Exorcising the Demons from Macau

Macau Architecture

  Hello, I hope this  blog finds everyone getting ready to spring forward.  I love Spring, but don't like springing forward and losing that hour of sleep.  It always takes me about a week to get my body clock to switch over, even if I prep for it and go to bed an hour early.  Fortunately this year I don't have to go through it, but on the other hand we are going to be wrecks when we return from China with a 16 hour difference.
  Spring has already begun in China and we had an amazing week.  We awoke each day with blue sky, birds singing and the plumeria and flowers blooming everywhere.  The smell of orange blossoms is very heavy as well.  The temperatures and humidity have also been very moderate,  mid 70's to low 80's all week.
  This week wasn't as boring as last week, so enjoy.

SCHOOL:  This week we started falling into a routine and were starting to really enjoy our new schedules, until they changed Cecelia's.  So instead of having the mornings off to work out, they changed the last two days of the week to her working in the morning and then having most of the afternoon off.  She was not happy about it, but she is a trooper and just carries on.
  Taylor went on a field trip to the Guangzhou Science Museum.  At first she didn't want to go, but we made her and she loved every bit of it.  She came back a Chatty Cathy and we couldn't get her to stop talking about the cool stuff that she experienced.  She shot things with a water cannon, watched a four D movie, in which a Dinosaur drooled on them, and finally got to pretend she was hang gliding.  She had such a wonderful time that we are probably going to do it as a weekend adventure.
  I had a pretty regular week, but was just recruited to train the Subject level teachers in English.  I will be training and tutoring them once a week on various subjects.  The training will last for roughly nine weeks.  They will then give a presentation at the end using one of the techniques they have learned.  Some of the topics will include, using Technology in the Classroom, Differentiated Grading, Dealing with Special Needs Students and other exciting topics.  Sounds fun right!!!  Well it may not sound fun to many of you, but it is cool to watch people that don't speak English fluently step out of their comfort zones and give it their best shot.  Many of them are so enthusiastic about learning new things.  They salivate for ways to teach that take them away from the drill and kill, teacher centered mentality.  I never thought I would enjoy doing training like this, but because of their enthusiasm it is infectious.  After the presentation we will be choosing some of them to go on a trip to the United States during the summer.  I was very honored to be chosen to help with this project.
  Claire didn't have anything special going on, but she is still working hard to juggle the many subjects that she has in here schedule.  It has been good for her and will definitely help down the road.  If I haven't described her classes to you, she is taking English, Algebra, Physics, Biology, PE, Art, Music, Chinese, Geography and Psychology.  Keeping up with the homework is a little challenging, but she seems to be managing.

ADVENTURES:  This week found us going to Macau.  Cecelia had really wanted to go, and I had not been there since Paul and I found out our father had passed away.  So with a bit of trepidation we jumped on a train Saturday morning and headed for the border crossing.
  One of the main things that we always have to consider when we plan on going either to Macau or Hong Kong is the border crossing.  To put it frank, it is a pain the butt.  On average it takes about an hour and a half to cross from China into either of Provinces.  I guess I should look more thoroughly into the details, but my feeble mind cannot comprehend why it is such a pain.  The last I checked both places had been given back to China, Hong Kong from the English and Macau from the Portuguese in 1999.  So if they were given back and they are now part of China, why two separate border crossings, two separate currencies, driving on the wrong side of the road and other such menial things.  It would be like flying to Hawaii and having to wait for two hours, just to get in the state.
  Anyway, the nice thing about going down on the train this time was that they completed the station next to our community and also completed the tracks all the way down to the center of Zhuhai.  When we first arrived in China, we would have to ride our motos to the South Railway Station, take the train to North Zhuhai and then take an additional 45 minute cab ride to the border crossing.  We decided to try going through a different entry that a friend told us about, so we got to Zhuhai and took a cab to Heng Qin.  The border crossing wasn't as crowded, but it still took us a while to get where we were looking to go.

Street near Tai Lei Loi Kei

  When we finally arrived in Taipa and Cotai, districts of Macau, we headed out to look for an eating establishment our friends Jenny and Luke from Wisconson told us about.  It was a little greasy stand in old town Taipa called Tai Lei Loi Kei.  It was made famous by Anthony Bourdain on one of his television episodes.  The restaurant specializes in greasy pork chop sandwiches.  We bought some and and had a nice lunch in the village square on a bench a midst some shady oak trees.  We were very hungry, so I don't know if the sandwiches were just that good or our appetites didn't allow us to be very discerning.  I will say that the pork chop was extremely tasty and the fresh bread was great.  I will admit that to this date it is the best pork chop sandwich that I have ever eaten.  Don't put too much stock in that statement, because up until then it was the only pork chop sandwich that I had ever eaten.  I did have one other on our way out of Macau and it wasn't as good as the one at Tai Lei Loi Kei.  So until I can empirically state otherwise I would have to agree with Anthony.
  After filling our bellies with greasy pork products, we topped it off with some Hagen Daz ice cream and were ready to adventure and explore Macau.  We first walked around old Taipa town and enjoyed the atmosphere of the quaint shops and narrow cobblestone alleys.

