Holidays Abroad

Nothing makes me feel quite as homesick as the US Fall and Winter holidays.  Last year, I was pretty preoccupied with being pregnant and having Monroe in December.  This year, I am on top of my holiday game!  However, even with lots of advanced planning, celebrating the holidays in the way we've been accustomed to in America has it's very comical challenges.

Halloween

By mid-October, I am typically a sucker for a cozy sweater and a pumpkin spice latte.  Except in Hong Kong, where even the thought of putting anything over top of my tank top makes me start sweating!  So, I've settled into the cozy October activity of eating a Milk Tea & Cookies McFlurry (yep, that's a real thing!) while in my swimsuit.  The heat has also been a hilarious concern when helping the kids select Halloween costumes. I was relieved when Isla picked the sparkly "Ariel" mermaid dress but then had a heck of a time trying to find Monroe a fish outfit that wasn't 5 layers of fur with a hood.  I ended up just having them go as mermaid sisters.  Monroe's baby mermaid outfit was $11 on Amazon + $8 shipping to Hong Kong which I decided actually a was a crazy good deal.  Sold!  Costumes that weigh all of 0.3 pounds are definitely what I'll continue to aim for in the future.

We try to keep up as many traditions as possible and expose the kids to them early.  We settled for "shopping for a pumpkin" since the closest actual pumpkin patch is probably a 10 hour plane ride away.  Timing your pumpkin shopping here is a delicate balance as we want the kids to enjoy the pumpkin for a while, but given that they are all grown in the US and then shipped overseas, the pumpkins' life expectancy once here is pretty grim!  We went three days before Halloween, with great excitement, down to the store we knew would have them and were told after wandering the whole store that they sold out. I asked if they were getting more and the store manager just laughed and said he didn't know.  We tried a second store...no dice.  Luckily, the third store had a good number left.  We carved it, put a candle inside, and enjoyed our family jack-o-lantern, for the 2 days it lasted.  The evening before Halloween I went to move the pumpkin over to find that as I placed my hands on the outside of the pumpkin and lifted, the insides all just...fell out. The fallen insides looked like the "the upside down" from Stranger Things - all covered in gray and white mold and cob-webby.  Oh, and the smell!  Anyway, we are grateful for the 48 hours of a pumpkin in our apartment and sincerely hope our Christmas Tree can survive a bit longer!

I never lived in a big city or apartment building as a kid, so watching how trick-or-treating went down in a massive apartment complex last year was quite fascinating. And slightly horrifying.  In this city in particular, building cannot be done horizontally. It's all about going UP.  Our building is 3 towers, 32 floors, but only 2 apartments on each floor of each tower.  Imagine tons of kids trying to use the elevators to trick-or-treat when each floor only has 2 apartments!  We, like all residents, spent most of the evening waiting for the elevator.  I think we made it to 4 apartments in an hour and Isla was just sobbing asking to go back home. This year, I rallied lots of the other parents together and ended up leading the "Halloween Improvement Committee."  It's was really no different than what I used to do at work - things like ensuring patients flow efficiently through a GI suit for colonoscopies, for example. So, six of us went to work on a new Halloween plan and I'm so pleased that this year went a lot smoother!  Kids were ecstatic, including mine. I think Isla ended up enjoying giving out candy more than receiving it.  Every time the doorbell rang, she would scream and run as fast as she could to the door, and when there was a lag between trick-or-treaters, she would make one of us go outside the door to ring the bell and "pretend" to be trick-or-treating.  We all had a nice evening!

Thanksgiving

This is probably the oddest-feeling holiday abroad because, while Halloween and Christmas are still celebrated by many people, Thanksgiving is really just the Americans (and a handful of Canadians, but they just celebrate in October, sort of).  On Thanksgiving day, everyone still goes to work and the Americans you run into here and there wish each other a nice holiday, but we decided to just wait until Saturday to make THE MEAL.  Our besties in Hong Kong, Nick and Meg, are also US expats, and they came over bright and early so we could do all the turkey and other preparations together while trying to stream two day-old football games on the TV. (I mean, you've got to set the right environment for Thanksgiving day!)  I got my frozen 12-pound Butterball turkey four weeks before Thanksgiving. Much like the Halloween pumpkins, sometimes the stores just get one shipment, then call it a day.  I broke 2 drawers in my freezer trying to fit the turkey in there, but it was totally worth it.

We had a feast for 4 adults, but I'm pretty sure the amount of food could have fed 20.  We just didn't want to miss out on any dishes!  Prior to our celebration, Meg and I texted furiously for weeks, scouring all the stores in Hong Kong for all the "American ingredients."  IF you can find these ingredients, it will still cost you an arm and a leg and make you briefly ask yourself, "Wait, do I really need to have apple pie and creamed corn?"  I'll save you the suspense...YES, I MUST HAVE THESE THINGS!  Luckily, Meg and I are very much on the same page on this issue. We collectively spent about $50 US on butter as of Friday afternoon when I picked up the yams for sweet potato surprise. Then I remembered, duh, I also needed butter for the yams...okay, up to $55.  With all that scrumptious imported New Zealand butter though, our meal was super creamy and super delicious!

Despite the jaw-dropping price tag of western food, we actually had a great time preparing for Thanksgiving!  If there's anything more hilarious than scampering all over the city trying to find things like poultry seasoning, it has got to be this country's interpretation of Black Friday.  I'm not sure if its actually not understood or if it is understood and very little attention is paid to the execution of it, but it clearly isn't just one day and really isn't tied to Thanksgiving the day prior.  Mostly, around Central Hong Kong, there are just signs everywhere that have an array of Chinese charters and the English words, "Black Friday."  If you inquire as to what this means in the store, the sales associates generally tell you that there is, in fact, a sale, it has already started and no one knows when it ends, and then they typically point to the selection of sweaters that are a very special "Black Friday price" of 10% off.  It's a little anti-climactic.  It's probably for the best though since I already blew our entire monthly budget on butter.

