Looks like christmas came twice this year!

Woohoo! Scott's care package FINALLY arrived. He sent it right around the same time my sister sent hers so we've been going crazy or rather I have been going crazy wondering what happened to it. We had pretty much completely given up on it, and considered it a loss cause since it had been over a month at this point since he sent it. And of course Scott didn't keep the receipt so there was no way to track it.

Long and behold, I got the package today! Maybe "they" and I don't know who I mean by "they" but there's definitely a they, kept it for inspection or something. I can't imagine why. It's not like it was wrapped in trader joe paper bags and taped together with duct tape or anything. :)



Anyways, this bad boy cost $70 bucks just to ship so I'm super duper thankful, grateful, and happy to have received it. It was filled with my favorite snacks from Trader Joe's, lots of dvds, books, and cds, and much more.

Here's a sneak peak!


So happy it got here and all in one piece. This definitely deserves a post. and a woop woop!

DayQuil and NyQuil are my friends

After my sick boat trip on Saturday and by sick, I mean really fun and awesome, I somehow caught a cold. NO idea how this happened as 24 hours prior, I was swimming in clear blue waters and sunbathing on white sand. In any case, I've been majorly sick these past couple days and thought I'd give you guys an update, since I know you all must be worried sick about me. Get it? :) I know, I'm cheese.

So Sunday was just awful - felt awful, looked awful, sounded awful. I woke up and could barely speak. Got on the phone just in time to put on a good face or voice I should say for my dad and wish him a Happy Father's day. Sad I couldn't be there with the fam, but I sent him (them) a big ol' gift certificate to Hilltop Steakhouse - one of my dad's favorite places (that's not in chinatown anyway). Here he is enjoying the meal I "catered"


He looks happy so I think that was a good gift idea. Will have to remember that one - can't take all the credit though. Of course, Karin suggested it as she does most of my brilliant ideas. And if I don't give her a shout out about it, I know I'll be hearing about it later and you'll all see a comment about it later too. hehe

Oh yeah, so Sunday, decided I needed food, drinks, and meds and was determined to find all of it in one go. First stop was for some "leung cha" It's a chinese drink that helps soothe your thoat. It literally translates to cool tea. So I thought I found it at this little shop by my house. I asked the lady if that was it and she sort of muffled an answer and said it would be good for me anyway and made me a cup. As she was putting the lid on, I realized this was not what I was looking for, but too late, she had already made it and I would have felt bad not taking it. First of all, it was a really dark green color- I know that shouldn't bother me, but it did. I've never seen anything like that. At least it smelled okay so I said, bottom's up! After the first gulp I knew it was not what I had wanted but knew it tasted too odd to not be good for me, right? So yup, I polished it off. Oy, I hope it really helped me.

Next I went to get some meds at the local pharmacy. Since basically everything was in Chinese I thought I better not risk it. I asked a woman who worked there to help me and told her my symptons. She gave me something and I took it but had no idea if it was working or doing whatever it was supposed to do. No pain gone, no sleepy feeling, nada. Last pit stop was for some food. Wasn't sure what I was in the mood for so decided on noodle soup at this cafe that I always pass by. I took it "to go" as I was already feeling like I would pass out at any moment. So I got home and realized I ordered some kind of crazy spicy noodle soup. Dang it! There were long red pepper slices everywhere. I had no choice but to eat of course. Hello, it's me. And I don't know if you're supposed to eat really spicy food when you don't feel well b/c on the one hand, it did make me sweat and certainly cleared my sinuses but it also didn't make me feel so hot afterwards. I scored a big fat negatron that day. O for 3.

However, Monday was a new day. I remembered I brought meds with me! I whippped out my DayQuil and it helped me get through the rest of the day. Then I took my NyQuil when I got home later that night and let's just say I slept pretty well despite only breathing through one nostril. I am so happy I brought my secret remedies with me to HK - my friends. And today, I've done the same and am feeling slightly better. I think one more dose of NyQuil and a good night's sleep is just what I need to get back on track.

Until next time!

It was like out of a scary movie

I went to check out my man, Buddha, this weekend and it was quite the experience. In one word I think I would say, eerie. First of all, this is the biggest outdoor bronze Buddha in the world so it's quite a sight to see. It's located on Lan Tau island so you have to take this loooong cable car ride up to the island - you're practically in the clouds by the time you reach the island but it's really cool. the ride up there reminds me of those cable car rides that they have at the amusement parks (Canobie Lake anyone?)




So it all started on the cable car ride.

Hair was going a little crazy in the "naturally ventilated" ride as it was articulately described in the brochure.



We also opted for the glass bottom car on the ride up, but turns out it wasn't a huge deal. We did see some pretty forests and cool paths though...


Also, randomly saw a person walking along the path and let me tell you, that's a long path to walk. Can you see the little guy? This was with full zoom!


