Wednesday, August 29, 2007

New Friends & New Hobbies



Marilyn had a new friend over, her name is Stephanie. Her mother is originally from the Philipines and her father is from Richmond, Viriginia. They just moved here from, yep--Charlotte, NC., where they have lived for the past 7 years.
Jordan is flying ( in the living area of our flat) his new helicopter. He was missing his bicycle so we found a quick fix.

Sunday, August 26, 2007

School Days Continued



-Marilyn is taking it all in at her orientation.

Marilyn is amused with all the fish in the pond at her new school.
Waiting for the bus on August 21, 2007.
Jordan's bus picks up at 6:55 a.m. and Marilyn's
at 7:00 a.m.

School Days


Yes, you do need to wear shoes to school! Jordan's first day of school and Marilyn's orientation was August 20, 2007.
More on school days to come.

Monday, August 20, 2007

Our New Form of Transportaion




Jordan & Marilyn are great with the public transportation here. Mom has a few issues but is adjusting!

Tuesday, August 14, 2007

The Kitchen



This is a picture of the kitchen in our apartment right as you walk in the door. We just got the phone hooked up and running a few days ago. The phone is right out of the far upper left hand corner of this picture. We have been doing other things to help us get settled in like getting dishes, silverware, and finding our way around in the nearest grocery store. Yesterday, Mom got a lesson on how to use all these complicated Chinese appliances. Sometimes smart people don't have great common sense, so they make things more complicated than they have to be. I think this was the case with these appliances!
-Jordan Burns
The kitchen is great but Jordan is right, lots of appliances to learn about and they are not simple. The appliances are all Miele except for the refrigerator. We have a steamer oven, which I think will be my favorite once I try it out a few times. You can cook/steam a whole chicken or turkey and of course a lot of fish in it! Marilyn is happy that she knows where the nearest McDonald's is.
-Rebecca

Friday, August 10, 2007

Tropical Storm Pabuk

Tropical Storm Pabuk is the storm that has been pestering us ever since we arrived in Hong Kong. If you click the link below, you can see the path this storm has taken (the red star is Hong Kong). http://www.hko.gov.hk/wxinfo/currwx/tc_prevpos_0710.htm)

-Jordan Burns

The View and Other Stories



Both of these pictures were taken from our 21st floor balcony. The first one with the rainbow was right after the first storm, but that didn't last very long because the storm came back that night. The second picture is of a container ship coming from the South China Sea into Hong Kong harbor. The day the picture was taken of the cargo ship, Marilyn decided to try out the new clothes line. So, she hung up her pants she wore on the airplane and a few other things. That evening we got the outer edge of a typhoon or hurricane. After the storm, Marilyn goes to get the clothes off the clothes line and would you believe it, everyones' clothes were still there except for Marilyn's pants. Moral of the story, don't hang your clothes on the clothes line during a hurricane! Yesterday we were out shopping for pots, pans, plates, and other stuff, and we tried to go into a furniture store, and both escalators were going out of the store. So, we asked an employee why that was and he said because typhoon signal 8 was hoisted so everyone was ordered to go home. So we turned and ran to the MTR or the subway. When we got there, the place was packed. We finally got on the third train. As soon as we got off the MTR, and person came over the loudspeaker and said they were shutting down the MTR. Lucky for us, we were already where we needed to be MTR wise. So, we ran to catch the shuttle bus back to our apartment, but there was a line as long as Texas is wide! When the bus came, they packed as many people on it as possible, and then said there were going to be no more shuttle buses because it was "it wasn't safe." Which all the other city buses were running. After that, we had no other choice but to wait in the taxi line which only about 3 or 4 taxis came over a 2 hour span of time. So, we finally started walking and bummed a taxi to take us home. I hope I didn't bore you guys with our stories. Talk to you guys soon.
-Jordan Burns

Thursday, August 9, 2007

The First Night in Hong Kong




Here we are making our beds/mattress for the first few nights. We have some furniture that is to be delivered today!
Sleep tight everyone and the jet lag will be over soon.
There is a hurricane to the west of us and we are having some storms. The one last night was, to say the least, the wind was so loud that it woke us all up. You get a different view of a storm when you are in a high rise or should I say, it seemed that we were in the middle of it.

Saturday, August 4, 2007

Leaving Charlotte




We have just about everything packed and ready to be picked up tommorrow to head to the airport. We had packers and movers pack and load all of our stuff except for the furniture, whcih will stay in the house until the house sells. My Dad wasn't able to return to the U.S. before we left, so it will just be my Godfather Clay Presley, my Mom, my Sister, and myself on the airplane. Even if my Dad was on the plane, we wouldn't be able to tell because he takes a pill and sleeps the whole time. Our flight leaves around 10:00 a.m., which means we have to be at the airport around 7:45a.m. The combined flying time is anywhere from 18 hours to 21 hours. So it will definetly be along haul. We are having a bon voyage party at Marc and Leann's house with pizza and sodas which was very nice of them. As soon as we get our computer set up, I will let everyone know how the flight went and fill you in on everything that happened. Talk to you guys soon!