Ugly Christmas

So when I think of Christmas, I usually think of Red and Green, silver and Gold. Sometimes white, maybe some burgandy, mauve, pink, or blue. But have you ever thought of purple. Not the color of purple that royalty wears, but rather a bright purple that is almost leaning too much towards florescent purple. Yes, I said Florescent. Well one of the largest malls in HK decided that that is the color they were going to use to decorate this year. It could be ok, but here's the thing, it's not the ornaments that are this purple but rather it is the tree itself. I'm sure you are having to re-read this over and over because you think how could this be, how could a nice shopping mall actually decorate with Purple trees. I have been asking myself the same thing and the only thing I could think of was that someone was smoking something really bad when they did their ordering of decorations this year. Are you ready for the pictures? Here they are:

I took this picture from the 7th floor looking down on the tree. The theme seems to be a musical theme. The tree is actually sitting on a drum which is about 10 feet tall and then hanging from the tree and leaning at the base of the tree are other musical instruments. I think the total height of the tree is about 4 stories.

The treble clef really adds that special something.

Along with the big tree in the middle of the mall they also have small 6ft trees scattered about the mall. Nikelle couldn't resist playing the little violins.

Luckily one of the other malls in town decided to actually do a nice classy christmas. Here's a pic of their beautiful tree.

Time Waster

If you want to waste a lot of time, I would recommend "The Impossible Quiz" Leave me a comment to let me know how far you got on the quiz. I have no idea how many questions there are, as I haven't made it to the end yet.

Follow this link and then click on "Play this game"

Enjoy!!

Whatever

"Whateva" Baby

You have to check out this video. It is so funny. And Minori if you are reading this, this is you when you were young, isn't it?

Simple things

Tonight as I was writing some e-mails, I was listening to my music in I-tunes. I love that I can have all my music there and it will shuffle through all 5000 songs. So tonight I heard some songs that I haven't heard for a while. One song that jumped out at me was Simple Things by Jim Brickman. Even though it's a love song, (and I'm not in love) it's still a great reminder of looking at the beauty of life in such simple things as leaves falling off the trees.

Hey, Time won’t wait, Life goes by, Every day’s a brand new sky, Every tear, comes to dry. All that really matters, In this crazy world, Is you and I together, Baby just remember.

Chorus 1:
The first leaves off the tree, The way you look at me, A thousand chiming church bells ring, The simple things are free. The sun, the moon, the stars, The beating of two hearts, How I love the simple things, The simple things just are.

So here we go, Let’s just dance, Teach my soul to take this chance, Put my heart, in your hands. Out of all the moments that, We leave behind, Turn around and tell me, Baby we’ll remember.

Chorus 2:
The thunder and the rain, The way you say my name, After all the clouds go by, The simple things remain, The sun, the moon, the stars, The beating of two hearts, How I love the way the simple things, The simple things just are

Chorus 3:
The ocean and the sky, The way we feel tonight, I know that it's the love, That brings the simple things to life, The sun, the moon, the stars, The beating of two hearts, I love the way the simple things, The simple things just are.

I love the way the simple things, The simple things just are.

Interesting Names

In Hong Kong, the HongKongese people are given a Chinese name at birth but when they get into school they go by English names and their surname. But the names that they come up with sometimes are (to be nice) Unique. I recently came across a list someone put together of names that they saw when out and about, like on the name tags of the workers at McDonald's.

Male
- Walkman - Credit - Gayford - Rock - Pillar - Dummy - Vegas -Freeze -Lego
-Burger -Paper -Kettle -Hercules -Virus -Bible -Candy -Susan(yes for a guy, this is actually one of my students) -Winky -Dolphin -Devil -Pacman -Genius -Joker
-Oxygen -Tornado -Energy -Happy -Goofy -Champion -Spaghetti -Timber -No
- Elf

Female
-Grape -Color -Eureka -Panda -Flower -Wave -Kinky -Piano -Fanny -Telephone
-Chilli -Cinderella -Mango -Fanta -Lotion -Wincy -Purple -Circle -Strawberry
-Seven -Fantasy -Cream -Icy -Dancy -Dior -Puppy -Aries -Lychee -Yo-yo
-Tomato -Ivory -Tissue -Tomorrow - Swanny -Glassbowl

UGH and YEAH and UGH all on the same day

So this morning, I'm walking to meet my friend Liz at the train to go to church. I'm late and I'm trying to walk as fast as my little feet will carry me. Well, Hong Kong is known for tearing up their sidewalks and not making them smooth when they repave. My sandal caught on the uneven pavement and I went down hard. Luckily, I had on a skirt, otherwise I would have ripped a hole in a nice pair of pants. Unluckily, I had on a skirt and my knees had to suffer. One knee really bad and the other leg is scraped down the whole side. I must have looked very funny. I called Liz on her cell phone and she met me at the steps of the train with band-aids from 7-11. Because of this we ended up being 25 minutes late for church. The singing is always my favorite part of the service and we missed it all.

