Among Other Things...

I started my third part-time job last week. I've said on many occasions that I was born to work part-time, but this is getting a little out of control. Guess that Hong Kong tendency to overwork one's self has mosied it's way into my life. Needless to say, I've been a little swamped lately. I've still got one more Chinese New Year's post coming in the next few days (as soon as I get a moment to sit down and take a breath), but until then, this little update will have to do.

To explain my third job, I've been helping some friends launch CHOCOLUX, a French-style Cafe, complete with yummy, yummy crepes and mouth-watering chocolates. They've already got one location in a trendy district of Hong Kong, but it's more night club than restaurant. This second location is strictly cafe and is nestled amidst the crowds of the subway system. So, tomorrow is the grand opening, complete with a lion dance. (I'll explain that soon enough.) It's gonna be a doozy of a day, but worth the effort. (Cross your fingers!) Tonight I'm tumbling into bed way past midnight, stuffed with lots of tasty samples from today's kitchen training sessions. Unfortunately it also fell to me to sample the coffee drinks and the 6 or so coffee/chocolate drinks I sampled are fueling my desire to write this post. Falling asleep tonight could prove difficult.

And, Matt is still far, far away in the Island of Rhode, and I miss him. Alot. He keeps me sane during times like this.

Wish me luck!

Miss Piggy

Oink, Oink

As you might have surmised from Matt's guest post, he's not in Hong Kong right now. He left for Rhode Island this morning. I know, I know, it's very random. His company has an urgent project for him that required a last minute trip to the US. Last time we checked it was 11 F in RI. Needless to say, we had to go buy him a coat yesterday. Hope he can find himself a scarf and some gloves upon arrival.

Because Matt's not around, I'm left with little guard against my thriving potato chip addiction. He's usually really good about reminding me how terrible I feel after eating an entire bag of chips and helps me avoid my pitfalls, but with him out of the country, I'm left defenseless. Guess I'm doing my best to ring in the New Year of the Pig.



What I'm going to look like if Matt doesn't come home soon...

Year of the Pig

Myself and THE PIG

Today is the start of Chinese New Year. Well, technically, I think it starts tomorrow, but as of right now, I'm on vacation for the next few days. I thought I'd kick off the big, ol' holiday with some pictures that I took around town today. Enjoy!

Lantern Decorations at the Times Square Mall

The Chinese New Year "Santa Claus"?

Guest Post: Attention East Coasters

Matt here - quick question for all y'all east coasters. If I were stuck in Providence for a day, what should I see & do? How about a week? Any tips on Boston, or surrounding areas?

Day 6

Ten days ago I got fed up with our TV. Nine days ago I posted it for sale on craigslist. Three days later a guy from Oklahoma walked into our apartment, only to leave a few minutes later hauling away our TV. And this, folks, is Day 6 without a TV.

Matt and I decided when we got married that we would not have a TV the first year of marriage. Call it a romantic gesture. We really wanted to spend that first year in meaningful conversation without the distraction of television. [Insert the inevitable silly comment here about spending our first year in "meaningful conversation". I know it's bound to show up in the comments portion if I don't address it myself.] Let me clarify and say that we did have a television set, but we didn't subscribe to cable, nor did we get any of the free local channels because our apartment was situated on the wrong side of Mt Oread. We kept our TV/DVD player on a rolling cart in the closet and brought it out occasionally to watch a movie. It worked well for us and after our first anniversary we decided to go without for a while longer. Three years and some odd months later we found ourselves in HK and when someone offered to give us a free TV, we took it. We figured it would be a good way to keep up with news in the US, and maybe make us feel a little less homesick if we could watch some US shows now and again. Of course, being on a tight budget, we never sprung for the deluxe cable package and only took the basic channels that came with our internet.

The trouble is that I am a complete and absolute TV addict. I'm really bad at controlling what I watch, too. Especially when it comes to trashy reality TV. Those shows suck me in like a black hole. It's almost as bad as my addiction to potato chips. I think there is something to be said about being deprived as a child that makes you unable to control your urges as an adult. (As a child, both television and potato chips were contraband in our house. Now they are my two worst addictions.) So after six months of rerun MGM movies (not even the good ones, mind you--just the really bad, obscure ones that aren't even available at your local public library) and a few too many weird British jokes on BBC entertainment, I was ready to make a change. I had watched my last cheetah chase on National Geographic. The TV was a total brain drain. Mostly I would watch TV murder dramas on BBC Entertainment. I hate those shows! What was I doing?! I had to go cold-turkey.