Christmas

Without Thanksgiving to officially ring in the Christmas season, Hong Kong goes from Halloween straight to Christmas decorations with lightning speed. The decorations and music kicked off on November 1st all around the city!  Nate and I are pretty big fans of Christmas, so this doesn't bother us at all, but we are now realizing how painful this must be for our 3.5 year old who doesn't understand why it STILL isn't Christmas yet. Much like the Thanksgiving turkey, I ordered our 6-7 foot tall US Douglas Fir quite early (Oct 28th) from the florist in town. It will be delivered in early December. When I was arranging the tree removal just after Christmas, I stared at the calendar and then looked up and asked the florist, "Four to five weeks of having this tree in the house seems like a long time after being cut down and shipped. Is it going to be completely dead and dropping needles everywhere?"  She smiled and replied, "Oh, yes ma'am. It will be very bad...very messy. All over the floor actually."  I laughed, then she stared at me a while until I arrived back at the exact same date in January I originally eyed up for pick up.  I'll just have to keep Monroe's pine needle consumption to a minimum once they are covering the house, I suppose.

If there's one thing Thanksgiving taught me, it's that I must start my meal planning and purchasing early!  I reckon the process will very much resemble Thanksgiving.  It is nice to know that if I reach a breaking point, most things are open on Christmas and I can just have Pho delivered to the house for dinner though.  By far, the most challenging thing to acquire last Christmas was egg nog. And I LOVE egg nog! I like it plain, I like it with bourbon, I like it on cereal. That stuff is good.  So, imagine my anxiety when I circled one of the better grocery stores for 20 minutes last December and didn't see it. I asked to please speak with the store manager and the conversation went like this:
  Me: Good Morning! I'm trying to find egg nog. Do you have it in stock?
  Manager: Oh yes, we have the eggs! He walks me over to the eggs.
  Me: Oh, no, not eggs. Egg NOG. For Christmas!  You drink it, like milk...
  Manager:  Of course!  He walks me over to milk
  Me: Oopsies, this isn't the "CHRISTMAS MILK" I'm really after.
  Manager: Walks me over to the Christmas decorations and says, there you go!

A week later, I found the small 1-liter size cartens of egg nog. They were $10 US each...but I had found it!! I bought 3 and had a very Merry Christmas!  We are very much looking forward to a joyful holiday season with 2 crazy kids, 3 cartens of egg nog (fingers crossed!), and a Douglas Fir...Although a partridge in a pear tree would probably make less of a mess!

Hong Kong Reflections One Year In

Life goes pretty fast when you move from one foreign country to another, your husband has a huge job change, and you have a baby all in one year!  The beginning of August marked our one year point in Hong Kong. We have generally found life here to be extremely fun and exciting, but it isn't without tremendous challenges. As Nate often describes it, our highs are higher, our lows are lower.  Everything simply seems amplified.  With that in mind, here's my hodgepodge list of what has been awesome and a few things that have been, well, not quite as awesome during our first year in Hong Kong!

Michelin Star Food In My Pajamas

Nothing in that title is an exaggeration.  This city has some of the most inexpensive and casual Michelin-rated restaurants in the world.  One of our favorites is a dumpling place that is just 2 escalator rides up from the Airport Express train station (so we are in the vicinity pretty often!).  It's about 1/10 the size of your average Panera Bread with a typical line of about 50 people, but they really make some tidy dumplings!  Our go-to items are the steamed shrimp dumplings and the barbecue pork buns.  Nate and I couldn't decide where to go on our date night a few weeks ago, so we went to a great bar for expensive cocktails and then spent less than half of our cocktail price on a ton of dumplings and just sat on some cement stairs near a shopping mall to eat them. It was magical! Dumplings are just the tip of the iceberg though. We've now become well versed in Japanese Ramen, Vietnamese Pho and Banh Mi, as well as lots of Thai and Malaysian dishes.  You'll notice I make no mention of local Cantonese food.  Truth be told, I prefer Americanized Chinese food and crave it regularly.  Generally speaking, traditional local cuisine places a lot of emphasis on dark and fatty meats as well as a lot of duck which isn't my cup of tea. So, we tend to immerse ourselves in dishes like dumplings and forego the meat dishes most of the time.

Mo Prams, Mo Problems

There is an infamous, tragic day in our recent past we refer to often in our family.  I refer to it as "The day Isla forgot to get out of the elevator."  Isla refers to it as, "The day Mommy left me in the elevator."  Ugh, 3 year olds are so dramatic!  Anyway, she obviously survived forgetting to exit the elevator one day when my hands were full of shopping bags and I thought she was right behind me.  While having my kid alone in a moving elevator in our building did send a quick parental panic through my bones, it actually wasn't that hard to figure out what to do...I hit both the up and down buttons and listened acutely as her screams got quieter and quieter as the elevator went down...and then louder and louder a minute later when the elevator came up, up, up and right back to me on the 15th floor.  She had a good cry, and frankly, learned an important lesson that day - Mom and Dad don't wait for slowpokes, keep up!

While I never imagined I'd live in a massive high-rise with young children, I realize this part of our lives certainly isn't all that unique as lots of kids grow up in large cities like New York (and I'm sure forget to get out of the elevator from time to time!)  However, what is unique is to be raising young children in a city that was really only ever intended and designed for able-bodied adults.  When I do bring the kids out with me on various adventures or runs, we get a lot of stares and a lot of photos taken of us, which mostly has to do with Isla's long flowing blonde hair, a coveted treasure in Asia!  Occasionally, if I'm feeling particularly bold, I'll pop one of the kids in the jogging pram (keeping it British here in HK) and brave the severe downhill to the mountain-side running trail and then back up the hill on the way back.  The world-famous "Peak Tram" actually goes up alongside the hill I have to run up to get back home.  If I am pushing a kid up the hill while running, without fail, almost every person leans out the tram window and snaps a photo of us.  I don't know what the heck they eventually do with these photos later. I imagine some couple showing their elderly parents their Hong Kong vacation photos, swiping through and then they get to one of me pushing a pram up the hill and probably go, "And look at this moron trying to push that thing up a hill!"

Firm Butt, Weak Knees

I'm not sure how much elaboration is needed here - the mountain, the stairs inside, outside, and even underground in the metro are like no place on earth I've ever been before.  My butt has never been in better shape, but my pour creaky knees have aged about 10 years in the 1 year we've been here!

