A Month and a Week in

Just experienced my first Hong Kong thunderstorm. For years now, I have had to listen to Denis talk about these amazing HK storms he used to watch as a kid.

We arrive on August 3 . . . no storms (just a hell of a lot of rain)

A week goes by, no storms.

Another week, no storms.

A month. I give up.

Finally, one month and one week in, I get my storm.

We were supposed to go hiking today, but when we woke up, we could barely see across the harbor. Hmm, can't be good for the lungs. We decided no hike; we would run at night instead.

We went out and did some indoor things (i.e. buy stuff for the apartment) and came home and had dinner. As we were cleaning up, I looked outside and noticed that the sky wasn't hazy anymore, it was turning purple. And it became even more purple as the minutes passed by. I stepped out on the balcony and looked in the other direction . . . no purple, it was black.

Slowly that black encroached on the purple. The winds picked up, the sky began to flash, and big, fat drops of rain started to fall.

The lightning increased until it was pretty much constant, but there was still no intense rain or shocking thunder.

That was all about to change.

Suddenly the rain went from a smattering to sheets. It was all you could see--no more boats or buildings, just waves of rain running across the open space.

It was a bit too much to stay outside for, so I started opening the door to go back into the living room, when this bolt of lightening exploded right near our apartment. The crack of the thunder was almost instantaneous.

I had no control over my body at this moment. It flung itself through the narrowly open door and then executed this Olympic gymnast worthy twist to avoid falling on the coffee table and end up contorted on the couch instead.

Denis laughed . . . hard.

So anyway, we continued to enjoy the storm through the safety of the closed door.

And it was good : )

Here are a few random apartment pictures. We need to take real ones.

Our duvet . . . a rather different route for us, but it is working out.
Bedroom, sans curtains (this was before Denis created the newspaper barrier)
Our amazing couch with the pillow covers I love (yes, we got insert for them)
Bathroom
Office/second bedroom
Master bedroom pre-furniture
Living room with only our TV and a little stool that was in the apt when we got here . . . poor Denis had to hang out here while waiting for all sorts of people to arrive (gas, cable, Ikea)

On Our Way

After dealing with about four months of blocked blogs (and youtube, and facebook, and whatever else the China government deemed unhealthy for communism), I am going to try to keep up with this thing again.

In two more days, Denis and I leave for Hong Kong where we will be working in schools that are not run by China . . . and, yes, that is a very good thing.

Not quite sure what to expect yet, but I can't wait.

A Weekend in Hangzhou

Nanjing

This Is Why I Am Moving to Hong Kong

Taipei, Why Do You Forsake Me?

Somebody Took Too Many Big Buddah Pictures

. . . among others. Hong Kong was wonderful: not love-at-first-sight wonderful, but a slow-revelation wonderful. It took me a couple of days, but I ended up not wanting to leave.

Our trip started with a random upgrade to first class. I never thought this would happen. I had hoped that maybe on our honeymoon or something like that, but no, we were always economy schmoes. We booked our tickets with Hong Kong Express Airways and had absolutely no expectations. I was just hoping for a real jet and not a prop. We checked in rather early on our departure day and sat in a comatose state in the waiting area. Our rows were called and we made our way to the man who would scan our boarding passes. Instead of running our tickets through the machine, he pulls us aside and places our tickets on the counter. I felt a moment of sheer panic. My heart dropped and my eyes opened wide. In half a second, every potentially horrible situation played in my head, when suddenly, I have two tickets in my hand again. The man smiled and said something that I didn't quite catch (I think my heart was beating too loudly for me to hear him : ) I said thank you and proceeded to make my way onto the plane. Denis and I stared at each other as we moved past that last checkpoint. We are pretty good at talking to one another with using words, so there was a lot of eye opening and pointing until one of us said the words out loud "do you think we were actually upgraded to first class?" And we were. Now this was not hard-core first class, but I am not picky. The seat was huge and cushion-y. I had an absurd amount of leg room. There was this fun console between our seats that I could lay my books and iPod on. I was happy.

I was even happier when we were delayed an hour and a half, and I spent that time reclining in my large chair (with NO ONE behind me--no kicking!), dozing sometimes, reading occasionally, looking at Denis and laughing at our good luck.


Once we got in the air, the ride was quite fast--just under two hours from Shanghai. Toward the end of the flight, out of the window I could see all of these rocky islands spotting the sun glittered sea. Again, I was a happy girl.

And then we landed. It was like landing into anti-Shanghai. Don't get me wrong. I love living in Shanghai, and plan to do so for at least two more years, but sometimes it just beats a person down. Hong Kong was so easy. English everywhere. No pushing, except for the mainlanders visiting. No spitting. No getting screamed at in Mandarin. And really great tasting Diet Coke.

We took the AirTrain to the station and then picked up a free shuttle bus that dropped us off directly in front of our hotel, which was amazing. The Harbor Plaza Metropolis was beautiful. After a short nap (literally about five minutes) Denis's aunt and uncle called our room and we went down to the lobby to talk with them. It was so nice to see family again. While we waited for Denis's mom and brother to arrive, we took a walk on the promenade outside of our hotel.




We were at a loss of what to do that night. I think we were still a little dazed from our 4:00AM wake-up. We started the evening with a Thai banquet--this was the first night of an absurd amount of food . . .

Denis's Aunt Fanny and Uncle Kenny

Denis doesn't like Thai that much. I think he was skeptical.

But he contributed heartily to wrecking the food

Denis and Ben

Still being at a loss of what to do, we happily agreed when Denis's aunt suggested that we go to the Peak. Unfortunately getting to the Peak was not an easy process. No cab wanted to take us there. I am still not quite sure why, but it was universal. Then we thought about taking the ferry, which was located near our hotel. The last one had already sailed--the gates were locked and the lights off. Hmmm. No buses were in the area. As I am writing this, it doesn't sound that bad, but it was comical while it was happening. We just kept walking around in (large) circles. Finally it was decided that we would take the hotel shuttle to the subway. Once we got to the station, figuring out where actually enter the subway was another debacle. Then Denis's mom's metro card wouldn't work, and she kept getting stuck in the turnstile. Once we were finally on the train, things started looking up for us. We got cabs from the subway stop to the Peak tram. The tram itself is actually a funicular--very fun with great views. It takes you up to the observation platform, which, of course, houses a mall.

Haven't had enough squat pot pictures

An amazing view--it was hard to pull ourselves away from it

Everyone needs a little Christmas