The Going Away Present

Okay so in my last post I told you that I had to shave my beard for a special going away present.  That going away present...a photo shoot.  One of my best friends over here left last week to head Stateside after being here for three years.  Before he left he wanted to do something special to "go out with a bang."  To "do something epic."  I don't know if that was the result, but it did ended up being a lot of fun.  Here are some of the proofs (before they edit and crop all of them).

Our first shoot was "The Urban Cowboys."  The place we went for pictures pretty much only did weddings, but we were still able to find some props to use.  Including suspenders, cowboy hats, a lantern, bird cage, and small suitcase (makes you wonder about the weddings here, huh?).

This picture was too good to leave out even if I couldn't get it to rotate.

We then left the ally to go in front of the building.  It only took a few minutes for a crowd of about thirty camera and smart phone wielding people to develop.  Makes me wonder if we are on any Chinese blogs.

We actually had a three person person camera crew...you have to love how far a few USDs can get you over here.

We then went back into the studio for an outfit change.

Well a couple outfit changes.

"The Bachelor" in China.

We all got roses.

We were able to hold it together for most of them, but it was too much at moments.

This picture will probably end up being my favorite.  The tech guy at the place is actually going to edit us riding a dragon with blue skies and clouds behind us.  I will have to post it once he is finished.

I hope you enjoyed your present Kirk.  We already miss you here.

The Beard

I have been growing my beard for three full months now.  I love it!  I feel more worthy of my Hebrew name, Joshua.  There will most likely not be another opportunity to grow it this long for many years.  If I return to the States and teach I will have to keep myself looking "professional."  "Professional," just another word for boring, right?  I think my beard looks pretty "professional."  Just look at "professional" football players like my brother.  Anyways, I have been thinking about when would be the best time to say goodbye to my dear friend.  Originally I thought I would simple delay it as long as possibly and let him grow and grow.  Then I thought about how tough long goodbyes can be...

Just look at it...

 

NO I mean REALLY look...

I thought the wisest thing to do would be to create a pro's and con's chart.  I mean, I did teach on them all last semester in my 3rd grade class during student teaching.  Practice what you preach, right?  (Feel free to add any you can think of in comments)



It is obvious that there are far more pro's then con's present in this situation.  Therefore, like I taught my students, this should make the decision much easier...but it didn't.  One of my great friends is headed back to America now that his three years over here are finished.  He asked me if I would join him in "the greatest going away present EVER!"  What is it?  I will make you wait till my next post to find out, but it required me to shave my beard.

SO

WITH A HEAVY HEART. 

I GRABBED A PAIR OF SCISSORS,

A STRAIGHT RAZOR, AND BEGAN...

THIRTY

PAINFUL

(physically and emotionally)

MINUTES

LATER...

this appeared.

I thought I might as well have fun with it.  So, I walked through my city like this for most of that day.  And I thought being a foot taller then everyone and white brought on attention.

Here is the final before...

 

and after shots.

Falling Apart...

No no no not me, my apartment.  I have been really blessed as the majority of the last four months have been spent in a place with running water (hot water even), a refrigerator, a microwave, and a stove.  When I left the States to come over here I was expecting to spend nearly the entire six months living in a tent.  Fortunately, (and unfortunately when it comes to work) that hasn't been the case.  By His grace I have been holding up pretty well, but the same can't be said for my apartment.

The doornob to our bedroom came completely off,

the sink in our bathroom fell...down,

and most recently our wall started falling off...  They actually fell onto me while trying to cook some eggs on the stove. Don't worry I am fine, but the bottle of soy sauce sitting on the counter didn't make it.  Moment of silence for the soy........okay thanks.

Oh and the cabinets under our kitchen sink have fallen off.

I Love Hong Kong

While staying over here I am on a tourist visa, which means I have to leave the country every 90 days.  So, last week my teammate, Andrew, and I flew down to Hong Kong to stamp our visas and have a little R&R in the city. Here is a picture dump and quick summery of everything that I experienced while there.

Everyone that works with me has to do these visa runs every three months.  Some have been to Hong Kong literally dozens of times.  So, I asked them what their favorite part about the city was...and without fail everyone said, "THE FOOD."  You see Hong Kong is very much what they say, "The Perfect blend of East meeting West."  There are tons of great Western restaurants among the 53 different nationalities of cuisine.  Well the one place I heard about over and over again was a Mongolian BBQ restaurant named "Nomads."

 

This place completely lived up to it's reputation.  We ate there twice during the week.  I should probably have created a separate post about this restaurant, but for the sake of length of post I will move on.

Here is my "create your own pizza" steak, bacon, and pineapple.  Oh man was it good...both times.  (Thomas we might have to fly to Hong Kong together one day to go here).

Hong Kong has an awesome skyline including this building.  You might recognize it from Batman's A Dark Knight movie.

