Living in Hong Kong was not part of our plans just a few months ago. But as life often does, it threw us some curve balls and now we're learning to live in this big, fast-paced city. There have been many challenges and feelings of homesickness (for the USA and Macau) but we're doing our best to adjust.
Our lifesaver has been new friends. We've met lots of fantastic people here and felt an instant connection with many of them. They've showed us around parts of Hong Kong, given advice about living here, invited us to their homes, included us in their activities, offered help and assistance, and simply been good, caring friends. We're so thankful for new friends!
We joined a group of homeschoolers that meets weekly. They go on field trips, participate in community service, share homeschooling ideas, books, etc., do co-ops, and have park days so the kids can run around and play. One of the kids' favorite things to do with this group is climb trees and explore nature.
The homeschooling group has kids of all ages and nationalities but everyone gets along so well. Although we've only attended a few meetings, the kids act like they've known the other kids for a long time and look forward to being with them each week. During our last activity at a park, the kids invented a game that included digging for rocks which were then used for money and trading. Some of the moms compared them to the early settlers at Jamestown. Since some of the members are Australian and not familiar with Jamestown, the kids had an opportunity to explain. My kids were especially excited to share details since we had a history lesson on Jamestown just a few days earlier - perfect timing!
We've also made some great friends at church, many of whom have similar aged kids as ours. We were warmly welcomed at church and quickly included in their social activities, even non-church related ones. In the first week of meeting these new friends, I was invited to be a part of a "Girl's Weekend" trip to Borneo. We're going at the end of November and I'm excited about this fun get-away (I'll make sure to have a blog post all about our girly trip).
Our lifesaver has been new friends. We've met lots of fantastic people here and felt an instant connection with many of them. They've showed us around parts of Hong Kong, given advice about living here, invited us to their homes, included us in their activities, offered help and assistance, and simply been good, caring friends. We're so thankful for new friends!
We joined a group of homeschoolers that meets weekly. They go on field trips, participate in community service, share homeschooling ideas, books, etc., do co-ops, and have park days so the kids can run around and play. One of the kids' favorite things to do with this group is climb trees and explore nature.
The homeschooling group has kids of all ages and nationalities but everyone gets along so well. Although we've only attended a few meetings, the kids act like they've known the other kids for a long time and look forward to being with them each week. During our last activity at a park, the kids invented a game that included digging for rocks which were then used for money and trading. Some of the moms compared them to the early settlers at Jamestown. Since some of the members are Australian and not familiar with Jamestown, the kids had an opportunity to explain. My kids were especially excited to share details since we had a history lesson on Jamestown just a few days earlier - perfect timing!
We've also made some great friends at church, many of whom have similar aged kids as ours. We were warmly welcomed at church and quickly included in their social activities, even non-church related ones. In the first week of meeting these new friends, I was invited to be a part of a "Girl's Weekend" trip to Borneo. We're going at the end of November and I'm excited about this fun get-away (I'll make sure to have a blog post all about our girly trip).
During the last few weeks, we've done a number of things with our new friends including visiting the library, going swimming, eating out, going to the temple, and just hanging out and playing. But, the highlights were a service project and a visit to a museum.
One Saturday morning, we spent a few hours helping a non-profit organization, Soap Cycling. This organization collects used soap from hotels,
sorts the soap,
cleans and sanitizes the soap,
and then packs the soap
to distribute to less developed countries and areas in Asia suffering from preventable diseases.
This was a great service project. We enjoyed working together with our new friends and helping such a good cause. The kids loved that they were helping kids in underprivileged areas. And scraping soap was pretty fun; they even carved pictures into some of the soap bars to take home as souvenirs.
With some of our new friends, we also visited Noah's Ark.
One Saturday morning, we spent a few hours helping a non-profit organization, Soap Cycling. This organization collects used soap from hotels,
sorts the soap,
cleans and sanitizes the soap,
and then packs the soap
to distribute to less developed countries and areas in Asia suffering from preventable diseases.
This was a great service project. We enjoyed working together with our new friends and helping such a good cause. The kids loved that they were helping kids in underprivileged areas. And scraping soap was pretty fun; they even carved pictures into some of the soap bars to take home as souvenirs.
With some of our new friends, we also visited Noah's Ark.
This is the world's first full size replica of Noah's Ark (yes that's a freeway in the background so it looks smaller than it really is) with life-size statues of animal pairs.
Inside the ark is a huge children's museum with 20+ interactive activities. Abby had fun in the costume and stage area, Leah loved the kitchen and plastic food, Cade discovered the art room and not surprisingly, Ian found the building area with legos and kinects. There was also a music room that everyone enjoyed. They put a little music show on for us as they pounded the drums, shook the maracas, and played the xylophone.
We are so thankful for our new friends! They've really helped us adjust to our new life in Hong Kong.
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