Just In Case you Forgot How

Student Survey (part 3): Travel

Overall, my students tend to be fairly well traveled. I asked my morning homeroom if any of them had stayed in Hong Kong over summer vacation–oh, excuse me- holiday- and not one of them said yes.

When I asked them to list their favorite places they’d visited, not surprisingly, East Asia was well represented: Japan, Malaysia, Taiwan, Philippines, Thailand, China, and Korea -where several of my students have family ties.

China –especially Hong Kong- has had a long relationship with Australia -and to a lesser degree New Zeeland- which both made the list of favorites places.

Several of my kids listed European countries: Britain, France, The Netherlands, and the Czech Republic. (You have to figure that a thirteen-year-old kid who’s parents take him to the Czech Republic for summer holiday has pretty much been everywhere else.)

Canada -specifically Toronto and Vancouver- made the list.

And the U.S. was well represented. On the West Coast: San Jose, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Las Vegas. One boy selected Yellowstone and Carlsbad. Both Hawaii and Alaska were mentioned. New York was a favorite. And not surprisingly, Orlando/Disney was a top spot among several students.

Student Profile (part 2): Domestic Helpers

On my start-of-the-years questionnaires, about half of the students indicated that they have Filipina helpers who live with them.

Three of my students –one of them an only child- said that their family employed two full-time, live-in helpers. One student –when asked who lived at their home- listed three helpers and a driver.

Please bear in mind that our students are probably not representative of the population of Hong Kong as a whole.

Pastrami on Rye

Our school library is offering a special incentive for the month of September. If kids read a certain number of pages, they will be invited to a lunch-time sandwich party where the qualifying students will build for themselves fresh deli sandwiches with all the fixings.

(Deli sandwiches? Hey, reading by any means necessary.)

When I announced the program to my second period eighth-grade English class, the kids were all atwitter. I noticed that much of their chatter was directed toward David. Ooo, I go all excited: David must be quite the reader considering how all his classmates are responding. I interpreted their reaction to mean that David was a shoe-in for qualifying for the reward.

I said to the class, “Oh, David here is quite the reader, is he?”

“Oh no, Mr. VanNoord” they responded, “That's not it. It's just that he really, really, likes sandwiches.”

-Jack

Elvis has Left the Building

Living and working in the same building rocks. I highly recommend it.

But on the other hand . . .

Last Friday afternoon, I looked up from the stack of papers I was grading, and realized I hadn’t been out of the building since Sunday. For five days straight I had been commuting between our seventh floor apartment and my fourth floor classroom. Annika and Elise as well.

Oops.

I decided that in order for this to work, the girls and I were going to have to make a concerted effort to get out of the building and get some fresh air (well, as fresh as the air gets in Hong Kong).

So everyday this week we have been taking a 5:30 walk while we are waiting for Julie to get off of work. While there is not too much to see in our particular corner of Hong Kong, we have been exploring our neighborhood.

We live in a square mile –more or less- that is bounded on the north and the east by a highway and then some pretty steep mountainous hills. To the south we are hemmed in by a mid-size man-made canal. To the west about a half mile away is a large river.

Inside these little confines are mostly commercial and light industrial buildings and of course our train station. So far in our wanderings, we have found two convenient stores, a bakery, a gas station, and a small restaurant with menus that have neither English nor pictures. A ten-minute walk from our apartment, where the canal meets the big river is the Floating Seafood Restaurant which doesn’t actually float. It’s built on piers in the river. It’s built to look like an old fashioned river boat. It’s huge.

Not much of a neighborhood, but for all its lack of luster, it’s our neighborhood and we are happy to call it home.

Well, Julie’s home, dinner’s done, and a fresh stack of papers is waiting for me.

Bumper to Bumper

I have always suspected that bumper stickers –funny, sublime, snarky, sly, wry, offensive, profound- are a uniquely American form of expression.

My class and I are studying the Age of Industry in our American history classes. Earlier on a worksheet, I’d given them the Andrew Carnegie quote “The man who dies rich, dies disgraced” and I was conducting a brief follow-up discussion about the meaning of the quote and whether or not the kids agreed with his thinking.

As part of our discussion, I shared with them a bumper sticker that I’d seen once that distilled Carnegie’s sentiments down to two words: Die Broke. As my students and I were unpacking the meaning of those two words, it occurred to me that bumper stickers might not be a common phenomenon in Hong Kong.

I asked.

They’re not.

