Book Club

Around this time last year, I was thinking that when we move back to Canada I should join a book club. I've always wanted to be in one. Then I realized I could take matters into my own hands and start one up while still living in Hong Kong.

Shortly before I left for Canada for the summer, I approached my friend Mary and asked her "On a scale of one to ten, how would you feel about a book club?". To which she replied "Oh! A seven!". Which is funny because I don't consider seven to be ALL that high, but the way she said it, it came out like a ten or eleven! So I enlisted Mary's help and together we spread the word and got quite a bit of interest from people (mostly from our mom's group) who wanted to join. 

There ended up being about seven or eight "regulars" which meant that on average five or six who would turn up monthly at a coffee shop, where we took turns choosing book titles and leading the discussion. 

These are the books we read (I'm writing this post mainly so I can remember):

September- Flight Behavior by Barbara Kingsolver
October- Snow Flower and the Secret Fan by Lisa See
November- The Book Thief by Marcus Zusak
December- The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society- by Mary Ann Shaffer & Annie Burrows
January- The Language of Flowers by Vanessa Diffenbough
February- The Kitchen House by Kathleen Grissom
March- Where'd You Go, Bernadette? by Maria Semple
April- The Color of Water by James McBride
May- The Interestings by Meg Wolitzer

I think that of this list my personal favorites were Snow Flower and Where'd You Go, Bernadette. I also liked Flight Behavior, but I think I may have been one of the only ones!  I'm so glad it was a success. It was a fun challenge to read a book that I may not have chosen otherwise, and while I was reading it, I'd look forward to the discussions that we would be having. And I think every time we met, there would be things we'd discuss that I hadn't thought of, and it was interesting to hear the opinions of the others. Now when I read books, I find myself wishing that I'd be able to discuss it with the book club members. I'm really going to miss this group. In a way, I'm happy that they want to continue on with it next year. In a way, I'm sad because I'll be missing out. I may need to find a new book club to join next year! 

Mother's Day Tea

Well, another season of Mother's Day Teas has passed. Here is a link to last year's and the year before that (wow! Once again I can't believe how fast the girls are growing!).  I always post about it because it's such a big deal here. It seems to be on the same level of importance as the Christmas concerts, spring concerts and graduation events. To me it seems a bit odd that there is such an emphasis placed on it when it means that the dads all have to miss out! Plus, so many moms in Hong Kong work so they might not all be able to attend, and of course then there's the situation of how does the child who might not have a mother feel? It's been special to celebrate with my daughters, but I think it would make sense if they decided to downgraded it to something more simple in the future. I'm sure Mike wouldn't mind either, as this year it meant that he also had to get in on the action with his class, and it was quite a bit of planning and stress.  

 Here's Leila getting ready to sing the Mandarin component of the program. It's really hard to get a good shot with all the paparazzi! 

 Each of the six kindergarten classes did a musical performance with accompanying videos with pictures of the students and their mothers. Leila's class did a version of "So Happy Together" and it was really cute! I was impressed by the choreography that went with it. 

 Then we went back to the classrooms for goodies, picture-taking, and Mother's Day surprises. 

 The next day it was Annika and Mike's turn. Each of the classes partnered with another class so there were only four presentations to sit through. I mean, enjoy! Annika's class sang "I want a mom that will last forever", which is a song by Cyndi Lauper that I was previously unaware of. Annika has come such a long way when I think back to her first few performances. She now sings so confidently, but she did tell me later that her tummy hurt as she made her way onto the stage. Mike's class performed "Have Patience" from Music Machine. Bringing it to the next generation- so great!

 Then we went to the classrooms for cookies and juice and the students surprised the moms with a performance of Rumpelstiltzkin. Annika did a great job of keeping it secret from me, and she had a main role and unlike the other kids, didn't even need a book to help her with her lines. She was so proud of herself, and I was a pretty proud momma as well! 

