Happy Lunar New Year!

Happy Lunar New Year! This is one of the main holidays celebrated in Asia. Lunar New Year was rather early this year, since we only had two weeks of school since Christmas break. This week off just gave us another reason to explore Asia, so we took off for Hong Kong, China to take in the festivities of the Chinese New Year in China. Last year we were in Beijing for Chinese New Year, but we found Hong Kong to be much more "festive" as they celebrated the "Year of the Dragon". We spent five days exploring Hong Kong. The weather was not great as it was cloudy/foggy, cool, and rainy, but we still enjoyed our time. The highlights of the trip included attending the International Chinese New Year Night Parade through the streets of Hong Kong (similar to the Macy's Day Thanksgiving parade in NYC), fireworks over Victoria Harbor, Disneyland Hong Kong, shopping in the many markets around the city, and visiting the "Peak" overlooking the skyline and harbor (although it was very foggy). We became experts at riding the MTR (subway) around Hong Kong. It is such a densely populated city (over 7 million) that over 91% of the people who live in Hong Kong use public transportation, so it was very easy and efficient to explore. Liisa seemed to find many "deals" as she wandered the street markets. I never realized how many shoes someone really "NEEDS"! The kids were exhausted each day as we trekked around, but they never seemed to get "tired" at Disneyland. Check out our blog pictures to "see" the sights of Hong Kong. Well, back to reality tomorrow as we return to school. Liisa has a busy stretch coming up as she is the Assistant Cheerleading coach and the team has their conference cheerleading competition in Seoul this upcoming weekend for two days. Also, she is chaperoning a group of kids to The Philippines for five days (Feb 15-19) to attend a GINA conference in Manila. She is the one the advisors of this club on campus. My schedule also begins to pick up as the middle school activities season gets back into full swing after the break. The kids are all doing well and involved in many activities. Take care and we miss everyone at home! The Gilberts