michelle's visit

michelle (my sister) came to visit for about 10 days.  she just left today :-/  so i'm taking the opportunity to use all her photos that she uploaded on our computer and post them on here!

we ate dim sum, sushi, mongolian barbecue, and cheap cantonese food

rode the tram to the peak

shopped in the markets

hiked to a beach in sai kung

went to another beach and took a junk boat back to the harbour for the light show.

played ultimate

went to museums (it rained a lot)

took a cruise with grant's 8th graders

watched indiana jones, enchanted, and juno

played a lot of guitar hero

taught michelle cribbage

see what you're missing?  i know you want to visit now!!

Photos in non-chronological order:

**Grant likes Indiana Jones

**On the ferry after hiking to the beach and back

**Out in Sai Kung

**Grant fights Bruce Lee

**Such cute sisters

**There was a comic book exhibition

**under the fountain at HK park

**The Peak Tram

**Waiting for a table at Sushi One.  It's a Lily sandwich!

**Big Buddha

**Grant likes Indiana Jones

i've been meaning to link to this blog

i was introduced to a funny blog by the youthspecialties updates i get each week. this blog is all about "stuff christians like." it follows after the theme of "stuff white people like." this post was the best though:

http://stufffchristianslike.blogspot.com/2008/05/205-frisbee-gods-favorite-sport.html

check it out.

a quick update since it's been awhile

it's been awhile, so i thought i'd throw a few highlights up... i don't have any pictures really, since i'm at work :-D

*in the beginning of April, we went to the states for garret's wedding. garret was the best man in our wedding, and grant's best friend of all his life. it was beautiful, warm, sunny, blue skies, clear air, being able to drive a mazda 3, shop at target, sit at a pool and hot tub, see kathy and scott, celebrate love and weddings, and then make our quick trip back to hong kong.

*grant did the 30 hour famine with his 8th grade students, including an overnight the week we got back. i was only able to be there for a short time, but it was a blast spending the night with the kids! they all seemed to have really been impacted by the fasting and the games they had played.

*confirmation sunday came and went, and was quite awesome. 5 kids were confirmed, after spending about 3 months with mentors from the congregation. grant was a mentor for a cool kid named jannes.this is me and a couple of our kids: olin and jannes (not related! not even the same nationality!!)

*our friend from university, anna, came to visit from china during a long weekend, and we went and watched the olympic torch run through hong kong.

*this weekend, we visited the "billiards house" down the street from our flat. very quiet, somber, and serious pool playing. the guys didn't end up playing pool, but rather a game called "snooker" that's british. crazy.

*michelle comes to visit in 2 weeks!

other than that, it's been a lot of frisbee, church and youth group, grading for grant and getting ready for the end of the year!

our summer plans so far: one weekend trip to shanghai for a tournament, one week mission trip to cambodia, and hopefully a one week vacation trip to phuket, thailand in mid-july.

when i was talking to a friend recently, he pointed out the strange juxtaposition that is life for us (and him, as he is in egypt). on one hand, we have daily life that is no different (really) from what it would have been in the states - hanging out with friends, playing frisbee, and working. on the other hand, our life sounds wild with travels, olympic torches, and becoming accustomed to hong kong. i realized as i walked down a busy road the other day that the abundance of neon lights and people barely fazed me.

the wonders of cambodia

we spent 6 days in cambodia, 3 in phnom penh, and 3 in siem reap (near angkor wat).  

the first half of the trip was to scout the mission trip that we're taking the youth on this summer.  we were able to visit the genocide museum (haunting), and then drive out to the orphanage where we'll be helping paint.

the second half was pure enjoyment :-D

i feel like the Angkor kingdom is one you never hear about in western history - it was big, but not necessarily big enough to learn about.  anyways, they left these massive ruins and temples.  only gods could live in stone and bricks, so there's no buildings left from everyday life.  

