Thanksgiving in Hong Kong

A couple of months before school let out for the summer, Rebecca and I booked plane tickets to Hong Kong for Thanksgiving break.  At the rate this school year is going, Thanksgiving was here before we knew it and on Wednesday afternoon we joined two other couples also bound for Hong Kong in a shuttle ride to the airport.  Our flight departed from Seoul around 6:45pm and we arrived in Hong Kong (who is 1 hour behind Seoul) at 11pm.  With luggage in tow we took the airport express train into Kowloon which was our home base for the duration of our stay.  Just a note, the airport express is incredibly fast and efficient--it only took us 20 minutes to get into the city!  We checked into the YMCA Salisbury Hotel (yep, it really is fun to stay at the YMCA!) and crashed for the night.


Rebecca and I celebrated Thanksgiving by emerging ourselves in true American culture--that's right, we went to Hong Kong Disneyland!  The reviews of the park are only so-so, but we disagree...we had a blast! From the moment you get on the Disneyland Resort Railway, you truly are surrounded by all things Disney.

The Disneyland Resort Railway 

We're here!

For you, mom!

Some things look the same whether you're in California or Hong Kong!

Main Street is decked out for Christmas!

Me in front of Sleeping Beauty's castle!

In case you were wondering, the princesses are NOT Chinese:).

There are only four lands in H.K. Disneyland:  Adventureland, Toy Storyland, Fantasyland, and Tomorrowland.  We saw them all!  In Adventureland we took a raft to Tarzan's Treehouse, rode the Jungle Cruise, and saw the Lion King show.  

Tarzan's Treehouse

Rebecca posing with Mr. Bones

A chemistry teacher's dream...all in Tarzan's Treehouse.

Jungle Cruise!

Toy Story Land is pretty much geared toward youngsters, but it was cute.  I'm not sorry that I opted out of the Parachute Training ride or the RC car ride.

Hey Woody!!

Fantasyland was whimsical and sweet.  We skipped the carousel and Dumbo (although we did have a Goofy and Minnie sighting there) and instead opted for Pooh's Adventure in the Hundred Acre Woods and the famous spinning tea cups!

Look, it's Goofy!

Pre-tea cup ride!

We took a break for lunch and discovered there is hardly a thing at Disneyland that doesn't scream DISNEY!

Check out those Mickey croutons!

 After lunch we had to go ride It's a Small World...mainly because we were curious to see if it looked like the ride in California or Florida.  Guess what?!  It does!!  While we waited in line we checked out the myriad of faces--there were literally people from all over the world spending the day at H.K. Disney!

Boys in gondolas...

...and girls in hanboks, all singing "It's a Small World".

The rest of our afternoon was spent in Tomorrowland and shopping!  Rebecca had never driven the Autopia cars--a tradition in my family--so I insisted she go with me!  There's a good reason why they have a height requirement on this ride.  If you're too short you can't push the gas pedal and drive at the same time.  Ahem, the lovely mother in front of me thought it would be cute to let her very small son drive and it was all I could do to avoid bashing into that tyke!  Come on people, follow the rules!

Rebecca is ready to roll!  Notice the steering wheel is on the wrong side of the car?

I'm ready too!

We wanted to catch the Christmas Spectacular Parade and the lighting ceremony, which meant we had a good amount of time to contribute to the Disney economy and snap a few random pictures.  During the parade, Main Street was full of people and lovely Disney elves.  It even started to "snow" as the parade came to a close.  

Rebecca and I in front of the castle.

Mickey in the Christmas Spectacular Parade!

The Castle at night...super cool!

Main Street all lit up!

Waiting for the lighting ceremony and enjoying Mickey rice treats.

 Overall, we had a great time at Disneyland!  The weather couldn't have been better, and although we weren't eating turkey and stuffing with our families it still felt a little like home!  


The next morning we set out to explore Hong Kong island.  It was cool to see the city decked out for Christmas, especially since you don't necessarily see this sort of stuff in Seoul.  We took the Star Ferry across Victoria Harbour and caught a taxi to Stanley Market.  What we thought would be a five minute taxi ride to the center of the city turned into a thirty minute taxi ride to the south side of Hong Kong Island to the Stanley area.  At one part we started to get a bit nervous since we had absolutely no idea where we were or how to get to where we wanted to go.  Thankfully the taxi driver knew his stuff and delivered us safely to the market.  I wish I had taken some pictures of the plethora of things you could purchase, but let's be honest...I was too busy browsing, bargaining, and shopping!  


