Hong Kong!

Hey friends and family!

I am so sorry that I have not been able to update. We arrived safely back in Qingdao Sunday night but we were so busy with laundry and school, that I have been unable to post until now. Things are so crazy, I feel like I need 8 different blogs to update you on all of the different areas of my life. So, I guess just shoot me emails with any questions you have. My next update should be a post about B.J. and I and stuff there.

Ok, Hong Kong was sooooooooo beautiful. (To the left is a picture that I took of it at night from a mountain that stands right behind downtown. If you can see the building that has diagonal lights across it, you are looking at a famous building that was designed by the same architect that designed the Louvre Museum!) It looks and feels a lot like Hawaii and it sort of has the flavor of Austin. I have NEVER in my life been in a more diverse city. Everywhere you look you can see Asians, Indians, Middle Easterners, Africans, Pacific Islanders, Westerners (Americans, Brits, Germans, Australians...) and so much more. Seriously, There were all kind of people. It doesn't just extend to different nationalities either, I saw the extremely wealthy, the homeless so far below the American poverty level that I would have to tell you what body parts they sell to describe it. We saw that people stuck in the 80's, 60's, and 1800's. We saw artists and businessmen, and cowboys, young, old, weird, etc.
(This is a picture I took of some of the most beautiful and expensive flowers in HK, from the Flower market.)









The classification of people that was probably the biggest shock for me was represented by a couple that I met when I was withdrawing money from the ATM. Tori and I were waiting in line when a white couple walked up behind us an started talking to us in English. I turned around and said hello. They saw that we had Texas A&M shirts on and asked where we were from. The conversation progressed and eventually I asked them how long they had been in HK. They replied, "16 years, we're missionaries." WHAT?!?!?!?! My next thought was, "Can they say that? I can't even write that word in my emails." Turns out they can. You see, HK leased from China to the British in 1900 for 99 years. Britain brought so many things to China, including double decker (the picture to the left is Tori and I on a double decker bus in downtown HK.) buses and western architecture, but the greatest thing that they brought was freedom. For 99 years HK has enjoyed all of the freedoms that you and I do in the states. In 1999 when China took HK back, surprisingly, they kept the freedoms in tact (it is for a variety of reasons, ask me when I get home.) So, religion is (almost) totally free in HK. There are churches all over the place. In fact, we stayed at the Hong Kong Baptist University. It is no longer a Baptist university because it is now run by the state but they did allow it to keep the name. So, even though China s closed to religion, HK is not. Praise the Lord! (This picture is of a Gideon in our University Hotel room.


We did so many neat things in HK. We visited some incredible temples both Buddhist and Taoist. We saw a colony of wild monkeys. Boys being boys, one of the guys 'accidentally' threatened a male monkey. Well, that monkey thrashed at two of the guys, stole of of their A&M maroon panchos and then inspected it. Although the monkey did return the pancho (and when I say return, I mean return) I'm not sure our team has fully recovered from the scare ;) You all will be happy to know that as soon as I saw they boys start to provoke the monkey, I hauled butt in the other direction. (I think I learned that bit of wisdom from B.J. When a monkey is provoked, dont stand there and take pictures, leave. Thanks Honey!) We also saw a lot of other neat things, we went to the jade market, the bird market, the flower market, and many night markets. We also saw the world's largest floating restaurant. I'll just have to show you pictures when I get home.


The picture on the far left is from the Taoist temple, they are absolutely full of palm readers and fortune tellers. The right picture is from the Buddhist temple, it was deceitfully beautiful. (I can explain that if you want...)







We ate some of the best food I have ever had in my life. Although I miss Jose's we were treated to some of the best food in the world. The most impressive thing I had was Peking Duck from the Peking Garden Restaurant in Hong Kong. Oh my goodness. It was as good as it sounds. WE had some excellent Thai food and so much else. (ps. they have 4 of the worlds top 10 hotels in HK, that should say something.) If it wasn't a 13 hours plane ride, I would totally want to honeymoon here!)
(This is Tori and I with one of my favorites of our professors at the Peking Garden Restaurant.)


Tori and I had some adventures. Some of you may shake your head at us, but we had fun. Don't worry though, I already promised B.J. I wouldn't do most of this again, at least not without him.
It rained a lot in HK. Two nights in a row, Tori and I went out, wanting some time away from the boys. Both nights we had a lot of difficulty getting back. The first night no taxi would pick us up, probably because we were soaked to the bone. Some British guy named David was convinced that all Taxi Drivers hated Americans and loved the British so he needed to help us. While Tori yelled at Taxi drivers I held this guys umbrella over him while he ate his dinner (at midnight.) Finally after half an hour of me asking him why I was holding his umbrella I decided that I needed to pee and that I didn't want to hold his umbrella anymore so I gave it back to him and Tori and I tried to leave. Just then he said he would give us $100 id he didn't find us a taxi in 5 minutes. Two minutes later Tori found a taxi and we got in and home, safely. The next night after some heavy shopping and eating Tori and I escaped from the boys again. After some time out on the town we wanted to go home. It wasn't raining hard and it was still early so we thought finding a taxi would be no problem. Wrong. It would have been no problem had we not spent all of our money!! I had forgotten to grab the money that I pulled from the ATM earlier that day, and with all of our money put together we only had 7 HK dollars. A taxi is about 40 HK dollars and 7 is not even enough for bus fare. We had to try so after a lot of walking and guessing on directions we finally found bus 7, the one that would get us home. AS we boarded the bus we prayed the driver would let us on with our measly 7 dollars. He did, and we got home, again.
We had a blast.