So right there in the middle of third period, as an aside to our regular lesson, I had the joy of telling my students about the ideological battles American’s wage on their bumpers six or eight words at a times.

I pointed out to my kids that some bumper stickers are reaction to other bumper stickers. And some are reactions to the reactions.

The example I shared with the class –complete with impromptu drawings on the white board- was the battle of the fishes. First, Christians who were wanting to self-identify, affixed fish to the back of their cars. Evolutionist –and presumed non-Christians- seeing an opportunity to poke a finger in the eye of their ideological opponents- started placing on their bumpers fish with two feet and the word “Darwin” in them.

Unable to resist a good debate when they encounter one, Christians responded by crafting a fish inscribed with the word “Truth” swallowing a Darwin fish.

With the three examples drawn on the board, I explained to my students that to the best of my knowledge, the debate has come to a stop here, thereby implying that the Christians had gotten in the last word.

My students –bear in mind, this is a Christian school- broke out in applause.

It caught me off-guard.

Apparently everybody loves a good melodrama complete with protagonist, antagonist, and vindication even when it does take place on the rear end of a rusted out Chevy Mailibu.

Then it was time to get back to the labor unrest of the 1880s.

-Jack

Point for discussion. Discuss among yourselves: What other nation on earth could ever have giving rise the follow bumper-based exchanged?

“My Child is an Honor Student at Abbott Middle School,”

“My Child Beat up Your Honor Student.”

Classy.

Baseball, apple pie, and snarky bumper stickers.

Nice.

Julie: And while you’re at it, can you explain that whole little-kid-peeing-on-the-Ford-logo thing to me. What’s up with that?

Jack: That? Well, that’s a guy-thing. You wouldn’t understand.

Self Owns

Yes! We got service on our cell phones.

. . . except Julie's phone was set up in Chinese.

Argh.

Student Profile (part 1) T.V. Shows

On the first day of school, I had my students fill out a questionnaire about themselves including their favorite TV shows. Following is an overview of the results. With very few exceptions, their favorite TV shows are from the US.

A lot of their favorite shows were dramas: Heroes, Monk, Gossip Girl, 90210, House, CSI: NY, and Lost. But also making the list were the comedies Friends, Ugly Betty and Two and Half Men.

American reality shows were well represented: American Idol, Jon & Kate plus 8, America’s Next Top Model, Survivor, and Air Crash Investigations.

When asked their favorite show, two students simply wrote The Disney Channel. Many were more specific: Hannah Montana, Sonny with a Chance, and The Suite Life of Zach and Cody.

Favorite animated shows include South Park, Family Guy, The Simpsons, and SpongeBob.

The exception to the American trend were a few Korean dramas and a Japanese show. I find the titles intriguing so I’m going to have to keep my eyes open as I flip channels: 1 Night 2 Days , 1 Litre of Tears, Boys over Flowers, Naruto, and Light 2 Days.

I only had one student list a local, Cantonese-language show as her favorite.

Interesting.

One of America’s strongest exports appears to be television.

All Washed Up

Am I not allowed to retain one shred of masculine dignity?

It turns out they do sell washcloths in HK, but for the life of me, that first weekend we were setting up house, we could not find any decent washcloths. So we bought the only ones we could find.

So now, every morning I get to shower with a bright green “Hello, Kitty” wash cloth.

Actually it’s worse that that. They’re not even “Hello, Kitty.” They’re cheap knock offs. So every day before work, I scrub up with a "My Darling" washcloth.

It has a big cartoon picture of an oversized bunny driving a convertible on it.

I’m not sure, but I think it’s leaching the testosterone from my body.

-Jack

Hanging Out in Hong Kong

Hong Kong loves its gadgets. Electronic stores seem to be on every-other corner. Cells phones and I-pods players are everywhere. Despite its modernity though, there are three conspicuous absences in Hong Kong.

Dishwashers are a rarity. I’m sure somewhere, somebody in HK has a dishwasher, I just don’t know of anybody who has one.

While more common than dishwashers, clothes dryers are also fairly unusual. Most Hong Kong residents use a modern washing machine and then either hang their clothes in their apartment or hang them out of the window to dry. I don’t know how their clothes ever get dry hanging outside when it's perpetually 90° with 80% humidity. But apparently they make it work.

Our family is in the minority in that we have a washer and a dryer. Well, sort of. We live on the seventh floor of the school along with all the other first-year teachers and their families. We have a shared laundry facility on our floor with three (small) washing machines and three (small) dryers.

