Week 5 – The flip flop thief and Hong Kong Part 1

This week brought our first taste of teaching in China as on Tuesday we presented to a class of around 30 Chinese university students, telling them all about Northern Ireland. I also got to perform again as we taught them how to sing “Tell me Ma”. Many of the students were excellent at English, however, it was apparent that we had to slow it down every now and again – even people with English as a first language can struggle to understand an over-excited Northern Irish person!

It was great fun to organise and work alongside my classmates and I am now thoroughly excited to get some real teaching done in a few weeks.

Small group continued this week with an unexpected addition – Mei – our Mandarin teacher, asked if she could join us! Religion is such a restricted thing in China and we were more than happy and very excited to have her come along with us. Hopefully she will be back again. At the end of small group, I discovered an interesting aspect of Chinese culture – I had taken of my flip flops when I came in to be polite but when I went to leave, they were nowhere to be seen. It turned out that a Chinese man had come in, assumed that my flip flops were “communal house slippers” and was wandering about the house wearing them. It made for an awkward conversation when I asked for them back!

Class passed fairly normally for the rest of the week and it wasn’t long until Friday was upon us and with it, our trip to Hong Kong! Setting off around 2PM on Friday afternoon by train, it was only a short 2 hours until we arrived in the fantastically Westernised Wonderland to meet our fellow Stran students! The first night was filled with a little stress in the form of accommodation issues (Lloyd and I had to share a bed – cosy) but after that minor setback, we headed to the peak and took in the amazing views. It’s crazy how somewhere so close to mainland China can be so different, even the sheer amount of English speakers – it made things a lot easier!

A warm Stran welcome!

Quality accommodation

Saturday was my 21^st and as such, was spent in the fantastically mature way of going to a theme park and riding roller coasters all day! It was great to have a wee day aside from everything to have some fun with the guys from Hong Kong followed by a great team dinner and some cake that night!

We rounded up this week on Sunday with a trip to the church that these guys have found and a great day cycling around Hong Kong which made getting around a lot easier! Finally, we got to see the university that Olivia, Ester, Dave and Charlotte are studying at – beautiful campus, although, we did nearly get caught in a black level thunderstorm on the way home! China is a bit less mild than good ol’ NI!

Chilling at The Peak

Thanks for reading folks,

Adam