Visitor!

Jen here. We had a visitor in Hong Kong! Roy's mom stayed with us for about 11 days and we had such a great time! I'll detail her stay over multiple posts. Enjoy!

Mom arrived late Friday night (April 9). The next day we headed to Repulse Bay and Stanley Market for a small tourist experience. Stanley Market is a normal touristy market--lots of shops with nicknacks, chopsticks, Hong Kong souvenirs, shoes, clothing, scarves, etc. It is usually crowded, especially on a Saturday. We looked in many of the shops, but nothing jumped out at us. None of us are big spenders.

We stopped off at Repulse Bay Beach on our way home (Mom got to ride her first mini bus to the beach) and took photos, etc. I love seeing even just a little bit of nature. It's so rare to me...last year in Seattle, I saw the gorgeous mountains everyday on my way to work...and frequently watched the sun set on the ocean. Ahh... But this year, I have to put forth more effort to admire God's creation (the nature part). Repulse Bay is a little snapshot of that.

After our beach extravaganza, we crossed the street and visited our much-loved Marketplace at Jasons (a grocery store). The Marketplace is reasonably priced and has more western foods than our local Park N Shop. We showed Mom the different food options (including shelf milk, dried seafood soup packets, etc) and did a little shopping ourselves and then headed home.

It was so nice to have family visit. :)

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!

Lantau Get-Away

Jen here. Welcome to Cheung Sha Beach, Lantau Island. It is located southwest of Pui O and South of Tung Chung. I think. :)

Roy and I spent a few days here for a wonderful holiday just after Easter. There were few people, practically no cars, few buses and NO skyscrapers to be seen. Praise our Creator! What a blessing it was to exit HK Island and chill on a little-name beach for two days. Ah...

We stayed at a place called Palm Beach, where the employees were very friendly and the neighbor kids came down to play everyday after school like they were family. Our night-time accommodation was a tipi--we had the larger one. Another couple had already reserved the 12 foot tipi, so we reserved the 16 foot tipi. We wanted an adventure and we got a small one. :)

On the first day we ate dinner at a African/Mediterranean Restaurant just down the beach. Roy had rainbow trout (which we had never eaten before) and I got fish and chips. He received the trout whole on his plate and got to eat the meat off the bones. Glad I didn't order it! :) My fish and chips were delicious. As we ate we marveled at how different Lantau Island is from Hong Kong Island. We only traveled 2 hours from home and there's already a different feel!

That night, the two guard dogs kept waking us up by their barking at rabbits, birds and the random water buffalo walking down the beach. (Yes, water buffalo) Roy knew they were barking at nothing, but my imagination had the dogs barking at packs of wolves or burglars or something. Oh fears. Go away.

The next day we decided to rent kayaks and go out on the water. There was virtually no wind, so the water was calm. We paddled out to a small island about 30 minutes away and looked for a way to pull in, but there were rocks around the whole island so we just chilled in the water and ate a snack. It was fun to kayak once again. The last time we kayaked was in Seattle at Lake Washington just before we moved to HK. Familiarity.

We spent much time chilling on lawn chairs and just enjoying the quiet. It was a really nice rest. We read, played Scrabble and talked with the employees a little. In talking with the other couple that stayed there, we found out they also lived in Kennedy Town on HK Island! How funny. :) They were in their 20s (I think) and from the UK, but were recently from Australia. It was fun chatting with them.

As our last adventure before heading back to HK Island, we decided to hike to the top of Lantau Peak. Being short on time, we took a bus to the pass and hiked to the top from there. Our one-way hiking distance was about 2.5 km and at least 2 km of that was steps. Lots of steps. I absolutely loved the hike. It was exhausting but exhilarating. We were so high up (compared to being at sea level) and the air was cool. It was foggy, cloudy, breezy and misty, which gave our trek an epic feel. At every turn or ridge I would pause and take a huge breath with my eyes closed, just trying to soak up the beauty of it all. Oh how amazing it was. How amazing our Gd is. Mm..

