Wrappin' it up

Turns out that traditional Chinese food WAS amazing...wow.  I hear they might have one restaurant somewhere in LA owned by the same people, so I might be checking it out.  Their specialty was some sort of steamed dumpling...wow.  And the jasmine tea was also incredible.  After dinner we walked down to a little dessert shop on Victoria Harbor, and all tried one of their yummy fruity desserts.  I was thinking, "I could get used to this..."  After we finished, I spent some time with brand new friends - one of them a young filmmaker in Hong Kong - also a fellow Christian, which led to some great conversations.   We spent a while trading music from our laptops with each other.  

The next day the boys all woke up early to watch the superbowl "live" (7 second delay), but I had bigger plans....Disneyland!  My buddy Phil sings in Kong Kong Disney's Festival of the Lion King, and he signed me into the park for free.  (Yay for friends who work at Disney!!)  His mom was also there, so she and I saw him do his show twice - and he was awesome!!  Go Phil!!!  I had lunch with his mom and her friend, then after Phil finished working we all went to see another live show there called the Golden Mickeys.  It was fun because the whole thing was in Cantonese...including Mickey Mouse's voice.  Weird!!  After that I wandered around the park a bit on my own, and found it totally fascinating!  The same, yet different....another highlight was seeing my friend Jordan Lammeroux perform on mainstreet in the barbershop quartet, the Dapper Dans.  They were great, and a big hit with all the locals at the park.  I also loved seeing disney's Chinese New Year Parade - so neat!  (Also, side note - I've seen a couple dragon and lion dances during this week-long new year celebration, and they are really impressive!)  I got a kick out of the fact that there are three lines for the jungle cruise - get in the one for your language.  Watch out you don't accidentally get in the Cantonese or Mandarin line!  Or not - its probably just as fun.  The ride is different too - one really neat part where a volcano seems to erupt around you.  Anyway I really had a blast there and could have stayed all night, but my social life was calling! :-) I had to make it back for my last dinner with everyone associated with Metro.  We went out to a nice restaurant that was close enough to walk to, and had a great final meal together. 

The next morning I had to get ready to go...:-( I really had such a blast there in Hong Kong - the city is so intense and fun.  Everyone had their reasons why I should move there, and I admit I have been entertaining thoughts of trying it someday.  It was so neat to have such great friends (old and new) to spend time with, too.  I felt really at home, and every day was really exciting.  So I took the public trans to the airport, got a little nervous when I got called out to a back room to pay a fee for extending my stay in Hong Kong, but it was only 20 bucks and no one went to jail, and made my flight just in time.  Cathay Pacific is a great airline - I highly recommend it.  Then it turns out that I did get stuck in San Francisco after all, momentarily - I just ended up paying for my own flight back to LAX (it cost $300 less than flying to Ontario - weird!!!), where my dad and sister picked me up. (thanks guys!)  I took them to In N Out to say thank you.  

So now I'm back at home again, working through some crazy jet lag and planning out my month and a half here before I head out again with NCL.  Woohoo!  What a crazy ride the past 2 weeks have been!  I am SO glad I went.  

Hanging in Hong Kong!

So I was able to get my flight delayed until Tuesday, which is great!  Actually, only the first leg of the flight is fixed, so I might be on my own once I get to San Francisco, ha ha.  But getting across the Pacific is my biggest concern, so once I'm there I'll be able to figure something out.  

After I signed off the ship yesterday I headed over to Candace and Cody's apartment for a bit to drop off all my luggage.  Then I went shopping with the girls (5 of us) in Tsim Sha Tsui, which was really fun.  Shopping in Hong Kong is dangerous.  I bought some fun stuff and had a blast being out on the town with the girls.  After dinner we all headed to Backstage Live for Metro's show.  I went with them and so got there early, I was on the "list" to get in free, which made me feel special.  :-)  The show was great - two full sets of music.  I got to hear some new stuff, as well as all the songs I know very well from spending 6 months with the guys.  I met a lot of really cool people at the show, and ran into a guy I actually know from APU!  Small world.  The show went by so fast cause I was so caught up in it.  I loved it.  Afterwards we went out on the town a bit to celebrate, and I had a great time with some new friends.  Everyone is trying to convince me to move out here. :-)  

Today I slept in to make up for having such a late night last night.  Then a few of us took a bus over to Stanley to spend the afternoon and do some more Market shopping...as if I really need to spend more money here. :-) It was a nice day.  We're just about to all head out to an authentic CHinese food place - should be fun!!