More pictures of Manila

More pictures of Manila!

Philippines

Mac and I went to Manila in the Philippines October 26th - 30th to visit some friends of ours; Fiaz (pronounced Fez), Nerisa, and their daughter Nedine. We had a great time and are looking forward to going back. Manila doesn't get many tourists since most people bypass the city and go directly to the beaches of Boracay and Cebu. Therefore shopping and food are really cheap. Although for our next visit we are hoping to make it to the beaches! The pictures showing the Flilpino chef is from a restuarant we went to called "Singing Chefs and Waiters" and everyone working in the restuarant sings - surprisingly most Filipinos are great singers! The pictures that look like a lake is actually a lake with an active volcano in the middle of it - the air was really cool and fresh here about 90 minutes outside of Manila!

Great Wall of China, Beijing

Pictures of my trip to Beijing in May. We went to The Forbidden City, the Great Wall, the Summer Palace and Tiananmen Square. I went with the two Lisa's. Beijing was also good for shopping as they don't have any copyright laws fake designer goods are readily avaliable and very cheap.

Engagement!

Well 3 weeks ago Mac popped the question. He was here in Hong Kong visiting for the weekend and we went out to a jazz club in the Grand Hyatt that was hosting a jazz band from New Orleans. During the evening the band started playing a song "will you marry" and the manager came out with the ring on a serving tray, I was oblivious as to what was going on until I seen Mac down on one knee. Of course I said yessssss!

We are slowly making wedding arrangments. Firstly, we are having two weddings because of the distance and the different religions we figured it would be easier this way. We will have a Muslim ceremony in Thailand in February when mom and dad come over to visit. Mac's immidiate family and friends will be there as well as two of my girlfriends from Hong Kong. Then we will have another ceremony in Nova Scotia on August 24th at the Inverary Resort in Baddeck so mark your calenders.

I will keep everyone updated with the wedding plans and I will post some new pictures when I have them such as our engagement ceremony in Pakistan this coming December.Here is a picture of Mac in case anyone didn't get to meet him this summer when he was in Nova Scotia.

Update

Hello all you blog readers out there, I must say it has been a while since my last post and I have a lot of news to share with you. I am not back in Hong Kong teaching at the same school as last year. Although, this year the school opened its' doors to "non-chinese" students so we have one class of mixed students from Thailand, Pakistan, India, Nepal etc. (Not Westerns) and they are speak English rather fluently. So I am teaching them English as a subject, not a language as well as French, yes French. So it is really great this year as I can have a rapport with my students since we both speak the same langauge. French is challenging needless to say but it is a good challenge and keeps me busy. Also this year there is about 13 new Chinese teachers at the school who are all young and fresh out of University and are all really nice. I am glad some of the old foggies left since they didn't talk to me anyways. So far the school year is going well.

I am living in the same building as last year but a different apartment. I live with Lisa (the mother whose picture is on the blog somewhere), she is from Cape Breton but lived 25 years in Colombia with her husband. We get along really well and I am happy that we decided to live together. The new apartment is nice and a little bigger than last year, more expensive of course but well worth it.

I will post some new pictures as soon as I can right now I've been very busy getting the school year organized so next month I should have more time to update regularly (GISELLE!)

Hong Kong moment

Luckily there are no pictures to go with this post to remind me of the frustrating day I've had. Remember the picture I posted of my co-workers desk that is next to mine? The infamous "Henry". While there must have been a change in wind direction in the staff room today because his huge pile of papers and other "shit" fell over onto my desk that knocked over my cup of fresh tea all over me and my marking book I was writing in! I was sooooooooooo pissed off...I marched into his class and got him - he was so apologetic and cleaned up everything...well except me of course! I hope it finally teaches him to tidy his desk because if my tea had of been hot I could have gotten burned!

More Singapore pictures

More pictures from the cruise

Singapore and Star Cruise

Over Easter I flew to Singapore for a few days then boarded Star Crusie ship called "the Virgo" which sailed to a Malaysian Island called Palau Redang...great fun!

The picture of Jenny and I is in Pattaya, Thailand...it is actually two males not females in the picture with us.

More Hong Kong pictures

These pictures include me shopping for shoes at a local market ,(great deals) and a picture of my desk at work (the tidy one) and my Chinese co-worker. For some reason they like to collect paper, sometimes I cannot even open my desk as his papers are covering my desk drawers.

Yes we really are in Hong Kong

Here are a few pictures I took on my lunch break this week. Most of them are taken around my work in Kwun Tong, that is in Kowloon not where we live. Where I work is a lower income area then where we live although most of the pictures are typical. Note the hanging meet markets and the bamboo scaffolding.

Update

Hello everyone...it's been a while since we have last posted on the blog. So I thought I would give everyone a little update about what's going on in our wonderful lives in Hong Kong!
While Jenny's boyfriend, Nick, is still staying with us, it is almost 3 months since he decided to pick up and leave Nova Scotia to come all the way over to Hong Kong. That's dedication! Things seem to be going well with he and Jenny, I think they are heading to Vietnam and Cambodia next week before Nick has to return to Nova Scotia. Jenny continues to count the days until she can also return home!
I on the other hand have decided to stay on another year, I don't love it here but I can tolerate it...I make pretty good money and I love having the oppourtunity to travel. I am heading to Singapore and Malayasia for my Easter holiday! I hope I will survive next year as some of the friends I have made are leaving...ekk!
Jenny, Nick and I met up with John the son of a friend of our fathers. He is travelling throughout Asia. We went to dinner and took him to the market. It was nice to be able to meet someone from home.
My birthday also just passed, my first birthday away from home...now the big 2-7! It was pretty good...I hate the fact I am slowly reaching 30 though.
If anyone is interested in teaching English over here I think there is still a great need...my shampoo the other day rather than say "massage" into head told me to "message" into my head.
Oh those Hong Kong moments are the ones we'll always remember!
Upwards and onwards until next time!