Seriously? You're going to eat that?

First off... Our apologies for not blogging at the usual time last Sunday... Tim was supposed to blog but failed yet again... He swears he will blog next time... We'll see if that happens...

So things are going well here. Every day is an adventure. Tim's trip to Korea went really well. I'll let him give the details on the next post he writes... But it was very successful... So successful that they will be going back to Korea at the end of September. It was hard having him gone, but I kept busy. Ruth and I went out exploring and did a lot of fun things. We spent one whole afternoon in Sha Tin shopping... right next to the Subway station there are 8 malls all connected to each other.... Yes 8 HUGE malls... There are seriously like a hundred malls here. And every single one of them are packed with people. Its just crazy. One day we went to an Indian Buffet that was REALLY good. So much good food here... unfortunately though my stomach doesn't agree most of the time. I've had digestive issues pretty much the whole time I've been here... The boys haven't had any problems though... I guess they're more used to it after spending 2 years in Taiwan and several months in China. Hopefully I'll adjust before it's time to go home.

Speaking of food... I was feeling the need for familiar food one night so we decided to go to Pizza Hut one night this week. Thankfully they had a standard Pepperoni Pan pizza... but pretty much everything else on the menu was weird stuff. Not a standard pizza hut. Our friends ordered onion rings as an appetizer and was given mayonnaise as a dipping sauce... MAYO with onion rings? These people eat the weirdest stuff... Tim and I ordered breadsticks as an appetizer and couldn't get pizza sauce to dip them in... First they brought us ketchup... and when we asked for pizza sauce they brought us Thousand Island dressing. (That's a big thing here apparently... Thousand Island dressing on your pizza... weird) We finally gave up and just ate the breadsticks plain. The local people put the weirdest stuff on pizza. Sashimi (raw fish), corn, sardines, chicken feet... I don't understand how people eat like this...The good thing about Hong Kong is there is a great variety of different kinds of food... But the regular food that locals eat is just awful looking! I do not understand how people can eat the stuff they do... I get grossed out by food I see on other people's plates on a daily basis...

We met another really nice family at church a couple weeks ago. They had us over for dinner last Sunday. They live a couple of stops away from our place in the New Territories. We had BBQ pulled pork sandwhiches.... Awesome taste of home. They were so nice to have us over. We've been so lucky to meet so many wonderful people here. Tim and I met a really nice family from Virginia on the Subway last week. They've been living here for 4 years and have 2 young kids... They gave us a lot of advice and tips about getting around the city with kids. It's funny, when you live out here amongst all the local Chinese people, anytime you meet someone from the states you always strike up conversation... Meeting new people is actually easier here because you're so desperate to make connections with people that are like you. Most of the people that are out here working are very established and high up in their places of business... It's really convinced Tim that getting his MBA is the way to go. He's pretty set on that plan now. He needs another year or two of work experience first, but is thinking that that is the direction he will go. He will probably start taking classes to prepare him for taking the GMAT next year.

Ruth's last day here was yesterday. :( I'm really going to miss having here around. It's been nice having a companion and someone to help with Mylan. It will be lonely around here for the next 7 weeks! Last night the Jensen's and another couple (the McGrew's) went with us to dinner to say goodbye to Ruth. (See picture) Fly high Ruth! We will all miss you!

Mylan is doing great! He turned 5 months old last week! Can't believe how fast he is growing and changing. He's been rolling over for a while now, but just in the last week has decided he loves to roll around and especially be on his tummy. He rolls both directions now... In fact every time I lay him down on his back he rolls over onto his tummy immediately... Which is kind of funny because he used to hate tummy time and would protest profusely! Now he loves it. He's starting to push up a little bit on his hands and trying to get up onto his knees looking like he really wants to crawl already... And I'm thinking I'm not ready for this! Not ready yet for a mobile child! Part of me is so proud and excited for him to reach these milestones, but another part of me hates that it's happening so fast! Having a mobile child means baby proofing... and no more setting him down and not having to worry about him going anywhere.... Yikes! He's also starting to talk and babble a lot! He's also learned how to spit... like not just little bubbles but real spitting. In sacrament a couple of weeks ago he started spitting and wouldn't stop... of course I start laughing out of embarrasment which of course only encourages Mylan to spit even more... The little stinker! Before we came to Hong Kong Mylan was quite shy around new people because he didn't really see new faces very often... but in the month that we've been in here he's turned into quite the ham. Every time we go anywhere people walk up to him and coo at him and make such a fuss... Now he just hams it up by smiling big and laughing or squealing at everybody... It's pretty cute. It's so fun to watch him grow and change and learn new things. Parenthood really is the best!

