Home, part 1(actually a recap of Hong Kong)

Yeah, yeah, I know its been actually 3 months since I've been home and before that I didn't post anything for a very long time, I have felt a sudden desire to post anew. Too bad this feeling didn't come up more often when I was in Taiwan, huh?

Well, to recap, I ended my contract with American Eagle Institute on July 25, 2008. It was the end of a year long love-hate relationship. I had mixed feelings of excitement, freedom, nostalgia, and a little sadness. I have definitely missed the kids since I have been gone, and as you will find our later, may have caught some kind of teaching bug that will draw me back into the field again. Letitia, one of my genius students said to me, "Teacher Emily, I will always remember you." It was one of the sweetest things I have ever heard. And quite possibly true. Do you remember your Kindergarten teacher?

So, after some very sad goodbyes and a night of stressful packing, Bethany, Donovan and I headed to Hong Kong. It was a pleasant flight, and Bethany and I even "received" some "complimentary" spoons from Thai Airways. They have REAL silverware on Asian airlines. Wow.

Hong Kong was fantastic. It was more beautiful than I could have imagined, and also more crowded and smoggy than I could have imagined. There is a HUGE foreign community in Hong Kong, which was a welcome change from Hsinchu. It was a nice place to begin the transition slowly back into western culture (if you didn't know, Hong Kong was owned by the Brits up until 1999, giving it a uniquely combined western and eastern feel). In Hong Kong, we enjoyed our first Mexican food in a WHOLE YEAR!!!! We did have fake Mexican food in Taiwan, you know, Chili's and homemade attempts, but in Hong Kong there was an actual Mexican food restaurant with Guacamole, Dos Equis and Enchiladas! It was Ah-mazing(yes, the novelty of Mexican food has only slightly worn off since that day). I've heard several times from different people that you have to eat your way through Hong Kong. This is the truth. While our unadventurous selves did not try any new crazy Chinese foods, we did enjoy some good pub food, Thai food, Mexican food, and Indian food. It was fantastic.


First Guiness in a very very long time:

Other than the food and drinks, the three of us ventured on a very smoggy day to the top of Victoria Peak. Great views, but unfortunately the insane amount of pollution from China makes it less aesthetically pleasing than it probably was 20 years ago. Here it is anyway:



Another typically touristy thing to do in Hong Kong is ride the ferry across Kowloon Bay. Also an affordable and enjoyable way for anyone who needs to cross from Hong Kong to Kowloon or vice versa. Pictures of course, are worth 1,000 words.

Bethany on the ferry during the day:

The view at night was MUCH better:

The most exciting thing that we did however, was not a tourist pursuit by any means. While walking the famous elevated staircase, before reliving our Guatemalan childhood with this sign:



Bethany and I saw an advert for a very cheap mani/pedi. WOOHOO!!! For some unknown reason, these are very expensive in Taiwan, so we never got them done. We decided to indulge on this day after a long year of hard work in Taiwan. So, we sent Donovan on a hunt for a great bookstore and spent a girly afternoon getting manicures, followed by some white wine on a rooftop patio. Oh, it was definitely as good as it sounds.

the finished product(and yes, those are some lovely Thai appetizers):



enjoying wine:


Sigh. What a great day that was. All in all, however, Hong Kong was bittersweet more than anything. My year in Taiwan with Bethany was a great one, and Hong Kong was the end of that. Who knows when we will ever be able to spend time like that together again? I'm not going to lie, I shed more than a few tears that weekend. It's definitely hard to leave your best friend/partner in crime/roommate/personyoudoeverythingwithallyear. BUT, we will see each other again in January, so I guess it can't be that bad.

I'm going to stop there for now. I will continue to update the next couple days to bring you all up to speed. I know I have been bad at this, and can't promise anything, but I want to keep this going for myself, more than anything(yes, that may be selfish). Maybe that's the best motivation I can have? I want to be able to look back 20 years from now and have some decent documentation of these months. Hopefully this can be it.