Author: travelingexpatfamily

After a couple of weeks of online school, we knew this wasn’t going to work, and our flights back to China kept getting cancelled so we weren’t expecting to go home anytime soon. We finally got a hold of one customer service person who told us the American was cancelling all flights until at least April (hahaha). So we decided we needed to enroll Alex in the local school to keep him caught up. Let me just say, enrolling a kid in school when their last school was in China is a trip.

We needed so much paperwork, including an original birth certificate, that we have in a “vital document” folder…. in China. The first hurdle was trying to get the birth certificate because we had to order it from Illinois, and they apparently don’t let just anyone have a copy. We asked the school if they could accept a copy until we could get the original–no. Then it was vaccines, Alex has been fully vaccinated, but one shot was given a month too early, so he had to get another shot to make it legit for Florida. My dad had to write a letter saying we were living with them because while it’s our “permanent address” we don’t have a lease or mortgage to prove it. We had to get copies of his grades from China( they don’t use letter grades here). They couldn’t/wouldn’t accept certain forms of identification… and despite all my complaints here, I know we still had it easier than lots of other folks.

In the end, we were able to enroll him, but one of the forms we filled out asked something about why we were changing living in the middle of the year and we asked what we should mark down for it. The secretary at the school said to mark down “temporarily sharing the housing of others due to economic hardship” , and then we crossed it out and put due to pandemic. (Now it’s actually a sub category on the form to fill out- I checked the form to make sure I got the wording right). And low and behold, Alex is given free lunches and offers of counseling because we are refugees, and in a way we were, but not really. He’s put in a 4th grade class, and off he went- no hesitation, just ready to go. He liked his class a lot, made a couple of friends his first day and I think really enjoyed being in a classroom again.

The school was great, not too hard but challenging enough to be good for him. He had a small set back with triangles his first couple of days because they hadn’t learned those yet in China and he had missed the lessons in Florida. The school even had a fundraiser event the second or third weekend we were there and he got to go play games and do activities at the school.

While we were back in the US, and Alex’s school here in China was going online due to the pandemic there, we tried to keep him on track with online school. The main problem with that is with a 12 hour time difference, Alex couldn’t watch the lessons so he was only doing homework, and that makes it hard to keep up. So for the first couple of weeks it was a little bit of homework and a lot of freetime. And since I still thought this was going to be temporary, I didn’t push too hard on it either. Instead we took advantage of the pool, seeing the sights around town, and even a party boat fishing trip.

Just me and Alex went fishing this time, I was so excited to have some one on one time with my son- so we packed a cooler and headed out. Since the last time we were on a party boat I got really seasick, my stepmom got me set up with a “quease ease” pen and I took dramine before and brought ginger tablets too- this was also part of the reason Alex and I went alone- Mark was sick last time as well. We get to the boat and start our adventure-we met a nice couple from Minnesota sitting next to us, and Alex basically got one or two tries at a fish and then started to feel bad. He had never been seasick before, but the boat was bobbing all over the place.

Such a nice view leaving the harbor– and I know for Florida folks (my stepmom included) it was chilly, but to me and Alex it was perfect weather for a boat!

He also had on this fishing shirt he had bought to match my dad, and he was so disappointed he didn’t catch anything because he felt like he didn’t deserve his shirt. Poor kid ended up throwing up for most of the ride back to shore and had to sit with all the other people who were sick. Next time we’ll give him some dramamine too, just to be on the safe side. No fish were caught by anyone that day so it was a bit of a bummer in general. The fishing party boat that my parents took us out on, right before we left for China, was a much better experience.

My dad and stepmom had tickets to go to Italy not long after we arrived, but due to the spreading pandemic and not knowing what would happen or if they would be able to get back if they left- they decided to cancel the trip. Instead they took a trip to Hawaii that mirrored our Hong Kong trip, ok in the beginning and by the end lots of things were closed due to Covid. They were able to get there and back ok though, and while they were gone we watched the dogs. Alex loved walking them, me a little less so. I’m not sure if I’ve shared this on here before but mosquitos love me, like really love me. So in Florida, everytime I stepped outside I would get eaten up. I still have scars all over my legs and arms (although not as bad as some of Mark’s!) And Alex had maybe 5 bites total the whole time we lived there.

The dogs are good dogs and aside from having a thing against anything with wheels, aren’t bad to walk with. Alex misses his dog friends, and honestly his dock friends too. The pictures above were taken at a dock not far from my parents’ house, and when he walked with the dogs and my stepmom down to the docks, he made tons of friends– none within 40 years of his age, but tons of friends!

I took Alex, after researching it quite a bit, to San Marco island to find seashells. Collecting seashells at the beach has always been a favorite of mine, and despite being on many beaches, he’s never really been anywhere with good shells. We drove through the Everglades to get to the Gulf side of Florida, and had to time it right with the tides coming in or you can get stuck going the really long way to get off the island.

We had a good day, brought a picnic lunch, we didn’t find too many shells though. This is an island for serious shellers and by the time we got there it was already picked clean– and Alex wanted to play in the water more than shell with me.

I didn’t get a picture, but the seagulls were crazy aggressive at this beach, we had a bag of cheetos that wasn’t opened yet and they manged to rip it open and steal our chips. That was enough to get Alex out of the water!

As a complete foil to me and the beach, Alex and Mark went ice skating. While I was in Uganda, the boys went to Shanghai and one of the things they did together was go ice skating, so Alex wanted to try again. We found a rink not too far from my parents’ house and gave it a go.