Finally, very few Hong Kong houses have ovens. The Chinese typically cook on a stove top (think: wok). When an apartment does have an oven, it is not uncommon for it to go unused.

Because the building we live in is zoned as a school, HK regulation did not allow ICS to install ovens in our apartments. Instead, our kitchen is equipped with a large, portable, two-burner cooking surface and a microwave of sorts. It’s actually, a microwave, convection oven, and steamer all in one. It has a whole lot of buttons and knobs.

Naturally, the girls have it all figured out.

I, on the other hand, am a little slow on the uptake.

-Jack

Q: What do you do when your dishwasher stops working?

A: Tell her to get back to work.

(For sure, I'm on the sofa tonight)

Every Tribe, Every Tongue, Every Nation

Mainland China is not known for being a land of religious freedom. Christianity has a small but vibrant presence in China. Many Christians in mainland China quietly attend house churches in order to avoid the unwanted attention of the local authorities. There are organizations that still smuggle Bibles into China.

On the other hand, Christianity seems to be alive and well in Hong Kong. Not only is HK home to several vibrant, English-language Christian schools including ICS where we work, it is also home to many Chinese-language Christian schools as well. Our school shares our cul-de-sac with a large Baptist University and its accompanying primary and secondary schools.

Also, in the few brief forays we’ve made outside of our neighborhood, I have already noticed a wide variety of churches including Baptist, Evangelical Free, and Pentecostal.

We have given ourselves a pass on Church the last two Sundays –we’re still trying to catch our breath. But we are looking forward to starting the process of visiting some of the many local, English-language churches in Hong Kong this coming Sunday. (Maximum travel distance we are willing to travel? Two trains or 30 minutes; whichever comes first.)

One of the many pieces of paperwork the school gave us upon our arrival was a list of Englsih-language churches and the staff members who attend each one.

Just for good measure, I think we'll start with the church where our headmaster attends.

-Jack

Picture: your guess is as good as mine.

Say What? (Part 2)

Annika and Elise aren’t the only ones learning Mandarin at our school, of course. All of our students are required to take Mandarin.

Now you have to realized that students are coming into ICS with a wide variety of Mandarin ability. Some, like A&E had never heard a single word of Mandarin until a couple of weeks ago. Others have been studying it since first grade. Still others grew up speaking it in the home and are ready to start reading classical Chinese literature by the the time they reach high school.

Now, add to this the fact that students come with a variety of academic ability and the fact that the school serves students from ages four to eighteen and you can imagine the need for a dizzying array of Mandarin classes.

ICS has attempted to create a class to meet every need. When mapped out for parents and students, the class offerings make quite the schematic. I’ve seen NASA flowcharts that were less confusing. I have included a link to the school’s webpage that explains the various Mandarin classes.

http://www.ics.edu.hk/Upload/fromeditor/F0ICS%20Chinese%20Language%20Progression%20Chart%20-%20Sept15.pdf

Can you follow it and figure out where Elise has been placed? Annika?

Good luck.

-Jack

1000 Island Seafood Pizza & Cuttlefish Nuggets

Its Sunday night and I don't feel like cooking. Some pizza sounds good. After perusing the Pizza Hut menu, I am not quite sure what to order. It all sound SO good:

Appetizers:

-Cuttlefish nuggets
-Fish hoops
-French style escargots with mashed potato
Hmmm. . . what a way to whet your appetite. . .

Pizza:

Countryside Pizza (chicken, pork, mushrooms and corn).

Tokyo Temptation (beef, corn, crabsticks, mushrooms and pepperoni with thousand island sauce) I'm so tempted.

Fishermans Favorite (tuna fish, crabsticks, pineapple, onions and green peppers) No, cant get that one-Jack hates onions.

Farmhouse Deluxe (chicken, crabsticks, mushrooms, pineapple with thousand island dressing) Just like grandma used to make down on the farm.

Thousand Island Seafood (seafood, crabsticks, pineapple, red and green peppers, and thousand island sauce) maybe.

These are all so exotic; but maybe we should play it safe with the American Adventure Pizza -just like we always had at home- (pepperoni, corn, beef). Or not.

After all these choices, I think I should get something the girls would like even though these all sound GREAT to Jack and me. Hawaiian Paradise it is: ham and pineapple. How boring. Maybe we can spice it up with one of our standard American pizza go-withs: baked broccoli in creamy cheese sauce. Its not a Diet Coke, but it'll have to do.

