Apologies and surprises

So let me begin by apologizing for failing in my blogging duties last night.  We finally took a trip to Hong Kong and didn't get back until around 12:30am.  So tonight will be a superblog.

Yesterday Beth, Angie, Amanda and I all got up early and took the ferry to HK.  It's about an hour's ride but seems to go quickly because the ferries are flying across the water.  This was the view from my seat. 

Once in HK we went shopping to supplement our teacher wardrobes.  I got a ton of stuff, which was good, although it took a while to figure out my size.  (Here's the formula: American shirt size + 1 = HK shirt size, American pants size + 3 = HK pants size. Nice.)  I got 3 pairs of pants and 5 shirts in the end, and would've gotten a couple more, but they were out of my HK size in some things.  Even with the inflated numbers they were out of a lot of "smaller" sizes.  I guess they're catering to all the foreigners, and there were a lot of us giants there. 

I was not a very good photographer yesterday.  Our cell phones didn't work there, so much of the morning was spent trying to coordinate what we were doing and when to meet and it was just a bit overwhelming.  Now that I have some decent clothes and know what to expect I promise to do a better documentation job on my next visit.

I did take a picture at one of the malls and of this fabulous mannequin.  Awesome dress and pose, don't you think?  Love it.  Too bad I can't afford anything there.  And too bad I'm not tall enough to wear a dress like that.  Who's buying these?

In addition to shopping, I wanted to see an American movie this weekend and Contagion was playing in like 50 theaters in HK.  (Probably because that city is a major part of the plotline.)  It was good - not really a happy-go-lucky kind of movie, but well done and it made you think.  Great cast, cool soundtrack and believable story.  We lucked out because in this theater, you purchase your seat when you buy your ticket, and all that was left at the time we wanted was the front row.  We took them anyway, but it was kind of a strain to look at the screen.  About 10 minutes in I peeked back and saw some empty seats in a much nicer place so we moved and watched in comfort.  Yay for flakes!  So yeah, I would totally recommend it, unless you're already a germophobe and in that case, don't even watch the trailer. 

I also met a new friend in HK.  He's my friend Olivia's cousin Chris's best friend, Joe - but I call him Hong Kong Joe for short.  He's from Brooklyn but has lived in HK for 10 years and graciously offered to help me out with getting settled when I arrived in Macau.  Luckily I didn't need too much help since the school provided for us, but it was fun to finally meet him.  We went and got food and wandered around a bit.  He told me that there are some very nice hiking trails in HK so once it gets cooler I may have to go check those out.

Toward the end of my shopping day I noticed this balcony at the mall and took a little video footage to give you a look at the city.

So that's the highlight reel from yesterday.  Today I woke up late and took it easy since tomorrow and Tuesday are holidays at work and Wednesday we have no classes.  So with 3 days for lesson planning, I decided to just relax today.  I guess technically I got up fairly early and went to get our traditional Sunday morning McD's with Beth, but then I came back and went back to bed.  :)  Then I went and got a massage at a spa recommended by another teacher.  It was lovely and Phet did a great job trying to undo all the tension my body has acquired over the past few months.  She only worked on me an hour, but it was great and I fully intend to go back to her.  The spa itself was very lovely as well.  First though, I'm going to try another woman (Jaja)  recommended by a second coworker - this lady is cheaper and comes to your house to work on you.   So I figure I'll try them both and then pick or alternate.  A good problem to have - too many good masseuses.

I also bought some new maps in HK, so my walls are filling up, at last.  I got one of the U.S. and one of S.F. and a nice one of Macau.

Then I read and listened to the new Muppets album while I picked up my room and put away all my new clothes.  Nice chill afternoon.  (The album is really fantastic.  If you've never heard the soundtrack for The Muppet Movie you might not appreciate how delightful it is to hear a contemporary artist cover Rowlf's "I Hope that Somethin' Better Comes Along".)  One of the best songs ever written.

Then it was dinner time or so I thought.  Sometimes with all the new people we're becoming friends with our social outings get a little OOC, especially since everyone seems to want to make sure we're having fun, which is very nice.  So tonight seemed like one of those nights, I kept trying to figure out the plan and Angie had told me one thing and Beth was telling me another and Angie wasn't back from HK yet, and we weren't sure on the name of the restaurant, blah blah blah.  Chaos.  Turns out it was all a big hoax and when we finally got to our "destination" it was actually a surprise birthday party for me that they had arranged with the help of the infamous Carol Wong.  It was great and I was totally surprised, which many of you know is not that easy to do with a control freak like moi.

I had originally planned to celebrate with a group dinner tomorrow night, but hadn't realized that many Chinese families will be dining together since it's the Mid-Autumn festival, so we would have had a much smaller group.  Luckily, they're on top of these things for me.  Pictured are Chris, Monica, Miranda, Karen, Carol, Beth, Azita, Amanda, and Angie. 

We fulfilled my dream and went to an Indian place - yay!!!  It was delicious - we had butter chicken, aloo gobi, palak gosht, naan and really good chai.  And they sang to me and brought me a mooncake (pictured) and Chris baked me a chocolate cake (very good) and then the restaurant brought us all kheer, also quite good.  But by then I was full as a tick and still am.  Monica brought me a gift she had in childhood - he tells the humidity by changing color, kind of like a mood ring.  He was green (dry) when I took him out of the plastic, but has been growing pinker (humid) as the night progresses.  I have a feeling he's going to be pink for most of the year.

Thanks again everyone!

Best of all, I now have tomorrow night open to celebrate again!  Because of the festival there will be a lot to see and I'm looking forward to doing some people-watching; plus there is an international fireworks competition going on right now and Chris has a good view of it from his balcony, so he invited us over to grab dinner and watch.  Should be fun!