for once, grant and i took lots of pictures.  over 400 to be precise.  so, i'm not going to load them into blogger, because it takes FOREVER!!   instead, here's the links to the facebook albums (which are quicker when connected through iphoto! :-D)

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2036224&l=44458&id=40800939

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2036225&l=d485f&id=40800939

easter skies

today as i walked to the ferry for church, i realized that it felt like a new day. besides the fact that the streets were basically empty before 8 AM on a Sunday, something else was in the air.
or rather, was not in the air!
since thursday, it's been grey outside, with threats of rain, low lying clouds, and lots of smog. in short, terrible visibility and dreariness abounded.
but not today.
as i got to the ferry pier, i realized that i could see in perfect clarity the colors of the buildings in every direction as far as the mountains on both kowloon side and the island. it's been awhile since i could see the tops of buildings, or their shapes, instead seeing indistinct forms of what might be buildings.
in short, amazing.

reminded me ofthe easter resurrection, new life, and new creations from the death, despair and dirt of good friday.

may we always live in the resurrection
the promises of life
without forgetting the pains of good friday

he is risen indeed!

observations on hong kong, based loosely out of yahoo! news

for the second or third time this month, hong kong made it into the yahoo! news headlines, which surprised me. generally, american media (digital and print) is heavily concentrated on the states, and on western politics (europe, latin america, things that directly affect the US, in other words). i can't remember reading much about hong kong under the "top world stories" in recent years (then again, I wasn't looking for it). anyways, here's the top 3 things that you would have learned about hong kong from yahoo news in recent days:

1) there was a big scandal with compromising photos being released of some young celebrities. i didn't see them, but i can't imagine they were anything worse than most of the US stuff that gets released "accidentally."

2) there was a flu outbreak. for the record, this massive outbreak has not affected my everyday life. there's plastic over the buttons in the elevator to ease sterilization efforts. that's it. while my heart goes out to the families who did lose children, there have only been 10 cases admitted to the hospital in the past week. that's out of the approximately 7 million people who live in hong kong. don't worry about us, the odds are with us right now.

3) there's now a serial killer on the loose, who has killed 4 sex workers. first, the fact that we use such a euphemism here gives you an idea of the prevalence of such an "industry." i read today that there are approximately 100,000 sex workers in hong kong. that's ridiculous. i understand being concerned about the murderer on the loose, but what's our reaction to the sex industry? nothing. meanwhile, we're up in arms about some photos of some celebs let out online. get real folks!

primary school madness

i think this week is when Grant wishes he were a primary school teacher.

In Hong Kong, there was a flu outbreak at a primary school, with something like 35 kids showing symptoms. one of those kids died. there have been 4 deaths of kids under age 8 from flu like symptoms (and sometimes also other complications). i think the government is pretty nervous because this is the 5th anniversary of SARS, so they're taking extra measures to not let something like that happen again.

first, they closed the school where all the kids were sick.

as of today, every primary school, kindergarten, preschool, and special ed school is closed for the next two weeks. they figure that little kids are impossible to keep hygienic - they touch everything, everyone, and spread germs rather quickly.

i can't imagine being a parent. it's one thing in the states to have an unexpected snow DAY because usually the parents have troubles getting to work as well... but an unexpected two week holiday? there were loads of kids being dragged around the grocery store today, out playing basketball, etc.

very strange, very strange indeed...

the story of my life

isn't that the truth?

for more fun garfield comics, minus the garfield (thanks for the link lily!) check this site:

http://garfieldminusgarfield.tumblr.com/

free chatting

hey!

just a quick reminder... if anyone has a microphone or a camera on their computer, we can talk over the internet for free...

www.skype.com

our username is grantandkristin :-)  just add us to your contacts if you add skype!

45,000 HKD

45,000 HKD was the goal for the 30 hour famine. not entirely an arbitrary number. It takes very near to 3,000 HKD to feed a child for a year through World Vision. My goal was to have 15 kids from our youth group participate in the 30HF this year. 15x3,000= 45,000.

