Well, where have I been?

Hello all! Sorry for the long delay. I guess I am not very good at this blogging thing. It is my goal to start doing weekly posts, so keep me accountable!

I am beginning my 5th month in Macau. It is unbelievable how quickly time flies. A group of colleagues and I just got back from a week in Korea. I will do next week's post on that! This week will be about the last couple months...

First of all. Macau is HUMID. Like, I walk outside for 2 minutes and start dripping sweat. I have lost my first item to mold (my travel kit that was stored under the sink), and have purchased a dehumidifier as a result. Every day, regardless of temperature is at least 80% humidity. Summers here are going to be BRUTAL!!!

Secondly, the kids are great at School of the Nations. I have taught many of them how to throw a football (the good American version). We have BBQ'd on the beach where I literally burned a hole in my shoe. I even performed a duet with a colleague at the talent show and they actually liked it! Being able to teach 6 year old boys how to make a bank shot, help seniors with application interviews, and sing "All of Me" with another teacher (Kristin), is a pretty awesome deal.

Victoria's Peak in Hong Kong at night!

Amazing Chinese Tea

Since the last time we have spoken, I have been to China and Hong Kong for Chinese New Year. We had a week off to celebrate. Fireworks are lit every night until 2am to ward off evil spirits and almost every business is closed or has much reduced hours. Zhuhai is the city right across the border from Macau in China. It is a huge city (as are all of them), but is known for how cheap everything is. A couple of colleagues and I went for cheap massages and exploring. We had a blast and also had a traditional Chinese Tea experience. It was lovely.

Changing of the guard at Chiang Kai-Shek Memorial

View from the tallest urinal that I have ever seen!

The other major experience was a weekend trip to Taipei in Taiwan. NYU Abu Dhabi brought in a group of college counselors for a fly-in in the great city. Not only did they offer some amazing opportunities for students, they took incredible care of us. We got a great tour of the city, incredible food, and top-notch care. Taipei is a great city to visit and night markets with street food, including something called stinky tofu (I did not try it) as specialties. One of the coolest places we went was the Chiang Kai-Shek Memorial and the Taipei 101 (tallest building in Taiwan). It is a city/country that is struggling with its identity as Chinese and independent. It was very cool to hear Taiwanese people talk about how their entire history they have been working to decide whether they want to be part of China or not. If they were to join back with China, it would be similar to how Macau and Hong Kong currently do it as a "Special Administrative Region." I have no idea how it will play out. Regardless, the trip was really nice and the greenery and weather of Taipei were much more appealing than Macau.

It has been a good 4 months here. I miss you all dearly and particularly so on Derby Day. Thankfully, I was able to watch American Pharaoh pull out the impressive victory. However, it was at 6:30am here and there were no mint juleps. Anyway, I hope you all are well. Finally, a couple weeks ago, Alyssa asked many of you to write letters for me as part of her anniversary gift to me. I received them and THANK YOU! I felt so loved and appreciate the time you all took. It was incredibly thoughtful and made my week. Thank you to Alyssa for doing it and for to you all for the wonderful letters/cards/gifts! Until next week!!!

You all are the best!!!

My Apartment

Hey All! I hope that you are doing well. It is update time!!!

I figured that it is time to tell you about my apartment. Like I said in a previous post, the real estate market in Macau is simply crazy. The prices are fairly ridiculous for some pretty mediocre accommodations. After looking through a few places (see pink suede couch in previous post), I was really left with the decision to pay way too much for some place that I didn't love or pay a bit more for One Oasis. It basically cost me about $200 USD a month more to have a brand-new apartment with a gorgeous view and brand-new gym, pools, sauna, etc. Here are some pictures:

 It is a relatively small apartment, but it is more than enough for me (and hopefully Alyssa). One thing that I am not a fan of in Macau (really all of China) is that the mattresses here are not much more comfortable than sleeping on a piece of plywood. I am not sure how people can spend so much money on something so uncomfortable!