We made it to the top, took a few pictures (before the battery died) and headed back down. We had little time! Oh what a marvelous hike. I can't wait to hike again!

More later...

The Process of Getting Away

Jen here. Our getaways this year have been limited (though we don't have a long history...only married 2.5 years). With Roy's work, we are busy during the school week and when students have holidays we are even busier with all-day camps. We don't get out of HK much (and we so need that!).

Like I said in our last post, we had 4 red days for easter (Sat-Tues). We pondered going to China, but we waited too long to get our visa. Hence, we had to remain in HK. Alas! What shall we do? So Roy proposed that we go on a little trip, even just overnight somewhere off Hong Kong Island. I have a long list of approved hotels and guesthouses, so I began calling to find out their rates. What an adventure. So many of the people spoke little english, so I had to pull out my Cantonese dictionary to find how to say guestroom. I called and called and called. It was difficult for me--I hate awkward situations!! Here's how a typical phone convo went:

Ring...
Receiver: Wai (Chinese way to say hello on the phone)
Me: Hello
R:Wai
Me: Hi. Um... I am calling to find out if you have any rooms available
R: Mei? (What?)
Me: Um... I...
Click
Me: Hello?



I literally called at least 50 numbers. I mean, if most of the convos are 15 seconds long, you can get a lot of calling done, right?

Once I broke out my Cantonese, the convos went like this:
Ring...
R:Wai
Me: Yau mo ban gun a? (Do you have a guesthouse?)
R:Mei? (What?)
Me: Yau mo ban gun a?
Click

or

Ring...
R:Wai
Me: Yau mo ban gun a?
R: Yau (Have)
Me: Gay dor chin a? (How much is it?)
R: saam baat ng sap mon ($350)
Me: saam...baat...ng...sap... mon... (trying to comprehend the numbers)
R: three hundred fifty dollars
Me: Oh ok, thanks *laughs* Is the room available tonight?
R: Gum maan a? (tonight?)
Me: Hai a (yes)

Believe it or not, there was one convo where we communicated decently in Cantonese (with a little English thrown in)...and a few others where the people spoke great english.

In between calls, I did some searching online for places to kayak. Roy and I have been kayaking a few times in the states and we enjoy it! On that rabbit trail of kayaking I heard of a place called Palm Beach. Palm Beach is a water sports company on Lantau Island (the larger but less populated of HK Islands). Aside from the water sports equipment, one thing makes them unique. They have tipis (teepee). You can have a get together with friends/family for the evening or even stay in one overnight. How cool!

I tossed the idea to Roy and he said, "Let's do it. It'll be an adventure!" I called, booked a tipi (that's how they spelled it...) and we packed and headed to the ferry. I was so excited!!!

(On our way there, we passed cows grazing along the road...the road where huge busses zoomed by! The cows didn't even flinch when the bus passed. What? Strange...)

Easter

Jen here. Our Easter in HK was different, yet familiar in a strange kind of way. Last year we visited HK during Easter--it was our visit to see what HK was all about and to see whether we would be interested in living there for the next year. As you know, we decided to go for it and move to HK.

Here we are in Hong Kong in Easter. Everything's different now. Last year we found a small evangelical church to attend and got to hear the Cantonese sermon translated into English via headphones. This year we attend a large english-speaking church, with pastors from Texas. :) Last year we were living out of our suitcases, this year we have a whole apartment to ourselves. Last year we taxied, walked or were escorted by private car everywhere we went (Camilla and I chose to walk a lot!); this year we have octopus cards and use all forms of transportation, including those funny-looking mini buses (my favorite).

We rejoice in hearing of baptisms at MHC in Seattle--and so wish we were there! We missed the baptisms last year too! Island ECC (our ch in HK) held baptisms as well, and it was a time of rejoicing. My side of the family traveled to visit my sister and fam in Virginia...oh how we wish we were there as well!

