Our World Widens

     It is hard to believe that weeks have passed.  Yet we have done so much.  For starters, Charles returned from his trip to Phnom Penh with great stories about a Cambodian wedding and a soccer game between Cambodia and East Timor.  He got to have some great meals, and quiet, late mornings with coffee, the news, and a big, uninterrupted breakfast.  Sounds like he appreciated the "personal time".   Sorry no pictures.  He didn't think to take the camera out of his bag.

    I have no pictures of Hong Kong either, sorry.  The camera battery was in backwards and I thought that the battery was dead.  I will try to take more pictures of our lives because I know I will cherish having them later.  But I need no pictures to remember Hong Kong.  The sights, the feel, and the smell of it have left an indelible image on my brain.  What an amazing place!  

     It is a combination of the San Diego Zoo, Times Square, and Disney World.  It is modern and sleek, and efficient in ways I could not imagine for so many people in one place.  It is very green and you don't go long without seeing water from one of the bays.  There is pollution, and it sounds like it gets worse daily as China gets more industrialized. As a naive weekend visitor, I feel like it gave it a misty, ethereal quality adding to Hong Kong's mystique.

      Hong Kong is clean, so clean I felt I could eat off of most surfaces.  The whole island seems like a giant architectural puzzle, carefully built up.  At one point I was on an outside escalator heading up to catch a bus,  (Mmm Hmmm, get your head around that one.) and I looked over the side to a 80ft. plus drop!  Zoinks!  (There actually is an escalator that goes from the bottom to the top of the island, which I will do in its entirety on our next visit.)  It felt like you could spread your arms and touch the skyscrapers on both sides.

     I am convinced that you could buy almost anything that is made on the face of the earth in  about ten square blocks in Hong Kong. I have been places before on the earth that people described as a shoppers paradise, but this is the only one I have been to that lived up to its name.  All kinds of goods, all kinds of prices, absolutely anything you would need in life, and then some.  I know that Maeve and Sophie will appreciate my trip to Toys 'R Us on Christmas morning.

     I went to a terrific workshop on leadership skills at the Canadian International School in Hong Kong.  Physically, it is an amazing 14 story purpose built facility wedged  in the side of a hill overlooking Repulse Bay.  A jaw dropper of a place.  I particularly enjoyed meeting the people who work there, as well as the people from Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, and China.  The workshop afforded me a wider view of the international school world.  It was a nice feeling to be the rookie international teacher/department chair in the room.  It has challenged my interpersonal skills in new ways.  

     I went to the workshop with Rhonda Isley, my assistant principal, who was great fun to get to know better.  I learned new things about SSIS, too, which will help me negotiate my life there.  Rhonda has very close friends that live in Hong Kong, Bob and Susan, who were so great at showing us around and picking the perfect restaurant for dinner.  I know that my trip would not have been so diverse and fun without them.  

     My favorite story about Hong Kong involves Rhonda.  She left her passport and ticket in the airport and realized it as we were about to board a tremendously efficient internal train that would take us to our gates.  (By the way, we checked our bags at the train station downtown, and didn't have to touch them again until we got to Saigon.)  After going back for a look, and talking to guards nearby, she came back to begin making plans with me about having to stay and get a new passport and visa as she went with me to our boarding gate. "Don't give up yet."  I told her.   "Maybe your ticket and passport are waiting at our gate."  When we arrived to find no passport or ticket at the gate, I gave into the fact that Rhonda would not be returning to Saigon that day.  And lo and behold one of the guards ran up with Rhonda's ticket and passport with 5 minutes left for us to board.  After cheers and enthusiastic thank yous, Rhonda expressed that she could not believe it.  Rhonda has literally traveled around the world and she said that she could not imagine this happening in her life.  The man at the counter smiled at us and said "Welcome to Hong Kong!" in a Mr. Roarke sort of way.  "Have you been to Hong Kong before?" he asked us.  "No," I said, "but I will certainly be back."

     It was hard for me to filter how much of my enthusiasm for Hong Kong is because of how clearly different it is from Vietnam. Despite feeling like Times Square on New Years Eve, shopping in the main districts felt calm and quiet in comparison to the cacophony of Saigon. Goods were so plentiful and in convenient locations.  Saigon has many, many of the same goods, but they are all spread out among thousands of tiny stalls and shops.  It is hard to find the time to simply find things quite honestly. 

     Back on the home front, we were able to take the girls to the Dem San water park on a day that Vietnamese children in the whole country were in school.  It was great fun!  Water slides, a wave pool, and a "lazy river" which the girls decided was a circular lap pool in which you could swim very fast with the current.

     Back to routine, things are well.  Yesterday we celebrated Halloween!  Thanks to our friends the Perkins and their timely costume share, Maeve got to be , well, you can see for yourself...  

I went as Candi, the Krispy Kreme server.  Sophie refused to wear a costume.  We still got to trick or treat at faculty apartments and we went to an incredibly hectic Halloween Fair at school where we got to experience our favorite Vietnamese custom of people cutting in front of you in line all of the time.  Maeve and Sophie had fun despite.

     The week of vacation, Maeve, Sophie, and I all went to Well Being, a salon across the street from school, to get our shaggy hair tamed.  All three us us sat in chairs at the same time, and in the middle Sophie said "This is so fun!" (By the way, the total bill was about $8.00) It doesn't surprise me that  at home our favorite new game is salon.  Maeve has made the signs we need to know when the salon is available:

Charles realized why Maeve had asked him "How do you spell treats?" when he saw his addended shopping list:

     Maeve continues to enjoy dance class immensely.  We ordered a pink leotard, tights, and skirt today so she can have the same as her classmates.  Maybe she will blend in. (OK, maybe not...)

I hope you are well.  Drop us a line.