IKEA in Hong Kong will deliver certain items to Macau, like the bedspread you see here. However, between the language barrier and the ridiculous names of their items, the mattress pad that I ordered turned out to be a regular mattress that does not fit. Alas, I have to wait another week for them to come and change things out. Hopefully, I will be sleeping comfortable by this time next week :).

You can see from the bedroom picture that my view has a lot of green. There are almost no places in Macau where you can have such a nice view. Almost everywhere else will have construction, junk yards, casinos, or other city views. The view basically sealed the deal for me! Here is a better picture:

The plastic-looking dome to the left of the picture is home to Kai Kai the panda. 

There are also flamingos, lemurs, monkeys, macaws (ironic), and other animals in this mini-zoo. A couple weekends ago I toured the zoo and hiked the hill you see above it. It was quite the hike and the views were pretty awesome, but at the top of the hill there is a statue. You can't really tell from the picture, but it is a huge statue that is actually lit at night. A-Ma is the goddess of fishermen and sailors and she overlooks the all of Macau. It is a beautiful sight to see. Across the street is a gorgeous Buddhist temple, too. A huge wedding party was getting their pictures taken at the temple, and you know how much those Asians like their cameras.

Anyway, the apartment and view are very nice. I am liking living here and am trying to explore as much of the city as possible. My one-month-iversary is this week, so expect an update about my initial impressions of Macau and the culture here :). Until then, enjoy the Super Bowl (this will be the first time that I can remember not watching) and take care.

Much Love,

Bryan

Week 1 Update- Travel to Macau

Sorry for the delayed post, everybody. I have just gotten internet in my apartment, so I am going to give you an update about my travels to Macau this week. This weekend, I will give you another update about how I am getting settled. So, without further ado...

On Sunday, January 4th, I boarded this plane to Macau via Taipei:

It was a 13.5 hour flight to Taipei and I had an overnight layover in the airport. While it was the longest flight I have ever been on, it was about as comfortable as one could have asked. In an effort to avoid jet lag, I stayed up for all but 2 hours of the flight knowing that it may allow me to actually sleep in Taipei. I watched all kinds of movies, some good (Boyhood) and some not-so-good (The Equalizer). The food was also better than I expected. I sat next to an American who works in Taiwan and Macau, which was also beneficial. He did not really want to talk much, but we made it work.

After landing in Taipei, I got the pleasure of spending the night in the airport. It was a beautiful airport. There was an orchid garden and a zen garden (below) where I ultimately slept a little bit.

It was a rough night of sleep, but the excitement of the last leg of my journey was building. I arrived into Macau at about 11am and was met by the awesome HR director, Jeanie. She helped taxi me to the hotel for the week, immediately got me a sim card for the phone and pointed me in the direction of the school. I was hoping to fight through, but the jet lag got to me, so I crashed for a few hours before meeting some folks for dinner. The director and his wife, along with Gretchen, who is an Art teacher who has been doing the counseling in my absence took me to hot pot. It was basically Melting Pot with the broth and all kinds of balls of fish, tofu, veggies, etc. We had a good time and good conversation. Everybody was recovering from holiday break and it was nice meeting people. 

The next morning, I visited the school for the first time to meet Jeanie. She has set up meetings with real estate agents for me to begin apartment hunting. Here is a picture from my exploration:

It is a very nice building that I am just getting to know. There are multiple roofs with outdoor basketball and tennis courts. School of the Nations is a K-12 school with an IB curriculum. 70% of the faculty are expats from all over the world, so we are in the same boat. I will tell you more about the school and people in another post.