With Roy working here, we are aware of the "red days", which are days of public holiday. Most people get the red days off. We love red days. :) Easter last year brought a week off of teaching for me while we were in Hong Kong. For Roy it was a mix of work (camps) and tourism. Easter this year brings camps, tournaments...and a few red days. This year we got 4 red days (for Easter and a Chinese holiday, the Ching Ming Festival, I believe). We got to have a short adventure for two of those four days...more to come later :)

The ISF Academy 2010 Chess Open

Jen here. March 27th was a big day for Chess4Life | Hong Kong. We held our first large tournament, partnering with one of our schools, The ISF Academy. We watched the sign-up numbers grow and knew this would be big, especially for Roy, head honcho of all things Chess in ActiveKids.

114 kids signed up and we had three sections: Secondary (~12-18), Primary (~7-11) and 6 and under (4-6). I don't remember the final number of schools that turned up, but I believe it was in the teens or twenties.

The day began early, with Roy and me arriving at the school by 7:15am. Check-in would start at 9:30am, and the first round at 10am. Logistically, our goal was to keep things moving--on-time or ahead of time. Tournaments that run behind are difficult for staff, students and parents. No one wants that!

The week prior, Roy trained me and three other staff to be floor tournament directors (I got to watch over the 4-6 year olds!) and The ISF Academy provided multiple parent volunteers that were so helpful in everything from helping students to read pairings, record results, pass out meal vouchers and round up students for the next round. The ISF Academy principal was a vital part of the success of the day as well. Praise God for providing all this help!

And now for my little tidbits of the day. Chess tournament halls are supposed to be quiet, right? Roy did a great job setting the tone for the day (fun, and quiet) and the students (especially my little ones) were very quiet. Sure, there was the occasional student yelling, "Check!" or "Illegal move, take it back!" but all in all, they did well.

When students completed their games, they were instructed to quietly walk with their opponent to the results table to record their result. This table was about 30 feet away from where the 4-6 year olds played their games. Almost every pair of kids would say, "okay" and then run to the results table(feet pounding the gym floor)! A few times, one student's opponent would head toward the results table first, and every time she would yell, "Hey, wait for me!" and run to catch up with her opponent. Oh kids. They made me smile multiple times and laugh out loud at other times.

Between rounds the students could hang out in the Skittles room (Cafeteria) or play outside. Once the students heard the next round was beginning, there was a stampede to the tournament hall. :) Many of my 4-6 year olds would come in fresh from the soccer court, sweating and out of breath.

The kids did an excellent job. My little ones ended up playing 7 rounds of Chess in one day, as did the primary kids. The secondary only played 5 rounds (they had longer rounds). We handed out many trophies and saw many students excel.

After the tournament, we were exhausted (all staff included). Once we packed everything up, a few of us decided to get dinner before heading home. I felt a camaraderie among our staff as we spent all day working and then had time to chat and get to know one another more at dinner. It was a fun day! Roy and I got home around 8pm and went straight to bed! What a day!

More Ms of HK

After writing my first "M" post, I asked Roy for "m" words and he listed off at least 50! I missed so many words, I should be ashamed. :) Here are some more:

MTR- the underground train (aka: subway or metro for US people); So easy to get almost everywhere, except where we live. :) We can take the MTR most of the way and then catch a multitude of buses the last leg home.

Mong Kok- MTR stop where one of Roy's Chess classes is located. It is also home to the "Ladies Market", an outdoor market where you can buy anything from racing jackets and sunglasses to jade buddhas and Chinese wall hangings. Purchases thus far: backpack, wall hangings, jade dragon, and wall hangings.

M47- one of the many buses we can catch to Central, the location of IFC Mall (so western) and Exchange Square (bus depot)

Money-HK money is so colorful. See the photo: The $100 is red, many of the $20s are blue, some are green, $50s are green, $10s are purple and pink, $500s are brown and $1000 are gold-brown. Conversion rate: $1US=$7.8HK

Malaysia- I have met multiple people who are from Malaysia. And apparently just about everyone in Malaysia speaks English, and Malay. Cool.

