Why?

I realize there are many things in the US that make it on blogs of other expats living in the US away from their places of comfort.  And, I realize that I might look at those blogs and think to myself, "what's wrong with peanut butter and apple, or ketchup and potato chips," and that would be my prerogative to think those thoughts.  But, deep down in my soul, I can't think why anyone would think the bone-in chicken sausage is worth the trouble. By the way this was not in my haven on the south side, this was in the terminal on the way back from Macau today!

I am not making fun!

This afternoon I was off to the grocery store with my recipe in tow.  We haven't been eating much meat, but I found a great recipe for chicken with potatoes and carrots, and I really wanted to try it for dinner. But, when I got to the chicken section, this just jumped out at me. It didn't seem to jump out at anyone else, just me.  Of course, I took a picture, so everyone knew I had issues at that point. 

I especially liked the package with "meal" already decided for you! 

long days

This is the part of the school day I'm going to miss! I won't miss the three to four hours per day it took me to get them to school, walk them to different buildings on different city blocks, and then get back home again only to do the same thing in reverse for the afternoon.  I will miss sitting with the girls on the way home and watching this one sleep on the uber-cold bus.

Today, the girls started riding the school bus, and this is good because their international school is not close!  The school situation is tough and we have to be patient and wait until space opens up for the girls to get into the same international school as the boys, which is our preferrable school because it is so close to our house. Of course, the girls seem fine with everything, and their school is a nice school - it's just far!!  Also, at school, they really get a taste of living in a large city becuase their school is in a high rise (two different ones) and they have PE at the local park, which means they have to navigate the busy sidewalks and play where all the locals hang out, then navigate these areas back again. For two very gregarious girls, this is heaven.

On the first day of school for them, which was Monday, we had just walked out of the building and were making our way back home when we passed a store with lots of fish and "various" other items, and T said, "doesn't that smell good?"  Oh my! It did not smell good, but she's the true foodie in the house, not me!

they did come with us

See, the boys did make this move with us!  Last night was their first scout meeting - Troop number 1, I believe.  We had a comfort-food meal for dinner in the market, and then we sent them on their way to the meeting. I snapped the picture, they headed one way, and we headed another, so I could get the girls home and ready for bed.
For the boys, getting themselves there and back via taxi or bus with no help from mom or dad (except to load the octopus card with money) is a great feeling for both of them.  
Which brings me to the octopus cards that we all possess. These are wonderful inventions.  These cards can be loaded with a dollar amount and used just about anywhere. The boys use them to buy lunch at school, I can use them at the grocery store, and we use them to ride the city bus. When we get low on the dollar amount, we pop into a 7-11 or Wellcome (that's the way it's spelled) grocery store and reload. 

Don't hold back

I usually don't have conversations with the taxi driver because I can't, until yesterday. Most of the drivers here seem to be much older and only speak Cantonese, but it seems to me the younger drivers speak Enlgish well, and yesterday we found ourselves in a taxi with a younger driver. Of course, that's a really broad statement, but I don't have time to be thoughtful about this story.

Now, I know better than to eat or drink in the taxi, but I was not thinking quickly when the girls and I hailed a taxi before they had finished their ice cream.  As soon as we stepped in the car, the driver mentioned the ice cream and I apologized saying we would get out of the taxi and find another (and wishing he wouldn't take me up on this).  He quickly said it was okay, but he asked for them to be careful.  Almost before he pulled away he said something really funny.  Let me remind you this guy is probably 25 years old and my girls are 7 and 10.
Taxi driver: " why you eat that ice cream?
Me: "oh, they love it"
Driver: "they get fat."
Me: "they don't care."
Driver: "Their boyfriend care."
There was no response I could give, so I just smiled, and the girls just laughed at the thought of someone thinking they would have a boyfriend someday.

Hungry Ghost

This is something I pass everyday, and something similar I see all over the city. These are little buddhist sites for various worship, I think.  And this month is the month of the ghost in the buddhist realm. While this is our calendar year of August, we are in July of the lunar calendar. July (August 7 thru the 4) is the month of the ghost, or something like that.
And in this lunar month, is the Hungry Ghost Festival where people burn things to feed the ghosts of ancestors.  I've attached something from a news article explaining it a bit better, but people can burn anything and spend a good deal of money to burn these items for the afterlife.  Really?