After the service we met up with Harmony and Maria and headed for Subway Restaurant. I had no idea there was a Subway here in Hong Kong. Oh, my gosh I think this was the best sandwich I have had in forever. I got a turkey with cheese, lettuce, tomato, pickles, black olives, green peppers and oil/vinegar. Oh so good. and then sour cream and onion chips. Thank God for Subway. I will be eating there frequently. I really should have gotten a foot long and brought the second half for my lunch tomorrow. Next week!!

So after an eventful start to my day, I got home, took my shoes off and put my feet up. That's when I realized my shoe looked funny. Yes, you guessed it. Another pair of shoes is going into the trash. The fall in the morning made them rip at the thong part. Basically they are being held together by two threads. The sad thing is that these are my really nice Chico's sandals. But I guess 2 and a half years is good use out of them.

Interesting Food

One thing about living in HK that's great is that I love sushi and it's cheap here. It's also a fun thing because you sit at a counter and there is a train of sushi that passes by. You just choose off of the line what you want and at the end they count up your plates. I went with a former student recently and took some pictures to share with you. This is the counter you sit at and the sushi just goes past on the little conveyor belt. If you want something you just take it off. The little faucet below the train is for hot water to make your tea.

Here are the plates that Giovanna and I ate when we got our sushi.

I also went out with a some friends after church one Sunday to a Chinese Tea House. One of the girls ordered a tea that was interesting as it brewed. I made a video of it as it was brewing.

Another pair bites the dust.

Okay, since moving to Hong Kong in August I have killed 3 pairs of shoes. Basically a pair a month. But actually they have all been in the last month and half.

The first pair to fully bite the dust: So Nikelle and I got out of her car at the shopping center in Admiralty. As I'm walking across the parking garage, I realize that I'm having difficulty keeping my shoe on. Well that would be because the side of the strap has started to come out. By the time I take a few more steps it's done. So here I am on the island with a broken shoe, but luckily we are at a mall, but I still have to get into the mall and find a new pair of shoes. So I walk up 2 flights of stairs(because apparently there is no such thing here as Americans with Disabilities Act and they don't have elevators everywhere) Where we walk into the mall is through the grocery store. So here I am sliding my foot along so that my shoe doesn't come off. One of the store's staff looks at me like I'm a major freak, so I pull up my pant leg to show her that my shoe is broken. She says that she can fix it with some string. So I tied my shoe to my foot with yellow plastic string. Quite humorous. Luckily my pants were long enough to hide the string. I ended up finding a pair of shoes to buy, but by the time I got home I had some of the worst blisters I have had in a long time. Needless to say, I won't wear them again. Luckily they were only $150 ($20 US) Still more than I would have liked to pay, but cheap considering most shoes here start at about $400 ($50US)

The second pair that bit the dust: This pair actually started down the bad road early in my time in Hong Kong. I don't know how, but somehow the sole of the right shoe just split in two crosswise. I could still use the shoe, but I had to make sure that I didn't do too much walking in it. Well two weekends ago, I played Tour guide here and my shoe didn't like that. Before the day was over, I was saying small prayers with every step I took that my shoe wouldn't go. Thank God, I was able to make it home in one piece. When I got home and took off my shoe, I realized that it was gone, there was really nothing holding it together anymore.

Third pair: This just happened yesterday. I was with two friends and we were walking down the street to run an errand. All of a sudden, I got that funny feeling in my foot again. I knew what was happening...I was having a shoe attack. Again my shoe's strap started to come out from where it was attached. I told my friends I had to go back. I couldn't continue on my errand. So we turned around and one of them said she knew where there was a shoe repair. So we went and he said that he could fix it for $20 ($3US) So I sat in at his booth for 5 minutes barefoot while he "fixed" my shoe. I put it back on and it seemed to be fixed. I decided not to try to do my errand again, so I just headed home. Good thing because about halfway to the train. It broke again. The glue didn't hold. I made it home ok, but had to throw out another pair of shoes. UGH!!!