Pho Real

This just wouldn't be an accurate picture of the last year of my life proportionally if I didn't have at least two sections about food.  Pho...where should I even start?!  First, the Vietnamese are brilliant.  I don't know how they make such an amazing broth and such a satisfying dish that is really only just, well, soup.  It fills a void in all weather. In fact, one of my absolute favorite things to do after a long hot summer day is order beef pho for delivery, put on my pajamas, turn the air con way down, and eat the steaming hot soup while getting goose bumps on my legs from the air conditioning blasting.  Just thinking about it makes me smile.

Safety First...Just Kidding!

I'll be the first to admit that the overcautious, warning-heavy mentality in the US is sometimes a bit much for me - I mean, how many tags does a pair of baby pajamas really need to fairly inform the purchaser that those pajamas are, in fact, flammable if you were to put your baby into a fire?  The polar opposite of that warning-heavy mentality is Hong Kong.  Here's a quick summary:  No car seats, no crosswalks, no fences at cliff faces, minimal food prep oversight / regulatory body (if you live here, you'll get E coli.  It just happens), personal medical information laws are mostly a gray area.  In short, getting hit by a taxi while trying to get to your doctor because you have E Coli while your doctor shares with your friend that you are on your way in for diarrhea again would not be an uncommon combination of events!  The lack of rigid rules and guidelines is actually quite nice most of the time.  But, if we all make it out of this city without having been hit by a taxi at least once, it will be a darn miracle!

Adult Nap Time Anywhere and Everywhere

One of the strangest things to get used to is the general schedule nearly all people keep in this city.  Typically, Hong Kongians stay up super late, roll into work around 9am and remain at work until 8pm, but with a pretty sizable break / nap in the middle.  From 12pm-2pm, culturally, there is no expectation of doing work.  From 12pm-2pm, people take some serious naps...pretty much anywhere. People sleep at their cubicles, on the floor, or out at a lunch table.  Near Nate's office, there is a huge construction site where it looks like they've mostly just been digging with shovels in the dirt for about 6 months (maybe they are searching under old concrete for dinosaur bones?)  I'm sure an engineer could correct me, but it just looks like moving dirt for months on end.  Anyway, from 12-2, all the construction workers take off their shirts, put them behind their heads, and just lay down in the dirt or on various bulldozers for a nap.  Every time I walk by, it think it looks like a scene straight out of a James Bond movie - Bond came, he found the secret computer chip needed in a capsule underground, then he could leave no witnesses!  So, here I am, just looking at all these half-clothed murdered bodies while riding the mid-level escalator up to get some pizza. That Daniel Craig is so brutal.

One Lump or Two?

The strong British influence in this Asian city might actually be one of the coolest things about Hong Kong.  There are a number of Marks & Spencer stores, which I could best describe as a British Trader Joes with items like cheese, tea cakes, wine and a variety of tasty snacks and groceries.  It also is easy to find fun pub to go have "a pie and a pint" when you've had your fill of rice and noodles for the week.

Isla goes to an international pre-school with kids from all over the world, where many of the teachers come from the UK.  This has resulted in Isla coming home with quite a blended accent.  I often have to ask her to repeat things a few times because I have no idea what that kid is saying after hanging out with a whole bunch of French and Aussie kids all morning!  She now regularly comes home saying new words she's learned with a British accent, as her teacher, Mr. Ian, is a Brit.  This week, they've learned about healthy habits and different kinds of healthy foods, so Isla came home adamant that we could no longer eat "PRO-cessed" (insert accent) foods!"

Know Your Strengths

When I quit my job to move to Melbourne a few years ago, I was a bit worried about how I would handle not working. But, I probably should have known that if you have a knack for something, you'll find a way to do it anyway.  Sure, I don't make lots of budget spreadsheets or create new nurse scheduling systems these days, but I've become the "unofficial visa / travel agent" in my apartment building.  After the kids go to sleep and before Nate comes home is when I plan all of our travel.  Asian travel is definitely a bit tricky as lots of countries require visas and additional paperwork with your passport.  Additionally, many countries are not as developed as the western world, so a variety of travel companies try to trick you into thinking you must use an agency. Some airlines are even a little more sketchy than others (you couldn't pay me enough to board a plane of an airline here called "Scoot!"). Put simply, there are a lot of gimmicks and it can be intimidating.

Our apartment building has a group text for questions or information sharing.  After the 4th time I saw someone post the question of what agency they should use for a China visa, I felt compelled to act as many people spend hundreds of dollars more than necessary for visas.  I responded and said I'd be happy to help anyone with their visas and that they should save that agency money to spend while on their trips!  I got about 5 private texts back within 10 minutes.  So, I now assist people regularly with visas to China, Vietnam, Cambodia...and also with getting global health insurances to pay for breast pumps...unrelated, but a request I've happily helped with.  So, my current job, that no one pays me for, but I enjoy nonetheless, is as a travel and breast pump planner.  Who knew?

A Taste of Tokyo

Okay, so maybe it was more than a taste. Maybe I ate EVERYTHING in Tokyo last week. It was just so darn delicious!  Most people know about the sushi, many are familiar with the noodles, but OMG, the baked goods.  Japan has a magic method for creating textures and unique flavors into puffy, creamy, little adorable snacks.  So, 100-200 yen at a time, Isla and I snacked our way through the city. I’m pretty sure my breastmilk was pure sugar for a few days as a result, so Monroe got to partake slightly.  Let’s start from the beginning, with photos of course:

When I found out Nate had a business trip to Toyko over our anniversary, I decided we should tag along.  As forewarned, Nate worked A LOT, but that didn't stop us from having some fun.  I packed up only the necessities to travel light, strapped Monroe onto me in the Ergo, and popped Isla into the stroller and onto the subway we went!

Day 1

What We Did:
We checked out "old world Japan" in the Asakusa district.  The main site in this area is the Senso-ji temple and then sprouting out in all directions from that temple are streets filled with neat markets and japanese pub food stalls.  A 15 minute walk west of the temple is a street called Kappabashi which is home to 50+ restaurant supply stores. These stores contain everything ranging from tea sets to serving platters to fine china to take-away boxes, and two stores even sell the plastic food that is displayed in restaurant windows all over Japan.

What We Ate:
For lunch, we found a cozy tiny pub on Hoppy Street in Asakusa. I knew it would be awesome because no one understood a word I was saying. I didn't think I ordered a beer, but they brought me one (oh well!)

