Lately...

Wow, no post in a while. It seems like there has been both a ton going on and not much at all--that is, work has been hectic for the last couple of weeks, so I have been tired and not done much interesting that's worth reporting. Let's see; here's what's happened since my last post:

Obama streamed to victory in the elections (yay!!), which I celebrated with my Swiss employer by having a lovely glass of French wine. (To all of my dear, dear Republican friends and family members, I know that, to you, there are multiple things wrong with that sentence)

I explored the less populated side of HK Island--namely Stanley Beach. There is a great street market there where I picked up some fun stuff (yes, Mom, I'm spending myself into poverty here). I can never get over how gorgeous the beaches are here; I could just sit and stare all day.

We moved into the house finally! The renovations are great; everything is very stream-lined and sleek. It's exhausting going up and down the stairs 20 times a day--the house has 4 levels (5 if you consider the rooftop deck). On the side facing Repulse Bay, the walls are entirely windows, so we have a fantastic view of the water. It's great to wake up to. Henry's school is just about a 5 minute walk away, so that's really nice. Alessio fell down one of the sets of stairs yesterday, taking about 10 years off my life. I thought surely he had broken something, but he was absolutely unharmed. It's amazing how indestructible kids are--he stopped crying after 2 minutes, I was shaking for 20. He's just so fearless, and he thinks he's older than he is, so he's always just bum-rushing into things. Anyway, I'll put up pictures of the house when I get a chance.

Chris arrived last night, and I was so excited to see him!! I was practically jumping out of my skin waiting at the airport for him to arrive after his 16 hour flight. As a lovely welcome, we had an early Thanksgiving dinner here at the house. Victoria ordered it from a local restaurant, and they covered all of the bases--a full turkey, stuffing, cranberry sauce, potatoes, gravy, brussel sprouts (eww). It was really delicious. This morning Chris and I got up early, walked Henry to school, and embarked on our day in HK. We took the bus out to Stanley Beach--the bus ride is terrifying and exhilarating from the front seat on the upper deck of the bus as it flies around the curves on the incredibly narrow streets. It has some great views, which you notice after you stop thinking you're going to die in a bus accident. After that, we took the bus into Central and went to Maxim's at City Hall for Dim Sum. It was delicious!! They bring various types of food around on carts and you choose what you want. It's one of the things that everyone has said I need to do here, and I loved it. After lunch, we walked around Central/Lan Kwai Fong/SoHo for a bit, then hopped on a double-decker tram to Wan Chai where we took the Peak Tram up to the Peak to take in the amazing view of the HK skyline. The weather was amazing today, and really clear (clear for HK that is), so we have some good pictures. We sat at one of the restaurants and had a couple of drinks and appetizers--a perfect way to spend an afternoon. After decending from the Peak, we took the tram back to Central and walked around there a bit more before taking the MTR to Times Square, which is really lively at night and lots of fun. We took the MTR over to Tsim Sha Tsui in Kowloon for dinner at Chao Inn, where we had a table with a fantastic view of the HK Island skyline. It looks incredibly at night, which made up for the struggles with the waitstaff as none of them spoke a word of English (it's the first time I've encountered someone who doesn't at least know a few words of English; maybe it's because we were on the Kowloon side). Then we popped up a few more floors to a bar called Aqua to take in some more amazing views. We took the Star Ferry back across the bay, and caught the bus home because both of us were way too tired to go have a drink in Lan Kwai Fong as we had planned. It was a fabulous day.

Tomorrow morning, Chris and I leave for Bangkok, where we will spend a day before traveling through Cambodia and into Vietnam. Expect awesome pictures a week from now...