English Camp 2008

English Camp week was an extremely busy one for us and I think we are still learning how to mix the CH with teaching without wearing out our team. Overall, however, the Camp week was a great time of being in awe of how the Boss’ love effects people, and for me it was a time where he grew an even bigger heart for the people here. The camp was smallish which allowed each teacher to have a small group of students to spend time with and really bond. We would teach English in the Morning and then usually have an activity in the afternoon and then on CH days we would invite all the students to hang out with us and enjoy whatever event was going on that night! Needless to say it was a packed house at the CH every night! By the end of camp there were many hugs and tears, but our little team here are extremely excited about continuing these relationships (I may even be able to continue some of our impromptu drum lessons)and most of the students have expressed that they will be at the coffeehouse whenever they can! Here are some pictures of the Camp (I’m sorry to say that these are limited to mostly CH, but soon I will post a link to many more pictures that were taken by our teachers!):

 

Torch Madness!!

Not long ago the Olympic Torch came through our city and I’m sure you can imagine what a big deal that is here. Well we can and we still were unprepared for the turnout. We did not actually get to see it there were so many people. People that did see it had to pack food for the entire day and wait from early morning til about 3pm for the torch to even arrive! Many of our friends who did this did not arrive home until midnight because they had to wait for he crowd to clear and then because there were no taxis available had to walks miles to get home. Well we still got dressed up and went to see what we could see and here’s a few pics:

 

More Firefly Fun!

Sorry everybody that these posts are so late, but I just thought I would post some past coffeehouse pics so you can continue to feel a part of what the Boss is doing here.

 

Macau

Mo and I recently had to leave town for our every 90 day Visa requirement so we took a trip to Macau! Macau has now surpassed Las Vegas as far as gambling is concerned. The largest land mass building in the world is one of its casinos. We did not visit that area of Macau, but did enjoy the rich history and architecture associated with its prior Portuguese and now Chinese ownership. Much like Hong Kong in many ways, but very European in others. Here are a few pics:

<img src=”http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3255/2731062454_8233d26d1b.jpg”

 

a night of dancing

Mo and I had the opportunity last night to watch one of our friends dance in a production that is meant as a companion to a event where farmers from everywhere compete in various sporting events. The event has been sold out for some time now, but we were invited for free to their dress rehearsal. It turned out to be a night immersed in culture and various types of dancing. We took a bunch of video, but just picked a few that were the most interesting. The first is a traditional dance with some hip hop flare I think, the second two are of a large group of B-Boys breakdancing which is definitely a huge part of the culture here. Enjoy!

 

soft opening!!!

Here are some pics of our soft opening (at least before the batteries in my camera died). There is still more painting etc to be done, but we wanted to have a dry run, so we invited some of our close friends for a free night of coffee tasting, and music and hanging out. It was great to see how everyone really seems to feel relaxed and how our different friends sort of blended well. All in all we were able to get some good feedback on drinks, while having a great time with friends (we even had an impromptu musical performance). It looks like the space has great potential. We planned on having a second soft opening the next night with a more expanded group, but we were rained out. Keep us in your thoughts as we have moved that second soft opening to this next friday, and plan to hold our grand opening two weekends from now!

 

Coffeehouse Prep

Here are some pictures of our progress with the coffeebar. BTW Andrews father is responsible for the beautiful wall mural.

ISN’T SHE BEAUTIFUL

 

earthquake vigil

Recently we attended a vigil for the earthquake victims at the local university where we have made some good friends. We basically were given candles and each person would light it and place it within a large heart shaped pattern. Afterwards we all stood in silence until the last candle burned out. It was pretty moving.

 

firefly coffeehouse image

here is our official Firefly Coffeehouse logo in case you were interested.

 

Chinese Poetry Night!

Hey sorry everyone that I haven’t updated for a while, but I’m about to put up a few posts for events that we have some video and pictures for. This particular event was held at the college where Andrew is currently attending and it was a night of chinese poetry. It was a lot of fun hearing several students in a fairly packed auditorium passionately recite ancient poetry. As part of Andrew’s extracurricular activities he recited “when you are old” by William Butler Yates in English and Chinese. I’ll let the video speak for itself, but listen careful for the ladies swooning when he begins the chinese version.