Back to the land of cold and ice

It's literally 5 more sleeps until our flight back to Toronto. After having arrived in Hong Kong in February 2009, it's time to go "home" and visit friends and family, but most importantly, to update our various ID and health cards. Just kidding but really not.

Whilst I can't wait to go back to Toronto, I am dreading the flight back home. We are flying 10:45am on Saturday 3 December. Not the best time to fly for anyone, let alone two kids under 6. Not sure what our strategy would be...would it be a) keep them up all night the night before b) keep to our regular sleeping schedule and just make sure that we are prepared for the flight with games, toys, movies c) drug them. Just kidding about c), maybe just a little bit of whiskey mixed with orange juice.

After being in mainland China where the car seems to rule just like in Canada, I'm not sure if I would get freaked out when I return. In Hong Kong, there are more pedestrians and mass transit users than cars so the first two kind of rule. When I return to Canada, I'm not sure if I would be able to handle so many cars, so long distances between places, and if I would be able to drive after not having driven for almost 3 years. Not to mention also that in HK, they drive on the "wrong" side of the road (e.g. like in the UK and South Africa).

But I will certainly enjoy and relish the space. The space to walk, the space in which to live, and just a general sense of having space and not having to bump into someone or have someone cut you off because there is no space. However, I have also gotten used to having so little space, I might not know how to deal with big spaces like my parents' house or those of my friends. Living in a convenient and efficient living space has proved to me that a family of four does not need much more than 1,200 sq ft of space. This, however, is contingent on having accessible and conveniently placed shared facilities like swimming pools, gym, playgrounds, bike and car parks, grocery stores, etc. Without a good infrastructure, living in a tight community like the one we live in HK will not work and people will get irritated.

The girls have said that they don't miss anything about Canada except the snow so we hope that there will be some. Here we come (back)!

Shopping for Primary Schools

It's amazing, sometimes I feel like we just moved to Hong Kong but it has almost been 3 years. Isabella started her formal schooling in HK by enrolling in nursery or K1 as it's known here in August 2009 and now it's time to choose her primary school. Unlike the majority of HK parents, Jonathan and I were not concerned too much about sending her to so-called "Band 1" schools. These are the schools that are well-known in HK, high tuition fees, EMI (English as the medium of instruction), and located in posh areas.

No, we were just asking three questions:
1) Is it walking distance from our place?
2) Is the school CMI (Chinese as medium of instruction)?; and
3) Does the school offer extra support for non-native Chinese speakers?

These questions were in no particular order as they were all equally important to us as I believe one's school should be part of their immediate community, that the girls should learn Cantonese as that was a big reason why we moved to HK, and that we are not able to support them in their Chinese homework as we do not read or write Chinese.

I must admit that I got a little swept up in the frenzy of choosing a primary school when a colleague/friend, who also has a son Bella's age, started asking me about my options and my aims for her education. She laughed when I mentioned the proximity factor but nodded understandingly when I explained my learning-in-Chinese factor. We started calling (on the phone and in person) the schools that we were interested in and asked them whether they had open houses for prospective students' parents but most of them were unresponsive and couldn't fully answer our plethora of questions that betrayed us as parents going through this for the first time.

Then in the beginning of September, a bunch of notices from Bella's kindergarten school poured in. They were invitations to open houses, trial classes, parents' nights, to all the primary schools in our home area. I mean, the school administrators could have told us that when we were calling the schools ourselves then all of our questions and hypothetical situations would be answered.

TIP for expat parents of primary-ready kids in HK: all of the open houses and such happen in the period of August - September, but especially the real push comes in early September.

So every weekend this month, we've been spending time at different primary schools talking to different teachers, curriculum directors, students and principals about Bella and her needs. At all of the schools, we met non-native Chinese (e.g. South India, Caucasian, Korean) students who spoke Cantonese and Putonghua as fluently as far as I can tell. It's really amazing coming from a largely monolinguistic society (Toronto, Canada) that multi-lingualism comes so naturally to kids. To all of you out there who can speak more than one language, do not deny this gift to your own kids.

Finally, we chose a primary school that we had visited first. (It's always the first dress that you saw that you eventually buy - lol). It satisfies our three criteria and we get a good feeling from talking to the teachers and students. It also is a mixed socio-economic student population which will hopefully expose Bella to different types of people and their priorities.

But best of all, it's a comfortable 6 minute walk from our flat.