Well we hope you are all doing well. We miss you all... Only 7 more weeks till we come home! Almost halfway there!

Hong Kong-ism for the week:

1. A word on manners... I find the manners of Chinese people strange. Things that we would normally be considered really bad manners in America are typical behavior here... and vice versa...

Example 1: If you are at a fast food restaurant or at a grocery store in the states and someone purposely cuts in front of you in line, you are likely to get harsh words from the person, the finger, or at least a dirty look... Here people don't wait in lines... Everybody pushes and cuts in front of everyone. No lines. It's not considered rude... You just have to learn how to be aggressive and push forward.
Example 2: Belching. Not bad manners. I was on the subway the other day and the lady next to me let out a really loud burp out of no where... I was shocked! At first I thought she must be drunk or something... But no... Just a normal lady burping up her lunch... Didn't phase her or anyone else on the train. I couldn't believe it.
Example 3: On the other side... Here at restaurants they will always bring you toothpicks after every meal... But it's extremely bad manners to use a toothpick without covering your mouth with your other hand. People look appauled at you if you clean out your teeth without covering your mouth.

Pretty funny culture.

Enjoy our latest pics!


The famous Peninsula Hotel. Rooms are something like 10 k per night!


Mylan and I at the harbor looking at the Kowloon side.

Out to dinner for Ruth's last night in Hong Kong.

Mylan having a ball in his new toy.... ( The Jensen's loaned this to us for Mylan )

A taste of Szechuan, Wild Monkeys... and other Hong Kong-isms.

At the moment I am recovering from a bad reaction to some local Chinese food I ate yesterday... It didn't phase Tim... I guess I'm just not used to that kind of food. He wanted to go to this place because it was pretty cheap and it was really similar to the type of stuff he ate on his mission in Taiwan. I decided to be adventurous and try it even though some of it was a bit questionable for my standards. I think I'll stay away from the local stuff for a while... haha. I've been trying a lot of new food lately though... and most of it has settled ok. A few nights ago we went to this really nice Szechuan place. (Szechuan is really spicy Chinese) Totally different flavor than I've ever tasted... and quite hot. It was pretty good though. They have these dumplings that you start out with that numb your mouth... I think the idea is to numb it enough so that the rest of the food doesn't completely destroy your mouth. I only had a little bite of the dumplings and it was so so hot! The food was pretty good though. We also went to Outback Steakhouse this week... Such a wonderful taste of home. Tonight we're having dinner at our friends house and will be having Moroccan food... So many new experiences.

Tim had an interesting experience last night. While Ruth and I were helping Shanna cook for tomorrow's Moroccan experience, the boys (Tim, Jordan, and John) decided to go exploring in the mountains. They had heard that you can usually spot wild monkeys up there. Not only did they spot monkeys... They couldn't even count how many monkeys they saw... They were everywhere. Now, if you know Tim well you know he loves monkeys... always dreamed of having a pet monkey one day... But these monkeys were kind of scary. I guess they would get really close and start hissing and look like they were going to attack... and there were tons of them. Probably a hundred. Tim said if you made eye contact they would start getting aggressive and you'd have to look away for them to calm down. Freaky. I'm SOOO glad I decided not to go... I would have completely freaked out. The guys were even a bit shaken up. No pet monkeys for us in the future. :) (Check out the monkey pics we posted)

Tim is headed to Korea tonight. He has a red eye and 3 really busy days ahead of him. They're pretty excited about the demos they have set up with some really big companies there... I'm pretty nervous to be without him for 3 days... But I have Ruth, and it helps knowing some other people here... So we'll get by... I'm excited for him though. Everyone keep your fingers crossed for him...

