weekend in HK

The ache in my chest is much better...still a bit sore though. Maybe delayed exhaustion from the heat.

L. and I spent the weekend in Hong Kong. The train transportation between GZ and HK rocks! It was a very comfortable ride, to and from.

Once in, we breezed through customs and took public transportation (another easy mode of transportation around HK) to the JHF office to pick up information about staying at the flat. We shared it with another JHF associate, B., who, with his family, lives in Xiamen. He's lived here since 1988 with his wife and two sons. His sons are teens and speak Chinese fluently. He is very enthusiastic about Xiamen and welcomed us over numerous times.

The first day (i.e. Friday) - we walked to a sandwich shop for dinner. I wasn't too hungry, opting for a bowl of clam chowder (which wasn't that great), and L. for a toasted turkey sandwich. (You don't get turkey on the mainland - well, not cheap anyway).

Saturday - starting early this afternoon, L. and I went through all the places that we went to the first time we met each other over a year ago. It was fun to reminisce about that day. We took a ferry ride to the HK island, went to Taco Loco for lunch, visited Starbucks and HMV, and took the ferry ride back to Kowloon. We rode the moving sidewalks up to Taco Loco and walked back down, like we did last year. We stopped by to buy a few groceries (just a few...very expensive here) before heading back to the transit flat to rest. Hong Kong is a busy, dense, crowded city with a rhythm that tends to drain me as well as intrigue me. L. likes it because it is a change of pace from the mainland. We later went to Yoshinoya's for dinner.

Sunday - the rain really poured this morning! L. and I ran through it to catch a bus for church. After the service, a couple folks, B. L. and I went to a nearby buffet for lunch. We just relaxed in the flat (due to the rain) till dinner and then went to a nearby mall, which served Indian food. It is about a 30-story office building with a pretty amazing mall inside. It contained a high ceiling and the 2 longest escalators I'd ever ridden on. Stairs and stores wound around the escalators in a "spiral" fashion. The whole place was very non-symmetrical, very 21st century. The ceiling was lit up sky-blue with wispy white cloud-like images, like the ceilings in some of the hotel-malls in Las Vegas. Large TV screens played bright commercial images. We bought food at the food court there (L. didn't approve of the "indian" food, so she had some Thai, I got the Indian) and took it home to eat.

Monday - we headed back home today, since I have my class this evening. The train ride took us through a violent rainstorm, which we later learned killed a couple of people in HK. We were served a cool drink on board and slept most of the way. Upon getting to the station, I picked up a few blank entry cards, since it had Chinese and English on it, thinking it'd be a good learning tool for the English class.

On my way to class (L. was feeling a bit out of it, so she stayed home), I dropped by a nearby barber shop to give the promised Bible and Dad's letter to "C". He was there, along with most of his family in their shop. They were very friendly and invited me to sit and chat. I didn't say too much, not knowing what to say. I did notice that 5-6 people gathered intently around the Bible, looking through it and reading Dad's letter. They seemed quite curious about it. I asked if they wanted more copies, but they said it was enough to share. I wish I could follow up with them somehow to see if they had any questions. I left wondering if it'd be a good idea to drop by again.

Bon Voyage

We woke around 5 pm to get ready to go with Mom, Dad, J. and the kids to the airport. We took two taxis. Mom, H, P, and I rode in one, the rest rode in the other. We packed a suitcase filled with things we wouldn't be using in India or China. It was a good thing we called for two taxis (originally, L. and I weren't sure we'd be going), because they ended up needing the space to pack everything.

We thought we'd be able to spend some time with them before saying goodbye, but we no sooner got off the taxi and rolled into the airport when we said goodbye, gave hugs/kisses, and saw our family set off through the no-visitors gate to international check-in, which was right by the entrance into the airport. It was pretty fast. We left our place around 6:00 a.m., arrived at the airport by 6:30 and said goodbye before 6:45...

