Getting Settled

All’s well in Hong Kong. We’re finally getting over the jet lag. We were waking up at 4am and going to bed at 8pm.

Where we’re living is beautiful. The kids have been like fish, swimming everyday. Day before yesterday we went to the International Financial Center, where the bottom 3 floors are a mall (seems like every place you go has a mall). It was the day before a major holiday, Budda’s Birthday. Think about what the mall is like the day before Christmas. Now make it twice as crowded. That’s what it was like. The only good thing for me is that I can see over the crowd. We got in an elevator and I was the second tallest person in the elevator. That doesn’t happen to me . . .ever. Anyway, there were A LOT of people.

The people here have been very courteous to us. The one custom I keep getting wrong is that when you buy something and hand them your credit card, you have to pass it to them with two hands, and they in turn pass you your receipt and card back with two hands. It’s a respect thing. Needless to say I’ve been accidentally disrespectful a few times.

We’re on the 10th floor of our apartment building and one side faces the rainforest mountains and the other side faces the city. There are two hawks that ride the updrafts and circle continuously. Their wingspans are huge. Much larger than the ones in FHR. The girls looked up the Cantonese name for hawk and now call them “Chan-ying” and “He-ying” which mean “Beautiful Hawk” and “Blackhawk” respectively.

Well, we’re off to register with the American Consulate and get our Hong Kong IDs today.