I managed to order Isla a plate of edamame and french fries so she was in heaven. I lucked out in correctly ordering a bowl of raw tuna and some spicy ramen. Lunch was a shining success until I had to figure out how to take Isla to go pee in the 2 foot by 2 foot toilet room while holding Monroe and both the kids desperately trying to push all the special buttons on the Japanese toilet. (You know - the button for a little butt spray, the button for a huge butt spray, the button that says "privacy" and then plays outrageously loud bird noises for when you take a noisy crap?)  So yeah, by the end of that, we were all sprayed with something once or twice!  We repeated this experience at least 1-2 times daily.

Dinner was also comical. I  was trying to find very local places and stumbled into an ally where there was a tiny restaurant with a little patio out front and a 2 person table on it. I pointed and asked the waitress if we could sit there.  She giggled and said okay, then asked me, "fish cooked for you?"  Feeling brave, I replied, "nope, do not cook please!" We conversed enough that I understood I ordered "fish of today raw" and I was pretty sure I got Isla a plate of rice. As the 15-seater restaurant filled up, I started to understand why everyone who worked there kept giggling at us. This was clearly not a place where females ate.  I peered inside to find only men, all in suits, all eating sushi, smoking, and pounding sake. Sitting on the porch outside, it was like looking through a window into a movie set with all these guys laughing, yelling back and forth in Japanese.  After spying on the good ole' boys club for a while, we called it a night.

Backing up to the snacks though!  On this particular day, the snacks included a fish-shaped baked pocket filled with deliciously creamy sweet potato. Then I came across a mochi stand selling all kinds of flavors that were just as beautiful as they were tasty.  At the mochi guy's recommendation, I went with the traditional red bean paste mochi and threw in a bonus mango one to share with Nate later.  I don't even understand what the ingredients are or how mochi came to be a thing, but I sure am glad it is!

Day 2

What We Did:
Next, we explored Harajuku, a district famous for being the height of teen fashion.  What I quickly learned in walking along the main shopping drag, Takeshita Dori, is that Japanese teens seem to have the exact same taste as my 3 year old - glitter, lace, rainbows, unicorns, cats, and pink!  What’s more, I’m pretty sure Japanese teens must subsist on mostly sugar and air. In between clothes and candy stores, there are tons of stalls selling fluffy sticks of chocolate, massive rainbow cotton candies and crepes filled with ice cream and sprinkles. (Don't mind if I do!)

Next, we threw in some history with a visit to the Meiji Shrine and then went off to find an animal cafe.

Generally speaking, animal cafes are super popular in Tokyo and are exactly as the name would suggest - a little coffee shop where you sit amongst animals and get to interact with them while you drink your coffee or tea. First I tried a cat cafe, then a bunny cafe.  I was told guests needed to be 13 to enter.  Boooo!  I laughed at this later when I realized this meant there is an entire market of adults that pay to enter a coffee shop without kids so that cats can come rub up against their legs.  Our persistence paid off when I found the gem of Harajuku, a hedgehog cafe! I drank a coffee while we fed hedgehogs dried maggots with tweezers. I kept thinking this practice must violate some health protocol...but who cares, it was awesome.  I think it was this day that Isla asked me if we were going to move to “Gapan” and live on this holiday forever.  Sorry darling, no, but maybe we can buy you a hedgehog for Christmas.

What We Ate:
We kicked off the morning with a green fluffy bun that tastes like a flower and ate it at a temple right next to the hotel, which we just referred to as “Elsa’s castle” for the whole trip.  Next, we couldn’t pass up the triple layer sugar heart candies in Takeshita Dori. We also couldn’t resist the massive rainbow cotton candy 5 minutes after that either. When we got to the train station to leave Harajuku, we hadn’t eaten a snack in about 45 minutes, and these Danish baked sticks filled with cream at the station seemed like just the right thing!  Later, Nate joined us for dinner where we had beef udon noodles and a variety of fried skewers, ranging from eggplant to squid with some dynamite dipping sauce. I also tried a sake and soda cocktail which was pretty decent!

Day 3

What We Did: 
It was rainy and cloudy for he first two days and when the sun came out on this morning, I realized I’d forgotten to pack a hat for Monroe who is still too young to wear sunscreen, so I called an audible on our planned itinerary and we went shopping in Ginza. Ginza is Tokyo’s “5th Avenue” but I was able to pass by Gucci and Fendi and Louis Vuitton and find The Gap. Lame, I know, but I got he baby a hat without breaking the bank.  I exited the Gap and glanced across the street when something magical caught my eye...I felt my heart start beating faster with excitement (or maybe that’s a clogged artery?) and as I crossed the street, I became sure that the word I thought I saw did indeed read, “Manneken.”  I shrieked with joy and almost lost control of the stroller!  Outside of Belgium, the only place that has ever measured up to such quality of waffles is Japan. We discovered and fell in love with Manneken in Kyoto late last year.  I didn’t hesitate in buying 2 waffles and just handed one to Isla without saying anything . She cautiously took a bite and the looked up at me with a smile as if I had told her Minnie Mouse was moving in with us.  That moment was briefly shattered when a massive stupid pigeon then landed on Isla’s lap and tried to take the waffle. We both screamed she kicked the moron bird while I gave it a swift punch to the face. (Much to my surprise, he didn't even move in time, so I actually punched a bird in the face!) Then we bought two extra waffles as insurance in case the bird struck again. We then wandered the side streets of Ginza, I did a tea tasting, then felt I needed to wash the tea taste out of my mouth by purchasing a gourmet coffee. The coffee was from a neat brewing cafe that also appeared to only allow men in suits.  Just 3 girls out on the town, punching birds and challenging gender norms in Japan...

For the afternoon, I decided to get a bit bolder and go to Yanaka, a town that feels much more rural with its wooden two story structures, skinny ally ways, and lack of English anywhere.  I had a goal destination of a market I'd read about in mind, but the journey there turned out to be just as interesting. GoogleMaps was only moderately helpful, and then, it took quite a bit of wandering and some attempts at conversation with people on the street to find my way.  It took about 30 minutes, but we eventually found the narrow, quaint market and really enjoyed window shopping and a bit actual shopping...and some snacking, naturally.