So it's gone now. And I'm ok. Actually, Monday night I came home and sat down on the couch while Matt worked on the computer. Suddenly I realized that I had been staring at the wall where the TV used to sit. And I'd even been having intermittent conversations with Matt, like you do when you're watching TV. For an hour! It was strange. I guess old habits die hard. My mind knows the TV is gone, but I guess my body is still stuck in the habit. It's like when you when you play Mario Cart for three straight weeks over Christmas Break and then dream about playing and feel your hands jerking around in your sleep. Or something like that.

Feel inspired to trash your TV? Or do you just think I'm crazy...

Spring Has Sprung Too Soon

Today I seriously considered turning on the airconditioner. Last week it was still a little chilly. This week it's not. It won't be chilly again for another 9 months. Blimey! For the last couple of months I've been kicking myself for not bringing more long sleeved shirts with me to Hong Kong. Guess I can let those bruises heal now. Today I'm bringing out the flip flops (those that haven't molded during their 2 month hibernation..more to follow on that in a future post) and packing up the winter blankets.

Those of you who know me know that I don't like hot weather. In fact I've diagnosed myself with a sun allergy. I love dark, rainy days. I would prefer to live in a cold, clammy cave in Copenhagen. (Ooh, I like the alliteration of that!) In the states there's always a hope for more winter every year come Groundhog's Day. Since it's much more likely that Hong Kong's proverbial groundhog was made into soup in lieu of seeing it's shadow, good-bye Winter and hello Summer. I think I have a long 9 months ahead of me.



PS These pictures are from early January when I came across a tree that resembled Fall leaves in Kansas. I got pretty excited. Notice the scarf and down vest? Gotta love 'em. (Ignore the short sleeves, please.)

Some Days are Like That

Today an Indian Yogi told me I had a lucky face. Also, I met a Ukrainian gentleman who quite possibly wants to whisk me back to the Ukraine to meet his mother and bear his children. And I also fell on my face (my lucky face, mind you) while walking down the gangplank of a cruise ship. Some days are just like that, I guess.

Scratch Fever

I love scratch cards almost as much as I love pageants. (It's weird that my love for pageants has become a unit of measurement for everything else that I enjoy.) I always try to make the suspense last as long as possible, slowly dragging the coin or key or whatever blunt instrument I use to scrape away the metallic crumbles, revealing the treasures underneath. Regardless of whether I win or lose, I always want more. Our neighborhood grocery store has started to give away Chinese New Year themed scratch cards for every $50HKD (about $6USD) spent. It's fantastic. Everyday I make up some new reason to go to the grocery store to spend $50 and get another scratch card. Yesterday I went twice. We now have so many 5L bottles of water in our apartment there is barely room to walk in the kitchen (which I guess isn't actually that many considering how small our kitchen is). I had the same problem when McDonald's came out with it's Monopoly game pieces. Not exactly scratch cards, but you still got to slowly peel back the wrapper to find the hidden coupon for a free Jr. Whopper, etc. I just can't get enough.

To underscore the extent of my love for these grocery store scratch cards, let me tell you about some of the fabulous prizes I haven't won:

-A bottle of Amoy Supreme Seafood Soy Sauce 150mL
-A pack of Garden Saltine Sesame Crackers 210gm
-A pack of Cadbury Chocette Dairy Milk 45gm
-A pack of Colgate MaxFresh Green Tea Toothpaste 160gm
-A box of First Choice Ultra Box Tissues
-A bottle of YUMURA Body Design Soy Milk 480mL
-$88,000 HKD worth of gold (whatever that means)

So in retrospect, maybe the joy of the scratch card itself outweighs those fabulous prizes. Why do I always think I just might be the next big winner? I'm such a sucker. That said, I'm off to the grocery store to spend a cool $50. Anyone need anything while I'm out?

