Happy Halloween!

I hope all of you are having a delightfully spooky day. We managed to celebrate the holiday pretty well, even though there is no trick-or-treating in Hong Kong. And for the first time this season, the temperature was in the 60s when we woke up this morning! Perfect timing, since it's hard to feel properly Halloween-y in 80 degree weather.

This year was the first time that Evangeline really seemed to "get" Halloween. The holiday is catching on more and more in Hong Kong with store displays being common. Our local supermarket even had a special Halloween candy section, which I don't remember them having last year. So with all of the decorations around, Evangeline was frequently talking about Halloween and what she was going to be. She decided that she was going to be a fairy. I'm not 100% sure where that came from, but at least it was easy, so I was thankful!

Evangeline's school didn't have a dress-up day, so we had to be a little creative. This afternoon we made pumpkin mini muffins, frosted them, and decorated them:

Sorry for the semi-nudity, by the way! After Evangeline gets home from school she takes off her uniform and doesn't want to put anything else on, so I roll with it unless we're leaving the house. Maybe she'll change her ways when it gets colder.

After the cupcakes were all decorated, we got her into her fairy costume! It couldn't have been easier; she already had the leotard and tights, so all I had to do was buy the wings and wand, which she'll love to play with again, and got a fairy-ish skirt at H&M.

We packed up our cupcakes and went reverse-trick-or-treating. That's right, instead of going out looking for treats, we stopped over at a few friends' places and dropped our treats off. Evangeline thought it was really fun. When we got to my friend Grace's flat, her daughter immediately got out her dress-up clothes too. Here are the kids posing:

Gustav didn't want to dress up, but did his "Superman Pose" for the picture

Luckily Evangeline doesn't know any different, and really thought she was trick-or-treating. She was yelling, "Trick-or-treat!" at everyone we passed by, much to their amusement.

For dinner, I made jack-o-lantern baked sweet potato fries to go with our split pea soup. Labor intensive but fun!

I hope you are all having a lovely holiday, too! BOO!

Shenzhen

Our visas for mainland China had one more entry and were due to expire, so we hopped across the border to visit our neighbor to the north, Shenzhen. We were very curious, as Shenzhen definitely has a certain reputation in Hong Kong; it's where people are stabbed, kidnapped, or die of the bird flu. To use a Star Wars analogy, Shenzhen is to South China as Mos Eisley is to Tatooine. As Obi Wan said, "You will never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy." Would he be right? We set off to find out.

Shenzhen is a huge city literally right across the border from Hong Kong. Getting there couldn't have been easier, as the metro line that we live by terminates in Shenzhen. Although its population is around ten million, it's a migrant city, so almost half are factory workers who stay in dorms during the week and then go home on the weekends. Industry is booming, with a lot of business centers and tech development as well as the many factories. For instance, Walmart has its China headquarters in Shenzhen. There are quite a few Hong Kongers that commute to Shenzhen, but it seems most people go there to shop.

The plaza just outside of customs

Our first stop was the famous "Copy Mall" in Lo Wu, which is the building on the right of the above picture. True to its nickname, you go there to buy replications of name-brand handbags, watches, clothes, glasses, etc. 

Six floors of madness

Every floor was packed with little shops selling their specialized wares. Some of the shops had all of their merchandise on display, but the serious ones had an off-site location to store their huge inventory (maybe in trucks?). I was pulled--literally--into a handbag store where they had dozens and dozens of catalogs organized by luxury brand. You pick out the models that you would like to see, and then the shopkeeper has someone fetch them for you. A serious fashion maven would have a field day; I was completely overwhelmed, as I have next to no interest in purses.

Bargaining is expected and essential. We were told that since we were foreigners, we should try to get down to a third of the initial price, and to definitely pay no more than 50%, ever. Although I hate haggling, we did very well, especially using the walk-away technique. I think there was only one vendor who actually let us walk away; every other time they would shout at us down the hall until finally relenting. Maybe it helped that we weren't seriously shopping for need, just for fun. It's definitely my least favorite way to shop, but I have to admit to feeling the thrill of victory when I got them down to the 30% mark.