Wet Market-An outdoor market where you can buy fresh fruits, veggies, raw meet and even cooked foods. They are everywhere! It seems each district has it's own. The first time I went to one to buy stuff, I dropped my wallet and left without knowing it!! Oh no! I was in the Park N'Shop getting ready to buy a few things and...no wallet! I rushed back, scanning the ground and as I went. As soon as I walked onto the floor that had fruits and veggies one of the men flagged me down and told me he turned my wallet into the office. He showed me to the office where I had an interesting time communicating with the officer. He had my HK ID card out, could clearly see my photo and I still had to identify somehow that it was mine. Hmm...how many other blondie girls with brown eyebrows has he seen in Kennedy Town? No, I was actually praising Gd that I received my wallet back! Just a few days prior I memorized my HKID number...and had just learned how to say my numbers in cantonese. So I started out "chat baat....etc etc...luk" hooray! It was my ID after all! Everything was still in my wallet--money, ID card, octopus card (which has money on it useful on public transportation, at 7-Eleven, McD's, Park N'Shop and various other places), etc. Yay!

Motion-sickness-Roy gets this while he's on the double-decker bus heading up to his classes on the Peak. No fun. :)

Movies- We've seen two Asian-made movies in theater and both were not the greatest. One was just really sad (Hyundae--a mega-tsunami hits South Korea) and the other was just...ugh (Warrior and the Wolf). The Warrior and the Wolf just left us thinking, what happened? What's going on? Huh? I'm confused... Must be a lot of cultural stuff we don't know. :)

Miss- family, friends, washington's beautiful mountains, the Puget Sound, cool clean air, the sunset on the corn fields in Circleville, riding my bike, driving a car (but not getting it fixed), Laurelville apple cider, Mom's chocolate chip cookies, and my dear sister Katie. :)

Cantonese Class

Jen here. I've mentioned my Cantonese class in passing, so today I will tell you all about it! I don't know why, but I desire to learn languages. I haven't become fluent in any language (except english), but I have taken classes in Spanish, French, Italian, Sign Language and now Cantonese (I also had a friend teaching me some Mandarin while I was at OU...).

Upon moving to HK, there was no question that I wanted to learn "Chinese", but should I learn Cantonese or Mandarin? Everyone had their opinions. Some said, "Learn Mandarin, because more people in the world speak Mandarin. It's more useful and it's easier than Cantonese. Hardly anyone speaks Cantonese outside of HK and southern China." Others said, "Learn Cantonese; it's the local language." A few said, "You don't need to learn either. You can get around just fine with English." And my friend from China (who taught me some Mandarin) said, "Learn Cantonese, because I don't know it!"

Between this dilemma and trying to find a class to fit my desires(language and $), I put off taking a class until January. In January while searching online I discovered a class that started two days later. I called, signed up and started then!

The class is subsidized by the government and is for minorities. Some of the worksheets we get in class say "Migrant Workers Class". Funny, I didn't know I was a migrant worker. :) It is solely conversation; we aren't learning how to read or write Chinese. The goal is to learn spoken Cantonese useful in daily life. My fellow students are from India, Nepal, Mongolia, Japan, the UK and the Philippines. The ages range from 18 to 50s or 60s. I'd say the median age is 40. Some of the students have lived in HK for 15-20 years and are just now deciding to learn Cantonese (of course they picked a little up along the way). The best part of the deal is the price: $100HK for 50 hours. $100HK is about $14US. I get 50 hours of class for 14 bucks?? Craziness. Here's our class picture:

Our teacher, William, is very patient, fun and enjoys teaching. He answers any questions we have (such as, how do you say "close the door slowly" or "speak quietly" or "duck" or "apple" or "please stop" when you're riding the green minibus--my question) and thoughtfully tells us about HK culture and some Chinese culture. I've learned a lot about China's history through this class!

This photo is from our "yum cha" outing. Yum cha literally means drink tea, but if you say, "Let's go to yum cha", what it really means is "Let's go to a Chinese restaurant and eat dim sum!" We went as a class (not everyone made it) but it was fun. We had so many questions, "How do you say shrimp dumpling? How do you say we need more chopsticks? How do you say red bean soup?" Mmm...it was delicious, filling and only cost us $50HK each (~$8 US)...funny, the cost of yum cha was half of what we paid for the class...