With all the culinary opportunities that await us here, try not to be too jealous!

-Julie

Somebody’s Knocking on the Door

It’s been a good day for Julie.

She finally had time to sit down at the computer and order some groceries on-line from Park –n- Shop. If you order more than $75 dollars from most groceries stores in HK, they will deliver for free. Our groceries should be at our door step some time tomorrow morning. Julie's known about the possibities of on-line ordering for over a week now, but it was just a matter of finding the time to sit down and figure it out.

She did not order any produce, milk, or frozen items. She was worried about freshness, expiration dates, and getting them delivered before they thawed. She will still shop for these items with her little-old-lady, pull-behind shopping cart.

Second, it occurred to her that she should be able to listen to her favorite radio station from Chicago (K-Love) over the internet. Sure enough, she spent part of her afternoon clicking and shopping and rocking out to Third Day and Brandon Heath.

It made Illinois seem a little far away.

-Jack

on the foundation of building near Tai Wai

And Yet I Claim to Be So Busy

After teaching sixth-grade math and world cultures in Lake Zurich for fifteen years, I am currently teaching eighth-grade English and U.S. history from after the Civil War to the present. I feel like a first-year teacher all over again: new school, new curriculum, no clue what I ‘m doing.

We started the year with the Age of Industrialization: railroads, steel, oil; and of course our boys Vanderbilt, Carnegie, and Rockefeller.

My colleague -who teaches the other section of U.S. history and with whom I share a classroom- is from New Zeeland. And of course, almost all of my students are Chinese. This poses an interesting challenge for me. As I sift through the complex narrative that makes up American History, where I do I position our lessons on the critique-versus-boosterism spectrum.

Sure Rockefeller used spies to keep an eye on the competition, but he drove the price of kerosene from $0.58 to $0.08 per gallon. Sure Vanderbilt had a violent temper, but he made trans-atlantic travel available to the masses. I may have oversold it when I credited Rockefeller with saving the whales because his oil was cheaper –and therefore more popular- than whale oil. My Kiwi colleague was typing on her computer in the back of the room at the time. She didn’t look up, but I am pretty sure that she stopped typing there for a brief second.

Andrew Carnegie may have been a Robber Baron, but he was our Robber Baron. Hey, you don’t talk badly about the Family outside of the Family. Right?

History and English are combined to form what is called Humanities. While history and English are scheduled as two separate classes at two different points in the day, I have exactly the same group of kids for both, so I am able to blur the lines and carry over from one class to the other. Classes are 72 minutes each.

I have one section of history and one section of English each day. The next day, I cover the same material with a different set of students. Each class has 25 students. Total, I see just 50 different students each week. Suprisingly, I have most of their names memorized.

To summarize, I teach just two classes a day, 72 minutes each. Did I get lucky, or what?

Oh, I also have an Advisory group every day. Advisory (we call them FaceGroups here at ICS) is a 45-minute period first thing every morning. I meet with the same group of 16 students everyday. FaceGroup is a time to take care of administrative business, do team-building activities, and touch base with students. It is considered non-academic and students do not get a grade.

We have no FaceGroup on Tuesday because we have sixth-, seventh- and eighth-grade chapel.

-Jack

Picture: My FaceGroup and I in the school's courtyard.

Outside the 7-Eleven near Dai Wai Station

Wade in' Pool

Initially, I emailed Wade back and declined the invitation. Wade teaches seventh grade in the room next to me and he is also the one who picked us up from the airport. He had invited the four of us over for dinner and a swim in their apartment’s pool on Friday night.

But it all just seemed like too much. It would come at the end of our first full week of school. Furthermore, Julie and I had the middle school Open House coming up on Thursday night –me as a teacher; Julie as a parent. And we also had a full day of school coming up on Saturday –an outdoor field day of sorts. Trying to slip in a social engagement in the midst of a six-and-a half-day work week just felt like a bit much.

But then we thought about it. As hectic as life has been in the last fifteen days, we were anxious to start connecting with people and building relationships. When Wade emailed me back and said the offer still stood, we accepted it.

It turns out Wade and his wife had invited three families over making for a grand total of seven children and eight adults in their small, 1100-square-foot apartment. Dinner was delicious; getting to know several of my colleagues was nice.

Wade and his family –like so many people in HK- live in what we would call a high-rise apartment complex, but in Hong Kong they call them estates. Estates are typically made up of two or three towers thirty to forty stories high. The nicer estates have common areas with a tennis court, perhaps a basketball court, party rooms, and a swimming pool.

