we explore a Canadian monument and a Canadian past-timetime

...christmas and bali pics to come...

Yesterday was a gorgeous day, so we took advantage and went to Kowloon Park.

And enjoyed some McFreezes at a McDonald's ice cream stand that was set up there. Yup, McDonald's here has stands AND ice cream treats like McFreezes which are slurpee's with ice cream on top, with a flavoured swirl through the ice cream... YUM!
And... we paid a visit to this Tlingit Blackfish Totem Pole, which was presented as a gift from the people of Canada to the people of Hong Kong by Prime Minister Brian Mulroney on the occasion of Festival Canada in 1991.

Did you know we'd given Hong Kong such a memorable gift? How nice we could appreciate it. And then the girls played in the playground. We knew it was warm enough that we didn't need jackets, but really we could have been in shorts. We weren't the only ones overdressed- there were bundled up-but-sweaty kids running around everywhere!

(too cute for words!)

Mike was "shootin' the breeze" with this gentleman for a very long time.
And then we walked around and saw the flamingoes and black necked swans that live there.

Today we tried skating for our first time here. If our little Canadians are going to live in a country without snow, we probably should still remember to teach them to skate. Luckily, there are three malls i can think of offhand, all fairly close to us that all have skating rinks in them.
This was Leila's first time on single-blade skates, and she did really well! Better than I expected. She was willing to try to take little steps on her own.
Annie, however, was spaghetti-legs at first! She had been doing so well by the end of last winter that I had hoped it would come back to her, but it didn't seem like it was- she seemed worse than I'd remembered. But then we got her a penguin to push around, and her confidence came back. She didn't want to quit. She was try to do some crazy moves, and kept encouraging me to not follow her so closely (aren't they supposed to be teenagers when they say that?)


We ended it off with a visit to the park that is above the mall. Annie makes friends in playgrounds so easily. Maybe it's the age.... Anyway, we love holidays! (Except when we're sick. We think it may have been Dengue fever that we all had, but mostly we seem to be better.)

Christmas in HK

"I used to think Christmas was just about presents and Christmas trees. Now, I think it's about Jesus. And presents. And Christmas trees." ~ Annika, December 2011

I don't know if anybody missed me, but seems I've taken a bit of a hiatus this month from blogging. Partly because our computer crashed, and then it took another few days once it was going again to install the new iPhoto. And then partly due to a lack of motivation and just keeping busy with various Christmas activities. But I wanted to at least write one last post before we leave for Bali tomorrow.

Christmas has been different this year. I was actually relieved at first to take a step back from the craziness that is Christmas in Canada, and have things be really simple. I didn't even think I wanted a tree since our place is so small. But then the girls asked for one, and I realized that it still is important to make Christmas special for them. So while Annika was at her ballet lesson, I picked up a rather homely little artificial tree. The girls don't even know the difference! We can't believe how expensive real trees are here. You can get them at places like Ikea, and they even deliver. Since our friends are also all far from home, it seems like lots of them splurged on real trees to make their places feel Christmas-y, but even a really tiny one is about $65. They can easily cost over $100. And they don't necessarily even look that nice! Our little one cost about $10, and came in a pretty small box that we can store away for next year.

(decorating with precision)

(Christmas crafts, and some Christmas decor sent to us by Grandma Ruth)
(our tree and stockings hung on the bookcase with care. I soooo regret not bringing our stockings- they would have been easy to pack, and I love ours so much- they are probably my favourite decoration)
Since we were lacking in Christmas decor, I invested in the Playmobil nativity scene (it is an investment- Playmobil is not cheap!). I was just so happy to find it here, and Leila has played with it every single day. There have been some interesting story lines that have come out of it and it keeps me entertained. The little butterfly decoration on the tree is actually a cell phone ornament that an elderly lady passed to Leila while we were on the bus one day.

We have presents under the tree from Grandma Ruth, Grandma and Grandpa Janzen, Auntie Rita & Uncle Steve, and Grandpa Erwin. So thankful that they have been willing to pay so much for postage so we'll have some things to open from home on Christmas Eve. Or Day. We're not sure when we will actually celebrate since we get back from Bali on the afternoon of Christmas Eve.

Our church had a live Christmas nativity called 'One Starry Night'. It was packed with people, and although not as elaborate as the one at WECA was, the girls still enjoyed themselves. I was happy to discover that their Christmas outfits from last year still fit!

We enjoyed Annika's kindergarten Christmas concert. Since there are five kindergarten classes, the kindergarten program gets a concert all to themselves. Annika was in the "choir" and knew the actions to all the songs. That's an improvement from her participation last year! The kids behind her are spelling out GOSPEL, not GO as it may appear.
If you want to know what paparazzi looks like, picture 75 sets of Chinese parents of kindergarten students. I've never seen so many camera and video cameras in my life! They all stood up and congregated in the middle of the gym, and no one could see anything, so they were told to sit down and there would be photo opts at the end. Annika and her friends then had a great time posting for pictures! Japanese, Chinese, Canadian, Indian... I love what an international experience she's having!
This season of advent has been a good mix of Christmas activities, but not feeling overly busy. I don't think Mike missed being in charge of a school Christmas concert even one little bit. That definitely made things less stressful this month. I'm so glad that there have been Christmas festivities that have happened or we'd be feeling more homesick. Mostly we just feel guilty that we won't be home for Christmas. Also, we have been thinking of those who may be finding Christmas to be a difficult time this year. You are in our prayers.

We wish you all a Merry Christmas, and may peace be unto you this Christmas season.

