Ritzy Weekend, My Class, and Turtle Cove

Last weekend was awesome. One of the other R2 teachers' husband is a chef at a fancy restaurant in Kowloon called D. Diamond. Other R2 teachers and spouses went there for dinner on Saturday. The waiters brought out several plates of great appetizers for us, and then we ordered lovely dinners. (I had pumpkin ravioli with black truffles.) We had the whole top floor of the restaurant to ourselves, and stayed there for hours talking. Afterwards, he took us to the restaurant that originally brought him to HK as a chef. It was called Felix, at the Peninsula Hotel. It was seriously the coolest thing ever. The elevator that took us up to it dimmed right before it reached the floor to set the mood. Inside, the bar went up in two spirals, one on each side, and there were amazing views of Hong Kong from everywhere (even the bathrooms!). In the bottom part of the spirals there was a fancy little room just for chilling champagne, and a cigar room with leather seats and vintage wine bottles covering the walls. We all had a glass of champagne on top of the spiral bar before going home- just my style!

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Photo of my class- yes, there are only 17 kids! Woohoo!
Photo of the little beach that's very close to our apartment. It's called Turtle Cove, and there are about a million stairs you have to go down to get to it.

Hiking

Sunday afternoon we went hiking with the other AP and his wife. Hiking is huge in Hong Kong. We ventured off to the Tai Tam country park. There are hundreds of miles of hiking trails around Hong Kong. Over 50% of Hong Kong has been designated green space (country parks).

We hiked a two hour loop that had numerous lookouts (see the pictures). There is even a route that we could take to get from our apartment to school. It would take about an hour but apparently numerous teachers hike home during the cooler months.



The majority of the trails are paved with occasional sections of rock, dirt, and clay. We had a great time bonding with Bruce (the other associate principal) and his wife Pat (head of the math department at the high school). They are avid hikers and will hopefully become regular trail partners.

We were grateful to have our pool to cool off in following the hike. The humidity is quite high here. We are adjusting, but we look forward to the cooler months of the fall.

Orientation & Observations about HK

Above is a photo of beautiful wooden turtle compasses that HKIS gave us last week at orientation.  For the explanation behind them, watch Mr. Holland's Opus.  Last week's orientation was great-- as were all the meals they fed us!  This week will be more planning and setting up our classrooms, then families come on Monday & Tuesday to meet their teacher, see the classroom, and do paperwork.

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Some Observations about HK so far:

1. Locals like sparkly clothing and accessories, and it is appropriate to wear sparkly things day or night.

2. The milk tastes funny here.

3. There is a process for everything, and every company has a stamp/seal that is constantly used for paperwork.  That being said, these processes make things like getting an ID card or transferring a car title very smooth, especially considering the population density here.

4. The electric water heater in our bathroom usually doesn't give me hot water the whole time I'm showering.

5. People provide very polite service here.

6. The MTR here is the best, cleanest, and easiest to use that I've ever seen.

7. It is difficult to use round plastic chopsticks to pick up slippery food.

8. Helpers allow non-helpers to get on the bus first in our apartment complex, which makes me feel ashamed.

9. Everything is available in green tea flavor/scent (ex: ice cream, kleenex, doughnuts, etc.).

10. Staying in your lane on the road and following posted speed limits are optional.

Happy Anniversary to Us!

Orientation started Monday for our new jobs here at HKIS. Things have been going well so far, but we've been a bit bombarded by paperwork as with any new job. We had quite a long day or orientation yesterday, but we still made time to celebrate our 2nd wedding anniversary together. We took a trip to the market together on the way home and bought cards, champagne, and flowers. (Normally, we wouldn't have done this together, but time, transportation, and knowledge of the area are a bit limited at the moment.)

Then we got dressed up and went to a lovely Italian restaurant in town for dinner. The restaurant and the food were decadent. There were glitzy chandeliers, velvet seats, and orchids in silver vases on every table. We shared a lobster pasta and steak with tellegio sauce- delicious!Our Italian waiter entertained us while we ate. He would walk over to the guy playing piano when we wasn't busy serving us. The waiter would stand there and pretend to play the drums and make quiet drum sounds while the pianist played his baby grand. It was a hilarious contrast to his formality when serving us.

