So let's see what has happened in the past month...We are of course in post exams right now at school so a lot of farewells and meetings and ceremonies and such happening at school. I have a drama club at school as well and we had our performance on July 5th, so weeks were spend trying to get ready with students not showing up. In the end our whole performance changed and we went from doing a nice full length play to three short mostly improved plays that seemed more chaos than performance. Oh well Ce la vie! There was also as always the famous Canada Day celebration in Lan Kwai which proved to be a bit of a disappointment this year. There was hardly anyone in LKF and the booths weren't as much fun as usual and the people working the booths really didn't care if they did anything or not and most of the time weren't even at their booths. Plus during the day we had gone to Shek-O beach and had a lovely but long day in the sun. The beach was AWESOME! Danny knows a place that not too many people know about so it wasn't packed. Getting to Shek-O was pretty busy and hard to get on the bus but that was nothing compared to getting home. We had to wait for more than an hour in line to get on a mini bus to get to the MTR. Anne and I took a taxi from there to go home and change etc. But the rest of them just went straight to Central which made them even more exhausted. Then of course it was Danny's Birthday! Super fun and about 40-50 people showed up, which was way more goodie bags than what I had made but for those that came late I guess they missed out. Darts, Foosball, and beer pong all in once place, how can you go wrong! It was super fun and everyone had a great time. Which brings me pretty much up to date...going out for some dim sum with my co workers and English Panel Chair...mmm Dim Sum!

After a long long while......

So once again i am apologizing for not keeping on top of things...I could promise to be better but I don't think you are supposed to make promises you can't keep. So what has been going on since March 18th you ask? Well I guess a lot! I don't think I can remember everything from that far back but I will maybe start with just the beginning of this year. So I renewed my contract at LKPFC and have been working here for my second year. I only teach the senior students which is awesome because we can have conversations and I don't have to baby them. The students here are super awesome and I have just resigned another contract for my third year. Although I think next year will be much harder and more work I'm pretty stoked to have my own class and have far too many ideas on what I want to do with them to help them improve their English, all of which I'm sure they will probably not enjoy even though I think they will be super fun. Other than that I go to go back home for Christmas which was nice to see my family again. Not very many friends there anymore, but I guess that happens when you leave, people forget and move on. Anyways it was fun to be back for a bit but nice to go back and get away from the cold. For Chinese New year we went to Sri Lanka, the place itself was quite nice but for a poor country that just came out of a war not too long ago it was EXPENSIVE!!! by far the most expensive place I have been to in Asia yet. I probably will never go back plus there wasn't too much to do. We took a day trip and it was nice but nothing really new or unusual. Then for Easter we went to Boracay, which was amazing!!!! Wow is all I can say! I just love that place and will definitely go back there! I have been to the Philippines before a few times but no place was as great and as fun and as beautiful as Boracay. We had so much fun and the beach was beautiful with white sandy beaches and parties every night. It was amazing and I went out on a sailboat and went snorkeling on another day. Then at the end of May we went for a short little visit to Macau for like three days of sun,fun and Portuguese food. It was nice to just have a little get away from school and Hong Kong and just relax for a bit. we also got to stay at the Sheraton which just opened and has like three pools. so that's all the catch up I have for now and I will try to write more often.....

New digs....so excited...

Hey yo,
So I have just moved into a new flat on Feb. 15th its awesome and great but unfortunately I have no internet and I'm flat broke! The rent is a little high but once my cousin gets here it won't be so hard to get through. It has two bedrooms and an awesome balcony that i can close in if I want to. Plus it has a rooftop all to myself! The landlord has also been kind enough to throw in a washing machine and a propane cooker. Although the cooker really only has one heat...super frickin' hot!!!

I don't have any pictures of the rooftop yet but i also don't have any furniture on it either. On Saturday I will also be having a housewarming party so I will try to get some pictures up but it is hard with the no internet thing going on right now. Anyways I'm excited for Anne to come and we can do a lot more of the decorating together. For now it will just be simple and a bit bare...

My Mom

Just cuz my mom is cool putting up a photo montage of her!!

