It's hot out!!

Hello all!

As the seasons change, everyone back home is getting excited about warmer weather which usually means days at the beach, grilling and spending nights around a fire with friends. I usually always look forward to the summer as it brings back very fond memories of my childhood on the Mississippi River and many of my favorite activities are done during the summer (outdoor bars, Summerfest, rollerblading, team volleyball, boating...I think you get the idea).

A boater even from a young age

Moving to Hong Kong has sent me into not only a cultural shock but a weather shock. We moved here the end of October which I was told was the best time possible. The temperature was comfortable with the humidity low and the winter was fairly mild, only requiring a light jacket most of the time. The lowest the temperature got to was in the low 50's. As the spring rolled around, the rains came. Monsoon season was in April resulting in days upon days of intermittent rain storms that would hit with no warning. I experienced my first black rain storm, which basically is a heavy down pour where no one leaves their home (literally, no one goes to school or work) until the rain lets up. It was very interesting to compare what rain we were getting here to the floods that were happening back home and how different the people react. As May came around, the humidity started and I prepared myself for what everyone warned me as unbearable heat.

Ahri enjoying the black rain storm

 Well, I think that heat has finally hit. This past week we had unusually sunny skies (I guess blue skies are a rarity here). The temperature was in the 90's and the humidity has been almost as high. I have even gotten warnings through my weather app on my phone for 'very hot weather warning'. This weekend Ryan and I spent most of Saturday outside and I can vouch for it being 'very hot weather'. Ryan was pretty comfortable throughout the day but I do recall telling him multiple times 'I'm dying. It's too hot.'

Hong Kong skyline on a beautiful, sunny day

Hong Kong's newest resident, the large rubber duck, enjoying the warm weather

I've come to grips that I have to get used to it and there is only so much time I can spend in the AC. Ahri and I have started to take our walks to the dog park at night when it has usually cooled down into the upper 80's. My wardrobe has changed to wear mostly dresses and anything that won't visibly show that I am soaked in my own sweat. Oil blotting pads have become my face's best friend to fight that shiny forehead syndrome.

While we may not get to enjoy all of the same things we used to do during the summer in Milwaukee, we are finding more things to fill our weekends while in Hong Kong. We look forward to trips to the many beaches around the Hong Kong Island and the surrounding smaller islands, enjoying the pool in our apartment building and more trips around the area.

We hope the summer weather is treating you all well back home so that you too can enjoy all of your favorite summer activities.

Until next time...

Malaysia Trip

Hello Everyone!

It's been awhile since I've posted anything on here. Ryan and I traveled to Penang, Malaysia last week to spend some time over the Labor Day holiday with a few of his friends/co-workers. We were fortunate enough to have local hosts (2 of Ryan's co-workers are from the area) to take us around and show us everything.

When I asked Ryan and other people who had visited the area what there was to do, everyone said, "Eat," and that is exactly what we did. I wish I would have kept a food journal of the names of everything we ate because we tried so many different things. We tried almost everything there was to try in the time we were there! We ate everything from fried noodles at a road side stand to a full seafood dinner on the river.

Indian breakfast

Spread of Thai food for lunch

Hawker zone full of food stands

Seafood dinner

In between all of our meals we checked out some of the tourist spots in the area. Here is a traveler's tip Ryan has taught me: whenever you don't know what to do for a day or afternoon in an area you're visiting, look up the city on tripadvisor.com and go through the top attractions for the area. I realize this isn't ground breaking news, but it has been how we have planned all of our vacations since we have been here and it is a great help. I also check it out before I book any hotels.

