Long Weekend!

Well I am having my first long weekend. Monday is a holiday because it is Chinese National Day. There are actually a lot of holidays here. There are the traditional Macanese holidays, the Chinese holidays and they celebrate most Christian holidays. Unfortunately, our school can't take all the holidays or we wouldn't have enough days in our school year.

Anyway, I spent the day at the beach yesterday with several of the teachers from my school. It was a great day! We go to the beach, play around in the water for a bit, then head off to the pool next to the beach. While the beach is nice here, the sea water is somewhat dirty (and several of the teachers actually got a rash last time they swam in it!). So we spend most of our time swimming in the pool, which is very nice. Kind of reminds me of the pool at third beach in Stanley Park in Vancouver. It was a great day for it too, the usual high of 30 and about 80% humidity. It is funny though, people think it is starting to cool off here. I notice that there are more cool breezes which makes things more comfortable, but I definietly would not say it is cooling off. We were sad to find out that the pool we were at will close at the end of next month until May. Things like that are on a schedule, no matter how nice the weather may be.

Today I am off to do some more exploring. There is an old lighthouse on the top of a mountain in Macau. I think Kevin and I are going to find a way to climb up to it. It looks pretty amazing. Tomorrow some of the teachers are going to go for a bit of a hike up a mountain on the other island (Coloane). It is supposed to be quite beautiful up there, and one of the few places in Macau that really isn't populated. I have heard there are some large snakes up there...not too excited about that...I found out another interesting, fun fact...cobras are actually native to Coloane. On second thought, maybe I won't go for that hike after all...

Will write again soon, hopefully with no snake stories to share.

Mid-Autumn Festival

Well a couple of weeks have gone by, and things continue to be quite busy here. I am still surprised that there is so much to see and do in such a small place. Kevin and I went to the second night of the Macau International Fireworks Competition on Saturday. It was amazing. First was Australia, their show was interesting, but something I would expect to see back home. Then Taipei put on one of the most amazing shows I have ever seen. They had all these different fireworks I have never seen before. Most impressive were the fireworks shaped like different characters. One was even shaped like Hello Kitty. I can't wait to see more. In total the fireworks occur on five different nights. Next is Portugal and China.

In other news, this time of year is the mid-Autumn festival. That basically means there are lanterns all over the city. At night they glow and light up the parks and streets. It is a really beautiful time of year. Today was especially nice because there was a cool breeze. That is something I have not experienced since I moved here five weeks ago. I guess that means that the seasons are changing (though the highs are still close to 30 everyday!).

Our school had a lantern festival. It was put on by the parent association. It was really great. There were so many families there and such a mix of different countries. It was nice to see everyone interacting! What was even better was even though it took place at school, people were talking about anything but school!

Well that is it for now. I can't believe it will be October soon! At the end of October we have a fall break at school. That means a week off. Maybe then I will make a trip to Hong Kong...I think for my first trip I want to spend more than a weekend there.

Will post again soon!

September 8, 2007

Hello Everyone,

Well, finally I am getting around to writing about life here in Macau. First of all the name Macau is interesting. There seems to be two different ways at spell it Macau or Macao. I think the 'u' is Portugese and the 'o' is Chinese, but I am not sure.

Anyway, things have been good here. It started off really warm but feels like it is starting to cool a bit...or I am getting used to the warm temperatures. Today feels like a nice day. There is a high of 30 and low of 26 with humidity around 85%. Listen to me, I sound like a weatherman!! Anyway, it is a lot different than Calgary!

School has been interesting. I have 15 students. They are from around the world. They seem like a nice group. I know my class size is going to grow. With more and more 'foreigners' moving to Macau everyday, our school grows on a daily basis.

The apartment we are living in is quite nice. It has three bedrooms and two bathrooms. Compared to what is being built in Calgary and Vancouver these days, I think it is actually pretty big. There are air conditioners in every room, so it never gets too hot.

I made a trip to mainland China last weekend. It was a unique experience. It is strange to me to go through immigration for China, but if you live in Macau or Hong Kong, you have to. I guess they want to keep things separate since Macau and Hong Kong are Special Administrative Regions. Also, since gambling is illegal on the mainland, they want to try to control it here.

Anyway, my trip was literally just across the border. There is a huge shopping mall there with about everything you can imagine. You have to barter for everything you buy. It was kind of exciting at first, but after a while I just felt like I wanted someone to say exactly how much they wanted for something, without ripping me off. I did well though. I bought lots of cheap clothes.

Now to the casinos here, they are pretty amazing. Two weeks ago the Venetian opened up. It is huge! Apparently it is twice the size of the one in Las Vegas. I guess the Sands corporation (which owns the Venetian) is doing very well here. Within a year of building the Sands hotel here, it was paid off!! Yes, people love to gamble here, and the casinos benefit. The Wynn is quite beautiful as well. In November the MGM Grand is going to open. It looks like one of the most interesting buildings here. There are plans for lots of other casinos and there seems to be construction everywhere, but I think the next big projects are several years away.

Since the weather has been so hot we have spent a lot of time going to outdoor swimming pools. There are some nice ones here. There are also a couple of beaches. The sand is nice on one of them, though lots of rocks are sticking out of the water. Also, the water quality is not great here. I have gone into the water, but never really swam in it. The other beach is called the black sand beach. It is alright, but there are a lot of food venders by the beach so you get the smell of barbequed fish when you are laying down. There are some great restaurants by the beaches though. They are also very cheap by Canadian standards, which is great!

Well that is it for now. I will write more as I think of it. Have a look at the pictures! Send me an email when you have a chance!!

Vance