We hoped to take the airport express back into the city, but it wouldn't start running until 7 a.m., so L. and I wandered around the relatively quiet terminal before catching the (as usual) delayed express. It was 8:30 am by the time we got back - at least we saved money?

I wasn't feeling that good, achy in my chest and sleepy, so I took a nap. L. was more productive, using the time to clean the apartments (ours and the one the family stayed in), do laundry, etc. I woke up 7 hours later, still a bit groggy, but stable. I'm still reeling from the fever, it appears. We passed the time finishing up the laundry and watching "Finding Nemo" on DVD. By then, a fierce thunderstorm had rolled in. It rained something hard around midnight. It amazed me to see that some restaurants below us were still open for business, weathering the storm. No one appeared to be patronizing them during that late, wet night during school break and few students around, so it puzzled me why they stayed open. Who knows, maybe there were folks crazy enough to venture out in the madness for a bite to eat. We went to bed, still amazed that I could still sleep.

Last full day...

I felt a little better today. I spent the morning with Dad to visit the Dr. Sun-Yat Sen memorial. Dad really looks up to Dr. Sun, which made the trip there worthwhile to be spending a morning and part of the afternoon learning about his inspiration. It was warm, overcast, and raining slightly towards the end. We also stopped by a park. The kids would've enjoyed the paddleboats and the fishes. We went to the Five-Goat Statue and the Five-Fairy Statue (there's a legend in GZ that these celestial goats and fairies promised the people of GZ good crops 2000 years ago, which is why they are honored). Lots of folks gathered to do exercises, tai-chi, ballroom dancing, and kicking around a Chinese hacky-sack with feathers ("jin-zhi", I hear they're called).

Mom and J. and the girls went shopping for some last minute bargains before doing the final packing. (L. stayed home and rested). We'd hoped to watch "Mary Poppins" with the kids, but as soon as we found the DVD, the power went out. It remained out for about 3 hours this evening. We also wanted to have an early b'day celebration for R. (since she's to turn 3 in a few days), but due to the power cut, we blew out the candles in the dark. It was fun for the kids...just had a bit of a challenge with the cameras.

another nasty day

Both of us had a 101 temperature this morning and felt pretty lousy with colds, plus L. still has her nasty cough. We stayed at home pretty much the whole day, drinking liquids and cooling down the fever, which for me had gotten back to normal by the afternoon, but L's went up to 102. H. and P. are much better today as well as mom and dad and surprisingly J. and R. have not caught whatever bug is going around.

Not a good start to a "holiday" but perhaps it's better than working for L.

finally...a break

We woke up to the sound of heavy rain and loud thunder. It cleared the smog so much that we could see Bai Yun Mountain range in the distance for the first time. The sun also shone amid patches of blue sky. However, the unsettled weather was enough to keep us all at home during the day. L. has a 100.2 fever. She's been coughing rather violently the past couple of days.

The rain and thunder came back. H. and P. are running pretty high fevers. R. and J. have been okay. Mom and Dad are back to normal. I'm sniffling and sneezing myself, so it's going to be an early night. Some way to start a holiday...

Praise Him in a taxi...

Dad's feeling a little better, but not well enough for church. The rest of us walked to Guang Hua Yi Lu to take a taxi to GICF. It was a woman driver, which is kinda rare. We sang praise songs all the way to church.

A speaker from the US came to speak. He spoke on Deut. 4 and 6, on training children. "I Surrender All" was the last song we sang.

We ate at the hotel buffet with another family before going to Starbucks to pick up the tumbler we lost on the bus last week. The rest of the afternoon and evening was spent relaxing. The heat and travel may be starting to take its toll on us....

28 bucks for what?!?!?!?!?

We decided to go to Baiyun Mountain. Dad decided not to due to allergies. As we were walking to the city bus stop (outside our campus), we were told by another teacher that the shuttle would be available, since it was a school day (this Thursday and Friday are off, but not officially national holidays. Schools give an extra couple days off to make it a full week of holiday - including the weekend. HOWEVER, they make us make up for those two days off by asking us to teach on another weekend. So, apparently, we had to teach the Thursday schedule today and Friday's schedule some Sunday. We didn't know about it, since the notice announcing it was in Chinese). I say, forget the couple extra days off and give us back our weekend...