The deal was that if they raised that money, I would dye my hair the color of their choice. We're well over that amount, and they haven't all turned in their money.

So I went to the hair salon today to uphold my end of the deal....

a very long 30 hours

This past Friday-Saturday, we joined 20+ kids from church in doing a 30 hour fast to raise money for World Vision.  Most of them didn't think they could do it, and I think they were surprised that they could.  They ate breakfast before school, and then came to church in the evening to spend the night til lunch on Saturday.  We started off with some board games, and then went into opening worship, welcome, and a short quiet time.

**twister is a popular game**

**doing a devotional**

There's a lady at our church, Debbie, who works for a Christian charity called Crossroads International.  Crossroads collects unwanted goods from Hong Kong and ships them around the world - furniture, clothes, toys, you name it.  They also run simulations to teach about world poverty, so she did that for us at the church.  This simulation was based on a true story of a family in India who makes a living making paper bags.  The family groups had to make enough paper bags to pay for food and rent each week, while facing medical problems, etc.

**a family group making paper bags out of newspaper, and glue (flour and water)**

**Grant was Mr. Deepahdebt - the loan shark who lived under the bridge**

The rest of the night we wrote letters to students in the Philippines whose education is sponsored by our church, played "Romans and Christians," did a short quiet time, and then a midnight candlelight worship service (don't look at the carpet in the sanctuary anymore...)

In the morning, we had a prolonged quiet time, and then some time for just hanging out - scrabble, chess, jenga, and slacklining...

**Olin (a high school student) owns a slackline - something similar to a tightrope, so he taught and spotted a bunch of the kids**

We then broke into groups for a photo scavenger hunt around various sites in Hong Kong.

**one group at the "cataract"**

**The Peak Tram in the background**

**another "waterfall" photo

When we returned, we had enough time to clean up, do some reflection, and prepare for lunch.  Before lunch, a pastor from another church came to lead the kids in some worship time, as well as communion as a way to break the fast.  It was both meaningful and difficult - meaningful because he really had them thinking about sacrifice, the blessings of food, and Christ's love; difficult because they sat around the lunch table (with food on it) while he talked to them!

**chowing down on pasta, rice, fruit, veggies, chicken, and dessert!**

**some of the kids who "survived"**

Overall, my prayer for the weekend had been for kids to really meet God during the fasting - after all, that's the true reason why we fast.  As I was looking through some of their reflections, it seemed like some of them were starting to really get to know God - a very cool thing.  One outward sign that I noticed was their willingness to step outside of their comfort zone and actually sing during worship :-)  We don't do worship (musical) that often during our youth group times (mostly because i don't play an instrument or lead worship), so it's something very uncomfortable for many of them.  It was really neat to see them go from not singing AT ALL on Friday evening, to being willing to sing (almost loudly) on Saturday afternoon.  I know that's just an outside sign, but at least it's comfort with worshipping together.  Another cool thing - I have a student who is very puzzling to me.  Some times he's a real punk, and sometimes he's really a cool kid.  He's loud, so he's either misbehaving or contributing really well.  This morning at church, we arrived in between the 2 services, and he was leaving from the 1st service (traditional worship), and told us he'd already gone to church.  I assumed that a) his parents were there for something else, or b) he had been told he had to go to church if he wanted to go out with friends.  Interestingly, his family wasn't at church at either service so it seems like that was his own choice!  

Another cool thing is that the kids really outdid themselves fundraising, and the church really showed its willingness to give to the youth for something like this.  We (I) had set our fundraising goal at HK 45,000 - enough to feed 15 kids for a year (approx.).  At the moment, I haven't counted it all, and the kids haven't turned in all their money, but we're looking at near HK 50-60,000 that will be donated to World Vision.  

