Our apartment, finally!

Hello Friends!

There is so much to tell that I could go on writing for hours! However, this will have to be a short post as it is almost 11pm and I need to get up early tomorrow. I enjoyed a good message and fellowship at church this morning and then out for lunch at a Vietnamese restaurant with some friends (almost the same group as last week!). Instead of visiting a new church this week, I decided to go back to ECC since I know how to get there by myself and have several friends there now. John Paul is away on a trip, so I had to go by myself this week. (By the way, JP is in Hawaii right now - so I sent him a Wal-Mart list that includes comet, syrup, a potato masher, grapefruit spoons, vitamins and a can of cranberries for Thanksgiving!)
After lunch today, I walked around with Amy, Sum, Jesse and the kids (Evangeline and Elijah) and they showed me a well-known market on Temple Street in Jordan (where you can bargain for things!), and a German bakery. After they went home, I had a couple hours to kill, so I wandered around Central and found some shops and then watched a celebration/festival from the Philippines (singers, dancers and a beauty pageant). There were Filipinos (mostly ladies) ALL over....lined on the sides of the street, in the tunnel going under the road, on the grass...so I just picked a spot and made myself at home with them! Many Filipino ladies live and work with families in Hong Kong and Sunday is their day off, so they often leave the house where they work and mingle with other Filipinos on their mutual day off (Sunday). Many come from sad situations back in the Philippines. One girl that works and lives in our building has a job taking care of the two children in a family who lives here (originally from Spain). The Filipino lady has a 4 year old of her own back home in the Philippines, but she can only see her daughter once a year or so. She (the 4 year old) lives with the dad and the mom works in Hong Kong to raise money for her. The mom said that if she stayed at home with her 4 year old, there would not be enough money for food so she needs to live here to earn money.

After killing a few hours, I went to the last day of the Hong Kong International Piano Competition finals. Both of the finalists for the evening played Rachmaninov's 3rd Concerto. Vladimir Ashkenazy was conducting the orchestra (sigh!). I am going back and Tuesday and Wednesday nights to hear the judges perform! Hong Kong is not so bad, is it?! :) I am so thankful to my new friend Mary Wu for inviting me to go with her and giving me tickets too!

Speaking of "not so bad" - every day I grow to like it and feel more at home here. Thanks to a little store called Japan Home which is in the basemet of where we live, I've been able to buy little things here and there to make our apartment more like home. So now, what you've all been waiting for:
OUR APARTMENT!

First let me start by showing you the outside. This is from across the street next to Tung Chung Park.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ogHDs9NYVsA

Here's a still picture:

Since I was across the street, I (we) decided to show you the park. Here it is:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-vNSYKi7eao

It was a bit hazy, but a very pleasant day.

We saw a grave on our hike.

Looking down to the MTR and road

Looking back at our apartment complex

A sign along the way...

We decided vere off the main path to see the "Olympic Green." We climbed a lot of stairs.

And then some more...

And more!



Turns out..it was just a sign! But it was pretty along the way, so it was worth it. (Who needs a stair machine when you've got "real" stairs to climb, right?!)

So now...here is a tour of our apartment from the INSIDE! (It starts at the elevator [or 'lift' as they say here]  - though the elevator was stopped on floor 32, we really live on floor 15 - don't let that confuse you!)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oYZwbVGu3yg

I will try and get some pictures of the outside of our apartment, but it will probably be late this week or next week before I am able to do it.

Just two more things before I say goodnight:

1. Shopping - just thought I'd show you some pictures I took from one of my grocery shopping adventures:







Here is the receipt: 248.25!!





And here is what I bought.

Don't worry - it's not as bad as it seems. USD that would be about $32.24.

For those of you who were wondering about gas prices, I took a picture for you. I'll leave it to you to do the math - don't forget it's per liter, not gallon. (and it's HKD, not USD, of course). We don't pay much attention to gas prices since we don't have a car here.



2. John Paul and I went to the Space museum on Wednesday. It was a lot of fun! I went on a 'ride' that simulated zero gravity in space. Two guys strapped me into a harness and I walked to the wall and back to the stairs twice. Just to be funny, I said, "So am I really in space?!" One of the guys was like, "No, it's just a ride." I guess he was probably thinking "Dumb American!" HA!

Goodnight everybody! I'm going to bed! (So much for being 'short' huh?! Oh well...)