Having never flown TAP Portugal before, I expected relatively little. I figured it would be better than EasyJet (which I took once on a flight from France to Scotland), but not as good as any business or first class seat one could possibly imagine. Turns out, I should have thought less about the comfort of the plane and more about if I'd actually have a seat on the plane and reach my destination. We booked flights to France back in December (or sometime last year) as we wanted to attend a wedding (that we had been invited to, of course). We chose TAP Portugal because it was cheap. Their tickets cost half of every other airline. So basically, it was a two-for-one flight. Once we had the confirmation, I stopped really thinking about it. The day before our flight, we checked in online and had the boarding information sent to our cell phones. The day of the flight, Christopher received an email letting him know that the flight from Lisbon to France had been "cancelled/delayed." And it also stated that TAP Portugal was sorry our plans "suffered" this change. It then listed the times for our new flights. The email was not very clear about which flight was which, and it looked like it had moved us back a week. I immediately got on the phone to talk to someone about it thinking the worst - that we'd have to go sit at the airport waiting on standby for something to open so that we could go on time. The representative was actually very helpful - a point in TAP Portugal's favor - and he explained clearly what the email vaguely described. Our flights were all in tact, the only change was in the connecting flight. Rather than a 5-hour layover, we now had a 4-hour layover. This was all due to an air traffic controllers' strike. They were protesting something (I never found out what) between 2pm and 4pm Lisbon time on the four days that impacted us. So, we boarded our flight in the US at the normal time. The TAP Portugal plane was a something-330. It didn't have personal TVs or plugs for recharging phones, kindles, etc. Because we wanted to sleep anyway, the lack of entertainment didn't really bother us. Unfortunately, neither of us was able to sleep really at all. We maybe 'slept' poorly for four hours. The meal was a bit lack luster. Plane food generally is, but international flights tend to be a bit better than domestic ones (in my opinion). They offered "fish or meat." They weren't able to offer any more details than that. It came with an odd spreadable Brie and a cold-ish wheat roll. Anyway, I've definitely had better. Upon landing, we sat in the food court for hours waiting for the next flight. We all boarded the tiny plane (two seats on each side of the aisle), and then waited. Our flight had been moved up an hour to try to get in the air prior to the beginning of the strike. Our plane didn't seem to have any air conditioning, so one of the flight attendants opened the emergency exit door to let in air while we waited to see if we could take off. As it turns out, we weren't fast enough. We all had to deplane and return to the airport to wait another 2 and half hours for the strike to be over. We returned to the food court to wait with the rest of the airport. It was a bit more than crowded. Finally, we re-boarded the small, hot plane and were able to take off. The flight itself was fine minus the fact that we had to sweat the whole way - gross. Due to that experience, I'm not sure that I'd book TAP again. The representatives handled the situation well, I thought. But if we can't predict a strike - or if we're not offered fresh air - I think we might be better off booking with a different airline.

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With a dearth of bunnies, what’s a little dog to do? Stalk pigeons of course! We’ve been in New York a month now, and the city is Renn’s frenemy. This is definitely the first time I’ve ever used this word to describe something that related to my life in any way. But it’s simply true. Renn loves and fears New York.

He’s always been a very friendly, relatively skiddish pup, fearing manhole covers and stairs. But now, I have to add to that loud trucks, that seem to honk at just the worst moment to startle him, and litter. Wow, there’s a lot of litter. Denizens can’t really be to blame (well they can actually). Trash pickup occurs on the sidewalk each week and public trash bins don’t have lids. There are a lot of smokers. They don’t have a catchy and slightly threatening tag line, such as “Don’t mess with Texas.” This city is windy. The combination of these circumstances means that Renn is constantly dodging flying plastic bags, possessed empty food cartons, and random pamphlets and flyers. On one windy night, we were walking our usual a path and a large, scary pizza box flipped up on its side and landed square on Renn’s back. It was not a good moment.

