People like to drink their coffee out of little stir stick straws.
There are many places to sit in a mall when waiting for someone – No benches or those nice massage chairs.
People care more about being up to date on clothing styles than in the US. I'm not sure how fashionable this is though.
I found a store that sells Abercrombie stuff. They are selling a pair of jeans there for $850HKD. Remember that the exchange rate is about $1USD = $7.75HKD. This would make these pants around US$110. I don’t think so.
I have found that single people don’t like to take the train or mini bus. The want a cab, even if it takes longer than just getting on a train and going 4 stops.
I think that all cab drivers drive with two feet here. There is no easing off the gas pedal; it is either full on or breaking. I should be cured of any kind of motion sickness I had by the time we come back.
I have not seen orange hair here. They have perfected the coloring of dark hair, I even have seen a few blond Asian’s.
Jonathan thinks he’s Asian. He of course is still white and tall … but has been complimented on for the use of his chopstick skills.
The girls and I went to the Western Market.
I have posted this picture on Facebook, but it was so good, I had to do it again.
This is a lizard of some kind. It is cut open and made to look like a kite.
Shoes still don’t come in my size here. You would have thought that after 20 years (the last time I tried to buy a pair of shoes in Taiwan) they would have gotten a couple of pairs of bigger sizes in.
We have tried to make the most of our opportunities here. We finally figured out that we live about 10-20 minutes from the beach (depending on traffic). We started going to the beach either on Saturday or Sunday mornings and staying for a couple of hours. This was one of the things that the girls really thought would be cool about living here when we first talked about moving. They still get excited about going and just playing in the water and sand. It is really great. I think that currently, our beach of choice is Deep Water Bay. It is close, you don’t have to go around so many turns that it makes you sick in the cab, and there is plenty of shade to sit and read and still enjoy the time outside.
This is at Stanley Beach.
Jonathan has reduced the amount of stuff he has taken on. Family, working, running, CMA studying, Canto class, Kanji writing, and sleeping have taken a toll on him. I have finally managed to beat him into submission and he has taken away the canto class at the Y, but still studies a bit by himself. The Kanji writing has stopped. I love that he loves to learn and integrate himself into this culture, but some things had to give and the first 4 were NOT! Jonathan has always had a “I’m going to prove you wrong” attitude. If someone tells him he can’t do it, by God, he is going to show it CAN be done. Not this time. I know that he will learn more Canto and Kanji at a later time.
We are now in our 6th week of school. It is going as well as I thought it would. Hannah is doing a fantastic job. She seems to be “getting” it more and more every day. Her Math (not her strongest subject) is going well for her. We are using a “teaching textbook” for the both of them. They do their lessons on their computer with a cartoon professor. Much of what they are learning now is review, but this is what they would be doing at traditional school right now too.
Gabby has had a bit of an awakening. For most of Gabby’s schooling, it was very easy for her to just breeze through her work. I don’t know if I expect more from her, if her textbooks are for older kids (grade 5-7) or because the answers are not written in bold type for her. She has had a couple of temper tantrums, and because I have (after 9 years) started to realize the signs, have redirected her and had her take a break and then restart it again later or a different day. This has started to work well.
We are getting together with a homeschooling grouping here every week. It is really great. It is a great group
We have made plans for our first major trip while here. We are going to go to Beijing and Xi’an in October. While Jonathan and I talked about where we thought we might want to go, we also talked about how we wanted to do the trip. We decided to backpack it. We didn’t want a lot of extra “stuff”to lug with us. We wanted to see everything … without the fluff. We are staying at a family hostel in both places. I think that one night, we are supposed to be camping on the Great Wall of China. How many people can say they did that? We will also be taking an overnight train to Xi’an to see the Terracotta Soldiers and the other sites near there. We were going to go to Sanya, but decided to take that out because we couldn’t get the logistics down.
Tonight we are going to see High School Musical Live on Stage. The girls are super excited. Next week KPMG is having an afternoon at Disney Land HK. This should be fun for everyone.
