Happy Holidays

Okay, so I began on this blog earlier and then somehow, I lost all that I had written which is really stressful. Thus, what I had original posted has been lost forever, and now I will post completely new thoughts, with a little bit of the old in place.

So, of course, Thanksgiving is not a Hong Kong Holiday, so to be honest it past with little thrills. Well, there was a little excitement. Wednesday, one ETA decided to tackle the task of making a couple of pies (Pumpkin, Sweet Potato, and Pecan) so that we could have some type of Thanksgiving dinner. All was going well, the crust and pies were made from scratch, and they were ready to be put into the oven. The kitchen was reserved from 1-5pm, and we got a late start, thus it was somewhere near 5pm when we finally put the Pecan pies into the oven, and other pies had already been cooking for a couple of minutes. 5pm came and we were kicked out of the kitchen, pies and all. We stood at side with four partially cooked pies, trying to come up with a plan. As I mumbled to myself that such a thing would never happen at BSC, southern hospitality hasn't made it to HK just yet. Suddenly, we remembered that there were two toaster ovens in our dorm that we could use. So we carry the pies all the way across campus, drawing pleasant stares from faculty and students. In the end, the toaster ovens actually worked and the pies turn our terrific. On Thanksgiving Day, we had to put on some activities for the students teaching them about the American holiday, which makes me feel more like an activity coordinator than a teacher. On Friday, we had a wonderful Thanksgiving dinner at KFC. So ends, Thanksgiving 2006.

It truly is the holiday season. I take the 275 bus towards the KCR (Train station), and I pass Tai Po Centre, and notice lights hanging from the sides of some of the small buildings. Santa Clauses face has become inescapable in shopping areas, and decorations for the season have escaped from the storage rooms seemingly over night. The malls have there decked out trees towering from floor to floor, and no one can deny that Christmas is close. I won't be going home for the holidays, but home will be coming to me. My best friend Will is flying in on the 18th, and he will be here through New Years.

Now, random Hong Kong adventures. If you ever find yourself in HK, you have to go see the Chi Lin Nunnery. This gorgeous temple was built without nails, and houses some magnificent statues of Buddha. Photographs of the actual gods was not allowed, so you have to come and see them yourself. Enjoy the pics.

One weekend, I took ride on the Duckling or Junk Boat around the harbour. This is actually a free ride for tourist, so I and a friend took advantage of it.

In this photo, you can see the 7th tallest building in the world, the IFC building.

As for my weekend, I went hiking with the ETA's and the man responsible for raising the funding for our program, Glenn Shive. We first had to take an hour boat ride to one of the smaller islands, and from there we began our journey. One of our colleagues had knee surgery a week or two prior to this trip, but she came along anyway, mostly because we were under the impression that the Hiking would be easy and breezy. So, a couple of us decided to take the trail slowly. Lagging behind turn into a bad idea once we got to a small village. We weren't really sure whether we should go straight or turn. We decided to go straight, which went from being a nice paved trail, to a skinny dirt trail. We passed some cows along our way, and quickly realized that we were lost. A couple that we assumed were locals (All Asians are locals to us) were passing by and we asked them if the trail headed towards the beach. The couple ensured us that we were going the right way, so we kept on. We finally got to a beach that was somewhat empty but beautiful. Yes, we were at the wrong beach. The beach that we were looking for had a string of restaurants on it. So what did we do? What any young Americans would. We kicked off our shoes and enjoyed the beach. I tried to get a cell phone signal to contact someone, and although I found some obscure signal it wasn't any help. Finally, people, who weren't from our group, started to fill up the beach. One of us decided to ask some of gentlemen that had come with their surf boards if they knew how to get to the other beach. The guys said that the other beach was actually just over a small rocky hill to our right. Feeling a little more comfortable, we hung out for a little bit longer, and then headed over the small mountain, assisting our injured friend whenever we could. In the end, we found the beach ate some nasty food, but wonderful french fries, and returned to campus exhausted.

Well, there's my recent adventure. There is much more to come. I will be in mainland China Dec 10th - 15th. Today, I am actually going to get a haircut. I ain't going into China with all this hair. Speaking of my African features. Random story, sometimes we are too lazy to wait for the 275 bus that takes us back to campus, honestly we spend half an hour waiting on this bus when we can just pay four American dollars and take a taxi. One evening, the taxi driver that escorted us home said Jumbo to me, which is I think goodbye or something in Swahili or Zulu or some African dialect. Anyway, just thought that was funny, a Chinese cab driver speaking an African language to me. Well, I hope your Holiday is bright, and meals many, and love ones close. Until I blog again.