Looking through stacks of oils on canvas

Drumming at a toy stand

Shenzhen is famous for its tailors, much like Hong Kong was decades ago. You can bring favorite articles of clothing and they will match them perfectly for very reasonable prices. The husband of one of my friends is larger and has a hard time in Hong Kong, so he has almost all of his work clothes made in Shenzhen. It would have been fun to have something made, but that would require another trip to go pick it up, and we didn't want to have to get another visa just for that.

Also, because labor is so cheap, spa services are very inexpensive. If massages are your thing, you can get them at rock bottom prices. Evangeline and I decided to get our nails done, so she had a manicure and I had a pedicure.

She chose green, her favorite color

Pretty flowers!

I paid extra to get the "high quality" pedicure, and I was amazed at how well it lasted. I didn't have so much as a hint of a chip, even though I do a lot of walking here and can really put my feet through the wringer. However, when my nails started to grow out, I tried to take the polish off. Scarily enough, I could not make a dent in the polish, no matter which remover I used. I scoured the internet for suggestions and nothing worked. They must have used some sort of industrial-strength paint, which I'm trying not to think about too much for fear of freaking out. Needless to say, I don't think I'll be getting a pedicure again without knowing in advance what kind of polish they're using...

Shenzhen isn't a huge tourist destination, so there isn't a ton to see, but we tried to get around the city a bit to get a feel for it. We walked around the Dongmen area, where a lot of locals like to shop.

A lot of people in Asia like to have shirts with Western letters on them. They don't have to be coherent, although sometimes they're much funnier when they are. There was a classy looking middle-aged lady in our estate whose shirt read in cursive letters, "Life's a bitch and then you die." It was really hard for me not to burst out laughing. Another favorite of mine are the many older ladies who walk around in shirts with obvious marijuana leaves on them. Pot isn't very popular here, so people don't realize what they're advertising. There was a lady in our supermarket last week who had a huge Pepsi logo on her shirt with a marijuana leaf overlay. Classic combo! I'm sure Pepsi would be horrified. :) In Shenzhen, there were many examples of the nonsense shirts:

We also saw a lot of people sleeping on the ground, which you don't see here in Hong Kong:

Meat on a stick was very big, with stalls everywhere we looked

Crabs, anyone?

The best sign of the trip

There are very few buskers in HK, so it was nice to see this guy and his guitar living the dream

All in all, we were glad to go back to Hong Kong. And I can see where the superiority complex of the Hong Kongers comes from. Hong Kong can smell bad, but Shenzhen smells worse. Hong Kong has bad air, but Shenzhen's is even nastier. We didn't see any stabbings or kidnappings while we were there, but maybe next time. :)

School's In!

I'm happy to say that school has been a success so far for Evangeline. As you may recall, we had some choices to make as to what type of school to send her to for kindergarten (In Hong Kong, the school system starts at age three with three years of "kindergarten" before going to primary school at age six). In the end, we went with the "local" school option, a Lutheran kindergarten in our village where the primary language of instruction is Cantonese. What were some of the factors that contributed to our decision?

1. Language. We really wanted to take advantage of being in another country and have her learn another language. Even if she doesn't retain very much of it when we move back to the States (although we'll try!), it's proven that speaking another language early in life makes positive changes to your brain that last forever. A lot of early childhood specialists think that age three is the perfect time to start an immersion program. Even if Mandarin is a "better" language to learn, we didn't see any programs in our area that guaranteed fluency, even after the full three years of kindergarten. Besides, we place a high value on her being able to speak the same language as everyone around us. Someone in our family should, after all!
2. Location. It's really nice to have her within walking distance, even if she takes the school bus most of the time. Some families here shuttle their kids all over the city to have them go to the right school. Besides, it's nice to be part of our village community. We've already seen several of her classmates and their moms when we've been out and about, which is fun.
3. Price. Because her school is non-profit, the students get a voucher from the Hong Kong government which greatly reduces tuition. After adding her school bus fee, we're still only paying around $130 USD per month. I think I've blocked most of the cost of international school out of my mind because I was so shocked by the prices, but they were much higher. One of the more exclusive Christian international schools in our area charges around $120 USD just to apply. And they can get away with it because Hong Kongers are so desperate to have their children get ahead that they're willing to pay anything. Call me naive, but I can't help thinking that it's just preschool! 

