The Page-Smith's in Prague...Read on!

Blog # 3
Okay, the aim is to produce 3 - 4 of these a year...We shall see!

We are now into March - and I have a feeling that it will be over before I complete this edition! I always have such good intentions, but one must be realistic, and checking out the school calendar, this month looks like a doozie!

Let's see...January seems to be "eons" ago, and I have no idea what happened, other than, this year continues to super hard yakka!! People keep asking us whether we are enjoying HK and I just can't give them an answer. Work seems to be inpinging on everything, and, "yeah" I know, all work and no play...We have to do something about it!

Never-the-less, January did see the Page-Smiths celebrate a milestone - our 25th wedding anniversary. We spoiled ourselves by having a weekend away in Hua Hin (Thailand) in a beautiful suite on the beach. The hubby outdid himself, as he organized it all! I also now sport a beautiful new tennis bracelet to replace the one I lost in Q8. Sidhonie came with us, and was most impressed with the whole deal. The hotel kept turning up with treats each day, and so she thought it was wonderful.





Then February. Chinese New Year was definitely a major focus in the school (oops - to be culturally sensitive I evidently should say "Lunar" New year). Our little lady totally shone in the "parasol dance" that she was in with her class. Now I know I am biased - but she really was good! Lots of people told us - so we were happy to drink it up. It seems that she really is quite a little performer, and has finally found her rhythm (Oh me of little faith). Months went in to the preparation for this hour long school wide assembly, but I have to admit it was pretty entertaining and most impressive (the Mandarin teachers organized the whole thing). The New Year break saw Andy in the States recruiting, and while it is a heap easier than it was in Kuwait, we are a small school in a big pond. Regardless, I think we only have one person left to get at this stage.

So, as my husband was away - we "girls" decided to take a few days out too. We went off and spoiled ourselves for a few days in Bangkok. A little shopping, a great manicure and pedicure (Donie was most impressed as the chairs were "massage chairs" and we had individual televisions and headphones!), a visit to the aquarium (definitely worth it) and a stay in one of my favorite old haunts - the Sukhumvit Sheraton, plus catching up with our old friend Carmel. What more could the girls want?

And then March. I swear this is the busiest March I have ever lived through...Not helped by the politics happening within our little organization - which saw lots of extra meetings held than would normally be the case. Anyway, a milestone event happened as a result, and the school has just had its first open community election for board members. A major breakthrough - albeit that we still only have 3 community members versus the three original member - or four if the other co-founder chooses to re-join. Some really good people have been elected, so we shall see what happens next. We are definitely committed to stay here next year, but the next few months will determine whether we extend for longer or not. Enough said at this stage.


Donie at Sports Day, HKA

The weather here has been crazy, and I swear winter lasted all of about 3 weeks. Highly unusual evidently. Since the "cold spell" the temps have been up and down like a yo-yo. This week has been high 20's (Celsius) with 95% humidity! I have never had so many curls in my life - every day is a bad hair day!! And then there is this fog or mist that just hangs over the city due to the moisture in the air. There are days when I feel as though the whole upper part of the island is permanently "in the clouds". They say it will cool off again next week though. As I said - yo yo stuff!

Donie has been doing gymnastics for about 2 months now, and is really doing well. She loves it too, which is more important. She has been super busy with after school activities as well, and as a result has learned the fundamentals of netball (have to get those Aussie roots in their somewhere), soccer (definitely her father's influence) and has learned to sew! She will start new activities after the break. More soccer (hmm) paper making, and Tae Kwan Do! She has been begging us to let her do the latter for months and we finally gave in - though I am not looking forward to the antics that may follow. It is bad enough when she has been watching "spy girls" on TV!


Sidhonie's gymnastics medal after her first competition

Sidonie has been struggling a bit with school this year - particularly math, and it was beginning to really play on her confidence and self-esteem. So after much discussion, we have done a heap of testing, and she has just been diagnosed with ADHD. It explains a lot, and to be honest was a huge relief to find that it was nothing more sinister. We are workiing with a great lady here, and Sidhonie's teacher/s have been great. The little lady, it seems, is actually quite bright, but just needs to slow down! She does everything fast, fast, fast, and when she thinks she is not doing so well, she just tries to go faster! As it turns out she tested above average in every mathematics test. Just can't concentrate long enough to get it right!

It almost seems that we predicted this from the first moment we saw her. Merris: "that's the baby I want, look how bright and alert and ACTIVE she is compared to the other "blobs". Andy: "Mmm, she probably has ADHD". Aah, famous last words! Anyway, after years of teaching plenty of kids with this, and really never understanding it, we now are getting pretty familiar with it. Much maligned over the years, it has tended to be labelled as being "over prescribed", " a fictional condition for students that just can't behave", or all about children that bounce off the walls. When really it is all about kids that just can't sustain concentration for long periods of time to process information (obviously there are different degrees of this). Anyway, I could go on at length.. And need not (and certainly in Sidhonie's case) have anything to do with behaviour. Suffice to say, I will never "pooh pooh" the condition again, seeing what it can do to a child and how it can manifest itself. Actually, we have self diagnosed Andy with it too!! I kept saying as we were looking through the results - "Andy you do that"!! As the therapist said - there are some people who are race horses, and some who are farm horses. While I would prefer a more glamorous persona - I think I am the latter. Donie and Andy are definitely the former!

