We left on a Sunday morning and arrived in HK that same evening. As we walked out of security and into the area where people waited for their loved ones and friends, I was desperately trying to cover up my neck with my hair. For good reason.
I had a pretty large red spot on my neck. It was a sore... ringworm. We had been treating it with this extremely powerful healing shampoo. But instead of making it less obvious, it the shampoo had drawn out the ringworm around the small area and had made the skin around it extremely red. It honestly looked like a large hickey. It wasn't a hickey, but it looked like it. And I did not want people, even people I didn't know, getting the wrong impression. So, out I walked, trying to cover it with my hair (it was mucho painful), and gave Mikayla and Miriah Covington a hug. Of course the first thing that came to Mikayla's mind when she saw it was that it was a hickey. So I had to explain to her before her imagination went wild.
Then as we waited for the bus, they gave Torie and me our Octopus Cards. These cards each had money on them, and were to be used for buses, ferries, and sometimes small stores. After sitting for about ten minutes, we went outside to finish waiting for the bus. Luckily I noticed that my Octopus Card was missing. Miriah and Mikayla started freaking out 'cause they'd put a good amount of money on the card. I'm pretty sure I was more scared than they were though. Miriah went back inside and found it on the floor or on the seat I was sitting in, so all was good.
We rode the Airport Express bus back to the girls' house in their area of Discovery Bay. Then we ate at Subway for dinner. I got a 6-inch sandwich, but I probably could have gone for a foot-long. I had not really eaten all day. I'd had a banana before leaving for the airport, and a Starbuck's caramel frappachino in the Beijing airport. But other than that, I'd not eaten. ...Airplane food is not anywhere close to my list of favorite foods. At all. I'll just go without eating if it means I don't have to eat that food. ;) I did have a roll that was filled with bean-paste that was delicious. So, I finished my sandwich very quickly and filled up the rest of my stomach with two cookies and a cream soda.
About five years ago, Torie, Mikayla, Miriah, and I acted out and filmed our own silly version of "The Phantom of the Opera." It was extremely silly. Well I'd finally finished editing it on my computer, and had made it into a movie. I burned the movie on two discs (one for each of the Covington girls) and brought them with me to Hong Kong. We all decided to watch it that night. What can I say... It was a night full of laughter. Couldn't ask for much better.
The next day we decided to go to Hong Kong Disneyland. We probably would have gone on Wednesday had it not been for the fact that it was a holiday and there were supposed to be about half a billion people coming from Mainland China to Hong Kong. So we decided to go on Monday. The weather was good, so I'm glad we went. We rode all the rides (...all the good rides anyway): Space Mountain (we got the fast passes so we didn't have to wait long in line) twice, Grizzly Gulch, a ride in Toy Story Land, It's A Small World, and Astro Blasters. We also got our picture with Goofy. :D We were able to to go every show... "The Festival of the Lion King" and "The Golden Mickeys" and also an interactive theater show with Stitch. Oh, and we got to see the parade, too. By the time we finished everything, it was about 5:30 pm. This also meant that there was still about 2 1/2 hours before the fireworks and none of us really felt like sitting for 2 1/2 hours. So we just all went back to DB and had dinner.
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| "It's a Small World" |
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| "The Golden Mickies" show |
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| The parade. :) I loooove Eeyore and Tigger. |
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| Simbaaaaa <3 |
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| "The Festival of the Lion King" show <3 |
On Tuesday we went swimming in the morning and then took a ferry to the main island in the afternoon. It started pouring down rain though, so we didn't stay for very long.
On Wednesday, I'm pretty sure Aunt Brenda and her friends tried to kill us. At 10:00 in the morning, we left on a hiking trip. Thank goodness it was cloudy and looked like rain so we only did the 1 1/2-hour hike instead of the 3-hour one. Unfortunately for me, I'd not been hiking in a very very long time, and this particular hike was pretty much straight up and straight down. Let's just say.. I found out just how out of shape I really was. We rewarded ourselves afterwards with yummy food. ;)
Thursday and Friday were probably the worst days I had in Hong Kong, only because I was sick with a headache and fever. I spent most of Thursday sleeping, and quite a bit of Friday as well. By Saturday, I was feeling a lot better. We watched American Idol auditions all day (...we needed to laugh) and then went to the main island to eat dinner with Miriah's friend Mark and another friend we'd met about four years back, Matthew. Matthew was a counselor at a TCK camp we all attended in 2009. After dinner, we all went up to a place called the Peak. It's pretty much the #1 location tourists go to in Hong Kong.
On Sunday, Counter Clockwise (our 4-girl band consisting of the Covington girls, Torie, and myself) performed a special a cappella song. The rest of the day was spent relaxing... It was our last day with the Covingtons.
All in all, it was a very good trip... I got my visa (though, not the kind I thought I was getting), and we had a wonderful time with the Covingtons. There were up and down moments... Last Fall, the Covingtons' had a loss in their family when their dad and husband passed away. They're still adjusting to their new lifestyle without him, and their grieving process if far from over. But God is giving them the strength to overcome different obstacles as they come. And He's also placed people in their lives who have helped them immensely. It was good to see God working like that in the lives of my friends. :)
Torie and I are now back in Yanji, and the Covingtons are not far behind us. They'll arrive in Yanji in about 2 weeks for Mikayla's graduation. Can't wait to see them again! :)
