Reality Hits

Sunday sucked me in. The apartment was beautiful. The views were captivating. The family had fun. Then Monday came.

Monday was the first day Steven went back to work. It was the kids and I against Hong Kong. We woke up and the clear skies had turned to a dense grey haze. If you didn’t know it was 90 degrees and 90 percent humidity, you’d grab a jacket to go outside. We are still living out of our suitcases and have no dressers or places to put stuff. I figured it was one of those times to plug in the kids and turn on the tv so I could power clean. So I turn on the boob tube, but the kids shows were all in Chinese. So I see if I can hook up our portable DVD player to the tv and accidently hit a button. So now I can’t hook up the DVD player and can’t get the tv to work anymore. So I figure I’d call Steven. I realize, I have no idea how to reach him. No phone numbers and he wasn’t able to access personal email at work. Meanwhile, I start to realize the kids and I are dripping sweat. But I can’t figure out the AC. The whole world was against me. Anything with a control button was Chinese to me. Then like a sign from heaven the phone rang. I knew it was Steven as that’s the only person I know here. I ran up the 20 steps to grab it. But didn’t know what phone to answer, the VOIP or the local phone. With one in both ears, I cried hello only to hear dial tones. It was my cell phone ringing and I was too late. We waited another hour till he called back.

Once he called we learned the trick to the AC (point the remote at a specific small spot) and got some phone numbers: mine and his. Now that I knew my phone number I called the one person I met in Hong Kong. While I was apartment shopping in April I met a mom named Betty at a coffee shop when I asked a question. Our whole meeting was 5 seconds long, but she gave me her info. So I called her. Turns out we were both planning on going swimming. So she invited us to the American Club to swim. We are waiting for our memberships so we couldn’t go on our own yet.

I have to say she turned a bad day good. The kids had a great time at the pool and loved the Eagle’s Nest. (Think playroom on steroids) We didn’t get back to the apartment till after 6 pm. After dinner, I couldn’t put the kids to bed fast enough as we’ve all been getting up around 4 am we’re pooped. Steven got home around 8.