I'll be Home for Christmas- in 24 hours!

T minus 24 hours and we're in the air on our way home for Christmas! Although I could VERY easily distract myself with packing or the like, I decided that there were more than enough "happenings" for another blog entry.


The Chatteris Christmas Party was a hoot. An event which, I must admit, required a lot of hostessing savvy on my part- almost to the point of non-enjoyment myself. All of our staff seemed to enjoy it though, and more than a few came up and acknowledged our valiant effort at creating a western Christmas abroad.


I even managed to get Brett on stage during our short music program. here we are singing "Baby, It's Cold Outside!"

Next, I should talk about the EAT team party, which consumed some time and planning. Our English Ambassadors are some of the most helpful students around and always lend a hand with projects and activities on campus. Sometimes I wonder if colleges will recognize the work of primary students- hopefully they will continue on this English heavy course!

We made Snowmen out of marshmallows and Oreos, as I've been studying "The Snowman" movie with them in our classes. (I realized there is no spoken word in the story- and it translates quite nicely to these guys. Plus, they have never seen snow and are fascinated by the concept!)

Sorry for the out of order photos...a few more of all of us at the Christmas party.

"The Best Cooking Show" was a lesson Scarlet and I did in class. Students had to script a cooking show with real demos. The kids got pretty into it!

Just last night I hosted Gingerbread house making here at the office. Little did I know when I bravely advertised this activity that my clever milk carton and graham cracker idea would be impossible. (add graham crackers to the list of popular American goods impossible to find in Hong Kong.)

I decided that chocolate wafer cookies would have to do- and luckily the staff managed to be creative with me! Check out my sugared-digs! Completed with backdoor and pez-lined garden. LOL. Such fun.

Below find a photo of me with some students at a Christmas Carolling Event I hosted.

A Picture of Kristy and Hannah with SK after their Aladdin Pantomime! My first real taste of the British classic.

Can't wait to see you all soon. I'm counting the minutes! To those I won't get the chance to see- I look forward to a long phone call? So as my British friends say "Have a very Happy Christmas!" HUGS!

Chinese Thanksgiving

There is no such holiday so named. But there is Thanksgiving IN China, when Americans decide to challenge themselves to create the authentic experience.

Here's Brett prepping his mom's famous Chinese Salad- traditional Peach Family Thanksgiving fare. It was QUITE tasty I must say- though the funniest part was that the "Chinese Noodles- or- Chow Mein"was unavailable here in China. Go figure.

Some of you know that I have a counter top toaster oven which is serving me quite well. I assumed though, that attempting a turkey would be tempting fate with the toaster oven gods...so, I looked to my local (30 minutes away) western grocery which reminds me of an expensive WholeFoods. As luck would have it, they offered fully cooked US grown turkeys for the Christmas season. What's better, they would give it to me HOT so I didn't have to solve the problem of reheating my whole turkey without a clue how I'd attempt it. Great. Now the problem was that the smallest turkey I could order was 13 pounds. We called on our American friends Sean, Matt and Jacqueline (Pictured below very happily seated at our makeshift thanksgiving table. Sorry you can only see part of Sean's head.) We could only invite three as 5 is the number of most things we have in terms of dishes in the kitchen.

Check out this package deal! The turkey came in a Styrofoam box to keep it hot, and came with some veggies and gravy and cranberry (which, frustratingly was better than my homemade whole berry version). YUM! All that was left was the potatoes, stuffing and pies!

I had a real blast prepping everything and I think our friends really enjoyed the gesture.

Pictured: Turkey, delicious, and still warm!

At the end of the night- here's Brett doing the hard work...stripping the bones of leftover turkey which would last us another 6 meals! Good thing we got creative with the meat. :) Good Job, Brett.

Jacqueline has a few more photos- some of me even! :) and I'll add those as soon as I can.

13 days until we are on our way home for Christmas. Gosh- there is SO much to be thankful for.

A Fall Photo Journal

Where do I begin? Gosh, it's been busy- only 21 days remain until our trip back home!

This is basically going to be another photo journal post because there is just

so much to share!

The first pictures are from our day trip to see "The Big Buddha" as he is known here. He really is big- he is 100 feet tall! A huge tourist attraction on

Lantau Island. The coolest part though was getting there via "crystal gondola." The 360 is a cable car system that takes you up the mountain to

get to the small village. It's "Crystal" because the bottom of the car is see through, so that you can enjoy the whole view!

Once in the area, it's still a hike- notice all those steps! We worked our way up quickly so it didn't seem so daunting! Inside of Buddha

is a gallery of art,

a souvenir shop and of course chanting monks! The whole experience was quite fun. Rebecca and Winson took us- they are FINALLY pictured below in front of the cable cars.

*Trouble with the formatting means that the cable car photos are below! Sorry *

This is Brett in front of a sign saying that Washington DC is 12,968 kilometers away! Notice Buddha on the mountain behind!

Another group of pictures is from the Oktoberfest

that we found with some of Brett's coworkers. Here we are looking like TOTAL Dorks! We really enjoyed the Asians in Lederhosen, I might add. Brett and I also danced to some strange song selections for a German night out - YMCA among them-

here he is dancing, beer in hand!

My coworkers found a lady selling "Candy Floss" (AKA Cotton Candy) on the street after lunch one day. This really lifted their spirits so I snapped a shot of them being silly-

Margaret is on the right and Amanda on the left.


