Weekend in Hong Kong

In mid-November, my teammate, her son, and I flew to Hong Kong for a weekend at Hong Kong Disney. My friend, Amina, found a great deal on tickets! She and her son Gianmarco were goingto go for a belated birthday celebration and invited me to come too. It was an invitation I could not pass up, seeing as how I am a HUGE Disney fan!

We flew out on Friday night and arrived really late (it was round midnight by the time we made it to our hotel). Hong Kong Disney is very different from Disney World in Orlando. In Orlando there are literally hundreds of hotels on and near Disney property. At Hong Kong Disney there are 2 options, and they are both very nice hotels done in the Over-The-Top way that Disney does everything.

We all were feeling a bit under the weather to begin with, and then arrived to chilly, Hong Kong autumn weekend. We took the bus from our hotel to the park. It was great seeing signs in both Chinese and English. The whole park was empty compared to my previous Disney experiences. I must say, though, that one of the funniest experiences was Cinderella's castle. The entire way in I was looking at the tops of the trees to see any signs of Disney: a castle spire, the peak of Space Mountain..I didn't see anything. Wow, it must be kind of tucked back from the road...I thought. We walked through the entry, past the All Aboard the Disney Train, up Main Street U.S.A. and, LO! There was the castle! Not exactly what I had imagined, but fun nonetheless. Can you say wee? How cute!

I spent the better part of the day at the park until I couldn't take the chills and feverish aches any longer. I went back to the hot tub (outside) to try and force my flu out of my body. Oh, this weekend was in the wake of the H1N1 insanity that hit everywhere, but Hong Kong is especially concerned with cleanliness..we were afraid they would send us back to Vietnam because we were coughing! Phew! I am glad that didn't happen!

On Sunday morning I took the train into the city and wandered around a bit. Hong Kong is a place I would love to return to and explore further! A weekend didn't do it justice!
The festive lobby of the Disney Resort Hotel in Hong Kong. This was my first taste of Christmas!
The gate to Hong Kong Disney. Brrr! Cold!
Main Street U.S.A. and way off in the distance (it's not that far, it's just that wee) is Cinderella's Castle.
Capt. Jack Sparrow made an appearance and I couldn't resist sneaking a kiss. I loves me a pirate. RRR!
These were cool! Guys with brooms and dustpans were painting Disney characters on the street using water!

October Break

Howdy friends!
I love to teach! It's lots of work, but it's also lots of fun. Our first break, Fall Break, was back in October. Jonathan and I decided to spend most of it in MuiNe, Vietnam. It was Jonathan's first trip to this lovely beach paradise. We had the best time just hanging out, walking the beach day after day, sampling the tasty foods, and just being together.

Here are some photos from our time there!
Here we are updating our status and drinking a Saigon Do at Joe's..our hotel wasn't ready yet so we enjoyed lunch after our train ride.
Jonathan tried a little surfing..and did pretty ok! I guess it was tiring, though.
Here we are on the beach at sunrise.
Up the beach is a fishing village where folks use these boats to catch all sorts of things. These people are going through the nets to see what they caught.
Here is a boat that just came in from fishing. This is at sunrise. The boats go out at night and come in sunrise. At night, the horizon is littered with the lights from the boats out fishing.