 And... lastly, I found these pictures when I uploaded the recent ones. They're from a walk I went on when Mom was here to Tsing Yi park. Everytime we go there I marvel at the beauty and that this park is just across the street from us. I will miss it! 

Celebration

 Last week I had the joy of turning another year older. It's pretty sweet because my birthday falls on Hong Kong Labour Day so we've always had the day off (along with the rest of Hong Kong!). The last two years we've spent it at the beach. Our very first year was actual beach weather, but last year we just decided to go anyway, even though it was cool and grey. This year the forecast looked too wet to even try, so Phoebe came up with alternate plans. Nothing like celebrating your birthday in style at the W Hotel! How am I so lucky?! 

 Annika was ready to dig into the buffet. By the end of the evening she was lying on the bench in a bit of a food coma! I really should have taken a picture of the food. It was a seafood lovers paradise- lobster, crab, sushi, sashimi, mussels, salmon, snapper and more! Even though I'm not so much of a seafood connoisseur, there were still many other tasty things to sample- salads, cheeses, Haagan Daaz, yum yum YUM! 

 We love our friends too and are going to miss them soooooo much! We prayed for new friends when we moved to Tsing Yi, and those prayers were answered, and probably in a way we weren't expecting.  

And... ending this post with two conversations with this little monkey that made us chuckle.
Convo Number One:
Leila: I wish I was alive during Jesus' time. Because then I could see what he looked like. And he loves kids! 
Me: yeah, that would be neat, wouldn't it? 
Leila: Actually, I WISH I was Jesus! 
Me: Oh really? So you would like to die on the cross?
Leila: Uh... actually I wish I was GOD! 

(ha! we left it at that).

Convo Number Two:
Leila: Sometimes I pick up dead cockroaches with my bare fingers, not even using a tissue! [true story, wish it wasn't!]
Mike: Wow! You're not afraid of anything!
Leila: That's because monsters are not real and dinosaurs are dead!

Ten Thousand Buddhas

 On the first Saturday of spring break, Mike needed to go to Ikea to get some picture frames that he needed for a Mother's Day craft he's planning to do with this class. Since moving to Tsing Yi we are no longer close to any of the three Ikea's in Hong Kong, so instead we came up with a "two birds with one stone" idea. One of the Ikeas is next to the Ten Thousand Buddhas and that was one thing we wanted to do before we leave Hong Kong. Leila and I had been before when Rita was visiting, and we really wanted to go with Mom, but the weather was totally uncooperative when she was here, so we opted to use our one sunny Saturday to hit the beach instead. 

 Basically it's just a really big Buddha-lined staircase leading you to some temples at the top of a mountain. We think every hiking path should be lined with Buddhas. It's a great way to keep kids entertained because each one was different, and some of them looked pretty interesting. 

 Funny thing is that Mike was harassed by monks wanting money as we entered. They must have been fake monks, not real monks. 

 Even though you walk past many, many Buddhas, you don't really believe that there are actually ten thousand of them until you enter the temple at the top. Then it really kicks it up a notch!

 Mike says it's the most impressive temple Hong Kong has to offer. Take it from him!

 This is where Rita and I saw monkeys digging orange peels out of a garbage can. This time we weren't so lucky. 

 A sight for sore eyes?  

Then you walk up some more steps to the next level. 

 Which had some more temples, and this really dilapidated building, with one of the scariest sights we've ever seen peeking out of the window. I'm sure the five people who read this blog have already seen this picture on Instagram. So creepy!

 We don't understand why the Big Buddha is so popular (well, probably because it's so big and because of the cable cars, which are admittedly very fun), and this place barely ever gets a mention. On this sunny Saturday, it was pretty much just us and locals who were heading to the top because they are Buddhist, so it's what they do. Here, Mike is trying to see what it is they are doing. Burning paper money along with some clothes and some cake, from what he could tell. 

 A lovely view of Sha Tin from the top. 

 And the last of the ten thousand Buddhas. 

 And a turtle pond. How lovely. I mean, disgusting. It looked dirty and gross. 