HONG KONG (Reuters) - At a workshop in an old Hong Kong neighborhood, paper craftsman uses delicate sheets of paper and sticks of bamboo to fashion a huge, expensive boat that will soon be consigned to the flames.

The Hungry Ghosts festival that has prompted Ha's exquisite labors centers on a superstition that the spirits of the dead return to Earth during the seventh month of the Chinese Lunar calendar, which runs from August 7 to September 4 this year.

Five meters (16 feet) long, Ha's boat is one of numerous paper offerings ordered by Buddhist temples at this time of year, when many Chinese around the world tread more cautiously and make an extra effort to appease the roaming souls.

All kinds of items made of paper - including clothes, "gold" and "silver" ingots, mansions and boats - are burned to ensure the ghosts have enough to tide them over until the next year.

AC Repair?

I found this comical, but I'm sure there is a logical explanation; I just don't know it.  Today, the AC repairmen came to do the final repair on the units in the house that have not been cooling very well. They show up on time, as always, and have a barrel, some hose, and what looks like cement mix, but what do I know.  I let them in, go back to figuring how in the world I'm going to navigate the city bus again today when I pick up the girls, and they set up in our den, near this bathroom.  I was passing by while they were on the roof working on something and I saw this.  I took this picture because I found this comical. The guys did ask for an extra bucket (not in those words, of course), and I heard lots of water running.

When they were finishing up, one man asked for cleaner and a toilet brush and all was done. Good as new, probably better. 

Girls' first day of school

To be clear, Forrest and Ellis had a first day of school exactly eight days after we arrived and I did not capture that moment. I did, however, take a picture at the school a few days prior to their first day.  The boys ride a "school bus," which is more like a luxury cruiser, but the parents pay extra for this, so I guess it makes sense.  They also leave at 6:55 am, and we all know how wonderfully alert I am at that hour, so I've not photographed the moment just yet.  Now that I've chronicled the girls' first day, we might get a boys' "first day" pretty soon.  

As you know the girls and the boys are not in the same international school, but the girls are on the waiting list and will stay on the list until they get in because the school is closer to our house than any of the other American international schools. When we arrived I had great plans for education, but those fell through quickly and I was back to looking for spots at other schools. Then, someone pointed me in the direction of this school, with the warning/encouragement that I continually receive, "the international schools register one year in advance and it's always tough to get a spot, but remember expats are always coming and going." We prayed for a spot, and the girls prayed to have a school, and the school to which I was sent had a spot for each. There's much more to this, but I will spare everyone. 

We have decided the girls will also have a nice school bus ride starting asap. This morning Jeff took us on his way to work, which was really not on his way to work, other than it was north and his office is north of our house.  It took us 40 minutes and we really didn't get dropped off in front of the building because it's a bit crowded in this city and you can only circle the block so many times.  But, we knew we were close, so the three of us hopped out, saw children in the same uniforms, thus we followed.  Well, we followed for a minute until we realized there were other children in the same uniforms going in the opposite direction. This is an international school so the parents, despite appearances are going to speak English, so I asked the first parent I saw and was set in the direction toward Claire's building.  We dropped her off, took her picture, and got directions to Taylor's building, just one block away.  

Whew. Now, I had to get home to meet a repairman.  I was walking down a street looking for a taxi and was seeing none and wishing I could just blend in! Thankfully, I brought my tea with me for comfort to look like I was just casually dropping my children off to school and I really belonged there (no one walks around with food and drink here).  But I was continually dripping my tea down my already sweaty white shirt as I was trying to fit in. Finally, after one stroll around the block, I saw a taxi releasing someone so I tried to flag him down before he got away, but I ended up banging lightly on his window because I was apparently blending in to this driver. Finally home! Of course, I have to go get the girls in the afternoon!  That school bus can't come quick enough.

Claire didn't want me to take her picture, obviously.

ships passing in the night

Ships aren't really passing, but it is night and they are essentially passing through to get to port and back out again with all kinds of stuff I could be getting at Target, that I am not getting at Target!!!!

The picture is overlooking the bay from our window, and most of those ships are gigantic container ships heading in from the South China Sea.  I wish I could capture it better because it truly is beautiful, and we truly see this outside our windows every night.

A Car?

I was talking big about not having a car, and we made it a whole three weeks.  Jeff got an unbelievable deal on a15 year old Land Rover (dream car for him).  I had to share. 

