Macau

So last weekend I went to Macau with two of my fellow teachers.

Macau is made up of two small islands, and is really only one city. Macau is own by China, but maintains a great deal of independence from it, similar to Hong Kong. It started out as a Portuguese colony when they controlled the trading in the South China Sea. Much of the city has still maintained the original Portuguese infrastructure giving it the look of a modern European city. Now Macau is mostly known for gambling and is referred to as the Vegas of Asia. This is why I have told many of you to think of the city as Lisbon and Vegas's adopted Chinese baby.

Skyline of Macau

Guia Lighthouse, built in early 17th century by the Portuguese. Originally constructed to help
defend the colony from invading countries, it now offers amazing views of the city.

Part of the old city, sometime you forgot you were in China

Unesco world heritage site, the Ruins of St. Paul's. Once the largest 

cathedral in Asia, now all that remains is the south facing facade. 

The city center.

Where Asia meets Europe

Egg tarts! They are an egg custard pastry, they're amazing.

 I May have ate a dozen. 

Another thing Macau is known for, Almond cookies. 

Countless shops line the streets as venders hand out free samples.

This is all beef jerky, in multiple flavors. Another Macau favourite.

The streets in the old part are all lined with mosaics 

Everywhere we went there were song birds in cages. 

Macau is made up of two islands. This is on the smaller island, Taipa 

where massive development is happening. 

In the old area of Coloane. We kept running into photo shoots. 

Offering for the god(s?). Because it was Sunday in 

addition to the normal incense there were also other offerings, for some 

reason they all seemed to be oranges, we were informed that it was just a coincidence. 

A prayer house

Weekend Fun

I'm off to Macau for the weekend with two of my fellow teachers! We lucked out in that this weekend they are hosting an international fireworks competition!

Birthday Fun

Last week for my birthday I went out for dinner with several of my fellow teachers. My coworkers and neighbours' cousin was in town, he is second in command on a navy supply ship. So after dinner we got a private tour. Saw the helicopters, met the captain, hung out on the bridge, was told classified information. It was cool.

Before heading up onto the ship

Hanging out with the captain, telling us all kinds of information he 

probably shouldn't be telling civilians, let alone foreign civilians.

After our tour, the ship was huge!

I'm not sure how I'm going to top this for my next birthday, but I'm looking forward to the challenge. 

Humidity + Hair= Lion Mane

So this is what my hair looks like with the humidity, every, all day, sometimes its worse. Its never better. 

 So obviously I often wear my hair in a bun to allow myself to see and keep things from getting tangled in it. (I'll be honest with you there is a small fear of having large tropical bugs flying into my hair and getting caught in there. Likelihood of that happing probably in the range of 2 to 4%, but still its a concern) 
So for the past month my several of my very concerned grade 9 female student have told me, "miss, you know you can do something about your hair. You should really look into it."
To which I often reply: "Are you saying there is something wrong with my hair." Which often result in a hilarious look of shock and horror like I told them they're about to fail the class, or I murdered the last student that told me that.

But over the past few weeks my hair has been getting progressively more tangled, which can only lead to dreadlocks, and let's be honest, I'm not that kind of art teacher. So I went with one of the other teacher at the school to her hair dresser. When i arrived and took my hair down all the women shocked, and concerned about the state of my hair, and all they kept saying was "this is not healthy". After she insisted that it would be impossible to cut my hair in its current state, I agreed to get my hair "Brazilianed" which is a less harsh way of chemically straightening it. Thats right I, Dana, have straight hair. Its weird.

Ok, so its not perfectly straight, but we're going from a main to this. If you had hair eating your face for the past month and a half (also most of my life) you would feel a little strange too.  Also you might notice the difference in length. This is what many of the teacher referr to as the "Shit-I-have-to-cut-white-people-hair trim". Although you may ask for half an inch your going to loose closer to 4, until they get it right and it no longer looks awkward. 

Mouldy Things

In tropical climates things mold faster than what people from Canada are used to. So obviously you don't leave fruit or vegetables out on the counter.  But there are some other things that you wouldn't expect that have issues.

Yep, thats mold growing on my belt and shoes. Every couple of days these things need to be wiped down with alcohol wipes, this is what happens when you become lazy.

Also other things like jackets can grow mould because you don't wash them on a regular basis. Flour, corn starch, and baking powder must be kept in the fridge.

Things I Miss

Real milk. The kind you get at the store in a carton or a bag. The kind that comes from a cow. Where you don't find yourself wondering "What is in this really?"

Note the expiration date. 

Tropical Life

Today I went to put on my shoe and then I felt something move. There was a gecko in it.

Visa

So today I was taken to go have an interview in order to obtain my work visa other wise know as an Alien Employment Permit. We were told all these random things that we should lie about or not tell the interviewer. So I was driven to this sketchy location which was intact an old US army bomb shelter, that now the labour department uses. I was all ready to create this cover story and be all James Bond-esk as I walked down this dark reinforced hallways.

When I got to the place and the interviewer arrived it turned out my 'spy skills' were not necessary. Turns out the woman was interested in immigrating to Canada and just kept asking me questions about my home and the weather and if she would have to learn french as she signed all the paper work just inthralled about the fact that we have snow and that it last for several month of the year.