But as confident as we were heading into the school year, I definitely had a small freak-out when we were actually there on the first day. The school had an extremely gradual introduction to school life, so the first three days, the kids were only there for an hour per day and the parents were with them for most of the time. As I was sitting there with Evangeline, listening to a stream of unintelligible Cantonese, I wondered what had we been thinking? How could anyone pick this up? But Evangeline wasn't fazed at all, which gave me some courage. The next week, she was in school for an hour per day without me, which went just fine. The week after that was two hours, and then finally they started their normal schedule of three hours per morning. 

And she has been thriving. She has a little "best friend" already, a girl called Ma Te. Evangeline is excited to go to school every morning, especially because she gets to ride the school bus. It's hard to tell how much Cantonese she's picking up. She's singing a lot of new songs in Cantonese, and she definitely knows the words for stickers and for a kind of fruit they often eat for snack. But apart from that, we're clueless. The most important thing is that she is happy!

First day, wearing her dress uniform (Tuesdays and Thursdays)

Waiting for the school bus in her sport uniform (Monday, Wednesday, Friday)

Getting on the bus with the help of the "bus nanny"

Her triumphant return!

Special uniform for Activity Days

Oh, and a note about that last picture. She's carrying a lantern that we made for a school project. The parents were supposed to collaborate with the kids and make a lantern together. As you can guess, Evangeline's only real contribution was liking pumpkins; she just played the whole time. Oh well! The kids in the school are divided up into four houses (just like Hogwarts!), and they wear colored house polo shirts on Activity Day. Evangeline is in the "Believe" house, so she has a red polo. I couldn't get very much information from her about what they actually do on Activity Day, other than it was fun. 

I'll keep you posted as the school year progresses. It's been interesting so far, to say the least!

Munich

This was the end of the line in Europe for us. Evangeline and I were only there for a few days before heading back to the States, but Joseph stayed a week longer to have some more archive fun before returning to Hong Kong. The best thing about Munich was seeing our good friends Mandy and Iain again! And to make our reunion even more exciting, we got to meet their four month-old IDENTICAL twin girls, Rachel and Clara. They were like perfect models of babies: adorable (obviously!), cuddly, friendly, and curious. A real delight to be around. We had dinner at the Hofbräukeller, which had a free babysitting room. Evangeline was in heaven! I wish I had taken a picture of it, but to be honest I was so excited to see Mandy and Iain that I forgot to take pictures until the end of the night.

All three girls

Clara and me

So nice to be together again!

Post-dinner smiles

And of course, no trip to Munich would be complete without a trip to the Englischer Garten. We enjoyed walking around and hanging out at the biergarten by the Chinesischer Turm.

An antique, still functioning carousel

It was hard to decide which animal to ride

Yum!

Woo hoo!

Unfortunately, our trip ended on a low note due to Joseph having a kidney stone. He had started having lower back pain on and off in Vienna, and wondered if he was having back spasms or something. The day before Evangeline and I were due to leave Munich, the pain got much more intense, so much so that he couldn't even sit down at the archives that morning. He came home and I talked him into going to the hospital by our apartment. Luckily, German health care is awesome and they quickly found the kidney stone. The doctor thought he would pass it in the next few days. I didn't like leaving Joseph in that situation, but I felt a little better knowing Mandy and Iain were close by. Joseph's symptoms improved dramatically after that, so he thought that he must have passed the stone. That was wishful thinking, however. It's still there, as he discovered during another very painful episode a few weeks ago. He saw a urologist here in Hong Kong, who also thought that it would pass soon, but no such luck. We don't know why that stone likes it in there so much, but it doesn't seem to want to go anywhere. We're hoping and praying that one of these days it will decide to continue its journey and be out of Joseph's life for good!

