Dinner, a Birthday Party, and Another Lazy Weekend

Sorry about the delay everyone, but I've been busy; I worked 2 hours this week!

Life continues to be great! Friday night I played some squash and then the four of us went for dinner. We haven't decided whether or not we'll do dinner out every Friday night, or every other Friday. I guess that will depend on how much money I'm making. For our first dinner out we chose Mexicana. Amanda and I had already been there with some friends, but we wanted to take the kids. The kids loved the food. Who knew there would be such a great Mexican restaurant in Macau?? After dinner we stopped for a treat at Cuppa Coffee, because not only do they sell coffee and egg tarts...but there are cakes, donuts, and other pastries.

On Saturday Amanda and I headed out to buy some groceries and to get a birthday gift for a little girl in Amanda's class. She was kind enough to invite Kaidyn to her birthday party at The Venetian. We ended up going to three different stores to try and find the ingredients for guacamole. We never did find limes, and ended up having to use lemons. Amanda also bought some GIANT peppers hoping they were jalapenos. It was hard to tell since they were 10 times the size of a jalapeno back home. She bought them anyways and decided to chop off a piece and eat it to see if it was spicy. It WAS spicy!

The rest of the afternoon we relaxed. We were supposed to be going on the Macau Trailwalker trek, but another middle of the night thunder storm caused some flooding on the trails in Coloane and it was postponed until October 9th. So, we lazed around most of the day, watched a movie and relaxed. Saturday night Amanda went to Nick and Gill's house for some sangria and munchies. We were both supposed to go, but Kylisha was invited to a sleepover at a friend's house, so our babysitter was N/A.

On Sunday I went to play squash first thing in the morning and then I headed to a pancake potluck at Trevor and Kerrie's place. Amanda and Kaidyn missed Kerrie's delicious cinnamon buns in order to attend the birthday party at Qube in the Venetian.

Basically the Qube is a MoonWalkers/Let's Play kind of place on the 5th floor of a hotel. There are some slides there that are pretty intense. Anyone who knows Kaid knows that he's a pretty brave kid, and there was one slide there that he apparently wouldn't go down. The one in question goes straight down for a good 3 meters before breaking. It also requires the sliders to wear a helmet!! One of the other slides does go straight down, but only momentarily and there is a giant ball pit at the bottom, so Kaidyn enjoyed it a lot (once he finally got up the nerve to go down). The birthday party guests enjoyed a fully catered hot buffet lunch. There were assorted sandwiches, multiple kinds of pastas, chinese noodles, and desserts. Then the cake came out. Amanda's class had taught her how to sing Happy Birthday in Chinese...and they sang it in English! Hahaha!! She also said that in order to play on the equipment at Qube kids needed socks, long pants, and long shirts. And, there were attendants at the top of each slide (wearing masks), almost like at a water park. We will definitely go back some day soon. I'm going down that red slide for sure!!!

This week I started tutoring a grade 7 boy at the school. I'm using Amanda's classroom on Mondays and Wednesdays after school. I'm pretty exhausted after working those two hours this week. I had to have a nap as soon as I got home. I am also happy to report that I will be making my debut as a substitute teacher on Friday. In KINDERGARTEN! I'm sure that won't be exhausting at all!

Thunderstruck In Taipa

Here is a video Amanda took late last night around 1:30 AM. By this time Kaidyn had climbed into bed with us and the storm was starting to tail off, so the really huge booms were missed. This was taken from indoors and still quite loud, so next time I'll drag my carcass outta bed and record from outside on the balcony!

50 RANDOM THINGS WE'VE NOTICED

1. People have a hard time controlling their dogs.

2. The drivers don't yield to pedestrians...imagine a real life game of Frogger. Seriously. Kylisha was about 30 cm from getting plowed into by a scooter tonight...SHHHHH...don't tell Pat.

3. You have to ask for your bill in most restaurants. You also need to let them know when you're ready to order, or when you want anything at all. For us this means charades with our server.

4. Speaking of restaurants...no tipping. In the western restaurants they add a service charge, but the local places...no tipping.

5. People walk (and drive) on the left.

6. Lots of smoking, and you can smoke anywhere. (bet you'll come now, Slayer)

7. When dogs do their business it isn't like back home where they do it and you use a bag to pick it up. Here, more often than not, when the dog starts to squat the owner tries to catch the "business" on a piece of newspaper...this is fun to watch! VERY fun!