Hopefully I can make the rest of my shoes last until I'm ready to part with them. Actually I have another pair that is starting to show a bit of stress. I hope that I don't have another "shoe attack"

Free Christian Music on Fridays

I recently heard about a site called "My Free Music Friday" Every Friday they offer free Christian music for you to download. So today, I decided to try it. I am so glad that I did. This week they were offering 3 free songs:

1. "Time has Come" by Mercy Me
2. "Everything Glorious" by David Crowder Band
3. "Live for you" by Connersvine

I hadn't heard of Connersvine so I went to their my space page to find out a bit more about them. They are from Indianapolis and Hunter Smith from the Indianapolis Colts is one of the duo. They have three songs from their cd to listen to on the page. I really like it.

So check out the free music friday and the new band Connersvine.

USS Essex

This weekend I got to tour the USS Essex when it was in Hong Kong.

This is the end of the ship where we entered from the ferry. The ship was anchored about a 40 minute ferry ride from the pier on Hong Kong Island. It was too big to come into the harbor.


Once inside the ship, we came to two large boats. These boats are released from the back end of the ship and will go closer to land to put vehicles and personnel on land. As you can see from this picture of me and the boat, it's pretty big and it is inside the Essex so obviously the Essex is huge.Another view of those boats.

I also got to see the morgue

There is a huge hangar for the helicopters and planes. The black part coming out the front of the helicopter is a machine gun.

Next we went up on the flight deck. It was about 7:30 pm so it was already dark and so I really couldn't get any pics. The 2 means that this was the second boat of this kind made.If you look really close in this picture you can see the outline of a helicopter in the middle.


Safety jackets that they sailors wear when they are on the flight deck.

I got this tour because I joined up with a program called "Meals in the home" to host sailors for dinner as they come through our port. I was supposed to host 3 but only hosted 2 for dinner. I did meet the other one though here are their pictures.Gary and Diane

Tom

Interesting Train ride part 2

Ok, So I have had requests to hear this story. So I recorded it. You can hear it here.

But there's more...this morning (Wednesday, Nov 7th) I got on the train in about car #8 and started walking back to car #11. (I like to sit there because: 1. I can get a seat and 2. it's right next to the exit closest to my school.) So as I enter car #11 whom do I see? Yes, none other than "talk to imaginary friends" boy. I almost lost it.

Interesting Train Ride

Every day I ride the train to and from work. It's nice early in the morning when there is hardly anyone on the train so I am always guaranteed a seat, but not so in the afternoons on the way home. Well the other morning, I saw a very funny situation. I got on the train, car #11 and sat down on my bench. On the bench across from me sat a guy about early to mid twenties. Each bench holds 4 people and he was sitting near the other end from me, but not right at the end (kind of in between seat one and two) I quickly realized that he was talking to his two imaginary friends. He had one sitting on either side of him. This wasn't just a person talking to themselves, this was him full-on having conversations. He would turn and look at the person and then turn and look at the other person. This went on until the next station, so about 3 minutes. Then at the next station I guess his invisible friend on the right side got off, because this guy moved completely into the first seat on the bench. Also at this stop an older gentleman got on and sat on the same bench but the other end. The guy continued to talk to the one friend and he also got a book out of his bookbag. In doing so, he dropped a paper on the floor, so the older gentleman tapped him and pointed out the paper. The young guy bent down and picked it up, and then proceeded to give the old man the finger. Well at least that is whom I thought he was giving the finger to until he then gave his imaginary friend an hard fast elbow in the stomach. I guess the paper on the floor was really the fault of the invisible friend.

But really folks, you know sometimes invisible friends make mistakes, but do they deserve to be elbowed in the stomach and given the finger? I think not! Treat all of your friends with respect, invisible or not.

That's great. Over.

