Track & Field Day for Trey

Today, I helped out at Trey's track & field day...yes, they had to bus us to the field but it was REAL grass! It was a fun day. It was for the 3rd, 4th and 5th graders. Each child got to pick a track event, a field event and then participated in an obstacle course. Shockingly, Trey picked the American football throw and punt as his field event and then he picked the 75 meter run for his track event. Due to controversial scoring, Trey took 2nd in the football throw. It was an accuracy event where you had to throw the football through a large ring. He won each of the first two rounds of elimination by many points, but each new round they started with a clean slate. So, going into the finals he and the next closest boy started at zero again and he ended up losing by one point. That was the event that I helped out with. He ended up winning the 4th grade boys 75 meter run so I think he was pretty happy about that.

For those of you that know me and how much I despise exercise, you will find this amusing...The teachers have a relay race but needed a couple parents to fill in to make them even teams. If you can possibly imagine this, but I said "sure, I'll fill in"... I looked around me and knew it would be ok although very amusing. Ever the supportive son that Trey is, he said to me afterward..."you did good mom." I just love him, even if he was lying to me :). I'll post Trey's podium pic.

The Kids...

Birthday Boy

Well, we celebrated Trey's birthday on Monday by taking the family out to Outback Steakhouse...yes, Trey got his steak! (so did his mom and dad, of course) He also got a haircut so many of you won't recognize him anymore. I'm not sure what got into him (ok, it might have been the near-constant "encouragement" from his dad) but he looks great. I'm going to try and post a picture of the birthday boy so you all can see the new look.

Another funny story...I met a woman tonight that is the mother of one of Trey's new friends here. She has actually lived in Hong Kong for many years and doesn't necessarily call a place in the states "home." She asked me where we came here from and I said Minnesota. She said that as it happens, she will be making her first visit to Minnesota this summer. I asked her to what part of the state they were headed and she said she was going to be running in Grandma's Marathon this year. For those of you that know of the long history that Craig and his family have with participating in this race, the story is even that much more interesting (in my opinion). What are the chances?

The Girls' New Robes

First Official Visitor

We were so blessed to have our first official visitor this past weekend. Our friend Andy Zaske breezed through for a day and we thoroughly enjoyed it. Even though I'm sure he was dead tired, we sucked every moment from him we could :) Lucky for me (rather selfishly) he brought me some gifts...not the least of which were some drill bits to use in my cement walls. Thank goodness I brought my drill! As some of you know, I'm not quite the same without my power tools and I was getting a little frustrated that NONE of my drill bits were working. So, I'm feeling very powerful now, thanks to Andy!

Craig and I really showed him the town...we took him out for margaritas at a Mexican place and then out for dinner at an Irish Pub...you know, you're usual spots in to take a guest in Hong Kong! :) We did take him to Stanley Market to do a little shopping...definite tourist spot there, but one of our favorite places to go. We picked up a few items of our own. I'll share a few pictures of the girls with their new robes and hats.

Who's next? All are welcome...just let us know so we can make up some beds for ya!

Photo Explanation

The top photo is of the kids learning about sustainable living through planting an organic garden. The bottom photo is taken from the rooftop of an "Ecohome" as we were discussing the amount of garbage we produce and how we can change that.

Fieldtrip Photos

Lantau Island

Yesterday, I went along with Kyra on a field trip for school to Lantau Island. It was a very interesting, enlightening and LONG day. The field trip was centered around "going green". I don't remember if I had included this information in a previous blog or not, but air pollution is a significant problem here. Every day, Hong Kong Island posts the API (Air Pollution Index) and if it is over 100, the kids with asthma-related issues have to stay inside for recess times throughout the school day. The first week the kids were in school, the API was over 100 three out of the five days. Obviously, this is a significant issue here. Also, the three landfills that exist here in Hong Kong are nearing capacity. So, there is discussion to possibly build incinerators to burn the trash, which would obviously only contribute to the air pollution problem.

So, for the field trip, we went to Lantau Island, which is the biggest island of Hong Kong. In fact, it is twice the size of Hong Kong Island itself. We went to a beach that is not taken care of by the government and spent an hour picking up trash. We collected 7 big bags full of debris on a very small section of beach. At the same time, we continued to watch more trash float up on shore from the water. Kyra could not get over the amount of garbage. She asked me several times if they had set it up for us for something to clean up, like as an example of what trash could do.

