Happy Birthday, King Monkey!

This week we attended a gigantic celebration for the 80th birthday of Dr Lawrence Hou (aka "猴子" / "Monkey"). Dr Hou is an active alumnus of our residence hall and, if the guest list to his birthday party is any indication, quite a prominent figure in Hong Kong. The party was held in the Grand Hall of Hong Kong's Convention and Exhibition Centre, a place we visited a little over a year ago for a similarly astonishing event.

Top billing on the Convention Centre's event board

Entering the reception area of Grand Hall...

...where the 1200+ guests mingled while waiting for the dinner call...

...and where the guest of honor (in bow tie and boutonnière) was patiently posing for pictures

Entering the Grand Hall

The motley crew of table 9

Seven of our hall residents (for whom Dr Hou is a mentor) were also in attendance

A standing ovation for King Monkey's entrance

Dr Hou receiving gifts from his family on-stage

Even with Dr Hou deservedly garnering so much attention, one of his guests might have been an equal amount (particularly from the younger females in attendance)...

Alex Fong (standing on the right), an Olympic swimmer turned actor/singer, gracefully receiving wave after wave of adoring fans

The whole event lasted a little under six hours, included a nine-course meal, and was chock-full of speeches and singing performances given by a host of Hong Kong celebrities. Truly a night to remember for King Monkey and his guests, and I'm so glad we could be a part of it.

Happy Birthday, King Monkey!

Surprise: some new food!

(...at least, new to me. :>)

Some highlights from a delicious meal we had last night in Prince Edward...

Caterpillar fungus (冬蟲夏草) served in double-steamed soup (燉湯)

The dark half (that I'm holding with my mouth) is the fungus, the other half is the caterpillar

Quail, also in double-steamed soup

Stewed duck (with taro, though that isn't pictured)

Stir-fried sweet potato shoots

It is becoming increasingly more difficult to find things that I haven't yet eaten here, but I know they're out there, so my quest continues.

Administrative note: After a little over two years of living in Hong Kong (and 220 blog posts), life has settled into a fairly stable routine, so the frequency of blog-worthy events (that aren't just slight variations of earlier events) has slowed down considerably. I'll still have eruptions of posts from time to time (during unique events, like when we have visitors), but the weekly posts will probably continue to taper off. The easiest way to keep up with them would be to plug the blog's RSS URL into an RSS reader/aggregator (like Google Reader). That way you don't have to continually check the blog for new posts, the posts will be pushed to you whenever they are made.

GameNight 6!

After almost exactly six months (last semester was just too busy), this weekend we finally hosted another GameNight! There weren't any classes this week (because of the Chinese New Year holiday), so most residents had gone home to spend time with their families, but we sill had over 30 people attend.

"Soup's on!"

I made about 5 gallons of Sally's famous chili (both beef and vegetarian versions) and we served it with toasted baguette...

Not easy to find in Hong Kong (except perhaps on hot dogs)

...but, as it turns out, it can be eaten in a rice bowl with chopsticks

I also made four peanut butter pies for dessert

Soon after our meal was finished, the games began...

Settlers of Catan and PlayStation 3 gamers coexisting peacefully

Practicing our acting skills with Moods

Concluding the first of two Settlers rounds

A riotous (and very close) game of Pictionary

The action lasted about 6 hours (ending around 1AM), so we opted to clean up later and hit the sack immediately...

"Good night!"

(Note for posterity: An hour before GameNight began, the line supplying our kitchen sink with hot water burst, so things were a little more exciting than we anticipated. It happened right beside the shut-off valve, though, so we were able to quickly stop the flow. About 50 minutes later we had all the water cleaned up and our guests weren't impacted at all. Close one. ;>)

It's corn AND it's chocolate!

Is it me, or does this brand need to work on their product naming...?

Not exactly the most subtle or appetizing name

It's a Japanese candy we found being sold specifically for people to use as a New Year gift and I just couldn't pass it up.

It tastes exactly like popcorn covered in white chocolate, so I suppose the name is at least accurate (well, for people who consider white chocolate to actually be chocolate). Tasty, but I still contend that the name needs help. ;>

Victoria Park's New Year Fair

Last year I had my first New Year Fair experience in Kwun Tong. This year we decided to up the ante and visit Causeway Bay's Victoria Park to see Hong Kong's largest New Year Fair...

Entering the fair with a few thousand of our buddies

These fairs are split in to two halves, "wet" and "dry", with the "wet" half selling mostly flowers (both cut and potted) and the "dry" half selling everything else (books, clothing, toys, etc).

This "wet" row is but one of many similar rows that stretched through the park

US$4 for a pot of orchids

It wouldn't be a New Year Fair without Nipplefruit!

One of the beautiful potted plants we brought home with us...

...which we had to promptly protect from Fui Fui (he loves to eat flowers)

Happy New Year once more!

Katherine, guest of honor...

This past Sunday, Katherine served as the guest of honor during two graduation ceremonies for primary school students enrolled in the i-Learner English program...

The ceremonies were held at Hong Kong Polytechnic University ("PolyU")

Katherine gave a short address...

...to the students and their parents

She also presented a number of awards

It was quite a lot of fun seeing the students get recognized for all their hard work!

Since this post is English-learning-related, I'll also share an amusing (though slightly creepy/disgusting) billboard ad that has been recently running around here...

"Not only will we teach you English, we'll tattoo your tongue!"

Following the ceremonies, we made our way to Katherine's parents' place for a pre-Chinese-New-Year celebration dinner...

The gang's all here!

Happy New Year!

It's that wedding time of year!

The last month has been rather uneventful, and un-blog-worthy, but we finally have something exciting to report: Hermann Yim, a good buddy of ours from our time in Ann Arbor, just tied the knot! (He and his wife now live in San Francisco, but they have lots of family and friends here, so they actually had ceremonies on both halves of the Earth.) We were honored to join them for their special day...

The wedding site: St Margaret's Catholic Church in Happy Valley

Last-minute boutonnière adjustments

Enter Wendy, the bride!

Hermann waits patiently

A beautiful setting for a beautiful ceremony

Rounding up batches of folks for pictures (after the ceremony)

We loved seeing Hermann again (not to mention meeting Wendy) and we're very much hoping to see them again before they fly back to the States.