Actually, the real reason the kids were so gung-ho about raising money (except for maybe 2 of them), was because I gave them outside incentive... If they raised HKD 45,000, I told them I would dye my hair whatever color they wanted....

the next post will be photos of my hot pink hair.

I'm super thankful to God for the whole weekend - 

-all the adults who brought food, led worship, stayed the night, came for bits and pieces

-kids bringing friends who were (whether they wanted to or not) introduced to a side of God that loves and cares for everyone in the world

-the whole weekend went rather smoothly, and it was my first "big" event that I'd ever had to do on my own

-the Holy Spirit's strong presence at the midnight worship and the Communion break-fast

Praise God :-D

a February vacation

a great thing about working in Hong Kong is public holidays. there are a lot of them. Christmas, New Year's, Easter, plus a bunch of religious festivals, and then, the best yet, Chinese New Year - 3 days off for everyone. (and more if you're a teacher). in December, we found out that 3 of the teachers grant works with and a teacher from another school were going to Boracay in the Philippines for the holidays, so we decided to go with them. Boracay has an amazing reputation for white sand beaches, so we thought that sounded pretty perfect in February. And how it was...

the good things:
*great food and eating on the beach
*playing Scrabble and reading on the beach
*playing beach ultimate with the Boracay team
*sunny weather
*snorkeling and lots of fish!
*jonah's fruitshakes
*hanging out at the other girls' hotel
*very minimal sunburns for both of us!

the bad things:
*our hotel room. i suppose we only paid $30 a night, but still... a sink would have been nice, as well as a seat on the toilet bowl! at least things seemed clean, if not comfortable.
*both of us catching colds - how does that work?! luckily we're both nearly over them.

I think the good outweighs the bad... here are the photos:


This is the boat that took us from the island where the airport was to Boracay


we booked a boat to go snorkeling, but they stopped off at a little island first, where we had to pay (of course) to see some caves. there were also some random statues of bulls. I don't know why, but the natural thing to do is ride the bull, right?
this was the stairwell in and out of the caves
grant and the weird statue man
inside one of the caves


an accurate representation of how we spent our time (that's a great book, by the way)


the water is the same color as a pool would be!


I thought this picture looked like one of the backgrounds they would give you as a default on your computer


the 5 girls on the trip - 4 teachers and me!


sunset!


at night, local families would make intricate sand castles and creations. taking a picture basically meant giving a donation.

whoops...

sorry it's been awhile! grant started a post after vietnam, but blogger wasn't working too well, so it never got posted (perhaps it will come another day). until then, here's a photoblog of our trip to Vietnam and the tournament, some January fun, and Steven's visit and our daytrip to Macau :-)


grant and the fruit shakes - he averaged 2-3 a day... not a huge expense at $.60 each!


a plane from the vietnam war


on the boat tour with our cool hats :-)


the tiny cu chi tunnels. the village of cu chi was near saigon, and the communist army built these tunnels to hide and fight the south. very interesting!


our royal blue team at the hat tournament... too bad we lost a lot!


however, grant scored the most points of anyone in the tournament!


teena lee, the sister of an ICS teacher, came to visit!!


a cathedral and art museum in macau


Jesus was put in a box!!


grant, me and steven in front of the st. paul's ruins. once a nice church and school, there was a fire, leaving only the stone facade.


in macau, i guess they think you can make your pets use one toilet only.


a close up of the sign


look! we're in venice! Or, a few thousand miles away...the venetian casino in macau is THE place to go right now, so we did too!


massage chairs at the ferry terminal! that's what i like to see...


at a pub in HK, watching the AFC playoff games... think he can fit it in his mouth? yes he can!


