nights are date nights (good food) and Thursday or Friday nights are lecture nights with the department. This week, we're going to be meeting up with a couple we made friends with in the airport on our way to Hong Kong. Jodi and Jennifer are both professors on exchange/sabbatical trips to the Hong Kong Institute of Education and they brought their adorable daughter, Beatrix, with them. She's really verbose and articulate for a two year old (I originally thought she was four or five!). We're looking forward to walking around the neighborhood and park and eating Thai with them.

Have a good weekend!

Return to the Empire...

or was it Jedi Strikes Back?

Either way, we have returned to the land of Hong Kong, the fragrant port. When they named it the "fragrant port" I imagine that they smelled something similar to what we did when getting off of the bus from the airport last night - dried seafood in hot and highly humid air. Ahhh yes, back to Hong Kong.

On the up side this is a fairly short stint for us - only about 3 months. We'll do our best to keep you updated on our goings on and travel plans from here.

One new really great thing is that we got back to the apartment last night and the bed was already set up for us with sheet and everything. A BED! For those of you who did not get the impression that we were bedless before, just know that sleeping on the floor on a mattress that makes you wish it were just hard concrete is not a pleasant experience, even for a day. It's also not pleasant for 4 months. I think this new bed (a bunk with a double mattress on the bottom - pictures forthcoming) is going to greatly improve our experience in Hong Kong.

Please feel free to leave us a comment. :)