Speaking tongues - new test subject - Sela'khaya

Sela'khaya, being born in June 2008 and us having moved to Hong Kong in February 2009, has meant that she has spent the majority of her life in HK and not in Canada. Well, after now having been in HK for 2 years and 5 months, Khaya too is in kindergarten - Chinese kindergarten. Having been satisfied with Isabella's progress in Cantonese and Mandarin at Sun Island Kindergarten, it was a no-brainer to have Khaya follow in her big sister's footsteps and hopefully her achievements.

Khaya's first day was 4 August 2011 and it was for one hour. The second day would also be for one hour but with the 3rd and 4th day extended to two hours and so on. But back to the first day - after breakfast Khaya got into her school uniform (Bella's hand-me-down) and her new (!) white school shoes (only because Bella's old ones were still too big for her). We all walked her to school together and once she got there, she was clear about what had to do: say hi to teachers, wash and dry her hands, and get into the classroom.

With all of the obviously first time parents sending their kid to school, I hung back a little from the window of the classroom cuz I've done this before. However, I did manage a 10 second peek into what Khaya was doing after she immediately beelined for the only table that didn't have any other kids but the table's allotment of shared toys. A little boy then sat at her table and not being to hear but I can imagine what might have been said...

Boy: Hi (but in Cantonese)
Khaya: (looks up but no sound)
Boy: (looking at the toys she's playing with) Can I?....
Khaya: (quickly distancing herself and the toy away from the boy) No! go away!
Boy: (obviously not expecting this reaction, he starts violently shaking his head) No, no, no!
Khaya: (oblivious to his protestations continues playing with her toys)

So not alot of talking but not alot of sharing either. After seeing her big sister go off to school every morning for 2 years, I'm not sure if she was thinking "I'm finally here. I made it. And no one is going to take this away from me."

Speaking tongues - part deux

Last Saturday was the bi-annual (or twice per school year) Parent-Teacher meeting with Bella's teacher. We've had three of them in the past - two with Bella's K2 teacher and one with Bella's current K3 teacher, who I must say, looks younger than my hairbrush.

We get to the school late, but of course, because living 5 minutes walking to the school automatically makes you think time stands still for those who live in close proximity. While Bella waits in the common play area inside the school, supervised by other teachers, Jonathan and I go into Bella's classroom with her teacher, Miss Chao.

I don't ask Miss Chao's first name because I feel like, being a teacher, I should call her Miss Chao despite the fact that I have pants older than her. And where does she make us sit? on the little children's chairs at the children's table. I mean, it's bad enough for me, but think about poor Jonathan who was like "I'll stand." I really don't get why they don't pull out three bloomin' regular adult-size chairs for this one special occasion! What the F is all I'm thinking then.

Anyhoo, she goes through all of the gross, fine, not so fine, motor, non-motor, electric, whatever skills. blah blah blah. Something about her winning some "best performance award" for science, maths, english, blah-de-blah and then what's that?? She speaks Cantonese at school? to whom? not to the teacher? then to whom? her friends? only her Chinese friends but she speaks English to her English-speaking friends.

Hallelujah! There is a god!

And S/he/It/That which cannot be named has graced us by giving our daughter the gift of bilingualism - something that we wouldn't have been able to give her had we stayed in Toronto - well, maybe that Eng/French immersion farce but we all know that unless you live, breathe and need to operate in that second language, it won't really stay with you in the long term.

At this point, I felt my eyes stinging ever so slightly. I wasn't going to cry in front of this 12 year old calling herself a teacher and neither was Jonathan - I shot him a look of "hold it together, man!" But we wanted Miss Chao to repeat that again. Yes, Bella speaks Cantonese, and dammit, quite well too when she has to communicate to play with her Chinese friends.

Necessity IS the mother of all invention...or ability.

Now I wonder when the Putonghua will begin. Fingers crossed for the next parent-teacher interview.

Good morning Vietnam!

To celebrate our 9th wedding anniversary, Jonathan and I decided to take a trip - sans kids. Our destinations? Halong Bay and Hanoi in Vietnam.

Jonathan had done alot of research about places to visit in Vietnam - through the internet, lonely planet books and through friends (Thanks Thu Ba!) who used to live there. In the end, we booked an overnight trip on a beautiful boat that would be crusing through Halong Bay and then would stay in Hanoi to explore the city for the remainder of our 3 day-4 nights trip.

Before we got on the plane, we had to stop by the Vietnamese visa office in Wan Chai, Hong Kong to get our visitor's visas - HKD330 per person or CDN42. The process took 2-3 working days and it was a matter of just filling out a generic application.

