The first week of a new term is always exciting as we all catch up with each other after our winter travels.  For me, the week was even busier than previous years because several factors came together in a rush.  For example, 5th January was the deadline for staff applications for two positions which become vacant in September, so much of my time was spent analysing and short-listing applicants for interview, with some interviews scheduled to occur as early as next week.  Compounding this, there is now a new earlier cutoff date by which Hong Kong students applying for entry to United World Colleges in September 2007 must apply; in the past this was the end of February but it is now the end of December.  Therefore, much of the week was spent starting to short-list students from the 500 or so applications received.  Another factor contributing to my busy week was development of the new staff contract which the Board has been working on for some time; the final draft was received from the lawyers this week, and delivery resulted in some last minute polishing before being released to the staff for consultation, hopefully early next week.  And as well as all these tasks, there were the usual numbers of classes to teach, letters to write, forms to sign, and so on.

In the midst of all this busy-ness, it was the contact with my students and my staff that - as always - brought the most joy.  Di and I welcomed staff back to the new term by hosting a dinner in our home on Monday night, and this was a great time for relaxing together, laughing together, and of course, eating together.  Then, on Wednesday evening, we hosted my tutor group for a belated Christmas dinner, also in our home (as seen in this week’s two photos), featuring turkey, roast vegetables and plum pudding, followed afterwards by secret santa gifts.  It was a wonderful evening, and I was delegated the task of doing all the students’ evening check-in so that the fun could continue well after the normal cutoff-time.

Our tutor group has decided that our next dinner together will be a pizza and video night.  I have chosen a super-special Australian comedy movie to share - I can’t wait!  I do hope that the students in my tutor group can handle the high level of sophistication of Australian comedy - we’ll all know in a couple of weeks time :-)