The getaway gals go to China...

I enjoyed my long weekend in Yangshuo, China with five of my good friends. We considered it as 'one last getaway'. (Yes, we're into the land of "lasts" these days!) I love Yangshuo. It is one of my favorite spots in China. It's only an hour flight from HK, so that made it an easy destination (the journey seemed almost too easy when I remembered my last trip to Yangshuo a few years ago- a 25 hour train journey!).

Anyway, it was a great time- beautiful scenery, good exercise, decent food, awesome accommodations, a fun chance to try out the Mandarin, good visits with friends. My favorite part about being in Yangshuo is going for bike rides into the countryside. This was a daily requirement, along with a daily dose of banana pancakes and a shake of some kind. Here are a few pictures from the weekend (the rest can be found here):

"West St."- Backpacker central.

Tammy, Ashley, Maureen, Mary, Wenny, and myself.

Hmmm.

New friend.

Not bad, hey?

Sunday

The highlight of my day was attending the baptism for a student in my class. Philip was baptized along with his older brother and sister this afternoon, along with three other students from our school. What a special day for their family! They are wonderful people and live out their faith together. Here are a couple pictures; the last one is a bonus and it is my Ode to Watermelon. It's just so satisfying.

Philip and I

The Grade Five Crew!

The Hutchinson family and teachers (Alison, Mary and me)

I love you, watermelon.

I've had company!

I've had some special guests on the thirty-second floor in the past month! Looking back, the last month feels like such a blur, a busy and beautiful blur! I don't even think I blogged about Tara and Nicole's visit, though the week was very deserving of a blog!

They were a blast to have in HK- totally eager the minute they arrived! They proved themselves to be committed adventurers on their first day, when we decided to go hiking despite the ahem, monsoon icon on the weather website (but really, it said "a few scattered showers"!). The site was right on the 'scattered showers', at least for the first half hour of our hike! For the next three, it poured!!! We were absolutely soaked. It was hilarious, actually. We hiked through the crazy wind and rain, feeling very adventurous. We ran to catch a ferry to start the journey back and then ended up waiting for half hour along with 200 other Hong Kongers to catch a bus...then another bus...and a taxi. We finally made it home. They did all of this on day one! When it was back to school for me, they spent their days exploring the city (as well as one crazy spa day in Shenzhen, across the border in China)...and I always looked forward to the Daily Report from Tara afterschool. It usually lasted about fifteen minutes and was very entertaining. I wish I would have captured one of the Daily Reports on video...:) Anyway, I really enjoyed having them with me!! Not sure if I've ever laughed so much in a week...

the beginning of the hike- day one

bubble tea + foot massage = :)

in the kowloon city walled park

Then Mom, Dad, Autumn and Andrew spent last weekend with me. It was their fourth time stopping in Hong Kong! They are experts now! It has been so neat to create new memories with them each time. Each visit ended up being unique and fun in its own way. This time around was special because we spent a lot of time with the girls that came to India with me; they have become dear to our family. We went out for a local Chinese meal the first evening (their specialty was Peking Duck, and we ate a lot of other notable things, like eel and jellyfish), we went on a beautiful bike ride (though it was so crazy busy on the holiday weekend that you felt you were in the Tour De France, Hong Kong style), and enjoyed meals with other special friends in Hong Kong. Again, another weekend with great memories!

the bike riding crew (new territories, hong kong)

ahhhhh!! traffic galore!

andrew's favorite (and cheapest) and meal: wonton

out for starbucks together by the harbor

at church with pastor sam and his wife, lisa (special people, too!)

the peking duck meal

Guess the shoe didn't fit.

An update on the Cinderella story. They played a tough game but we lost 72-49. It was a significant achievement to notch 49 on this particular team. We were down by two at the end of the first quarter. We were terribly outrebounded and one by one my 'big' guys fouled out. They had a number of trees. We had a number of fighters...but came up short (no pun originally intended). I was proud of the guys. A couple of them made some incredible finishes- very pretty to watch. They've come a long way this year- as individual basketball players and especially as a team.

Two More Albums

Here are the last two albums I put together:
India: Village Friends and More
India: The Excursions

Pictures from India

I'm slowly adding albums from my time in India. I took about 700 pictures during the week, so it's taking some time to sift through everything.
Here are the first two albums-
"India: First Glances" and
"India: This is Joy"

Loving it!

We have had an awesome three days in the village. The kids have melted us in every way. We've connected with many wonderful people. We've eaten like queens. Mom has spoiled us with her usual homemade touch, and tonight, heaven touched earth in the form of butter chicken.
Tomorrow we're Shillong-bound. We're waking up at 5:30am and making it a day trip. I'm excited about making a return to the Khasi Hills, a place I remember as one of my favorites on the globe. Here are two sweet faces (I've taken over 500 pics so far!)...

"The Heartbreaker"

Sidewalk chalk- they loved it.

Scenes from the alley by Mom and Dad's

Autumn's Baptism

On our hike

Favorite Summer Picture

I thought about posting a few of my favorite pictures from the summer, but it's just too hard to choose! My very favorite is easy though, and it has the potential to be my desktop background for a long time to come...

Mareesa and Great Grandpa- August 8, 2008

The Big Visit!

Well, once they finally made it to Hong Kong (a mere 39 hour adventure from Regina due to delays), we had such a good time together. They were great sports in trying different kinds of Chinese food, squishing into my flat (everyone gets 120 sq. feet to themselves, ha ha!), embracing the crowds, and riding in style on the double decker buses around town. Saturday was a beautiful day with a blue sky and we spent it at Disneyland! The favorite ride was definitely Space Mountain! Ah, it was just so much fun to have them here. My students were thrilled to meet my parents and interrogate them on what they imagined to be my evil childhood. Ha ha. They were a little disappointed to find out I really was an angel. Ha ha ha!

It's never easy to say goodbye to my family though, even though it's only five months this time around. I'm glad they get to sneak in one or two more days on their way back home. I was reminded again, of how blessed I am to have such awesome parents. And, just how special Autumn and Andrew are to me. Even though I don't get to spend as much time with them as I'd like, I feel pretty lucky to have some sweet traveling memories with them. Last year, their home in India as well as Nepal. This year, my home in Hong Kong!

Follow this link to my pictures of the weekend!

The Space Mountain Thrill.

Team India 2008. It was great to hang out with Pam and Raysha. They're going to do an awesome job in India!

Buzz and Andrew.