It's been freezing in Hong Kong - and you might laugh, but it's true. the temps have barely gone over 50 in the past two weeks, and it's been drizzly and misty and gray. oh, and there's not great heat in any building, so space heaters are our best friends. however, i love walking through hong kong park, because they've planted loads of flowers!! beautiful warmth in the middle of the dreariness. I also get a kick out of laughing at all the people getting their wedding portraits done - a pitying, "boy i'm glad i'm not you" kind of laugh...



so, this week, it's chinese new year - the biggest holiday here. someone said, "it's like thanksgiving and christmas rolled into one." we decided to head somewhere warm with some of the other teachers... boracay, here we come! (white beaches, snorkeling... i'm excited)

Merry Christmas!

We've had a few friends send us e-Christmas cards, so this one is for all our family and friends! :-)

http://www.elfyourself.com/?id=1636791566

watch the nice dance steps we learned!!

snowballs grow into avalanches

our white team started as the underdogs - all new to HK ultimate leagues, not knowing each other, and looking pretty weak...especially with a name like "snowball." (i still think of white furry kittens).
after our first game 12 weeks ago, we looked like we would fit that name.
then we became snowmen (we got to graduate) when we beat red soundly...
but when a snowball gets going, it quickly turns into an avalanche :-)

and we avalanched our way into the finals last night, playing against the only team that's beat us! (3 times out of 4...) sadly for them, we weren't a snowball or snowpeople. 15-4 baby!!

grant and i loved our white team - what a great introduction to HK ultimate with awesome people. we didn't yell at each other, our captain was encouraging (in his own cynical way), and we made some great friends. alas, the beauty that is avalanche will never be again!

*soon to come, a team photo from the finals...

an expensive mistake...

grant left for indonesia monday morning!! pray for him - he's in a remote island with 17 middle schoolers: 14 boys, and 3 girls... yikes. they get back friday night at 10:45.

i went with grant to the airport on monday morning, since i didn't have to work. we got up, rushed out the door to the bus, stopped at the ATM for money - for his trip and my shopping date with katie (a youth intern at another church). we were the second to last of the group to arrive at the airport (the 3rd teacher was the last). i hung out at the airport for about an hour, then hopped on the hourlong busride home (with some burger king)... called steven wilco and talked for awhile... then called john unrath on the last leg of the trip. i got back to my flat and sat outside to finish my conversation with john. then, i needed to be leaving to go see katie, but i wanted to drop some stuff off and desperately needed the restroom (diet coke on a busride does that to you).

take the lift up to our flat... dig through my bag. twice. no keys. ahhhh!!!! grant locked the door, and i pushed the elevator button when we left.

so i had to communicate this error to the security guard who spoke very little english, and i eventually got pointed to the locksmith near our building. they sent someone with me up to my flat - and it was supposed to be $150. sure, fine, whatever -the only set of keys available are in indonesia! then he sees the grate on the front of our door and says, nope 200 for that lock. ok, sure, no big deal.
he picks, fiddles, etc with the lock, and finally gets the grate open. the lock we use on our front door is the deadbolt. he looks at the deadbolt and tells me that it's a computerized key, and i'll have to get a new lock. ok, sure, i really need to get in, whatever works!!! he proceeds to get a screwdriver, hammer, and wrench out of his bag and completely demolish the lock and pull it off the door. i was so glad to see my keys on the kitchen table (i was semi-afraid i'd dropped them somewhere). then i find out it's $800 for the whole situation! $400 to open the door, and $400 for the new lock... well, i had to say yes. luckily, i had $770 in my wallet (remember the atm trip?). he didn't take credit card, but he said that 770 was fine.

what a great beginning to a day...

at least i got to go shopping!! katie and i went to the markets in mong kok and stanley - i finally got new jeans: 15USD for a pair of American Eagle jeans, and 9 USD for an Abercrombie sweater. oh, and some xmas presents. plus some fun hangout time with katie (a new friend:D)

a couple additions

yay grant made a post!