8. Booze is CHEAP!! A 6 pack of Budweiser is less than $1.00 Canadian. (you all want to come now, I bet).

9. People here like to sleep in. Most businesses don't open until 10 or 11 am. This stunk when we were getting up at 6 every morning! Now we're Chinese, so we don't care.

10. LOTS of scooters!!! The best are the girls in 4 inch heels and short skirts driving their scooters...pretty funny.

11. There is no third floor in our apartment building; but there is a thirteenth.

12. It smells like mothballs most everywhere (and durian in the super markets). It's Pat's FAVOURITE smell :)

13. Most men wear long pants or jeans (and it's 35-40 degrees).

14. Lots of realtors.

15. Nobody holds doors open for other people.

16. People eat out A LOT and the restaurants don't get busy until after 7:30.

17. No line up etiquette. It's every man for himself.

18. No dryers...just washers. Most people dry their clothes on their balconies. We dry ours inside...too many pairs of underwear have been lost. Not really.

19. Coffee (other than instant) is hard to find and EXPENSIVE. Coffee makers are also not as common; people often use presses.

20. No stick deoderant!! Only spray and roll on.

21. Not a lot of smiles...but 90% of people will smile back if smiled at.

22. There are numerous ladies from the world's largest country living in our building who come home from work at 5 am each day. They must be "tutors".

23. People use umbrellas (or books, bags, or small children) to make shade.

24. A lot of people wear face masks and we have noticed people without masks cover their mouths and noses when we walk by them?? We are choosing not to take this personally...even though it's happened 8 trillion times.

25. The strip here isn't nearly as busy as the Vegas strip. And we haven't seen a single Elvis...sorry, Allyson!

26. There is a lot of incense in the street in front of buildings (usually stuck in bananas).

27. Bedding stores are tiny but are stocked FULL...(think floor to ceiling) with sheets, blankets, pillows etc.

28. We saw canned turtle at the supermarket :(

29. They have ducks and chickens in the deli section of the supermarkets already cooked. These birds still have faces, necks, and beaks.

30. You have to flag down the buses in order for them to stop. No flagging=they fly right by.

31. The security guards at the Macau Tower look like (dress like) soldiers. No smiling + soldier attire= kinda scares Amanda.

32. There is NO popcorn at the movie theatres :-( People bring in their own snacks.

33. If someone says 11:30...it won't happen till 1pm. This also applies to store opening times. If the sign says that it will open at noon, the owner may or may not roll in at 12:30 to open shop.

34. We have the NICEST security guards in our building. We don't know how secure our building is since they tend to let ANYONE in....or leave the doors propped open, but they are super nice. Isn't that all that matters??

35. Lots of stray dogs. Our building actually "has" one. He was apparently born here when it was a construction site and he has never left. Apparently he only eats Chinese meat? Not even sure what that is? But, we will not be buying him biscuits.

36. The thunder is scary here. It's too close. Way too close!!!

37. Most people here have filipina helpers who clean their apartments, iron, etc. Our helper's name is Les.

38. The grocery carts are the size of a basket back home. Can't fit a lot of ducks and chickens avec faces & beaks in them, so we're only buying 5 or 6 at a time.

39. The best Mexican food we've had is from a restaurant here!! Go figure! They have a wide selection of hot sauces there including..."Fiery Fart" and "Anal Agony"

40. When Kaid is with us everyone is SUPER nice...cars yield, people move on buses, we get complimentary drinks at restaurants. Kindness and love to the wee ones!!! We now ensure that we don't leave home without him!

41. Sometimes when Amanda walks by people we can hear them calling her "Gwai Lo". Look it up.

42. You have to buy a bunch of bananas, but the bananas start to turn brown the second you buy them. And...we have no oven to make banana bread!!!

43. There are always people sweeping the sidewalks and streets.

44. There is a BEAUTIFUL soccer field on the University campus by Amanda's school. Every day there are 3 ladies wearing huge hats crouched on the field picking weeds one by one with tweezers!!!

45. The casinos here smell like VERY STRONG baby powder.

46. There are random exercise devices everywhere. Most involve hanging from a bar and twisting and turning your body.

47. The bread here is A LOT different. For one thing, the packages of bread only have 6 slices in them!! It's hard to find bread with seeds or nuts in them, too. Les and Kaidyn LOVE this!

48. Not only is booze cheap, but you can find EVERY type of liquor imaginable!! They have a bigger wine selection here than back home.

