Wow. We are really here.

WARNING: PICTURE DUMP!
You have seen the Atlanta part of our journey here. So here is our Hong Kong stay. It was 24 hours.

On April 13 we flew from Atlanta to Chicago. When we checked in we found that Daniel had enough miles that we automatically got upgraded to Business Class. Awesome. I loved it. But it made the flight from Chicago to Hong Kong that much harder. But we made it. With all 6 suitcases. We landed in Hong Kong on Thursday evening.

When we checked into the hotel, we got upgraded again. To a suite. It was nice. It's like the cosmos knew it was my birthday. (Friday). This was our view from our suite when we checked in.

We cleaned up and then headed into town to see things and shop. We ate at KFC (pronounced "kun da chi" in China). It was pretty good. The mashed potatoes and chicken tasted just like at home. I appreciated that.

Then we headed to Mong Kok - the ladies market. Here are a bunch of pictures of the streets, the booths and the sights. I wish I could convey to you the sounds and smells.

This woman was singing. I gave her a couple HK$.

 This is a section of the market. They set up stalls like these for four blocks.

 There are two sellers in each stall. One on each side.

 Daniel waiting at the Mong Kok subway station on our way back to the hotel.

The next morning we went to the flower market, the bird market, a Buddhist nunnery and the LDS Temple in Hong Kong.

The bird market was amazing. It was so loud with chirping birds.

 This is Nan Lian Gardens in Hong Kong.

Passion Fruit Summer Ices at Nan Lian Garden.

 This is the Lily Pond Terrace of the Nan Lian Gardens.

 The Buddhist Temple at Nan Lian.

 This is the Plaza Hollywood Mall in Hong Kong. It was huge.

 Did you know that Fujifilm makes beauty products in Asia? I didn't. But they do.

Next time I will post about our first weekend in Xiamen and the company activity on Saturday
afternoon.

Atlanta Day 2

Today was a pretty leisurely day. I got up late and then spent some time reorganizing our suitcases. When you end up using a total of 6, yes 6, suitcases it takes some planning to put them all together right. Then I got ready and went to the Cyclorama. That was pretty interesting. Then I rode the bus back to the city center and spent some time in the Olympic Centennial Park. It was pretty. Then it was windy. So I waited the last little bit at the conference building where Daniel was attending the conference. Here are some of the pictures I took today.

This is the train "The Texas." It was a supply train for the Confederacy.

This is one of the MARTA stations. I thought it was a pretty facade.

 These were taken at the Olympic Park.

This was taken at "The Underground." It's an actual gas street light. The holes you see in the base were from Federal Artillery during the Civil War.

It was a pretty good day. We are off early in the morning for our flight to Hong Kong via Chicago. Long day. Thank goodness I was able to get some supplies.

Atlanta Day 1

It was actually our first whole day. We landed in the early evening on Sunday. We managed to get me a wrist band for the opening reception for the Convergence conference that Daniel is attending. We were able to wander the World of Coca-Cola and the Georgia Aquarium. That was amazing. There was lots of good food and we did the touching pond. If you are ever in Atlanta I would highly recommend the Aquarium. I don't know how much the World of Coca-Cola is, but it was interesting. You get to taste about 170 flavors of Coke product flavors from all around the world. Everyone says the Beverly from Italy is the one to try. It was gross. It tasted like cough syrup. It took another 10 tastings to get the flavor out of my mouth. Yuck.

Then today Daniel went to the Conference at 7 this morning and I was left to "fend" for myself. I had a lazy morning and then rode the MARTA into town. I first went to the Oakland Cemetery where I saw the graves of Margaret Mitchell, author of Gone With the Wind and Bobby Jones, golfing legend.

It was a nice thing. I went there by accident. I had ridden the MARTA headed to the Cyclorama and this was on the. It was full of pretty photo opportunities.

Then I walked the ridiculous length down the street only to find the Cyclorama is closed on Mondays. but I will do that Tuesday.

Then I rode the bus up to the Margaret Mitchell house where she wrote Gone With the Wind, one of my favorite books. I wrote my senior seminar paper on the film. I am a huge fan. It was neat to see where she wrote the book.

(Image from the Margaret Mitchell House website.)

That little desk in the corner is where she wrote the book. She started it after hurting her ankle in an accident. She worked on it on and off for about 9 years. It was published in 1936, ten years after starting it. It is now published in over 50 languages.

I was able to take a few pictures outside and in the visitors center.

Margaret Mitchell lived in a four room apartment on the basement level on the left. There was a living room, a bedroom, a bathroom and a very small kitchen. It was tiny  Check out the link with the pictures. It was good.

Then I went back to the hotel, cleaned up, changed my clothes and headed back into town to meet Daniel for dinner. He was invited by a contractor to attend a dinner. It was nice. It was located on teh 73rd floor of the Westin Hotel in Atlanta.

We ate in the Lounge. It rotates every 32 minutes all the way around. It was cool. 73 floors is way up there. I took this photo from the street after we ate.

It was nice. Tomorrow I will have more pictures to post.

Hope you all are enjoying life as much as I am!

Moving out

Moving out was hard. I'm just typing this to document it for myself. It was weird to see my house empty. I was very good though and didn't get emotional about it. The only time I teared up was when we were on the way to drop the dogs off. That was hard. I miss them.

We started packing up weeks ago and getting random things to the storage unit. Then last week we started packing for real. Books and book shelves were the first to go. Then the rest of our back bedroom went. Then it got harder. Kitchen, bathroom, laundry room, TV room, living room. We had to do something with all of our food - so we sold/gave it all away. It was a completely different thing from moving houses. Moving your life into storage was hard.

