HKG041: Meet Dirk

today was insane. purely insane. completely insane. i left the camera at the apartment this morning, so there are no pictures of the insanity. instead of regaling you with all the mundane details, how about a top 15? even as insane as it was, it was a pretty awesome day.

1. we were four hours late for a school tour today.
2. for the second time since we moved here, i got lost in a taxi. typically, this is impossible b/c the drivers know how to get around. it just so happens that both of the school tours i have done in the last week have been in locations that these drivers are not familiar with. it is a truly powerless feeling to not be able to tell someone where you want to go and have them understand you...and to not be able to talk with them about possible ways to figure out how to get to the destination. i need to start carrying print outs with the addresses in chinese characters...first we have to get a printer :-)
3. getting incredibly lost gave us the opportunity to go to hong kong park today. the kids had an absolute ball covering themselves in sand and sliding on this really cool slide that goes from one level of the park to another lower level. while at this park, i had a great time connecting with an american expat who was very kind and incredibly helpful to me. we will be linking up with that family for a playdate next week, and i am really looking forward to that.
4. we couldn't get any taxis to pay attention to us when we tried to leave hong kong park, so we had to take a detour...a GIANT detour. while on that detour, i took us into a major bank building to find an ATM so i would have cash for another taxi ride (i had used my cash to get a snack and drinks for the kids. you see, i had not planned on getting so incredibly lost and while i had water for them, i had no snacks...they drank all of their water at the park). i approached an information desk in the bank building to ask where an ATM was...i got no more than "excuse me" out before the person working the desk growl-shouted at me and pointed behind me. i just stood there with my mouth hanging open...i had no idea what to do with that for a few seconds...i finally got my wits about me and turned around to go in the direction she pointed in.
5. after finding a circle k where we could get cash, we headed out to a taxi stand. the taxi driver that picked us up from that taxi stand did not know how to get where we wanted to go...didn't know the street.
6. after consulting with his dispatcher, the taxi got us to the area/road we wanted to be on. once we were out of the taxi, we stopped to play at the belcher bay park for a bit before we headed over to the school. the park was AWESOME. it's a beautiful park with plenty of shade trees and all-abilities play equipment. despite being super tired, hot, and sweaty, the kids had a ball there.
7. we finally found the school we were supposed to tour, and even though we were four hours late, they took us on an informal tour, were wonderful to the kids, and were perfectly happy to reschedule us for another official tour next week. one of the people helping us gave quinn a tiny little transformer dude. it was instant love. quinn has named his tiny transformer dude "dirk." discovering this was two parts funny and one part painful; it took several tries for us to understand what he was calling his new toy, and in the process, we made him pretty mad with our not understanding him.
8. google told me there was an indian grocery very near the school we were touring, and while the store is still there, it is now closed. i got some great help from someone at a nearby indian restaurant, and i think i now know how to get the spices i so dearly want.
9. while trying to find the indian grocery, we met a very nice woman with a very sweet welsh corgi. the corgi thought the kids were the best thing ever and was climbing into their laps to kiss them and cuddle with them. this gave about 8 chinese ladies a good laugh, and lord knows we all enjoyed it.
10. we made it home in one piece and while there was no nap, we did settle in for some snacks and a movie for a while.
11. shortly after we got home, i realized that thor is broken. he has stopped working and is throwing error code f-18. my googling has turned up information that indicates this error code is caused by a blockage of sorts....we're still trying to figure this out. i am sad. thor and i have made peace, and i have finally figured out how to actually get laundry done. now we will have to find another laundry solution while we wait for thor to be fixed (it took almost 8 days to get a new bulb in one of our toilets, so i'm not holding out a lot of hope for a speedy recovery for thor. while many things about living in this type of apartment building are really easy and efficient, it seems that household repairs are not).
12. i took the kids down to our playground tonight to blow some bubbles i got for them last night. it was a busy night at the playground, and after playing with the bubbles for a bit, livie ran off to play with some bigger kids.
13. while livie was playing with the bigger kids, quinn was chasing bubbles and was super happy to do so until he got a wild hair and decided to lap up bubble solution from the dish. he looked at me with his cheshire cat grin for about a minute before he started coughing and sticking his tongue out and generally looking unhappy. don't worry...he's okay. hopefully that will be the last time he tries to drink bubble solution.
14. after i got quinn away from the bubbles, i ended up meeting a couple moms that were at the playground...quinn was trying to take their kids' toy, so i was checking with them first. this turned out to be a great thing...both women were very friendly and helpful, and it was great to chat with them while livie was playing with their kids and quinn was stealing their kids' toys (with permission). a couple of the older girls that livie was playing with were super sweet to quinn, telling him how cute he is. his response? "yeah, i cute." he's such a charmer ;-)
15. one of the women i met tonight is from mexico. the other woman is from india. they have each given me great advice on how to find the spices and foods i love sooo much from each of these cultures. wooooooooooooo hoooooooooooooo!