Stars and Sights....

I'm currently scanning the synonyms for the words hot and tired on Microsoft word and coming up empty handed for something that properly describes the extent to which i'm currently hot, sweaty, and tired... Today was quite the full day and still has more to come... I think I mentioned that Laura has a friend named Dianne that lives here in Hong Kong and she offered to show us some things in Hong Kong. So we all woke up fairly late this morning ( late for us right now is 7:30 because we've recently been waking up around 5:00) and had breakfast got ready and met Dianne at Olympic park in Hong Kong Park- about a 15 minute walk from our house- and we then walked to Admirality station where we met her friend Jeff. She invited Jeff because they're friends but also because she felt he spoke better English so incase she didn't know how to say something he could help translate etc. We all headed to dim sum which was verrry interesting.... Some of it waas really really good other things were not exactly up my alley. It's similar in concept to tapas in that it's small portions and you take a little bit of each etc. We had Jasmine tea and then another more bitter tea. I'm trying to think of all the things we had to eat. We had a pork bun with a more fluffy light dough around it, and then 2 shrimp things one with smaller bits of shrimp wrapped in dough and one with a whole shrimp wrapped in dough( those were not my favorites) We had a soup that was made out of some type of egg something with beef or pork one that tasted like an elephant ear, we had spring roles, and then we had some desserts including a mango pudding, sugar roles, and coconut cake as well. It was really all quite amazing... I'm so thankful they didn't make us try any of the pork knuckles or ox liver. While it looked appatizing it felt more appropriate for a more special occasion like... Chinese new year or something ( bummer that we won't be here for that)

After dim sum we took an hour long bus ride to stanley market. There were some great beaches that, but Stanley market's actual market is comprised of local people who set up shop for tourists and have a wide range of items from souvinere chopsticks and fans to knock off gucci bags... It's like being in new york.... a whole lotta stuff in a little space.

We wandered and chatted and sweated a lot. After a while we stopped at Starbucks- You can't escape starbucks.... At one point I thought it was a visa slogan that said " It's everywhere you want to be" turns out they stole it from starbucks.. Starbucks- It's everywhere you want to be- yes much more fitting

As we wandered out Jeff told us that the gentleman we passed while walking out was a Hong Kong Movie Star.... So i've seen American movie stars but really this is kind of the chron boo bon that now I can say i've seen a Hong Kong movie star... not many people can say that. After our star sighting we took a mini bus( which Jeff and Dianne told us you always take ones with green tops not red tops the ones with red tops are crazy drivers) to Causeway Bay which is a place with lots of shopping, lots of restaurants, and lots of people. We wandered around and finallly they decided they wanted to take us to have a few more authentic Hong Kong dishes so we went to what they described as the "IHOP" of Hong Kong. We tried what is litterally translated as a "pineapple role" but there is no pineapple in it it's like a role with butter in it and sweet flakey crust on the outside, one that is like bread dipped in egg similar to french toast but more egg flavored, and then finally a bun with condensed milk on it. All of which were dilicious. After that we headed back to the MTR station and took the MTR back toward Hong Kong Park and tonight we hope we still have the energy to take the tram to the peak. Today was a packed but really great day. We learned a lot about navigating the area and Hong Kong in general.

I realized I think I forgot a lot of stuff probably and as a side note my appologies for any spelling and/or grammer mistakes... I kind of just write things as they come through my brain for fear that i'll for get things and I don't think the spell check is on right now so chances are I've mispelled quite a few things so sorry and hopefully everyone can get past that :) Cheers