The Most Magical Place On Earth!!!!!!!:)

MTR train to Disneyland!!!

Well...After many months of being responsible adults and taking care of personal affairs and moving half way across the world, Christine and I finally indulged the "big kid" in both of us.  We are now the proud owners of yearlong passes to Hong Kong Disneyland, the most magical place on the planet.  And to celebrate our new elite membership status, we went to attend not one, but TWO days this past week.

I should preface our adventure by saying that our school calendar allowed us days off from work on both Monday and Tuesday.  Monday was in exchange for being at school the previous Saturday for the Walkathon/Fall Festival fundraiser.  The day began early with a three mile hike along the river walk that ended at school where walkers were greeted with all sorts of fun things from a giant bouncy castle, dunk tank, and HUGE amounts of booths sponsored by classroom teachers and different organizations affiliated with the school.  Great fun was had by all, including the hundreds of small children that rushed the bouncy castle between 1pm and 2:30pm during our shift.  The one exception is the poor middle school girl that got a bloody nose while stuck in a "bouncy valley" that required both hands to climb out.  That one was kind of a bummer.  Thank goodness for readily accesible bleach:)

Tuesday was a national holiday for grave sweeping (part of Buddhist tradition where people visit the graves of their deceased loved ones and clean off the area and perform sacred rituals), so we ANOTHER day to adventure.  Our original plan was to check out pink dolphins off one of the island coasts, but the tour boats only leave on certain days of the week.  Unfortunately Tuesday was not one of those days.  Everything else was closed because of the holiday.  One of our friends also has a yearlong pass and she wanted to go, so we did the only thing that friends can do.  We agreed:)

Sleeping Beauty's Castle

So that is the background of how we ended up at Disneyland two days in a row.  Unlike Orlando's DisneyWorld that is spread out over many parks each with a different themes, Hong Kong Disneyland is all located in one park with individually themed areas.  (Much like Disneyland in CA and Paris Disneyland I believe.)  Fantasyland, Tomorrowland, Adventureland, Toy Storyland, and Grizzly Gulch are all located here.  There is also Sleeping Beauty's castle located in the middle of the park.  Apparently Cinderella's castle is only in FL. Oh, and everything is in three languages: Cantonese, Mandarin, and English.

The first driving in three months!

Excuse me while I use the little astronauts room:)

Photo Fun on the MadHatter's Tea Party

Highlights/Recommendations from our two days of adventures?  Most definitely the Grizzly Bear Rollercoaster.  There are cute fake bears all over the place that cause mischief with your rollercoaster ride.  The Tahitian Terrace restaurant serves Halal certified dining options (much greater demand for that in this part of the world) and the lentil lunch options taste SOOOO good.  The Festival of the Lion King is a live performance show complete with aerialist, dancing, and fire and great singing and music. The Golden Mickeys highlight some of the lesser known Disney characters, especially Mulan and Quasimodo, two of our favorites:)  Space Mountain was a Halloween version of the ride that wasn't all that fun.  The Stitch Encounter was a fun interactive show to see, and Christine and I even got a planet named after us.  The planet was later destroyed when Stitch accidentally misspelled Christine's name and said "Delete" to the computer, but it was fun while it lasted:)  And the FIREWORKS!!!!!!

Fireworks display

Speaking of Stitch, we have a new addition to our Hong Kong family.  The stuffed Simba that Christine has had since 1994 now has a friend.  Stitch joined us on Monday night and the two little guys seem to be getting along nicely.

On a more serious note, we have continued to settle in and find an equilibrium for Baumann life here in Hong Kong.  The seasons are changing from really hot to kind of warm all the time and we are continuing to learn more about ourselves, our craft as teachers, and our world everyday.  We are thankful for all of the fun notes, well wishes, and hugs from back home via the internet and we hope that these blog posts find everyone doing well and working hard to do good things in their lives and become more of the people they were meant to be with each passing day.  Love and hugs to you all from Hong Kong.

Tim and Christine
(and Simba and Stitch)

Mid-October Already?

Well, another week has already passed and I can't believe it is already the middle of October!  It seems that as soon as October hit we had some cooler weather (relatively speaking haha).  So far I have only found about three leaves that look close to fall, but thanks to the increasing number of Halloween decorations for sale in stores and in bakeries it does seem like October is indeed here!  Here is a recap of the adventures of the past week:

Monday was the first rehearsal of the Hong Kong Community Wind Band that Tim and I joined.  It is held here at school and was started by one of our colleagues.  He asked us if we wanted to conduct and play and we said yes!  Tim is playing oboe and I am on percussion.  It is also fun to conduct a band and keep the skills of working with winds and brass sharp. :)

Tuesday I took it easy (stayed home and caught up on some tv shows) and Tim ran off to the island to go hear a piano concert.  He said it was a wonderful concert and so worth going on a school night.