After dinner, we all put on our suits and headed to the outdoor pool. It was surprisingly empty for a Friday night. Like every other day in HK, it had been about 90-95 degrees and humid, and even now at 7:30 at night it was still 85 degrees and humid. It was hot, I was sticky, and it had been a long week. I was ready for a refreshing dip in the pool, but I was not prepared for what happened next.

Maybe it was the fact that I had been up since 4:00 a.m., but I’ve never had a swimming experience quite like this one. The air, the water, and my body were more-or-less the same temperature, so as I slipped into the pool, my body had a hard time telling where the air ended and the water began.

It was very relaxing.

It was very therapeutic.

For the next ninety minutes the girls and I played in the pool, splashed around, and laughed together. I forced them to accept “dolphin rides” from me like they did when they were three years old. We were feeling so relaxed and re-energized, I even snuck them into the enclosed, otherwise-empty, men-only hot tub.

It has been go-go-go since the plane landed and this was the first time the girls and I have had extended time together to relax and hang out together. I have held off asking them point blank, “So how do you like living in Hong Kong?” because I am afraid of the answer I’d get. But here in the pool after splashing and relaxing, I finally mustered up the courage to asked Annika “So what do you think, are we going to be able to make this whole Hong Kong thing work?” Without missing a beat, she responded with a smile, “Yup.”

“Yup” and a smile.

I’ll take it.

When we got out of the pool, our hostess had brownies waiting for us back in their apartment.

A good finish to a great night.

-Jack

One Ringy-dingy

The good news is we have cell phones. The bad news is that we don’t have service for them yet. Unlike the States where one buys a phone and a service plan together, in Hong Kong the two transactions are separate. You buy the phone of your choice and then you buy the service plan of your choice. And not at the same store. It's rather nice. It puts the consumer in the driver's seat.

And yes, the girls got their own phones! Granted, we got them the cheapest phones available, but they have officially entered the telecommunication age. Both their phones have built-in cameras, games, and text capabilities. May the good Lord have mercy on us now.

I too got a cheap phone (not as cheap as the girls, mind you). Julie got one of them there fancy LG touch phones so we can access the internet, maps, hotels, and other useful information when we are on the go. Eventually, it will allow us to install other useful aps like a diagram of the Hong Kong train system. (Yeah, that’s right, I just used the word “aps.” Go ahead, hate me.)

Like everything else in Hong Kong, the cramped store was crowded, the purchase took a long time, and it seemed to require lots of drawn-out paperwork.

Cell phones and cell-phone service are relatively cheap in HK. We will get service on or four phones -one of them with unlimited international calling- for less than we paid for our two phones State-side.

Now when 6:30 p.m. rolls around, we’ll be able to call our daughters home for dinner instead of trying to figure out where in this seven-story building they are running around.

-Jack

Kickin’ it Cold Turkey, Man

While in the hospital for two weeks, I didn’t drink any Diet Coke. Caffeine is a diuretic and actually causes the body to dehydrate –not what you want when the body’s trying to rebuild. It was all protein shakes and Gatorade.

Same was true for the two weeks I was recovering at home.

And then I got to Hong Kong.

“I’ll take a Diet Coke, please.” “Hey look at that girls, in China, Diet Coke is called ‘Coca Cola Light.’”

Sip.

“Whoa, wait a minute, that’s not Diet Coke!”

I know Diet Coke, and that was no Diet Coke, mister. It wasn’t even a satisfactory substitute.

So despite some long days and late nights, I am officially off the hooch. Six weeks.

I figure, I’ve gone this long, I might as well keep it going. “Hello everyone. My name is Jack and I have been Diet Coke-free for six weeks, three days, and seven hours . . . ”

I don’t know who whispered in his ear, but in the middle of my first full day with kids last week, I walked into my room and there sitting in the middle of my desk was a Diet Coke courtesy of my principal. I'm pretty sure I heard harps playing. I guess he figured I could use a pick-me-up right about then. He had affixed a post-it note that said “You’re doing great. Hang in there. –Bryan”

Apparently you can find real Diet Coke in Hong Kong, but it’s a little hard to come by. So when you find it, stock up.

I’m thinking that Diet Cherry Coke is probaly too much to ask for.

-Jack

See I told You So

Julie made spaghetti last night. With fresh garlic.