Not much else happened this week... So I'll leave you all with some Hong Kong-isms. (Unique, and interesting things about Hong Kong that I've noticed or learned since being here.)

- You drive on the opposite side of the road... and even walk on the opposite side on walkways
- You don't tip at restaurants. They automatically add a 10% grituity. It's customary to
leave any spare change you have if you felt they did a good job... but you don't leave any more
than that.
- Also at restaurants they wont bring you the check until you ask for it... We figured this out on
the first day after we waited a really long time for our waiter to bring the check.
- You are living the life if you have an oven... and really really rich if you have a dishwasher.
- BMW's and Mercedes are like Toyota's and Honda's in the US. They are everywhere! Lots of
money here.
- They call elevators "Lifts"
- Everyone has umbrellas on their person at all times... You'd think that's because it's rainy season... but you see almost as many people with umbrellas when it's sunny as you do when its rainy. They don't want to get tans here... It's more beautiful to be pale.
- People are really blunt here... They just tell you like it is and don't hold back. For example, in church I took Mylan into the foyer because he was fussy... and this Chinese woman says to me, "you have a really loud baby." haha. I know they're not trying to be rude so I just laugh it off.
- A word about public restrooms... They're the worst. Never clean... no toilet seat covers... sometimes not even toilet seats... And one bathroom I went into didn't even have toilet paper or dispensers. Can't avoid it though... It's so important to stay hydrated here since you sweat so much...

... More ism's to come. :)

Enjoy our pics from this week!




Hong Kong at night from the Island side. Beautiful!
WILD MONKEYS!

Mother and baby.

Crazy Chinese ladies

Greetings from the S.A.R.! Another week of adventures. Last week I mentioned that we had been invited over to dinner by a family that we met at church, the Jensen's. We had a really great time getting to know them at dinner and also this week. Their names are John and Shanna and they have a cute little girl named Sophie. She's 3. Shanna is expecting and is due any day now. We have a lot in common with them and are so glad that we know a nice family here. They've really been a lot of help to us... showing us around and stuff. We both think they will become good friends of ours. Getting to know Shanna has been especially nice for me. It's nice knowing someone else that has kids here and kind of going through the same stage of life. We've spent a lot of time together this week. She's really made the transition a lot easier!

So Monday was quite the adventure. Ruth and I took our laundry to a dry cleaning place in Tai Po. It's one subway stop north from where we are living. Getting the laundry there is a bit of a challenge, especially with a baby. Last week we stuffed our dirty laundry in our suitcases and drug them with us to the laundry mat... It was pretty difficult hauling a big heavy suitcase with Mylan strapped on me.... So this week we had the brilliant idea of combining both our laundry into Tim's giant suitcase so that only one of us has to drag the suitcase and the other has the baby... So this wasn't the best of idea's since Tim's suitcase was already on it's last legs... only I didn't realize this at the time. (a little background... Tim bought this suitcase in China for dirt cheap... it's a fake samsonite... very low quality) So as soon as we got to the subway station the wheel fell off the suitcase... and poor Ruth had to try to drag the suitcase with just one wheel... Then about 5 minutes later the handle broke off... Since both of our families laundry was stuffed in there it was way too heavy to pick up and carry so we were up a creek. Finally we got it outside of the station and called a taxi to come pick us up and take us to the dry cleaners... Only of course, he didn't speak a lick of English (most locals don't this far north of the city) We pointed to the address on our laundry bag and he said he knew where that was... The problem was you can't drive on the street that the dry cleaners is on so the taxi driver dropped us off in some alley that we didn't recognize and couldn't tell us where to go... he could only point... So we totally lost and starting to panic a little... Thankfully as we walked out of the alley we realized it was only around the corner and up the street... Whew. So after our laundry adventure we decided to hit up the wet markets... They have really fresh fruit and veggies there and are much cheaper than at a grocery store. But while we were shopping these market ladies began to swarm me (When we first got here I thought it was really funny how much attention they gave us, but it's started to get kind of annoying) So at the market this one lady started sticking pieces of grape into Mylan's mouth... I kept on telling her "no, he doesn't eat solid foods..." but of course... she can't understand me and was totally ignoring me anyway... she wouldn't stop! I was getting so angry with her and just started swatting her hands away and kept saying no... Who are these people? We really live in another world over here.