What a great beginning to year 3 of being married to my favorite person in the world!

Goldfish Markets, Typhoons, and Cardboard Boxes

I've been meaning to add to our blog for a few days now, but things have been so busy! Luckily (or not), work was cancelled today because of a typhoon coming to HK. We are in a stage T8 of Hong Kong's warning system, which means everything shuts down and everyone goes home. The heavy winds are quite loud trying to come through our windows and doors, so sleeping last night wasn't particularly easy. The rain has been varying from light and steady, to so heavy we can't see the mountains out our windows.

Last weekend, Nate and I went over to Kowloon. Kowloon can easily be reached by MTR, taxi, ferry, etc. from Hong Kong Island. We chose to take the MTR to get there- which, by the way, is the cleanest, nicest subway I've ever ridden. Being the planner I am, I had consulted guidebooks and decided on some local markets for us to visit before going to dinner. We walked down bustling streets, attempting to find elusive street signs, sweating in the humidity even at 8 o'clock at night. We first went to the flower market, whose fragrant smell preceded it in the streets. Two or three streets were filled with wholesale flower vendors, with every kind of flower imaginable. Some had elaborate arrangements available, others were single stems to be arranged by the purchaser.

From the flower market, we walked to the famous goldfish market. Chinese believe that when a fish dies, it takes away bad luck or evil spirits or something, so a lot of families and businesses have aquariums and fish here. HKIS even has koi ponds on each campus. The goldfish market is a whole street lined with fish and fish supplies. It's pretty amazing. Nate and I saw beautiful tropical fish in brilliant colors, "Nemo fish," and plenty of common goldfish. They also had tiny little turtles in some of the stores.



After getting our fill of the markets, we headed to a trendy tapas restaurant on the waterfront of Kowloon that overlooks Hong Kong Island. We walked along the waterfront's "Avenue of the Stars," which has handprints of all the famous HK movie stars in the sidewalk. We took the Star Ferry back to HK Island, which has been a staple in the harbor for over 100 years. (The ferry ride was about 25 cents US!)



In other news, our shipment arrived from the US on Monday, after 8 weeks of travel on a slow boat to China. We happily received all 54 cardboard boxes, and amazingly have not found a single item to be broken. Unfortunately, some of our belongings smell faintly of eau de cardboard box, but I'm sure that will clear out before too long.

Photos!

View directly out our wall of windows in the living room



Amanda on the balcony...can you tell she's excited?



Nate looking out from our balcony (checking out the tennis courts, of course)








The busy Causeway Bay area, near our hotel. Look at all those people (who seemingly have no clear walking patterns in the streets)!

Bright lights and big billboards



That's not the camera flash making the photo look bright- it really looks that way at night in Causeway Bay!

Shopping!

So I'm at the school now borrowing their internet because ours still isn't set up yet at home. I'm practically helpless without it. As soon as it's set up, I promise we'll put up more photos, because let's be honest- that's what everyone's really interested in!

Nate and I went shopping in nearby Aberdeen at a place called Horizon Plaza on Monday. We pulled up to a very plain building (I would say it was tall, but is 28 floors even considered tall here?), and I wondered if we were in the right place. Inside, however, was furniture heaven. We were advised by collegues to start at the top and work our way down, so we took the lift all the way up to floor 28 to a store called "Tree." Tree was trendy and full of beautiful natural-looking woods and fabrics which we were very happy to find out were recycled. It definitely turned out to be our favorite store!

We looked in many other stores up and down the 28 floors, with styles including everything from antique Chinese to very modern. We were quite successful in our venture, finding virtually all of the furniture we needed. I am so excited- we bought things that are real wood! (Forget IKEA and veneer!!) We got some good prices, especially considering the quality! In addition to that, delivery is quite cheap here. The stores we bought from had delivery/assembly fees of $12-$30. You can hardly order a pair of shoes for that kind of shipping in the US!

We get our first delivery today, a couch from Tree...I can't wait! It's going to be like Christmas over the next few weeks!