Other moments are great, and Renn loves New York. There are two parks within easy walking distance for us. The smaller park comes complete with tall, uncut grass (great for smelling) and a couple park benches that line the path where people always want to pet him. The larger park comes complete with many other dogs to greet and gray squirrels to chase. In addition, New Yorkers are the friendliest people when you’re walking a dog. We are regularly talked to, and one of us is petted (thankfully, that’s not me). They make cooing noises and tell Renn how cute his is.

For us, adjusting hasn’t been too bad. It was annoying to wait for our stuff to arrive. Unpacking wasn’t awful. I built 7 items of furniture and only irreparably put one piece in backwards (a can of white paint pretty much fixed it). Seeing as how it’s build-by-picture and I spent more than a couple years in college, I would have felt better not having put any pieces in backwards. But I can deal with 1.

Work keeps both of us incredibly busy, but for the most part I can still get out on time and make it home pretty easily. Our train doesn’t have a schedule. It says it does, but it’s lying. So we generally wait anywhere between 3 and 16 minutes for the train to arrive to take us home. From there, relaxing at home, walking around the neighborhood, and trying out local restaurants has kept us occupied and happy.

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So you are already aware of the international culture and feel of Hong Kong. I described (at length) the types of non-Asian foods I ate and how I wanted to never eat the same thing twice. Well, I didn't manage never to eat the same thing twice. But, in fairness, I was asked to do side-by-side comparisons of items I had eaten from one restaurant to another. So, it wasn't really my choice. My choice was to try as many different foods as possible.

I'm not one to try a food just because it's weird. I like to try things that people actually enjoy. So, whenever something was proposed, I asked if the speaker actually liked this or that food item before accepting the invitation. I found myself trying every type (or pretty much every type) of Asian food available.

I had Malaysian food at a restaurant in the Wan Chai district. Of all the restaurants I went to, this one was my favorite. Malaysian food involves a lot of spices and is a mixture of Indian and Chinese. They have a lot of curries. At this Malaysian restaurant, we sampled a traditional drink called Chandor. It's a sweet drink with grass jelly and coconut milk topped with some sort of brownish syrup. Don't ask me for further details. I don't know them. But wikipedia may if you're interested. We also shared two appetizers, two entrees, and one dessert (three people). If I wasn't implementing such a strict do-not-eat-twice rule, I would have gone there again.

I had Vietnamese twice. This was one of the times when I was asked to do a side-by-side comparison of the plain jane beef pho I ordered. Both places were good. But I like the first one better, making the fact that I went to a separate restaurant to order the same thing a little disappointing.

I also had Thai, Japanese (black squid ink ramen), Fresh seafood (as in we chose the crab, scallops, mantis shrimp, and razor clams we wanted from the live tanks), and Hong Kong steet food (fried fish balls, stinky tofu, dessert waffle, and bubble tea).

Then there were the different styles of Chinese and Hong Kong-Chinese restaurants where I sampled traditional dishes. I went to two Dim Sum restaurants. Dim Sum style encourages ordering lots of small plate appetizers shared by the table. I love Shanghai dumplings, which I thought were beef - but turned out to be pork. They are little sachets of meatball with broth. I also enjoyed turnip cake, Chinese broccoli, this weird eggy cake ball, red rice sweet soup, and fried octopus.

The list of things I did not enjoy is much shorter. I did not enjoy iced plum green tea or cashew chicken. And, I may not have liked chicken feet. But I wouldn't know. After it was ordered, I chickened out. Frankly, they made me a little sad.

In all this eating and trying and ordering and eating - I only had rice one time. That was at the Thai restaurant, and it came with my garlic eggplant.

For my last dinner in the city, we went to a rather fancy traditional restaurant where I got to try Peking duck. Not really at all what I expected, but delicious.

Now I get to go home and lose the travel weight. :)

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I was really not prepared for the Western feel of Hong Kong. I expected to get lost a few times, not be able to communicate at least once, and perhaps even long for some toast. However, that has not been the case at all. I'm not sure if I should be ashamed that I did next to no research before coming, or just happy at the ease of daily life. I've been told that out in the New Territories it's not as easy to get around and fewer and fewer people speak English the further you go. I'm sure that's true. But around here, the British left a very heavy stamp on the city. This is felt in the language, transportation, and definitely the food.

