Food - our common language

My host mum and host dad love making puddings with us, these are some of our masterpiece!

1) Dundee cake
My host mum is a scottish. She said Dundee cake is very common gift for special occasions in Scotland. Therefore, she taught me to make this cake and asked me to bring it back home as a Christmas gift for my family! In this Dundee cake, there'a a lot of spices, raisins and currents. They're all my favorite!

My Dundee cake!! I made it!

It smells very very nice!!!

 2) Chocolate cupcakes

My host dad is a CHOCOHOLIC, he loves every chocolate product. And he taught me how to make these lovely chocolate cupcakes.

Chocolate cupcakes!

Yummy! with Vanilla ice-cream !

I really enjoy baking with my host family because I don't have a big oven home and I seldom bake in Hong Kong. I think baking is a very good activity between parents and children. In Hong Kong, most parents are so busy that they even don't have time to cook. That's why it is impossible for a family to bake few times a week, like what we do here in York. I really treasure the time being with my host family, so I spent most weekends shopping and baking with them. I think FOOD is a common language around the world. All people (at least both UK & HK people) enjoy cooking and eating together!

We also talked about the very strange food in China. Some Western people may find it awful, but that's what Chinese sometimes eat. For example, the ox's penis, the frog's ovaries, the pig's blood, the cow's intestines, etc. Of course not every Chinese accept these food (for me, I don't dare to eat some of them), but we still have a tradition to eat these food for good health.

Also, I discovered a new dessert- RHUBARB yoghurt!
I've never seen rhubarb in my life before I came here. I just found it funny to look like a crab stick. And now I  just can't help falling in love with this lovely dessert! I love the special sweet and sour taste of it and it has become my new indulgence now. I hope I can still find the rhubarb product in Hong Kong, if not, I'll ask my host to post me some!

DINKY & YUPPIE

There's a very lovely and lively little girl in my host family, Emma.
She is an angel and sometimes a little demon.
Today when I talked with my host parents, they said how they wish they are DINKY without the little demon.

DINKY?
Such a new vocab for me!

They explained that DINKY stands for "Double Income, No Kids". It refers to a high-earning couple who choose not to have children and are therefore able to afford a more expensive consumer lifestyle. How interesting! And this term was created by the YUPPIE culture.

What? YUPPIE?
Another new vocab!

Again, they explained that YUPPIE stands for "Young Urban Professional" or "Young Upwardly-mobile Professional". It refers to people in the middle class in their twenties or thirties.

In fact, we have similar expression in Chinese for these two groups of people too. Due to the raising social economic status of women in China/ Hong Kong, women nowadays have their own career and choose not to be a housewife. That's why there's a declining birth rate in Hong Kong, and there're more DINKY here in our country! Also we have such term for the young people who have high potential and mobility, and most of them are not married. I guess the concept is similar to YUPPIE too.

It's really interesing to learn these two words. But anyway, I'm not planning to be DINKY or YUPPIE because I really love children!

Hi, I'm Emma the lovely snowman!

It's SNOWING!!!!!!!!

It's been snowing for 2 weeks already!
You can never imagine how excited we are!
(being the sub-tropical Asian for 23 years, I have never seen snow)

Let's see the changes within these two weeks:

taken in the pre-snow era (dry, clean & lovely boots)

first day of snowing (so excited!)

after few days of snowing....(freezing..)

after one week of snowing... (getting stuck..)

But anyway, I really enjoy the snow!

Hello, here is the snowman I built with my host family, lovely! ;)

Summary of school visits

In the past 3 weeks, I went to 3 different schools, Burnholme, Bootham and Archbishop Holgate's, for school visits. They are all very different schools with different students' backgrounds.

