• June 27, 2008 - Hong Kong -- Clean and Sanitary as Seen in its Signs

This sign reveals so much-- about Hong Kong's cleanliness & about it's Chinese neighbor's lack thereof. Spitting is a common sight (and sound!) in China. But it's strictly outlawed in Hong Kong! Horray! No jumping out of the way when I hear that gutteral wind up. Another sign that we rarely see in China is this one -- I despise smoking. I think it's nasty, wasteful, and just wrong. So I love these signs and the fact that the rules are actually enforced! This is particularly unique - an anti rodent campaign. And this sign was found outside of a grocery store. Close ups of the various cough manners: And since Hong Kong is the land of SARS and bird flu, these wonderful hand cleanser dispensers are in lots of public places -- museums, malls, and hospitals. The powers that be here in HK work really hard to educate the public and work towards superior sanitation. It's obvious! And I enjoy it while we visit. You may subscribe to this blog in a reader or by email.

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• May 17, 2008 - Meeting Blogging Friends

I have met (IRL -- in real life) two of my blog readers! Deanne and Beth are both American, homeschool mom, bloggers who live in Hong Kong. Deanne blogs at Robertson Tribe Updates. And Beth blogs at Beautiful Feet on the Mountains. Since you enjoy glimpses into living overseas, then visit their fascinating blogs! When they read on my blog that I was in Hong Kong, they contacted me about meeting! What a blessing they were to me! Here I am with Deanne. She is an amazingly smart and adaptable woman with four adorable children. Sprite had a great time playing with them. She totally took me under her wing, taking me to church, inviting me to a great performance by the Watoto Children's Choir, cooking a meal for me, including me in her homeschool group and mom's group meetings, and just being a friend! We even went to Disney together. Thanks, Deanne. Beth cooked an amazing Mexican meal, all homemade, accompanied by a fabulous pumpkin cake -- her original creation! She's a very crafty mom of one adorable little girl Miss K. Beth took me to Spotlight to browse around the most fabulous craft shop I've seen outside of America! I didn't know stores like that existed in Asia -- fabric, buttons, costumes, yarn, punches, scrapbooking, everything!!  She really knows how to make a friend happy -- CRAFTS. Thanks, Beth! Your friendship really means a lot to me! I never knew that blogging would open doors to real life friends! I assumed that being so far away in China, I'd only have online friendships. But God has blessed me with two new friends not too terribly far away. We already have plans to meet again on our next trip to Hong Kong. You may subscribe to this blog in a reader or by email.

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• May 8, 2008 - Field Trip to Lei Cheng Uk Han Dynasty Tomb

Lei Cheng Uk Han Dynasty Tomb is an archaeological site in Hong Kong. It's free, and we HAD to visit it while we're here. Amazingly, no bones or bodies were found inside the tomb -- only shards and such. Fascinating! No one knows what happened to the bodies. Although the museum is super tiny, it's certainly worth "free"  to stimulate Sprite's interest in archeology. You get to peek inside the dig site through plexi-glass. The tomb is kept super cold. You can feel the air conditioning through the glass. Below is the outside of the tomb, under a protective shelter. There was a nice video, some posters, and a few artifacts on display. And Dad even went along on this field trip! Hong Kong is such a wonderful place -- so many cultural things like this are offered for free. We are doing our best to take advantage of it while we can. We will be going back into China sometime soon. The plans are in the works now. You may subscribe to this blog in a reader or by email.

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• April 25, 2008 - Hong Kong Disney -- Special Features

I hope you're not getting tired of HK Disney. You know, blogging is as much a record for our family as it is to share with my readers. Our lives are so mobile, it's reasssuring to me to know that many of our memories are safe online where they cannot be lost. I was impressed with all the street performers at Disney. They are fabulous and take the time to interact with you -- take photos, let you play or dance along, whatever. A dancing troupe in Adventure Land Now, you all know THIS was a huge hit with Sprite. We attended the Animation Academy several times each day at Disney. At this short, 20 minute event, you are taught how to draw a simple sketch of Minnie, Mickey, or Donald. It's done in Cantonese which we don't understand, but because it's highly visual, language really makes no difference. Here are some of the animators who taught us. The cast members give out stickers, and Sprite collected quite an assortment! Here she is organizing them at the Leaky Tiki area. We loved watching and talking with a Russian acrobat in Fantasyland. He helped DH to do his own balancing act. What fun! These kinds of special features are what makes Hong Kong Disney extra special to us! You may subscribe to this blog in a reader or by email.

