New Year's resolution

My New Years resolution is to work on this blog thing at least once a month - but I'm not going to start it until Chinese New Year so I have some time to take pictures and the like.

Stay tuned....

Every man for himself

One of the best things about being in this part of the world is that a lot of the ultra-conservative safety measures that are in place in the US have not yet made their way to Asia. From what I can tell, this is not a lawsuit-driven culture, so things that are questionably or even clearly dangerous are generally still open to the public. Nearly every visitor who steps foot in our apartment is shocked to see that at 26 floors and up a hill, we have no screens on our windows. We have witnessed behavior that would cause entire terminals to be shut down in the US, been on flights that have taken off with no safety announcement and had people standing in the middle of the aisles arguing with the flight attendants about seat assignments. My sister and I walked in and out of passport control/customs in Laos probably 4 times each going to the ATM and on one trip home from Mumbai, John, along with a group of people, continually walked in and out of security then on to the tarmac, right next to the plane to pull luggage off.


John and I have grown accustom to a lot of the behavior, but I still haven't really gotten use to the construction sites. I have come to believe that there are no rules regarding the safety of construction workers.
Most do not wear shirts, some wear sandals and it's completely normal to see a worker with a welding device, no goggles, sparks flying everywhere, sans shirt and a cigarette hanging from his mouth working on the sidewalk. It is your personal responsibility to watch out for what he is doing and it is the workers responsibility to not blow himself up. No one else. There is nothing to warn you that some may be brandishing an open flame, no barricades, no apparent or obvious safety equipment. You just have to watch out. I took these pictures this morning of a "normal" HK working environment -- there were even some I couldn't get good shots of that were equally as crazy.









Rather than metal scaffolding, here they use bamboo stalks. They bind it together with plastic rope and some person has to put it all together manually. It's terrifying to watch

So that's why...

I'm sure nearly all of you have noticed the small things in different places you've visited -- bad translations to English, different street signs, just very small things that you notice, but are close enough to what you're use to that you get the point.

Here in Asia, especially in Hong Kong, I've noticed that nearly all of the public warnings or announcements are not only telling you what to to, but also why you should (or shouldn't) do something. I first noticed it when I went to the grocery store and there was a constant announcement going on about washing fruits and vegetables so that you don't get sick and you feel better and enjoy food. I thought, that's weird --doesn't everyone know to wash stuff you get from the store? Especially a store in China? And how to they know I'm going to enjoy it more? What if it tastes like crap?

The grocery store is always pushing items claiming not that it is better, or improved or healthier -- but that it will make you enjoy life more, or make you happier, or your day more harmonious. Very strange.



Either way, John and I have taken some pictures of signs we thought were funny -- so just so obvious and detailed that we couldn't believe that a public warning was needed.

This one is telling you about dog poop - In the US it's usually a simple "Clean up after your pet" or "Curb your dog". Here, they're actually getting into the whole act of it.




This one is posted outside of the Pearl Tower in Shanghai. Rule #1 states, most importantly that "The raggamuffin, drunken people and psychotics are forbidden to enter the Tower"

This one is showing what happens to you if you've never thrown food at birds, or seen someone else do it


These are just some other ones that we thought were really unnecessary, or obvious.

Like -- lock your doors when you leave....

Look behind you before you cast a fishing pole into the gross South China Sea (now ironically, here is where a warning about actually washing and eating the fish would have maybe been of some value)

Don't really listen to the fortune tellers on the streets of Kowloon. The funny part is that they say not to be "easily fooled" by the religious street scams as opposed to really difficult to fool

Catching Up

Hola amigos. It's been awhile since we've rapped at ya, but things here have been a little crazy. We've had a steady stream of visitors since Aug 9 and just haven't had a chance to sit and work on the blog.

First we had my parents here for two weeks right as the Olympics were beginning. We then had John's sister Mary for two weeks as well. We've also had my sister, Christine, staying with us since the beginning of August.

We've had a great time and managed to squeeze a couple side trips. John and Mary were off to Cambodia and then the 4 of us met up in Luang Prabang, Laos.

But back to catching up.....

Here is what we have been doing for the past two months

Katie's parents and sister came to visit --

Katie, her mom and sister Christine went to the Equestrian Olympic events that were taking place in Hong Kong. The USA won gold!!

The city was invaded by Fuwas (the Olympic mascots)

And the whole family survived another Typhoon day

After 2 weeks of the Andry's, mom & dad went back to LA and Christine stayed behind to spend some more time in Asia.

A week after Katie's parents left, John's sister Mary, came to visit for 2 weeks. One week was spent in HK

Here's Mary trying out her bargaining skills

John & Mary at a typical market shop

They also managed to get a very unflattering picture of me -- people ask me if I seem tall in HK, and I really didn't think I was taller than most, but I was standing in line to buy a subway ticket and I guess I am a little taller than most of the people here...

After a week in HK, Mary and John headed over to Cambodia and then a couple days after that Christine and I met up with them in Luang Prabang, Laos.
More on that in the next post.....(I promise it won't be 8 weeks from now)

Adult Snow Day!!! (kind of)

John and I are experiencing what I can only describe as the adult version of a snow day (I never got these types of things growing up in Southern California - but once we got a few days off of school from flooding rains and the LA riots, so I get the idea).

Today we woke up to this warning:


NO. 8 NORTH-EAST GALE OR STORM FORCE SIGNAL
Here is the latest Tropical Cyclone Bulletin issued by the
Hong Kong Observatory.
The No. 8 Northeast Gale or Storm Signal is in force.
This means that winds with mean speeds of 63 kilometres per
hour or more are expected from the northeast quarter.


Basically what this all means is that work is cancelled! There are various storm warnings here in HK, but the magic number is 8 - you need at least a Typhoon 8 to get out of work, and we hit that at 5:00 am this morning. It was awesome. Now all I need is for it to stay this way all day --there is this rule that if they take down the Typhoon 8 signal and it is still during regular business hours, you are required to report to work (talk about a buzz kill). For the moment, I'm sipping my coffee slowly, watching TV and not planning on getting out of my pajamas......

***Afterward by John***
Very happy that the weather cooperated and gave us a Typhoon 8. Katie was literally the most excited I've ever seen her the whole night before at the prospect of it. She was checking the weather every 5 minutes and charting the storm's trajectory. If the Typhoon 8 didn't come through, she would have been devastated. DEVASTATED. The whining would have been intolerable. Luckily Typhoon 8 lasted all day.

Funny Website

I know most everyone knows about the website www.someecards.com, but I tell you - whenever I'm bored or need to laugh, I just go and look at some of the sarcastic e-cards....like this one.

Butt Pants

This picture is not a joke.

John and I had heard of this phenomenon prior to our trip to Beijing from my sister who's friend was studying there. She said, "Katie, the kids have pants with the crotch part open and they just squat where ever they are". AND IT'S TRUE!

These pants are worn on most kids in the 2-3 age range around mainland China. And it is completely normal to see a kid with these pants on being carried on some one's shoulders.

What I don't get is how there are not a ton of "accidents". Presumably, if the child is wearing these pants, they're not yet old enough to tell you that they need to go to the bathroom, then why would you place them on your shoulders? These people are nuts.

Regardless of the teaching methods used with these pants, it provided me with hours of immature entertainment. It was almost like playing that driving game where you hit the person next to you when you see a yellow beetle -- Every time I saw a kid I was looking to see if they had these butt pants on and if they did, I was all excited for some reason.