Hong Kong!!

So instead of doing school work - like I should be doing.. I decided to procrastinate a little and post pictures on here of our HK trip and give you both highlights!!!
Above is the Ruins of St. Paul! We visited Macau for two days - stayed overnight one day in dad's seminary. This was the hottest place EVER!! Neverending layer of sweat, hot, humidity, blah... I scrubbed myself down twice and extra hard in the shower to try and get it all off !!

Our first but not last Udon Fun (s??) meal!! Yum yum, Love those noodles and fish balls!! This was a local noodle shop that was famous for it's fish balls!

View from Victoria's Peak! We stayed here until nighfall to watch the light show!

I don't remember where exactly this was located... near Mong Kok, but it was a park built to resemble a Classical Chinese Garden. Beautiful Place!!

On Kowloon Side- In the background is the tallest building...The World Trade Center

More to come later....!!!!

The Greek vs. the Chinese

So Sharon, which is better?
Greek or Chinese food?

missin you!

Haikus and a Rhyme

Labor, breath, Push! PUSH!

That was hard but this is worse;

I so hate moving.

Recipe: Nightmare
Baby, toddler, add packing
and heat wave: Presto!

Screaming, yelling, AAAHHHH!

Evie has a brand new sound

I call it "screlling"

Not a haiku, just a rhyme I thought up while packing: 

Boxes, boxes everywhere

Styrofoam peanuts in my hair

Will you ever find this again? 

Oh, who cares?  Just throw it in!

All the contents of my life

Wrapped up, out of sight.

Hands, legs and back sore from all the packing,
Laying here because I'm tired, not slacking!
Friends, My lesson has been learned:

Next time we move, we are going to pay somebody.

Where is Doris and Sharon?

So Doris,...
How is the moving going!?
Has it happened yet?  Or is it happening as we speak????

Thinking of you....can't wait to see you in a month! Give the babes kisses from me.  And tell them Auntie Lillian has present for them when they get here!
i told ER that they would be here for her Birthday party.  She now thinks you guys are coming from Pilly JUST for her and her B-Day party!

xoxo lil

Sharon,...eat Dim Sum and chicken feet and think of me.  Yum...the red chicken feet.  Not the white ones.
I love those.  When you are sitting in a crammed noodle shop on teeny chairs and small table with people pressed all around you...and you slurp those glorious noodles.....pray that I can taste it too as I stack my bread on my PB&J.  And eat some Lichee for me.....and stay away from the stinky fruit.  yuk.
Give mom and dad lots of hugs and kisses for me.  And when you loop your arm around mom's arm...like two school girls, tell her I miss her dearly!!!

I want to see pics of every meal you eat!  Maybe it will help me to feel like I participated in the eating. 
And pics of every where you go!  Even the gross Hong Kong sidewalks, and streets filled with people and their opened umbrellas shielding the sun.

xoxoxo lil

Pictures!!!!

The Mediterannean Ocean
View is along the edge of Hydra Island I believe. We also went to the beach three times and got to swim in it! One beach had natural black pebbles instead of sand.

The Island of Hydra - where they only use donkeys and bicycles to travel around!! Our favorite Island we visited on our island hopping day!

The Parthenon! Amazing!! Being worked on for preservation.

At the top of the Samarian Gorge - Europe's Grand Canyon. We hiked from the top of this mountain down inside it, through the Gorge- passing old cities and churches that are now ruins or maintained by the National Park - walked out of the Gorge and through town all the way to the ocean. Took us from 7 am to 2pm ( no lunch break) !! It was exhausting but beautiful!!

View from our hotel in Crete of the port city Chania. We LOVE this place!!! Ate lots of delicious seafood in Crete!

I am in the process of trying to make a photo book of Greece - so you can see more later!!!

Happy 6 Month!

Happy 6 Month Birthday Issac!
I can't wait to see you in a month!!!

Doris- I am seriously so sad that I have missed his first 6 months.  When you were talking to Ryan the other night and I heard him say Issac was 6 months, I really did think I was going to cry.

But don't you worry Issac!
When I see you in August I will hold you and kiss you and smother you with Chinese Auntie Love like you have never experienced!!!

Love you guys!
xoxoxox   lillian

Kalimera!!

That is how you say good morning in Greek. Our tour guide would usually greet us with this every morning on our tour bus and continue to talk about the day's agenda when all everyone wanted to do is sleep!! So highlights of the trip: in Athens we stayed in the city ..... we saw a demonstration by the communist party, stumbled upon the bank that was burned down during riots (very sad), visited the Acropolis ( Parthenon!!), took boats out to several very lovely little islands where you actually see the white houses on the hillside with blue roofs!!, saw the port of Corinth where Paul visited from a distance... In Crete we stayed in the port town of Chania... it was gorgeous, our hotel was right off the port and within walking distance of the lighthouse, small town with lots of little open air retaurants - loved this place!!......we visited ruins of the Palace of Knossos, felt an earthquake - 4.5 on the richter scale, went to the beach several times and took a dip into the cold mediterannean ocean, saw folk dances and listened to folk music, hiked the Samarian Gorge - 11 mile hike, went on a bicycle ride through the countryside- orange orchards and olive orchards and old gree grandmothers waving at us saying kalimera!! On a rocky backroad, I hit a rock and fell as I was trying to correct myself, this was the last day of the trip, so currently nursing a really nasty banged up knee.
Dogs and cats are allowed to roam free in Greece and are protected by the government, so dogs would be laying around in random places on the street in the middle of the day - you would step around them and their poop all over the sidewalk... cats would crowd around you when you sat down for a meal.. not all the time, but at most places....
We devoured delicious greek salad, greek yogurt with quince ( kinda like a nice smooth jam - my fav was with rose petals - i bought some!!), lots and lots of gyros, soulvaki( grilled meat and veggis.. kinda like what would go inside a gyro but separated and without a pita) and seafood- I had lots of shrimp! Lon drank a frappe daily- an iced coffee made from nescafe, sugar and i think evaporated milk?.. not sure but delicious!! and.....Many of the kids devoured alcohol!!! Major craziness ensued as a result of this... the drinking and blantant disrepectful behaviour got so bad that we contacted the school and the president of our school threatened the drinkers, who were all graduated seniors, with a letter to their colleges explaining their behaviour and that it was not exemplory of a Webb student. After that things calmed down to a 'working' relationship.. they didn't go crazy in front of us as much, but i bet they did when we were not around. There were still so many great students, who relaly loved and enjoyed the trip for what it had to offer culturally and artistically!
Overall the trip was a whirlwhind of wonderful and extremely frustrating experiences, extreme exhaustion and lack of sleep and delicious food! I brought a little bit of Greece back for the both of you! I will try and post a pic later!