Have you ever watched the news when they have a correspondent that is overseas and there is a big delay for them to get the anchor's questions? You are watching the correspondent nodding away, but the anchor has stopped talking for some time and then they finally start to answer the question. Well, that is kind of like talking to me on the phone. Apparently there is a huge delay for what I say to get to America. My mom and I talk frequently and sometimes the delay is minimal and other times it is unbelievable. The other day the delay was so bad that we kept talking over each other and the conversation was very hard to maintain. So we decided that the best way to work this would be for us to say what we had to say and then say "Over." Oh my gosh, it was so funny. We laughed so hard. The conversation went something like this.

Margie: How was your day? over.
Katie: not too bad, I taught a few classes today. over.
Margie: how were the students? over.
Katie: overall, not to bad. over. oh, I want to say something else. over. I mean not over yet. the students don't want to talk when I ask them a question but do when I don't want them to talk. over.
Margie: wait you can't say over and then start talking again. over.
Katie: ok. over.

And of course through this entire conversation we were laughing so hard. Needless to say the conversation didn't last too long.

Listen to my stories

So I have recently found out about a way for you to hear my stories. I find when someone tells me stories I usually laugh more than when I just read them. So I decided to go back and record some of my stories for you to listen to. Click the link below to go back to the original posting and then click the new link at the beginning to hear me tell the story.

The Sound of Music Sing along
Mother Sit Down
Changing Noses
Just Leave
Religion during the week


I hope you enjoy them.

I thought you might like to see some of people that I work with. So here are some pics.

Koey and I are cubicle mates. She teaches English. She is so funny!

Natalia sits on my the other side of my cubicle wall.
This is her first year at this school and she teaches English.

Mr. Tom (his surname is Tom) when I lived here before he is the one who gave me my Chinese name. Kind of my adopted dad. (my dad's name is Tom)

Daphne is also an English Teacher. She takes great care of me.

May teaches English, too. She and I both love Fashion and enjoy spending time together.

Denise Jim (everyone calls her Jim) teaches English.

There are more, but those are the ones that I have attacked with my camera. They are a great bunch of people and have been so helpful in getting me settled in my life in HK.

This is the Big one to end them all.

Ok, so here it is. The last one of these "About me" that I am going to post. It's a big one and has catagories so be prepared.

Basics:
Name: Katie Moore
Date of Birth: April 8
Birthplace: Pittsburgh
Current Location: Hong Kong
Eye Color: Blue
Hair Color: Dark Blonde (but going to change soon)
Height: around 5 8
Heritage: Irish, German, English
Piercings: ears
Tattoos: none
Favourite:
Band/Singer: Melinda Doolittle (this changes frequently)
Song: Adonai by Avalon
Movie: Hairspray (this also changes frequently)
Disney Movie: I really like most of them
TV show: Frasier
Color: Pink
Food: Mexican
Pizza topping: Pepperoni
Ice-Cream Flavor: Phish Food by Ben and Jerry's
Drink (alcoholic): Cosmo
Soda: dont drink pop
Store: Super Sample (in HK) Chico's and JJill (in USA)
Shoe Brand: cheap--I really don't have a favorite brand just like lots of shoes
Season: Fall
Month: April-- my birthday month
Holiday/Festival: Christmas
Flower: gerber daisy
Make-Up Item: Mascara
Board game: Trivial Pursuit
This or That
Sunny or rainy: I like both, but rain is the best for lazy days in bed
Chocolate or vanilla: vanilla (w/ chocolate syrup)
Fruit or veggie: fruit
Night or day: night
Sour or sweet: sweet
Love or money: love
Phone or in person: in person
Looks or personality: personality
Coffee or tea: tea
Hot or cold: cold
Your:
Best physical feature: eyes
First thought waking up: UGH!!
Sesame street alter ego: big bird
Fairytale alter ego: Little Mermaid
Worst crime: speeding
Strangest received gift: the gift wasn't strange it was the fact that I knew what it was because she gave the same thing to every friend, so the end of the school year birthday people knew what they were getting because the people in September received the same item for their birthday.
Worst habit: picking at my nails
Do You:
Smoke: nope
Drink: occasionally
Curse: no
Shower daily: yes
Like thunderstorms: yes love them--when we were growing up we would sit in the garage and watch the storms with our mom. It was the best.
Dance in the rain: love doin it
Sing: yes all the time --Just not in public
Play an instrument: nope
Get along with your parents: yes
Wish on stars: sometimes
Believe in fate: yes
Believe in love at first sight: no
Can You:
Sew: no
Cook: yes my specialty is a Fratatta
Speak another language: some German
Dance: I love to dance, but don't get to very much
Sing: yes
Touch your nose with your tongue: yes i can
Whistle: yes
Curl your tongue: yes
Have You Ever:
Been Drunk: yes
Been Stoned/High: nope
Eaten Sushi: yes
Been in Love: nope
Skipped school: yes, but mommy said I could stay home.
Made prank calls: of course
Sent someone a love letter: a long time ago
Stolen something: no
Cried yourself to sleep: yes
Other Questions:
What annoys you most in a person? How they eat their food.
Are you right or left handed? right
What is your bedtime? I prefer to stay up late, but since I have to get up so freakin early, I'm trying to be in bed by 10.
Name three things you can't live without: God, family & friends
What is the color of your room? white walls and blue/brown comforter
Do you have any siblings? yes 2
Do you have any pets? no
What is your middle name? Kress
What are you nicknames? Kate, I guess I don't really have any. boohoo
Do you have a crush on anyone? no
Are you afraid of the dark? Sometimes, it depends on where I am.
How do you want to die? without pain
What is the largest amount of popsicles that you have eaten on one day? I have no idea
Would you take a bullet for the one you love? yea
What is the last law you've broken? speeding
In a Member of the Opposite Sex:
Hair color: dark
Eye color: blue or brown
Height: TALL over 6ft.
Weight: more than me.
Most important physical feature: eyes or smile
Biggest turn-off: being a wimpy man