Wien, du Stadt Meiner Träume

Vienna, the city of my dreams! This will always be a special place for us, since it was where Joseph and I met and where we spent the first year of our married life. We hadn't been back at the same time since 2004, so it was a much-anticipated visit. And who would have thought that when we met in 2001, we'd eventually be back with this little stinker:

Evangeline am Graben

Joseph had applied for a grant to look at some things in archives in Vienna and Munich. When the news came that he got the grant, we jumped for joy because we would be going back. Nothing could be easier, since we were already planning on being in London in early July. From London, it was a short jump to lovely Wien.

The archives were only open from 9am to 1pm on weekdays, so Evangeline and I were on our own the first few mornings. We went to the Prater to ride the Riesenrad and to play:

Hauptallee

Sand play

We couldn't get out of the amusement park without at least one ride

Our first trip to Demel, my cake mecca

We went with classics for E's first time, Sachertorte and Esterhazytorte

Love the open kitchen (we were there late afternoon, so no more action that day)

Running off the sugar high by the Hofburg

Rathaus, my fave Ringstrasse building. I think it's interesting to hear the favorites of others, kind of  like a personality test

There was a brief shower at 5pm pretty much every day

Rathaus with menacing clouds behind

The weather was hot and sunny. The locals were all complaining, but since it wasn't very humid, it seemed very nice to us compared to Hong Kong! Evangeline and I went swimming in the Alte Donau, a part of the Danube that has been dammed. Funny enough, she made friends with another little girl whose parents are expats in Beijing. The grandparents live in Vienna, so she was there for the summer holidays.

On the beach

Cheese sandwich after swimming

Dave and Georgia came to join us for the rest of our time in Vienna. We had so much fun with them, going around the city, and more importantly, eating and drinking.

Georgia and me in front of Schoenbrunn

The Gloriette behind the palace

The crew up the hill by the Gloriette

The Palmenhaus, a 19th century greenhouse

Almost out of the park into Hietzing

Now THAT'S a pretzel!

In the afternoon, we went up to one of the scenic overlooks in the hills above Vienna at Kahlenberg. After taking in the view and trying to pick out as much as we could, we hiked down through the Vienna Woods into wine country, stopping for dinner at a local Heuriger, which is a wine-maker where you can drink this year's wine. It was such a special evening, eating simple food and drinking wine where it's grown, with a breathtaking view of the Danube river. This, to me, is why we love Vienna so much; it's so easy to live well here.

The Jones Fam at Kahlenberg

Making our way out of the woods

Lovely vines with the city below

Sign listing all the Heurigen in the vicinity

The hanging branch means the Heuriger is open

Happy faces! Our table was literally a few steps away

Dave and Georgia with some serious foam on their melanges

Schwartzenberg Platz

Belvedere from the back...

...and from the front

Lots of lovely statues to climb on

The elephant in front of the Naturhistorisches Museum

Repeat trip to Demel

That's my girl! From left to right, Annatorte, Dobostorte, Fächertorte

Loving the cat tongues

A few more thoughts about Vienna:

• It's such a nice size! And so accessible. After living in larger places, we really had to chuckle at our younger selves. Going across town seemed to be take SO LONG before; now we know better!
• Not as much had changed as we had feared. Of course, not everything was still there, but it could have been a lot worse. There were a lot more sushi places, though. I wonder if that's because of changing tastes of the locals, or because of tourists? One of the best moments was a return trip to Joseph's old cafe in the first district, where we saw the same waiter that was working there all those years before. He didn't seem to recognize us, though. :)
• I really should give Evangeline a little credit, here. She was a great travel companion and did very well with all the sightseeing and places that weren't very child-friendly. To be fair, she did get a lot of cake. Now I regret not taking pictures of every slice of cake we ate, since I'm still thinking about it...