Street art..with a local joining in 

Indian temple

Village on the sea

Tropical Spice Garden

Quick stop at a local beach

Ryan holding a group of giant millipedes

Top of Penang Hill

Indian temple at the top of Penang Hill

Kek Lo Si Temple

Statue of Kuan Yin, Goddess of Mercy

Finding anchors at St. Anne's Church 

Angry, wild monkeys

Jungle trekking 

We had a great time experiencing the local life in Penang and are very thankful for our wonderful hosts! While we were away, Ahri had a great time at a new kennel. They sent us daily photos to let us know she was doing fine. Here are some of my favorites:

And on the day we went to pick her up, we discovered Ahri can swim! They have a few swimming pools at the kennel and the second we opened up the gate to the pool Ahri sprinted towards it and dove right in. Here is a video of one of the later swims as she was too fast to capture the first time.

I am off to China now to meet up with Ryan for a weekend retreat with his work team. I will update you all on our adventures!

Beertopia

Question: How do you meet 5-10 people from Wisconsin, in Asia and all within the same location? 

Answer: Go to a craft beer festival! 

A few months back I was reading about upcoming events in a magazine when I came across Beertopia, a craft beer festival held in Hong Kong. I messaged Ryan about it and without hesitation he told me to buy us tickets. We are big fans of Milwaukee's craft beer festival, Brewfest (highly recommended for anybody reading this that likes beer and is within the area) and were sad we probably wouldn't be able to attend this year. While the craft beer trend in Hong Kong is not nearly what it is in Milwaukee, it is growing steadily. 

So last Saturday, along with Ryan's co-worker and good friend Andy, we made our way down to the waterfront to partake in the 2nd annual Beertopia. We weren't sure what to expect but were very happy with the results. With over 200 different beers to choose from around the world, we slowly made our way through each booth, sampling one or two from each brewer that we were interested in. 

Ryan and I sampling some beer

No better view for sampling some beer

Beertopia in full swing

Ryan was smart and wore his Milwaukee Brewing Company shirt (an intoxicated purchase from last year's Brewfest) which quickly grew attention halfway through the event. Within about 30 minutes we had met 5 people that were either from or had lived in Wisconsin. One guy was even wearing a New Glarus t-shirt from a recent trip back home. At one point, we had all the people from Wisconsin gathered in a group and sharing stories from where we lived, grew up or missed about Wisconsin. Some were just visiting the area while others had been living in Hong Kong for years.

Ryan in his Milwaukee shirt, me in a Sam Adams shirt- representing American beer

Ryan's favorite brewery there, my favorite names of beers

 

The event was broken into 2 sessions, one until 5pm and after that until 11pm. We chose the afternoon one because we didn't want to abandon Ahri all night and we were happy we made that choice. After grabbing some brats and other goodies to soak up the beer, we headed back home to our recovering dog. Ahri was spayed and had 2 teeth removed on Wednesday. She is doing well now and just bursting to get back to the dog park and chase all the other dogs around.

Way too much flour on the buns...but so delicious

Princess Ahri recovering at home

 

 

 

 

 We had a great time meeting new people from close to home and enjoying some great beer. Can't wait until next year!

Logos Hope

Ryan and I recently found a church nearby to attend called Watermark Community Church. It is a fairly new church that was planted off a larger church on Hong Kong Island a little over 2 years ago. After attending our first service at Watermark, I was given information about a women's group that meets at the church's community center near our apartment. I began attending the following week and have been so blessed by the women I have met through it. It is so refreshing to be able to meet so many people that were once in your same situation and are open and willing to help you out in any way. Ryan and I both have been able to meet so many people through Watermark and are looking forward to making friendships with many of them. 

Last week our women's group was invited to board the Logos Hope ship, which was docked nearby on the island. The Logos Hope is a mission boat that travels around the world in order to bring knowledge, hope and help to all the countries it visits. It brings knowledge by housing the world's largest floating book fair. The ship carries more than 5,000 books including cook books, children books and Christian help books. They also carry text books that have been donated by manufacturers that were extras, to be able to donate to developing countries. They bring help to countries by having the crew perform service projects for places in need such as eye exams, dental & medical aid or helping neighborhoods with community service. They bring hope to others through their relationships between crew members and visitors in order to help others build their relationship with God.