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• April 24, 2008 - Hong Kong Disney-- Wait Times & Food

I already showed you the amazing 5 minute wait time for It's a Small World. Well, basically that was standard for all the rides! See the evidence for yourself: Jenn4Him asked about the food at Hong Kong Disney. Yes, it's quite different from American fare. No caramel apples, no taffy, no fudge, no salty popcorn, no hotdogs, no funnelcakes. The food was quite disappointing the first day since I was expecting those American style snacks. Instead we did find caramel popcorn, dried squid, sushi, noodles of many kinds, rice and pork chop, hamburgers, terryaki chicken sandwiches, chicken wings, traditional Chinese foods, corn on the cob, coffee, cinnamon rolls, muffins, and corn dogs. The corn dogs were a real treat! :-) Mustard even! I saw a European couple eating them, and I unashamedly asked where they'd gotten those tasty morsels. They agreed with me that the food is not what we expected. Oh well, you can't have it all. These wait times made up for it! For some reason, the Jungle River Cruise was super-popular and it sometimes had the LONG wait time of 15 minutes. I know, that's not long at all. But when you've been basically walking onto the rides without any wait, standing in line for 15 minutes seems like torture. We all three looked at this sign and decided to go elsewhere. It's all relative! Now you're all ready to jump on a plane and come to Hong Kong just for Disney, right? Well, make sure you come when school is in session, there are no local holidays, and it's Monday through Friday. That seems to be the secret to a wonderful Hong Kong Disney experience. You may subscribe to this blog in a reader or by email.

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• April 23, 2008 - Hong Kong Disney -- Parade

Scenes from the afternoon parade at Hong Kong Disney. The performers were mostly Asians. The songs were sung in both English and Cantonese -- alternating verses in each language. As to be expected from Disney productions, the costumes were amazing. Here are a jellyfish and a starfish accompanying Ariel's underwater float. I caught Mickey and Minnie in a romantic moment! You may subscribe to this blog in a reader or by email.

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• April 22, 2008 - Hong Kong Disney -- It's a Small World

On our second day at HK Disney, we had a special treat! The It's a Small World ride was open for testing! So we were some of the first people ever to ride this classic Disney ride! It was so fun to see a segment on the evening news about the upcoming opening of this ride that we'd already ridden! It was much better than the one in FL. It was much more multicultural (natural for an international place like Hong Kong). The song was sung in three different languages through the ride. The Asia section was much larger and more attractive than that in FL. And some of the classic Disney characters were incorporated into the display -- Mowgli in India, Cinderella in Europe, Jasmine and Aladin in the Middle East, etc. And look at this wait time... can you believe it? Five minutes for It's a Small World? I don't think I can ever enjoy American Disney again. I've been utterly and totally spoiled! Several of you asked about the Disney characters being Americans or Asians. Well, under those costumes, I have no idea, of course! The ones with huge masks on don't speak at all. So I had no clue whatsoever. But the princesses were all Anglo not Asian. I don't know where they were from. They sounded (from their English) like North Americans, but of course, you can't ask Belle "Where are you from?" I mean, everyone knows Belle is from France! You may subscribe to this blog in a reader or by email.

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• April 21, 2008 - Hong Kong Disney -- Character Greetings

It's been a few years since we have been in Hong Kong as a family. And in that time, Hong Kong Disney has been built! What a treat! Although the park is small, the ticket price is relatively inexpensive (compared to the Florida Disney). For less than a one day FL pass, we bought a "cheap-o" annual pass to HK Disney which allows us to visit the park on Monday through Friday. Weekends are not allowed on this pass, but who cares? The park is a delight on the weekdays; the guests are so few! So here are some photos of us meeting the characters throughout the park. It seemed to me that there were more character meeting opportunities in HK than in FL. We really enjoyed that! Sprite collected signatures of each character we met. You may subscribe to this blog in a reader or by email.

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