We then hiked up the side of a mountain to an "Eco home" to learn about organic gardening and more about the 3Rs: Recycle, Reuse, Reduce. We learned some very interesting facts, only a few of which I can remember, because if you know me at all you've heard me complain about the loss of memory cells! One thing that stuck with me is that in just China, every year they use 23 million trees just to make disposable wooden chop sticks. That just amazed me so obviously it stuck with me.

I was hoping to attach a couple photos of our field trip, but I took them with my new cell phone, which I don't know exactly how to work yet. Hopefully, I will have a chance today to figure out how to get the pics to my computer. It doesn't help that it is Windows-based and I'm on a Mac. So...it might be a bit of a process :)

Oh...

So, someone once warned us that you need to really be present when they are boxing up your stuff for the move as otherwise, you just don't know what will be boxed up. We obviously did not take that to heart. I'm not sure where Craig and I were during the chaotic boxing up process, but some CLEARLY marked boxes that were supposed to go to storage ended up here in Hong Kong. I'm pretty sure I'm not going to be needing my wedding dress while we're here...oops...wonder what the horrid humidity of the summer here is going to do to that!

Sea Shipment Arrives

It was like Christmas today! It is so funny to be so excited to see your same old junk that you wished before you could replace. We finally have toys, balls, legos and other things to play with. Yeah! Of course, it wouldn't be the Sandness way to have all things go smoothly. What would I blog about then? Everything made it here, so that is good. However, all the kids mattresses and the box springs to our king mattress were loaded onto a truck that had some sort of oil sitting in the base of it. Even though they were all boxed up, the oil seeped into the cardboard and now all of the mattresses STINK! At the end of the day, the moving company had some cleaners come out to try and get the smell out of the mattresses. Unsuccessful! However, the kids had to sleep on them as we had nothing else to use. I'm not sure how long it will take to rectify this one.

Looking around, I'm guessing I'll be unpacking for at least a few days! Well, I better get at it.

The Game of Frogger

So, as I made my way once again to run a few errands today I had a revelation as to what walking in Hong Kong reminds me of and thought I'd share a piece of our everyday life. If you know the video game Frogger, you can get a better picture of what it is like. I don't enter this blog to say negative things about Hong Kong, because I truly am liking it here, but I've learned there is an art of getting where you to need to go, on foot - SAFELY.

There are side walks the entire way to whatever destination you should choose. The problem is that they are not continuously on both sides of the street. So, you must devise a plan to move back and forth across the road in order to get to your final destination. However, sometimes there are railings along the sidewalk so you must choose to cross before/after in order to get across quickly. And that is truly a key - QUICKLY. The cars DO NOT SLOW DOWN if you are in the street - because you shouldn't be there! And the roads are so narrow that there is not one foot of space for a pedestrian to be in the road. There are no stop signs, no natural pauses in traffic and there are many, many curves to the road. So, the traffic comes around the corner very fast.

The other little caveat for us coming from the states is that it takes some getting used to looking the appropriate way for the oncoming traffic. I still have to remind myself which way the cars will be coming. Trey has become a master at helping me scout for the exact moment to cross. Trust me, we've stepped out at the WRONG time and they just honk at you and expect you to get out of the way - QUICKLY. :)

Another thing I've learned is that there are many ways to get to the same place. Now that may sound quite obvious, but believe me, the optional routes are anything but obvious. Unless you know someone who knows someone who knows someone...ok, that might be getting a little carried away, but basically you do need something that knows the way to show you. There are sets of stairs (100+ steps) hidden between buildings that we have recently discovered.

I've been carrying the stroller down very steep cement steps to go to the beach each time we've gone. Yesterday, a woman tells me there is a way to avoid steps altogether. I didn't believe her, because I've taken at least three different routes there and they all involve very steep steps. Well, I was wrong... I'm ok with being wrong if it helps me out.

FISH UPDATE
Well, so far so good, all the fish are still with us. The kids keep a pretty close watch on them as they are very worried that something is going to happen to them.