Fruit Market at Night

HK and Macao

Last weekend I took a little trip to Hong Kong. I went alone (though pity is wasted on Amy--she has expressed her opinion that she has no interest in seeing Hong Kong on several occasions), and it was quite an experience. I arrived in HK on Friday via the ferry from Shenzhen. HK is definitely an amazing place--container ship after container ship can be seen leaving the port at almost any time of day--and it seems to rise straight out of the sea. My first visit was to Victoria Peak, the ideal place to see the skyline, as there are too many buildings to get the proper perspective from ground level. Unfortunately, the haze had set in by the time this picture was taken, but I waited at the top for nightfall, when the haze seems to enhance, not detract from, Asian city skylines. The wait was worth it, as the view was breathtaking.


Saturday I woke up early and headed to Macao, the former Portuguese colony an hour away by fast ferry. Nowadays, Macao is known as being the Las Vegas of Asia, but is also known for its colonial architecture and cuisine. My reason for traveling was as much "When else am I going to be an hour away from Macau?" as it was for the food or scenery. With its tropical climate, humidity, gambling, and colonial architecture, Macao struck me as a cross between Miami and New Orleans (pre-Katrina), with a Portuguese-Asian flair. Here is a picture of the symbol of Macao, the facade of St. Paul's, along with a picture of the runaway winner of the world's ugliest building. No other nominations can be accepted at this time. Unfortunately, this building was visible from all over town, and it was so overwhelmingly ugly that I had to take pictures of it from multiple perspectives.

Supermarket Chinglish

On June 1 (to look good for the Olympics), China will quit using plastic bags, saying that they end up in drains and rivers, which causes environmental problems. This means supermarkets will no longer provide grocery bags. So, all this month the various supermarket chains have released their versions of shopping bags, which can be used over and over. I think its a pretty good idea, actually.

This is my favorite bag, from the Wu-Mei supermarket... Even the big chains can't get good English language proofreaders sometimes!

One Week Later

The earthquake in Western China hit one week ago yesterday. In memory of the victims, the country declared three days of mourning for Monday through Wednesday. On Monday, the country observed "three minutes to remember". During this time, people stopped what they were doing in honor of those who died. Also during this time, sirens from around the city and car horns sounded for three minutes. This is what it sounded like here, as well as a picture of a worker at our school during the three minutes.

Making Bread

A couple of weeks ago, I made my first attempt at homemade bread. It wasn't perfect (a little flat and funny-shaped), but it actually tasted pretty good! It was a fun adventure, though I don't know how often I'll do it, seeing as how it takes about half a day!

Earthquake

There was a major earthquake in China today. Thankfully, it was not near our city, and we did not feel any of its effects. We just wanted to let you know that we are okay, as many of you have already shown concern.

Please, remember the families affected by the quake that are hurting and the many of them who do not have any hope during tough times.

A few weeks ago in our Culture Classes, we talked about ceremonies in Western countries, including weddings. As part of this, we showed our wedding video. One of the clips was of my sister singing before the ceremony began. The girls in my class loved the song so much that they went home, downloaded it and learned it! This is one of my good friends showing off her English singing skills!

Hamburgers and Concerts

Well, the quest for hamburger ended in great failure. We took a taxi to this supposedly-great restaurant here, only to learn that it had been shut down. I was pretty devastated, but Matt convinced me that some stuffed-crust pizza and chocolate ice cream would cheer me up. He was right, of course!

The concert was a great time! We joined some Chinese friends there and really enjoyed it. It was even more encouraging to see the huge turnout at the auditorium--probably 1,000 Chinese students showed up for this free concert, hearing a great message in the process.

And we got to talk with a guy from Tennessee who was touring with the music group... We saw him wearing a Vols hat and made a B line straight for him after the show!

Who Would've Guessed...

We've definitely got a busy few days and weekend ahead of us!

We got a call today from a Chinese friend who invited us to a concert for tomorrow night. To our astonishment, the concert is Steven Curtis Chapman. We never would've guessed that could happen. So, after a long day of teaching and playing with students tomorrow, we'll head across town to the concert, which is being held at his university. Should be exciting!

Tonight we're heading down to the Lake to a Western restaurant to splurge on hamburgers! We've not had real hamburgers in 10 months... To say the least, we're looking forward to it. I just hope they have cheese to melt on top!

Eating Frog

We didn't intend to order frog at one of our favorite restaurants earlier today. We were actually really excited about getting our favorite dish of sizzling beef, which tastes amazingly like steak fajitas. Unfortunately, we never can remember the Chinese words for this dish; today, we suffered the consequences.

The funny thing is that about 5 minutes after we ordered, I saw the waitress grab a frog (yes, a live one) out of the aquarium and take it to the back. We'd never seen a live frog at a restaurant but commented that someone must like it, though.

When the waitress first brought out the dish, we still didn't put things together. It certainly wasn't beef, but that was all we knew. I dug into our veggies and left the meat to Matt because it looked fatty and bony. After a few bites, Matt suddenly looked up at me and announced that he thought it was, in fact, us who had ordered the frog. And after inspecting it closer, it was confirmed. You could even still see its green skin. After this, I certainly couldn't eat it, as pictures of Mrs. Davis' biology dissections kept coming to mind.

While Matt ate a bit of it, I don't foresee us ordering frog again anytime soon--not intentionally anyway!