week #2 - done!

This is the class from Week Two.



We lost one, but added two others.
This week a few leave, and this weekend Sheryl Vasso arrives to teach a curriculum class.

This is Week Two...in action:

hong kong....at night

Last night, as I said we may, we (Mark, Corinna, and I) went to Hong Kong Island. We traveled on the MTR.

This was our route:

Shek Mun to Tai Wai (end of line)
Switch lines and go from Tai Wai to Hung Hom (end of line)
Go from Hung Hom to East Tsim Sha Tsui.
Walk from East Tsim Sha Tsui to Tsim Sha Tsui (they have those walking paths that make you feel like you're walking faster...like a flat escalator, for those who don't know what I'm talking about)
Then from Tsim Sha Tsui to Central on the Tsuen Wan line.

Along the way (IN the MTR station, we found Debbie and Holly, coming back from a trip to the jeweler. So we added Holly to the group, so she could see Hong Kong Island before she leaves on Monday for the States).

And....we've reached out destination. We walked outside to more people than we're used to in Shek Mun, but imagine - for those of you who can - walking out of NYC's Penn Station onto the street.

The sun was just about set, but I managed to get a few pictures. Oh, how I wish I already had my Hallmark training. I'd know how to get clearer pictures :)

For now, this is the best I could get:













By this time, it was 8:15pm. Mark, Corinna and I had not yet had dinner, so we (1) were hungry; (2) were hot; and (3) just wanted to sit down somewhere. We went to a mall we had seen and found this noodle place to eat. We had about a 20 min. wait, but when seated, realized we'd dine well. This was our table before we were served:



And THIS is Mark and Corinna (finally, faces to go with the names):



I had stir-fry noodles with beef - delicious! We left the restaurant around 9:40pm and made it back to ICS by 10:40pm. All in all, another wonderful night with wonderful new friends! I slept so well, I even OVERSLEPT a few minutes this morning, but still made it down on time to make morning coffee for everyone and get set up.

do you know the [baker] man?

One of the things I've loved doing - but may not be all that wise for maintaining a good diet - is going to the bakery.

Today Corinna and I braved the HEAT outside and went to two bakeries. One is more "authentic" and the other - A-1 Bakery - is a chain around here.

I like the A-1 b/c they have a lot more of a selection, and my fav - the chocolate croissant. I was going to take a pic of it, but ate it before remembering. I'm sure I'll have another before I leave, so I'll be sure to take a pic soon.

But here are some other yummy items we picked up...

This one is called chocolate brothers:





This one - a sweet roll - has a coconut and cream-cheese flavor:

Mutarica

When I was in Thailand in 2008, the asst. director was this gal Mutarica.
We'd write back and forth about details of the school, housing accommodations, peoples' flight itineraries, and such, all the while not knowing how old she was, or what she looked like. We were business penpals for a short time.

I finally wrote and asked how old she was, just to get a sense. I soon realized through further emails that we'd be fast friends.

As soon as I got over there, we talked about life - friends, interests, PBU, ICS (the school we used in Thailand), etc. We went to night markets, the mall, massages, the airport (to pick others up), and enjoyed cruising around in her car.

I felt truly blessed to have her...to know she spoke the language when I didn't know what to say. She told me the places to see and took me to church with her each week.

I had found a friend.

But then the tricky part ensued....would we stay in touch when I left? Would we write? Would we always have that summer to recall memories, but not much after that?
We emailed back and forth, and then I got a postcard from her, and realized, "Why have I not been sending her snail mail?" I love sending people notes...why had I not thought of that?? So just within the last few months, we wrote a few handwritten notes back and forth too.

We always talked about seeing each other again. I didn't think I'd come back this way for a long time, if ever. But here I am, just a few hours away (by flight). And, I am SO SO excited to say, Mutarica is coming TONIGHT!!!!!!!!!!!! She is going to spend the weekend and we're going to wreak havoc (for you, Kay) in Hong Kong.

I am sure we'll laugh a lot, and pick up right where we left off two years ago.

I'll be sure to post some pics of our time together; for now, this is my friend:

new shoes, and a few other newsy items

I took a picture of one of the shops at the market the other day - a shoe store.
My sister and I were skyping this morning and she commented on the shoes in the pics, telling me which she liked.

We went to City One for lunch today and lo and behold, they had the sandals and in the exact colors she and I were talking about.



I got an identical pair in black too...


