First day @ AIS!

God. How is it already the first day of school for me?! Three weeks for a teacher's summer vacation is too short. But no matter, because I love my school. Met the newbie teachers and my principal downstairs in the hotel lobby at 8:30 to ride the bus to school together up the road to Kowloon Tong. I feel lucky to be working with such a fantastic group of teachers, everyone is so friendly and NORMAL. The morning session at school took place in a meeting room with tea,coffee, water, juices, fruit and pastries. new teachers from ES, MS and HS were introduced along with our head of school and each school's principal through a game of bingo. Ice breakers to combat first day jitters really work, even for teachers! After bingo, Cameron Fox, our head of school spoke about AIS, its history, work ethic and hopes for the future in a compelling and non-intimidating fashion and we spoke in groups about similarities and differences we'd picked up on between AIS and previous schools we've taught in. At noon, we broke for lunch (SUBWAY!) and then headed off with the Newbie Committee teachers (Sophie, Meghan and Laura) to the Immigration Building to obtain Hong Kong IDs. I was told these IDs are necessary for almost everything when setting up a life in HK. And, although there was a line, I was given a ticket/form ahead of my appointment time, saw the appropriate people, rubbed thumbprints and took a picture very quickly and seamlessly. If I were somewhere else in the world, this experience would have been a nightmare. Ah-hem. So, after handing over my passport and showing my HK visa, I had a temporary ID printed out and in my hands in less than an hour. Check! The newbies made our way to CSL to set up phones and get local SIM cards. Luckily, my AD Iphone 5s was unlocked, so slipping the SIM card in was easy and I upgraded from 1 GB of data to 5 with unlimited calling minutes and SMSs (is that extra 's' necessary??) without paying any deposit. Boom. I was fortunate to have Gary (remember Gary? He's the fluent Cantonese speaker) sitting next to me, helping to translate. Here's where the day got a bit overlapped. Mike and I ended up being overbooked with two different realtors wanting to show us different properties in different areas at the same time. I was on island in Wan Chai and Mike was on Kowloon finishing up his HKID appointment (without his new SIM card yet). My newbies stopped in at this Mexican restaurant/bar called "Coyote," to have some drinks (so exhilarating to do this outside of a hotel) and I met up with one realtor to see two properties on island in an area called Causeway Bay. I met Mike after to see one property in Wan Chai. A few of the properties had aspects we liked, but were not the ones for us yet. We have two and a half weeks left in hotels, which everyone tells us is a TON of time in HK to find a rental property, so we're being picky and taking our time. More apartment appointments to come...