Another Year Starts

This school year is our third since returning to Macau. The girls continue to grow and develop in so many ways. This year, Emily is a member of the volleyball, Jr. soccer and swimming teams while also playing with the TIS Jazz Band.  Danielle has taken to sports as well, joining the volleyball development team and the swim team. She is also house captain for her grade.
Both will take part in experience week activities as well. Danielle traveled to Qingyuan, China in October and Emily travels to Cambodia in March.

Emily's Achievements

The one thing I noticed this year was how focused and hard-working Emily was when it came to her classes and athletics. Her hard work paid off when she collected one athletic and three academic awards at the year end awards celebrations. Academically, she receive the Grade 8 English, PE and ICT (computing) awards. From the swim team she received the Most Improved Athlete award. She was shocked to get as many awards as she did but nevertheless, she felt honored that her teachers thought so highly of her.

We Are Official Residents

June 3 was a big day as the Varga family became official residents of Macau. The process was long and arduous and not everyone gets approved. For us, it was a twenty month process that included sharing of letters and documents as well as multiple finger print sessions. Nevertheless, the hard work is done and we can enjoy some of the benefits of being a resident. These include:

• shorter queues at immigration
• part of the profit-sharing scheme with the government
• free health care and medicine at government hospitals
• money towards tuition fees (we still pay some here at the school)

School Photos

The girl's school photos have arrived. They are looking so grown up!

Emily the Musician

Emily has been busy improving her saxophone skills this year and she has improved greatly since last year. Yesterday the entire Grade 8 band played at the DSEJ music festival in Tap Seac Square in Macau. Here are some photos of the performance.

An In-depth View of Macau

Macau is one of those places you have to visit to truly get a sense of what it is really like. This blog offers you of some glimpses of Macau but probably not enough to get a feel for the place.  Anthony Bourdain recently visited Macau to film an episode for his TV show "No Reservations". The video is great and will give you a good look at not only Macau food but also Macau culture. Click here to view it.

Danielle the Actress

Danielle recently took part in the TIS musical production of "Alice in Wonderland - Jr.". She played two roles in the show: 1) Matilda - Alices's older sister, and 2) Rose - one of the girls of the golden afternoon.
She had numerous speaking parts so there was plenty of practice and rehearsal leading up to the production. Both shows were held at the MUST auditorium and each show had a large audience. Overall it was a lot of fun...but tiring.

Shopping!!

Our last full day in Bangkok was spent inside as the temperature topped out at 39 degrees - it was just too hot to be outside. We spent the day at CentralWorld Mall, one of many incredible malls in Bangkok. The girls found some great clothing that is difficult to find in Macau. We also took in a movie - Jack the Giant Slayer- and had a nice dinner followed by a trip to Dunkin Doughnuts. Overall, the shopping in Bangkok is the best we've encountered in Asia (and that's saying a lot!) Other excellent malls we visited included BMK and Siam Paragon; they are all worth visiting if you get a chance to visit Bankok.

The Grand Palace

One of the must-see places in Bangkok is the Grand Palace. Think of Buckingham Palace or the Forbidden City and you will u

nderstand the importance of the palace to the Thai people. The buildings were beautiful and there were many of them.  Around the grounds there were ornate statues and the buildings themselves contained incredible attention to detail. One building in particular contained a beautiful mural that continued on for several hundred metres. It was a difficult visit because of the heat, but overall it was well worth our time and energy. 

Jim Thompson's House

We visited the home of Jim Thompson, the man credited with developing the Thai silk industry to what it is today. The house and gardens were beautiful and the house itself was a great example of Thai architecture with a mix of western influences. Thompson was also an avid collector of art and sculptures and many of the pieces in the home were several hundred years old.

Easter in Bangkok

We wanted to get away for the break - somewhere close that was a short journey away. Bangkok fit the bill perfectly; we could fly from Macau and be there (fairly inexpensively) in under three hours. Our first full day had us visiting Chatuchak market, the largest outdoor market in Asia (so we were told). There are several thousand stalls/shops to choose from and I believe it; it took us nearly two hours just to walk around the perimeter of the market. When we did venture inside we cam upon a labyrinth of never-ending shopping and eating. It was a great place to look for clothing and household items as well as a great place to eat. We lasted as long as we could but with the temperature between 35 and 38 degrees, it was tough going. Nevertheless, we did manage to find some great deals.

Emily's Trip to Thailand

Last week Emily traveled to Chiang Mai, Thailand with all the other grade eight students at TIS. It was the annual "Experience Week" where grade 7-12 students travel abroad or take part in educational conferences. It was a fun-filled week as Emily and her classmates took part in many activities: Muy Thai boxing, archery, batik painting, cycling, canoeing, Thai cooking, shopping and a trip to the Elephant Nature Park. More photos from her trip can be found here.

Emily the Track Athlete

Emily tried some new sports this year - Javelin, High Jump and Long Jump. I think she was partly interested because her Dad was coaching! She really developed an interest for the javelin and the high jump but not so much for the long jump. Unfortunately, she was only entered in the long jump at this years DSEJ track meet. Nevertheless, she gave it her all and finished in the middle of the pack. She is very much looking forward to next track season. 

Our New Home

The Varga family blog has been a bit quiet lately... it's been busy for all of us. We've been getting settled into our new home. Why move? Our previous apartment was sold and the new owners told us the lease would not be renewed. So we started looking around for prospective buildings with a plan to move in March or April. Of course we found an amazing place and couldn't let it slip by. So there we were, moving seven days prior to Christmas. It was crazy but it made our holiday in Malaysia that much more special. THe apartment itself is bigger than our previous one and on a quieter street as well. We are on the 27th floor and while we gave up an amazing view and a balcony, we still have great views of the inner harbor and of the mainland.

Emily's Birthday

It's hard to believe that there is a teenager living in our house... but it's true! It was Emily's 13th birthday today and she got to choose where the family would have dinner. She chose Thai food so we headed to a favorite local restaurant called Chang Rai. Upon returning home, we all tucked into homemade carrot cake with cream cheese icing. Danielle gave Emily a plant for her room while Mom and Dad gave Emily an iPod5.

George Town

The last portion of our trip to Penang had us visiting the historic city of George town. The city has an interesting past along with many historic buildings and temples. A good portion of the city has been declared a UNESCO world heritage site. We stayed at Straits Heritage, a boutique hotel that was once a shop house but is now a renovated heritage home. We visited temples, a famous hotel (Eastern & Oriental), the Clan Jetties and even caught a movie (the Hobbit) while we were there.