Hold Me Closer, Tiny Dancer

Or... Annika, the Dancin' Janzen. I signed her up for ballet lessons, and her first one was tonight. She came out beaming... success!
And... one of Leila getting ready to go to our Mom's group/playgroup today. Isn't her hair getting long?

just for fun...

On Saturday while waiting to meet up with Jason...

Ocean Park

The first time I heard of Ocean Park was at Mike's parents house when we were talking with Joyce and Sarah. Joyce kept saying "Ocean Pahk" and I just didn't understand what she was saying until it dawned on me... Ocean Park! Now I always say "Ocean Pawk" in my head. Joyce and Sarah said that Ocean Park is better than Disneyland, and we have heard that sentiment from people here as well. We really liked Disneyland, so we were a tough sell.

Mike had parent-teacher interviews from 8:00 am until 6:00 pm all day Saturday (not so fun). But in lieu, the school had a day off on Monday, which is a lot of fun! We thought it would be good to use that Monday do something touristy so that it would be less crowded than usual, so it seemed like the perfect day to go to Ocean Park.

Ocean Park is kind of exactly what it sounds like. It's an amusement park with a real nautical theme to it. It's on Hong Kong Island built at the top of the mountain overlooking the ocean. There are a lot more "thrilling" rides than what Disneyland offers, which is why I think older kids like it. And there's an aquarium, pandas and dolphin shows, so even though it can't compete with Disney princesses (not much can in Annika's eyes!), it tries to anyway.
Half of the park is at the bottom of a mountain, and the other half is at the top. It's so spread out and confusing. You can either take a cable car or a train from the bottom to the top. We opted for the cable car, and had to wait about 45 minutes to get on. Now that the girls are familiar with cable cars, they knew exactly how they wanted to travel. The wait was long (why was it so busy after all on this random Monday in November?), but the views were, as Mike kept saying- and said about many other things as the day went on-, "worth the price of admission alone!"
We got to the top of the mountain just as the dolphin show was about to start. Everything was translated between Cantonese, Mandarin, and English, which was a bit confusing. We watched it for a while, but we've all seen our fair share of dolphin and sea lion shows at West Edmonton Mall so eventually we left in search of lunch and ferris wheels.
The ferris wheel was also a long wait for a short ride. But again, the views from the top were "worth the price of admission alone", so you can't complain about that.
A roller coaster jutting over the edge of the water is pretty awesome. I can't wait until the girls are roller coaster age!

The one "thrill seeking" ride that we could go on was the log ride. We weren't sure if it would end with wet, crying children, but we decided to give it a go. It turns out we have a little "thrill seeker" on our hands. Annika had the best spot in the front, and LOVED it! She immediately wanted to do it again. Leila did not like it, but at least she didn't cry about it. Mike and Annika went on it a second time, and I was able to get a picture (not a good one- we had just our old little camera with us again this time) of the final descent into the water. It was the highlight of Annie's day. She would have done it a third time, but she was getting pretty wet, and it really wasn't that warm out!
We took the train back down and went to see Le Le and Ying Ying, the Giant Pandas. They were both awake! So fun!
Annika in front of a Giant Chinese Salamander. Yikes! It was ugly.
We tried to wake Leila up to see the Pandas, because she was wanting to see them, but the nap won out. Oh well, I showed her the pictures just now, and she seemed okay about missing it.
Annie chose the sea horse, Mike got stuck on a pink fish, and Leila and I shared a double- seater dolphin.
Then we discovered the kids zone. It was perfect for the girls. There was a slow little pink train ride that made Leila happy, and the girls had this clown ride all to themselves. There was also a bouncy thing and a playground. All it needed was a Starbucks (better yet, Tim Hortons!) and we all would have been set!

Annika found another thrilling ride- the Frog Hopper.
I rode it once with her (there's only room for one adult at a time), but Annika rode it four times in total.
I was tempted to buy the key chain and magnet of this picture, but they were asking about $25.

The last thing we did was check out the aquarium. We were tired and ready to go home, but the aquarium was so impressive! If we go back to Ocean Park we need to spend more time there... it was pretty cool. Dare I say... worth the price of admission alone?
And... a video! Yes,that's Annika you hear screaming like a little girl.

Chinese foot massage

Every other month or so the women in the Tuesday morning mom's group I've been going to goes out on a Friday night together. Yesterday, instead of going for dinner or coffee, the Friday night activity was getting foot massages. I was curious what that would be like, but not sure if I would actually like it. I don't like head massages at all. I like shoulder massages and always get Mike to massage my shoulders as hard as he can when I'm stiff and tense. I've only ever had two "real" massages before- one in Thailand when I was really sunburned, so it hurt too much to enjoy, and one when I was pregnant with Annika and I did like it- because it meant I could lie on my stomach.

I thought it was a fun experience to get a foot massage at a local place, but I don't think it's anything I would do again on my own! Val and I both had men, which seemed kind of sketchy compared to the women. My guy was really sketchy. Look at him! What a joker. He thought it was funny if I said it hurt. And it did! They pounded on our heels and calves, pulled our toes and twisted our feet. I guess some people like it, or maybe it's supposed to be good for you. Val and I giggled through the whole thing, and she was pretty sure she was going to have bruises the next day.

Look at this guy pounding the heck out of Val's calves. It was only about $12 for an hour, so that's pretty cheap. Maybe I can find a pedicure place instead!

Even though it wasn't my cup of tea (actually we had to soak our feet in tea before they started the massage), I have to admit it was still fun I am just so very grateful for new friends, and social opportunities!