Almost at the end

I am so sorry I have been so behind on updating this blog.

My China trip was... well, it was hard. I got sick twice. I helped with the music, though I'm not sure how much of a help I truly was. I sang a lot, ate a lot of good home cooked Chinese food, climbed to the top of a pagoda, and I found a love for tea eggs.

China was hard. I really, really was unhappy there, to the point of wanting nothing more than to come home. Thankfully, by the last day, my mood went up. Probably because I was leaving, but I had fun at least! I shared a room with Laura and one of our Chinese helpers, Mandy. We talked in the evenings (at least when I was not ill!), and it was quite fun. Being sick really took the wind out of my sails, so to speak, and I think that contributed greatly to my depression. Two of my other team members also fell ill, Luke and Kristen. I was the only one who fell ill twice. :(

On our last day in China, I got a massage with the rest of the team. I chose a foot massage, since I don't like massages at all and thought a body would be too close for comfort. Little did I know the foot massage involved shoulders and back, and that the masseuse would pound on me! I should have asked for the lady to be gentler, but I was too busy trying not to cry from pain! I hurt for two days afterwards. The only part I really liked was soaking my feet in the tub and getting my feet and legs wrapped in hot, wet towels.

As far as teaching, it was okay. We taught ages 5-18! The younger kids were eager to follow along actions, while sometimes the middle kids were disinterested. The older kids, it was harder to get them interested in younger songs, so we had to switch it up. I am so grateful to Laura for being so inventive and encouraging. She was great! I felt pretty bad compared to her, but I hope I helped in some small way.

It was hard, because there were a lot of rules we had to follow in China. We had to be careful what we said in emails, and even what we said in the streets. IN the church, where we lived, we could say anything. That was better. :D And our helpers, Mandy, Hilda, and Gloria were wonderful. We went to Hot Pot one night, and it was significantly better than my first experience! It made me want to go again. :D

Coming back from China was such a relief for me. In China, we had to climb five or six flights of stairs to get to our rooms! I sure missed being on the second floor, and our elevator. It was like coming home to see our PRIVATE common room!

While China was the worst part of this trip so far... the best was BY FAR the past two weeks. I ended up being Kristen's aide. We taught P1 and P2, which is essentially 1st and 2nd grade. The children were SO adorable. I had such a good time. I helped Kristen keep order by going around and shushing kids and helping them with their writing or if they needed to go to the toilet or something. The relief I felt after the first day was so immense. I finally felt like I was really doing something. Like I finally found what I was good at, and what I came to Hong Kong to do.

The past two weeks was amazing. It really was. I finally felt like I'd grown. I've changed, I can tell. I'm more comfortable with myself. I've discovered my boundaries, and I've come to realize that I am a much stronger person than I ever thought. God's grace has shone so strongly on me that I was in a constant good mood for a week and a half. Which, considering how up and down I've been on this trip, was amazing! The work was hard,a s keeping children's attention for two and a half hours is difficult, but I loved the work. I really think I could be a teacher's aide in the future. I enjoyed working with Kristen SO much, and I just loved the kids.

There was a lot of difficulty with the language barrier, as our children didn't know much English, but when Kristen and I realized they were actually retaining what she taught them, it was an AWESOME moment. It was very fulfilling.

And then, MANDY came to visit us! It was amazing, because while we talked in HK, we REALLY got to talk Friday night when we went to the beach after our farewell dinner. It was great. :D

My birthday was on Saturday. As a celebration, the girls had Henna done by a very nice lady who moved here 13 years ago. She did an amazing job, and it was so fun, if hot and sunny!

Rebecca and Laura left this morning, and it was very sad. I ended up crying. :( Luke and Mandy leave tomorrow, and then Kristen, Adam, and I all leave on Tuesday.

It was such a wonderful trip. I think it was the most important experience I've had in my life so far. God really taught me a lot, and I've learned so much. I think I've grown as a person, learning how to live as God wants me to be. I'm so happy with where my life is going, and I am very blessed.

Pictures!

More Pictures!

Busy

I'm sorry for the lack of updates. Things here have been... crazier than I ever bargained for. Emotionally draining is putting it very lightly!