We arrived in the early evening and the air was humid and warm. That weekend called for rain and thunderstorms - not a great sign. That first night we stayed at the Intercontinental hotel in Westlake. Our hotel room jutted out on the lake and we likely would have had a beautiful sunset had we checked in a little earlier. The hotel is not in the Old Quarter - it's nearer to the embassies so it was a little more quieter - but we didn't really appreciate the quiet until we checked into our second hotel in the Old Quarter after the boat cruise.

Motorbikes everywhere - and noisy ones at that. It wouldn't have been so bad if they stayed on the road but some feel that riding your motorised vehicle (yes, a motorbike can be classifed as such) on the sidewalk where pedestrians walk is perfectly acceptable as well. Some motorbikers thought that driving up to a street vendor and buying food, along with those un-motorised pedestrian consumers, without getting off their bikes was okay, too. It's as if these motorbikes were extensions of their bodies (e.g. their other pair of legs). If we brought the kids and they fell asleep in our massive stroller I don't know how they wouldn't have been in a motorbike-stroller collision. Noisy, intrusive and air polluting - I have to give a negative point for Hanoi re: the ubiquitousness of these motorbikes. Nevermind all the honking that goes on from cars as well.

But let me give a positive point for Hanoi for its beautiful architecture. French colonialism has left a beautiful mark in Hanoi, at least in terms of architectural sensibilities and food. The residential buildings were usually narrow (due to some property tax imposed by the government sometime ago to reduce the width of homes) and full of French influence - columns, gables, colourful shutters, iron grillwork, and plaster medallions. It's a shame that many of the buildings look somewhat dilapidated and when compared to shiny but uncreative, corporate-looking Hong Kong, it takes true effort to really imagine them at their peak to fully appreciate them. And the food...divine. Coming from Hong Kong where options for international cuisines are seemingly endless, you do get alot of what Jonathan likes to call "Chinese-doing-Japanese" or "Chinese-doing-French" cuisine. But the French seem to have taught the Vietnamese well, in terms of pastry, general cuisine and architecture.

Halong Bay, shortlisted as one of the natural wonder of the world by who knows who, was truly breath taking. The cloudy weather made it all the more mystical looking as the karsts rose out of the water in the mist. The car ride from Hanoi to Halong Bay was about 3.5 hours, each way. Pretty far but totally worth it. The boat that we spent the night in was called the Emeraude - a copy of a French steamer that once plied these waters in the early 20th century, complete with a French captain and crew, and very attentive service. Their buffets were really yummy and they even catered to Jonathan's vegetarianism. The cabins were really quaint and well equipped with a shower, toilet and sink. However, Jonathan was a little perturbed having to take a shower right over the toilet. I was like "obviously you haven't been in Hong Kong long enough". We didn't spend the whole time on the boat, we also explored one of the many little islands there - Surprise Cave was gorgeous - this very large grotto was used by Viet Cong as a hideout during the war with the United States. We also kayaked - well Jonathan did most of the paddling on our two person kayak - which was fun on the calm waters of Halong Bay.

When we returned to Hanoi, we treated ourselves to a spa afternoon - mani and pedi for Jonathan and facial and pedi for me. We chose a spa that was near to our second hotel in the Old Quarter and suffice to say, it was less than completely restful and rejuvenating. I mean, there was a bus load of tourists who came in at about the same time we did and they demanded massages for most of them! Anyways, lots of scurrying about by the staff and not everything was totally ready when they needed to be. But we can't complain, we paid USD57 (including 10% tip) for all of the treatments listed above. Not too shabby.

Lastly, in terms of food, I must mention that we ate twice at this restaurant called Koto ("know one, teach one") where the set up is Jamie-Oliver-like, where the chef (this one was Australian) trains underpriviledged youth in Hanoi in the hospitality and restaurant biz. Good food, great prices and your money is going to a good cause. After finding two dead fruit flies in Jonathan's pho (noodles) at Pho24 (a popular pho chain in Asia) that was next door to Koto, we were like "okay, back to Koto!".

For more pictures, check out Jonathan's facebook or my facebook (he's tagged me in his photos of Vietnam).

Children should be seen but not heard

A new library opened up in our area, Tung Chung recently. Oh boy, I was waiting for this moment. Being a sort of new residential area (10 years), Tung Chung is building a lot of new facilities. Too bad that they are just building a hospital now and not when we needed it last October when Khaya contracted H1N1 (swine flu) but that's another blog post.