I've tried to eat at a different place for every meal I have out. When that doesn't work, I at least never order the same thing twice. One of the many convenient coffee shops here is called Cafe O. Their menu is really hard for me to read, because they replace the letter A with the letter O if the word starts with an A. For example, Oll day breakfast and Omazing set menu. I guess it works for them; I actually like them because they are close to my flat and have free wi-fi.

This is their eggplant pizza that I had for dinner one night. It was delicious.

This is the breakfast I ate before heading to the Temple of 10,000 Buddhas last week. The soy latte hit the spot. And no, I didn't put jam on my banana bread.

And this is their chicken and mushroom pasta I had for dinner a separate night. It was gross. I haven't been back since.

For lunch during the week, I've tried to eat as much Asian food as possible, including seafood since they do fish here. But in many cases, I still couldn't get away from the more Western fare.

This is a roasted veggie sandwich with hummus spread. So good!

And this is a restaurant that serves 24-hour-a-day English breakfast. I had eggs florentine with fresh fruit and grilled tomatoes. Beans on toast was an option.

There are a ton of bakeries here as well. With hopefulness and a carb craving, I've tried a few. Unfortunately, the breads and pastries I've tried haven't stood up to the donut shops of the US or the bakeries of France. After the second one, I told myself it probably wasn't worth it to try again. But, I didn't listen to myself and tried "banana cake." It didn't make up for the first two disappointments. In more traditional bakeries they have "moon cake" and "wife cake." These are traditional desserts. The wife cake I've had, and I enjoyed it. It has a light, flaky outter dough portion with powdered sugar, and there's a candied paste on the inside. It would probably be very good with tea; although I had it alone. And, there is a Hong Kong pastry called an egg tart that looks like a tiny lemon custard pie and screams of egg flavor. This particular tart is either trendy or traditional (I'm not sure which one), but definitely a Hong Kong favorite.

And now that I've shown you much (but not all) of the Western food, soon I'll have to delight your senses with the Asian side of cuisine here. Get ready for the Dim Sum!

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Apparently, I am one of the more "adventurous" of visitors to our office here. I put adventurous in quotes, because I don't feel that I'm doing anything truly out of the ordinary. Certainly, nowhere that I have been has come close to out-of-my-comfort-zone. At any rate, I'd wanted to go to the Temple of the 10,000 Buddhas Saturday; so I did.



The public transportation needed to get there is simple and efficient. Public transportation here, overall, is cheap and fast. I arrived at Sha Tin 45 minutes or so after I'd left my flat.



When I got to the temple path entrance, I was met with a steep path abutted with varying gold and painted Buddhas. They each were different from the other - some sitting, standing, leaning, carrying items, smiling, etc. It was creepy in the way that a room full of porcelain dolls makes your hair stand up. But there was not much time to focus on that as I was huffing and puffing at the ascent. I'd thought I could jog up the stairs, but I quickly abandoned this idea when I realized just how far it was up the hill.





This stop in Sha Tin did not disappoint. The multiple temples and shrines at the top were all immaculately kept with really cool detailing in the paintings on the walls and ceiling. This should be a stop for anyone in the area. Enjoy the photos!

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In Hong Kong, I arrange my mornings so that I have plenty of time to wake up, eat breakfast, work out, shower, and channel surf. I have found there are three mostly-English stations. One is the news channel Aljazeera; another is a re-broadcast of American nightly news programs; and the third is a Gaming program.

I haven't figured out the point to the Gaming program. When I flip past in the morning, it is always three hosts dressed in futuristic looking grey and red uniforms talking about games that are being played live, as far as I can tell. The game they comment on is a virtual capture the flag. I suppose it's like Call of Duty, but without the back story, changing maps, diverse weapons, and modern graphics. This capture the flag game consists of a red and a blue team that run around (read, hop around) with plasma blasters trying to steal the other teams flag. I doubt very seriously that this would be an interesting game to play; and I can't really understand why it's on everyday. Maybe it's just filling air space.