What We Ate:
Have I mentioned the Belgian waffles?  I also learned that Japan has phenomenal tomatoes (how does this county do it?!)  We ate a bucket of tomatoes for a healthy break between desserts. I got some street sushi for lunch and then the Yanaka snacks included what I will call, "baked flavor sticks." They were the shape of an Olive Garden breadsticks, but a little crunchier on the outside and then contained a variety of tasty fillings.  I got the chocolate chip one and it did not dissappoint.  The final item on my wish list for this day was to find the tiny shop I read about that sells manju, sweet dumplings with filling.  I searched all the streets surrounding the market until I spotted it - the manju shop!  They sold packs of 10 of these things for the equivalent of $1.60 US.  Since I couldn't understand the names of the flavors in Japanese, I thought it best to get one pack of each color.  After the kids went to bed this night, Nate and I had a wine and manju party in the bathroom. After 11 years of marriage, we know how to keep it classy!

Day 4

What we ALL did: 
And just like that, it was Saturday!  Nate joined us for some crucial Tokyo excursions!  First up was the Tsukiji Fish Market.  This is the market where hundreds of tuna bigger than most humans get laid across the warehouse floor and auctioned off to restaurants at 5:00am.  The restaurant buyers come each day to select all of their fresh seafood (tuna and tons of other freshly caught sea creatures).  By 10:00am, tourists are allowed to walk through the inner market. The outer market is made up of tons of food stalls and mini-restaurants that consist only of sushi-counters. We managed to get Isla excited to sit at a sushi counter by offering her a pack of gummy bears, so, much to our surprise, we enjoyed a sushi-counter breakfast with both kids.

Next, we went to check out Akihabara, the comics / animation and electronics neighborhood.  I'll just say it - I felt completely out of my element walking these streets.  I don't even know if I'd recognize popular American comics, let alone Japanese ones.  Most characters had a common theme though - animated sexy female ninjas with light to medium blue hair and massive boobs.  We strolled, we looked, we giggled.  Then we got back on the train and headed to a nice park in Shinjuku for the afternoon.

This day was our actual anniversary, so we made sure to find a great sushi restaurant for dinner. We pointed to the pictures on the menu, ordered way too many things, and then ate them all.  I only regretted eating one sushi piece that tasted like an explosion of dirty fish intestines wrapped in seaweed.  That piece of sushi may forever haunt me. It was bad.  Really bad.  But all 47 other pieces were delicious and this meal was a great finale for our trip!

What We Ate:  
As mentioned, we ate ALL the sushi...a few times.  We found some killer artisan coffee and got flat whites there...twice. Other treats of the day included a shrimp and onion patty on a skewer, strawberry-filled mochi, "grilled cheese" rice balls, and finally, in the Akihabara train station, more Belgian waffles from Manneken!

Road Trip Down Under

When we first learned that, in addition to Good Friday and Easter Monday, Hong Kongians also recognize Tomb Sweeping Day as a public holiday, we decided to take advantage of Nate only needing to take 4 days off to pack in a 12 day trip!  Asia has a lot of amazing travel spots, but after 8 months in such a densely packed city, we wanted to go super remote with lots of open space.  We just returned from Western Australia doing just that. Here's what we've been up to:

First, we needed to make the 8 hour flight journey from Hong Kong to Perth.  I still find this type of travel mind-blowing.  When I was a kid, I was a bit obsessed with the movie 10 Things I Hate About You and the only reason I knew the city of Perth even existed is because Health Ledger grew up there. Now, 20 years later, I have learned a few more things about Perth, such as:
- Easy access to magical beaches
- Those magical beaches almost all have sharks
- People do get eaten by those sharks
- For a safer activity, there's great wine

So yeah, I'm pretty much an expert now. First stop on our WA adventure? Winery.  Of course, that was only after doing a hilarious amount of shopping because Cathay lost our bag with all the camping stuff in it!  We bought discount sheets, towels, headlamps, and then some extra crap like glow sticks and water guns. We went food shopping. Stopped for a couple coffees in this process, because, "when in Rome..."  Once our rental car (a Rav4 decked out with a 5 person tent that collapses on top) was fully stocked, we hit the road!  In truth, we only hit the road for 20 minutes and then stopped at our pre-selected winery for lunch.

Nate and I have always loved road trips, but we quickly saw the impact living in Hong Kong has had on our kids after our winery stop.  After about 10 minutes in the car, Isla informed us she was done driving.  To be fair, 10 minutes is about the longest taxi ride we ever take around the city.  We carefully explained to our nearly 3 year old child that we actually had to drive 1500 kilometers over 5 days, and yes, she did need to stay strapped into that thing called a car seat!  Luckily, she adjusted quickly, minus a few hilarious moments of her needing to pee with no actual toilet available for hours!  (I will forever have vivid memories of demonstrating to her how to squat in the middle of the blazing hot desert while she cried hysterically screaming, "NO, JUST HOLD MEEEE!!!")

From Perth on the first day, we drove up to Jurien Bay and got incredibly lucky to score a beachfront campsite at a park called Sandy Cape.  The next day, we heard our luggage had made it to Perth and they would send it to a town called Geraldton for us by 5pm. We said, "thanks, but no thanks" because we would already be past Geraldton by 2pm. They agreed to send it to a minuscule airport in Shark Bay where we would get it the following day. 

Off we drove from Jurien Bay to Kalbarri National Park, where orange-red cliffs plunge into the ocean.  We stayed at a more traditional campsite this night, complete with a pool, playground and "jumping pillow," the latest rage in Aussie camping.  It’s like  a ground-level moon bounce and provides hours of entertainments for kids and adults. They deflate the pillow at sundown and I suspect this is because once the adults start drinking, there would be some serious jumping showdowns on the thing and probably some injuries.  So, we jumped and swam our little hearts out until sundown and then took some much-needed showers!

