Day One – Arrive in Hong Kong

Friday 15 January 2010


1:00pm Fly to Shenzhen
4:0pm Cross border to Hong Kong
5:00pm Ride MTR into the city, get off and search for the Hong Kong Temple (oops… we forgot to print off directions or address!)
6:30pm Finally find Hong Kong Temple
7:30pm Attend Cantonese session (yes, we did eventually find it)
10:00pm Check into hotel

Kiersten: We had been looking forward to this trip for quite some time, knowing that because of time and money constraints, this might be our one big trip while in China. We had spent hours planning and looking up information but somehow we forgot probably the one most important piece of information that we needed- the address to the temple. Aside from renewing my visa, going to the temple was our main reason for even going to Hong Kong. When we stepped out of the subway stop (we at least knew which stop to get off) we all looked at each other and sure enough, no one had thought to write the address down. Well, how hard could it be? We were at least at the right subway stop, right? After wandering for a while and asking people on the street, we knew this was not going to work. Finally, someone did tell us that there was a map posted in the subway station. Feeling discouraged, we made our way back there. But sure enough - there it was! It just happened to be one of the buildings listed. So, in the end we did make it! Definitely a lesson on being prepared, though. I can only imagine our disappointment if we had not been able to find it that evening and missing out on that experience.

Eric: We didn't see much of Hong Kong that first day. Most of it was spent traveling. However, had we already had chance to see all of Hong Kong and everything we later saw in Guilin, I would still pick the same thing as my favorite and most memorable. That is our visit to the Hong Kong Temple. It had been five months since we had been to the temple, and it was five months too long. As I sat in the prayer room prior to our session, I opened the scriptures to D&C 109 and read the first part of the Kirtland Temple dedicatory prayer. “And that all people who shall enter upon the threshold of the Lord’s house may feel thy power, and feel constrained to acknowledge that thou has sanctified it, and that it is thy house, a place of thy holiness.” Those words came strongly to me, as they had in the past, and the feeling in my heart was beyond description. Nothing else in Hong Kong and nothing else in Guilin could compare, and I’m sure from the posts to follow that you’ll see how much I loved those other two. Saturday morning we did another session, this time in English, and the feelings I felt were just as wonderful.

We're back

It has been quite a while since Eric and I have posted anything but we just returned early Saturday morning from a trip where we had very limited access to the internet. We had an amazing time in Hong Kong, Guilin, and several places near Guilin. We definitely didn’t hold back taking pictures and since we want to share as many of them with you all as we can we will be posting about our trip over the next few days. Eric and I are going to be apart the next week and a half with him being gone at an internship workshop up in Qingdao and me here in Nanjing. We both wanted to write about our trip, so the posts will be a conglomeration of both of our thoughts and favorite experiences with us writing from two different places. We’ll see how it turns out. Stay tuned!

Friends and Babies in China

The last few days we’ve been able to have our friends- the Hutchings- stay with us. Justin is in the same program as Eric is but is going to be starting this month at Nanjing University. They flew in from America late Friday night. Remembering how horrible our first night in China was (you can go back and read Eric’s post on that if you want) we did everything we could to help make it a little smoother for them. It’s been fun seeing them experience China for the first time and remembering all of our first impressions. We have really gotten used to things here; I forget that it’s different sometimes! It’s been especially interesting walking around with them because they have a 3 month old baby, Jamie Lynn. Every Chinese person we pass (and you tend to pass a lot of those walking down the streets of Nanjing) stops and stares and then all of the older Chinese ladies feel that they need to make some sort of comment or another to Justin and Jodi. Usually it is that they haven’t piled enough clothes on the baby. The Chinese definitely bundle their kids up- sometimes I have a hard time telling if there is a baby underneath that marshmallow of clothes and blankets. One time I saw a baby in a stroller who was so bundled up that she couldn’t even sit down in the stroller- she was sticking out so far in front of the stroller that it looked like she was standing straight up! I really admire Jodi- she takes all of the swarms of Chinese ladies like a pro.

Anyways, welcome to China Justin and Jodi!!

Hot Pot (火锅)

Last week I experienced hot pot (火锅 - pronounced "huo guo") for the first time. Eric has told me about it every since we first started dating but we had never gone yet together. So we were super excited when Flagship (Eric's program) announced that they would be treating us last week for New Years. (yeah, I am a little behind on posting...) It was so much fun! Except for my qualms about the food safety factor (sorry, I can't help it, that's what all my dietetics classes did to me!) it was great. Usually I guess there is a huge pot in the middle of the table but at this place you choose your flavor of broth which boils on a hot plate in front of you. Then the servers pile plates of raw meat and veggies in the middle of the table. Then the fun begins!



Basically, you choose the meat and veggies you want, plop it in your little hot pot and wait for it to cook. This is where my food safety fears came in- that and the fact that people use the same chopsticks to pick up the raw meat as they do to eat it. But I made myself not think about it (though I did ask for an extra pair of chopsticks) and just enjoyed the experience.

This is Eric cooking some shrimp. Yum!

And these are noodles. Aren't they pretty?!

It was fun being with all our Flagship friends and the food was great!
Happy New Years everyone!