Hopefully tomorrow I can post up a bunch of pictures and bring everyone more up to speed! I spent 10 exhausting days in China (including getting sick twice), and we saw some pretty cool places. Now we're just finishing up our last assignment at LCK. I'm helping Kristen teach the six and seven year olds, and I'm loving it!

Pictures to come!

Sorry for the lack of updates.

Things have been extremely stressful, and I haven't found much I really want to talk about. I do have some pictures to post, although i haven't taken any in over a week, at least not with my digital.

Maybe I'll find time soon, I don't know.

Videos of the Star Ferry and Peak Tram

A Tour of Hong Kong

Yesterday was crazy insane! My students picked me up at Siu Leun School at 8:30 and from then on it was just non-stop motion I got to ride the MTR to Kowloon, where the first place we went was the Hong Kong History Museum. It was really cool, because I got to learn more about the history of the place. The students were very enthusiastic about me taking pictures, otherwise I probably wouldn't have taken as many as I did in various places. I'm very bad sometimes at starting conversations with people I don't know well, but the boys in particular would explain various things to me about the exhibits and things like that.

After the history museum, we walked around Kowloon which seemed to be forever, looking at the clock tower near the Star Ferry and all that. The Star Ferry was pretty cool, but definitely not as cool as the Peak Tram. When we got to Hong Kong Island, we went to Man Mo Temple, which is a cool Buddhist Temple. No photography was allowed inside, though. There were a couple actors and a video camera filming a TV show, at least that's what one of the girls said. After that we walked around in the Western Market in Central. It was just what I imagined a Hong Kong Market to look like, lots of stuff on tables in the alleyways. Except there was a lot more hills than I bargained for!

We ate lunch at this neat ourdoors place, and I got chicken sausage and noodles, which to me looked (and tasted) exactly like a hot dog in a bowl of ramen. Considering I like hot dogs and I like ramen, I wasn't disappointed. I dropped one of my chopsticks even before getting it into the bowl so the waitress brought me a fork. I just rolled with it. :D

After that we went to St. John's Cathedral (i fail again at getting pictures, but it was a nice Western Church. I liked the stained glass). Then we did my favorite part. We went onto the Peak Tram up to the Peak. It was so fun going up on the tram, and it was much cooler at the top. We looked around the gift shop for a bit then went to look outside onto all of Hong Kong. I wish I could see it at night, I bet it's completely gorgeous.

After walking around the peak for awhile, we went back down by minibus, which was a fun experience. The bus driver is totally hardcore, let me say, or "very strong" as the Chinese say. We ate dinner inside, thankfully, which was similar to lunch. Hot dog pieces (though very tasty sausage!) in A VERY DELICIOUS soup. I didn't even eat half of it, though. I guess I'm not used to eating Chinese portions, not that I eat much at home either. The kids taught me to use chopsticks properly, and they applauded when I managed to pick up noodles.

Then they all wrote their Facebook information down for me, and presented me with some gifts. They bought me a little Luck Charm, which is basically a little stuffed red pillow with the Chinese symbol for "Luck" sewn on it with a tassel and some jade beads. They also gave me a pretty fan, which will be nice in the hot outside, and a postcard with a very sweet message written onto it. I was very happy, and touched that they would think of me.

They brought me back to the school, where I was only the second one to get back at 9:15 PM! It was a very long day for everyone, and I got sunburned, but I got to see a lot of Hong Kong.

And then I slept very, very well from all that walking!

Very, very picture heavy!

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Reminiscences of Summer Camp

Yesterday really took it out of me. It was a lot of fun thought! We went to the YMCA here, which was pretty cool. We got to the gymnasium with 600 loud teenagers. Well, this was after we walked half a mile to a shopping mall for Starbucks only to find out there was no Starbucks in said mall, so we went to 7-11 which was right down the road from the YMCA. You can't tell me I'm not getting my exercise here!

