A little behind the times.....

So a lot has been happening around here....the long and short of it is; well Real Life. School, errands, and responsibilities have begun again and we are settling into our new life. The girls LOVE their new schools, and Ken is really enjoying the flying. He has been to Vietnam, Malaysia, Singapore and of course China:-) I am having a great time exploring the city, and have qualified my certification here so that I too can work part time. I have gone on 2 amazing hikes, and am hooked. The hiking here is AMAZING, and the best part is that it is literally in our back yard. I have to say that one of my favorite parts about living here is by far the extremes that are available to us.....the amazing outdoors, and an amazingly vibrant city. We could not have asked for a better environment for the girls to grow up in.

Today we went to an area in Western Kowloon in the New Territories called the Wet Lands.....it was interesting to say the least, and my highlight of the trip was renting a rickshaw....or as we call it; the Hong Kong mini van. The girls enjoyed catching goldfish with nets (and eventually they gave up on those and just used their hands:-) , horseback riding, and ice-cream. It was an experience, and we all enjoyed the day.

We have explored a lot of the city, and the girls are HUGE fans of Sham Shui Po, or as I call it Hong Kong Target. You can find anything you want or don't want in an area that is fun for all. There is an entire area for electronics, so Ken is happy, a toy area and the best are the bead shops.....or shall I say bead bins in an alley.

Well off to referee a battle of epic proportions...(some things don't change even on the other side of the world:-).

Erika

Special Guests and the REALLY BIG BUDDAH....

Today was an amazing day for a variety of reasons. First the Gavins from Shanghai (via Memphis) came for a fun filled day that could not have been more fun!!! The girls were so excited to see not only Patrick, who they love, but also to see Cathy one of Ava's FAVORITE people. We met at the Tung Chung station which is also a mall (which is almost every MTR station) , of course not just any mall, but the City Center Outlet mall ....but don't get all excited THESE outlets are the ones where even the outlet sales are more expensive the I am willing to spend on almost anything:-) An outlet for Juicy is seriously like false advertising...but whatever we are close to Shenzen:-)

Anyway it was great' the kids saw each other and it was if no time had past. They were immediately chasing each other and squealing like only 3-7 year olds can do. It was so precious Patrick and Jordyn where still boy friend and girl friend and help hands....only cute while they are 7 by the way:-) It was great to hang out and catch up with Gary and Cathy as well.

We proceeded to the line to get into line to buy our tram tickets. On a side note the Chinese LOVE lines....we line up for everything, and I have to say it is one of the most efficient and quick lining up processes ever. There are lines for anything and everything you can imagine.....we spend a lot of time here snaking around the pole barriers following 300 of our closest friends. That said I still think that the Chinese are some of the most orderly, patient and efficient societies....no body bitches or moans. They just wait...now don't get me wrong their is a lot of pushing when it is time to load, but that is more for packing I think....the more you push the more you can shove on the bus/train ect:-)

We waited and snaked and then were moved into the ticket lines where we waited and snaked and then moved on to the actual line for the tram where we waited and snaked (seriously people I am not making this stuff up) until we were loaded into our tram. It was AMAZING we were suspended like seriously high and proceeded up the mountain around the bend up another mountain and then down for 25 minutes of breathtakingly beautiful scenery. And we were not even at the main attraction yet. Once we got off the Tram we arrived in a little village that was amazingly commercialized...but it had subway, Starbucks, and Euro Cafe so we stopped for lunch. after lunch we headed up the path to the area where you walk up to the Buddah. That would be 305 steps up to see the Buddah (thanks to Patrick for meticulously counting for us). And wow it was cool. You had a birds eye of the surrounding mountains with Tai O (the stilt fishing village) in the distance. Not only that but inside the actual Buddah were gorgeous artwork and the Buddist writings that were transcribed into Chinese from the original Sanskrit texts. Most of these texts are long lost, so with their amazing artistry it was so neat to see this ancient relic. Cathy and I both were talking about how living in the US we see historical items in hundreds of years, but here in China we see historical items that are thousands of years....pretty amazing journey if you ask me:-0 After hanging at the top for a while and getting our complimentary ice cream and water (which we paid for at the base of the Buddah:-) We headed home. It was fun to have another tram ride to look forward to, and inspired the kids to keep going:-)

So that my friends was how we spent our day......Good Night until the next time.