Back to my nerdy excitement towards a brand new library in our area - a mere 5 minute walk from our flat! As a child and teenager, I spent entire weekends at the local library, reading the latest editions of the "Highlights" magazines and then later, teen romances (e.g. Sweet Valley High's). I even had a crush on a slightly older boy (e.g. 16) who worked at the library part time. The library was my "after school soda shop."

When we entered the new library for the first time, the girls and I marvelled at all of the new books and publications and mostly, the children's section. This section was decorated with all the requisite kiddie furniture and even a multi-tiered stage that was obviously the centrepiece. Brightly coloured stools and kiddie-sized benches encouraged kids to get lost in their chosen books. What more can any kid or parent want?

Complete and utter silence apparently. Not by the parents or kids but rather by the many uniformed attendants who disguise themselves as librarians but are really just there to "shush" your kids. Their shushing is so loud and frequent that that becomes more annoying and much more of a disturbance than the kids who are just being kids in a library.

Now with kids like mine who are not your typical Hong Kong shy kids, the attendants regularly meet their matches. I really think that as soon as they see me with the kids, their walkie-talkies immediately start going "Mayday, mayday...Mother with loud kids approaching door...all staff stand-by!" As soon as the kids pass through the doors, they immediately run, brimming with joy, into the children's section. And along the way, they do yelp the occasional "yay, we're here!". That is precisely when the shushing attendants deliver their finest performance.

"Siu pung yau (little friend), mm goy (please), shhhh (shhh)!"

But being the kids that they are, Bella and Khaya take this as encouragement to make more noise. And so it goes...the shushing is so frequent that our visits to the library are shorter than what I would like them to be. It's really too bad that kids can't be kids in the KID'S section of the library in Hong Kong. Hopefully they will lay off on the shushing and let kids be kids.

Sawadee-ka! Amazing Thailand

While most of my friends and family have been to Thailand, once, twice or many times, I myself have never had the pleasure, nor has Jonathan and definitely not the kids. We booked ourselves in at the Westin Siray Bay Resort and Spa on the east side of Phuket Island in Thailand. The resort had only been opened for one month so there were some deals surrounding it. It was about 45 minutes from the Phuket airport and about 15 minutes from Phuket town.

Jonathan booked a tour at Khao Sok national park - about 3 hours away from the hotel. There we went down a rubber dingy in the Sok river looking at the awesome karsk formations (limestone outcrops) and rode the Asian elepants - a must-do for any visitor to Thailand! The only downer was the constant rain that day, sometimes pouring like buckets, other times just a constant falling of it. However, the staff at the park framed this weather as "liquid sunshine" and it somehow changed my perspective. Man, I was on holiday and who cares if it's the rainy season, at least it's not a typhoon and we can still go out and do things!

The next excursion was to Phi Phi island and Maya beach where the movie "The Beach" was filmed. Who actually watched that movie? or paid to watch it in its entirety? I certainly didn't. Anyways, this particular excursion really didn't live up to expectations as there were so many of us crammed on a cruiser boat and then dropped off at this Monkey Island where the girls got attacked by small, terrifying monkeys who were used to people giving them food or at least grabbing them out of their hands. As soon as we kayaked from the cruiser to the island, a monkey jumped into the kayak and grabbed the loaf of bread Bella was holding for feeding the fishes. Then while we were stunned by that act of animal violence, another monkey tried to jump on Khaya and scared the bejesus out of her. She now has an intense fear and distrust of any smallish furry land creatures - including household cats.

We also rented a car and drove around the lovely island. Kata and Karon beaches would be nice places to stay if we ever come back. Beaches are clean and the town centre not too seedy - unlike Patong Beach - where there are two Thai women to every one Western bloated red neck man in a bar. Although Patong Beach was worth taking a look and there is a nice big mall there called Jung Ceylon that allowed us to get our mall fix.

One thing I must say is that the Thai love kids. During our Thai massage and pedicure, the staff at the spa kept them entertained and even gave Khaya a 20 minute hand massage - for free! She was loving every minute of it. Also the staff of various excursions we went on loved to pick up Khaya and hug her for lengthy periods of time, men and women! And Khaya just LOVES being picked up and held.

The food was needless to say, to die for. We even found a little cafe in Phuket town where they served Thai VEGETARIAN food! They also have american style breakfasts and killer coffee. The place is family owned and they had tons of toys and books to entertain the kids. If you're heading that way, give me a ring and I will dig up that business card.

We're definitely going back. And as Khaya kept saying throughout the trip - "Amazing Thailand"! - the TV adverts certainly work on little kids. :-)