After we stopped for lunch on the waterfront we ran into our four SFS friends who were also shopping at Stanley Market.  It was pretty funny to see them and just goes to show you that even a big city can feel like a small town.  One of our best finds near the market was a fantastic grocery store with all sorts of American and other foreign products.  I wish I had brought an entire extra suitcase so I could have taken back lots of things that I didn't even know I missed until I saw them on the shelf!

Kowloon decked out for the holidays!

After a long day of shopping we took the bus back to Central.  We sat on the top of the double decker and it gave us quite a view as we wound along the two lane road and clung to the side of a cliff.  Traffic was terrible and it took over an hour to get back.  Once again we took the advice of our colleagues and took a taxi to Lan Kwai Fong, a swanky area filled with restaurants and bars.  The only place we stopped was the Hard Rock Cafe for a drink and to grab some take away dinner.  We discovered all sorts of fun shops in the subway buildings on our way back to the hotel!  After dinner, Rebecca and I decided that we may as well go out to the night market since we were still awake.  We first took our spot at the harbourside for the nightly light show and to take some photos of Hong Kong at night.  I really think this city is at its best when the sun goes down.  Take a look...

Hong Kong Island from Kowloon 

Beautiful, isn't it?

During the light show...

 On our way to the night market I snapped a few photos of just a few of the millions of neon signs that adorn the buildings on practically EVERY street.  The neon signs are almost as entertaining as the light show!

Entrance to the night market!

You can find all sorts of goodies at the night market:).

It didn't take long before I was shopped out!  I'm usually a late night sort of person, but I was beat!  Thank goodness for vacation time and the gift of being able to sleep in!  Rebecca is an early bird and would go out exploring or for coffee and I enjoyed being able to stay in bed a little later than usual and read.  We met up on Saturday afternoon for the last thing on our must do list, the jade market.  I saw lots of jade in mainland China but I was more interested in pearls.  This trip, however, I wanted a second look at the jade.  There were probably 100 different vendors all selling jade in all sorts of forms--pendants, earrings, bracelets, bowls, you name it!  I was forewarned that I would need to be a tough negotiator and never to pay full price.  It was totally out of my comfort zone to bargain when shopping, but I gave it a go and I think I got some great deals (or maybe not, but I felt good about my purchases).  


I spent the rest of my last night in Hong Kong shopping for a dress for the faculty Christmas party next weekend and wandering into any store that looked interesting.  There certainly were some fun stores full of odds and ends!  Saturday night I finished writing my postcards, packed up my VERY full suitcase, and headed to bed so I'd be rested before our early trek to the airport.  We checked out of the hotel at 6:30am  on Sunday and were back on the SFS campus by 4:30pm after a great weekend!  I think I will definitely be going back to Hong Kong sometime in the near future to do some more exploring and I think I'd even be interested in living there someday if Europe doesn't work out.  Who knows what the future holds!  At this point I've got three weeks until Christmas break and I'm ready to be back in the States to see everyone.

Visiting Little America

The weekend is half gone and it's been busy so far!  My typical Friday routine is to leave school right at 3:00 and head to Homeplus with Ruth to pick up groceries for the week (I know, sounds exciting right?!).  I also forced myself to tackle the pile of laundry that has been accumulating over the last couple of weeks...well, some of it anyway.  So, theoretically I'm ready to start packing for my trip to Hong Kong.  I spent the rest of the night catching up on old episodes of Burn Notice (new to me this year and pretty good!) and The Closer (love Kyra Sedgwick).


I usually sleep in on weekends until at least 9 to try and make up some of the hours lost during the school week, but today I was up and out the door by 9 to meet up with a fellow Oregonian for some fun on the military base!  The population of students at my school is pretty diverse--some are ethnic Koreans, many are children of people who work for international companies, and some are embassy kids.  It just so happens that one of my wonderful students from last year is an embassy kiddo and her mom invited me out for a visit to the base.  We started off the morning with American style breakfast at the Navy Club (waffles--yum!).  From the outside the base doesn't look that big, but once we started driving around you discover that it's massive!  We drove around the base to see some of the structures that are still here from the Japanese occupation, passed by the tent city (yep, some guys do actually live in tents), passed the elementary/middle/high school buildings, cruised by the commissary (think large American grocery store), and I got to see the houses that the embassy folks live in.  It sort of reminded me of a small American town, which is strange to see in such a big city like Seoul.