Anyway, we got back and listened to some other musicians sing and play before Lynnette introduced us. It was kind of like a rockstar introduction. Lots of loud music and running on stage and jumping around. It was really fun. We taught the kids some songs with hand motions. Old camp standbys like "Praise Ye the Lord" and "Lord I Lift Your Name on High." There were a couple other songs we sang that I hadn't heard of before the night before. "I'm Trading My Sorrows" and "Blessed be Your Name." Since I can sing, I was handed a microphone. I wasn't sure on the melodies of the latter two, but I just made it up as I go. I was pretty sure the kids wouldn't know the difference. It was a lot of fun though there was a lot of jumping around. It reminded me very strongly of being a camp counselor.

Several students then took us around the campus, showing us around. One of the boys who walked with us is in my tour group tomorrow, so it was very nice that I got to talk to him more. At one point, Luke, Adam, myself, and to of the boys were talking about deer hunting. For like half an hour. It was pretty funny. When we were walking back to the canteen, the boys asked us if we liked computer games. I said I liked Playstation more, which they thought was pretty cool, and asked which game. When I said Final Fantasy... well, let's just say that it was the most enthusiastic reaction I've ever had to guys finding out I'm a gamer (seriously, they have nothing on the gamers I know). It was pretty funny.

After dinner, we took a nice long bus ride home. I was VERY tired from being in a group of 600 people for a few hours (they played games for awhile before our YMCA tour), so I spent the ride home praying and reflecting on the day. It was really nice to kind of be by myself in my own head. I'm very much an introvert, and it's very tiring on me to be around people all the time.

I went to bed somewhat early last night, and got up at 6:30, which is my standard time, apparently. We got dressed and waved at the children coming into the Siu Luen school. It was the last day of school, so the younger grades (2nd and 3rd grades, I believe) had sort of game days. I helped with Megan and Adam with the music, and coloring little booklets in the Gospel Colors. It was a LOT of fun. The little children were very cute, and I'd say they have almost as high a level in English as I do of German, only with a larger vocabulary. Speaking of which, I need to start reading German websites again. I'm REALLY lacking in my vocab, and I probably couldn't carry on a conversation about something other than the weather or my hobbies anymore.

I sadly didn't get a lot of pictures since I left my camera in my room, but it's not a big deal.

This evening, we had a barbecue in the pits by the beach, since it wasn't nearly as busy on a Wednesday night. It was SO MUCH FUN. At first I was kind of leery of the food since it was mostly pork chops and chicken wings, and I'm not fond of either. But I busted out the cheesy weenies (which were really good!) and barbecued some bread (also really good!) and we had a wonderful time. We all got to hang out and talk. It was just a good ol' Lutheran barbecue with good meat and beer. At one point the six of us and Adam's friend Brittany (she's lived in Hong Kong for 9 years! She goes to Concordia Seward though) went down to the beach to dip our feet and hang out in the sand for a bit.

I had way more fun than I thought I would. I didn't have BAD expectations, I'm just not a barbecue person. I'm glad my expectations were wrong.

Tomorrow is my tour! And Friday Brittany's taking us clubbing, Hong Kong style. :D It should be a good time! I really want to go to the Russian Bar and get in touch with my roots. If I do I promise to get a picture of me in a fur coat. :D

PICTURES!

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First Day of "real" work

Yesterday, we went to the secondary school to sit with some Form 6 students (essentially twelfth graders) and talk to them about Hong Kong to give them a chance to converse in English. They're taking us around Hong Kong on Thursday, each of us with a group of about 8 students. I was really nervous talking to them, and they were a bit nervous too, so we were kind of awkward, but I think on Thursday it'll be easier making conversation when there's more stimulation and things to point at and ask about. At one point the boys asked me, "Which of these three ladies (the 3 girls in our group) do you think is the most attractive?" and the girls were like, "NO, which of the boys?!" And I said, "I'm not answering that question!" with a smile. It was pretty funny. They also asked if I had a boyfriend. They also asked if I was a Christian or Catholic.

I answered that I was a Christian, and a Lutheran (their school has Lutheran in the name, and even though they take religion classes, a lot of them aren't Christians).