The Logos Hope ship

Women of Watermark before boarding the ship

The Logos Hope houses more than 400 unpaid volunteers from over 45 countries. The volunteers can work from any amount of time, depending on the job they volunteer from. Some of the women we met had signed up for 2 years, while others were there for 3 months. The boat normally docks in a harbor for 3-4 weeks before departing to the next destination. In Hong Kong, the ship will be dry-docked for over a month following its time in the harbor for maintenance. During that time, the volunteers can either go home, travel or stay in apartments provided in Hong Kong.

Having fellowship with the Logos Hope women's group

Enjoying time on the ship

Many of the volunteers have families on the ship as well. We were able to look into a couple of the cabins which house a family of 5. The rooms were not as small as I assumed but really made me appreciate our apartment and realize it could be a lot smaller. On board the children go to school under the British School System and are taken off the boat as much as possible for exercise since running is prohibited on the boat for safety reasons.

Read more information about the Logos Hope and other OM International Ships here: 
http://www.omships.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=61&Itemid=278
 

Natalie and I on the ship

It was such a great morning to meet women from around the world who are doing amazing work on the ship to help others. If you ever get an opportunity to board the ship, take it! We hope the women from the Logos Ship enjoyed their time with us as much as we did and hope to see them soon while they are staying in Hong Kong. 

And my weekly photo of Ahri, with her new friend

Ahri update

So I've gotten a lot of questions from friends and family on how our puppy, Ahri, is doing. Currently she is around 5 months old and is growing at a rapid rate! When we got her she was .15 kg and at her last appointment she weighed in at 2.21 kg (almost 5 lbs). She was away during the time we were in Thailand and we she returned I almost didn't recognize her from how much she grew. She is also in the stage of teething so we are dealing with biting, chewing and destruction of our apartment at times.

Her newest milestones is that she can jump up on the couch on her own (had to teach her how to jump down) and is able to sleep in her crate in the living room with the crate open.


She loves to nap in the sun and sit on the window ledge and watch the city life. She recently received all of her vaccinations so we are working on getting her used to going outside and being on a leash. Hopefully she will have her first visit to a dog park soon!

Here are some photos and videos of Ahri enjoying life!

*Adobe Flash Player needed to play videos - sorry Mac users

Little girl sitting pretty 

Ahri trying on her winter coat...and not knowing how to use her legs anymore

Hanging out with her lizard

Ahri's morning and nightly ritual: run as fast as possible until somebody pays attention to her

On her first walk outside...eating leaves and cigarette butts

Tried giving her ice to help with teething but she only knows how to lick it

Ahri trying mint for the first time

Making out with her monkey

Our pretty girl

I promise the next post will be more about our life in Hong Kong but so many people have asked how Ahri was doing...plus, she is more fun to look at than Ryan and I! 

Meet Ahri!

Well, we have a new addition to our family and much to our family's guessing over the holidays it is not human. My Christmas gift from Ryan this year was a small dog to be my companion to keep me company during the week!

We had previously gone to the pet market in Hong Kong before and just window shopped at dogs (who doesn't love doing that!) so we knew we wanted to get a miniature pinscher before we went shopping. We loaded up on dog supplies in the states before we returned as many items are expensive here that we could easily bring back with us. Once we returned, we headed back to the pet market after new years to find our new addition!


There were only a couple of stores that had miniature pinschers to choose from. One had 3 brothers that were all brown which wasn't the type of coloring we preferred. Another store had one small female that was black and tan. After debating between the two types, we chose to go with the small female. She is around 3 months old, small enough to hold in the palm of your hand. Her name is Ahri, a name I picked off a list Ryan showed me from characters from a video game he plays so that we would both be happy.

Photo courtesy of Ryan Smaglik 

The past few days have been filled with cuddles, playing and potty training. She has been doing well so far though she is fighting a cold she caught from being in with other puppies for awhile.

Photo courtesy of Ryan Smaglik

Photo courtesy of Ryan Smaglik

Cuddling