Life has been anything but boring on this side of the globe. We’ve had a slew of visitors during the past month, including friends from England, Lithuania, New Zealand, and Germany. And of course, the most notable visitors were my own flesh and blood, the daring traveling sisters: my mother and Aunt Linda.
The excitement kicked off when an old friend of Aaron’s stopped through Hong Kong for two nights. We drug him to a famous Hong Kong bar district at 6:20am to watch the Steelers play one of the most exciting SuperBowl games ever. I must note that football has never been a favorite sport of mine, but considering that my hometown was involved, it was like viewing a little slice of home.
A week later, my mother and aunt arrived in Hong Kong with weary eyes and a much awaited hug for little Maeli. Both my mother and aunt adjusted rather well to the 13 hour time difference, and the following two weeks were spent with daily outings accompanied by sore feet in the evenings.
The first full day of their visit was coincidentally my 29th birthday. I planned my birthday lunch at a famous Hong Kong floating seafood restaurant. The ornate building and floating edifice make for a memorable meal. But the thing that we will always remember was the order. Since it was my birthday, I took the liberty of ordering. I wanted my mother and aunt to try authentic Peking Roasted Duck, as well as some fresh seafood. I pointed to a red spotted grouper on the menu and asked the waiter for the price. After hearing that it was around $10USD, I immediately ordered one. Upon eating this extraordinarily good fish, I commented on the fair price. Everyone at the table nearly choked and Aaron finally revealed the correct price, which was $100USD. With red cheeks, I made sure to eat every last bit of meat off the bones knowing full well that it wasn’t me who would pay for it!
Other tourist spots that we visited were the Chung King Mansions, The Giant Buddha, Sok Ku Wan, Disneyland, Temple Street Night Market, Jade Market, Victoria’s Peak, the 8pm nightly laser show, and we even ventured to Macau to see the old city ruins and Cirque du Soleil.
One night we ventured out on the late ferry to meet up with some friends on Hong Kong side. I wanted my mother and aunt to witness some interesting nightlife scenes. We weren’t disappointed when the Chinese Elvis sang for us. “Hound Dog” and “Jail House Rock” received rave reviews. It was also unusual to find that a US Naval ship had docked in Hong Kong waters the day before. Many of the seamen were out perusing the bars and streets. One conversation ended in a Marine telling us how to find a man named “Barf” who was supposedly from our hometown. Of course, no such man could be found as most of us are immune to the high level of sarcasm that exudes from Americans, especially servicemen.
Seeing my mother and aunt off to the airport was certainly more dismal than a serenade from Elvis, but we all agreed that the two full weeks were a huge success. After their morning departure, I reminisced with songs from West Side Story, and other oldie tunes that reminded me of our precious memories.
Lo and behold, I didn’t have time to sulk and miss my family because more visitors appeared the very next night. Because of the high volume of visitors in town over the same weekend, a beach bonfire party was conceived and executed with style. The party began with collecting the firewood (nostalgic indeed) and ended with Maeli sleeping on a straw mat by the fire, stuffed to the brim with marshmallows and hot dogs.
This week I have finally gotten back into the groove of working at home (I’ll save this topic for another blog) and being “normal” again….whatever that means. No worries though. Aaron and I have booked tickets to the Netherlands and we will depart in two weeks! (Again, look forward to another blog.) (And did I mention that I’m on a Chinese baseball team? – to be written about soon)!!!
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