Thanksgiving!

Jen here. Thanksgiving 2010 was not what we planned, but it was grand. :) We had been planning for months to visit Roy's sister and family in the southeastern US for Thanksgiving because it had been about 1.5 years since we saw them last (before HK). But as time got closer, our funds and the plane prices weren't lining up. Plus, Thanksgiving isn't exactly a long holiday off work. So we ended up staying in Seattle and our good friends Scott and Jill invited us to join them for a large feast!

All in all they had about 16 people in their welcoming home for a delicious meal. Friends, family of friends, friends of friends. It was a great time. Scott and Jill are like family to us...we feel so comfortable around them and in their home. They invited us to stay the night before and after thanksgiving, which made us feel even MORE like family! :) And God added blessing upon blessing by giving us snow over the holiday...so it really felt like a holiday! Yay!

The day before and day of we helped them set everything up, including two themed tables to go along with their dishes. One table was "the blue table" and had blue and white plates, a cheese pumpkin for decoration and blue/green/tan place mats. But my favorite table was "the cow table" and well, you can check out the picture to see why it was so named. Look at the white cow creamer with flowers in it! Cute!

The next day we planned to have a post-Thanksgiving dinner with a few new friends from church at our home. We made a splendid meal of ham, potatoes, etc...and enjoyed another day of feasting, games and talking. Ahh...it was grand. :)

That weekend my brother Dan and his friend Daniel ran in a 5K in Seattle, so we had them (even Christie and Baby E) over for lunch, games and even a bit of time in the sauna. Daniel has ways of tricking the thermostat in the sauna so that it heats to his desired (really hot) temperature. Later on there was a brief shopping run, during which Baby E napped and woke up...and this is how we entertained her.

Uh, yes that would be a metal mixing bowl with a glass jar in it. Baby E LOVED it. She was ecstatic--smiling, giggling, grabbing the bowl and looking into it nonstop for at least 20 minutes. So adorable. We think she loved seeing all the reflections of the ceiling lights in the bowl...plus when you tipped the bowl, the glass jar made a cool sound. After a while, we turned the bowl over and it became a drum! Good times.

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!!

Driving to Seattle: Leg 2 | Yellowstone!

Jen here. After sleeping decently well in our tent, Roy cooked us eggs for breakfast over his little cook stove. It looked like rain and sprinkled off and on as we had breakfast, packed up and took showers. Speaking of the showers, how interesting. They were pay as you go showers, except we had no idea how long the water ran per 25 cents. So Roy went with $1.00 and had to dry off with conditioner in his hair. I went second, so Roy sent me with $1.50, which was great, but it felt like a car wash where you have just a tiny bit of money. Rush! :)

All squeaky clean, we headed off, destination: Yellowstone NP. Gorgeous views on the way--fields, valleys, farms, mountains, hills, badlands--God's creation is awesome! The drive with Roy was so much fun. We got to chat with one another and call family. We got to soak in our Maker's greatness. Wonderful.

We stopped at Buffalo Bill Dam and at the crest of a hill to shoot some photos of Lake Yellowstone (I think).

I'll let the pictures do most of the talking; there are so many I want to post!






Our lodging for the night was a campground in Yellowstone (Bridge Bay I believe). Yay! I LOVE camping with Roy. My family camped a few times in Yellowstone when I was a kid and a few times elsewhere, and I always had a blast. While we were setting up our site I kept looking around, waiting for a buffalo to graze into our campsite...I must admit, I was a little scared a bear would walk out of the woods and try to eat our food. Upon entry into the park and again when we entered our camp ground, we received MANY warnings and rules. No food outside or in your tent. No perfume in your tent. No anything that a bear might possibly want in your tent. Last time I went to Yellowstone, I never read these papers; my parents did! I kept thinking back to old trips there. I remember stories of buffalo goring people, and I vividly remember Dad warning us to stay away from wildlife. One day when my family returned to our campsite, there was a HUGE buffalo grazing in the grass. Needless to say, we turned around and went to a gift shop for a while. When we returned the buffalo was gone. Would that happen on this trip with Roy?
Roy and I gathered enough wood for that evening and the next morning. Mom Almasy told us it was supposed to get down to 25 degrees. Yikes! She was right. It was SO cold. Neither of us slept much that night, though Roy slept more than I did. Yes, I was afraid some bear would come and claw into our tent (though we had NO food or even deodorant with us!)...but more than that, I was shivering! I couldn't get warm. We had a tarp down, our tent (of course) a wool blanket, two single air mattresses, and a double sleeping bag. We had to cuddle for warmth! Roy got up at 4:30am and built a fire to warm himself by...and I soon followed him. Isn't fire great?
Check out these old-school tents in a neighboring site. Sweet! The campground atmosphere was fun. An extended family seemed to be having a reunion/vacation of sorts. They had three sites and were in RVs. There were grandparents, kids, grandkids and great-grandkids. It was cute to watch them. What a great idea to do a family vacation camping trip! I'd like to do that someday. :) More later!