Those evil-eyed children are mine! iphone photo at night without the assistance of the 15 yr old

Change-over

Forrest made me do it.  He told me when we first moved here to just create a blog on blogger like he had done, but I was trying to be the adult who might venture out and try different avenues - except that no one could get on my avenue and experience Hong Kong with me!
Well, thanks to the five minutes that it took Forrest to move all my posts from "livejournal" to blogger, I am now Crouching Tiger Hidden Holcombes on blogger.

Today in  Hong Kong I learned an important lesson; always carry an umbrella and believe in printed addresses!  The girls and I left this morning for Wanchai to buy their uniforms because they have finally been accepted into an international school and they start Monday (only six days, four business days late).
I had the address to give to the taxi and we were off. When he dropped us off, I was looking around for this wonderful shop that would have all the uniforms for so many of the schools, but I saw nothing.  Meanwhile the taxi driver is pointing to a non-descript door and nodding his head. I pretended to understand and moved out of the taxi and across the street.  Does this look like a door I should be taking my girls into? All I could think of was Jeff's comment about Wanchai being the redlight district of HK, but this is 10am, right? We went in, but I didn't make them go first.  Well, maybe I did.  We were supposed to go to the second floor but it looked somewhat empty, so I sent Taylor up two more flights, but she quickly came back with nothing. So, we went through a half-opened door and then saw the glass doors for the little uniform shop with the sweet ladies ready to help my sweeties get ready for school.

Air Pollution Index for Beginners

So, I wake up to a rainy day, which is not so unusual, I think of fog over the bay as I am looking out my window this week, but the boys came home from school yesterday talking about the API of 164, which meant no Cross Country practice for Ellis and no running during PE.  I guess that's not fog outside. The girls and I need to add masks to our umbrella staple!
I googled the API after Forrest told me one of his friends at school, who is from Bejing, said the rules in Bejing are a little different because they would never get to go outside if people got worried over an API over 100.  This is what I found in the trusty WSJ. 

Hong Kong air pollution reached extreme highs this week, turning Victoria Harbor a soupy gray and prompting government warnings for residents to stay indoors.

On Thursday morning in the crowded shopping district of Causeway Bay, pollution levels hit a high of 187 on the local air-pollution index. When the city’s levels of air pollution are that high, the government recommends that children, the ill and the elderly try to stay inside. Health experts say that level of air pollution can trigger  heart attacks or strokes.

Why don't I know another language???

So, we get an early start this morning because we found a store that opens at 9am, which is huge because most things don't open before 10am here.  I made my list and we were heading out for an ironing board and small waste baskets and a few school supplies (I have learned are hard to find).  The taxi ride to Aberdeen is only 15 minutes away and the girls love the taxi rides, especially when we get a really sweet driver who is trying so hard because he recognizes we need all the help we can get. 
The first thing I asked when I got to Japan Home was about delivery. The person working didn't speak English, but the customer next to me kindly translated my question without me even asking for help.  The person gave a dollar amount for delivery which seems to be standard here because so many people have to have things delivered.  The girls and I start shopping for the ironing board, and the slow cooker, and some school supplies, but when I went to check out, no one could help us at all.  I couldn't communicate and I found myself frustrated that the employees couldn't speak English, but why should they have to speak English. Right, they shouldn't have to.  I didn't act frustrated.  I vowed to make sure I learn a few basic phrases, all having to do with delivery! Of course, there is a difference between Cantonese and Mandarin and my understanding is that the differences are often subtle. 

So we put everything back except for the few things we could carry in our bags that we always have with us. In hindsight, I should have just bought everything and put it in the trunk of the taxi.  I'm such a newby!  The girls are so fine with all of this. The boys would have been mortified. 

Ferry Photo

I don't really have a photo from the ferry, but Jeff had a funny thing happen on the ferry today. So, he leaves Kowloon in the evening and rides the ferry to Hong Kong Island and then catches a taxi home, which is, for most days, very routine. Tonight, he was sitting beside a Chinese family (mom, dad, toddler girl, and grandmother).  The dad motioned to Jeff to take a picture, so Jeff nodded his head and stuffed his phone in his backpack, but when he looked up, the family pushed the little girl right next to Jeff and took a picture of him with the little girl!  I told him they must have mistaken him for some celebrity, but he said they were probably mainlanders and just wanted a picture of the American. I think it made his ride home just a little more pleasant. 