After the tour, we made a stop at the thrift store and I was very happy to see $1 books--in English!!  Did I mention that most places on the base only take US dollars...next time I'll know better and bring my cash!  There was a bazaar at the high school, so we stopped there too for more shopping before heading over to Dragon Hill Lodge.  This is the military 4 star hotel and it's got lots of other things inside--restaurants, hair salon, clothing shops, and the PX shopette.  For a girl who hasn't seen American food items in over 4 months, the shopette is heavenly!  I found all sorts of great stuff...like Fruit Loops, Tostito's mild salsa, apple sauce, Skittles, Starbursts, Mike&Ike's, peanut butter m&m's, and more (don't worry mom, I won't eat them all in one sitting!).  Check out the photo of my exciting base finds:)

In the afternoon we went to a mat weaving class and learned how to weave grass reeds into fun little mats from an incredible artisan.  He promised to email the photos he took from the class today to us so if they show up I'll post one on the blog!  


I had just a couple of hours when I got home to eat, take this week's online chemistry quiz, and rest before the APAC (Asia Pacific Activities Conference) Dance performance.  For the last three days, dancers from various schools in China, Hong Kong, and the Philippines gathered in Seoul with our students for a dance festival of sorts and tonight was their culminating performance.  Those ladies and gentlemen rocked!!  The teenagers I am surrounded by on a daily basis are incredibly talented little humans and events like tonight give them an opportunity to showcase their creativity--plus it was cool to see kids from eight or nine different schools performing together in collaborative pieces that they put together on Thursday and Friday.  It's still early so I'm going to try to get through a pile of grading before I call it a night.

Let There Be Light...and Lanterns!

In an effort to get back to updating my blog on a more frequent basis (here's hoping) and to try and keep my exhausted body awake until at least 8:30pm I decided I'd come straight home from my outing to the 2011 Lantern Festival and write a short blog post.  Yes, it's a school night and I finally got off of "the hill". Kristen and I went to the lantern festival together last year and really enjoyed it, so over the weekend we decided to give it a go this year too.  We left campus before dark and headed down to Cheonggyecheon Stream to see the beautiful illuminated creations.  Some of the lanterns were familiar from last year's trip, but many were new and quite enchanting.  Check them out...

That's one feisty looking tiger!

Illuminated guards.

Traditional musicians.

A parade of light!

One of my favorites--it is so beautifully painted.

Watch out for flying fish lanterns!

Batman, duh!

.Superman as a lantern?

Swimming fish...and lots of Nemos.

I love Italy:)

The Lady of Liberty illuminated in Seoul!

So many beautiful lanterns to look at!

My absolute favorite lantern of the night!

This year the crowds were smaller and we were very happy to be able to walk along the pathway next to the stream.  Before we finished our lantern viewing, we came across a station where you could pay for a lantern to set adrift in the stream.  For 2,000 won Kristen and I thought it was a worthwhile opportunity so we both purchased and assembled our own lanterns.  There was space on each lantern to write 4 messages so I filled my lantern with the fruits of the spirit: Love, Joy, Peace, Forbearance, Kindness, Goodness, Faithfulness, Gentleness, and Self-Control.  These are all attributes that we have been studying in our Beth Moore bible study and qualities I would like to own.  At the moment I am working on having more patience with my students, exhibiting self-control when it comes to eating because I'm so stressed, and finding peace and joy in the craziness of everyday life.  A lady lit our candles for us and we  set those babies adrift in the stream and watched them float away.  On a side note, as I watched my paper lantern with a real lit candle float away I saw another lantern ablaze in the middle of the stream off in the distance and had a little chuckle.  In America they would never have trusted us with REAL fire!

Getting ready to set my lantern adrift.

See ya!

We ended the night with a trip to Baskin Robbins for ice cream cones--it seemed fitting since it felt like we walked at least 5 miles up and down the stream (in reality it was probably only 2 kilometers, but who's counting!).  I have just realized that at this time next week I will be on a flight headed for Hong Kong, ready to celebrate Thanksgiving in a new and different way, but for now I am content to sit here and feel very thankful for all of the incredible blessings I experience on a daily basis.  That sleep I have been staving off has crept up on me and my body tells me it is time to give in.  Goodnight for now...more photos and news from Seoul soon!