From Tapai to Macau Proper

  We then hopped a cab to go find St. Paul's Church.  St. Paul's Church isn't really a church in the way that you would normally think about a church.  The only thing that remains is the front facade and a long stairway that leads to Jesus's Square.  It at one time was a church, but after it caught fire the second time, the people decided to just not rebuild.  Apparently the inside was spectacular.
  An interesting fact about the church was that it was the first Catholic Church to incorporate Eastern and and Western architecture into the construction.  There is even a Buddhist prayer and incense chapel right next to the church.

St. Paul's, notice Buddhist Temple to the left.

 One of the other real interesting thing about the area is not only that the facade is still standing, but there is a fort standing next to it.  The fort was built by a bunch of Jesuit priests in the 1600's.  I don't know about you, but the idea that a bunch of priests built a fort, with canons and the whole bit seems like an oxymoron to me.  The more and more I learn about the Jesuits, the more and more I think that if I became a priest I would love to join up with this group.  Anyway the fort was really cool and had the actual canons facing out over the top of the wall.  One tidbit of fact is that at no time were there ever any canons facing mainland China.  Now they face things like the Grand Lisbo and the casino area, now isn't that ironic.
  When we left the fort we walked down into the main part of Macau.  I have wanted to replace my old camera with a new version that shoots video.  I did a lot of research and decided to by a new Canon 60D camera body.  The great thing about buying the body was that my favorite lens that I use to take most of our pictures with fits on the new camera.  This camera is also a bit more advanced and allows me to get a better quality video and pictures.  So, I shopped around and purchased exactly what I wanted.  I will tell you I fell in love with the new technology immediately.  I think you will really see a difference with the photos and video that I post on the blog.

This is the front, I wish I could have seen the whole thing when completed.  It would have been magnificent.  Reminded me of St. Mark's in Venice.

  We then headed out to find a hotel.  We wanted to have a bit of a rest before venturing out into Macau for the evening.  I wanted to share with Cecelia and the girls how special it is at night in this little town.  We actually found a nice hotel just around the corner from the Brostel.  If you don't recall or didn't read the previous blog in October when Paul and I went for his birthday, the Brostel is the name for the place we stayed that we considered to be a Hostel and a Brothel all wrapped into one.  So, the first demon I cast out was the sleeping arrangements for the family.  The hotel we found wasn't large, but it was very nice and the beds were soft.  Even though they were single beds, we were comfortable.  Cecelia and I of course could cuddle together and Taylor likes to sleep on the floor curled up in a big comforter that the hotel supplied.  That left Claire with her own bed, so she was happy about that.

The old and the new

   After resting for a couple of hours we headed back out to Macau.  The city is so vibrant and alive in the evening.  The neon and lighting create a tapestry that weaves together the old and the new.  We walked down to the casinos to see all the elaborate hotels decorated in all their evening finery.  We visited the Grand Lisbo, which I think is the ugliest building in the world and the MGM.  The girls thought the Grand Lisbo lit up at night was really cool, so I took them to dinner at the restaurant that Paul and I went for his birthday.  This was my second demon taken care of, since it was at that restaurant in the morning in which we found out our father had passed away.  We had a nice meal and headed out to look around a bit more.  The stroll down to the old town center was pleasant.  The atmosphere there is soft and comforting, which is in stark contrast to the casinos which are loud and glaring.  The cobble stoned streets really shine at night as well, with their black and white mosaics of sea animals.  It is very peaceful.  The girls were tired at that point so we walked back to our hotel and fell asleep.  Demon number three was taken out at that point.  I slept well and didn't hear some dude getting a massage in the next room or the dorm mom yelling at the masseuses.

Look what the Jesuits aim at now!!!!

  The next morning we awoke to an absolutely gorgeous day.  The sky was clear and crisp and the sun was shining off the ocean with a million diamonds glittering on the water.  It was one of those spring mornings in which everything just seems to be more vibrant.  The birds' songs were clearer, the flowers were brighter everything was just fresh.
  We packed up and headed to the Starbucks that is in Senado Square.  We had a quick bite to eat and then headed out to walk to the border crossing and explore the city on foot.  I will tell you that my Starbucks, Venti, No Foam Latte tasted much better than usual.  There is just something awesome about drinking a great cup of coffee while walking around a city that was established in the 1500's.  Like I said, everything was just better this morning.

Those are my Angels at the bottom

  I have found that the exploration that Cecelia and I have done together has been one of the most rewarding things that we have done.  There is just nothing like being on foot exploring the ins and outs of a city.
  Our trek took us to the base of St. Paul's one last time and then over a hill in the city to the base of the fort. Along the way we got to experience a lot of the Portuguese architecture that defines this amazing city.  One minute we were walking through high rise apartments and then the next we were walking down a small street that had more decorative cobblestones, flanked by brightly colored buildings with Roman arches built into the front.
  As we meandered through the streets we also found hidden gardens and temples all along the way.  One of the temples, The Kun Iam Temple in particular was very interesting because it was used after World War II to sign a treaty between the United States and China.

The streets of Macau

  The streets of Macau finally led us to the border crossing and to our train home.  All and all the trip was excellent and I would say all of the Demons were destroyed.  Macau is a great city and Cecelia and I are going to try to make one last trip there to explore more for a romantic weekend.  We shall see, and if we do I will share more with you.