Erika

Our Apartment....home sweet home

The Girls rooms





















The Kitchen and Living room














Our front door!!

Lets review a moment...

So we arrived at 6 pm on the 23rd of November after a fairly painless 24 hours of traveling. The girls were ROCK stars....okay they were so psyched that they could actually watch 15 hours of straight TV that we nary heard a peep from our two eldest children. Addie was easily entertained either sleeping or wandering around meeting and greeting the fabulous flight attendants who kept her well fueled through out the flight which, if you know Addie, kept her VERY happy:-)

After we arrived and gathered our 12 (yes we do not apparently travel light) bags we wandered the terminal for about an hour trying to figure out who / where our driver was. Thank Goodness for the Mullin family who was able to steer us in the right direction and we were PACKED (literally) into the hire mini van and transported to the hotel. We were pleasantly surprised by the suite, which overlooked the Harbor and was steps from the Star Ferry (more to come on this later). After grabbing a quick McDonalds dinner (it was late we had three children please do not judge:-) we returned to our room to discover that we got to witness the Harbor Lights and Laser show with a front row seat....pretty cool to say the least. We then settled down and everyone had a dose of Melatonin and we all went to sleep.....the girls slept until 5:15 which is not bad for this first night in a new time zone.

We awoke found Starbucks across the street and then set off with our Realtor Herman on our whirlwind quest to find a house. We began in an area called Tung Chung which is literally right next to the airport.....We saw 2 apartments that completely were not going to work for us, and then we were off to Discovery Bay.

In order to get to Discovery Bay we took the Star Ferry from Kowloon across the Harbor (like7 minutes) to the Main Pier. from there you get on this high speed ferry and ride about 15 to 20 minutes to Lantau Island's Discovery Bay. The scenery is mind blowing as you ride through the Harbor. There are a LOT of HUGE freighters coming and going, cruise ships, other ferries, and the occasional really small fishing boat. The terrain is magnificent, with large mountainous hills that make up Hong Kong and the outlying islands....it is green and lush ( which was surprising for such a large city.) Well enough for know.....I have to go to bed, but will continue more tomorrow:-) Night Night !!

Erika

And We are LIVE!!

Okay so I apologize to all, but though our move around the world was fairly seamless there were a few little snafus; one being our inability to access our blog page in English....I could do Cantonese or even Mandarin, but English was just not in the cards until we discovered the beauty of the VPN...so now we are ONLINE!!!

Where do I begin??? WE LOVE IT HERE. We live in an outlying island community called Discovery Bay on Lantau Island. It is family friendly with parks and greenspaces galore for the kids to play in. We live in a high rise on the 9th floor, which is really only the 5th or so floor, but that is for another blog about culture. We have about 1100 square feet with 3 bedrooms, and surprisingly it is just the right amount of room. The little girls are sharing a room with bunk beds which they dig, and Jordyn has a loft bed all her own. The kitchen is nice, and fairly functional....it includes our washerdryer.....yes I meant to make that one word since it is one tiny machine. The laundry is going to be the P I A here in HK. I have 3 little girls who like to change 3 times a day plus Ken and I and any other sheets towels or incidentals, oh and did I mention that our W/D is the size of a hamster wheel. So, lets just say I am ALWAYS doing laundry!!! Oh well.

The girls are all in school, and we are pleased with both of their placements. Addie is too young for anything but a play group....and well I am not going to pay tuition to go and play with my 3rd kid. Sorry Addie mommy does love you, but been there done that, and No need to do that again:-) Jordyn is in Lantau International, which is a trip. It is on the southern part of the Island in the back of an actual fishing village....not bells and whistles here, but EXCELLENT teachers and curriculum:-) Ava will be attending Discovery Minds Kindergarten 5 afternoons a week. She is in the Bi lingual program and will have 1 English teacher and 1 Mandarin teacher we are super excited for her to get such great exposure to the language and culture. She gets to wear a super cute uniform, and so all are happy:-)

Ken and I are enjoying our time....Ken leaves on his first trip on Tuesday and returns Friday at midnight. He is super excited, though is a little scared that he has forgotten how to fly in the past 4 weeks:-) We have done a little exploring of the city and will leave that for another blog. So time to take the girls to the park before they kill each other!! Will blog more later:-)

Erika