Extreme Home Makeover: Living Room Edition

Well, since I'm here for another couple of years, I decided it'd be nice to make our place a bit more home-y, so over the last few weeks, Mary and I have made a few IKEA runs and have had fun doing some redecorating in our living room. We both really like how it turned out and it's so much more enjoyable to be home now. :) Here's the before....

and the after....

Junk Boat Birthday Celebration

Saturday night I headed out on a junk boat with some friends to celebrate two friends' birthdays. Even after living here for over two years, the harbor still amazes me. I can never have enough harbor pictures! :)

Beth, Abbey, and I

We cruised around the harbor and a bit into the sea for about 4 hours...eating, hanging out, trying not to get seasick :), gazing at the stars which are such a rarity in HK, and just taking in the beautiful night with friends.

Mary, Mel, and I

Mel, me, and the Birthday Queen, Cath :)

A "Ritzy" Birthday

I've often claimed I could probably live on sweets and this weekend I had the opportunity to do just that. Did my claim prove true? Read on for the verdict.Over the last two weeks or so, I've had 8 friends who've celebrated birthdays! That's made for lots of fun get togethers to celebrate. On Saturday, some girl friends at I headed to the Ritz Carlton to celebrate my friend Beth's 30th birthday with high tea, which was quite the experience. I was greeted in the lobby and then escorted straight from the 9th floor to the 103rd floor! The Ritz is now the world's tallest hotel (just a little fun fact for ya!). I'm definitely not used to being that "ritzy" (pun intended) but it was fun to act for a few hours! ;)

Maria, Beth (the b-day girl), Renata, Jen, Abbey, me, and Rachel

The "tea" was in the "Chocolate Library"... now, going into this I knew it wasn't going to be cheap, so I purposely didn't eat much that morning since we met at 4. If I was going to pay, I was going to be hungry! :) So, I was a bit surprised to discover that the whole "meal" was chocolate (minus one small item). Please note: surprised does not equal disappointed... just surprised! :)
On top of the 8 desserts and one other bread-appetizer, we got their signature hot chocolate. Wowwwweee! The first 5 sips of so were pure delight, as it was literally like drinking melted dark chocolate, but after 8 other chocolatey desserts, even this addict thought enough was enough!

It was a hazy day, but still a decent view if you got close enough to the window. :)

So...the verdict? Bring on the sugar! However, I do have to admit, I was craving some broccoli afterwards...

Gee, thanks kid! :)

Here's a peek into my day with a conversation with a student eating an Airhead during snack-time:

Student: "Ms. Neevel, did they have Airheads when you were a kid?"

Me: "Yup."

Student: "Wow, they're that old?"

Me: "How old do you think I am?"

Student: "Whoa!"

Gotta love 'em! :)

Camping

This weekend I was able to escape the city and hit the hiking trail to do some camping. I've been feeling a bit restless in Hong Kong lately, so this was just what the doctor ordered! :) It's so nice to be out in nature and away from the hustle and bustle of the city. We hiked about an hour and a half to the beach in the picture below and set up camp right on the sand.

We got there with just about 30 minutes of daylight left, so we quickly gathered some firewood, set up our tents and began to make a fire. The occasion for camping was to celebrate Maria's birthday, so I was trying to think of a way to bring a cake out there when a friend suggested these orange cakes....amazing! You cut the top off an orange and scoop out the orange (which is a good pre-dinner appetizer!) and then prepare cake batter, pour it in, put the top back on, wrap in aluminum foil, and cook in the fire for about 20-30 minutes. So easy and so tasty! :)

Beth, myself and Maria

After taking a beautiful boat trip back to Sai Kung, we decided to hit up Paisano's for some delicious NY style pizza!

What a great weekend! :)

A Subtle Hint?

Each day the 4th graders have a "Word of the Day" and there's a contest for who can write a "Super Sentence" using the WOTD. Today's word was "grace" and I laughed when I read this one, so I thought I'd share:

The teacher showed grace to all 28 students when they didn't finish their homework, even though they didn't deserve it, because the teacher was kind and don't want students to miss recess. I wish Miss Neevel is like that, too.

haha... Okay, maybe not such a subtle hint! I guess I'm just not a very kind person! :)

Is there such a thing as...

...senioritis for teachers?! haha... the weather is finally warming up here in HK. Today I think it got up to 84 degrees, so it's definitely starting to feel like summer. I'm getting anxious for some time at home in the States... speaking of which, I may be crazy but I just signed up for my first ever 1/2 marathon in July....can you say "yikes"?!?

P.S. I realize I'm a terrible blogger b/c I rarely write, but in my defense, I think about it a lot, but then just don't take the time to do it. I'll try to be better by just writing short blurbs, but I'm not making any promises. :)