And this was my AH-MAZING lunch today (rice bowl with pork):



And this is the Hong Kong version of our Dollar Store in the States - the $7.80 store:



And Debbie and I went to the mall last night for dinner. We decided to be true Americans and eat at Ruby Tuesdays. While I was in great company, I could have been spared the food. It wasn't all that great. I got salmon (one of my fav meals) with rice and veggies. The rice tasted like they had microwaved it. And I didn't even touch the veggies - they looked like wax.

Then we went to City Super, the supermarket I've mentioned before. We watched the women cook the custard dessert I was telling you about earlier. These pictures aren't that great, but at least you can see what I was talking about. Then, of course, I HAD to get a hot custard one. It was as delicious as the first one.







Here it is....oh, the deliciousness. The custard is on the inside.



After class tonight, we MAY try and venture to Hong Kong Island, where the lights and touristy places are....will update in the AM!

the ants go marching one by one.......

Well, folks, I have sad news..........I threw away all my mangosteens, without even eating one.

You ask, Why? Well, blame the ants.



I did something very bad....I didn't wash the fruit when I brought it back. So, when I went to drink some water before bed, I turned on the lights, and there were ants everywhere! I was SHOCKED! First I panicked. Then I started feeling like I had ants all over me. They were on the counter, on the ceiling, crawling on the cabinets, on the fridge, on the garbage can....AND there was a big bug in my sink too....

It was all so overwhelming. I tried to knock on Mark and Corinna's door, thinking they could at least console me, but they weren't home. So I went into GO mode....I got some Clorox wipes that have bleach in them, and started squishing as many as I could. But there were so many. I threw away the culprits (mangosteens) and took the entire trash bag out to the bigger trash can in the hallway.

Then I heard Mark and Corinna come home, and got them to come in and see. I called down to the guard gate to see if they had any ant spray, but the guy on the phone couldn't understand English well. So Mark went down to try and see if if he could explain it in person.

He came back with a bottle of liquid disinfectant (which translates to hand soap) and a spray bottle. When in doubt, improvise. Corinna played McGuyver again, put part soap, part water in the bottle, and sprayed away. The spray looked more like goop, sticking to the walls and making the ants freeze in place like a mouse trap with gel does. We got as many as we could and called it a night. I went into my room to read, but before turning off the lights, I went back to the kitchen to check and see if I saw any more ants. I saw one more, so got the goop and shot at it. FROZEN IN PLACE! Task accomplished!

Thankfully, I didn't have any dreams about ants, but a few times before falling asleep, I felt like I had ants on my legs. Dumb bugs!

And the thing that kept crossing my mind was this song (which I adapted to fit my scenario):

The ants go marching one by one, hurrah, hurrah
The ants go marching one by one, hurrah, hurrah
The ants go marching one by one,
The little one stops to eat my fruit.
And they all go marching down to the ground
To get away from my wrath. BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

To see a video of the song, watch this.



So another lesson learned. Wash fruit, or keep everything (I mean everything) in the fridge.

Today is a national holiday in Hong Kong, celebrating the turnover from British control back into the hands of PRC (the People's Republic of China). It happened on July 1, 1997.

and the adventure continues...

One of the things I like to do most is laugh. And I cry when I laugh hard. It's one of those things I don't often appreciate. People either think I'm really crying or don't understand what was so funny to make me laugh as hard as I do.

Well, yesterday was one of those days. Corinna and I were in the computer lab all morning. Her daughter sent her a video link on YouTube, and the fun commenced. We started looking at various YouTube clips and laughed a LOT! Then we broke for lunch and over lunch, a bunch of people started talking about the Improv Everywhere sensation on YouTube. After lunch, we looked at a bunch more videos.

By the end of the day, we were in stitches, both tearing up. But along the way, we watched some for-real tear-jerkers...ones that actually were heartfelt in a way that made us cry. Oh, we were having too much fun.

So class ended and a few of us decided to "explore". What the definition of explore was, we weren't quite sure. We knew we wanted to see an area we hadn't yet been to, so we looked at the MTR and decided to go to Mong Kok East, grab dinner and go to the markets.

We got off the train and once on the streets, we realized we were on the street where the flower market was. Walking past all these flower shops, my favorite flower was the purple orchids. I also saw a lot of aloe plants. They were huge.