After a night in Kalbarri, our next destination was the very appropriately named Shark Bay. Because it’s Australia, you are casually advised not to swim far out in this area, but it might warrant more of a warning in my opinion! We were lucky enough to interact with wild dolphins and every one of them had huge shark bite scars on them.  Upon arrival in shark bay, we quickly noticed two things - crazy intense wind, which we were actually thankful for because it kept the flies away, and beautiful swirly purple seashells everywhere.  Isla and I quickly got to work filling buckets with shells and even smuggled a few back into Hong Kong the following week.  Before dinner, we made our way to the Shark Bay “airport” which was basically a shed next to a gravel parking lot. We found a nice lady who said, “Yep, I saw that green piece of luggage.  We figured you were staying at the Monkey Mia resort so we sent it there!”  And the wild goose chase continued!

The next day, we drove over to Monkey Mia, which turned out to be an amazing side trip.  The park rangers let us feed fish to the wild bottle nose dolphins as they swam around our legs, we got some great flat whites and muffins, and chased emus all around a giant chess board and on to the beach. We got so distracted, we nearly forgot to actually pick up the green bag!

After our fill of pastries, we headed out for perhaps our most unique camping experience. We swooped inland to an outback station and camped along the dried up riverbed in a massive wilderness area.  It was such a neat and quirky place. The “healing tubs” died our swimsuits the color of the red dirt and the toilets were contained in a large vertical piece of rusty tubing, but cooking sausages and then marshmallows over a fire as the sun set felt very fun and special. I'm glad the marshmallows were a hit as I had to bring those bad boys all the way from Hong Kong! Australia only has those circus-like marshmallows that have a powered sugar coating on them, so a bit of advanced planning was necessary.  Over night, when I got up to feed Monroe at 5am, I saw just a hint of sunrise while tons of kangaroos hopped through the riverbed.  (One of the very few benefits of getting up to feed a baby at night!)  When she was done eating, I nearly stayed awake to watch more...Nearly.  These peaceful outback moments then came to an abrupt ending when we woke up to extreme heat (the wind had stopped completely), ants all over our feet once we stepped outside, and lots of flies!  We packed up and got the heck out of there!

When the temperature hit 110 degrees in the mid morning, we decided I may have made a slight error in the itinerary planning. We were heading straight north, further into the tropics, and planning to camp that night.  We bailed on the camping plan and opted for an air conditioned cabin in Coral Bay,  a teeny tiny beach town with a handful of snorkel/dive shops, a bakery (hands down, my second favorite part!) a couple food/supply shops, a large bottle shop, and 2 options for overnight accommodation.  The large bay is calm, shallow and full of wildlife.  Bright blue stingrays would swim around your feet (my most favorite part!) and the reef could be reached by swimming out for about two minutes.  Monroe can’t wear sunscreen yet and it was so darn hot that we ended up just clothing her head to toe and then dipping her all the way in the water.  Then we’d play on the beach for 30 seconds and she’d be mostly dry again, so we repeated the process over and over.  Clothe, Rinse, Repeat!  By the time we were leaving Coral Bay 24 hours later, I felt like I knew half the people there.  We saw and interacted with the same families, restaurant waiters, bakery cashier, etc, multiple times, so we quickly felt very attached to the place!  But, we were heading to an Airbnb house rental further north next, so we were looking forward to unloading the car and exploding all of our dirty belongings into a house for the next 4 days.

Exmouth is a town about 20 minutes outside of Cape Range National Park, which much of the Ningaloo Reef runs along.  The Ningaloo Reef is very similar to the Great Barrier Reef in terms of wildlife and diversity, but you can swim to large portions of it right from shore, which makes it highly accessible (you know, once you are already as remote as Exmouth!)  Until living in Australia, I had never heard the term, "drift snorkel," but the Ningaloo Reef has quite a few of these. It goes just how the name would suggest:  You drive into the National Park, park at a specific beach, walk about 500 meters on the beach against the direction of the current, then swim out into the ocean, right into the current and just stay completely still as the current pulls you over the reef.  I read up on these drifts beforehand quite a bit, and the commentary can be summed up as: "Enjoy a unique and pristine part of the reef as you drift across a diverse eco-system and then as you look up on the beach and see a marker, get the hell out of the water!!"  The most popular drift snorkel over Turquoise Bay eventually hits an area where strong currents collide and pull you right out to sea in an area where there's nowhere to climb back out, so the caution is appropriate, but also a bit hilarious when put alongside the description of such a peaceful, casual snorkel.  I'm happy to report that we enjoyed the pristine reef and did manage to get out in time!

The finale of the trip was a full day boating excursion to swim with whale sharks, the biggest fish in the world (or so the brochure told me).  I've been on a number of ocean passages around Australia so I was familiar with how rough the water regularly gets, but this ride took the cake in terms of my closeness to puking!  It was totally worth the sickness though.  Nate and I had planned to take turns in the water, but the crew would hear nothing of this.  "Go get in the water, mates! We'll hang with your children!" is what they said.  We didn't argue. Once some whale sharks were spotted, the crew yelled at us to hop down to the back of the boat and hang there while the captain steered us into place. Then, with the boat still moving, we were instructed to jump in and hold on to a rope until they said to let go.  The boat pulled us right into place so the whale shark was headed straight for us.  It was a bit intimidating, to say the least! Then, as the massive animal got closer, we each picked a side and swam fast to stay alongside her for a good few minutes.  We were lucky enough to do this three more times that day. I had to pinch myself as it seemed like the weirdest dream ever (except the one where I ate my own fingers a while back. That was weirder.) When we eventually got back on board, totally exhilarated, we found Isla's entire body covered in marker drawings and a variety of marine animal stickers with a huge smile on her face. She, too, apparently had the time of her life!

The “Yes Fly Zone!”

Monroe is now 12 weeks old and we figured it was time for her first passport stamp.  During the last few weeks of being pregnant and in the first few weeks of her arrival, I definitely got a little antsy and booked a couple (okay, several) trips. We figured it would be best to kick things off with a long weekend at a beach resort.  After doing a bit of research, I found that the absolute best place for a long weekend time-wise and price-wise from Hong Kong is Vietnam (who knew?!)  So, off we went to a beach town called Nha Trang.

It was a new experience traveling as a family of four, but more importantly, there were also some new eating and drinking experiences we really enjoyed:

The Coffee:  The French originally introduced coffee to Vietnam. Historically, there was no access to fresh milk, so the coffee is brewed with a filter on top or your cup that contains a small amount of condensed sweetened milk (in the case that you order the traditional "milk coffee," that is. You can also have it brewed black).  We downed quite a few cups of this delectable milk coffee with breakfast and again later between beers. It was vacation, after all!

