I haven’t been doing a very good job keeping up with the blog, but that doesn’t mean that I haven’t been documenting our daily experiences. I have taken thousands of photos over the past year, many of the interesting ones usually end up on my Facebook account but I never seem to get around to writing a blog post anymore.
Well, here’s 11 months of photos packed into one slideshow to update you on how it’s been living and travelling in Asia. When I watch it I myself can’t believe the stuff I have done and seen in the past year.
Sorry to my friends and family for not posting more. Let’s hope we can get together real soon because boy do I have some stories to tell!
Lately the family has been getting into badminton. It’s a great physical exercise and is something that can be convenient to do in Hong Kong.
The whole family started taking lessons and I have to admit that it is an extremely physically demanding game. It requires very fast reaction times, which I just couldn’t quite grasp on my first lesson. Trying to remember the correct move and react in time was a bit much for me.
I had one lesson that focused on some basics but he was teaching how to position yourself in one spot and be able to lunge to the front of net or retreat to the back depending on where the shuttle is. It takes very explosive leg strength and my legs were pretty sore a day or so after.
The coach is also pretty tough making you stretch, run laps and do all kinds of exercises to build strength and endurance. Luckily he was easy on me; I think he was a bit intimidated as I am probably his only English speaking student.
Kammy also plays regular games after work with her cousin and a group who play regularly. I am not quite ready to play with them yet.
We took a day trip to Chueng Chau, a small island off Hong Kong. The place is a really nice and inexpensive getaway. We took a small boat there and back which was a really nice trip but not for those with a weak stomach. The route there is pretty heavily with traffic and the big turbo jet boats going to and from Macau seemed to pass every 10 minutes or so bringing their giant wakes. We also got very close to some huge container ships, our captain seemed to be quite experienced and navigated well. Quite a few passenger did toss their breakfast, but Kammy and I stayed strong and Reese slept a good part of the way.
The island is small enough to walk around, but we didn’t have quite enough time to walk the whole way around. We had a really nice lunch there, the seafood was awesome and very cheap. Reese had fun we even got to climb through a cave in the rocks.
We have to go back another time with Riley, it was a really great day.
Here’s a photo album of our day. Warning… I took a lot of pictures.
I am writing this from a cafe on my phone on New Years day. I can’t type on this thing too well so stay tuned for more to come in 2010…
Edit: Adding some photos of the New Years fireworks. We were pretty far from the action but it was fun staying up late to countdown then see the fireworks. It was also a pretty cold and windy night so it was nice to stay in an just head out onto the balcony at midnight.
Reese’s school put on an outdoor fair last Saturday for the kids and it was one of the first opportunities that I had to get to know more about the school she attends. It was a carnival where the kids participated in games and won tickets that could be exchanged for prizes.
For the most part I was just casually observing and didn’t really get to meet any of Reese’s teachers, classmates, or other parents. I volunteered for a shift at one of the booths and Reese was mostly running around playing the games so I kind of missed out on introductions. That’s a shame but it was a pretty big turnout so it all was pretty overwhelming. I was happy to just observe, after all it was only my second week in Hong Kong.
Even though I didn’t meet many people, it was a great event to bring parents, teachers and students closer together. The annual event was extremely well organized, the decorations were amazing, and there were plenty of parents and faculty who volunteered to help out. The experience seemed to fit with my expectation of what a great school should be like and I look forward to getting to know the school better in the future.
I should probably say that the best part about the whole event that they had a beer garden and were serving Stella on tap. They also had wine and I think some other mixed drinks as well. The organizers sure know how to put on an event that’s fun for kids and parents.
One other thing that impressed me was at the end of all stage performances, the MC announced that they would be playing music and that kids would be allowed to dance on stage as long as long as they don’t break the microphones (which were still standing in their mic stands at the front of the stage). The kids danced around all over that stage but not one single kid touched the mic. I thought it was cool that kids were allowed to have a good time and were trusted to follow the rules. The kids, mostly younger grades, knew exactly how to have a good time, and followed the rules. I captured it on video using my cell phone; the quality is bad but I couldn’t resist sharing it here.
