Work is beginning to pick up, I have a few more responsibilities and had a couple opportunities to leave the office, changing up the scenery a bit. The Institute For Tourism Studies is currently in it's finals week, so I had a couple opportunities to invigilate examinations. If you are saying what the heck does invigilate (that's what I said), it would be the same as proctoring an exam in the US. Basically, I sat in and made sure no one cheated. I would read off instructions for the final, such as no phones can be used, or if you are caught cheating you will lose two fingers...kidding. Then I would basically sit there until everyone had completed the examination and return the completed packets to the registry. It was nothing fancy or much different from the office, but it was a change of scenery and made the days pass by quicker.
I have begun to prepare for two programs, the first being the 2010 Summer International Exchange Programme. The programme is sponsored each year by IFT and is held at either IFT or another partner tourism institutions around the country. This summer it is being held at the tourism college of Zhejiang. I have been preparing various documents for the program as well as contacting the participants making sure we have all the paperwork and their travel plans are confirmed. I have also been preparing for the Asian-Pacific Education and Training Institutes in Tourism's (APETIT) meeting this summer, however this just started so I have not done too much yet.
Overall, I am enjoying my internship thus far. My office mates are wonderful Louisa the director of the Office of International Affairs and Oriana and Sonya, who are administrative assistants in the office. While there title is administrative assistants, I am pretty sure in the us they would have a coordinator role. As they have many responsibilities. It is very different from many US offices in higher education. To begin the Chinese tend to be more reserved and quiet, but we are also a public institution and our ties to the government keep things eve tighter. I literally sit 5 feet from Sonya the Director, and she will constantly e-mail me with items she would like me to work on. I personally would prefer the "Hey Brent, could you..." but I understand that as part of the strictness of the university and possibly to keep track of all my projects, she send the e-mail to keep a record. The CYA method (cover your butt, Ha!) so that is she is questioned on my purpose she can back it up. once I am completed with a project, I still enjoy turning around and saying "Hey, what's up! I'm done, what do you think? Seriously though they are great we always have various convos on what kinds of food I've been eating or how my travel plans are coming. Sometimes I can really get them to loosen up and we will being to joke around and laugh. It is great because they are not super animated, but their eyes will get big and they may laugh a little bit, but they always cover their mouth and sometimes they even blush when they laugh, I love it. I'm in a great place and can't wait for the next month in a half!
Check out this link for a sweet video made a long time ago by IFT, it is state of the art! IFT video
Carmen Lio is a 3rd year student here at IFT, who spent her spring semester at the University of South Carolina. I met with her a couple times before I left and we had many informal meeting at Cool Beans, a coffee shop I like to frequent in Columbia, SC. She grew up in Macau and knows a lot about the city. Her parents own a cafe here, where she will soon be taking me to treat me to beef tongue for the first time. She returned late last week and I went out to lunch with her and a group of her friends, for a dim sum style dinner. Good times were had, and plans for Karaoke were made. I will make sure to have video of that for you.
This weekend has been exciting, eventful and lacking of sleep Friday was kicked off with a great evening at the climbing wall. I took Carmen and her boyfriend Curtis for there first time climbing. We had a blast and I am really out of shape, need to get the chops back. Afterwards we headed out to a birthday party for one of the exchange students. Fun night on a rooftop talking about all kinds of sweet things, great convos. Went to bed about 3:30, only to wake up at 7 in order to grab some breakfast and catch the series of buses to Hac Sa for the regatta.
The regatta is being sponsored by the group I went sailing with a couple weeks ago. They have been very helpful in helping me make connections and plans around Macao and China, so it is the least I could do to volunteer. Quick description, it's a sailboat race for those 18 and under, with two per sailboat. Click here to learn more about the regatta in a Macau Daily Times article. I was on the beach crew, we had about 30 sailboats which we had to ship off and land on the beach. While the Macau racers were use to such a task, those from hong kong usually ship from a port and were not use to the beach. Depending on the tide and the intensity of the waves, it can be tricky. The boats could roll or if you get off on the wrong side, you could be run over. My job was to help move the boats around on the land, and to help them take off and return. We had a very successful day, no one was hurt.
The regatta was in part sponsored by McConaghy Boats, they make the Mach Two Moth, which a 30 kg fully carbon fiber boat that sails on hydro foils. They brought one out to demo for the day, and it was really sweet to see it going, it looked like it was flying.
It was fun watching the kids sail around and have a blast, During the morning portion, after all had been shipped off I took a sailboat out and sailed around the edges of the race course watching the action. This was fun, but during the afternoon, I took a sea kayak out and went to explore a bit. While out, the most amazing thing happened.
pink dolphins came up and played around not 15 meters from my boat. I had read about them, but this was the cool thing. They wold gracefully glide in and out of the water. every once in a while they would jump out of the water a make a big splash, it was a sweet way to cap off an awesome day! Pink dolphins are an endangered species found in Southwest Asia and the Amazon.
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