By the time we got to the Baiyun Mountain, it was around lunch time and everyone was pretty hungry, so we decided to grab a bite before exploring the delights of the mountain. We ate lunch at a fairly expensive restaurant - a big rip off!!! - and we didn't even get much of a view. Following lunch we went to a nearby garden, where we were charged to get in, despite the fee we had to pay at the entrance of the mountain. (Man, they really milk you for everything little thing here). The youngest two were free and H. had to pay half price. They don't measure "children" by age here, but by height. So, if you have a tall parent and are unusually tall for your age, you're out of luck. However, if you're a "little person" this country is the cheapest vacation you'll get anywhere. There were wading pools with tadpoles, ponds with coy and gold fish, fun paths around the garden, flowers, trees, and ponds. The girls played in a giant jungle gym, while I explored other parts of the garden to see what else they could enjoy. Then everyone (except mom) took our shoes off and waded in the pools provided. The water was glorious and was very refreshing in that humidity. We fed the fish, had ice cream, and walked around. We pretty much enjoyed the garden to ourselves, right until the last half hour or so when a group of roudy, unsupervised, middle schoolers found their way in.

We ate dinner and spent the evening playing games on the computer and watching TV. The kids really like watching Chinese opera. S. thinks that it IS a bit entertaining, especially the dance/fight scenes, but I don't like it at all.

"Sa!"

The last couple days I has brought my class to the flat because there have been so few people (most of the kids have gone home early for the upcoming week long break). I taught a couple chapters, rather briefly, and then S. and the rest of the family joined in to teach them a game or two ("sa", which means "kill", and "King Elephant"). The students enjoyed their time immensely, and the kids, as always, were entertaining.

Uncle N's package finally arrived and H. has proper pajamas now...no more excuses about not being able to get her pajamas on *smile*

(very ready for this week long break ourselves)

The nieces take center stage

Weather: rainy and overcast. Rained most of the day. Cool.

More and more, it looks like our nieces are quite the draw. I took them to visit L.'s class today. The students asked them a few questions. All the classes have taken a liking to them.

We brought them along to the middle school we've teaching at. J. came along as well. Both classes went fairly well. We read some dialogue out of their text book, had Q & A with the nieces, played a "clump"-style game where they stood up whenever questions on possessing certain physical characteristics applied to them. We played another guessing game called "cahoots", where L. and the class would pick an item in the room w/o me knowing what it was and I would try to guess it. There's a trick to this, but I won't tell what it is in case we want to play it on you!

Mom was pretty sick and stayed in bed most of the day. Dad was up and around, feeling a bit better.

Three of L.'s former students all stopped by for a visit later this evening to chat and play Chinese checkers. And of course, they took to the nieces, who also enjoyed their company.

last minute indian food

We stayed home most of the day because of the rain. Mom and Dad were sick as well, due to exhaustion. Mom stayed in bed the whole day. I hope nothing serious is the matter with her.

L. had two classes in the morning and then one in the afternoon. I took the nieces to the afternoon class, while the rest rested. They answered some questions as well as asked a few of their own, tho' for the most part, they were shy. They opened up more when they talked with a smaller group of 5-6 that had gathered around them.

Since Mom was mandated to rest for the next couple days, I (L.) decided to cook dinner (which she hasn't done since mom took over *smile*). We went to Carrefour and Trust-mart to pick up some groceries for dinner. There was some traffic jam on the way back that kept us from going to XM via the usual (and shortest) route and the police waved us away from the intersection. The taxi driver cut across a parking lot to get around the mess.

The day before the girlfriend of a friend (J. from England who came to the Boston wedding) met the girls and thought they were adorable. She wanted to come up and spend some time with them, which she did after dinner...bearing gifts. She's quite fond of them.