My christmas time fun

So December was a busy busy month. I taught and played games and did extra practice and study with my students. I played games with my classes and gave them chocolate and candy and sang Christmas carols. Then got ready to head back to the great north for a bit of Christmas family time. I left Hong Kong on the 16th and got into Canada also on the 16th. Immediately my mom,brother sister and I went to Washington for four days of Kostianos family fun. It was great to just be together and have fun by ourselves before the chaos and craziness of Christmas began. Once we got back it was like my feet never stopped moving. I had a pub night with friends, some dinners at Uncle Mel's house, a dinner at my sister's boyfriends family's house, and Christmas eve and morning at my sister's house. I got some amazing gifts this year as well. My brother got me and awesome spinner camera, my mom got me a beautiful fantastical coffee machine (Dolce Gusto), and my sister got me some much needed running shoes so I can get my fat ass in gear and live out my New Years Resolution. On our last night there we also had a wicked Karaoke night at the dodgiest pub ever!! So amazing and we even brought in my Grandma for the fun and for a beautiful rendition of Oh Little Town of Bethlehem.

Once we got back to HK tired and exhausted we slept for many many hours and prepared ourselves for the most amazing New Years Eve yet!! On a boat in the middle of the harbour with a perfect seat for the fireworks. It was so nice to be able to just hang out with family and friends without the pushing of crowds, over priced drinks, and drunken dorks with too much testosterone. It was a great night and packed with the maximum amount of people. I personally think it should become an annual event. After the boat trip we went to Xperience for some more bonding and fun times, unfortunately for me I was sick from the Canadian weather and didn't last too long.

After a few more days of sleep it was time to go back to work, luckily that didn't entail too much since it's exam time so only half days and sitting there watching the kids. I did still have the two upper forms so I was teaching sometimes but not too often. Which brings me to now. Last night I was a product tester for Philips and got paid $800 to test out blenders for an hour. Tonite I will be going to a Quiz night to try and win some more money.
Also I have been working for months on finding a place to live and Finally the time has come....I have found it and it is amazing!!! It's two bedrooms with a big beautiful balcony and a huge covered rooftop!! Pictures will definitely follow as soon as I get to move in. I will pick up the keys on the 7th and start my contract on the 15th of Feb. I am so very very excited. It will def be nice to have my own place for a bit until my super fun awesome cousin Annie-Bananie arrives in April. I also have my birthday party coming up on the 20th and a trip to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia on the 24th of Jan. so I will write again soon.

My grreat band week!!

Sunday night I got to go and see one of the best bands ever! Two Gallants, they had an awesome show and played alot of their new songs as well which was pretty sweet. I also got to hear some of my favorites and the drummer was just awesome and a really nice guy as well. He definitely was one of the best drummers I've seen in ages though. Also playing that night was Noughts and exes which is a pretty great band that I will be seeing again this coming Saturday.

This also was my first time at Hidden Agenda which was a pretty sweet warehouse venue that the gov is threatening to shut down for some unknown weird reason. The venue was nice and big and great for live band shows. So many awesome bands have come to play at this venue so I'm glad I finally made it out there to see it. Especially since it might not be around that much longer...unless all those petitions actually do something.

Also earlier in the week on Weds. I got to go to a charity function at The Pawn, which is a historical heritage building. I think if I owned a bar I would want it to be sort of like this one, but without the ridiculous pricing. The first three bands were older gentlemen but still pretty good cover bands but the real treat of the night was Poubelle International. Such a great band!!
so i had a very band filled week of great music and great times with some pretty cool people.

Long time no see/write...

So my last blog was quite some time ago and I'm sorry that i have been so lazy! I came back from such a great summer and went back to work the next day. Bummer!!!! It was so hard to get back into the swing of things and to get back to reality. Anyways when I got to the school i had no idea what i was doing. Luckily I got to spend the first week just doing an intro powerpoint of myself so that took some pressure off. Now I hav all my lessons planned till Christmas at least so that's a bit better than the panic mode that I was in. My school is a really nice school too since the students level of English is quite good and usually they are relatively hard working.

Other than school my cousin Shawna and her friend Kim came to visit from Korea and we went to Beerfest which was pretty fun. Although i no longer can drink beer since it has gluten and I am on a strict gluten free diet.

It was really nice to see my cousin and spend some time with her since it's felt like ages since we have seen each other.

Halloween was kind of a pass this year. i went to my friend Karen's wedding on the Saturday night which was so amazing and beautiful. The ceremony was at St. Stephens Church in Stanley and the reception was at the Peak Restaurant. The Bride kept introducing me as the brave girl who came all by herself but I thought it was very funny and everyone was very nice as well so that made it quite ok.

So that is just a short and quick update on what has been going on lately. I hopefully will try to update more frequently.