Wednesday we went grocery shopping. Shanna showed Ruth and I a new place that's closer to our hotel than we've been going to buy food... It had pretty much everything we need... Still expensive, but everything is expensive here... We're used to that now. We also went to lunch with Shanna and Sophie and got to know them a bit better. That night Ruth and I met the guys in Central, which is downtown on the island... The guys had a recommendation from a client to go to this Egyptian restaurant called Habibi. Tim and I ordered lamb and veggie kebabs. Sounds good right? They were absolutely awful. Definitely the worst meal I've had so far. These "lamb" kebabs were ground up and chewy... probably ground up with who knows what... It was like nasty hamburger on a stick. Not good. Then while we were in the restaurant this huge storm randomly came in and we had to walk home in the pouring rain. Luckily I had an umbrella, but we could only keep Mylan dry since Tim had him strapped on his chest. I got soaked. It was absolutely crazy trying to get home. Everyone was running towards the Subway to get dry... complete chaos.

Friday Ruth and I met Shanna in Fo Tan and went to the Island to go shopping. We went to H&M, which was a new experience for me. They actually have pretty nice clothes that aren't too expensive... I'll probably go back there to do some shopping when I don't have Mylan with me. Then we went to this place called the Gateway. It's kind of like a mini Costco. It's all imported dry food and stuff from the states... mostly bulk. A lot of the expats do their shopping there. It's also the only place you can get real Mountain Dew.... Oh so that's the other thing... Pop is totally different here. Their regular coke and pepsi taste like they are diet... must not put as much sugar in their drinks or something... And their mountain dew is completely different... Tastes more like lime sprite or something. So Gateway has the real stuff. So we got two 36 packs for the guys and will try to make it last while we are here. That night we all (the four of us) babysat Sophie so that John and Shanna could go out on a date... probably the last before the baby comes. Sophie is a darling little girl... we had a lot of fun with her. After their date they came back and visited with us for a couple more hours... We're planning on all going to Outback Steakhouse with them next Tuesday (Yes, they have an Outback... so excited for some real steak!)

Yesterday (Saturday) Tim and I went to the mid-levels in Hong Kong Island. The mid-levels are really cool. It has this huge escalator that takes you from the ground level to all the different levels in the city. There are so many shops and restaurants. Every square foot of land here is so valuable so use every last inch of it they can. All the buildings and shops are so close together... It's crazy. We went to lunch at a burger place and then made our way up to this really cool museum. The building that the museum is in used to be owned by the church. Now it is the Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Memorial. He was a key revolutionary in China that helped to overthrow the dynastic era. It was a really interesting place and I learned a lot about the history of Hong Kong and some of China... makes me want to learn much more! After a few hours of exploring the city we were beat (the heat is unbearable) and made our way home for a dip in the pool. So nice after a long hot day.

Tim has a lot of exciting things going on at work... but I'll have him write to you all about that... He promises to blog this coming week... So stay tuned...

Here are some pics!


Since I can only post a few pics on the blog... click on the link below to see a bunch more!




http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=476180&id=500060095&saved


Some markets in the mid-levels.

Tim and Mylan in front of a statue of Dr. Sun Yat-Sen.

This is the largest escalator in the world that takes you through the midlevels.

Our little snoop!

Rain rain go away!