Crowd Control

Tonight I think there were more people trying to cram themselves onto my subway car than there are people in Kansas. (I just checked the facts, and my exaggeration may not have been so far off, as there are more than twice the number of people living in the city of Hong Kong than in the entire state of Kansas!) Every night on my commute home from work, taking the MTR (as the subway system is known here) is a major lesson in patience. (If you refer to my New Year's post, it's kinda like that every night down on the train platforms, minus the drum circle.) My shiny new Ipod Shuffle helps alot, though--this evening it was just me and Feist taking it easy on the ride home.

Honestly, riding the MTR is one of my favorite things about Hong Kong. I love public transportation, and this city has got it aplenty. And it's all quite clean and affordable. It sure beats paying for gas and car insurance, not to mention the occasional fender bender. Now my fender only gets bent when the Hong Kong crowds get rambunctious. I now understand why the good Lord blessed Asians with the skinny gene--it's so that 6,000 of them can successfully push and shove their way into one subway car!

Pencil Shavings

I bought a brand new set of colored pencils today and when I was sharpening them, I became completely fascinated by the swirls that I made. I thought you might like to share my joy...

Long Lost Friend

Today I ate at McDonald's all by myself. While this may seem like no big deal to the average person, my circumstances are a bit unusual. See, McDonald's and I haven't been on speaking terms for the last year.

It all began with my disdain for Wal-Mart. Three years ago Matt and I decided to give up Wal-Mart for our New Year's resolution. For lots and lots of reasons (which I'll spare you of for now) we think Wal-Mart is a big, fat bully. So we decided to boycott the company for a year. And it was a rousing success--the first New Year's resolution I've ever kept. (Well except maybe for those silly ones where I resolve to eat lots of chocolate or potato chips in the coming year. Those have always been successful.) So when the next New Year's Day rolled around, we felt we had to choose another boycott victim. We added McDonald's to our list. It's not that we despise the McDonald's corporation, but rather I think it's an easy target. To further matters, Matt and I had been eating off the $1 menu far too frequently (effecting our waistlines accordingly), so we decided to eliminate it from our diets for 1 year. And, that too, was a success.

So this year rolls around and while we're pleased with ourselves for having had such strong self-discipline, both of us are feeling a strooooong hankerin' for a Big Mac. It's been exacerbated by moving to Hong Kong, the land where all meat scares me. While I don't know exactly where McDonald's gets its meat, I appreciate that it's most likely heavily regulated. (Many Hong Kong restaurants specialize in "mystery meat". It gives me the willies.)

So do we continue to abstain from McDonald's (keeping Wal-Mart on our list is an easy decision) and add a third corporation to our list, or do we give in and withdraw the Big Mac from the chopping board? Well, as you gathered from the first line, McDonald's is back on our good side. In fact, it's our new best friend. We ate their twice on New Year's day (starting at 12:08am, Jan. 1, 2007), and at least once a week since. But still it feels weird. I mean, it's hard to act normal around someone that you've been ignoring for the last year, even though you've made up. I still don't think it's a fabulous company or anything, and the food is really, really bad for you, but, dang, those breakfast sandwiches are tasty. And they serve them all day long here.

Since we don't know enough about Chinese companies, we haven't picked a new culprit this year. If anyone has any suggestions, let us know. For now, we have to be content with our non-corporate resolutions to quit eating on the couch instead of at the table, and to do our dishes every night before going to bed. Those resolutions feel lame in comparison, but so far, so good.

Christmas Wishful Thinking

I'm afraid the post about Christmas in Hong Kong is going the way of this year's Christmas cards--not yet written, and never going to be written. This post has been hanging over my head like rotten mistletoe and I don't feel like I have permission (from myself, of course) to post another blog until I write this one. And since that is definitely not going to happen, the next best thing is to give you all a friendly little link to our flickr photo site to view them for yourselves. Of course you won't have my witty comments to guide you though them, but I'm sure you'll manage. Here's the link.

Take a look around the site. We've posted alot of pictures recently, including some from Matt's family's recent visit. You might have to dig a little to find the Christmas ones, but more likely than not, my super-organized husband has probably labeled them and put them in their own special folder. He's very talented like that. Enjoy!

