Friday, February 20, 2009

the mundane

i've had a realization lately that nearly all of our posts revolve around somewhere we've recently travelled. i can't deny that we've been incredibly blessed financially since we moved to hk. both of us have steady salaries, and very few expenses or debts (darn school loans!). we end up travelling a lot, and then we post about our travels, because those seem like the most interesting parts of our lives.

and recently, i've become really sensitive to the fact of how unusual this is - we travel about once a month, and we love it. but the truth is that most of you who read this blog are living in the states where unemployment is rising, recession is really hitting hard, and finances aren't as loose as ours are right now.

it makes me wonder if we're insensitive for posting frequently about all these great places?
in truth, this blog started as a way to keep our family and friends updated about our lives as we started off life in hong kong, a new culture, another continent, another way of life. now we've been here for approaching two years (1 year, 7 months), and the novelty and shock has worn off.

since the novelty has worn off, writing about daily life feels less interesting to us. ferries, taxis, subways, double decker buses are ways of transport and life for us. seeing skyscrapers is expected. an 11th floor, 558 square foot apartment is home. we go to work, we play frisbee, we hang out with friends, we sleep, we eat. life in hong kong settles into a routine, and, in many ways, is not so different from a life we'd live in the US.

for instance, i went to outback for lunch with our friend anna who lives and works in china. she was visiting hong kong to get her visa renewed.
outback, lunch with a university friend who's passing through, catching up on life stories. all normal occurences in our lives.
visa runs, maybe different.
at this point, i think we focus on our travels in our blogging because they are the new, the novel, the exciting, the interesting spices in our lives.

in short, i apologize if writing about travels seems insensitive in these economic times. i apologize if you've wanted to hear more about our daily lives. if you let us know that, we can try to work harder at sharing those events.

Thursday, February 5, 2009

chinese new year 2009

it's the year of the ox... my year baby!

to celebrate, grant and i left gray, smoggy, chilled hong kong for boracay island. here's the island from the plane. we were hanging out in the narrow strip in the middle, but on the farther side from this angle. google boracay, and i believe it's one of the best beaches in the world.


to get there, we flew to manila, then caticlan, then took a boat across the channel to the island...

so i forgot to rotate the picture before uploading... oops! here's one of the really good sunsets.

while we were there, we got to hang out with laura van't land, who's in the peace corps near-ish to boracay. go valpo!!

we also did a lot of skimboarding (so fun!!), sleeping in, laying on the beach, reading books, cribbage, drinking fruit shakes, and eating big dinners. what a life. back to the grind now!