We belong to each other

I told myself I would write this blog (for me) to keep a running log of life - love and laughter - in Hong Kong, and it soon became clear it was not about Hong Kong, but just a place of remembrance for our family. I'm pretty sure most of the "views" on the site are mine, as it should be.

Six months has passed and I've written nothing, and I have had plenty of time to write, but I just didn't; I know I will regret that I have forgotten some wonderful moments. So, I begin again.

I decided the photo above was a great place to start. It's a wonderful memory for me because it's a memory of a sweet friend who has already left HK, my first encounter of loss in this very transient community.  Kim's family came to HK the month that we came in 2013. We met at the kids' school, and we soon found she had not just moved from Atlanta, but she had grown up about ten miles from me, and her parents still live there. What???? I'm 8,500 miles from Georgia!

She only stayed sixteen months. Her sweet and gentle spirit is almost too good to be true, but it is true.  She never spoke ill of anyone, she was incredibly talented and equally humble, and she loved and cared about people in a way that could only come from a higher love. And, our short, close-distance, friendship taught me a very important lesson - thankfully, early on in our time in HK; I will always jump in and embrace a gift from God, instead of guarding against the hurt that comes when the gift is not so accessible. The joy is always greater.

Mother Teresa once said, "The problem with the world is that we have forgotten that we belong to each other."

Revolving Door

This week has been a series of children coming and going.

Taylor had four days with the sixth grade in Beijing for a cultural experience, with the biggest cultural experience being the pollution index.  The second would be the experience of spending the night with peers. She's almost 12 and this was her first overnight trip (other than the grandparents) without Jeff and me. I wasn't really planning on it being such a dramatic first experience. Beijing? Really?

Claire also had her first overnight (other than grandparents), and she was really nervous. So, the day before she left, she looked over at me and said,
"Mom, I really, I mean really, love you.  But, I wish I could love you without missing you." She's only gone for two nights in the New Territories, a part of Hong Kong that is just too far by bus for me to enjoy.

This is the letter she left for Taylor (the girls share a bedroom).  I think the "heart planet" is a nice touch. 

As typical of Ellis, he just seemed to disappear without me getting a picture.

As all the children did, he packed himself (I try not to think too much about that). I did hand over his passport and HK ID that he is required to have to get into China, but that's because those documents stay in our hands whenever possible.  I drove him to the school where he boarded a bus for a five hour drive into China to Qing Yau, where he will stay for five days. His back pack was terribly light for five days. Then, I drove away and realized I didn't take one photo!

Forrest is home all week enjoying the solitude, I believe.

Diseases and other school tales

She's always the witty one!

Claire: "Mom, today at school Subin and Minhee and I started our project creating our own culture."

Mom: "That's great."

Claire: "We named it Chlamydia" (I'm sure she didn't spell it correctly), "but our teacher told us Chlamydia is a disease and we should probably come up with at new name." 

Thankfully, no one thought to ask the teacher the nature of the disease.

Last night, we were at dinner with Ellis and Forrest and Claire (Taylor is still in Beijing trying to breathe), when Jeff decided to ask the boys if they could name the prettiest girls in their grades. I thought Ellis was going to spew water out of his nose, but not from laughing.  Forrest couldn't even eat his pizza.

Forrest: "Dad, I can't answer."

Jeff: "I have a reason for asking. There's a follow-up question."

Forrest and Ellis: "What's the follow-up?"

Forrest:  "I can't answer the question without knowing the follow-up."

Jeff: "I don't want to tell you the follow-up yet.  Just tell me about the girls."



No dice, the boys weren't budging. Jeff finally had to tell them his follow-up question, which was going to be, "What makes the girls pretty?" This led to a short discussion (not the long meaningful discussion we hoped for) about true beauty.

Claire was quietly listening, and then, suddenly she had something to say.

Claire: "Dad, how many girls did you kiss before you kissed mom?"

Bingo, the boys were off the hook. Ellis was glad to get on that bus to Qingyuan, China this morning.

First-aid supplies don't always work

So,  maybe I did double my first-aid supplies in response to two boys playing rugby, but there are some things bandaids can't fix - heads and teeth.  Remember the broken tooth (Ellis) in preparation for rugby season? Case in point. When this picture was taken, Ellis was at his rugby game while his mouthpiece sat in his bathroom! Honestly, how many teeth will he have left after the season. Needless to say, Forrest had a lot to say about the forgotten mouthpiece. 

Forrest, the responsible older brother, returned from his Shanghai rugby tournament seemingly fine. He didn't have gashes in his face or legs, but four days after his return I get a call from the school nurse. He finished PE with a headache that caused his teeth to hurt, so he went looking for help. He loves this nurse. (Of course, she told me that Forrest was her favorite, too!) But, once he got to her office, he started vomitting - three times in all. She asked him if he received a head injury in Shanghai, which he did. Somehow I didn't know that because I didn't board the plane and go to the tournament. Next time!

Of course, I was in Central, not at home, which is only five minutes from the school. I grabbed a taxi and called the friend I always call when I'm at a loss. I asked her to meet me at the school with her car, which she did in a New York minute - she's from the South so we are bound together in that deep southern way.

She got us home to drop off the mass amount of things children are required to carry in a backpack to school, and then she got us to the next taxi stand, so we could be off to the hospital.

So, we waited for the CT scan. By this time, Forrest is fine. He's playing with the scale and we're trying to convert kilos to pounds.

The technician comes to get him for the scan. Do you know they don't let mamas go to the scan room with a 16 year old? I'm thinking, "who's going to hold his hand?" 