After that, we invited some of the students to go to lunch with us, and about 8 of them took us to their favorite Indian restaurant. The waitress brought out glasses of water for everyone, and the Americans, being used to this at home, all promptly took a drink or two (or downed the whole glass). The Hong Kongers didn't say anything, so we were just chilling and talking about what we should order (I got the beef curry and actually bit the bullet and got sprite because they gave us the fishy tap water). When our food came out, one of the boy dipped his silverware (we had forks and spoons) into the glass, and then the other students started grabbing our silverware and dipping it into their glasses (not ours, by the way). All the Americans were just like, "Uhm... whoops". That was our first major gaffe. :-P No one said anything so it was even funnier when we realized we all drank dishwater.

In the evening, we went out for a welcome dinner. I was under the impression that it was going to be a big event, with a lot of administrators and stuff, but it was our group, the GEOs and the Seminarian Adam, Ken and Monica (the couple that picked us up from the airport), Albert (who is the only sarcastic Chinese man I've met), and a translator and teacher, Mary. It was a very swanky place, and it turned out everything had some form of seafood in it (I only eat fish). I got extremely embarrassed because everyone was making a big deal about me not eating, and I'm used to everyone just kind of not paying attention or not caring. When they finally served fish, Mary gave me practically half the thing. She also gave me both of the fish cheeks. Giving someone a fish cheek means your honoring them, and giving me BOTH of them was a very big deal. And I felt horrible because I could barely eat any of the fish (though it was quite delicious) because eating fish scales is almost on par with eating mushrooms for me. It just FREAKS me out. I've been trying a lot of new things here, but some things I just can't get over my inhibitions. I'll try very hard when we go out on Thursday, if for no other reason than to entertain my students by an American trying things that are totally normal to them but crazy to us.

They also, thankfully, had fried rice so I was a happy camper. They also had fruit slices (dragonfruit, kiwi, oranges, and watermelon, so I was even happier. I love dragonfruit!) for dessert, and these weird jelly coated egg custards, which weren't too good. At least not nearly as good as the egg custard we had at yum cha.

In the taxi on the way home, Victor, the team leader of my group of students called me to tell me he was picking me up at 8:30 here at this school. He told me some other stuff but I didn't get it and I don't like talking on the phone at home, even. He sent me a text message soon after (but I missed it until this morning), telling me that they're all eating breakfast beforehand (I eat breakfast at 7 here so I'm good). I tried to reply, but either the phones they gave us don't support text messaging, or his phone or something was unavailable, so I couldn't get it through.

In a great twist of fate, I was the first in bed as opposed to the last, and I crashed pretty early. I don't know if it's the heat combined with walking everywhere and not eating much, but I've been sleeping like a baby these past several nights. Or it could be the fact that I've finally hit my real circadian rhythm? At home I never sleep well, and here I've just been falling asleep with no problems. I don't know the reason, but I'm certainly not complaining.

Shrimp salad. The little orange beads on the top are crab roe. No thank you.

My place setting. That green colored drink tasted like jolly ranchers, it was so awesome.

Mr. Grouper! (Pronounced 'GA ROUP AH!!!). I wish I would have gotten the chicken head they had in the next course. :P

Rebecca, Laura, Me, and Kristen. Please ignore my awful hair. Monica took these last three pictures.

I'm actually not too bad with chopsticks when I try. That thing was slippery and gelatinous (it also tasted pretty icky. Not offensive, just icky).

Ugh, awful hair.

Church, Travel, and the Fourth of July

Happy Independence Day (again) to all the Americans reading this! Which, I suppose, is everyone (except maybe Jess!). Today was incredibly eventful. I woke up at 6 and worked on my paper journal. I also chatted with several people, as it's the best time to get a hold of all my friends. Mom and I figured out we should Skype (which I'm looking forward to in an hour and a half or so), and we drew silly pictures on the chalkboard in our common room.

We all got prettied up for church, which is on the first floor of the building we're living in. Keep in mind that this is the British version of naming floors, which means that the first floor over here would be equivalent to the second floor in America. So we just had to go down the stairs and there we were for church!