The first, and most important, part of my transition was to secure a new apartment. The real estate market in Macau is crazy. Rents are much higher than other places for much crappier accommodations than I am used to :). Here is an example of terrible purple-ish cabinetry (sorry for not being able to rotate it) and pink fuzzy couch that the realtors showed me:

We visited about 10 apartments across the Taipa and Coloane areas of Macau. I could not understand anything that the real estate agents were saying. Were it not for Jeanie joining me, I would have been completely lost. I found an awesome, brand-new apartment in the more rural part of Macau. It has a brand-new gym and pool, too. I am very excited to be living here and am pumped to be overlooking the panda park in Macau! 

By far, the toughest part of the transition has been the language barrier. All of the people have been exceedingly nice, but I can't read any sign or menu and can only talk to a handful of people outside the school. My hope is to learn as much of the language while I am here, but you never know. I am beginning to make friends and getting into a routine. More about the people and idiosyncrasies in the future. Hope you are well!

Much love,

Bryan 

Why Macau, why now?

The first blog post of this site (and my life) should be cathartic. It should set a foundation. It should give you, the reader, a sense of my style and what you can expect in the future. It should be a commitment to you that I am going to spend time regularly sharing with you how things are going and proving that I am, in fact, alive. Please know that I am going to be raw and genuine with my posts, including this one. Giving you a glimpse of how I am doing and what I doing is the goal. Being grammatically or politically correct are not. I know not who is reading and am using this outlet as a means of expression. So, if you find things that I say to be inappropriate or you don't enjoy it, you will not hurt my feelings if you choose not to continue reading. I hope, however, that you do enjoy this blog and will let me know what your thoughts and feelings are. I want this to be a conversation, so please feel free to engage. If you are taking the time to read this, it is highly likely that I miss you terribly. Do not hesitate to drop me a note or suggest ways to improve this blog. Also, please forgive me as I figure out how to do this well. It will take some time :).

I think it is important to first share with you how I have arrived at this crossroads in my life. Most of you know that I used to work at Transylvania in admissions. It is a job, office, and institution that I love dearly. In late August, I made a terrible decision that not only endangered myself and others, but also made my employment at TU no longer possible. Drinking and driving is something that I greatly regret and there is no excuse for my choice. Letting so many people down, myself included, has been one of the toughest experiences of my life. To anybody who I have hurt or let down through this, I am forever sorry. To those who are learning about my mistake for the first time through this, I am equally sorry. The embarrassment that I have felt for these past few months has been debilitating. I hope you find it in yourself to forgive me, but I completely understand if you do not. Thank you to my family, friends, and Alyssa who have supported me during this challenge. Without you, I don't know where I would be now. There is a silver lining, however. I have been forced to re-evaluate my priorities and have been given a clean slate to explore new challenges. This is where Macau comes in...

With the end of my employment at Transylvania, it was time to find something new. I came across a job doing college counseling at an international high school in Macau and quickly applied. I was not even sure where Macau was, but the chance to do work that I love in a foreign country was incredibly appealing. In one of the fastest search processes ever, I had two Skype interviews and an offer to become the University Guidance Counselor at the School of Nations. There has never been a full-time person in this role in the school's history, so the chance to build a new college counseling program and help students find a college home across the world was incredibly exciting. The people with whom I interviewed were both lovely and everything that I can find about the country and school were exciting to me. I took the job without reservation and have been spending the last couple months working through the visa process. If you want to learn more about the school, go to here: School of Nations Website

This post comes to you from L.A., where Alyssa and I are spending my last few days in the US with her family. From now on, you will hear from me from southeast Asia. I will update you about my move and transition, about my travels throughout the region, and about my work. As 2015 begins with another opportunity for renewal and change, I cannot imagine a bigger leap than the one that I am experiencing. I hope that you and yours take the opportunities, however scary, that present themselves to you. As the old basketball adage goes, "you miss 100% of the shots that you don't take." Let's see where this ride takes us and know that I love hearing from you. Leaving the home that you have known for 30 years is a scary proposition. Thank God we have Skype, Facetime, and Gmail to keep us connected. Happy New Year!

Until next time, much love.