mmmmm Sea Urchin...

It's been a fun and eventful week! Tim's boss Stu and his wife Natalie flew into Hong Kong last Sunday night. Tim and Jordan showed Stu around the city and took him to several of their on-site demos, which went really well... Tim is going to pipe in here at the end of the blog so I'll let him tell you about how that went... plus his trip to Tokyo... I will say that Monday night we all went to a Sushi restaurant... This was the first time I'd had sushi since before I was pregnant (cant eat sushi when you're preggo) This place had all different types of sushi and sashimi that would come down this conveyer belt and you can just take off whatever looks good off the belt and then they add up your plates at the end... Pretty cool. It was delicious. There were some pretty questionable dishes though... and Jordan and Stu decided to play a game called "Find the grossest dish and make the other person eat it" Jordan picked Squid covered in Wasabi for Stu... and Stu picked Sea Urchin for Jordan... haha... He barely got it down without gagging... Pretty funny. Tim was smart enough not to play that game... He's not a fan of sushi anyway... He stuck with the beef. haha. It was a fun time. Tuesday night we got treated to a really nice Austrailian restaurant and then went up to "The Peak" afterwards... where you can see a gorgeous view of the entire harbor, both the Kowloon side and the Island side... And we made it in time for the light show. A lot of the buildings in the city have twinkling lights and spot lights that are cool to see at night especially at a distance. It was gorgeous. Stu and his wife went on to China Wednesday for some traveling and sight seeing. They will be back next Tuesday for one more day before they fly back to the States.

Yesterday (Saturday) Tim and I took a ferry to a small little Island called "Park Island" that has a cool park on it called "Noah's Ark". It's a Christian park with a life size replica of Noah's Ark, with a cool little Expo about the Ark inside, and some beautiful gardens... They have a lot of fun activities for kids there too. Looks like a really neat place for families to go. It's really beautiful there. They have a beautiful beach there and some housing (Tim thinks it would be a good place to live if we came back) The ferry ride back had a breathtaking view of the harbor... Unfortunately it started to rain a little on the way back and couldn't get very good pictures... It was a really fun time though.

This next week is actually our last full week in Hong Kong. Tomorrow Tim leaves for Korea for 3 days and then a few days after that we'll be taking off for Taiwan. I can't believe we'll be home in a little over two weeks! I'm so excited to go home, but there is a lot I will miss about Hong Kong. It's been such a great experience. And who knows, we might be coming back...

Have a fantastic week all! We miss you and look forward to seeing you soon! Tim will address us below... Plus pics and some Hong Kong-isms...


We've had a busy couple weeks with work, and have a few very busy weeks ahead. Last week I went to Tokyo and had a good trip. We met with a lot of different schools and a couple research companies. They all liked what we had to show them. Then this week, my boss Stuart came to HK to visit us. He brought his wife Natalie with him. We showed them around the city and took Stuart to a couple demos. He couldn't believe how well everything went. Our first demo was with a university and had about 15 people there. We didn't really tell Stuart how the business culture was different, other than giving demos on-site as opposed to web demos was more effective. The demo proceeded as normal, quiet, with seemingly little response from the audience. The entire time Stuart was thinking "tough crowd...this isn't going well", but that is how they operate out here. No reaction, and they don't like to ask questions until the presentation is over. After we finished, they all applauded and lit up. Stu couldn't believe how much they loved it, especially after thinking it was going terrible.

After all our demos, he told us that he can see how much more effective we can be out here rather than operating from Provo. Who knows what will happen, but I'll at least be making plenty of trips out here.

To finish up our stay out here, I'll be traveling a lot. I go to Korea tomorrow night for 3 days, then 2 days after I get back we go to Taiwan. But for that trip Janessa and Mylan will be joining me. I'll work for a couple days, but then we are going to stay for 5 days and visit my old areas and some people from my mission. I'm excited to show Janessa where I was for 2 years and introduce her to some of my friends there. After that, we come back to HK for a couple days, then back home. I will definitely be jet lagged when I get home.

That's all I got for now. I'll do an overview of this trip after we get back. Besides, I know you like hearing about the fun stuff Janessa writes about. The business stuff is boring. Off to the pool now!




10 things we will miss most about Hong Kong!

1) Melona Icecream bars... The most amazing treat ever. For those of you who have had Creamy's... These are Honeydew flavored Creamy's... I will miss these the most!
2) Maid service and daily linen changes... We got a little spoiled being here.
3) Sleeping in a King sized bed... Tim and I have gotten used to sprawling.
4) Always having something to do... There is so much to do in this city... You can never get bored.
5) Pepper Lunch (This is a place Tim goes to lunch several times a week... It's a stir fry dish that they give you on a hot sizzling plate and your choice of sauce and you cook it yourself to your liking)
6) The Jensens, the Hydes, and the rest of the families we've gotten to know from our ward!
7) The pool at our hotel
8) Tim will miss his 32nd floor window office
9) Tim will miss City Links golf... (A virtual golf course that lets you golf at 60+ courses in the world... this is how Tim lets off steam here)
10) We will miss all of the breathtaking sights and views of the city and islands... It's been such an incredible experience!

Tim and I overlooking the harbor from "The Peak". Our camera is kinda crappy though so you can't see the breathtaking view behind us. I believe on our first post from Hong Kong I included a picture of the harbor at night.

The animals of Noah's Ark!

Me and my boy!

A view of the International Commerce Building from the ferry we took from Park Island... This is the 4th tallest building in the world.