Teaching

I've been so tired after getting home the past few days that I haven't really posted anything. I've fully intended to, but have had other minor adventures, like drying laundry, buying more groceries and trying to find a new Thai restaurant yesterday in the Mid-levels, where I was instead greeted with scores of Spanish, Italian, French, Greek, Arabic, English and Indian restaurants. Stopped and had a pint at a little English pub called the Pickled Pelican (before it got packed) and sure enough when I walked by it after dinner at another Thai restaurant, it was noisy and crowded.
I started teaching. The company I'm (most likely going to end up) working for is basically a third party provider of Native English teachers (NETs) to schools in HK. So I observed an advanced class thursday that was preparing for the oral part of an English exam. They attend one of the more prestigious schools in HK, and the principal is very demanding. So I was supposed to meet the same teacher (an elder in an English congregation here) yesterday for one class in the afternoon, a phonics course that our insitute developed that we usually teach as part of our curriculum at schools. However, another teacher fell ill and couldn't make it, so we ended up having almost a full day. Four classes, and I taught half of them. Held an English examination for Kindergarten-ish aged kids, and earlier in the morning was a drama class for a behaviorally deficient group of 20 sixteen year olds. Conducting the exam on 5 and 6 year old chinese kids was far easier. There was a list of words they were to identify the individual sounds of (three or four letters each), and then another set I was supposed to ask them to read at random. One little girl, sonya, wouldn't even look at me. She was so shy, and had some problems with b vs p and the letter u. She was so cute though. I had to have them write their name and class on their exam paper and she took my pen and it was like she needed two hands. No joke, I cold have almost put her in my backpack. And closed it shut. She was tiny. And freezing outside. It got really cold outside, at least for HK.
Rainy season started this week, and on thursday at the first school it suddenly started raining and within minutes we'd gotten at least an inch of rain, and it continued for almost the entire afternoon. There were rivers inches deep of water pouring down stairs out of parks. I'm told this lasts until about September.
There were so many things I was going to mention, if only briefly, but I'll get around to it later. On my way to service and going to be a bit late. It's cold again today, down to like 50F here, going out in svc in 15 mph winds right on the harbor. I think I'm dressed warmly enough.