I try to use my Cantonese daily, but I am nervous to! What if they don't understand what I say? What if they do, and I don't understand what they say? :) One of my small group girls is teaching me to say important things, such as "I want one double cheeseburger please" and "Green tea bubble tea, very sweet please". I haven't tried the cheeseburger one, but the next time I go to McD's I will. :)

All in all, I am so thankful to be taking this class and living in another culture with a different language. It's fun and I hope to grow better at speaking Cantonese!

Inter-School Tournament

Jen here. Roy approached the principal and parents of our ISF Academy chess students with the idea of forming a team of students and Roy coaching them as they compete as a school team in local Chess tournaments. All parties being on board, a team was organized and a special team class began in mid-January. Their first team competition? The HK Inter-School Tournament, hosted by HKCF, held Sunday, February 28th (why all day on Sunday? The world may never know...).

I went with Roy to help in any way and to support him--and because I just love to be with him! I know many of the students on the team and am an assistant coach to many of them.

We taxied to the school and arrived at about 8:15am. The tournament room was a large auditorium/gym, and upon inquiring, we discovered they had no rooms available for skittles (aka: a place for students to go when they finish their game, hang out, go over their games, etc). We scouted the open-air hallways for a spot to set up a home base (Thanks to Mike Skidmore for setting such an example for Roy in coaching!) and found one on the floor above the tournament room--4 picnic tables close to the door to the balcony overlooking the gym. As students arrived Roy organized his 12 ISF kids and the rounds began. I've never attended such a tournament; in this one, four kids make up a team and you play a team, sitting shoulder to shoulder with your fellow teammates. Having brought 12 kids, we had three teams.

Between rounds the students reported back to our home base to go over their games, eat a snack and chill. After a while, the parents began hanging out and chatting at our home base (HKCF provided seats to sit inside the tournament hall, so some of our parents were in there for the first few rounds) and I got to meet many of them. They were so excited their children were competing in Chess and growing as a team. Throughout the day they expressed how united the team was and really appreciated Roy's role as coach to the students. :)

The day was long, as the tournament was delayed, finishing an hour or more behind schedule(primary school award ceremony finished at 7:30, secondary had to wait longer). But the kids had a fun time, won many games and grew as a team. The end placing: Our A team earned Second Place, and two students earned trophies for placing in their respective boards. Way to go, ISF Academy!

Nowadays the team is preparing for the first large tournament put on by Chess4Life: The ISF Academy 2010 Chess Open, which will be held March 27th, hosted by the ISF Academy. What an event it will be...please pray for Roy as he is the main TD and organizer of this event--he has many people to organize. Thanks!

Cheung Chau Get-Away!

Jen here. On Chinese New Year's eve, Roy and I packed our stuff and left HK Island for our first get-away since arriving last August. It was much-needed and we praised God for it!

Cheung Chau--one of the outlying islands of Hong Kong--is an old fishing island. I read somewhere that it is the most densely populated outer island. Shaped like a dog bone (see map), most people live in the central part, while the end regions are perfect for hikes. No cars on the island, except for mini emergency vehicles, so all the roads are narrow and there are bikes everywhere.

We stayed in a B & B (more like a hotel than a US B&B) and had a great time. The weather was cold and rainy all 4 of our days there. :( Fortunately we brought coats and umbrellas, and easily face the weather each day. The staff at the B&B always had hot water on hand, so we drank many servings of hot chocolate and tea (which we bought at a Park N Shop on the Island). For breakfast in the morning, we had three choices: soup, eggs (with meat and fruit), and an omelet (with mushrooms and tomatoes, no cheese). Oh, and btw, the "fruit" is a slice of cucumber and a slice of tomato. :) Interesting...