One of the ferries that we loved riding back and forth from the mainland to Hong Kong Island where we stayed.

 The first day we arrived we ate at California Pizzeria, then headed up to The Peak on this really cool tram to eat at Bubba Gump's and see the city from up top.  It was really foggy that night so we couldn't see much, but it was still really cool and the restaurant was delicious.  I didn't realize how much I actually missed Western food.

 The best part about the trip was definitely getting to spend time with our great friends Marilyn and Christina that we met a few months earlier.  They live over a 1,000 miles away from us so it was nice getting to meet up.  Here they are posing with our Hostel sign upon arrival.  We decided to go cheap on a place to stay so we could do some other fun stuff.  The hostel ended up working out really well.

 Fun stuff like going to Disneyland!  Three out of the four of us had never been in the states before and were really excited about our first time being in Hong Kong.  This is a picture of the subway that ran straight out to the park.  It was all Disney themed with characters inside and Mickey Mouse shaped windows.

Mickey at the entrance made out of flowers and pumpkins.

The Disney band getting down to all kinds of great classics.  I could have probably watched them all day if there wasn't so much else to do.

Andrew and I taking a quick picture in Dumbo.  Andrew summarized the day as "magical."

The day concluded with a Halloween themed parade...

and fireworks over Sleeping Beauty's Castle to more Classic Disney songs.

We also rode the World's longest escalator which is a half mile in length.

The rest of our time we spent either shopping in the markets or island hopping.  The islands were definitely my favorite part. Here is a picture of the crew on Lamma Island

 and here are the girls on top of a rock at Cheung Chau island

A little spelunking on Cheung Chau (both of the islands had cool caves)

This was taken just after doing some cliff jumps into the ocean

Taken at the summit of one of the hills we climbed.  We had a pretty sweet 360 view of the island from up here.  We just had to ignore a lot of danger signs to get there.  This is my attempt at what the girls call a "smolder."  It is a work in progress.

It was an awesome week to help get regrouped and refocused to finish my home stretch strong over here.  I can't believe I'm already over half way finished.

P.S. Sorry this ended up being an epically long post...

For All the Haters

Okay, so I received quite a bit of criticism on my hair after I included a picture of me in a previous post.  I will say that my hair was not greasy in the picture, quite opposite,  it was still wet from taking a shower.  I take showers fairly regularly for your information...well at least when I am in the big city.  After being so bombarded with negativity I decided to head over to the local hair salon.  So, I googled pictures of men's haircuts on my Ipod and showed the barber this picture.

I had to do a little coaching so I didn't end up having a middle aged mom haircut like many of my local guy friends (no offense intended to all you moms).  I must admit that it was the most pleasent haircutting experience I have ever had, which really isn't hard since my dad took me to a one eyed barber growing up (that is a very literal statement, the guy lost an eye WWII or something).  They have a designated "hair washer" that massages your head for like 20 minutes while he washes and dries your hair...it was weird at first...then awesome.

Here is the before shot

and the after shot.  I think me made look just like Brad Pitt.

Two end notes: 1st I don't care what you say about the beard, it is growing till I leave Asia.  2nd Stay tuned as I just returned from an awesome week in Hong Kong.  Pictures and stories coming soon.

Hospitality and Food Pushing

I recently returned from another trip into the mountains.  I love my time up there.  The people that I get to spend time with remind me a lot of my family.  They are warm, hospitably, not big on personal space, and love their food.

(Cool pictures not directly related to the story)

So, if any of you aren't familiar with the term "food pushing," it is where you insist one or more times to your guest to eat additional food even after they have clearly communicated their lack of need, want, or physical ability to consume more substance.  My family is known for such behavior, but my new friends take it to a whole new level.  From the moment you enter their homes, to the moment you leave, they will ask you again and again to eat and drink more.  I have finally learned not to eat or drink a thing unless prompted.  This strategy is known as "sand bagging," and is very useful in allowing you to oblige to every offer without feeling completely miserable afterwards.  I had to learn this culture dimension the hard way after consuming a large amount of food within 30 minutes of arriving at my first friend's home.  The hours that followed were very uncomfortable to say the least.  I also learned that it is a sign of honor and respect for them to place the largest amount of food and drink possible before you.  The larger the pile=the happier they are to have you visiting.  This was a relief as I was nervous at first wondering if it was showing disrespect if we didn't finish everything set before us.

These people were very excited about us being with them. (Which kind of made sense as we were the first foreigners to ever step foot in their town.)  This picture was taken after we called of many more drinks that they were still bringing to put before us.  They asked us again and again to have more, and even packed us a bag of stuff to take with us as we left.  I love these people!!!

Interesting side note: I drank my very first Red Bull energy drink.  I thought it was cool that it happened 8,000 miles from America, but I wasn't a fan of the beverage.