science.schmience.

They had a "mad scientist" party for e's birthday at the american club. I was pretty impressed. They did some cool stuff for a room full of seven year olds. Here's a picture of the basic dry ice fog, but there were lots of other pictures that had too many faces in them (i have no clue who the kid looking at the camera is in this one). Let me just say though, thank goodness a and p just had girls. 50% of the boys at this party were OUT OF CONTROL!! Kicking, goofing around, being little punks...i get that boys and girls are different, but this was ridiculous. I had to walk away before i smacked someone. 

By the by, isn't the "assistant" (the asian guy standing with the main scientist woman) perfect for the part? Not only is he asian (which is key (no offense)), but he has the glasses, the hair part, the lab coat, and...an accent. I wanted him to start making jokes up there, but he was on the straight and narrow.

birthday.weekend.

No new pictures to post. Yesterday i went for a long walk around stanley, and then we had m.'s birthday sleepover. I really miss spending so many hours with six eleven year olds. Luckily, a. had bought pop rocks, dip sticks, and flinging frogs as part of the gift bags, so we enjoyed those along with some tasty wine while the girls giggled. Today was l.'s party, but a two hour time frame helped minimize any potential discomfort, and everything went smoothly. Afterwards, a., p., l. and i played mario kart on the wii for three hours. It was enormously entertaining. They just left for a black tie event, so i'm hanging out with the girls and their helper. Tomorrow's e.'s birthday party at the american club. I'll get a two month membership there to help my exercise goal along. I have far too much free time to come up with excuses, particularly with p.'s cooking to push me in the opposite direction. 

kowloon-day.two.

P and i zipped over to kowloon today. He had to pick up some things from his tailor, so he showed me the bus/mtr route, took me to lunch at a noodle place (surprise!), and then we parted ways. I walked through the ladies market, the jade market, another market (that had lots of delicious looking fruit/veggies along with some not-so-delicious looking dried fish and pigs feet), kowloon gardens, took the star ferry back to central, and the bus back to stanley. It was a fantastic day out, and now i feel completely comfortable finding my way around hong kong.

Central- from the star ferrry.

Ladies market.

Jade market.

The other market with the fruit, veggies, dried fish, and pigs feet. (Please note the sign on the upper left.)

Birds in the aviary in kowloon park.

day.one.

(*I'm not interested in spending the time necessary to figure out how to change my location (aka time and date stamp) so to determine when i'm posting from my trip, add on 12 hours.) 

After going to a string recital at the girls' school, i spent the morning walking around stanley, the section of hong kong where i'm staying. I walked through stanley market, saw the tin hau temple, murray house, stanley main street, etc. Here are some pictures since i'm not up for long descriptions.

Stanley market.

They were filming something here. I walked through from one direction and was wond ering what they were up to. When i walked back from this direction later on, i saw the sign (that yellow one) that announced the filming. Huh.

A sign telling you where to go.

Boats.

A flower shop and a neat tree in stanley market.

A quiet (and shady- phew!) beach.

Stanley main street.

Murray house (and blake pier). Originally a government building in central, it was taken apart, numbered, and put in storage for sixteen years. When they rebuilt it in stanley, some of the numbers had rubbed off and after finishing construction, they had 6 extra columns. Ha!

some.highlights.from.my.24.hour.trip.

1) Arrived at logan around 4:30. Waited in the baggage check line for 55 minutes and watched 15 hong kong high school kids try to check their luggage. Each of the 25+ pieces was so heavy that they could barely drag them onto the scale. Needless to say, there were clothes and open suitcases all over the place while they attempted to repack in the middle of the airport. After a while, they were able to get them down to a reasonable weight where they could pay the over weight fee. It was like a television show.

2) The flight from boston to new york (which was on a tiny plane) was full of grown-ups and one three year old named jeffrey. Jeffrey was not happy to be on the plane and screamed from start to finish. Luckily, i was sitting pretty far away. The  flight attendant made announcements to "ladies, gentleman, and jeffrey" and thanked everyone else for their patience with her competition. Ha ha!

3) Feeling hungry while in JFK, i went searching for something to eat. A picture of a yogurt parfait at mcdonalds looked tasty, so i decide to give it a shot. While waiting in line, i noticed they posted the calories next to the items. Yogurt parfait came in at 160. Everything else? At least 400 calories. The "big breakfast" came in at a whopping 1350! I don't know how people could order this and not feel sick while eating it. 

4) On the 15 hour trip from new york to hong kong, i slept a total of maybe 3 hours, but in 30 minute increments. When i wasn't sleeping, i was playing games, reading, and watching movies. I caught up on marley and me, the curious case of benjamin button, and a few other shows. The greatest part? I found a new wallace and gromit episode called "a matter of loaf and death." I never knew it existed!

5) Arriving in hong kong, i heard them announce what sounded like my name. Turns out my luggage didn't make it on the boston flight. Since i saw it sitting with all the other luggage right outside our airplane, i can only assume that the hong kong youth took up all the room. It was delivered to the house by 11pm, and saved me the hassle of lugging it around until then.

Two of the "hong kong youth" looking at the calories in the big breakfast.

t-21.hours.

It's getting down to the wire, and surprisingly, i'm pretty ready. I started organizing myself last weekend- typed up my word check sheet, pulled out all my packing stuff, figured out what i needed to pick up, etc. I worked a ton this week, but managed to start making piles and pick up sunscreen, bugspray, ranch dressing, and other last minute things. Yesterday and today were set aside for laundry, errands, and hardcore packing. So, sat morning i was up early and pulled an energizer bunny. Since i didn't have time to just hang out, i dragged eva with me while i printed pictures and dropped off a mother's day present to t's mom. As a nice treat after a full day of stuff, we got pedicures at my favorite nail place. Earlier in the week, i'd mentioned to jen that i wanted to get one, but didn't want to spend the money before taking vacation. I came home late friday night to find a birthday card with a pedicure gift certificate- since i'll be gone for my birthday, she surprised me with it now. So nice!

eva's.pedicure.

my.feet.

spare.change.

In preparation for my upcoming trip, i gathered both change jars i've had sitting on a bureau and dumped them out on the rug. I had my friend t. and his two siblings help me separate everything into piles, and then we tubed it so i can deposit it tomorrow morning. How much do you think this pile totaled?

mail.box.

I've had many requests for postcards lately, and will do my best to send some out during my trip! Because i have a few other things going on right now, i need anyone who wants some mail to send me his/her address. I'm sure i have most of them, but this will make it easier to have them all in one place and to have access to them in asia. Also, i won't feel guilty for forgetting anyone! Send me an e-mail with your info, and i'll send a postcard your way!

visa.schmisa.

When you fill out the application info for the chinese embassy, you can request a single entry, double entry, or multiple entry visa. If you're flying into china, traveling around china, and leaving from china, you only need a single entry. If you're doing the above, but also want to take a trip to, say, vietnam, you need a double entry. If you're living in hong kong for 2 months (hong kong is not considered china), and plan to bee bop around china quite a bit, you'll need a multiple entry visa. The general consensus was that it would be unlikely that the chinese embassy would grant a multiple entry for a tourist visa if i didn't have a previous single or double entry visa. The visa service didn't even  have a spot for it in their paperwork. However, the possibility of having to limit myself to two trips to mainland china (which is quite close to hong kong) over two months made me sad (plus, it's the same price regardless of how many entries they grant you), so i wrote a little note in the comment section that said something like, "I am requesting a multiple entry visa. I will be staying in hong kong for two months and would like to take several short trips into mainland china." My passport arrived via fedex today with an M in the entries spot. Now to start planning all my weekend getaways!