We spent many hours walking along the beach picking up sea glass. Roy loves to do this and this beach was a jackpot for such a thing. There was almost more sea glass than sand (not really)...after seeing it all (and some rubbish with it) we were glad it was too cold to swim.

On our third day there, Roy rented two bikes for us and we zipped around the island, taking in so much more than we saw the two days prior. It was so fun! We biked along the shoreline, past all the little street vendors, past all the tourist shops, past all the locals eating meals and hanging out. We buzzed up the hill (all paths were paved) to a hiking path, where we locked up our bikes and hiked to the "Pirate's Cave", where supposedly an old pirate stored his booty. It was less like a cave and more like a small hole in a rock, but hey, we saw it. The shoreline of the island was full of large tan rocks which the path led us over. At one point the wind caught Roy's hat and rolled it down some of the rocks. After some thinking and investigating, Roy retrieved it and we returned to our bikes and continued on. Up until this day, I thought the island was cool, but a little run down. I mean, if you live in a flat in an apartment complex, who cares how the outside looks? But on our biking expedition, I saw a different side of the island. A side that was quaint and tended to. Neat and painted apartment buildings, brick sidewalks, decorative fences and grass (what's that??). At one point I looked to Roy and said, "This place is kind of cute."

Here are a few more photos of our adventure.
Photo 1: Roy. On our hiking adventure, under a pagoda. Sweet.
Photo 2: Jen on the shoreline. Check out all those boats out there!
Photo 3:The sign in the top left of the photo is to a Christian cementary. I'll translate. No praying to the dead or swinging around those joss sticks. No burning incense. No food offerings (no poultry or veggies, or pigs or fruit--gotta be specific). No fires. Interesting.
Photo 4: One of the many street vendors who cooked food for you on the spot. We ate many a meat on a stick and bubble waffles. Mmm...sounds good right now. The street vendors made for a happening night life. You could eat dinner at a restaurant, or just mosey from street vendor to street vendor. Ciao!

Beginners' Tournament

Jen here. What a weekend. Last Saturday Chess4Life put on a Beginners Tournament. The goal of it: to prepare students for tournaments, teaching them the basics. We had 45 students sign up: 14 kids ages 4-6, 22 kids ages 7-8 and 9 students ages 9-12.

Coach Roy, as I call him due to assisting him with Chess classes, was the TD of the tournament, as well as running the group of 7-8 year olds. I got the pleasure of working with the 4-6 year olds, and a new coach, Philip had the 9-12 year olds.

Every student played 4 games, which each lasted less than 30 minutes(some poor dears lost in but a few minutes...). And in between rounds we taught the students something new about tournament play: reading the pairing chart, recording your result, what to do if you have problems or questions, notating your game, good sportsmanship, etc. The students had new information to apply in each round.

Just before the tournament I taught a small Chess class (two kids) and then taxied with them to the tournament. These kids are adorable. They were so pumped for the tournament! Mom said they talked about it all week and looked forward to it so much. I tried to encourage them on the way to the tournament; they're young and new to chess. Some of the other kids have been taking classes from us since September and have learned quite a bit. These kids started a month or two ago.

Upon arriving to the tournament, I remembered one reason why we wanted to put a cap on the number of students allowed to register: the tournament venue was one primary school classroom, not exactly designed for 45 kids to play chess in, you know? We ended up using two classrooms and the small art room/lab connecting the two rooms. Guess where the little 4-6 year olds with Miss Jenny (or Coach Jenny) ended up? In the art lab. It wasn't a big deal...it was better to have the young kids in a contained area, and it felt cozy.

Short interruption here. Back in university, in my education classes, we talked a lot about flexibility. Teachers must be flexible. Well, being in HK with a husband teaching Chess, I've had many opportunities to be flexible and to grow. This being one.