Wednesday we experienced the dentist for the first time in Hong Kong (man our lives are thrilling aren't they...).  It was time for the every 6 month cleaning.  I am not sure what they used but it only took 10 minutes to clean my teeth.  I think maybe it was some sort of ultrasonic thing?  I don't know - it made a horrendous noise but thankfully didn't hurt.  The noise was way more grating than what they did.  The dentist stayed in the room and did the actual cleaning while the assistant just held the suction thingy so there were four hands working on my mouth at a time.  We got some dinner at New Town (Tim got a baked potato thing that was awesome and I got my fav - the grilled shrimp burger), got some fro-yo (that was cheap thanks to groupon!) and headed home.

Hanging out with Linus after getting my teeth cleaned :)

Hello Kitty flower arrangement at the mall

MEGABOX!!!

Thursday we went to a movie!  Pause for a second and rewind back to this spring.  I love watching America's Next Top Model (and Tim got sucked into it too).  While I could pass on the petty drama, I absolutely love the photo shoots and watching the photographers go through the process of setting up the shoot, directing the shoot and then seeing what the results are at the end.  Last spring they went to Hong Kong as part of a challenge and they worked with an actor from Hong Kong for one of the challenges - Nicholas Tse.  Tim and I watched those Hong Kong/Macau episodes super closely since we knew we were moving here :).  Fast forward again to about a month ago - there were posters for a movie called "The Bullet Vanishes" all around Hong Kong and who was in it?  Nicholas Tse!  It was almost like seeing an old friend!  There are always new movie posters here but I don't see a huge amount of familiar faces.  Anyway fast forward again to about 2 weeks ago and there was a groupon to go see "The Bullet Vanishes" and so we purchased it.  That is the long story of how we went to the movies and saw a movie in Cantonese (with English and Chinese subtitles).  Anyway, it ended up being an awesome movie!  It is a murder mystery with some old school western-ish/steampunk-ish qualities and was really well done.  Even though we didn't understand anything in Canto (other than the 6 or so words we know from Canto class), it was a very entertaining and enjoyable film that kept you guessing.  I REALLY liked it and I highly recommend you guys looking for it on Netflix at some point in the future.

Tim in the 40 person Theatre

Going to a movie in Hong Kong is different than going to one in the US.  Tickets are about $10USD each and when you purchase your ticket you actually choose the seat you want to sit in and watch the movie from.  They have theatres of varying sizes too.  The one we were in only had 40 seats in it (while others with brand new movies are more the standard size that you find in the US).  The theatre we ended up going to is a mall called MEGABOX (yes all in caps) and every time I saw it I wanted to say it like a transformer would.  It really was a giant futuristic mall thing with a billion stores and was very cool.  We had some dinner at Ikea afterwards and sat outside on the rooftop patio watching the harbor.

Food from Ikea

:)

Friday we had a nice dinner with some colleagues and then had a low key SSR night at home and read books and the newspaper :)  The newspaper that we get (The South China Morning Post) is pretty good but I think one of my favorite parts is that it runs old Calvin and Hobbes comic strips :)

Saturday Tim went to an Orff workshop (elementary music drumming thing) and I went to yoga and then hung out in Victoria Park until he was done.  It was good to have a low key day.  While I got some good exercise and walked around a whole bunch, it wasn't a frantic pace which was nice.  I also discovered the public pools of Hong Kong :) (more on that on Sunday).  We had dinner at a favorite place at the IFC mall, wandered around with our ice cream cones and then headed home.  

Sunday Tim was at his workshop for a second day.  I went to church and sung in the choir (and had a good time hanging out with everyone).  After that was finished I headed up to Tai Po to go see the Hong Kong Railway Museum.  It is a free museum that started when they preserved the old station in Tai Po.  Even though Hong Kong has been around for a VERY long time, there is not a lot of preserved history here.  For the most part everything is quite new so the fact that there is something saved from the early 1900s is unusual.  It was a neat place and I enjoyed just sitting in an old coach while figuring out my next move. 

Tai Po Market Station (Hong Kong Railway Museum)

Some artwork on the station

After the railway museum I decided to check out the Tai Po Swimming Pool.  I discovered that there are quite a few public swimming pools here in Hong Kong when I was in Victoria Park and I was intrigued to see what it was all about.  I found the free observation area and discovered that the Tai Po pool had 1 lap pool, 2 "training pools" (shallower ones), a water park (similar to Kamp Dels where we go camping with my sister) and 4 water slides!  Using my trusty phone I discovered that there are 3 pools in Shatin (the area where we live) and one of those happens to be a few stops down the line from where we live.  I went home, grabbed our swimming stuff and met Tim at the pool.  The pool in Ma On Shan had about the same facilities as the Tai Po one and it was a lot of fun swimming outside.  The water slides were nice (more relaxing than thrilling) and I think about the only thing that would make the pool better would be a lazy river to float around on.  :)  After swimming we ate some delicious ramen and headed home for laundry and getting ready for the week.  