March also brought a visit to Beijing - albeit brief. Andy had to attend a local ACAMIS meeting (Association of Chinese and Mongolian International Schools) and so Donie and I went too. We took the chance to catch up on more old friends (Ehrick, Sally, and the Edwards) and then ran into even more that we hadn't realized were in that neck of the woods! It was really good. Didn't see much of Beijing itself, but checked out Western Academy of Beijing (WAB) pretty thoroughly and deemed it a pretty impressive facility. Some say it doesn't resemble a school - I think that is good, others think it is too far out of the box. All in the eye of the beholder I guess. Now the shopping did seem to be far more "economically viable" than it now is in this neck of the woods. One could invest in a complete wardrobe of "copies" still with very little impact on the pocket! I did take the opportunity to add to my designer handbags, and Donie got into "Billabong" and game boy games. We shall have to return at another stage to check out what people seem to consider the real sights (the wall perhaps, or the Forbidden City?). All things in good time.

As predicted, we are now into April, and have just finished a 2 week break. Strange timing, as it didn't really match with the local EARCOS conference, as most breaks at this stage do, and was quite unusual to have 2 weeks. So, we decided to take advantage of it this year, and go a little further afield...I should mention that this was after having Mark and Nick for the Rugby 7's ( a little depleted from the original houseful we originally expected). I have to admit it was a pretty impressive "thing" having attended for all of one afternoon. Crowd entertainment was ongoing, and they even had heaps laid on for the kids. Definitely a family event, and one that, despite the alcohol free flowing on the perimeters of the stands (or available in hand in the Southern Stand where my husband chose to spend his time) there were evidently no arrests the whole weekend. Pretty amazing! Most people were just there to have fun. I wonder where else you could go to such a packed venue for three days, with alcohol and people from all over the world and not have any level of discomfort??? Impressive.

We then took off to Europe for 10 days. Now why, you might ask, would we do that when we have lived much, much closer for the past 5 years? Good question. I guess the 2 week break made the difference, but it was a long way to go.

We spent half of that time in Prague staying with friends Kate and Rob Landau ( he is the head of ISP, and they had visited us in Kuwait), and then took the overnight train to Warsaw to see friends Chip and Lillian Barder (head if ASW, and Joe, their son worked with us in Kuwait). It was a good trip, and Chip was lovely enough to look after Donie while Andy and I took off to Krakow and Auschwitz for a day. I don't think she suffered...After an easter egg hunt and soccer game with the ASW staff kids , and then Lillian taught her to knit (she has been on at me for a month or so now - by the way, I have told her that Auntie Jenni is just the person to take her to the next level!).


Prague


Castle outside Prague


Donie with her friend "Kip" in Prague (Rob and Kate's dog)












Warsaw - Old Town Square


Birkenau (Auschwitz camp 2)

Ours was a more sobering, but very interesting day. I have to say though, that we really liked Warsaw. I guess it surprised us both! Prague, as ever, was lovely, but is now much more expensive and extremely crowded (I gather it is wall to wall people during the summer these days).

Back in Hong Kong, we have just generally tried to catch up on things before we return to school tomorrow. I have a MS trip to Thailand (Chiang Mai - Prem Center) with the MS kids next week (and we all know how much Merris LOVES school trips!!). Andy will be away a couple of nights the following week on the 3rd grade trip.

We have also been making a little bit of effort on the local front. Took Donie and a friend over to Kowloon a couple of weeks ago to visit the goldfish and pet market. Certainly different to the souk in Kuwait!! But have never seen so many different types of fish, and we were quite intrigued by the chameleon Shop! Yesterday we did a day trip out to Lantau. Ferry there, lunch in the village, bussed around the island to the "Big Buddha" and poked around that area a bit, and then took the new"ish" cable car back to the mainland -with a follow up MTR and bus trip home. Certainly put the public transport to the test, and it came through with flying colors! The cable car is the longest in the world, and is quite something. A good day was had by all. It was just a shame it hadn't been a clearer day as the views would have been phenomenal!!

Back to Ocean Park this weekend for a day. Donie had been asking for ages, and as we had bothered to buy seasons tickets when we first arrived, we felt we should put them to use. They are expanding that place all the time, and I was told recently that they were trying to double its size. As we have been three times now and still have not done/seen everything, I guess more visits won't be too much of a hardship. This time we saw an ice skating show while there. Quite good, and certainly Donie and her friend Alex, loved it.



We have also managed to catch up with some old friends here in HK. One from Kuwait (Michelle), and some old friends from Tas (Kerry and Luanna). Kerry is actually going to be working with me in the Middle School next year.

I am sure there is much more I could tell you, but time, as always, gets the better of me. The next couple of months will be quite interesting with the new, board members. We will need to make a decision by the end of October as to whether we will stay or not...

In the meantime - our summer break looms ( we finish up right at the end of June), and we will spend a good portion of it in Tas working on our upstairs room. Hopefully will still be able to head up to Coolum for a couple of weeks of sunshine before we return here in early August. As always, if any of you are intending to be in our region, do let us know. The guest room is always ready and waiting.

Love from us all,
Merris, Andy and Sidhonie