The students were quite excited and wound up. Upon receiving the 1st round pairings, I started our first teaching lesson, and then began the round. Chess tournaments are supposed to be quiet, right? Yes. Lesson #1. But so many 4-6 year olds don't realize that their talking makes noise. I'm not sure they grasp whispering yet. My TDing in this room consisted of a lot of "shhh..Please stop humming. Remember, Chess tournaments are quiet places. When you check your opponent, you don't have to yell 'check' you can just whisper it. Billy, don't help David with his game, you can lose your game for helping another player. Oh, parents aren't allowed to talk with their kids while they are playing..." You get the idea. Many of the kids' parents were standing at the end of our room watching, which was tough, but good. They were all delighted to see their kids learning Chess.

Some of the kids are so young or have such a short attention span, I was worried they would never complete their games! It was humorous watching some of them play one another. One little 4-year old kept losing focus, or playing with the pieces like they were GI-Joes or something. Other students were able to checkmate their opponents or at least capture all of their opponents pieces--even the king! FYI, you're not allowed to capture the king in Chess. There was many a time when I had to ask a student, "Are we allowed to capture the king in Chess? No...that means your opponent played an illegal move. Let's go back and see what happened." Nevertheless, all of the kids are learning and growing in this area and it's exciting to see their progress.

All in all, the tournament went well. The kids were happy; they all received a trophy. And we finished on schedule. Praise God! :)

Kung Hay Fat Choi!

Jen here. We're one month into the Chinese New Year--Happy Chinese New Year!! (February 14th was the first day of the new year) Kung Hay Fat Choi is the standard greeting for CNY in HK. My Cantonese teacher told my class that it means, "Congratulations getting rich!" It's an interesting holiday, and completely new to us!

In the days leading up to CNY, there are flower markets at some of the major parks in HK. I went to the main one in Victoria Park with a few ladies from a Bible study at church. Roy and I explored it in the evening as well. There were so many people; we were literally pressed up against one another while walking through the aisles!

True to it's name, this market did have many fresh flowers for sale. Beautiful orchids, daisies and much more, they presented a colorful display for our eyes. In addition to the flowers, there were many booths of tiger items--tiger dolls, key chains, hats, bags, shirts, etc. If it has a tiger on it, it was sold here. :) I thought about buying a tiger hat, but I couldn't decide which one! There were at least five different tiger hats sold.

So, why tigers? This year is the Year of the Tiger. The Chinese have twelve different animals that rotate for the years--tiger, rat, boar, dragon, lamb, ox, horse, rabbit, snake, dog, monkey and rooster. Chinese zodiac. Many fortune tellers publish new books each year to tell people their fortune (or misfortune) in the upcoming year. They speak of areas such as love life, work, riches, family, etc. Interesting.

CNY is the largest celebration--similar to Christmas in the US. We didn't really get to celebrate it, because it's a family holiday. All of our HK/Chinese friends spent their days off work going from home to home to home of relatives and close friends, visiting and snacking. Visit after visit after visit.

My Cantonese class teacher has been my main informant on CNY. I'm so glad I'm in that class! There are many "superstitions" (as he calls them), such as:
-cut your hair before CNY
-wear all new clothes for CNY
-do NOT wear new shoes
-wear red underwear (also when you want to have especially good luck, such as for a test in school)...I totally saw red underwear hanging on clothes lines too... :)
-do NOT visit people on the third day of CNY, you'll be more likely to fight with them

I have one funny story to share with you. One day as I was walking from the bus stop to the church, I passed a parking garage. Many of these have guards, and I made eye contact with this particular guard and he smiled, clasped his hands together and in the bowing fashion said, "Kung hay fat choi!" So I returned with my hands clasped, "Kung hay fat choi!" He seemed delighted and said, "Very good" and I continued on my way, smiling. I could not help it. I giggled and smiled about it for the next few minutes. :) How funny. Ciao.

Ms of Hong Kong

Jen here. My sister requested to see more photos, so here are a few more from our tourist adventure to the Peak. The landscape photo is of HK Island (buildings near) and "Kowloon side" as we call it, which is still part of Hong Kong, but is connected to the mainland. The other photo is of a fancy building on top of the peak, shaped like a half-moon. It has a mall inside and an observation deck on the roof. We ate at Bubba Gump's inside this building and looked out at the view through the windows you can see.

