Almasy Fam arrives

Jen here. Roy's theory seems to be true. His theory of Familial Gravity. The more family living in a certain area, the stronger the pull is to bring more family to that area. :) Dan was the first. Then Christie. Then Roy and me. And now Dale. Yay!

Dale arrived in Seattle near the end of October. We are so glad he decided to move out here and know that God is using it for good for him. Dale is renting the house with us (and one other housemate), and it is nice to have him around. He is friendly and fun and I know Roy enjoys having family near. Dale was able to get a job working for the same company we all do and has

really taken to coaching students in Chess and helping out in the office with IT.

A few weeks after Dale arrived, Mom and Dad Almasy graciously drove Dale's packed truck from Michigan to Washington. The drove at a pretty quick pace, but were able to stay for about a week. We loved it!

We all still had work while they visited but tried to squeeze in as much as we could. And while we were at work, Mom and Dad transformed our landscaping, weeded gardens and cleaned up the garage. I was amazed at all the work they did. Thank you, Mom and Dad! :) What a blessing it was to have them...and not just for the work. :) We loved their company.

One morning, Mom, Dad and I went to the REI in Seattle. Another morning Mom and I went to Pike's Place Market in downtown Seattle. That weekend before they headed home, we went for an AMAZING hike in God's creation--at Mt. Rainier. I cannot praise God enough for His beautiful creation...especially with Mt. Rainier in front of me. Wow.

Thanks, Mom and Dad, for coming to visit!!

Mom at Lamma Island

Jen here. And the Mom-visit saga continues...There is a beautiful side to HK, believe it or not. A scenic side. Thus, we took Mom to Lamma Island. Yes, it's not most-scenic or most-beautiful, but it is close and scenic. :)

Lamma Island is a small island of HK south of Hong Kong Island (where we live). We took a mini-bus to Aberdeen (Chinese name means son of Hong Kong...) and caught a ferry to Lamma. While waiting for the ferry, a woman offered to take us to Lamma via a junk for a small price ($150HK). See photo of a junk at right: We turned her down and took the ferry for about $50 total.









Due to our late start, the small ferry schedule and plans made later that evening, we only had 1.5 hours to hike, so we booked it. Lamma Island is known for its hiking trails and seafood restaurants. You can easily ferry to one side of Lamma, hike across the island and ferry home from the other side of Lamma. The trail we hiked was paved but we got to stop and walk around in the sand at a beach along the way.















The views were nice and there weren't too many people. I almost forgot I was a ferry ride away from 7 million people packed into skyscrapers. :) The terrain was green and hilly. Being an island, we saw many a rock-lined coast. It was nice. Check out this photo...beautiful, eh? Little do you know that just to the left, there is a huge power plant, which I strategically did not include in the photo. Now you know.

At the ferry pier there are numerous seafood restaurants ready to feed hungry, hiking tourists a full assortment of seafood...and you can even choose the creatures you want them to kill and cook right there. The servers tried to lure us in, but we could not be swayed, for we had to get back to HK Island right away. We enjoyed the hike, but were a little sad we didn't have time for a seafood feast. Ciao!

Games with Mom

Jen here. Mom left over a month ago, but I still want to write more about her stay. :) We so enjoyed having company; Mom was a little taste of home and familiarity.

Roy and I wanted to have Mom's stay be similar to a holiday celebration. We'd have lots of snacks around, lounge on the couch, talk and play games. So we did. We played many a Scrabble game and a few other choice games as well (Rummikub, Pounce, Chinese Chess). Check out our travel-size Scrabble board in the photo. Also, notice the yellow chess clock on the side? Yeah, we used it to ensure I would not take hours to make my next word...It was needed.








Another fun aspect of Mom's visit was that she got to see our everyday life. Roy and I still had Chess classes to teach and our normal life happening, so Mom got to experience that. We made sure to take a few rides on the tram and walk along the streets of the less-touristy HK. Here's a bike Mom shot a photo of...we see these all the time. Did you know this bike can carry three propane tanks? Yes, one hanging on each side of the rear tire and one in the front basket? Interesting way to transport propane tanks, eh?