It's almost entirely in Chinese, and we had a couple translators to help us understand what was being said. The order of the liturgy is the same at home, which was a great comfort. I can't imagine not having the Lutheran liturgy. It's such a part of my life; it's something I've always known. It's how I worship, and I wouldn't want it any other way. We sang hymns in English while the Chinese people sang in Cantonese. It didn't sound the best, but we made it work. I can't go to a church service and not sing. I mean, I'm Lutheran after all! During the sermon, all of us short term missionaries headed out to the children's church. It's kind of like at Good Shepherd, when all the children are invited to the narthex with the non-preaching pastor to hear a simplified version of the sermon with a song. Lynnette, one of the GEO's, gave the lesson on becoming Fishers of Men, which was what the Gospel reading was. The kids were very cute, and it was nice to see how to run a Bible study here with the children. We sang a bunch of songs I remember from my preschool days, with "Oh the Lord is good to me" changed so "and the apple seed" became "and the rice paddy". The kids did a little craft, and then we headed back into the church for the rest of the service. We were introduced to the congregation, which was pretty cool.

This may sound kind of strange, but I was expecting everyone to mispronounce my name. I mean, I've had other foreigners mispronounce "Catherine" because the 'th' sound is non-existent in many languages. However, the Chinese who have said my name kind of say it "Cathreen", with the 'th' and everything. It's pretty interesting how my preconceived notion was so wrong. I suppose it's because a lot of these people might have learned English when they were very young, when it's easier to learn different sounds they might otherwise not be exposed to.

After church, we went back to the Chinese restaurant Rachel and Roper took us to our first day. I ordered the same thing, and Adam and I came to the conclusion that it's our new comfort food. Fried chicken and ramen noodles. Something I can always fall back on.

We hung around the school for a bit, including the little garden inside the gate we use to get in and out.

After that, Roper took us to the shopping center further away, which is pretty much a set of maze-like interconnecting malls and a bigger grocery store. It was pretty crazy packed, kind of like America on Black Friday. We happened upon a stage set up, with microphones, people in folding chairs, and several cameras, including a video camera. We couldn't understand what was going on, but we thought it might be a debate. Luke asked a man if he spoke English, and the man explained that they were going to be talking about government retirement benefits, so either it was a debate on the subject or some press conference, but we're leaning to the former. We talked with the nice man a bit more, explaining what the heck a group of westerners were doing in Tuen Mun. He was really surprised, even with the fact that we were teaching in the schools in the area, that we were actually living in Tuen Mun while we worked here. That makes sense, really, with how completely out of place we are here. I'm getting used to it, but every now and again something like this will happen to remind me that westerners don't ever come to Tuen Mun except as English teachers. It's very obvious who we are in this area, so we have to be even more careful about what we do or say.

I don't mind that, not really. If you think about it, one should ALWAYS act as if people knew exactly who one was or what one represented. I wear a cross; I should always be cognizant of the fact that simply by wearing that I am automatically assigned certain expectations and I should do my best to be a living, walking witness in my daily life. I admit that this is a poorly run aspect of my life. I'm not perfect, no one ever is. But hopefully, with this reinforcement, I can come home and be far more aware of how my actions affect people. I'll be around people who look like me, but I can still be a witness for the Lord.

We happened upon a bakery, and Roper bought a cake (which we haven't eaten yet) for our Fourth of July celebration. I bought a green tea sponge cake, which was VERY good (I fear future visits. It's not expensive, but I didn't come to Hong Kong to eat sweets all the time!), and some sort of pastry with "watermelon paste" that I might try tomorrow for breakfast. After that, we grabbed some bubble tea (though I opted for strawberry green tea), and we all swapped a sip of flavors. The only one I didn't like was the vanilla milk bubble. The others made me want to drink the whole cup! And at around $1.29 in American dollars, you can bet we'll be going back a lot. I heard it's like $4 in the States, so we were really excited.

We came back, having an adventure on the light rail system. The octopus cards are the greatest thing ever. You don't even have to take it out of your wallet to scan the microchip.