We found some hole-of-the-wall restaurants, and decided to go into one of them. We got ushered into the back and realized the menu contained no English. Again, we were up a creek without a paddle. But then one of the gals with us started speaking in Mandarin, hoping she could communicate enough with the waitress to get us food. Well, we all ordered bowls of noodles with meat. I got pork. Well the meal came and my pork just didn't look cooked. I mean, I know it was, but it just didn't seem all that appetizing. It didn't help that the table I was sitting at was directly opposite of the only bathroom in the restaurant. And it was a busy bathroom. I suddenly lost my appetite to eat. Here's the dish I got:

















And here's Holly showing how close the bathroom is:

























So everyone (else) finished dinner and we walked out to go to the street markets. This is some of what we saw:























































































At one point, we all were sitting along this ledge watching people. I had seen mangosteens, my favorite fruit from Thailand. I wanted to go and get some, so Corinna, Holly, and I went to get some. We then kept seeing people walk around with these drinks. They were clear, plastic cups, with foil lids and then a thick clear straw poking through the foil lid. We found the stand where they were selling these drinks, and decided we had to have one. I got a passion fruit green tea drink. The vendor asked if I wanted tapioca pearls at the bottom. My response: "Sure, why not?!"

The moment I got my drink, I didn't know quite what to expect. I took a sip and up the straw came one of these little gems. It was SO weird, but SO fun at the same time. I determined it was one of my most favorite things so far. I think I should start a these-are-a-few-of-my-favorite-things list soon.

Anyway, that's how we "ended" our night. We took our drinks and boarded the Mong Kok East MTR and came back to ICS, saying over and over again how much fun we had.







But...before I end this post, I must tell you of some "fails" of the day:

FAIL #1: Corinna and I went to the bakery in the morning. We found some goodies and were on our walk back to ICS. Along the way, we had to pass through (but not enter) the MTR. Corinna commented that people were looking so unhappy; no one was smiling. So we (well, she) decided to greet people, and said a few times, "Thank you for traveling the MRT. Thank YOU for traveling the MRT." And I started to LAUGH. I approached her and said, "Corinna, maybe they'd not look at you so strangely if you actually said the correct name of the train...it's the MTR, not the MRT.

(I need to give a disclaimer to this next one....Hong Kong has this system, whereby you can purchase an Octopus card. I mentioned it before. You put money onto this card and can use it for many things....you swipe it to enter the MTR station, you can use it as grocery stores and on the public buses, even in some stores. It's pretty convenient. And when you run low, you can simply recharge it.)

OK, without further ado...

FAIL #2: As we were walking to the MTR to catch our train to leave for Mong Kok, I said to Holly, "You have an OSYTER card, right?" What I should have said was, "You have an Octopus card, right?" :)

FAIL #3: Without needing to provide much further explanation, all I have to say is pork dinner in close proximity to squatty-potty. Not only was our dinner table close to the bathroom, but we found out it was a squatty potty, meaning there was a hole in the ground that you squat over to go to the bathroom. Just thinking about it while I ate made me want to hurl.

So, so ends another adventurous day in Hong Kong.

It's HOT here today...gonna go out to lunch with Colleen in a few.

Happy (almost) June 30th....which means a HAPPY HAPPY birthday to my sis Gail!
Love you; wish I could be there....


(Gail and her fam at Easter this year)

rain, rain, go away, don't come again another day!

I don't know that I've seen it rain as much as it has here in Hong Kong.

It rained ALL day Saturday, not really letting up. It rained yesterday, on and off.

And then I thought there may be some reprieve today...BUT, to no avail.

Class broke at noon for lunch and we decided most of us would go to the Noodle King down the street. A few of us were ready, and so we began, while the others waited for a few stragglers. We figured we might be able to get our order in and not hold everyone up, as they only have an hour for lunch.

We put our umbrellas up, b/c there was a drizzle, but it began to POUR...let me emphasize POUR!

We got to the Park-n-Shop and made this decision: "Let's get food at the Park-n-Shop and bring it back. We are NOT moving forward in this rain." So we got some dumplings (you know I was at least excited), some watermelon, and headed back to cook up our goods at Mark and Corinna's. Another student joined us, and we enjoyed our lunch with smiles on our faces and warm bodies (after changing clothes).

I went onto weather.com and found this for Hong Kong for the rest of the day (CLICK TO SEE BIGGER):

Basically, to sum up: It's gonna keep raining ALL DAY! I DID hear, though, that by Thurs. it's supposed to be 33 degrees Celsius (about 91 deg. F)...yikes!