Then a huge fog started moving in. Before we knew it, the view went from scenic mountain tops and beautiful blue waters to all white! Everything disappeared in the fog and we couldn't see where this cable car was going. It was seriously, right out of a scary movie. Check out how intense this fog got in a matter of seconds!


And if you don't believe it was this dramatic, just check out these photos I took.

Daniel and Toon enjoying the view:


Daniel and Toon 30 seconds later (pretending to enjoy the view!):


Creepy stuff. At this point, there was no turning back so we tried to enjoy the ride...while tightly gripping onto each other.

Once we got to the top, we checked out the lay of the land and decided, lunch first! We had our noodles and rice dishes, and after that, we were ready to go back. haha, jk! So then we started off on our adventure. First up, was the wishing tree....ie. the fake wishing tree. The trunk looked kind of real up close but the leaves were clearly plastic. I got a kick out of hearing so many people walk up to the tree and say "Ah! um-hie-tsung-ga?" I think you can probably guess that means, "What? That's not real?" People! Don't be fooled (even though I might have been as well for like 1/2 a sec) hehe.



After that, we goofed around in the "village" as they had so eloquently described in the pamphlet only to find out, it's just a shopping complex with a village theme. It was the funniest thing, the stores were built with an old village style but then they had big ol signs like Starbucks hanging on the outside. At least we got some authentic custome shots. hehe

And to be fair, I did make them do this. Such good sports. hehe.


Next, we headed to the Po Lin Monastery afterwards. As you can see, everything had an eerie fog overcast. Before we knew it, we could barely see anything more than 10 feet in front of us. And to add to this eerie feeling, there was some sort of buddhist monk chanting on record that was playing over and over again.


The good thing is, once we got inside the monastery we saw lots of cool statues.

The 3 largest statues are of Buddha - representing his past, present, and future.



Then there were also several smaller statues throughout the monastery.







This is a plant structure that's outside the monastery. I took quite a liking to it.



Then we headed over to see the Big Buddha or the Tian Tan Buddha, which symbolizes the relationship between man and nature, people and religion. You have to climb over 250 steps just to get up to the statue but the best photos are down below b/c once you get to the top, you can't really get a good view. It was very calming once you get to the top. Everyone is quiet and observing the statue. I felt very zen. :)

Here's a view of the steps and at the top, you normally can see the Buddha.

Here's a closer shot of the Buddha. It's sitting on a lotus throne.


And then there were 6 statues at the top surrounding the Buddha known as "The Offering of the Six Devas". They represent charity, morality, patience, zeal, meditation, and wisdom, all of wich are necessary to enter into nirvana. cool right?


This was the best photo I could get of me with the Buddha


And when we didn't think it could get any more eerie, we took a walk down "Wisdom Path" and saw this. How odd. We saw scarecrows in a desserted outdoor patio.




A kid taking a photo of me? I think not! Right back at ya kiddo! jk, he was a cutie.

By the end of the trail, we were soaked. It was lightly drizzling most of the day....


And look, I'm only 13,000 KM from the statue of liberty! haha. That was my trip, until next time!

HK Art Fair!

Got a chance to check out the HK International Art Fair last week and it was really great! I saw so many interesting modern art pieces and learned of several different Chinese artists. The art fair was only in town for one week so I'm really glad I got the chance to go! I also got VIP passes (from work) so that made it all the more fun!

Here are some of the really cool pieces that I liked!

An interactive piece....


Look you can see me in it! hehe



Guess I'm not the first one to wear oversized sunglassses...



A beautiful bird cage modeled after the tallest building in China...


And it was filled with beautiful real birds inside of it!



I really really liked this piece. Interesting piece as it was not only a mix of Batman, Spiderman, Superman, and the Hulk, but the position and face that it's making is so feminine. It's a great juxtaposition piece on masculinity and femininity, don't you think? I think he's got red lipstick on too.


This dude was trying to tell me what's up! jk, he was actually pretty cool looking. The piece is of a guy who is getting sucked up by something to the top right. Everything was being pulled in that direction and I love how detailed the fingers and feet are to this little guy!


And how cool is this piece? It's all made out of denim!



I won't bore you with all my comments but I will leave you with a few more pieces that really caught my eye. So even though you didn't see the show you get to see it with me...through my eyes. :)





Everyone is nuts about Lady GaGa. She even made it into a piece paintings...


My favorite piece. I couldn't get a decent photo of it though, but it's really really interesting when you look at it up close and in person. It's a picture of a building in Hong Kong. There are so many high rises and everything is built so close together. This photo shows just how intense it can be. You almost get lost in the photo and would probably get depressed if you stared at it for too long, but it has so many dimensions to it. So interesting!


And that's just the tip of the iceberg. There were hundreds and hundreds of paintings, drawings, installations, etc at the fair. All the pieces were pretty expensive though so no purchases for me. Still had a great time and was well worth the trip - twice!