(Bangkok)... India

We have arrived in Hyderabad, India after two nights in Bangkok. We are safe and feeling better than ever after drinking multiple cups of authentic Indian chai. The center at OM is filled with amazing people with stories about the work going on in Asia.

We enjoyed Bangkok, and saw the Grand Palace with its shiny mosaics and golden buildings. My new favorite method of transportation is water ferry.

Hong Kong

Hong Kong:

Reminds me a little of New York. Bright lights. Perfect weather.
We have met people from Indonesia, Berlin, Scotland and Canada.

Hong Kong is really beautiful. We are staying on the main island,
in Causeway Bay, in a tiny little hostel. Hong Kong goes from
a dense urban environment to beautiful green hills and ocean views
in a few minutes.

I am trying to find out more of the relationship
between Hong Kong and mainland. It was a British colony up until 1997.
I have detected some animosity about historical sites being torn down in
the name of development. Mandarin, Cantonese and English are spoken here.

I am going through some reverse culture shock or something. I walked
into this coffee shop in Stanley Market area and just about started
crying. It smelled like home, and it made me miss my Mom and Melissa.

We went to Ikea here and I bought some finger puppets to
hopefully give away in India. I also got a little stuffed panda. We
vistited a zoo/amusement place called Ocean Park yesterday and saw some
beautiful pandas. Pandas eat bamboo (and the occasional rat) for 14 hours
a day, and sleep for 10. An An and Jie Jie are the pandas. There are only
about 1500 pandas left, because they are highly independent, only mate 3 days
a year, and their bamboo forests are disappearing. I love pandas.

We're heading to Bankok tomorrow morning. Later today we're going to Victoria peak and taking a ferry to view the harbor.

Love and miss you all. Wish you were here.

Asia+Backpack+Rachel=Adventure!

I'm ready. I have my bright orange hiking backpack and my sneakers. I just finished my semester grades and am on my way. Winter break has just begun. Nevermind that it is January... the lunar calander says that Spring Festival is late this year, in February...so that is when we end school. Rachel and I are travelling by train to Hong Kong, stopping in Bangkok, then going Hyderabad, India for a week. Then we are going to Chaing Mai, Thailand and meeting up with other friends for conference... then we are going to an island. Then we are coming back to China. I have never done anything of this sort before, and I am incredibly excited! I have also never packed this light before. Emily kept telling me to take things out.

Babies all over the world

This is my beautiful cousin Olivia. I haven't seen her in person yet, but I am excited to meet her this summer. Babies are so beautiful. This past week I had the pleasure of holding the first born son of our FAO (Foreign Affairs Officer). Part of his job involves taking care of the foreign teachers. He is also our Chinese teacher and friend. His wife had the baby this week, and we were invited to the hospital to visit her and the baby. (Apparently Chinese hospitals are quite different from U.S. hospitals. The family generally is with the patient at all times and provides the food and a large amount of the care). They were very happy that it was a boy, as it is their only child, and there is familial pressure to have a male. That is still the preferred gender. They had him bundled in what seemed like a king-size pillow. Only his little face peeked out, with eyes shut. It was really fun to see our FAO go through the process of being worrying about having a new baby, to being a proud father with a video camera. I'm glad he shared this part of his life with us.