Mid Autumn Festival

Tonight (Tuesday) is the Mid-Autumn Festival, the second most important holiday in the Chinese calendar. Mid-Autumn Festival is when the moon is at its fullest and brightest, and is to celebrate the abundance of the summer's harvest.

The traditional food of this festival is the mooncake. Typical mooncakes are round or rectangular pastries, measuring about 3in in diameter and 1 1/2 in thick. A thick filling usually made from lotus paste is surrounded by a relatively thin crust and contains yolks from salted duck eggs.

For more information on what Mid Autumn festival is about check out these sites:
DiscoverHongKong.com Wikipedia

Typhoon Warnings

Well this morning, I woke up to strong winds and lots of rain. I thought I better check the weather channel to make sure it was safe for me to leave the apartment. What I found was that Typhoon Signal #1 had been raised. Since most of you reading this have grown up in the midwest and are not used to Hurricanes, I thought I would give you some background information on the Signals. I don't want anyone to worry about me if you hear sometime that a signal has been raised.

1--This is a stand-by signal, indicating that a tropical cyclone is centred within about 800 km (500 miles) of Hong Kong and may affect the territory.

3--Strong wind is expected or blowing generally in Hong Kong near sea level, with a sustained speed of 41-62 km/h (25-39 mph), and gusts which may exceed 110 km/h, (68 mph) and the wind condition is expected to persist. Winds are normally expected to become generally stronger in Hong Kong within 12 hours after the issue of this signal. Winds over offshore waters and on high ground may reach gale force.

8--Gale or storm force wind is expected or blowing generally in Hong Kong near sea level, with a sustained wind speed of 63-117 km/h (39-72mph) from the quarter indicated and gusts which may exceed 180 km/h(111 mph), and the wind condition is expected to persist.

10--Hurricane force wind is expected or blowing with sustained wind speed reaching upwards from 118 km/h (74mph) and gusts that may exceed 220 km/h (136 mph).

about 3 hours before they raise the #8 they announce it and everyone has to run home. The entire city closes.

We also have rain warning here.
Amber--Heavy rain has fallen or is expected to fall generally over Hong Kong, exceeding 30 millimetres in an hour (1.2 in/h), and is likely to continue.
Red--Heavy rain has fallen or is expected to fall generally over Hong Kong, exceeding 50 millimetres in an hour (2in/h), and is likely to continue.
Black--Very heavy rain has fallen or is expected to fall generally over Hong Kong, exceeding 70 millimetres in an hour (3in/h), and is likely to continue.

When the Rain warning is Red, school is cancelled for the day.

Newsletter 2

Since last writing to you, I have been able to secure a flat. I just can't move in yet, due to the fact that I have no furniture. I got the keys to the place last weekend and on Sunday went to Ikea(a big home store) to find the items that I needed for my place. After spending 3 hours picking out furniture, I went to place my order and they didn't have in stock half of the items that I wanted. More importantly they didn't have the bed in stock. The bedroom in my apartment is very tiny. Ikea has lots of beds, but only one was a size that would fit in the room. So I am back to square one on the bed again. I am planning on going out this week to a few different places to hopefully find a bed. Please pray that I can find this quickly and have it delivered soon. The rest of my furniture is being delivered on Tuesday night sometime between 6 and 10pm.

The day I received the keys to my apartment, I went with my realtor to sign the papers at the building so the security guards would know who I was. After signing the papers, the security guard said something to the realtor in Chinese and then she translated for me in broken English. "No pray in morning." "No pray Buddha." After hearing these sentences a few times, I realized what she was actually saying. The building doesn't allow praying in the hallways to Buddha in the mornings. Often times families will have little alters outside of their front doors, and will present offerings, burn incense and pray very loudly to Buddha. I am very thankful that I found a place that doesn't allow that. At the same time this makes me very sad, that the people believe in this.

School has started up and I am meeting lots of students. My brain is on overload with the number of students that I am meeting. The school is on a seven day cycle. (We don't go to school on the weekends) but in that seven day cycle I teach 18 lessons. 9 different classes. each class has 40 students in it and so that means I have 360 students to teach. I hope that I can eventually learn some of their names. Please pray that my mind will grasp them easily.

Praises:

• I found a nice flat, the location is great. 5 minute walk to the train and then just two train stops from the school, so about 20 minutes total from door to door. Then to church is about 30 minutes door to door.

Requests:

• able to find cheap/nice furniture
• able to quickly learn the students names/connect with students

Morning Assembly

Every morning the students have an assembly. Sometimes the students are split: upper classmen in one location and lower classmen in another. Sometimes the entire school is outside for the assembly. I have to admit, I don't know what is talked about at the assemblies except for one day a cycle when it is English day. As you can see in the picture the students all wear uniforms to school. Girls: Blue dresses. Boys: white shirts and blue trousers.

If you are interested in seeing more about the school here is the website: http://www.cwgc.edu.hk/

My place

Here is a video of my apartment. Enjoy the short tour.

Newsletter 1

I have arrived safe and sound in Hong Kong. The first few days were spent adjusting from the Jet Lag, I'm not sure if I am completely over it yet or not...I am still waking up pretty early. Even before my alarm.

I have started my apartment search. Apartment searching here is different than the states. Every apartment/flat is individually owned, so you work with a realtor to see some places. But unlike the US where realtors have access to other company's listings and can show you various areas of town, the realtors here have a certain area of town and only their company's listings to show. So this makes looking for a place very difficult. Luckily, some of the local teachers have been helping me. I had tried to do some apartment searching online prior to my move, but unfortunately I didn't realize that most of the prices listed online are not inclusive of all the costs (building management fee and a government rate the renter has to pay), so I am finding they are more expensive than I thought. This is going to mean a tighter budget for me, but I know with God's help, my money can stretch to make this adjustment. I am also finding that they are smaller than I thought, apparently they include space from the elevator lobby in the size listed for the apartment. Also they all need a good cleaning. (Mom do you want to come help) Another part of the process that is different is that you negotiate the rent with the landlord through your realtor. So I have put an offer on a place and I'm waiting to hear back from the realtor. –(In between writing this and sending it, I got a call from the realtor. The landlord won't accept my offer. So I am back to square one with looking at flats)

School starts this coming Monday, I'm excited about getting started and meeting the students. Since I was just here in July on the mission trip, I was able to meet some of the students I will be teaching. It will be great to reconnect with them. It is also going to be great to reconnect with students from when I lived here before. I actually went to the grocery this afternoon to get my dinner and ran into one of my old students. It was so great to see May again. We exchanged numbers and will be getting together next week for dinner.

Thank you all for your prayers and support, I really appreciate them.

Praises:

• Safe travel to Hong Kong


• Helpful colleagues to help with adjustment

Prayer Requests:

• Staying on a tight budget


• Finding an apartment


• Adjusting to teaching


• Connecting with Students