Mums diary # 15. Friday 17th October 2008

We took the 99 bus to Wu Kai Sha and the train to Ma On Shan. We found our way to Renaissance College from there. We later realized that we should have stayed on the train one more stop and got off at Heng On estate instead.
We were a bit early and we asked a Sports teacher which way we should go to Catriona’s classroom. He kindly took us right there. The children (all year 2 and aged from 5-6 years old) were all singing loudly to Raffi’s “Here’s to the World we love..” when we walked in because they were celebrating 2 6 year old’s birthdays that day.
It was so lovely to see and hear 26 enthusiastic young children singing their hearts out (and I felt rather emotional at that moment.) Catriona stopped the music and said ‘This is my mum and her friend Ricky, they have flown all the way from Scotland especially to see me and visit our class room.” I am very proud that my daughter is able to work so well with so many children in a small classroom. She teaches them all subjects with the exception of Chinese.
Some children came over to introduce themselves right away. One little boy asked us again if we were Mrs. Mortensen’s family and I said “Yes, this is my daughter, my baby.” The children thought that was very funny. We went downstairs and had a panini an extremely hot tea, which burnt the top off my mouth and a latte at the school’s coffee shop. Then we were lucky enough to watch the Crazy Hair day primary school assembly from the viewing gallery at the top of the Performing Arts Centre (PAC.) Yvonne’s husband Bob had his hair shaved to raise money for Crazy hair day.
Many people had made a big effort to donate money. Some older children made speeches. Slide shows were shown of photos depicting some events from the day and individual photos of students and staff. It was good to hear the laughter of the children. After the assembly and whilst Catriona was dismissing her class, Yvonne gave us a tour of Renaissance College (RCHK). The school is lovely with a huge swimming pool, gym and library. There was even a couple of roof- top playing fields/sports areas. We were introduced to a lot of the staff as we toured around. Later in Sai kung we had a meal at Sauce. Catriona and Jørgen wanted to try the new Tapas menu there. Much later we sat on the roof -top. I am amazed by how early and how quickly it gets dark here. Each night it is dark by 6:30pm. The sun rises at the same time in the morning. Every time we step outside I feel that everything is the wrong way around. We step out into natural central heating from the sun and into the chilly air-conditioned buildings. Time is passing so quickly. Two weeks of our holiday have already gone. It will be fun having both Catriona and Jørgen with us next week. We plan to do some exploring together.