Leisurely Weekend

Saturday was spent getting acquainted with the neighborhood and getting things organized at home. We went and visited the local supermarket. After getting out of our complex, it can be reached by walking a couple blocks and then down roughly 15 flights of stairs or cutting through another building and taking its elevator. On the way down we used the stairs, on the way up we took the elevator. Shopping in Hong Kong is different than home. Many of the items I love are expensive over here and I think my diet will be pretty basic the next few weeks when I’m not eating out.

I woke up this morning at 3:15am and couldn’t get back to sleep. Obviously my jetlag issue is not disappearing quite yet. I went to the Victoria 1st Branch (ex-patriot) which started at nine and it was enjoyable. Over half the congregation is gone for the summer and there are a fair amount of guys left to work while their families go play in the States (like my boss). Elder Hallstrom came up to me and chatted for a few minutes and afterwards I had to introduce myself to Elder Garn to pass along all the greetings from Mesa I was asked to extend. This being around General Authorities thing is a little strange but I’ll be going to wards I served in as a missionary the next month so Sundays won’t be a worry.

My boss serves as the Branch President in one of the Filipina branches over here so he’s busy all day (still not home at 9pm as I write this). I walked home for the first time in Hong Kong and enjoyed being back out among my peeps. For a while I even walked along one of my street contacting routes. Foolishly I decided to take the 15 flights of stairs back up to our building (in long-sleeve shirt and tie) and was dripping in sweat by the time I made it to our complex. The weather hasn’t been overly hot since I’ve been here (80s, maybe hitting 90) but it has been really rainy and muggy (I haven’t seen the sun yet in Hong Kong). Things are supposed to clear up Wednesday and then I’ll try to start taking more pictures. All in all, I am still loving being back in Hong Kong and think the next six weeks are going to be wonderful.

Pictures are of the Hopewell Center. It is the building a couple blocks down the road we can take the elevator in as a shortcut. The next picture is of the view from our living room window. We don't have a view of the Peak or Victoria Harbor, but we can look nearly due East towards Causeway Bay and Happy Valley. I like it because I covered those areas and spent lots of time walking amongst the tall buildings you can see. Finally, the last picture is looking down from the same window at one of Hong Kong's crazy mountain roads.