On the other hand, the girls and I were shopping this afternoon on the western side of Hong Kong Island, and when we decided to come home at 3:00, the first taxi refused to drive us to Stanley because he said it was too far!!!  It takes 20 minutes to drive us to Stanley, but Jeff reminded me of the possible shift change between 3 and 4 (I haven't confirmed that), and he said the drivers probably wanted to make a quick trip before changing shifts instead of hauling some American girls all the way to the end of the island. Lesson learned.

Lows and Highs

So the cultural lesson that lasted for nine hours on Friday was supposed to help Jeff and I understand what we've gotten ourselves and our children into, but I just found myself a bit shocked by the reality of this new life. I'm better at denial and ignorance until the sun comes out again.  Of course, this is a horrible way to live and I know that intellectually. On the brighter side, the cultural lessons helped me understand why I get the looks I get when I try to make small talk!

Speaking of looks, we were at dinner a few nights ago and I was describing something from this book I'm reading, The Devil in White City, and three different servers came to our table to ask what we needed. The first time, we mentioned that kids were waiting on their dessert, but I just thought it was good service to come and ask, although we didn't feel like the ice cream was late. The second time was another server and he looked specifically at me and ask if he could help; I, of course, told him all was well, and thanked him for his attention. The third time, I happened to look up and see two servers talking and looking in my direction, and then one came over and asked if he could help.  This is the time we clued in and told him we were fine, just telling a story. I was describing how George Ferris, in the book, was building his famous Ferris Wheel at the Chicago World's Fair in 1893 (from the book).  Ellis was my only listener (and the waitstaff), but he was truly interested in the story, even though it wasn't about birds (his first interest).

10 Days in

It's crazy that it's been only ten days since we moved to Hong Kong because I feel like we've been here so much longer. I wrote way too much on the first journal, so I'm just going to recount two interesting happenings.
First, Hank finally made it to HK, but he was six days late. He made it to Amsterdam from Atlanta without his papers because another dog similar to him gained his papers. Amsterdam wouldn't send him on to HK, so he had to fly back to Atlanta to get checked out by another vet before he could fly into Hong Kong. He made it here Thursday night with another dog's crate and dog bed, which are both pretty nice. He's lost a little wait but he seems happy.
Second, Ellis and Forrest started school on Thursday (one day late because of the typhoon on Wednesday). They got on the "school bus" together, but Ellis had to stay after school on Thursday and got on later than Forrest did. The bus runs at three different times after school lets out to allow students to do after school activities and still have a ride home. At any rate, Ellis got on the wrong bus and rode it all the way until the last stop, where he got off (he said he knew pretty quickly he was on the wrong bus, but said nothing) and walked to Stanley Plaza, and then hopped on another bus and made it home. We were quite proud of him. Forrest is already navigating the taxis and buses by himself, which is also exciting!

First Days in HK

My first four days of living in Hong Kong proved to be exactly what one would expect of me. I left Jeff's cell phone on a bench and it was stolen asap - welcome to Stanley. I found a furniture store and stocked the house - welcome to the land of two day delivery instead of two month delivery. I thought it made sense to go out at 9pm on our first night in HK to shop for wares - welcome to jetlag and a psychotic seven year old. I locked myself, the girls, and the ac repairman out of our home for three hours (and, yes, he waited) - welcome to the world of "no extra keys" at the gatehouse. We have been invited out for three different meals and met at least four different families that have shared all contact information for me to actually use - welcome to the expat community of HK. And, best of all we made it to church service that we truly loved - welcome to church in a high rise. 

After two days here I was crying quietly and prayed so hard for God to carry this weight. I felt somewhat isolated even in the midst of my sweet family. Since that prayer, I have been invited to two different women's Bible studies and have met people that I never thought I would ever meet here. One woman from High Point took me to Stanley Market and introduced me to her favorite vendors and then sent me off in a taxi back to my house. She was holding a small bag of extra school uniform shirts to give to me, but, in the shuffle to speak carefully to the Cantonese-speaking driver, I forgot to get the shirts. Within the hour, the property manager showed up at our door with the shirts (the same manager that doesn't hold extra keys). We met another couple at church and they offered to take us to lunch with a few other people; when they realized a family of six always requires two taxis, they offered to take Forrest with them in their car. And, yes, we allowed him to go and we knew these people for a whopping 75 minutes. For some reason, none of us, including Forrest, found this odd.