Sunday mornings

Woke up this morning without an alarm clock (!) around 8. We checked out our hotel gym (lacking a bit) and met two new teachers (Gary and Kelsey) for a late breakfast before our AIS-scheduled bus tour of the city. We chose a local place where Gary (an Australian-raised resident of Hong Kong) ordered all of our food and drinks  in fluent Cantonese (I had a ham and egg sandwich and yummy milk tea). Kelsey is the middle school art teacher and reminds me of my friend, Jill Beall. On the bus tour, we drove out to the new territories where there was lots of green hills and beautiful blue water, through Kowloon (TST), where the walk of stars resides and the IFC mall in Central. We met a girl called Emily, from Phoenix who taught in the Creighton district. Mike and I left the group to wander around Central, shared a burrito at a place called Little Burro and walked to the next metro (MTR) stop called Wan Chai. A teacher who taught in Abu Dhabi last year has transitioned to Hong Kong this year and has gotten set up in an apartment in Wan Chai with her husband, so we swung by to take a look. Afterwards, we popped into a realtor's office across the street, communicated our desires and saw our first few properties around the area. Made our way back to Mong Kok, Kowloon on the subway (MTR) and had food before walking back to our hotel. Because my shoes are packed away, I've been walking around in flat sandals and my feet are hating me! Need to go shopping on "Sneaker Street." Oh, I almost forgot to mention that I had a moment tonight when we got back to the hotel. I had to just pause and cry a bit. I was crying for my family and friends at home, over moving to a new place that I could barely find my way around and with anticipation of a new job that I so desperately wanted to succeed at. After a long, still hug from Mike I felt better. All night long I repeated his voice in my head saying, "Everything is going to be okay."