Merry Christmas from Hong Kong!

After my whirlwind trip to Thailand, I was ready to slow down and have a relaxing Christmas in Hong Kong. Of course, this didn't happen.

The next day, Wenli and I immediately went to Shenzhen China to pick up the last of our clothes we had tailored. My sweater turned out wonderfully - I've lived in it for the past few days. Wenli's jacket had some weird stuff on it though, and the tailors were going to make HER pay to get it drycleaned but I badgered them in English into doing it themselves. Crack smokers.

Anyways, we then ran off to Mong Kok to meet with Antonette and hang around the mall.
Antonette's China visa had expired and considering we were going to Guilin in 2 days, she had to rush off and get a new one.

Anyways, after much phoning around, we finally decided to all meetup at Shatin and go see the newest Harry Potter movie. The bastard theater though decided that since HP was such a popular movie, they'd tack on an extra $10 to each ticket. Including student discount tickets. Bastards! The theater was so full that were weren't even able to get seats together, we got 4 separate seats spread throughout the theater. It was worth it though. :) (Is it just me? Or do the deatheaters resemble the KKK?)

The next day, I went to Kowloon Tong with Antonette so she could buy a winter jacket for our China trip. We ended up picking up food at a Western/Chinese grocery store for a pseudo-Christmas dinner too. We had a good time and soon fled back to I-house.

This was going to be Peggy's first time having a Christmas dinner. She got to learn how to make mashed potatoes... And that's really the only "homemade" thing she got to learn. Since we couldn't bake our own turkey, we had purchased a pre-cooked "korean style chicken," stove top stuffing (mom, I died a little when I made this stuff), packaged gravy, a jar of cranberry sauce... Hell, we were in such a hurry, even our salad was a pre-made salad!

Anyways, as you can see from the photos... Our Christmas dinner (which was actually held on Christmas eve) was uber-ghetto. We didn't want to wash more dishes than we had to, so we kept everything in pots and so on. We even watched a movie on my laptop while we ate because that's what you do in Asia - watch TV whi;le you eat. :)

After dinner, we fled out to see the Christmas lights in Hong Kong. It was supposed to be a big deal of some sort, so we went to Central. However, it seemed like the rest of Hong Kong had the same idea. My respect for the Crowd Control section of the police headquarters has risen ten-fold. I've never seen such a placid crowd of people being herded from location to location.

As for the lights themselves, they were kind of boring. There were only a few buildings (maybe like 7) that had big displays on their sides. Luckily Peggy, Antonette, and I had been struck by the brilliant idea of taking the Star Ferry across the harbour to reach Tsim Sha Tsui, and were able to see all the lights fairly easily. My favourite display of all though belonged to the Peninsula Hotel. It was simple but very elegant.

Getting home was a nightmare because half the streets and sidewalks were closed! And whenever we found an entrance to the MTR, it was blocked off and we'd be herded into a different direction. Gah!

After we finally managed to get back home (yay! We caught the last shuttle to I-house! I think that was the universe's gift to me for x-mas - not having to walk up the mountain), we ended up flaking out on the couch and watching movies until 4:30am.

At around 5am, I figured I'd be a smart cookie and do a pre-emptive strike on my family. I assumed they'd phone me the next morning and wish me a Merry Christmas, so I figured I'd call them then and there so I'd be able to sleep in the next morning. :) I didn't take into account my mom's and sister's ability to Christmas shop up till the last second, or the time difference making my dad be at work when I called. Oh well, my plan still succeeded and I was able to sleep in the next morning.

Unfortunately, on Christmas day, Wenli's mom and boyfriend had come to visit. 5 minutes after I woke up, the phone rang and Peggy gives me warning that Wenli and her entourage will be coming over to meet us in about 5 minutes. GAH! There go the pajamas, hair into a ponytail, blanket thrown over the bed, etc. And I still hadn't packed for my trip to Guilin.

Thus was my Christmas Eve/Day. All my photos of the day(s) can be found here. :) Happy Holidays y'all!