When we got back, Roper ordered pizza from Pizza Hut for our INdependence Day celebration. Lynnette, Megan, and another Adam (we call him the "other Adam" and he's actually in Seminary in STL right now!) came to celebrate with us. Pizza Hut in Hong Kong is JUST like in the States, so it was a nice slice of home (and I just realized that bad pun, forgive me). Except they have seafood pizza. Which... yeah, no. Not going to try it.

Megan then gave us a crash course in EFL teaching, which was VERY helpful. I learned a lot I was worried about, so I'm quite happy about preparing now. Still nervous, but I have more of a feel of what I'm to be doing. Then we had cake that Megan brought, and we sang the Star Spangled Banner together as we cut it. The only thing that would have made it better was if we could have had some sparklers. But all kinds of fireworks are illegal here, so it was a no go. After that, we had another crash course from Lynnette on the mass transit system. I'm still horribly confused, but hopefully after I ride it a couple times I'll figure out what it is I'll be doing. I don't plan on going anywhere by myself o it, so I'll be fine.

After all of that, we had a devotion, talking about the Bible verse from church, and each of us explained how we got into the mission field in the first place. It was very nice, hearing everyone else's story and sharing my own. It's kind of strange, because I"m a bit older than the others, but it's not like I"m a decade older or anything. This is very much a "college age" trip (with the exception of Roper and Rachel), I've noticed. Very interesting.

And here I am, updating my blog and waiting for mom to come home from church so we can skype.

And as always, click the link below for more pictures! Oh, and you can always click on the picture to view a larger version.

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I which I try a lot of new things and reverted back to my old eating habits after awhile...

Today was quite an adventure, let me tell you! I woke up around 6 AM, wide awake, so I got up and hopped on my computer and started IMing with several of my friends back home, where it was around 5 PM. I talked a bit more with Laura and Rebecca, who had arrived with Luke last night. I met two of the GEO missionaries, Megan and Lynette, and we kind of went over some orientation. We learned a lot about etiquette with eating, conversation, and things like that. It was fascinating, and pretty helpful.

Today was the Siu Leun school's graduation, and the president of the Lutheran Church Hong Kong Synod was here. After the graduation, we got to meet him and chat a bit. It was very cool. He said that because of the GEO missionaries and our presence here, enrollment in the school is going up quite a bit! I knew western English speakers were pretty important here, but I never realized just how much influence simply being here would have. It's pretty remarkable, actually. I am so grateful to be given this opportunity to serve the Lord. I can't wait to really get started, to teach English and interact with the children and young adults.

After we met Rev. Yung, Ken, Albert, and the GEO  missionaries took us to lunch at a rather nice restaraunt, for yam cha. I tried a lot of the food, and it was extremely delicious. It's nothing like American Chinese food, and I even found myself eating barbecue pork, and I am NOT a pork fan. There was a very good brown sugar bread that made me want to ask the recipe to send to Dad. :D It was soft and quite good. I tried several new things, many of which I don't even remember, and ate more than I have in a long time at one meal. Megan, who sat next to me, poured me tea a lot. In Chinese culture, you must pour tea for someone else before you pour tea for yourself. It was Jasmine tea, and it was better than almost anything I've had in the States. I wasn't at all opposed to drinking cup after cup after cup. They're tiny cups, not like American coffee mugs, so it wasn't too terribly bad. I hope!

We also got to ride in a taxi and take the mass transit home. I just want to say that the Octopus Card is absolutely brilliant. You don't even have to take it out of your wallet, due to the microchip. You just put it up against the scanner and you're good!

After lunch, we showed the new arrivals the grocery store and laundry. We did some more grocery shopping, and I decided to be adventurous and I bought some drink that I totally didn't know what it was. It's like, Mandarin and Plum juice, only not like American juice. It's very hard to describe the taste, but I do like it. I also bought some tea from a tea shop. The owner is a mother of one of the students at this school. She recommended a multi-pack of tea in the cutest little tins. So I bought it, since it was pretty cheap. $28HKD, or around $3.59. It's loose tea, and I haven't found a diffuser yet, so I bought some bagged tea at the store as well.