49. Unfortunately, cheese is another story. The blocks of cheese are VERY small and the selection is poor.

50. The weather (besides the scary thunder) is FANTASTIC here! We are loving every minute of it!

Sports Stars, Squash and Rear Ender

So as you can probably guess from the lack of posts, things are getting in gear here. The kids are into their school routines, Amanda is having to put in some pretty decent time at the school and me, well, I make the lunches and take the kids to school! Amanda has been good giving me errands to run for her during the day. I hate to admit it, but I'm actually getting pretty bored at home all day. That is soon to change! As part of TIS's extra curricular program, I put together a multi-sport kids program called Sports Stars, to run on Saturday mornings throughout the school year. The good thing about it is that I got to pick the times, ages and cost per child.....if everything works out decent, we should have no problem with our travel fund! I am also tutoring a grade 7 student 3 times a week. I may have to brush up on my grade 7 stuff! Looks like I will also be tutoring a grade 6 student in math (Math 20 twice by the way) so I should be knowledgeable in that subject! If that isn't enough, I have my name in to teach ESL twice a week to students and it pays really well! Amanda has been great in getting my name out there for these opportunities and it is definitely a welcome change to work with all these kids!

This morning we got a call from Amanda's dad Tom, who is looking after some of the pressing rental issues back home. Apparently one of our hot water tanks is leaking so that is our first slumlord expense! Good times.

Back in school I played quite a bit of badminton and only a tad of squash. Here I have been playing squash twice a week with some of the teachers and needless to say, they are killing me. At least this gives me some goals for the next couple years and I'll be sure to blog about my trials and tribulations!

On the way home tonight after picking up the kids from school, our cabbie rear ended and couple kids on a scooter! I wasn't really paying attention, but it was at a roundabout so I figure it was checking to see if anyone is coming and moving forward at the same time. The cabbie hit himself in the head a few times blurting something out in cantonese, proceeded to get out, talked to the kids for a few minutes then gave them what I thought was around 350 MOP ($50 CAD). And that was that. On the short ride home after that, the driver hit himself a few more times before dropping us off. The meter read a couple extra bucks than normal and I mentioned it shouldn't be full fare, but arguing in 2 different languages was a no win situation and he gave me back an extra pataca so that was good enough for me...it wasn't worth the effort.

This weekend we have a wine and cheese on Saturday night (good thing I like cheese and wish it was Captains and Cheese night), after the killer walk (I ask myself "why why why did I sign up for this?" on a daily basis) and throw in a couple games of squash to round it all out. Amanda and Kaid are headed to one of her student's birthdays at Cube. It is a Moonwalkers/Let's Play/Kidz Quarterz type kids place at the Venetian. Not much exciting has happened so here are a couple funnies we found!

What we have planned for Saturday...

This is what Amanda and I will be doing Saturday...with a high of 33 expected that day (and a low of 28)!!! Good times!!


http://www.macau-trailwalker.com/images/stories/macau-trailwalker-map.pdf

Immigration, cupcakes, and Don-Doe

The last few days have been fairly uneventful for the Kiat clan. We had our first adventure to Immigration this week. The most exciting part of our venture there was that we saw a giant rat right outside!! Unfortunately, (or perhaps fortunately) it was squished into the pavement. It was still interesting for us to look at since we've never seen a rat before.

Two of the wonderful ladies from the office at the school were kind enough to go and wait in line for us a couple of hours before our arrival. They also translated and took care of all our documentation. Thank goodness!!! At first it sounded like we would have to leave the country this weekend and head to either Hong Kong or China in order to get an extension from Immigration. So, we did what we needed to do to get our Chinese Visas and were going to cross over on Saturday with some new friends of ours to go for cheap massages, pedicures, and dvds. The Macau government was only giving me until September 6th to remain in the country, so we hoped that by leaving and coming back we would get an extension of twenty days or so (Amanda's blue card won't be ready until early October). On Friday they advised us NOT to leave Macau and go to China for the weekend. They decided our best bet would be for me to go back to Immigration alone on Monday and ask for an extension instead. So, I will head back on Monday solo and I'm quite sure Amanda and the kids will be super jealous that they don't get to go and see the rat again; I wonder how squished he will be by then??