So life here is starting to feel a little bit more normal... as normal as it can in Hong Kong. We're all pretty well adjusted to the time and schedule... Although we go to bed much earlier here (between 9 and 10) and rise quite earlier. (between 6 and 7) And yes, so does Tim. Those who know him well wont believe that... But its true. He even works out before work some days. This last week I spent a lot of time either shopping, at the pool, or hanging out in our very air conditioned hotel. The heat is redicilous here, but so is the A/C. You go from one extreme to another. Becuase it's so hot here I didn't bring any warm clothes, and have been freezing in the hotel. I had to go out and buy a sweat suit so that I can stay warm indoors.

Earlier in the week we had a lot of rain... And when I say a lot... it was more than I've ever seen in my life. On Tuesday it rained 10 feet! That's like 4 inches an hour... So more rain in an hour than Utah gets in the whole month of June! INSANE! We couldn't even see outside our window... just a big wall of black. I couldn't believe it. I guess it rains like that a lot this time of year... It is typhoon season after all. They must have excellent gutter systems here cause the next day everything was back to normal. No flooding or damage. I made sure to buy an umbrella last week.. and I'm so glad I did. I got home from the store before the major downpouring on Tuesday... but still had to walk in it a bit... It finally stopped raining on Thursday... Good thing because I was really missing the pool. It works out rather well because Mylan usually goes down for his afternoon nap around 2 or 3... I just put him in his stroller for his snooze and make my way down to the pool. They always put up a shade umbrella for the stroller to go under and then I can either lay down on a lawn chair beside him or dip in the pool. The security is really tight there and it's not usually very crowded so I feel comfortable going down there with him... Even if it's just me. So that's nice.

Friday night Tim and I went out for Thai food with Jordan and Ruth... and then we just came home and watched a movie. Saturday Tim and I went to the grocery store to buy some snacks and wound up spending about 45 U.S dollars... And we only bought one bag of groceries. I can't believe how expensive stuff is here. It's 5 dollars to buy a can of Campbell's soup. Little Yoplait yogurts that are normally 50 cents are a buck-90... The only way to buy cheap here is to NOT buy imported American food... But I'm not about to buy candied anchovies. Definitely seen some interesting foods here. Chicken feet, tongue... nasty nasty.

Tim and I went back to Mong Kong to go shopping at the ladies market. (See pics) They have a lot of "name brand" stuff for really cheap... and you can usually barter them down to almost half the price they ask for. Tim's really good at bartering since he speaks Mandarin. He will razz them until they move their price down. Since I've been freezing in our hotel I bought a "Juicy Contour" sweat suit to keep me warm. It looks totally legit... and we talked them down to 20 U.S dollars which was almost half what they were originally asking. They usually wont go down more than half like they will in China. Tim could easily get things at 30% the original price there... Hong Kong is just more expensive all around here. But we still got a pretty good deal. Tim also got some Jordan brand basketball shorts... 3 pair for 13 US dollars. Not bad eh? We'll probably go back there a few more times before we leave.

Today at church we met a family from West Jordan that has been living in Hong Kong for 2 months and will be here indefinately. The wife is 8 months pregnant and also has a 3 year old little girl. They offered to show us an easier way to get home. Instead of taking the Subway where you have to change trains 3 times... we took a bus. Then they invited us over for dinner tonight. They live only one subway stop away from us... So hopefully we can get to know them better while we are here. I love having the church connection here. Everyone is so friendly and nice. Every time we've gone we've met such nice people that are so willing to go out of their way to help us. We also met a really nice couple that is living in our same hotel. We met them at the pool. They are from Chicago... We are going to have dinner with them soon. So it makes things easier now that we're meeting people here. I'm starting to like it a lot better here and looking more forward to the next 3 months.

Tomorrow is laundry day and a trip to the wet market to get fresh fruit and vegetables. We are missing home and our families and friends very much, but are having a fun time here.

Till next time....

Here are some pics of our little world traveler! :)


Practicing being reverent.
At the Ladies market.

Mylan and Daddy on the subway.

Mylan loves bath time!