The Beer:  In full disclosure, I'm not 100% what specific beer we had or didn't have, but we selected from a menu that had "dark beer" and "golden beer" on draft with no other names, so I am making an assumption that this was the local beer we read about prior to traveling.  Vietnamese beer is brewed daily and locally, especially in the north, and then distributed to the local food stalls and restaurants.  It was delicious and without any taste of hops, much to Nate's enjoyment as he seems to now get instant hangovers with hoppy beer, now in his mid-thirties!  So old.

All the food: We ate everything. I don't know what half of it was called, but it was all so good.  We ate noodles, dried mystery fruits that someone with broken English tried to tell me was sweet potatoes, but I don't think this was correct, we ate fish on a stick, traditional noodle breakfasts and sandwiches that had interesting meat (I think it was meat) with amazing fresh spices and greens.  And, of course, there were drinks that came in a dragon fruit which sat in a little drinking basket.  I didn't know before that little drinking baskets were even a thing, but now I feel must buy them for my Hong Kong kitchen that has virtually no storage and only one drawer.

The beach and town were great, but we'll definitely be heading back specifically for the food and drinks one day soon! There were some less than desirable moments as well, especially given that we are mid-toilet training with Isla. During the trip out, Isla informed us she had to pee about five times but then refused to go on any toilet in the airport or on the plane. After four hours of this, she waited until the plane was landing and everyone had to be in seats with seatbelts to let us know that the pee was now "coming out."  Lovely.  So, like any practiced mom would do, I loosened her seatbelt, yanked her skirt off, and shoved a diaper under her, and then felt the warmth of the massive amount of urine soaking the diaper.  I looked up at her face to find her grinning from ear to ear. “Yeah kid, that felt way better for you than it did for me.”  This trend continued for the next few days while she demanded to go back to "her toilet in Hong Kong" every time she had to go.  So, our little gal ended up hilariously constipated and then eventually panicked and pooped on the side of the toilet seat in the hotel as she didn't make it all the way onto the seat, then smeared her hand in it while still trying to position herself on the toilet.  We're very thankful she went poo at all though. Also, she finally found peeing in the shower stall amusing at least - we'll take these little successes where we can get them! Needless to say, this week we are focused on a goal of taking her to as many public toilets as possible to practice.

Our next travel adventure will be over Easter week where we’ll drive from Perth up the coast of Western Australia.  I’m not sure what is scarier - that we’ll be camping with a 3 year old who won't pee or poo anywhere but home yet and a 3 month old, or the fact that I haven’t driven a car in over eight months.  However it goes down, it will, at the very least, be memorable.  Stay tuned!

 

Kung Hei Fat Choi!

This weekend, we are experiencing our first Chinese New Year in Hong Kong as we welcome in the year of the dog! We have learned a few very important things:

The major tradition that ex-pats must quickly study up on is the practice of Lai See, which is the giving of money in red envelopes to a variety of people to wish them good luck and good fortune in the new year.  Anyone who regularly provides you a service including doormen/women and taxi hailers at apartment buildings, security guards, any regular hair dressers or manicurists, for example, should be given Lai See (money in a red envelope).  Traditionally, you also give to people at work or in your personal life who are younger and/or unmarried.  In fact, Nate’s HR department actually gives packs of the red envelopes to all managers with the expectation that you put money in envelopes and give them out to your direct reports, those in a lesser positions than you, and those who are unmarried. (Can you even imagine the legal nightmare this would create in the US?!  Sure, I’ll just hand out my personal money in whatever amounts I determine appropriate to a whole bunch of employees while at work!  It takes some getting used to.) There are A LOT of rules to follow with Lai See in order not to offend people, including: 

• All money given must be new, crisp, perfectly flat bills.  Coins and older, wrinkled bills are very offensive.  The lines at the banks leading up to the new year are massive as only certain banks give out freshly printed money at specific hours.
• There can only be one bill per envelope.  If you want to give someone $200 HKD, you would give 2 envelopes each containing a $100 bill. 
• Nothing can be given in 4s, as 4 means death in Chinese culture.  Do not give someone 4 envelops, $40 or $400...you get the idea.
• Envelopes must be presented and accepted with two hands. Actually, this is a the case with all items in Chinese culture, so at least this one I'm used to!
• There is an emphasis on older people giving to younger people, so you may not have your child hand an envelope to anyone.  This is a tough one for young kids as the envelopes are typically beautiful and shiny!  In general, you give "big to small," "old to young," and "senior to junior.”
• When presenting the envelopes, you can say, Happy New Year (Kung Hei Fat Choi) and/or wish them good health (Sun Tai Gin Hong!)
•  For a two week period, you should always keep red envelopes on you with a variety of dollar amounts so you are prepared regardless of who you run into. 

Other than Lai See, here are some additional things we've learned: 

• During New Year's weekend, dragons are walking the streets!  It's not quite Game of Throne's style much to my disappointment, but they are beautifully made, red and yellow dragons carried underneath by about 10-15 people per dragon holding sticks.  In most apartment buildings, you can opt in to have the dragon visit your apartment. Apparently, when you let them in, the dragon runs through every room in your entire house and then you are supposed to feed it lettuce, which it them regurgitates and spits out.  I am still googling to try and understand the precise background on this, but what I do know is that this whole home invasion is supposed to bring good fortune!  Unfortunately we won't be here that day, but I think this would have been a pretty hilarious site with a paper dragon carried by a ton of people throwing half chewed lettuce all over your apartment. We must plan around this next year!
• The whole city gets crazy busy in the weeks leading up to the new year and then completely clears out.  Traditionally, Chinese people will spend this 4 day period with their families, much like Americans would for Thanksgiving.  Chinese people travel home and the ex-pats, which make up 30% of the HK population, take advantage of the long holiday by jetting off somewhere.  Hong Kong ex-pats leave here for holidays in Europe, Vietnam, Malaysia, Thailand, and a host of other cities around the world.
• Kumquat trees are a big deal for Chinese New Year, as are tangerines and oranges.  According to an online food ordering service here, (legit enough, right?) this is for a couple reasons.  First, the color symbolizes "gold" which warrants presence in a home. Secondly, in Mandarin, the word, "tangerine," sounds similar to "luck" and the word, "orange," sounds similar to "wealth."   I made sure to buy a beautiful kumquat tree in a green ceramic dragon pot at the flower market in Mong Kok a few days ago.  Nate's parents are visiting from Tennessee, and they were kind enough to indulge me when I wanted to go to the flower market not only days before Chinese New Year, but also on Valentine's Day, one of the busiest days of the year there!  We had both kids with us, so in addition to navigating the crowds with two strollers, Nate's Dad was fighting the foot traffic and the MTR (metro) craziness with my ceramic potted kumquat tree in hand!  In retrospect, this may have been cruel.  On second thought, at least I gave him a heavy weapon to jab people with as you generally just get walked into constantly in Hong Kong!  Even with the crowds, the market of flowers upon flowers for blocks was just beautiful.   

