Hong Kong : Day 001

we are here! we arrived in country around 7 in the morning, got through immigration and luggage without a hitch (except that we stole someone else's luggage and left a piece of ours (this turned into a multi-hour deal of josh getting on the phone and then back to the airport to right the wrongs)), and then rode a cab to our temporary apartment. i have to say that sitting in a moving vehicle (80 km/hr) with Q in my lap and both of us belted together...not my idea of a good time. we will avoid cabs as much as we can.

we have spent the day fighting jet lag (4 hour nap!), exploring the area around us, and getting our temporary digs set up. i know that we are spoiled rotten when it comes to our house in pville, but wow did we take that space for granted. the apartment we are currently in is no bigger than the playroom in our house in pville...minus the closet. the space here is delineated nicely...we have 2 bedrooms, a living room, a kitchen, and a small bathroom...it's just that everything is TINY.

we have had fun exploring some stores and restaurants around us. so far, we have not been able to find baby wipes, but we have found a market full of VERY fresh meat, fruit, and veggies. i could do without the meat, but the fruits and veggies look DIVINE. we made sure to get some of that amazing looking fruit.

we are in an area of hong kong called happy valley. it's supposed to be popular with expats, but we have seen very few westerners. i asked josh about that, and he reminded me that the expat population is relative to the very large population in Hong Kong, so seeing around 10 westerners in our explorations today is "normal."

we went to two different parks today, and so far, our very outgoing olivia is being pretty shy. today was a very intense day for her in terms of fatigue and missing her home and friends; she is not on her A game when it comes to socializing today. ironically, Q, who is typically much more shy, marched right up and said hi to a little girl in the 2nd park we went to. hmmm...will be interesting to see how this shakes out.

it's now 10ish something at night here, and we must get the monkeys to bed. considering that every time Q sits still he falls asleep and every time she sits, livie tries to flop over and fall asleep, i think that bed time won't be too much of a challenge tonight. let's just hope they aren't up at 3 a.m. ready to start their day.