We have heard talk around town that there is a cupcake shop here. Amanda has talked a lot about finding the cupcake shop, and we have made a couple of failed attempts to locate it over the last 3 weeks. The night before Pat left we ventured out to Myrtle Park with our customary fish/turtle food. After feeding time was over we took Pat to see the fish store down the street. Once Kaid got his fill of the fish there, we made a very enthusiastic effort to find the cupcake shop again. We texted a couple of friends to try to see if they could give us some directions and then we headed off! 45 minutes later we had seen a whole lot of Taipa and guess what?? The cupcake shop was not included on the tour. The following night Amanda was desperate to find the shop. The next day would be the first birthday in her classroom, and since we don't have an oven she knew she wouldn't be able to bake a cake for the birthday boy. So, she was bound and determined to bring him a cupcake. She was also mourning Pat's departure, so definitely needed a mission to keep her mind focused on something else.

She and I headed out solo. Armed with instructions from a plethora of people, a fierce determination, an actual address from their website, and bellies craving something sweet, we were certain to succeed! And....we did!!! Of course it ended up being tucked away a tiny bit and we had pretty much walked by it many times before and never noticed it. That's the way it goes, I guess. Were the cupcakes as good as Babycakes in RD or Hey, Cupcake in SP? Nope! Not even close!! But...we found it!!! Finally!!! And, the chocolate cupcake Amanda snarfed down 45 seconds after we had left the store was a little taste of home...because there are NOT a lot of chocolate cakes to be found around this town.

Friday night Amanda's principal had planned a TGIF get together at a wine bar in Old Taipa. Most of the teachers headed over there right after school ( the school bus dropped them all off there!!!), and we all enjoyed 2 for 1 drinks and free snacks. Amanda is apparently a terrible light-weight because she had 2 glasses of wine and passed out for 2 hours when we got home at 7 pm!

The whole weekend we all relaxed; it was so nice to laze around! I went and played some squash with some friends on Saturday and Klash and Amanda went to the dog shelter on Sunday to walk some dogs. Apparently the shelter is HUGE and filled to the brim with TONS of strays. Volunteers are allowed to come any time and take dogs for a walk and I know for a fact that Amanda and Kylisha will be regulars...because they have fallen in love with Don-Doe.

Don-Doe apparently looks a little bit like Brady old Bourne (definitely part Shih-Tzu). He is black and white and pretty stalky. He was also the most energetic dog either of them has ever seen before!! Amanda was in charge of him, and she spent most of the walk running after him as he sprinted uncontrollably (tongue hanging out the side of his mouth). Every once in awhile he would randomly stop and lie down for 5 seconds and then he would be off again. He also LOVED water and every little stream they came to became a place for Don-Doe to lie down, submerge himself and re-group. Both Amanda and Kylisha say that as sad as the dog shelter was, their walk with Don-Doe was their favourite thing so far in Macau!! Of course, Kylisha's dog Robert also deserves a mention. While he wasn't quite as enthusiastic as Don-Doe, he was both a gentleman and a scholar.

We are terrible and have no photos of the squished rat, Amanda passed out, our cupcakes, or Don-Doe. So instead we have included a couple of randoms. Enjoy!!

Coach Kiat, the First Days of School and Thanks Nana!

So the beginning of the school year was upon us and the kids were all geared up for the challenge of a new school, country, friends and grade. Amanda has been working since the middle of August (someone has got to pay the bills) so she has been in the work routine for awhile now. She is also one of the coaches for the senior girls basketball team.

Kylisha started grade 10 on Monday and was she ever nervous! It is totally understandable and as expected, by the end of the day, she had made some buddies and really liked her teachers! Her senior girls soccer coach actually asked her if she would help coach the junior girls team! She has fit in just fine so far and is looking forward to the next couple years.

Kaidyn started Senior Kindergarten (here they have pre-k, junior-k and senior-k) with Ms. Ali, who is also a first year teacher at TIS. Kaidyn just loves her and his first day was just fabulous. He made a couple buddies and told us there were no girls in his class....ummmm, you wish buddy. There are only 12 or so kids in his class and an even split of boys and girls.

The kids (and us) have benefitted from Pat being here to help out. From making lunches to cleaning to laundry....she has really been a blast to have here and too bad her stay ends tonight, as she leaves for a short trip to San Fran. Her and Tom are chillaxin in SF for a few days before heading back home. I think she's gonna be a bit chilly for awhile till she gets used to the normal temperatures. We'll see you again in April, Nana (but hopefully sooner)l! XOXOXOXOXO