Jack & Rose

Before I continue the sequence of events in Hong Kong, I do have to tell a quick story from work today. I'm teaching 13 and 14 year-olds who are as rambunctious as they are adorable. For a game to end the lesson, I divided the class into two teams to play charades. I asked the first team what they want their 'team name' to be. "jsdfkhs" is what I heard, so often times when I can't understand them, I say, "Ok. Can you spell that for me please?" I hold the marker up to the board and wait. "J-a-c-k-a-double-s," one student says. When I look up at what I wrote, I start to laugh and realize that I should have let them spell it first rather than write as they spell a naughty word to me. I let it slide because I do know it's (unfortunately) the name of a popular singing group in Thailand. I ask the other team what their team name is. "Roses!" They say. Great!, I write it on the board. "No, no! R-o-s-e-a-double-s." The two teams were Jackass and Roseass. Super. I do have some control over my classroom, I swear. This is certainly funny at first glance, but I really lost control when I realized this was a play on the main characters of Titanic. I was nearly in tears and then these cute little kids start screaming, "I never let go, Jackass, I never let go!!"

Hong Kong Arrival and Lamma Island

I just happen to be the lucky girl who went to Hong Kong last week. I've been awful at keeping up with my life via the internet, so here is my big chance to catch up.

The flight to Hong Kong was pretty straightforward - I stepped on the plane with my hearing in tact, and stepped off the plane deaf. At immigration they check and stamp the ol' passport and since the identification photo gods were on my side one day, my passport picture is halfway attractive (ironically I was hungover the day it was taken, another story) but anyhow I was not looking so attractive when I stepped off the plane. So the immigration officer took a look at the photo and took a long hard look at me. 'I know I know, you think it's not the same person right?,' I thought. "What's your full name?," he says in an authoritative tone. "Huh?!!" (mind you I'm still deaf). He let me through. I couldn't even blame it on the jet lag.

Mare was on the other side of baggage claim to greet me smiling. We went back to the apartment, and since this was my second trip to the city, everything felt familiar. It was a good feeling. That first night I arrived pretty late and it was great to hang out with Mare and Doug, eat some of Mare's specialty soup and catch up a bit. I took a glorious bubble bath that I'd been dreaming about for days, maybe weeks, prior. Bathtubs are few and far between in Chiang Mai so before I left I told my friends that I was going to Hong Kong to spend Easter week with my aunt and uncle AND I was going to take bubble baths. "Wow! Lucky!," they'd say.

The next morning we took a ferry out to Lamma island, which is about a half hour away by boat. You better believe I slept the whole way. Before getting on the ferry Mare asked if I get seasick. Remembering my long ferry ride out to Koh Phi Phi island in Thailand last year, I said I don't get sick at all. As soon as we got on the upper deck of the ferry, we were nowhere near any windows, the boat was a rockin' and I started to feel queasy immediately. Boy did I feel dumb. I honestly thought for most of the initial ride that we were propelling backwards and going in circles like a car trying to parallel park. To cope, I pictured myself in a baby's crib rocking to sleep and all of a sudden I was out. I wasn't sick at all, just confused.

Lamma island was great! It feels like a small town with lots of Hong Kong tourists marching through. For some reason I thought it would be a quiet desolate island, but I should have known from the line that snaked around the block to get on the ferry that we wouldn't be the only ones there. It's a very cute place, with a scenic beach and an even more scenic factory beside the beach. One of my favorite moments was coming around a corner in a small residential part where there was a shack of a house with two huge speakers bigger than my TV that were blaring music. The irony of it killed me but Doug beat me to it: "Ya think those speakers are worth more than the house?" We hiked up and over the mountain to the other side where all the seafood restaurants are. We ate at a place called Rainbow Seafood and they have a Rainbow painted ferry that took us home after our meal. We were stuffed and out of commission for the rest of the night.

We watched The Dark Knight before bed and I just have to emphasize how cool it was to watch the scene when Batman jumps off the tall IFC tower and crashes into the small IFC tower. The real IFC towers were glowing through the living room window out of the corner of my eye, along with the rest of the skyline. Did I mention their view is amazing?

I will update with more from Easter weekend, the rest of the week, and more photos soon!