 AND... this lovely lady is your reward for reaching the top. aaaaahhhh!

 And then we went home and Joshua came over to help us dye some Easter eggs while Caleb was at the doctor. Only the girls are wearing different clothes, so maybe this wasn't the same day. But the dye we had worked great, and they turned out nice and bright, and a fun time was had by all!

holiday

Well, it looks like we will have the chance to visit one more Asian country before we say good-bye to our Hong Kong home of three years. Our wonderful traveling buddies Phoebe and Joey have invited us to join them on a trip to Okinawa for spring break. Yippeee!!! We're excited! So lucky! Can't wait!  
The only thing is that we will be gone over Easter, so we will miss out on Good Friday/Easter Sunday church services and won't be eating that ham dinner that I would have made had we been here (except not). Last year we were in China over Easter, so it feels like it's been a while since we've been able to celebrate Easter. An important holiday, if you ask me!

Which got me thinking about the holiday celebrations (or lack there-of) we've had this year...

 - We spent Christmas Eve flying to Taiwan and Christmas Day at Taipei zoo. Lego Santa was the only "Christmas-y" thing we came upon that whole day, so it didn't really feel like Christmas. 

- Since Annika has an American teacher, for her first time her class exchanged Valentines. Thanks to their grandmas sending us Valentine's from Canada, she was the only one who had "real" Valentines to pass out. The ones she received were all home-made and there were a few thank-you cards in the mix (she loved it, though, and hasn't let me get rid of her shoebox full of them). Leila also made a class set that she brought to school, but she was the only one in her class who did so. About a week later she came home with a small gift and a card from one of the girls in her class thanking her for the Valentine. 

 -We attended a carnival the Saturday before Halloween put on by the churches in Discovery Bay. We barely noticed a few days later when the actual day of Halloween came and went. 

- Last week on March 17, I put green long-sleeved shirts underneath the girl's uniform shirts. I don't think anyone even noticed- they certainly were in no danger of being pinched. 

- We spent Canadian Thanksgiving weekend in Chiang Mai, so it went unnoticed. But we did attend a rather eclectic American thanksgiving celebration in November. 

But although our holidays have looked different than what we're used to, we also:

 - hung out on the beach during Mid-Autumn festival with our lanterns and glowsticks

 - spent the evening of Annika's birthday at Disneyland

- enjoyed dragon dances, Chinese New Year meals, and participated in lai-see traditions during Chinese New Year.
And maybe this year we'll make it out to the Dragon boat races during the Dragon boat festival in June. 

It might bother me that my kids have missed out on some holidays and traditions if we were planning to be here long term. I think it's hard for some of my friends who live here, and some people do a lot better job than I have of trying to keep their traditions alive. But knowing that we're moving back and they will have many years ahead of them of celebrating holidays in Canada makes me feel like we haven't missed out on all that much. And luckily they're oblivious to the amount of candy they've missed out on during Halloween!

But I'll say it now. Next year I want to celebrate all the holidays. I hope to:
- spend Christmas with family!
- bake birthday cakes in an actual oven! (Here's hoping!)
- go on a Valentine's date with my sweetie! 
- go to Christmas Eve, Good Friday, and Easter Sunday church services!
- color Easter eggs! 
- and have an Easter egg hunt!
- carve pumpkins!
- let the girls dress up in costumes that aren't total home-jobs!
- Visit Santa! If the girls aren't too old! 
- Turkey! Ham! Peppernuts! Mincemeat! Gingerbread! 
My mouth waters just thinking about it.

Feeling Inspired Once Again

 The one thing Annika really wanted to do when Grandma and Grandpa were visiting was return to Inspiration Lake. I guess holds some special memories for her since she's had two school picnics there, but also she really wanted to have the chance to go for a paddle-boat ride. Lucky for her we were all game to make that dream come true!

 I passed the camera to Annika to take a picture of us. But then it turned into some funny business...

All the while we waved to Grandma and Grandpa who opted to have a leisurely walk around the perimeter.