6 Months!!

This may not sound like very long but Eric and I were very excited on Sunday to celebrate our first 6 months of being married. It feels like the time has flown by but it has all been wonderful. It was fun to reflect back over the last 6 months and talk about the things we have experienced together and the things we have learned about each other. Eric definitely kept a lot of his adorable little quirks hidden when we were dating.

We didn't have anything specific planned for our mini-anniversary but it ended up being quite nice. An older couple in the ward invited us over for dinner and cooked us an amazing meal. Then we went to a 'end of semester' program in the evening at a local university where our branch choir was going to be singing Christmas carols. So we got treated to a free concert/magic show/funny Chinese skits in addition to getting lots of free chocolate and fruit. Eric was joking that he arranged it all just for me as an anniversary gift. And then when we got home from that we found that one of Eric's Christmas presents which I had ordered came so I was able to give him a gift and call it an anniversary present.

Aren't anniversaries fun?! Good thing we can have one every month!

A Season of Traditions

Being our first Christmas together, and being that our situation required that we spend it on our own away from family, Kiersten and I have had a wonderful time reflecting on things we love about the Christmas season and traditions that we'd like to start in our own family. Centered among these traditions are the events of Christmas Eve and Christmas morning. Here's what we did.

Christmas Eve was spent simply but enjoyably. Borrowing my sister Brittany's demanded tradition of having a "walk-around dinner", Thursday night Kiersten and I gathered together all of the treats we had made throughout the past month and arranged them neatly on a plate. Added to the arrangement were beautiful loaves of Kiersten's mom's apple-braided bread, a small stash of peanuts and some surprisingly addicting flavored crackers. We ate and shared stories from Christmas' past.
Once we were snacked out, we opened the scriptures to the accounts of Jesus' birth, first reading from Luke, then from Matthew and finally from 3 Nephi. A tradition I have truly appreciated from Kiersten's family is the interspersing of songs and carols as we read the scriptures. I can't say we sang them all, but it certainly seemed to make the moment more special. We then followed a tradition from my family of opening one (predesignated) present on Christmas Eve. We were enthused to find we had received new closed-toed, indoor slippers (with major emphasis on closed-toed). We then ended the night by filling each other's stocking (thank you Mom!) with oranges, peanuts, candy and the unavoidable new toothbrush. Then, it was off to bed.

The next morning (Christmas Day), we woke early to find stockings and presents laid out by the tree. It was a delightful sight. Before rushing to open presents, though, we pulled out a favorite story of ours to read: O. Henry's "Gift of the Magi." Presents were then opened and stockings were emptied, after which we enjoyed a wonderful pre-made breakfast of cinnamon breakfast buns and homemade eggnog.

The rest of the day (and the next morning) was spent talking to family over Skype and enjoying the company of friends, including a wonderful evening of caroling and breaking a piñata in true Christmas fashion. It was a wonderful first Christmas.

At The Track

I have tried to keep up my running as much as possible since we have been here in China. It’s harder since the streets are so crowded during the days with people and crazy drivers. So I was super relieved to find out our first week here that we live maybe half a mile away from the Nanjing University track. I have only recently felt comfortable running on the streets (that’s with waking up at 5 am, the only time the streets are semi-empty), so I have spent most of the weeks here frequenting the track. As do a lot of very unique individuals.

I see the same people pretty much every day. There is the old man who insists on going the wrong way on the track. This drives me crazy! I think he does it so he can pass by all his friends and talk to them. There are some other old men who fly kites every day on the soccer field in the middle. Invariably they will all end up standing in the middle of the track lanes holding their kite- with the string at such a dangerously low level that I have been afraid for my neck at times. Then there are the whole communities of middle aged and older men and women who come out en masse and walk together in a huge block around the track, covering up every lane of course. There are also clusters of people doing Tai Chi in the middle with their traditional Chinese music blaring. Everyone else holds a portable radio as they walk around the track- so music comes from all directions- I pods don’t seem to have quite made it with this crowd yet.

One of my favorite people is this guy who always wears an orange shirt. Besides myself, he is probably one of the youngest there (and he’s got to be at least 30). At 6:00 am it seems that the only people to get up and do exercise are on the other side of 60. So, because so many of the people are considerably older than I on the track, I pass pretty much everyone up. No one seems to mind, except orange-shirt man. When I pass him, immediately he will quicken his pace, pass me back up and run faster for about a quarter-length of the track, and then settle down to his normal pace. Pretty soon though, I have caught up. And I pass him. Again, he speeds up, passes me, and runs faster for a quarter-length. This cycle repeats itself until one of us leaves the track. Every day. It makes me laugh. He just can’t bear to have a girl beat him. Well, at least I’m helping him out by making his workout a little more intense! My second favorite person isn’t there in the mornings- I see him when I happen to run in the afternoons. I have named him ‘German guy.’ No, he is not German; he’s as Chinese as they come. But at seemingly random points in his run, he will shout out German phrases or at least ‘Deutschland!’ at the top of his lungs. At times he will opt for a super loud yell instead of actual words. The first time this happened, I literally was so startled I jumped and almost tripped.

Although I get annoyed at times at these seemingly eccentric people, I have to remind myself that it is me not them who is the odd-one out. This is their track, and Mr. ‘Old-man-who-goes-the-wrong-way’ has probably been doing so for years. So now, I just smile and move aside.