Driving to Seattle: Leg 1

Jen here. Our time with family in the mid-west drew to a close and we loaded up our car and began our journey to Seattle, round 2. You may remember we drove to Seattle in August 2008. This time around (or across, ha) we planned 5 days driving and four nights stopping before arriving in Seattle. After camping together, we compiled Roy's camping gear from olden days and gifted gear from Roy's fam and prepared for a few days of camping during our travels. :)



We left early in the morning on July 21st from the Almasy home. Destination: St. Paul, Minnesota. Roy's best friend from childhood, Russel, and his wife live there. We arrived around 5pm and were able to take a small tour of the town and eat at a local restaurant. After dinner we strolled around Raspberry Island and over a bridge over the river and just chatted. We played games and had a great time together. The next morning we went to a Mom and Pop place for breakfast and said our goodbyes. :) This has become a sort of a tradition. I like it.

On day two our destination was Little Missouri National Grasslands on the western side of North Dakota. The directions for this day: Merge onto I-94 West. Drive 567 miles. Exit at Little Missouri National Grasslands. Roy was amazing and generous in time. He told me many times if there was anything we wanted to stop and see, or take photos of, we could make a stop. We wanted our trip to be a vacation...and it was!

We were blessed to see so much beautiful scenery. Unending plains, bluffs and random hills in the middle of nowhere--I LOVED it, especially after living in the city for a year. Ahh...to breath fresh air and see tons of God's creation. :) The farms always catch my attention, whether it's the hundreds of round hay bales that freckle the landscape or the irrigation patterns in the more dry regions of the US. I love the farms. :) (Can you tell I really enjoyed it?)


I drove the last leg of the day while Roy napped. Every so often I got a sneak peak at the beautiful badlands near Teddy Roosevelt National Park. Gorgeous, but no photos because I was driving! We had our pick of campsites and the cost was wonderful--$6. Working together, we set up camp, made some dinner over the fire and headed for bed. It was a nice evening, but Roy's Mom told us the weather forecast was rain over night and in the morning. The weather would get cooler as we headed west--in Yellowstone the predicted low was about 30 degrees. Yikes!

Hoi Ha Beach

Jen here. Buddha's birthday is a public holiday in HK, so no work for Roy! We planned a day trip out to Sai Kung, an area in northeast HK known for its beauty and remoteness (compared to HK Island and the like). We had never been there, so I grabbed my handy dandy mapbook and planned our route and end destination.

Hoi Ha Beach caught my eye and the route to it wasn't too bad. We just had to catch the MTR, take a big bus, then ride a green minibus all the way to the end of the line. Yay!



Here's a photo from the inside of the mini-bus--my favorite mode of public transport in HK. Said GMB (green minibus) holds 16 passengers and will stop just about anywhere (you don't have to be at an official stop to catch one). I used to be intimidated by the siu ba (cantonese for small bus)because in order to stop, you tell the driver where to stop. Being on one, you'll hear things like "yau lok m goi," "ba si jaam m goi," "wai hong yau lok," "jien wan m goi" and things I still don't understand. So you can understand why I could be intimidated, especially if I can't speak a word of cantonese. :) This was the first thing I wanted to learn in cantonese class--because I could use it right away (and wanted to!). Otherwise, I was at the mercy of the other passengers and would just get off close to where I wanted to get off. If Roy was here, he would tell you, "If you just say anything and make eye contact with the driver, he'll stop." This is true...but something in me keeps me from speaking english...maybe my fear of being different or other people thinking I'm a silly American. One of my friends told me her husband once said, "Chocolate cake!"and made eye contact with the driver and he stopped. :) To my relief, I learned what to say on the mini bus to stop (Yau lok m goi is best...generic...it means "have down please" or really "stop please") but I can also say other things, with the help of Chinese friends and my Cantonese teacher (Bus stop please, turn the corner, wellcome supermarket, our street name, etc). Onto Hoi Ha...

