Home day

Just a quick update for today.
Yesterday I went to breakfast with another pilot's wife here. She and her 2 year old daughter filled me in on what it has been like for them so far. They have been in Hong Kong since February. After breakfast, she and I went to the gym at our apartment to work out. I didn't last very long! - I haven't worked out for a while! Anyway, we enjoyed sitting in the sauna after our workout. The clubhouse here has a steam sauna and a dry sauna.
The ammenities at our apartment are great, however, I found out that you pay for each individual thing. Everything costs in Hong Kong it seems! They have 4 pools (2 indoor and 2 outdoor along with a kiddie pool as well), bowling alley, workout gym, karaoke room, outdoor tennis court, miniature golf, table tennis, squash court, a piano room that you can rent, billiard room, banquet hall (2), Japanese spa, barbecue area and a rock climbing wall. When you pay for something, such as the gym, you get an arm band that allows you to return for the whole day. I didn't realize that you need to pay for each thing, so after working out in the gym, I thought I'd take a dip in the pool and see what it was like - well, I was told that I would have to pay for that and get another arm band to use the pool. You pay for each activity either by the day, the hour, such as renting  karaoke room per hour, or each use, such as the climbing wall. There are different prices, too, based on if you're a resident, elderly, a guest or if it is a weekday or a weekend day.

I enjoyed the gym, however, and met some girls there. One was from Spain and one was from Venezuela. The one from Venezuela didn't speak much English, so the pilot's wife translated for us!

After lunch I took a nap! I thought about cleaning the apartment, but that made me even more sleepy! :)

Last night when the pilots returned, we all (the pilots and their wives/girlfriend) went out for pizza. The pizza wasn't exactly like what I'm used to - very, very thin crust and not a lot of cheese with some different things on it, like feta - but very good. I was going to take a picture of the 3 pilots, but I forgot. They were in their 'costumes!' :)

Today, John Paul was on call, but he was home. We enjoyed sleeping in and then talking and catching up with what has gone on since we weren't able to communicate much while he was away. We went grocery shopping and bought some other household things like hangers and laundry soap. Then we decided to wash laundry. HA! Let me explain:

Welcome to our apartment: apartment 15C (The doorbell is underneath but doesn't work very well right now...)

Here's our front door (ok...only door except for the balcony!  - yes, that is a peep hole..it is positioned lower than my shoulder!)

So, once inside (pictures to come...it's not clean yet!), you are in the dining room/living room  - it's tiny, let me tell you. If you turn left, you are in the kitchen. Here's a picture of my kitchen:

The door is ANNOYING! I have to shut the door in order to get into the fridge which is directly behind the door, but I really don't want to keep the door shut for long because it's SO small in there I feel claustrophobic and also the air conditioning won't be able to get in there so it will get hot and stuffy very quickly. JP might take the door off, but we just don't know where to put it! Our apartment is really small.

Just to the right of the stove is the sink. That's the whole kitchen. And no, we do not have an oven. Sadly! What looks like a dishwasher is actually my washer and dryer. I don't have a dishwasher - but of course that's not a problem because I don't have many dishes to wash anyway!

Here's the washer/dryer:

It's SO tiny! We decided to wash a load of laundry today. We started the load at 12:20 this afternoon. 3 hours and 20 minutes later, the washer was done! We turned the dryer on as soon as the washer was done and just now, at 8:00pm, we stopped the dryer and decided to become a real Chinese family and hang our clothes outside on the porch! The dryer, even after all that time, hadn't finish drying the clothes! From what I'm told, dryers here don't finish drying the clothes. If you want to dry them, you either do what most everyone does and hang them outside on the porch or else take them to the laundry. We have done a few loads at the laundry downstairs, but they don't have coin laundry - you just hand the load of dirty clothes to the lady and she washes and dries them for you (and she does not sort them - just puts them all into the washer together) - and it costs you about $10 (USD) for one load of laundry. (depending on the weight).

So, besides laundry, picking up our apartment, fixing a broken light and shopping, we enjoyed checking out the park across the street and eating at the same restaurant where I cried that first day in the apartment. I did not cry! In fact, we loved the delicious food! John Paul and I each had the same thing: sweet and sour pork with rice, tea and soup. Yummy!

Well, John Paul just found out that he has a trip in the morning, so I guess I'll be going to church by myself! I'm looking forward to the fellowship of believers.

So long for now! Have a blessed Lord's day.