Ni Hao. Wo hen hao.

We went on a sweet adventure on Monday.... We went to the immigration tower to apply for my Hong Kong permanent id card (just a technicality, don't worry we aren't staying permanently).  And then we handed in our passports for a few days to get visas to go to Mainland China. We're also trying to plan our trip to Japan, which I am super stoked about as we are going for "koyo" which is the autumn celebration of the leaves turning red.  So we will get a fall after all, and we'll be there for my birthday too!  

Anyways, continuing on, since we were in Wanchai we just wandered around, like we do in most neighbourhoods that we end up in.  Here are a few shots!

~Uncle Rocca!~

~Uncle Rocca needed a haircut, it turned out to be one of his longest ever... and one of his best! (This is the before picture) ~ 

~Rolls Royce that looks as though it's a taxi, the paint job is a shame~

~I dig that my skin matches the brown seat that I'm on... (sarcasm) ~

~ Our first time on a tram, so much cheaper, and we're not ever in a hurry! ~ 

~We're still a bad influence even from the other side of the world!  This is one of our favourite things, chatting w/ family... especially Mr. Prycen! ~

 We went wake boarding again on Tuesday w/ the Lews and Smiths, it was a lot of fun.  Lockey helped one of the kids to do his first tantrum, so that was cool, and the girls were getting some air... as for me, well I got up on a wakeboard for the first time in 2 years (and remembered why I like skiing much better!)  But it was fun to be out in the bay, and of course Lockey did all his moves like it was nothing, but the salt water and slight chop is way different than being on a glassy lake in Montana!   

Afterwards we went on a hike that Gary Lew recommended for us, and it was beautiful, clear skies so we could actually see the view... the whole time... because we were exposed the whole time, it's just a lot of bushes and shrubs!  So this is Lockey putting on sunscreen, we did a whole photo shoot of it, but this was the winner. 

~we saw several different city views, and they were all amazing! ~

~This plaque was on the trail, it's interesting, you should read it! ~

~ Oh so many stairs... the trails are all super well maintained, and there are millions of stairs, Lockey and I went somewhere around 17 Km ~

There is a HUGE spider in this picture, almost right in the middle... can you see it?  Unfortunately I couldn't do my spider stance as it was above me and it would probably have eaten my face! ~ 

 After our hike we were spent!  We went home and had a nap, and then got up and decided to try the dim sum place around the corner from us... dim sum literally means "snack"  so you get little appetizer sized dished, like tapas.  it's awesome, and in this picture I am REALLY excited about my BBQ pork bun... I heart carbs... it's a terrible thing!  And then there is eggplant w/ a teriyaki type sauce, and we had dumplings and wontons, and glutinous rice cake w/ red bean, and gluteus rice ball w/ black sesame filling... so delish and cheap, and just around the corner... We'll be back!

And as for the title of this post...  Ni Hao means "you good"... this is the mandarin greeting, it replaces Hello.  If you are asking if someone is good, you say "ni hao ma"?  which means "you good"?  "Wo hen hao" means "I very good". No need for "am" or "are" in mandarin! 

So I have now been to 2 mandarin lessons, and the language is very difficult, I have said before that it's like a song that my voice doesn't want to sing.... but I'm improving.  I have 4 more private lessons (I got a groupon!)  so we'll see how I do... perhaps we'll put a video up once I've mastered how to say "I'm called Cami". ha.  But I am enjoying learning, and coming home and showing off to Lockey what I've learned.  

Lockey actually tells me about some of the things he's learning in class too (he's taking Basic Chinese Law), today he was telling me about some things about Chinese law, it's interesting, and bizarre.... Perhaps he can write a bit about it in his next post! 

Oh also The last couple of days I've gotten up at 6:45am to go running just to beat the heat.  It's only 4 or 5 degrees Celsius cooler, but it actually makes a big difference!  And the trick is that you need to go to the harbour first and then run hills, b/c if you do it the other way around the sun starts shining on the harbour and it gets HOT!  today when we were running past one of the ferry entrances and a bus stop... you know, where there were actually plenty of people around I ate it... ya, thought maybe I could catch myself... I didn't.  I ate it, and didn't look at anyone except for Lockey as he offered me his hand and then kept running... I'll be watching my step on those brick walkways a little more closely, only for embarrassments sake! 

Plan for the weekend: Madame Tussauds ( I read a historical fiction book about Madame Tussaud during the french revolution, but it would probably still be entertaining even w/out the background!)

And probably another hike on Saturday.  Perhaps it will be a cooler day.