Hopefully when I did the cut and paste, I got all the answers changed to my answers. Hope you enjoyed all that useless infomation.

Company Name?

Some of you might know that I make jewelry as a hobby, well I decided that I am going to start a little business on the side, but I need to come up with a name for my company. So if you can think of a creative name, leave me a comment or email me. If I use your idea, I will give you credit for the name (and a free bracelet)

some info on my business:
*Bracelets
*Necklaces
*Earrings
*Mostly glass beading
*I also knit scarves

So think, think, think!!!

Spell with Flickr

Spell with Flickr a fun little program that lets you spell words with photos of letters from Flickr. If you don't like the photos that are first given then click the letter and it will change them for you.

Crude Advertising/not for innocent eyes

So I am living in Hong Kong now and they just don't seem to have a sensor button on what they show in their advertising in public place(subway station and trains in particular).Often walking in the station or sitting on the train you see advertising that is definitely not PG. Today I saw a very disturbing ad, so I thought I would share it with you.
If you aren't able to make it out very well it's for V*i&agra. Enough said. (the * and & are because I don't want my blog to show up on a google search for that word

List of questions.

Ok gang, I know that you know how to do this. Copy and paste this into the comments section and change the answers to be your answers.

1.How many suits do you own? I own about 4, but only 2 fit me.but I'm getting closer to fitting in to them again. :)
2.What word do you routinely misspell? Definately, oops I mean definitely. thank God for Spellcheck.
3.Did you see Brokeback Mountain? No
4.Did you see The Da Vinci Code? No
5.What's the name of your cell phone ring? I don't know the name, it's a preprogramed ring
6.What time did you get up this morning? I first woke up at 6am and then fell back to sleep about an hour later and slept until 9am
7.When did you last cry and why? Today, I'm homesick and frustrated. (if you are reading this then please pray for me.)
8.Which of the seven deadly sins are you? Gluttony (although I have been working on it)
9.Beach, city or country? 70% of the time--city, 20%--Beach and 10%--Country
10.Would you say you're cute? Pretty? Hot? Beautiful? I hope that I'm pretty on the outside and Beautiful on the inside.
11.What color is your bathroom? Right now I don't have my own bathroom. But at my parents place it was cream walls with green curtain and towels.
12.How many emails do you receive a day, roughly? including spams--40, no spams-3
13.What's your opinion of New York City? I love it -- the energy, the restaurants, the shopping.
14.What's your favorite letter? "K" of course.
15.Have you ever downloaded a podcast? If so, which one? Yes, CFC messages, Grammar Girl, Frommer's travel
16.Who's your all-time favorite American Idol candidate? Melinda Doolittle
17.When's the last time you volunteered? Where? In July, Mission trip to Hong Kong
18.What did you have for breakfast? A 100%Whey Protein Shake
19.What's your favorite item of clothing? Gaucho pants from J.Jill
20.What one toiletry item could you not live without? Toothbrush

I hope that you enjoyed this new list of questions.