A full week...

This week has been nearly non-stop for both Katherine and I, so I thought I'd round up all the action into a single digest. Let's walk through it day-by-day...

Monday: During a conference at the Chinese University of Hong Kong the previous weekend, Katherine met Jennifer Heung and her sister Angela. Jennifer is an assistant professor of Anthropology at Saint Mary's College who independantly discovered our film, purchased it, and now uses it in her curriculum. Katherine uncovered this when she overheard Jennifer tell other conference attendees about a "great Hong Kong code-mixing documentary". When Katherine inquired further, thinking that she was going to get a lead on some new material for her own classes, she found out that Jennifer was referencing our own work. Amazing! On Monday, we took Jennifer and Angela out to dinner and then to a nearby dessert shop that we hadn't tried yet...

Angela is on the left, Jennifer the right

I decided that this would be a great opportunity to show you a Hong Kong dessert shop menu, so here are both sides from this shop...

Tuesday: Katherine's parents asked us if we would like to join them on a trip to Shenzhen to visit some extended family. We hadn't been to mainland China since moving to Hong Kong, and I have never been, so this seemed like the perfect opportunity! In order for me to go, though, I needed to secure a Chinese visa. For that, we went to the Wan Chai branch of "China Travel Service" and submitted my application with a few required documents (passport, Hong Kong ID, and picture). In return, they gave me a receipt, which I'll use to claim both my passport and new visa once the processing is complete...
Afterwards we decided to head to Ebeneezer's Kebab, a local Indian + Middle Eastern fast food chain (with a branch in Wan Chai) that came highly recommended to us by one of our Hall residents...

I was famished, and couldn't wait to pose for a picture, so I just ripped into my chicken kebab pita wrap with cougar-like ferocity...

Wednesday: Wednesday night was the School of English end-of-semester party (and a farewell party to some faculty who are moving elsewhere for the next phase of their careers), so Katherine and I got gussied up and spent a few hours there. After it was over, a subset of the attendees went out for a little dessert, but we didn't bring our camera. :(

Thursday: A day of rest! Or, at least, a day we didn't go out. I was on a work-related conference call until midnight, so I suppose it wasn't exactly "restful". ;>

Friday: Dinner (Shanghainese) and a movie ("The Day the Earth Stood Still") at Cyberport with Katherine's brother. Also a day we didn't bring the camera out. :(

Saturday: We started Saturday by having our residental tutors (somewhat like RAs - they are graduate students or HKU staff that live among the residents and provide hands-on guideance) over for brunch. Two of the tutors couldn't make it, but we had a great time with those who did...

After brunch, Katherine and I took three of our residents (one from Xi'an, one from the Phillipenes, and one from Macau) to an eye-opening and heart-wrenching exhibition in Sham Shui Po which focused on the unimaginable lives of "cage-dwellers". First, we toured the museum-like exhibits...
...and then we joined a walking tour of Sham Shui Po to learn more about its facinating history...

Sunday: The winter solstice and Dongzhi (a Chinese holiday) meant a day focused on food, friends, and family! First we had one of Katherine's best friends, along with her family, over for lunch...
...and then we went to Katherine's parents' apartment (the old one - they haven't yet moved into their new one) for a feast...

(and this didn't even include the two fish Katherine's mother was still steaming!)

With a very satisfying week in the books, there was nothing else to do but collapse...