Holiday Aftermath

Last week I was down south in Hong Kong, but this week we're all back in action in Shiyan. I had an incredible week of food and sights. Derek, Angelyn, and I left here on Thursday and spent a great 10 days traveling, tasting, watching, hiking, shopping, gambling, talking, reading, and playing. One day we caught a turbo ferry (sounds more exciting than it actually is) over to Macau, which is only an hour from Hong Kong. Hong Kong was leased by the British for about 150 years, but Macau was leased by the Portuguese for about 450. There was some really cool Portuguese architecture throughout Macau. The most noticeable feature of Macau from where we got off the ferry was the casinos. You walk around the corner and there's a long row of casinos, including one that looks like a big volcano. Vulcania! I kind of felt like I was at Disneyland. We did make a stop at the Sands Casino, but we spent the majority of our time walking around trying to make sense of the place. There was a lot of excitement at one Baccarat table, but I don't know how to play Baccarat so I wasn't sure why it was so exciting. After getting thoroughly confused by the 20 cent slots, I went over and proved that I'm mediocre at roulette. After losing my predetermined amount, I vowed to one day return to the Sands to retrieve my money and we made our way back to Hong Kong. We spent the majority of our time in Hong Kong walking or reading. I was worried that all the food we were stuffing ourselves with was going to have a negative effect on my figure, but I think I actually came out ahead thanks to all the hiking and walking and mountain climbing we had to do to get around. HKG actually has a lot of mountains, don't go unprepared. Because I know you're all going to go sometime. I've got lots of pictures and stories to tell, but I think right now I should focus on the class I have to teach this morning. I'm actually going to put up the pictures this time, too. I am!