But, the hospital is great. As long as  you are a paying client, they are incredibly efficient. The receptionist even took my phone and recharged it while we were waiting on the doctor to read the scan. 

To the doctor we explain how the concussion happened and we promptly got the doctor's thoughts on rugby. After listening intently, we had to tell him we had only two days before Forrest was to board another plane, this time heading to Cambodia to work in service at an Orphanage with his classmates. The neurologist was fine with this. Although I don't think he was really listening because he was too busy trying to convince Forrest to take up tennis.

But, Forrest returned without slurred speech or a limp. Jeff, - also one not to heed advice - promptly took Forrest hiking to Dragon's Back because it was a public holiday and he couldn't enlist anyone else in the family to join him. Forrest can't handle the guilt, so he always says, "yes." He would have been a good Catholic.

Ellis spent the week off from school attending a sailing course, so he can be eligible to sail in the regatta in March.  He came home each day with absolutely no injuries. He did, however, get the lovely Chaco tan the boys are always trying to acheive. Check that one off.

Who Knew?

 Life is funny. I would have bet my house on Forrest NOT choosing to play rugby in his lifetime. This is my boy who loved organizing the neighborhood in games, but not at his physical expense! I can remember when he dressed Ellis in a life jacket - turned backward so Ellis had full coverage over his chest - and a GT football helmet so that he could be the catcher for a game of baseball played with a TENNIS ball.

But last weekend he boarded a plane from HK to Shanghai to play in the China Cup. All the high school rugby teams, boys and girls, traveled.  They won. Forrest played almost every game - and there were loads of games over a three day weekend.  And he returned injury-free.  He loved the competition, but he also loved Shanghai with it's houses and open spaces. His host family had a proper house with a back yard! The host mom also had recently taken up baking and decided to feed her rugby boys tiramisu and cheesecake for breakfast. No wonder he loves Shanghai.

But I must say, games are typically not injury-free. Those boys wear short rugby shorts and no pads.  There aren't many calls made for rough play. At times it looks like a free-for-all to us. Jeff is there for every game and is doing his best to understand the sport, but we always leave with him saying, "I still don't understand what they're doing out there." 

I would have bet my house on Ellis NOT choosing to play rugby, too. He loved his Playmobil and his stuffed animals and his dog! He was a cross country runner! He loved it, but even there he would always fall on the trails. Once, he fell in a pond at one of the meets, and this seemed normal to the entire team because they knew Ellis just had a tough time staying upright.  

So . . . Ellis drank the Kool-Aid.  Middle school rugby. Now, I have double the first-aid kit supplies.

Finding the joy

I have to admit that I really love living here, but there are times when I miss all things American, like Target, and nice big SUVs, and roads that are forgiving if you don't know the way, and Target, and Target. 

But, then I find myself in a situation where there is just a little comfort from home given to me from above.  Like, the Fonz in the bathroom at dinner! Right in the middle of Mid Levels, Hong Kong above the toilet. It brings a smile to the face of 70s American girl. Right?

And, then there are times like these that allow me to find joy right where I'm standing. You just can't get this out of our middle aged American men.

But, then I have the grocery store (which I can't say because it's a "market' and no one knows what I'm talking about when I say "grocery store"), which is a painful reminder of all things missed in America. 

It's not that I can't get wonderful things in my local market. I can. For instance, I have an entire isle of canned fish, and I have seaweed in lunchbox servings, that my youngest actually likes, so I shouldn't complain. But, I don't really need an entire isle of canned fish. I really want to be able to buy Cherrios that don't cost $10 a box.

Then I have the take-home facial. Seriously, I have to pay $10 USD for Cherrios (actually, I don't pay for the Cherrios, I buy the silly HK version that cost $6), but I can buy these "Flower Face Up Rollers" to tone my aging face for the $2 USD.

But, this is the greatest reason I love living here. It's easy to find joy with him around!

Bringing home the bacon

Between fishing at the oil rigs and Chef class at school, Ellis is starting to give Taylor a run for her money in the food department.

Our Chefs (yes, Ellis' glued tooth his still holding)

Fishing 60 miles off the coast in the South China Sea.  He vomitted only three times! 

From sea to plate. Yes, we made this without our helper (it was her day off)!

Okay, the Chef class in the middle school is amazing. The teacher is a trained chef from Le Cordon Bleu in London - honestly. Ellis made beautiful moon cakes for the mid-autumn festival, but none of us ate them because they had red bean filling. Really? Who eats that stuff? He told me a girl in his class seemed to really love the ones she made, so I sent a note to her mom, and I found out she took in her own filling - Nutella!  

Okay, this picture is not exactly Ellis' mooncake, but his looked exactly like it! I can't believe I didn't take a picture of the moon cakes he made, but took a picture of the half-eaten vegetable dip.  

Forrest says I have issues with my photography. I tell him the gift skipped a generation and he needs to be thankful.

I became inspired from my little chefs and started making my own mayonnaise. I had no idea how easy it is. It's only one egg, 1/2 cup extra light olive oil,  fresh lemon juice, a little dijon mustard and a little salt. You have to use one of these hand held blenders, but it works in about 30 seconds. Crazy. 

 Taylor is always making wonderful things in the kitchen! These are her brownie cupcakes and her very buttery chocolate chip cookies. She even made my giant  birthday cookie from scratch, but I can't find the picture. Claire, on the other hand, runs when people start working in the kitchen. She's going to be hard to repartriate.