Burnholme
Burnholme is a very small state school in York. Most of their students are from local family in York. They are often students with lower Social Economic Status, ans some even have learning difficulties. Though the students are under-privileged, they are all very lucky to enter a loving school. Burnholme is such a small school that they do not have many students in the school. The class size are relatively smaller and the teacher-student ratio is larger. Thus, all teachers know every students in the school. It is very warm and loving that they are close like living in a family.
The class I observed was having a English poem lesson, the teacher, Mrs Rumney is a very patient and experienced teacher (though she look young). She demonstrated the excellent classroom management techniques. She treated every students equally that she never omitted anyone of them. Some attention seeking boys were really naughty, but she could really control them. I did have good time in the class and I enjoyed her lesson so much.
Though Burnholme is a school without good reputation, some people may even label the students there, I was really impressed by the teachers. They tried very hard to create a better learning environment for the students. They treat every single students equally as a precious one. Their spirits inspire me a lot. I keep telling myself that, which school I am going to teach is not matter, because teachers have to overcome any environmental difficulties for their students. Every students has the right to be taught and to be treated equally.

Bootham
Bootham is the school which my host brother is now studying in, so I have heard of the reputation of it before. My host mum keeps telling me that the school fee is horrendous! She sent my host brother to Bootham just because she wants him to enjoy school and have a happy childhood. Surely I agree with her that school must be a happy place for students that they really want to go.
In my visit to Bootham, the deputy head of the school told us the vision and background of the school. Bootham is a private school (with very expensive school fee). The students are more diverse and there are some borading sutdents. I do really think that Bootham is a very attractive school that they believe in Quakerism. Quakers share a way of life rather than a set of beliefs, they focus on experience rather than written statements. To me, this is a very new concept that I have never encountered before. The school claim that their Quaker ethos is one that sits happily with young people from all backgrounds and faiths. I do not really know if it is real or not for every students enjoying the school, but at least, I know my host brother enjoys his school life very much.
However, the lesson really surprised me that the teacher was not as professional as I expected. It was a writing lesson, and the teacher gave some instructions for students at the beginning of the lesson. After that, she did nothing. She sat in her seat sending e-mail while the students were wandering around the classroom. I was so confused that how she manage the class, or is that a style of teaching? I really wondered. At the end of the lesson, I oberseved that some students had done nothing. I really want to ask the teacher what happen to the lesson, but she just invited us to leave the class afterwards.
I don't really know if that's a special case, the lesson was boring, without any teacher's input. I hope this was a bad example only. 
On the whole, I still have good impression on the school. Bootham is a very successful school that it makes students enjoy learning, that's very important.

Archbishop Holgate's
I went to Archbishop Holgate's school 2 weeks before the school visit because my host sister has drama class in the school on every Saturdays. My first impression on the school is, very artistic. And after the school visit, I think they are more than artistic.
Archbishop Holgate's is a states school. Students are mainly from local families. This school offers lots of courses for students in different years, student are all-rounded. They also have a balanced academic performance. The facilities in school are very advance and students are given chances to access. I think the school is making good use of the resources.
However, it's a pity that we do not have time to enter a classroom to observe the whole lesson. We just walked around the school, like a whistle-stop tour. I understand that there's a lot to see, but it's better to offer an opportunity for us to observe the class, instead of introducing us the facilities in the school.
Anyway, I had good time in the school visit, the staff and students were very nice!

Summary of the week ;)

Here comes my 3rd entry!  yeah! (clap clap clap...)

Though I didn't update my blog frequently, it doesn't mean that I have nothing to share.
Still I have a very wonderful week, and I would like to write some hightlights of the week!

Teaching Practice
I have done my first teaching practice here last week, which is quite relaxing. My groupmate and I did prepare a lot for this 20-minute lesson. We have many ideas and we want to do different activities during the class, however, we found it very difficult to manage the time. We tried to make this short lesson enjoyable and interesting, and I thought we were able to achieve it. I think it's a good start, but I know there're too many areas that I have to improve. I think giving immediate response to students and making changes in lesson according to different situations are difficult tasks for me. I am the kind of people who need planning and I really need to stick to my plan. I think what I need is confidence in making changes and flexibility. Sometimes I just worry and wonder if I can handle with chaos or accidents in the classroom, but I do believe preparation helps. Well, though it takes time to prepare for the TP, I still look forward to my next TP! I hope I can have some improvement in every little try.


