Swing low, sweet chariot

$5 to anyone who can tell me the words to this song off the top of your head (the bet only counts if you're from the U.S. and you can't use the internet)

Never heard of the song? I'll give you three hints:

1. It's a lullaby
2. It's a "fight song" of sorts
3. Chris and I heard it about 50 times on Saturday night

The 3rd hint is probably your best bet. Now, if you just knew what we were doing last Saturday night!

Our 3-Month Anniversary

It is hard to believe, but this past weekend marked our 3-month anniversary of being here in Hong Kong. Really, I can't figure out where the time has gone! We are, mostly, starting to feel much more comfortable in the city and it's feeling more and more like home everyday. All of our painting is done. Now I'm just waiting for the handy-man to call us back to hang some shelves. Don't laugh. In normal circumstances, I'd insist we'd be able to do it ourselves. I am, afterall, a true Carter, but our walls are made of cement with a nice little quasi-plaster finish over them to make it look like dry wall. So there's no drilling in to these walls, not without a special drill bit. And since our drill got packed in to storage before Chris had a chance to separate it, we'd have to buy a whole new drill as well. At this point, I think it's cheaper to hire the handy man. There's a curtain adventure beginning but I'll save that for another blog entry.

It was a sad weekend for Wisconsin sports, and thanks to Slingbox, I got to watch just about all of it. We watched the Badger vs. Illini game live. I fell asleep at half-time (please remember that it was about 2:30 a.m. here at that point) and decided to go to bed as soon as I woke up and saw that the Badgers were still losing. I consider it a good decision on my part. The Illini part of my family is reveling in the win, and I'm sure that Brad Foster is as well. I watched the Packers blaze through the first half against the Bears and then slowly lose. That was a bit painful but Slingbox is a beautiful thing.

Thankfully, our junk trip turned out to be very fun on Saturday - something to numb the losses a little bit. Here are some pictures from the day. We did a little wake-boarding and then had the banana boat pumped up so we could go for a ride. It's a lot like tubing where the goal is to get you off! Needless to say, we were all a bit soar on Sunday morning. Not the greatest pictures but they're all I've got right now.

Hopefully everyone back home enjoyed their Indian Summer over the weekend. It sounds like the fall is really starting to settle in.

Weekend Preview

I wanted to make sure to sneak in a quick posting before I head out for the evening. It has been a busy week and Chris is feeling a little better, although still a bit under the weather. Hopefully he'll be full force by the beginning of next week.

I would just like to forewarn all of you that when you come to visit, please be prepared for a lot of noise. We don't live on the quiet side of the island, that's all I have to say. There is more construction going on right now than I care to imagine. Jack hammering on our street everyday, all day; pile drivers working on two different buildings, one on each side of our apartment, and the hardwood floors being refinished in the flat down the hall. So not only is there way too much noise but the very nasty varnish smell, or whatever they are using down the hall, has infiltrated our apartment.

I had to wait at home all day for deliveries so there was no escaping the noise for me. I have to say that I am very much looking forward to a peaceful weekend.

Tomorrow we're heading out to one of the more desolate parts of Hong Kong, some islands off of Sai Kung in the New Territories. We've rented a boat for the day with some friends because one of them has a sister in town. We'll be in the sea off of the eastern coast of the mainland part of Hong Kong. We're really looking forward to a day on the water and some good wakeboarding. The last few days have been absolutely perfect, weather-wise. It has been like some of those perfect summer days that you get in WI. I promise to take pictures and post them this weekend.

The Big 10 fever has made it all the way to Hong Kong and will be alive and well on Sunday. We'll either watch the UW vs. IL game live (1:00 a.m. our time) or catch it on DVR Sunday morning. Along with the Purdue vs. Ohio State game (8:00 a.m. our time on Sunday), it is shaping up to be quite the football weekend. At this point, we are loving our Slingbox. Kudos to Scott & Christy Hewitt for letting us hook it up to their TV.

Enjoy your weekend everyone. Hopefully your weather is as beautiful as ours is going to be!

Ordinary Life

After quite the grilling from a very dear friend about not updating our blog, I'm finally writing a new posting. Things have been relatively low key lately, which is probably why I haven't been too inspired to write anything.

How is that possible when we're literally on the other side of the world, you ask? Well, I guess it's just ordinary life. The last couple of weeks haven't been too eventful. No major issues, no major faux pas, no toilets being randomly turned off. There have been a few mishaps here and there, but, all in all, a relatively quiet time. And I have to say that I can't really complain about that. It's nice to have a little bit of a comfort level with the city. I'm sure that this slow time won't last forever, but we're enjoying it while it does.

So what exactly have we been up to? Like I said, just ordinary life stuff, but it's been fun.

Two weekends ago it officially turned from summer to fall and we had both seasons here in Hong Kong. Saturday (the 22nd) was the perfect summer day. We rented a junk (translation: big boat used for cruising around the waters of Hong Kong) with about 10 people and spent the day on the water. We did a little swimming, eating and napping. It was the perfect summer day that we topped off with a very good Chinese meal. Fall came on Sunday and we had the weather to prove it. The day was rainy, cloudy and gross. The kind of day where you want to stay inside all day on your couch and watch football. That's exactly how we started our day - watching the UW Badgers beat the Iowa Hawkeyes, thankfully. We then headed over to our friends' house for a "Proper English Lunch" if you're from England or "Proper Sunday Roast" if you're from Ireland like our friend Lorraine. (Translation: roasted meat, lamb in our case, with lots of veggies, potatoes and Yorkshire puddings. Please note, Yorkshire puddings are basically like popovers and nothing like pudding). There were 8 of us. The food was really amazing and 18 bottles of wine and 10 hours later, we somehow managed to make it home. This is something we could have easily done one weekend with our friends in Milwaukee. See, normal ordinary life stuff.

We have, however, gotten to partake in some of our first Chinese festivals. Last Wednesday marked the mid-Autumn festival, the second most important Chinese holiday after Chinese New Year. It's historically a harvest festival and people spend time admiring the harvest moon and with their families. Kids go out to the beach and walk around with lit paper lanterns. On the beaches, it is supposed to be a beautiful. We were supposed to go out on a junk that evening but it was cancelled due to a thunderstorm warning. There was a celebration in one of the local parks that was a really bad version of the state fair. We went to see it but didn't last long. Nothing too exciting.

Yesterday (Oct 1) was National Day. We signed up to go out on a boat trip to celebrate our Chinese heritage. There was a really great fireworks display that we got to see from the harbour. Definitely Bartolotta's quality. We missed July 4 fireworks so it was a nice treat. I started singing the Star Spangled Banner but Chris made me be quiet. Probably an appropriate move.

See, ordinary life stuff.

Today, Chris is home sick and has lost his voice. Ordinary life stuff, I guess. I promise to write more in the future to keep you all up to date.