a couple things in recent times -
we spent last weekend in manila at another frisbee tournament. it's fantastic to find relatively cheap flights to places that are really warm and sunny (ie sunburns!!). our hong kong team only took 8 people (which is pretty brutal), but we picked up 5 when we got there, and we had a great time. Overall, we got 9th... but we won 5 out of 6 games :-) it was just a blast to hang out with frisbee kids, play some good muddy ultimate, and get some sun. (grant fell asleep at saturday dinner).

contrary to popular belief, we actually do a lot of things other than frisbee :-)
we're involved in a small group on tuesday nights with (mostly) other ICS teachers - and that's been fantastic. we've been working through 1 John this year using a study guide, rotating who leads the discussion. it's just nice to get togehter with other people our age, in similar positions of life, and talk about spirituality and faith. good stuff.

youth stuff has been alright - trying to spend time wth kids outside of church (sometimes easy, sometimes not). painting was (mostly) successful last night, so my office/youth room is now orange (with one white wall with handprints). it livens it up a bit.

and it's the weekend! so we're off for groceries....

painting turkeys

hey family and friends!

it's about time that i post to this site again. it's only been a couple of months or so. :)

updates...
krisitn and i have now been in hong kong for about 4 months.
marriage is great! - full of fun, things to learn, a few down times here and there, lots of conversation, and much teamwork.

school is also well. in case you forgot, i'm teaching 8th grade algebra and bible. the kids are mostly hard-working, and we've been able to have some fun in class. i coached the U14 soccer team, and when it was done, i moved right into the U14 basketball season. unfortunately, the soccer team was much more successful than the basketball team thus far.

coming up in just a couple days, i'm leaving the country. i'm taking a group of 17 kids to indonesia for a week to do service projects and missionary work! there are two other teachers coming along, and we're pretty pumped. if you take a moment, i'd much appreciate some prayers for our safety, growth, and group cohesion.

before i leave for indonesia, kristin and i have been busy preparing for youth group tonight (friday, 24 nov). the kids are coming to the church to paint the youth room and bring some life to its walls! we moved furniture, cleaned, and whitewashed one of the walls where the kids are going to do handprints.

finally, kristin and i decided to celebrate a little thanksgiving in hong kong. fortunately, i received the day off and the rest of hong kong did not. it made for a great day trip to an island called cheung chau. we took an hour-long ferry and occupied our time playing cribbage. thankfully, we weren't hassled for "gambling." once we docked, we hiked around, explored a "cave," checked out some temples, and had some delightful seafood on the harbor-side. i'll post a few pictures.

well, i did it.
i made a post.
hope you're happy.
now go play outside.

love you,
grant

ps, kristin and i are now addicted to boggle, another wonderful word game. rest assured though - we still find much joy in scrabble. :)

frisbee tournament pictures from janice

as i promised, a few pictures from the tournament. these are from janice's camera - i took a few, and she took the rest. not as many action shots, but they're hard to catch


aww.... it's a frisbee couple!


grant, paulie, toby, and guy. paulie and guy were fantastic captains for the star fairies, and guy does a great job with white team during the league!


the star fairies!


Junk huddle


Kenny and Grant have secret handshakes


kristin on defense


our junk captain calling a play against singapore


this is when paulie (the star fairies captain) and tim (the junk captain) got in a fight about rules and started yelling at each other in the middle of the HK showdown between our two teams.... it was awkward....

i've become a warm blooded creature...

fall is upon us, even here in hong kong.

last week, the highs were about 28-29C (do your math folks - multiply by 5/9, then add 32. it will be good for your brain!) so it was quite warm, but about average, and at least it wasn't going into the 32-33 range!

all of a sudden this week it took a 10 degree plunge, and the high for the past two days has been 19C. The low last night was even 14!

now, if you're following along with me and doing your math, you'll realize that this is quite moderate - by no means cold.

people in hong kong have broken out their thick jackets, warm scarves, and sweaters (or jumpers, if you're British). and me? i've got long sleeves and a denim jacket today. what am i going to do when winter hits? ;-)

love you all!