Hoi Ha is a small beach, far out, so we hoped it wouldn't be crowded, and it wasn't! After hiking around the area and scampering around on the rocks, we had a few cuts to tend to and then looked for a spot on the beach. We made our camp under a tree in a distant end of the beach (see photo). If you look at the photo, you'll see an umbrella on the bottom right, and a Roy taking a nap under it. In the top left is the main part of the beach...that's where people would come in and look, hang around and then leave. Very few people ventured over to our area. We found later that the shallow stream of water we crossed to get to this sandy area began being not so shallow as the day continued on. By the time we left, we had to wade through water up to our waists!

What a fun day we had. We lounged on the beach, sunbathed a little, chatted, read and enjoyed the beauty of His glorious creation! Roy found many hermit crabs and I waded in the water. It was a nice break for both of us...a nice little get-away from the city. :)

Check out what was on the tree we camped under...kind of like a pineapple, but not...? Strange, but very unique.

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 :)

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!

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.

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!

Mid-Autumn Festival

Jen here. The past few days have been unique. The kids were out of school Thursday and Friday, which meant Roy was on holiday as well! Our holiday was fun, but I was reminded that we don't have many friends or family in HK with whom to celebrate holidays. :(

Thursday was the People's Republic of China's 60th Anniversary. Really? China is only 60 years old? Wow. (Have a told you I don't know much of world affairs?) Roy and I walked amongst the masses of people, toured the Carnival in Victoria Park and later attempted to watch the fireworks. The carnival was different. Many decorations, including tons of lanterns, little game tents with mile-long lines of people, clowns, magicians, a clown and Mario (yes, a Chinese Nintendo Mario)making balloon animals...it was a fun event. I was so excited to see Chinese fireworks (would they be the same as US ones?)but tired of being around people, so we decided to watch them from our end of the island. They're fireworks...huge...you can see them for miles, right? We waited, and waited, and waited... :( There are two options: 1. We did not see or hear the fireworks because we were too far away from where they launched them, or 2. They did not happen. I imagine if #2 was true there would be 7 million people bothered at the PRC for lying to them...so probably #1 is correct. :(

Saturday was the Mid-Autumn Festival. The closest American holiday to this may be Halloween. People buy glow sticks and lanterns and go out at night to see the moon (the fullest moon of the year) and to do something...it is still mysterious to me. We went to the park near our home and there were tons of people. Kids covered in glow sticks were running around everywhere. People were picnicking on the open grassy area. Some people were eating, many were burning candles in moon cake tins, some were putting up food offerings. Interesting. There was a talent show or dance recital going on, so we watched the remainder of it, seeing some talented dancers. On our way home we bought slurpees from the 7-eleven (me-coke, Roy-sour apple), saw one family of our neighbors picnicking outside the entrance of our building and we went up on our roof to finish our slurpees and enjoy the not-so-hot weather. We sang songs to God (sweet MHC songs...) and chatted. I am fascinated by Chinese holidays and Chinese people, so every once in a while I would peek over the edge of our roof and see how our neighbors were celebrating (I sound like a creeper, but...I'm not!). So, here's a photo I took. :) This aerial shot shows their little camp, the little guy in the center of the photo is their ADORABLE 2 year old boy. At the top of the photo you will see a horizontal line of lanterns, most of them are lit. There are also glow sticks on the ground. See the red bucket on the top right of the photo? Later on they opened it up, lit some incense stuff on fire and put it in there. Offerings to some god? No idea.

So there, Mid-Autumn Festival. Roy's boss bought us 6 moon cakes, but we haven't tried them yet. There's something about a pastry filled with lotus bean paste and a salty egg yolk that doesn't seem appetizing, you know?

Ciao!