Even further back to the fall was our visit to Tai Po-

I know how it sounds- we already live there. But most of the CNETs don't

get to the new territories all that often, so we sponsor a day on bikes and BBQs to show them how awesome it is. This is a self-shot picture of us in front of water- but it was a bit grey out and the angle is poor.

Here I am driving "the family bike" that we took out for a spin. Yes, it was posed. Brett did most of the driving, as he is an experienced biker.

Here is the other half of the photos with the cable cars. here is Rebecca and Winson.

My feet looking down on the water from the cable car. Brett and me in front of the cars while waiting to board. Yes, we're all bundled up because it was absolutely frigid about a week ago. Now it's back to sunny and 75 daily. Not November weather whatsoever.

The Starbucks shot- this is proof that even things like Starbucks promotions make me feel far from home. Notice the spelling and grammar- you'd NEVER see this in Seattle. "You Christmas favourites are back- Dark Cherry Mocha"

And because you are always asking I got some pictures of my students. This is the "English Corner" at the school where many of our small recess activities and crafts are done.

The girls with the yellow sashes are EAT members- English Ambassadors to the school.

Last are a few of my favorites. Especially the one far right! :) More stories about them soon.

I have to go now- I'm prepping (makeshift) turkey dinner for five this weekend. I promise to take pictures! :) LOVE YOU ALL. Cannot wait to come home to Christmas!

A Weekend in Cheung Chau!

Hello! It's Saturday following a busy week- and I'm finally getting the chance to sit down and write to you all about our delicious weekend in Cheung Chau. An island south of Hong Kong Island, Cheung Chau is probably best described as a "fishing village" and summer house locale for Hong Kongers. The sun set as we arrived on a ferry. The tents you see are the docks where the ferry let us off.

Brett and I stayed at the

one hotel on the island- The Warwick. It was nice- with complimentary breakfast served

on our private patio overlooking the south China Sea. We woke to more adventurous tourists (and locals?) windsurfing on a VERY windy day. I don't expect

you to keep up with the local weather, so I have to tell you that typhoon was blowing past and the repercussions of gusty winds did reach us on our long awaited vacation. But no matter! Our first day was spent sleeping late and then getting Chinese massages.

We did venture out for dinner. We crossed the island on foot (the only way if you don't want a ride from a bicycle taxi). There are no cars allowed on the island (with the exception of an ambulance- and a fire truck, I think). It takes less than 5 to walk across the narrowest point.







Dinner was spent waterside for seafood, in Brett's case! See the photo of scallops served on the shell piled with garlic. Brett was in heaven. We also had pork and broccoli- aslo very good, though not from the water! Note the very large Tsing Tsao Beer.
Dinner
Here is the beach just outside the hotel. We went looking for sea glass to add to our collection. (We also have some from our Macau April trip.)

We spent Monday travelling back to the main island, but headed south to Ocean Par

k, a local theme park in HK. Check out that Panda, and Brett probably wishing he was as relaxed as the sprawled big guy.

It was a great trip- and one

we'll likely recommend as a side trip if you can come visit us in Hong Kong! :)

Moon Festival, Wedding, and Another Concert!

What an entirely insane week we had! Busier than we'd been in a long time, Brett and I finally had the chance today to relax and enjoy the day.

It was Grace's birthday on Thursday. Please see picture of Adam giving her a birthday kiss! Behind her, note the "birthday themed desk set" we gave her. Like a strand of Christmas lights, these birthday blubs are powered via her USB port and com

plete with birthday mouse pad and hat: truly an office treat. Upon receiving t

his gem, Grace's first thought was, "It's reusable!" ... I'm happy I have until June to look forward to the same reward.

Thursday also marked National day- China's 60th anniversary. Similar to 4th of July for Americans, National Day is a holiday (no work- unless you are Brett Peach under a deadline) and loads of fireworks above Victoria Harbour. Since Brett was working, we timed his dinner break to the televised fireworks and dubbed it "National Fish Taco Day" - as that was the tasty dinner that night.

This Saturday was the "Mid-Autumn Festival" or some of you might have seen it in the tour books as the Lantern or Mooncake Festival. Another holiday (2 in a span of 3 days, but not related enough to give us Friday

off work and an extra long weekend.

Mooncakes are traditional treats for this time of year. The originals are very dense pastry filled with lotus seed paste (similar to fig or sesame in flavor...) and they contain a salted duck egg yolk, representing the full moon.

They are tasty in small bits, but seriously the most dense dessert I've tried. They come in beautifully ornate boxes. Modern confections have reinvented the mooncake over

and over. Haagen Daaz (which is mysteriously huge here, by the way) has an ice cream mooncake. The same is true of Godiva and other western stores...they all want a piece of the "money-makin' mooncake."

Brett and I headed off to Plato's wedding first thing saturday. (Picture of us above is from after the beautiful ceremony). It was small and lovely- with more cameras than guests. It was professionally filmed- and the place was full of asians and their cell p

hone cameras! Brett and I were starved so we headed back to that patio on the IFC tower you'll remember from one of my September posts. I ran into the grocery for some bread, cheese, salami and fruit- and we had ourselves an expensive little "western picnic" with a nice view of TST.

We headed home for a while to rest before the big concert.