Moganshan

I have survived!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Actually I had a fnatastic week where I managed to astound my colleague by being absolutely hyper and earned the name of 'Happy Camper'!

On Monday, I was picked up by the taxi driver at 5am and then went to pick up MeShi. We chatted to the airport where we met our students and parents were there to wish us well and kiss their children goodbye for the week. Group check-ins are quite arduous and it took us ages to all check in - 52 students and 4 adults. Thankfully, Elyse kindly went to buy me a coffee while we waited to get our luggage on. We were soon checked in and on our way to Moganshan.

We arrived at Hangzhou airport, to be welcomed by Christa and the rest of the APA team - they had even drawn up a banner for us - bless! We then loaded the buses up and set off for Baiyun Villas at Moganshan. There was a lady on the bus, and I guess she must have been a tour guide. However, her English was bad and she wanted to talk to talk to our group in Putonghua. Thankfully, Adam put a stop to this, at which point she decided to sing us a song...in Putonghua of course. Melvin sat next to me and whispered that when the APA leaders arrived, she'd sung to them too. It was weird.

We arrived at Baiyun villas and dumped out stuff in our rooms. The girls were very sweet and exclaimed that I should have the room with the balcony or the biggest room. However, I decided to let them have the bigger rooms and had a centrally located room. We went to have lunch at a nearby restaurant - the food ROCKED - and there was so much of it - not just that day but the WHOLE week!!!!!!!!! We then had a breifing from Christa and went into our groups to do some team building activities before eating yet again! We played 'spoons' except we had chopsticks on the landingwhich was fun - until two chopsticks broke as we were fighting ovr them (sorry Mini Boo- who got a chopstick in the face!)

On Tuesday, we went to do visit a tea plantation and took some cool photos of the area. Our group (the Pink Foot Potatoes) helped to weed and tidy up an area of trail. At this point I nearly stuck my head into a bunch of caterpillars - lovely! We then went back to a place called The Lodge where we ate food that another group had cooked. Then it was our turn to prepare food for dinner. I think the students had fun tearing and chopping the food into pieces. I did have to bring a cabbage food fight to a halt before it got out of hand. The girls came to my room to hang out and chat - that was cool - oh and Rav was there too.

Wednesaday brought beautiful weather and a day of activities. In the morning, we had morning exercise , which was fun and we played 'evolution' - I got to evolve into an HKIS student. We had breakfast and then headed down to the tyrolean cross and the abseil site. I was about the fourth person to do the tyrolean - which I was a little nervous about. However, they needed me to help on the other side. So, after repeating that I was scared about a fajillion times (I always verbalise my fear...and then laugh...very odd behaviour - I know), Mike told me that he was giving me a count of three. So, I gained the fear of being pushed off by Mike, so voluntarily stepped off the platform, screamed and laughed - it was good fun...and over far too quickly. It was more like a zip line with only a little bit of effort to get right to the other side. I was then shown how to detach students from the tyrolean safely. I think I scared Melvin and Chico on the first attempt, where I initially wanted to detach the dafety line - not a good move, but I got a hang of it. They were then freed to start students on the abseil down the waterfall. This I unfortunately didn't get to do due to time constraints, but it was cool that some of the students who found it difficult, overcame their fears and completed it. As we were sitting around a lot too, I got to talk to Ariane and Stef about how I became a Christian, how I came to be in HK and how I got my jobs - it was so good to tell of God's goodness in my life.

In the afternoon - after a spaghetti bolognese lunch at the lodge, we went raft building. This was quite amusing, as some of the locals were there and watched the whole process. A couple even joined in - helping to tie a couple of knots! We had a race, and then tidied up and went back to the Lodge for another meal - potatoes and stew - SO GOOD!!!!!

Thursday was a damp and misty day - and we were embarking on our adventure race. I decided - even though we didn't have to join a student group - to stay with half of the Potatoes and see what they had to do. I was afraid that they would all run off and I'd be left panting behind them. Thankfully this was not the case as my group started by being led by a enthusiastic Rav who seemed to want to venture down every dirt track possible. We got quite lost trying to get to our first station, but we found the other half of the Potatoes and we found it together. We gradually made our way to a few other posts, which built up the team's confidence. I must say that the last hour or so was the best fun as we managed to get a couple of stations. Then as we were walking back to the final meeting place (If we didn't get there on time, we'd lose points.) when I pointed out a roundabout to the students and they looked at me and carried on. Piak, who was with us also pointed out to me that the station there was very close by, which caused me to laugh as my students continued to ignore these subtle hints. As we continued, Rav realised he'd left his backpack a couple of stations down the line. So, he and Piak ran back for it, while I led the rest of the group to the station we'd passed to see if we could get some more points. Unfortunately, we couldn't find the information as it had been removed...and yes, I did proclaim very loudly that it SUCKED! We ran back to the point where we'd split into two groups, Piak rang me and I thought he said he was nearly back at the market - which was close to the end point. he repeated and he was actually saying he was nearly back at Mark's (The Lodge) which was the end point. I screamed and slung my backpack on and managed to get my group running once more to make it back to theLodge. It was so chaotic and exciting - loved it!!!!!!

On Friday we woke early, ate breakfast, boarded the buses (where my lost camera was reunited with me :) ) and we headed back down the mountain to Hangzhou. We spent about an hour there shopping (actually I think most students stopped off at Dairy Queen) before we went to lunch at LoWaiLo restaurant on Westlake (very good food yet again!). We had a group photo, got back on the buses and .....the bus pulled over after a while. I thought the driver was lost again...but it turned out that the guide and the driver were speaking in the local dialect so that our students couldn't translate for us and there was some disagreement about payment. Thankfully, Christa sorted it out and we were on our way to the airport. It took us ages to check in and we arrived safely back in HK.

I just want to say that the following people ROCK:
Mark, Joanna and Isabelle - The Lodge - a sanctuary of good cofee, hot chocolate, brownies, food and music!
Christa, Adam, Hodge (and Joyce), Ebben, Melvin, Piak, Chico and Mike - Asia Pacific Adventure- brilliant professionals and excellent at what they do - you can trust these people with your lives!
Melita, Terry and Peter - my colleagues - so chilled out, cool and hilariful (hilarious and wonderful)!
Our students - so nice, so fun and so much energy - love it!!!!!!!