Pictures

Finally...pictures of the family hangin' out in Hong Kong.

Matt and his Dad deciding on a waffle flavor from a street vendor

Kayleigh makes a friend at the 10,000 Buddhas Monastary
(she likes those religious types)

Mr Rogers re-incarnate



Doug and Angie... Year of the Rooster

Mom, Dad, Matt and Kayleigh at the ruins of San Paulo Church in Macau

Visitors!

On Thursday our first official house guests arrived in Hong Kong. Matt's dad, mom, and littlest sister flew from St Louis for a week and a half long visit. So, hence the blog hiatus. I thought it would be easy to just shoot off a quick post each evening, but we've done so much sightseeing that I've been completely zonked by the time we stumble home each night. Here's a few pictures from the trip so far. If I'm a bit more alert when we get in tonight I'll post some more. [Man, this blog is just turning into one excuse after another as to why I'm not posting anything.] I've also had several requests for "Christmas in Hong Kong" photos so keep an eye out for those. Hope you're all doing fantastic!

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Um, ok, I just tried to load the pictures and the internet isn't responding. I'll try again tonight.

Happy New Year from HK

All Systems Are Go

...And we're back! Well, our internet connection magically reappeared late last night, so all those delightful Christmas posts I'd been working on during the internet interim will be trickling through to a computer near you very soon. Hope you all had a very Merry Christmas and see you all in the New Year!

The Internet is Broken

Due to the earthquake in Taiwan 2 days ago, the internet is broken in Hong Kong and other surrounding areas. It's nuts! People here are not very happy with the situation, but then who's ever happy when an earthquake strikes? Ever so often we can log on but our service is sketchy at best. Somehow all things Google seem to be working moderately well, but who knows how long that shaky truce will last. So, no posts from me until this problem gets sorted out. Oh, and I haven't been able to check my email the past few days either. It's not the most efficient way to reach me right now. Here's hoping the internet keeps working long enough for me to post this...

Merry Christmas!

We wish you a Merry Christmas!!!

Love,
Matt and Erika

"And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night. An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. But the angel said to them, "Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord. This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger." Luke 2:8-12

Christmas Comes Early

Just over 2 weeks ago we got a fabulously bizarre package in the mail.

Back in Lawrence we were part of a colorful Bible study group from church. We'd meet every week for a Bible lesson followed (or intermittent) by lots of laughter and goofing off. At one point we dubbed ourselves the "Renegade Splinter Cell", figuring that at any moment we were liable to be kicked out of church if word got out about how much fun we were having. Not to mention that our conversation topics often dabbled well outside the realm of the general study topic. We always had a fabulous time and not being part of that group anymore is one of the things I miss most about Lawrence.

Our fabulously bizarre package was from this lovely bunch of folks. Jake, Amber, Chad, Kim, Beth, James, Pat, Kristin, Dillon and Cara all put their heads together back in October and each contributed a few things. (Although shipped in October, we received it in early December! The US post office ain't kidding when they say 6-8 weeks. Beth told us it was stuck in California for almost 3 weeks.) The package contained the following items:

-Mini Green Flashlight
-Chocolate Brownie Mix
-Caramel Chocolate Balls*
-Cheese Pringles*
-Bouncy Balls
-Bronco Bob's Roasted Raspberry Chipotle Sauce (makes everything tastier!)
-USA Map Puzzle
-Halloween Pumpkin Party Plates
-Halloween Pumpkin Party Napkins
-Set of 3 "Ice Cream" PlayDoh bins
-KU Koozie
-Pair of Sticky, Oozing Eyeballs
-Hair Goo for Erika
-Hair Goo for Matt
-A Pen (that used to belong to us)
-"Instant Messages from God" Book for Guys
-"Instant Messages from God" Book for Girls
-Several Misc. Ads/Newspapers/Pamphlets from Lawrence, KS
-Several Goofy Pictures of our Friends
-Matt's favorite coffee from La Prima Tazza
-Bible Study Booklet about Calvin
-Framed Picture of the entire group holding papers spelling out "WE MISS YOU!"
-Individual Letters from each person (the Best Part!)

*This item was consumed before the picture was taken



God Bless 'Em. They put huge grins on our faces. We miss them all very much!