The Pales Family: 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! :)