Kung Hei Fat Choi! (Happy New Year)

This post is so long overdue that I'm going to skip right past that part!

Kung Hei Fat Choi literally means I wish you fortune...or "Happy New Year" in Cantonese. You see a kumquat tree and mums- both symbolic of good wishes for the year.

The break was met by some of the lowest temperatures Hong Kong has seen. Unfortunately, most people don't have heat in their homes (us included! brr...) so when you come home to a 45 degree house, it's no fun!

My office took a field trip day to the Che Kung Fair. Here, we found many traditional CNY activities.

Lots of things to buy showed the face of the Tiger, as this year 2010 is the year of the Tiger. 12 zodiac animals represent the different years. They rotate through

as each of the 12 animals hosts a year. There were also many pinwheels and shiny decorations for the holiday.

We banged the drums to scare away evil spirits this year. I decided to make a scary face also!

We had our fortunes

given. You do this by

shaking the cup of sticks until just one pops out.

That stick lists a series of numbers, which corresponded to a certain fortune.

I guess I got lucky because all of my Chinese friends who read it told me it was "all good things." Grace especially delighted in telling us all what our fortunes meant for us!

My coworkers and I decided that 45 degrees wasn't too cold for ice cream!

This is the wishing tree. At Chinese new year, it's traditional to make a wish -

similar to how we might think of a

resolution. Instead, it's a hope for something and in many cases, wishers can plan to make that wish a reality. I wish for better grades in school might mean that you

commit to more studying, for example.

To make your wish, you must attach it (wr

itten) to a bag of rice and throw it to the wishing tree. You have 3 throws or your wish will not come true! I didn't do this because it was expensive, but I have a picture of Grace hurling her wish to the top branches!

Back in Hong Kong with fresh Christmas holiday memories!

Just a few hours off the plane, here's Brett sporting a select Chinese gift!

Meeting friends- old and new- for breakfast, for coffee, for lunch or for drinks...our schedule filled up so quickly!

Christmas day found Tommy teaching Brett to play Big Game Hunter on Wii. I look on fearful of the mountain lions said to surprise players. Note the rabbit fur lined cap and snuggie. (See bonus snuggie photo below).

Christmas dinner always involves the time honored Castle-tradition Table Gifts! But this year, dad added to the fun with a little Woot.com joy. Tommy, Vanessa, Brett and I unwrapped dozens of DVDs. Brett and I intend to share this cornucopia of B rated favorites with our fellow Hong Kongers.

Out to dinner with mom and dad and Brett before seeing "White Christmas!"

Our family New Year's card photo- taken (miraculously?) before we all left for Christmas Eve church.

Dad was able to set the camera on a timer, so the rest of us- in true "family Christmas card photo-taking drama" fashion, shouted our opinions all too willingly. But when that camera snapped, w all looked pretty happy, huh? Honestly, as I look at this photo again, I'm once again amazed that all of us, stretched from Hong Kong to Boston, were able to share the holiday together.

In short, Brett and I are loving our experiences in Hong Kong, but being home for Christmas made us feel further away from home. We can't wait to go back and enjoy the northwest- and more important, our proximity to all of you! :) We love and miss you already.

Bonus photo: "Snuggies Rock!"

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!