The other day I was inspired to write a post listing words beginning with "m" and explain the importance of each word, if necessary. Here goes:


Ms of Hong Kong

Muggy -weather from April - October
Moisture -all over our windows in the winter
Mold -trying to pretend like HK is WA, mold popping up on window sills and outer walls
McDonald’s -first time in many years that I want to eat at McD’s. I am a frequent customer at its McCafe (fruit frappe goes great with nuggets!)
M goi -means “thank you” and “excuse me” in Cantonese. Use it all the time.
Millions -stairs we climb to get to our apartment (~150) from the street
Marriage -God is using this time to refine our relationship, how we treat one another, how we communicate and to teach us to treasure one another’s presence
Multi-cultural -we’ve encountered people from HK, China, the Philippines, Pakistan, India, the UK, France, Malaysia, Australia and Canada(lots of people from Canada)!
Mangos -available fresh in stores; also, there are some dessert places that specialize in desserts full of mango. The other day I had mango pudding with sago (tapioca beads), topped with fresh mango, pomelo and strawberries. Mmm..

Tourists

Jen here. Though we may stand out in Hong Kong in more than one way (blonde hair, blue eyes, definitely American in appearance and language), since we moved here we haven't truly been "tourists". We haven't rode the double-decker, open-top Rickshaw Tour bus; we haven't gone to Ocean Park. We haven't wandered around taking pictures of things, until now.

A few weeks ago, we picked up a travel-sized Monopoly game. Upon inspecting it, we realized it was Hong Kong Monopoly! How sweet! Instead of Park Place, there's Repulse Bay. Instead of St. Charles, there's Mong Kok. Wouldn't this be cool to have as a keepsake from HK, we thought. So we bought it, and played it that night.

On the topic of tourists, we realized that we need to get out more in HK. We need to venture beyond HK Island and all that is familiar (which is mostly just HK Island...). And we shall use the Monopoly game as our itinerary! Every Thursday we plan to go to one of the spots featured in the game. Last Thursday we went up to Victoria Peak, which is on HK Island. But this time, we were tourists. We rode "The Peak Tram" to the top. We looked around in classic tourist gift shops. We took tons of photos of the view from the Peak, etc. It was an evening of fun. :)

As Roy is busy, I get the pleasure of choosing where we'll go. Not sure what we'll do this Thursday, but we may go across the harbor to Kowloon...who knows!

Christmas Day

Jen here. As promised, here are some details of our Christmas day.

I don't remember the exact sequence of events, but here goes. I made cinnamon rolls like my mom does, except I don't have her recipe (which uses a bread machine...don't have that either), so I improvised. I used Mom Almasy's recipe for rolls and transformed them into cinnamon rolls with some added butter, sugar and cinnamon. They turned out...all right. Roy said (and I agree) a glaze would have helped.

So we ate cinnamon rolls, drank hot chocolate and Roy read aloud the nativity story in Matthew. We're celebrating God's grace to us in coming to be human--God with us.

Next we opened presents. We got many prizes, and were sure to take photos along the way. It was fun. And there we were relaxing and looking at our presents...and we checked the time: 1:00pm. WHAT? Oh no! We have a guest arriving at 2pm and a supposed ham dinner to be served at 3pm. AH!

Roy cleaned up and helped me discern what food things to work on first (I had to wash dishes too!)...and I washed dishes and worked on the cooking. Long story short, dinner was an hour late (not to worry, for we had cheese, crackers and pickles out for snacks), and I forgot to make: 1. Rolls, and 2. Gravy. Oops. :) Good thing we had garlic mashed potatoes (butter already added), and a flavorful, moist pre-cooked ham. :)

After the lovely dinner, we chatted and played a few games with our guest, Virlu. She is from California and works for ActiveKids this year as well. It was fun having company and great to just chat the evening away.

That evening, as well as during the next day, we relaxed, snacked on leftovers and Skyped with family. How fun it was! I hope you all had a wonderful holiday!