So, we've got a kumquat tree, we've got tons of fresh crisp bills in envelopes ready for Lai See, and we even purchased a conglomerate of red and gold CNY decorations that I hung around the apartment with Isla. Tonight, there are fireworks and then tomorrow we will visit the famous Lam Tsuen wishing tree.  While I'm quite sure we are mis-translating some customs and still have a lot more to understand, I'd say we've at least got a few parts of this holiday down! 

One Step, Two Step, Three Step, Four...x1000!

I recently went to my post-baby medical appointment and was really looking forward to getting clearance to work out (at least officially - I’d already gone running twice and nothing seemed too broken).  I was happy to hear my, using Isla’s terminology, “Lady Gaga” had healed up nicely, but was warned that my abdominal muscles were actually torn and I needed to start physical therapy as soon as possible.

I’d so very much been looking forward to finally doing some of the amazing hiking around Hong Kong and figured that I didn’t need my abs intact too much for hiking, so I instantly planned back to back days of it!  Much like around the Hong Kong business and mid-level districts, the major theme of hiking around here is stairs!

First up was “The Twins,” where you hike two beautiful mountains overlooking the sea with a lush valley in between the two peaks.  I arranged for my friend, Meg to meet up with Maggie, my grad school buddy visiting, and me in the morning.  We hopped in a taxi and asked it to take us to the Parkview Apartment Complex, which is near the trail head.  Before we got all the way to Parkview, we saw the small trail map on the side of the twisty turny road and asked to get out. We hopped out on the side of the road, I tied the baby to me in a baby wrap, (after all she was now 7 weeks old and hadn’t been hiking yet. Total slacker!)  

From the road, we immediately started climbing up.  You must first summit over “Violet Hill” before even reaching the start of the hike.  It wasn’t until we reached the first summit that I realized we hadn’t even actually started The Twins hike yet.  Ridiculous. Leave it to Hong Kongians to describe a hike and then leave off the part where you have to summit 1 mountain before you can start the actual hike!  Then we went up. For a long time. The article I read said this hike, not including the first pretend peak, was 1200 steps.  That seemed about right.  Just stairs after stairs after stairs winding up. The view was amazing though and makes the stairs totally worth it!  Then stairs down, down, down.  Afterward, your knees mostly just feel like jelly. Exploring this area is the island is such a unique way to experience remote nature right alongside the bustling city. We met a few interesting people along the way, most of which stared at me for a bit and then did a double take and asked, “Is there a baby in there?!”  I’m not sure what else they thought I had in there, but Monroe definitely got some baby props for being adventurous that day!  She also gets some mad props from me for eating really well in the back of the taxi on the way back (yes, I breastfeed my baby in the back of taxis - this place is a far cry from the US in terms of child safety, but more on that in a future blog post!)  After some very chilly but sweaty hiking, we warmed up with some amazing Japanese ramen and beer.  It was the perfect end to a perfect morning!

The next day, the whole family and Maggie headed to hike Dragon’s back, one of the most famous hikes in the area, as the landscape across the top looks just like a jagged back of a dragon with views of the sea on either side.  We should have known better after doing The Twins, but again, we underestimated the hike to get to the hike.  Isla weighs a solid 35 pounds now so this pre-hike when she refused to walk turned out to be the biggest work out Nate’s gotten in in months!  The guidebook basically says to ride to the Chai Wan MTR (metro) station, then just walk through a cemetery and start hiking. I can see how someone would say this, but you actually have to climb about 8 flights up stairs up the vertical cemetery, then another long curvy one through the woods, then you get to a path that still isn’t the hike, but eventually leads to another path that leads to the hike. NBD, thanks stupid guidebook.  I learned my lesson again as Nate, Maggie and I all split one cliff bar across the next 5 hours.  I now know to add 2 hours, 500 stairs and 6 granola bars to every hiking plan in HK!  Dragon’s Back was beautiful and we didn’t even hike it on a clear day!  I can’t wait to go back (with lots of snacks and perhaps minus my 2 year old) and take in the stunning landscape again soon. 

Perhaps the most crazy part of this Dragon's Back day was our travel back home.  The hike just drops you out on a curvy, narrow road that winds down to the end of a peninsula at a beach called Shek-O, but where you end the hike, there is fast traffic and minimal sidewalk.  We didn't actually have a plan for how to get back, but when we saw a public bus coming, we didn't hesitate. Our rationale was that, where ever the bus was going was better than where we were as we could either get a taxi from down at the beach or get closer to an MTR station on the bus.  We quickly ran onto the bus and we couldn't believe what a wild ride it was.  We couldn't even make it to seats without falling over and gripping onto the bars for dear life as the bus accelerated quickly and then flew back and forth around the curves.  By the time we got to our seats, 2 of us had fallen over and Isla was laughing hysterically. The ride continued to be shockingly fast and curvy.  I remembered reading somewhere that if you chose to take a bus to Shek-O, you were, "taking your life in your own hands," as the article put it. I can now vouch for this!  We ended up back at an MTR station, tired and starving.  Luckily, there was a bakery inside the MTR station, so we gorged ourselves on some egg tarts before hopping back on the train.  

Truthfully, I’ve been missing Melbourne a lot lately, and discovering how and where to escape into nature brings Hong Kong up a notch in my book!  Now I just have to do all my PT exercises for my abs and knees so they they stay intact with the stair climbing insanity!!