After that, we headed to the beach where I dipped in my toes, and we walked around this park-like area. It was very beautiful. We then headed back to get dinner with Roper and Rachel, where we went to have Hot Pot. I... didn't like it. At all. I did try a pot-sticker like dumpling and it was good, but then I grabbed one with shrimp and it was all over. I can't stand shrimp, and it's in everything here! I tried a couple other things, but I just couldn't really acclimate them to my palate. So I just kind of sat there, drinking honey green tea and not eating much of anything. I was strongly reminded of my inclinations when I was in High School. I remember many a time when I would go out to dinner and not eat anything. Oh well, at least I tried, right? My camera battery died during our walk, so I couldn't take any pictures of the huge shrimp at Hot Pot. Oh well. It's charging now so I'll take lots of photos tomorrow.

Church at Holy Word, in Chinese. We'll have a translator, but sometimes you can't hear. Hopefully it won't be too bad.

Since it's the American Independence day tomorrow, we plan on getting Pizza and totally celebrating. :D We'll be celebrating before most of you are waking up, though! Hopefully I can post some pictures in the evening, when you all are waking up, so you can get in the Independence Day mood. ;-)

Pictures!

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A new day... here at least

My first full day in Hong Kong was full of excitement and a bit of tiredness. Kristen and I were a bit bored by ourselves so we went out on the town to check out what was around. We crossed the train tracks and ended up on a strip of stores. We looked around and got a feel for everything. There were American convenience stores, like 7-11 and Circle K, as well as a couple bakeries and several, several noodle shops and tiny Hong Kong style diners. We also ended up in a shopping center of some kind, where we wandered around looking at what kind of stores they had. A lot of clothing stores, for the most part.

It's amazing to see how much stuff these stores can cram into their tiny spaces. The stores are less than half the size of mall stores in America, and they just put stuff on the floor all the way up to the ceiling, with very little room to walk.

We got back to the room and chilled until Rachel, Roper, and Adam came back, and then Rachel and Roper treated us to lunch at a nearby Japanese restaurant. I had fried chicken and ramen, and it was so much better than the ramen you can get in the states. Not surprisingly! Roper showed us the grocery store, where Adam, Kristen and I stocked up liberally on juice and American cereal. They do have several American brands here, but I've noticed that a small box of cereal can be quite pricey. My somewhat small box of Rice Krispies was around $35HKD, which is $4.50USD.

Rachel showed me where to drop off laundry. It's right under the shopping center that we got groceries and lunch at, and the best part is it's a genuine Asian market, right down to the fish stalls and fruit everywhere. I wish I would have had my camera, but I'm a bit shy of taking pictures of people in a neighborhood that obviously never sees tourists. We've gotten a few stares, especially Tayten, Rachel and Roper's little girl. She has beautiful blonde curly hair and it's not common here at all.

After a bit of downtime, Rachel showed us the beach, which was small, and nothing compared to the pacific or gulf beaches (before the oil spill :-( ) in the States. But it'll be fun to go out and look for shells and try the water. I'm not a swimming person, but it looks fun. We grabbed lunch in one of the dinky restaurants. We chose one that had clear pictures, and managed to communicate with hand signs and the couple words the lady knew. I decided to be very brave and order something without knowing what was in it. I'm a very cautious eater. Some things I won't consider (mushrooms, tuna that I haven't opened myself, pork), but I figured that if I'm in Hong Kong, and in an area that isn't as Americanized as Hong Kong Island, I have at least stick my neck out a little!

The low mein wasn't very good, but I ended up getting fried fish! It's NOTHING like Long John Silver's back home. This tastes like fish. And I actually managed to like it! I don't know if I'd order it again for the noodles, but at least I know one thing that I like here.

Rebecca, Laura, and Luke got in later that night and I didn't get much of a chance to talk as they were as tired as I was when I got in. Like back home, I didn't get really tired until after Midnight (and didn't go to sleep til after 1:30). I woke up a bit earlier than I usually do at home (My body wakes me up around 8 when I'm at home), since I got up at 6. But it's very peaceful this morning, with the birds singing. The other girls are all up, and we're typing away on our computers. Not a lot of people are online, as I'm wondering if some are off at dinner or are busy with jobs or something. It's hard, getting ahold of family and friends when my time is so opposite theirs. But email is amazing, and I've caught several people on AIM and Facebook chat.