But that doesn't beat the local programming. I came across a gem involving food presentation and a beauty pageant. It was poorly dubbed in English, which made it even harder to stop looking at the train wreck. There were 20 beauty contestants all dressed up in glittery bikinis. There was an audience of men, who I can only imagine were going to vote on the winner - although I didn't stick around that long to find out. The portion I watched was some sort of food presentation challenge. The beauty contestants were given a theme and they had to arrange a dish and explain their logic.

The girl I saw had the theme "Chaos and Organization." She said of her dish, and I roughly quote from the poorly dubbed English, "My dish is chicken and crab. These things - tee hee hee - do not go together at all. Uhm. But, I think that the chicken and crab work very well together here, and - like the 20 contestants - bring unity to each other. And, tee hee hee, I hope that the 20 contestants here can be like the chicken and the crab and work together to bring unity even though we are very different."

I watched with mouth agape. Then flipped back to the news.

In other food news, there's a BLT Steak restaurant here. Christopher and I have wanted to try a Gordon Ramsey-owned restaurant, so I won't be trying it. Of course, we have to go together! But it was neat to see it, and the menu looked good from what I saw outside the restaurant.

I'm trying to take photos of what I eat while I'm here, and I'll put those together later for your viewing pleasure.

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I am writing to you from 14 hours in the future. And the future is humid. To get to this legendary place, you must first board a delayed plane, sit in an international-hub airport for 3 hours, board another plane, wait on the tarmac for an hour, then fly for 16 hours to arrive in the future. Once you get here, you'll become illiterate and resort to basic gestures and perhaps a little grunting as a means of communication. You may be disoriented, groggy, and/or dehydrated. And, you'll definitely have big frizzy hair.

I'm talking about Hong Kong of course. The flights themselves were uneventful, which is excellent since I spent 18-19 hours in the air. I haven't been here long, but I like it already. The city feels very alive with a plethora of shops, bars, restaurants, cafes, and convenience stores. I could do without the constant advice on what to eat and stories of how Westerners usually react to traditional Chinese food. But I think everyone gets a kick out of sharing these tips, so I let them.

I woke up to a foggy foggy day, and I knew it was going to be temperate, but I didn't imagine the humidity level. I put a receipt on the kitchen table and woke up to a fully curled piece of paper. Had I bought a brochure, I'm almost certain it wouldn't have been mentioned. And thus it is my duty to warn you. Don't straighten your hair in Hong Kong. It won't matter 5 minutes later.

I'll get back to you soon with stuff that I have actually done. For now, I'll leave you with a couple of photos.

This one is looking down from the 27th floor where I am to the street below.This one is Hong Kong on a foggy morning.

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Lexie circa 2001-2002 was in college and had a CD burner. I remember spending many hours - because that's how long it took - deciding which 15-20 songs I'd mash together on my CDRWs. This was also before Napster's immorality had been decided. So, as I begin the process of cleaning and packing for our upcoming move, I find myself relying on a very old binder of CDs. The ones I listen to more regularly are at work (and anything else comes courtesy of Pandora). So, I picked one out of the barrel entitled "Mix CD 2." I was quite creative, as you can see.

And now, I'll list for your entertainment, the 18 songs that I've been listening to as I am cleaning and packing. Lexie circa 2001-2002 didn't have bad taste. Although she really had no qualms whatsoever with mixing genres. And, I least I know all the words...

1. Jeremy
2. Desperately Wanting
3. Come as you are
4. Jack & Diane
5. You're Gone
6. Son of a Preacher Man
7. Jeremiah was a Bullfrog
8. Trouble Me
9. I'm Outta Love
10. Black Velvet
11. Lean on Me
12. Closer to Fine
13. I Try
14. Dust on the Bottle
15. Safe in the Arms of Love
16. Cumbersome
17. Sister
18. Whiskey in the Jar (Metallica)

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