First Week of School is Complete

Hi all! Trying to make this one quick for you to breeze over! This past week, we started our "real world" jobs! Couple of points from the first week....

• The chairs are so small; they are built for teeny people. Since all the teachers eat lunch together, we sit in a classroom. For the small Chinese people, these seats are perfect, but I look like Will Ferrell in Elf.
  
• Katy Bagley was teaching at my school last year, and I was pumped to find a page long handwritten note from her hidden in my classroom addressed to me full of encouraging words!
• We are teaching British English... mummy, colour, axe, etc.
• I am working at Yuen Yuen Ping Tin, a Buddhist kindergarten. Who would have ever thought that's where I would end up? At least we get Buddha's birthday off!
• The native staff is very friendly to me, which is more than I can say for some of my other teacher friends! There is a massive language barrier, so there is alot of gesturing and smiling.
  
• The kids are adorable and have great manners and precious uniforms. It is a lower income area, and all my kids have black teeth. From what I can tell, oral hygiene is non-existent in their homes, and they drink tea all the time. It is a shame to see.
  
• One difference I immediately noticed is the boys and girls bathrooms are open to one another. There is no separation or privacy.
• Every parent or child that enters has antibacterial hand sanitizer squirted in their hands, and a temperature gun is pointed at their head to ensure they do not have fever.
  
• Although they seem extremely aware of the swine flu threat, they do not seem to notice the huge bottle of "soap" in the bathrooms we wash our hands with is actually Vidal Sasson moisturizing shampoo... It is an English bottle.
  
• I've got some great names of kids in my classes. The parents pick them out... a couple of Sunny and Shines, Yo Yo, Bo Bo, Mira, Javia, Haider, Kawaii, Mandy, Ada, Karen, Ki Ki, Cindy, Ivy, Iris, Candy, Ricco, Ales, Fanki.... I have three Jacky's in one class; one is Jacky Chan. Those are some of the names off the top of my head.
• At our orientation, our boss mentioned he once had students whose parents gave them the English names Large Wong and Green Bus.
  
• Once my K-1 classes start next week, I will be teaching between ten to fourteen English lessons a day.
  
• The kids hug and blow kisses to "Miss Sara". They hang on every word you say and every move they mimic.
  
• We are all getting used to our new routines here in HK. Thanks for all the e-mails and support! We love yall!