A trip to Edinburgh
I spent my weekend in  Edinburgh with my classmates for 3 days 2 nights!
What I heard from my host family is that the scottish people in Edinburgh are veryveryveryvery nice
 and friendly. However, I think it is NOT the case. Since Edinburgh is a bigger ( a lot lot bigger!!!)  and more modern city when compare to York, people are busy. The bus drivers and salesladies there were not nice at all... I don't know if the reason is we are Chinese, I just couldn't feel people welcoming or showing friendly to us. I enjoyed the scenery, buildings and landscape there, but not the so-called "friendly" scottish people. I saw people getting drunk, crying and screaming, people speaking in very heavy accent, and people begging on the streets. Those were absent in York.
Though I really didn't have a good impression on the scottish people, I still admire their culture. I love the tartan, the woolen costume in checkers! There are lovely and classic! I saw men wearing the tartan quilt, they looked cool! I bought two scarfs in Edinburgh for myself and my mum. I think tartan is the best souvenir from there!

Hi! It's me on the Colton Hill! It's freezing there!

 

My lovely friends & the Edinburgh Castle!

There will be a Christmas carnival in Edinburgh, and the ferris wheel is being bulit in the centre of Ediburgh! Beautiful!

Cooking Fun!

During this weekend, I cooked a lot! :P

I made Chinese dumplings and some cantonese dishes for my host family. However, they seemed not to admire the food... :(  I know sometimes Chinese food may taste or look strange to them, but that's really what I love and I just want to share with them! Alright, I am going to have Chinese dumplings for the rest of my week because there are still many in the fridge :(

Apart from Chinese food, I also leanrt to make lasagne in a proper way. I used to make lasagne in Hong Kong but it's just a instant one. It's ready made and I just baked it! (or even reheat it...) Now I find that it's not that difficult to make a homemade one. I just put the lasagne sheet, mince beef and white source layers by layers, and it's nearly done (but of course you have to add flavour to it).  It looks really nice! The lasagne is now in the fridge, and we are going to bake it tomorrow for dinner. I just can't wait to taste it! yummy :)

The most lovely food I learnt during this week is the BANOFFEE PIE! It's a cake made of banana and toffee! It's so sweet and I am a suger lover! I like to eat every sweet food. This is the first time I ate and made a banoffee pie, and now I just fell in love with it! I'll try to make one in HK and show my mother what I have learnt (in cooking) here! Compare to Hong Kong, desserts in the UK like pudding, yoghurt, cheese cakes, ice-cream, pies, etc are much cheaper. I have also planned to go Betty's teashop for a very traditional English teaset! That's why I think I must gain a lot of weight after these 6 weeks.

What's next I am going to make a white chocolate cheese cake! See if it'll be another good one! ;-)

My first week in York

It's been the 3rd day here in York, but I'm still suffering from jet-lag.
I woke up at 5 this morning, and couldn't fall asleep afterwards, how poor!

Tonight is the Guy Fawkes Night! (or we can say Bonfire Night)
I have done some research on google about the Bonfire Night, I knew it's like kind of celebration that a guy called Guy Fawkes (yeah, humorous ;-D) failed the Gunpowder Plot of 5 November 1605. It's such a very old and memorable celebration, isn't it? It's been a long history!

I played fireworks with my host family in their garden. The little bonfires were nice and it just reminded me of the very magnificent firework display we have in Hong Kong. Normally, lighting firework is prohibited in Hong Kong, but we have very big firework display three times in a year, which are for the celebrations of Chinese New Year, National Day, and the day when England returned the sovereignty of Hong Kong to China (the first of July). Though fireworks are beautiful, sometimes I do think it is a waste of money because the government spends millions of dollars to light them up! Also, it is doing harm to the environment.

By the way, I love English traditions, beacuse we can have fun and holiday! I'm looking forward to the thanksgiving day, and I long to see how people celebrate it! We don't have such celebration in Hong Kong!