Walkathon is coming up next weekend and I am looking forward to some more adventures that next weekend will bring!  Thanks to Walkathon on Saturday and a public holiday we do not have school on Monday and Tuesday.  Yay for more exploring :)

We hope you all are doing well and that you have a great week :)
Christine and Tim

Lanterns, Beaches, and Manila Ice Cream!

Greetings from Hong Kong. We hope this blog post finds everyone doing well, staying healthy, and
enjoying this crazy adventure known as life. As October has begun (and in some ways has sneaked by)
we find ourselves still unearthing new adventures and challenges, meeting new people and new ideas,
and being really thankful for technology like FaceTime and Skype that allow us to spend some time with our family and friends who make us laugh and smile.

The Service Trip Crew :)

So what have we been doing lately? Lots of things! On the 29th of September, the two of us helped to lead a school service trip to Manila in the Philippines. The trip consisted of twenty-eight students,

A jeepney - one form of 

transportation in the Philippines :)

teachers, and community adults and lasted a total of four days. While on the ground in Manila, we helped paint an orphanage, dig mud for a new pool, meet with children and families in a slum, and play volleyball and basketball with the local school children. We even got to help with the special project of tearing down a woman’s house and helping to rebuild it because the roof was collapsing. We also spent some time getting to peruse the Mall of Asia (as in the exact same acronym for the the "Mall of America” and basically the exact same set up) and try some great new foods. Still, the people we met and the images we saw were very moving and touching and help us to feel soooooo thankful for the very basics that we have in our lives: safe, clean housing, healthy food, jobs, and an education. And the ministry that we stayed with was exceptional at providing a “hand up and not a hand out” to the people of the Philippines. It is amazing what small acts of dignity and empowerment can do to improve the lives of families and communities.

At the same time as we were in the Philippines, Hong Kong was in the middle of celebrating the Mid-

Handmade dragon lantern

Some of the festivities

:)

Autumn Festival and National Day. For all our Stateside friends and family, this is the Chinese equivalent of the Fourth of July, with all of China having one week off to vacation. Hong Kong, wanting to flex it’s independence a bit still, gave everyone Monday and Tuesday off. And don’t worry, we still got to participate in the festivities on Friday night before we left. The signature symbol of the festival is a paper lantern. In the month leading up to Mid-Autumn, stores and shops all over this city were hanging and selling lanterns of all sorts. Cartoons, superheros, mythical figures, and some crazy odd looking creatures were all on displays for weeks. Victoria Park on Hong Kong Island was turned into a giant festival plaza for the weekend and they erected a giant paper lantern that gave a light show every fifteen minutes. Other performance groups included Chinese puppetry, Traditional Chinese string ensembles (think Ar-hu and gamelan) and even the Hong Kong Youth Marching Band (it was so cool and the uniforms made us think of a whole lot of cool band students back in the states ). Food items of the festival included mooncakes and egg tarts. We had good samples of both :)

The marching band :)  Check out those uniforms!

The giant lantern that was the centerpiece of the festival

We also found one of the prettiest places on earth a few weekends ago. The beaches of Sai Wan are
in a very secluded portion of Hong Kong near the village of Sai Kung (refer back a few posts ago.) To
reach them, one must hop a bus, flag a taxi, wind through harrowing curves with no shoulder in a land
where speed bumps are widely regarded as suggestions to floor the gas, and then trek up and down
valleys for forty minutes while sweating more than a refrigerator in July.  But it is so totally worth it.

Once in Sai Wan, you can stay on the main beach (which we did one day) and enjoy the pristine view

The second beach!

and crystal clear water, or you can meet up with the MacLehose Trail (mega-hiking trail for diehards) and travel on to two other beaches further removed from civilization be a series of ups and downs on the mountainside. Bring water! Last weekend we headed to the second beach and were richly rewarded with beautiful sand, energetic waves, and a breeze from the ocean that makes one say “I like being right here.” The local café has great food. But, believe it or not, the best part of the trip is
actually the speedboat ride back to Sai Kung. Reserving our spot on the boat three hours in advance, a traveler wades into the water, hops on a boat and is treated to an insider’s view of the secluded islands and untouched areas of Hong Kong’s Eastern coast. We buzzed past geographic anomalies, floating fishing villages, and really big yachts with the Asia sunset right in front of us the first time we made the breathtaking trip. The second trip from the second beach last weekend was breathtaking, but more

At the second beach :)

because it was dark, the waves were killer, and we were all packed in between six French women who screamed every time we “thwumped” back into the water. None of our crew spoke French, but one didn’t need a translator to figure out that these people were quite frightened. We made it back safely, found another great seafood restaurant in Sai Kung (not a hard thing to do) and slowly made our way back home after a day of excitement.

Love and hugs to all of our friends and family back home and abroad. We think of you all often. Do good in all things that your lives lead you to!

Tim and Christine