The move started to hit us and feel real when we dropped our bins off for shipping. Wow. We had dinner with friends on 4 different nights. That was good.

We finished up at 11:30 p.m. Saturday night and went to my in-laws. We slept there - sort of. We didn't sleep much. We got up at 6:00 to go the airport. We are now in Atlanta and I am enjoying the sunshine - a little too much. I forgot to put sunscreen on and now I have some pretty good lines on my upper arms and neckline.

Awesome. Next time - Atlanta Day 1.

Frustrations with Insentive people

I can't say I've always been a supporter of PETA. I support the proper spaying and nuetering of animals and taking care of your pets, but PETA has gone one too far this time. 

Here is the letter I sent to them regarding their rude treatment of National Infertility Awareness Week.

To: Ingrid Newkirk

Subject: Insensitivity

 

I will do my best to sound articulate rather than like  an outraged person who can't collect their thoughts.

 

You think that living with the status of infertile is a choice? It's not. I appreciate your desire for ethical treatment of animals. I have two dogs, one rescued, both fixed. It's good thing. But pairing this up with "fixed" people is very rude.

 

I am a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and as such I believe in and have a desire for a family. Being a mother is what my body was created to do and is my mission for this life. The human experience involves parenting and knowing that love and selflessness that comes from raising children. By the shear coincidence of genetics, I landed the wonderful lot of being infertile as a result of auto-immune diseases.

 

Why would you "joke" and take lightly the loss of a dream and a life pursuit that is held sacred and cherished by so many? The choice to not have children is personal, not societal. I can respect your opinions but I ask that you respect the situation of the millions of people who live with the pain of infertility everyday.

 

Sincerely,

 

Ashley Allen

Infertility patient for 8 years.

 

I just wanted them to know that their treatment regarding Infertility Awareness was about as twisted as it comes. 

This is the response I received from them:

Dear Ms. Allen,

 

Thank you for contacting PETA about your objections to our contest offering a free vasectomy. We are sorry that you are offended and are taking this as a personal attack. We did not intend it to be.  Our goal was to bring about discussion of animal overpopulation, the need to spay and neuter dogs and cats, and the impact of human overpopulation on the environment.

 

A lot of men have entered the contest, and there is great interest in it, which focuses attention on the tragic suffering and death of homeless dogs and cats. Furthermore, the cost of a vasectomy is not cheap, and not everyone wants to reproduce. Having one’s own child may be a compelling urge for some, but nobody should condemn those who choose to avoid causing pregnancy or any organization that provides them with a means to do so.  Many who choose to have a vasectomy consider it a moral conundrum for some of us to be spending thousands of dollars trying to reproduce ourselves when there are homeless children, including some with disabilities, who want for homes, and when the environment is being ravaged as human population increases. Since most of the e-mails we are receiving from people who’ve read about our contest on infertility blogs are quite uncivil, perhaps some soul searching needs to be done on the part of those who would rather throw stones than engage in discourse.

 

PETA works very hard to prevent the births of puppies and kittens who will end up abandoned in animal shelters or struggling to survive on the streets. Breeding, both purposeful and accidental, is responsible for the euthanasia of millions of these loving companions each year. Sterilization is both the easiest and the most effective means available of ensuring animals’ happiness and safety. Male animals who have been neutered are far less likely to roam far from home or fight. Neutering greatly diminishes and possibly eliminates reproductive urges (which are not the same in dogs as they are in humans). In addition, these animals will never get testicular cancer and run less risk of contracting prostate disease. Female animals who have been spayed avoid the trauma of giving birth and will no longer go into heat.

 

Consider the fate of the millions of unwanted animals whose parents were never spayed and neutered. Born into a hostile world, they are caged among strangers at animal shelters or, worse, abandoned on the sides of roads. They are run over by cars and attacked by other animals. They are infected with painful, contagious, and deadly diseases. Those unlucky enough to run into cruel humans are often drowned, beaten with baseball bats, suffocated in plastic bags, stabbed, shot, starved, set on fire, used as bait, and tortured in countless other ways. And the saddest tragedy of all is that before they meet some gruesome death, they reproduce, and the cycle of animal suffering continues.

 

A national organization, SPAY/USA, helps guardians of animal companions who need assistance with the cost of spaying and neutering. You can contact SPAY/USA at the following website and toll-free number.

They still didn't get it. They still think it was all about them. I was just trying to point that this is not the week to be "joking" about the infertility of humans. Insensitive idiots. 

Back to packing. this moving stuff is hard.

Our Trip to China last week...Part 3

Our fourth day, Thursday morning, we flew down to Hong Kong. We were flying home the next day out of Hong Kong so it was nice to have some time to see Hong Kong a little.

This was the view flying in over Hong Kong. Great, huh?

While in Hong Kong we saw Hong Kong park, Hong Kong Peak - where we rode the tram up, Mong kok - the women's market, and dinner at amazing an Australian steak house in the newest building in Hong Kong, 'The One.'


Here are a couple from Hong Kong Park

 You could walk in under the fountain from the side.

Then we rode the tram up to the top of Hong Kong Peak. It was a pretty steep ride. I took a video of our ride down. (That'll be another post.)


Here are some pictures of the ride up and the view from the top. It's very expensive to live up there.

 This was taken part way up the tram ride.

 This is us near the top.

 

This was the view from our dinner at Wooloomooloo steak house on the 21st floor of the "The One" building in Hong Kong.

 This was taken at Mong kok when Daniel was there in January. We'll post more pictures of this phenomena after our next trip there.

It was an amazing 4 days full of so much information and kind of a sensory overload. I'm so excited to move to China.