Roy often mentions the unique blend of new world and old world ways in HK. They have trucks, cars, cranes, construction equipment, etc...but in order to transport bricks up the large set of steps by our apartment, they put them in baskets, hang two baskets on a stick that is put over their shoulders and then haul them up the steps two at a time. They do this all the time (not just with bricks). One evening, Roy had two bags packed full of chess sets, a printer, chess clocks, etc...and he had to bring them home (and this route entails many steps). So, he borrowed one of the bamboo sticks that the workers used to carry the bags up to our apartment. I didn't know about this until the next day when Roy said he needed to return it. We snapped a picture then. Enjoy!

Food, Food, Food

Jen here. Hong Kong is a great place for food. And boy do I mean great. If you want it, you can get it. Name it, it's here. Chinese (all styles), Japanese, Vietnamese, Indian, Italian, Greek, South African, Mediterranean, Philippino and American--and that's not even all. It's just all that my naive food-mind knows of.

Here are the two dishes we ate at Stoep, an African/Mediterranean restaurant on Cheung Sha Beach: Roy had the rainbow trout(check out how he ate it right off the bones!) and I had fish and chips (yes...I'm not very risky...)

God has been good to me in exposing me to more things. I used to be such a picky eater...but since going to college, marrying Roy, moving to Seattle and now living in Hong Kong, I eat way more things than I used to.

Here are my favorite foods to eat here in HK:

Vietnamese Pho in Quarry Bay. There's tiny restaurant near our church that a few of our friends from church introduced us to. Sure, the first time we were there, there were a few bugs crawling under the glass table-top...but the old lady with the silver tooth who works there is so sweet and always smiles at me. One time she even brought me and Roy forks and napkins (napkins are rare in restaurants--you have to bring your own). How sweet!

Gai dan zai, also known as bubble waffles to me. :) It's like I'm at the Ross County fair every day! I can just walk into our local Park N Shop and tell the lady "Ngoh yue yat ghoh gai dan zai (I want one egg waffle)" and I have an instant, hot, chewy waffle of sorts. I love them! If you come visit, I will definitely buy one for you! :)

Dim sum, but that goes without saying. Who doesn't like dim sum? Little bits of many hot dumplings and rolls full of veggies, meat, seafood, etc. Mmm...

Omelets and tomato soup from The Flying Pan. The only 24-hour breakfast joint in HK, or so they say, and I love it. It's more sentimental to me than it is delicious. I mean, the food is good. A big omelet, with homemade tomato soup (made with real tomatoes), toast and fruit juice, who couldn't like? I enjoy it immensely, but mainly because it reminds me of Coney Islands in Flint, Michigan. It's a sense of home for me there. Breakfast in the evening, in a diner, with Roy, with friends, ah. Familiarity.

A burger at Fatburger. Believe it or not, it's been difficult to find a good burger in HK. Not impossible, but difficult. We tried Freshburger, but it was so not fresh...so frozen and nasty. And sure, there's McDonald's, but I want to real burger, with a thick patty. We tried some other western restaurants, but their burgers were like Red Robin--expensive and not that great either. And finally, we found Fatburger. Sounds so nutritious, right? We don't eat it very often, but when we're desiring a burger, we now know where to go. Mmm...

I'll take a break from listing my favorite foods in HK. I could go on and on. I enjoy having a home here...so that we can eat at home, make our own food the way we like it, try to cook new things and when we want to, we can go out to eat and try something new.

One of the hardest things in moving to HK was staying in the hotel for two weeks while we found an apartment. I know, my life is so difficult (sarcasm)...but really. To be at the mercy of all these strange and unusual restaurants and flavors was super hard for me. I longed to cook my own food, from familiar ingredients. And now, I can. :)

So, if you come visit, fear not, for I can cook normal, delicious food for you out of the same (or nearly the same) ingredients you use at home!