Heritage Fair, Hiking Shekou Mountain, and Being a Dare Devil

This past Friday was Heritage Fair at the school. Each class picks a country and does a huge project on that country, the parents come in and see the work and there was also a Food Fair (my favourite part) we spent the whole day getting ready for Heritage Fair. The kids finished up their projects and then left school early and came back at 5:30. While the students were gone the teachers set each classroom up with all of the work they did on the specific country. My class did Brazil. They have been working on learning about Brazil way before I came here, and they have learned so much! The Heritage Fair was suppose to be outside but it was really windy on Friday night so they moved the fair inside. The best part of the whole night though was the Food Fair. Each nationality at the school was asked to bring a plate to the fair. There was a table of Korean food, Chinese food, Japanese food, Romanian Food, Canadian food, Indian food and food from France. It was so cool to see all the different foods from around the world. I have to say that the food from France was my favourite (lots of sweets and carbs, just what I like HAHA) The students were so excited about Heritage Fair, and now I can see why. It was a great time with lots of food, entertainment, prizes etc. There was over 1000 people there! it was insane. 

            Saturday morning we woke up around 8am to hike Shekou Mountain. We decided to go along with Sarah ( a teacher from Hampton) and her Grade 10 class. They are preparing for an adventure in Malaysia so they had to bring backpacks with 6L of water, food, etc. I was a little bit nervous at the first but it wasn't so bad once we got going. When I first heard that we were hiking a mountain, I actually thought we were hiking a mountain, but all the way up the mountain were stairs and that is what we were climbing! I think that someone said there are almost 2000 stairs all together. 

This says "South Mountain" (I think) 

 first part was the worst because it was super steep.  Once we got to stair 1000 the students all thought we were done because there is a lookout that we climbed up, I looked at my watch though and realized that it had only taken us around 25 mins and I had heard that the whole climb was around 45mins to an hour so I knew we werent finish.After the first 1000 stairs there was a decline that we went down and then a steep climb up to the finish that I decided to run by myself (I think all that stair training during my basketball career helped with ambition) Although it nearly killed me I did finish and reached the top! Once I got to the top I waited for a few other teachers and then we took some pictures and looked around. While I was standing there stretching, an adult man came up behind me and "sized me up" he stood behind me and put his hand to he was probably 3-4 inches shorter than me. I didnt even realize he was doing this because he was behind me, but a couple of the teachers let me know. He then got his little boy to come up to me and Kate and say..."you tall, bye bye" haha! it was cute though. The stares and the pictures and the pointing hasn't really bothered me yet! it's kind of funny when men stop and stare and you and say hello hello. Me and kate keep joking that when we get back to Canada we will miss the stares and the "hello beautiful" :)

1/2 way up I stopped to take a picture, then I looked at my watch and realized we weren't finished! 

          After our hike we came back and headed to Louhu which is a 5 story shopping center. As soon as we got off the metro people were coming up to us saying.."Missy Missy come looky looky...you want nice watch, you want nice hand bag?" one guy goes..."missy, you want birkenstock?" I said..."look at my feet, I have birkenstock" I felt bad, but I learned quickly at Louhu that you have to be a bit of a bitch or they wont leave you alone. Finally we just started ignoring them and eventually they went away. I ended up buying a pair of Toms for 10$ and a dress and tank for 10$ I will definitely have to go back to Louhu!! 

Kate and me with our "chinese" pose 

        This morning (Sunday) we had it planned that we were going to go on a bike ride with Ross through Shenzhen. I wasn't too sure about this because I have seen the traffic and I have seen the bikes in the middle of the traffic but we SURVIVED! Kate was super sick last night all night with food poisoning (we think) although we shared the exact same food and I wasn't sick. I was sick on monday night though and she wasn't so I guess our bodies just react differently, either way, I don't think we will be back to the restaurant we ate at last night, and I have decided to stay away from meat here! Kate was a trooper though and still came on the bike ride. She was fine until the end when she starting puking again. As I write this she is asleep and resting. I hope she feels better very soon! 
Between dodging the traffic. the sunburn and dodging the 1000's of people, the bike ride was fantastic! We biked for almost 3 hours with Ross, Leon and Dave and made it to the waterfront again and now know how to get there! It's bad to say but I felt really free biking through traffic on a bicycle with no helmet (sorry dad) haha! we tried to stay away from the main streets as much as possible and it helped with the traffic. We felt like royalty biking around because the men kept yelling HELLO HELLO HELLO! too funny! 

The walkway! it was so hot and I got a burn, but you can see the smog in this picture! I love the walkway with all the palm trees and the hot weather! I constantly find myself feeling like I am not in China, who knew that China had palm trees and hot weather like this! 

the bike mechanic on the side of the road we came to that gave us a new tube for my tire, raised Kate's seat and fixed Leon's gears for 30 RMB.. that's like 5$..crazy! PS... repping the UNB VREDS water bottle! 

Last thing I want to write about is my trip to the supermarket today. I decided to go alone since Kate is not feeling well and it was my first time alone anywhere in China (the stares seem worse when you're alone I have realized). It was my mission to head to the superstore and find some peanut butter. Although I didn't find any (I think it is only at the international supermarket) I did manage to find some things I recognized. Along with the dozen apples, bananas and grapes I bought, this should hold me over for awhile. Oh p.s I also found some chinese Peanut M& M's. Everyone that knows me knows how much this means to me! :) I could write lots more but my computer is about to die and the woman at the front desk didn't know what I meant by a converter or transformer to charge my laptop! Hopefully I will find one soon! :) I also start teaching this week! I am starting with Language Arts and we are going to do a unit on Procedural Writing, next week I will be teaching LA and Social Studies and keep working my way up from there! I am excited! :)           

Chinese Gatorade, Peanuts and Mutigrain Lays Chips.