Now, time for the pictures!

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Good Morning from Hong Kong!

It's 7:27 PM on July 1st back home, but it's 8:27 AM on July 2nd here!

I got a wonderful night's sleep on some Barbie bedcovers. The room is well air-conditioned, and the streets weren't too loud. I woke up around 5AM, stuck my iPod earbuds in my ear, and crashed out for another two hours. I'm awake and in a good mood now, and excited to get started on this little adventure. After some fiddling with the power cord adapters and a 'duh' moment of forgetting to switch on the socket outlet, I'm updating this little' ol' blog.

We have our own little drawers in the kitchen for our own food (I put my medicine in there and my nutrigrain bars until Kristen and I can go shopping).

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Safe and Sound

After waking up around 5 AM on June 30th in Chicago, I am now here twenty-eight hours later, still awake in Hong Kong at 9:41 PM local time.

I'm kind of addled right now. Sheesh.

The flight to Newark was totally uneventful. The flight to Hong Kong was... ugh. Sixteen hours on a plane is not fun, no matter what. It was a sizable plane so it wasn't like, all cramped. But I would have given a LOT to have been in a window seat. Not so I could look out, but so I could lean against the wall of the plane.

I don't really sleep sitting up. I barely sleep lying down as it is, and this whole thing was just bad news. Ugh Ugh Ugh. We got lots of food on the flight, at least. Ginger beef and rice with a salad for dinner (the dressing was mustard dijon stuff, which if you know me, is not what I like to eat, so I skipped salad). An enchilada and ice cream was a "snack" (guess who skipped ice cream? I don't relish being ill stuck in an airplane in the middle seat). And then we got breakfast, which I barely ate any because I was so tired. I watched two and a half movies, because I wasn't thrilled with the choices. What can I say, I'm picky.

However, one nice thing about the flight was the sweet Chinese lady who sat next to me. She didn't speak English, and I don't speak Chinese, but we managed to communicate a bit with hand motions and smiles. She shared her shortbread cookies with me, which was just awesome. I made sure to thank her, and smile as we left the plane.

I forgot to buy an adapter for my laptop, but luckily they're less than 2 dollars here, so I'll be golden once I find the market. I have my octopus card (which is essentially a bus pass) and I've already got $230HKD exchanged. I was going to write on the plane but I was just bleeeeech. As I'm sure you all can imagine.

I only got one picture, and it's the view from the balcony on the second floor, where are rooms are. It's very blurry because I was in a hurry, but enjoy it nonetheless!

I am cold and full of yummy stuffed pizza.

My parents and I reached Chicago safe and sound. We decided to get, of course, the famous Chicago stuffed pizza for dinner, at a swingin' (well, not really) little place nearby called Nancy's. Very delicious, and I can feel my arteries clogging already from all that greasy, delicious cheese.

While we were piling in the car, we saw this cluster of signs.



I didn't even notice the typo until my dad asked, "Does cigarettes have two 'r's?"

Good times, Chicago, good times.

It's also COLD here. My poor little St. Louis heart can't take it. Well, okay, it's in the seventies, but when you're used to like 60% humidity with temps in the 80's or 90's.... you catch my drift.

Getting ready

I have a doc appointment later, and I have a bunch of little things to do before I leave, chiefly making sure I have all the clothes I'll need. Hong Kong is a sub tropical climate, and I'm not fond of shorts, so I have quite a few pairs of dress and linen pants.

The problem is I'm all of five feet tall, and no one makes clothes for 5 feet tall women with HIPS (Petites aren't even short enough for me sometimes, and they fit weird anyway).

Pants waiting to be hemmed (bonus shot of my Nintendo DS!). It stinks sometimes being a Shorty McSmallsperson.

New Blog, Wee!

This is my new blog to talk about all my adventures and day-to-day drudgery for my trip to Hong Kong. *waves*

I figure it's better to have this all in one central place instead of posting stuff on facebook, forums, and livejournal seperately. So yay, cohesiveness! Bookmark and keep up with the awesomeness.