Don't know what's better....rain or hot. I still think rain. I try and not complain often, but one thing I DON'T like is rain!

Class is going longer this week...till 4:30pm instead of 3:30pm. The content of class is much discussion on cultures and global issues. Right now they are doing skits to demonstrate differences in their cultures. It's fun listening!

More later. No pictures right now. It's too wet!

first weekend adventures

The class finished their exam, and just as planned, we all headed out to have "dim sum" with the student who was leaving Friday evening. He is Korean and was able to pick up on one of the (fully) Chinese menus the word dim sum. So we all sat around a table together and asked what everyone wanted. The consensus was simply, "Let's all get dim sum."

This is what ensued....another student attempted to speak in Mandarin (he's from mainland China) and not Cantonese (what the people mostly speak in Hong Kong), and so many of the wait staff ended up coming to our table to attempt to find out what we wanted.



Whereas we thought we were getting dim sum, what came to our table was nothing close. First to arrive were 6 sandwiches on rolls. The sandwiches had pork, chicken and I think beef. We all soon realized we were NOT getting dim sum. What came next was even more of a shocker.....french toast arrived on our table!



Laughter erupted and we all couldn't understand what happened. The waitress came over and the student who ordered for us tried to explain what happened. Even though it wasn't what we expected - nor what we wanted - we enjoyed our sandwiches, french toast, and time together.

Speaking of, if any of you is hungry, let me know what you want off this menu, and I'll be sure to bring it home to the US with me...



This is all of us eating....


We then decided to go get ice cream cones at McDonalds. We all walked to Citi One, the mall close to campus. Along the way, I took some shots of life taking place around me:














I could just sit at City One all evening and take pictures of the people and things they were doing. Maybe I'll go do that at some point. A bunch of people decided to go back to ICS, but Mark, Corinna, and I decided to go exploring. I made the suggestion to go to Newtown Plaza (the "big" mall) and so we boarded the bus and went to the mall. Mark and Corinna hadn't been there before, so it was fun to roam around. I kept talking about wanting what I called dumplings, and Corinna wasn't sure what I was envisioning. We found City Super, the supermarket in the mall. We decided to walk around and look at everything. What we stumbled upon at the beginning was a variety of fruit.... durian (a really bad smelling fruit), pomelo (looks like a grapefruit, but not bitter), dragonfruit, mangosteens (my favorite from Thailand...excited to buy some here), and lots of others.

For a good peek at the fruit of Hong Kong, I googled "Hong Kong fruit" and came across someone else's blog, who posted some good pics (and some funny anecdotes) about each of the main fruits:

http://www.sunnysideuprecipes.com/2009/07/tropical-fruits-in-hong-kong.html

But then we ventured into the meat section of the store and saw this:



We continued along and found what I was thinking of...my dumplings. Sure enough, next to it, we found what Corinna was looking for...and they were called buns.
We bought some of each and continued on. We checked out, and on our way out, came across this "display" - people making these pastry-like items...you could get them with bean paste, custard, and a bunch of other things within. I enjoyed watching them make them...they kinda looked like cupcake tins, but they'd fill half the tin with the mixture, let it bake, then add the filling, then put an already baked half on top, to form a type of sandwich, sealed together. Corinna decided to get one (with custard) and we 3 decided it was one of the most delicious treats we've had. Ever. We are definitely going to go back for more. I'll be sure to take pictures next time.

The next morning (Saturday), we had lunch together (so we could eat our buns and dumplings), and along with it had veggies (peppers, cucumbers, and tomatoes - of course, I didn't eat the tomatoes), and Corinna cooked up some sweet potatoes. We sliced up some oranges and called it a meal. It was delicious! We pulled some MacGuyver moves too...had to figure out how to steam the buns with limited cooking supplies. So we boiled some water in a pot, then took the drainer, put the buns in, and inserted the drainer into the pot to hopefully let the steam cook the buns. Oh, did we laugh at ourselves.

Here's a pic (from the web) of buns and dumplings:

Buns:


Dumplings:


Saturday and all of today (Sunday) it's been non-stop raining, so we canceled our outing to the market. We're planning to go next weekend. I decided to catch up on some emailing today, so came down to the computer lab to do some work. I'll probably go to the Park-n-Shop a bit later to get some food for tonight, as well as some items for the week.

Hope you had a good weekend!