His favorite thing is to sit on the seal and have Mark push him around the rink.

A boy and not really his dog. My parents’ got Clancy a couple months before we got there, and Alex really took to him. My stepmom has had collies for Alex’s whole life and both sets of dogs made a big impression on him. Clancy would sometimes come in while we were reading books at bedtime and snuggle up with Alex.

You would think we posed them, but this was just a regular Tuesday Night.

Our last day in Hong Kong was tense to say the least. Our flight back home to Haining had been cancelled, and after a lot of deliberation about where to spend our couple of weeks of time away from home we bought tickets to Miami to visit my Dad and Stepmom. We discussed Thailand, but the thought of a hotel room for a month while we tried to get work done was not the greatest.

Our first flight to Miami got cancelled, so we tried another flight, and spent several hours on the phone with American Airlines customer service trying to find a flight out. In the end we got on the last Cathay Pacific Flight leaving for San Franscisco, we wore our masks the whole flight and when we got to San Fran- no one checked our temperatures or asked where we were coming from or anything.

We had a couple of hours layover in San Fran, only then realizing that we were flying into Miami from San Fran on the eve of the Superbowl taking place in Miami between the 49s and Kansas City Chiefs. Our flight to Miami was full of superbowl fans heading to the game and we were too tired to be excited for them.

It was weird to be on the plane with everyone with no masks on, it had only been a week of wearing them at that point, but it already seemed normal. My dad picked us up at the airport and it was like we had just come for a normal visit, we talked about things we could do while we were visiting- all with the idea that this was a short term arrangement.

My dad had this super fun idea to get a do-it-yourself rootbeer kit. Alex (and I) love root beer and it’s not something we can get in China -well we can get it but only at ridiculous prices.

The science guys working through the steps of root beer.

Four full bottles of root beer and a good time spent with grandpa!

Two happy guys!

We also went down for a trip to the Keys, along the way is the dive museum and Dad was really excited to take Alex. Here he’s explaining something about a thing in the parking lot (I can’t remember what it was though)

I loved this stained glass window, a friend of mine (Brooke!) and I once thought about taking a stained glass window making class and looking at this I regret not taking it. I’d love to be able to make something like this.

Alex in an old school diving helmet in the lobby of the museum.

His clipboard has a scavenger hunt for things to find in the musuem. Along with things like certain gear, there were playmobile divers hidden in some exhibits to find.

Sitting inside Halley’s diving bell

It was hard to pull him away from this submarine section, he would have stayed all day.

A look out in a fish tank, I don’t know who had the most fun with this, but the grandparents got in on this too.

Mark by the diving suit that looks like Robbie the Robot from Lost in Space

Dad by the Bioshock Big Daddy looking dive suit

After the dive museum, we went to one of the Key’s must do spots- Mr C’s ice cream. I have this same picture from 4 years ago with my Dad in Mark’s spot.. it was funny to see how much Alex had grown between the two pictures.

We stopped at a diner on the way back to Miami for lunch, and took a family picture to send to our other parents who were all in cold snowy areas.

It was weird to be back under the circumstances, but we were happy, and safe. Alex was thrilled to be back with Riley (their dog) and this time her brother Clancy has joined the family. He had two dog buddies and couldn’t have been happier.

The last days in Hong Kong were unusual, the virus was becoming daily discussions, we started getting messages from people back in Haining about closing roads into town. Mark and I started making exit strategies, Hong Kong is lovely but expensive and the idea of spending an extended time in a hotel there had us seeing $$$$. Our flight back to China got cancelled, and then our replacement flight to China got cancelled, and we started to think of where we could go next since we couldn’t get home.

To keep ourselves occupied in this fantastic city, and also to keep Alex from getting anxious, we decided to keep going as planned, and once he was asleep we would start discussing our next options.

As our family does…. we found a cat cafe. The mask actually made my time there a little more enjoyable, I wasn’t so sneezy and like always, I made friends with the derpiest cat there. I don’t know how they find me, or why they like me, but they always do.

At the time it was still kind of funny to be wearing masks, and not everyone was, but most people were. We were still getting used to them and never thought at this point that we would be wearing them for a long time after.

Alex has his dad’s way with cats, and he wants to be friends with all of them (and all dogs too).

This cafe had a wall of post it notes written by customers about the Hong Kong protests. I have thought for a long time what I would write about the protests and I am aware that I need to be careful what I write as certain sentiments could get Mark in trouble. We had a lot of discussions about the protests before we went to Hong Kong, wanting to keep Alex away from violence, knowing that Mark could not be seen or photographed at any protest at the risk of losing his job…. but I had an idea of what I would do if needed. (We had similar discussions recently in our own country about what we would do). We avoided areas that protests were scheduled, we saw a limited amount of graffiti about the protests, and luckily avoided needing to put any plans into action.

All this to say that I photographed the wall, and individual messages on the wall because I felt like that was an important moment in time and documenting it felt right to me.

We don’t know why this cat has a police dog vest on, he seemed to have some mange type skin issues going on, so maybe it was meant to keep him from fussing at it. There were a few cats at this one that wanted nothing to do with anyone and basically had a note in the menu saying leave them alone.

This is my derpy cat friend, he’s got a serious overbite and something wrong with the left side of his face. But he is a nice cat and spent most of the time just hanging out right there by my feet.

Mark the cat whisperer, he just sat back and suddenly there is a cat in his arms….

Alex is more than a little miffed that his dad stole all the cats…. and not for the first time either.

On the way to one of our last Hong Kong adventures, we saw this lady walking along next to us- you may have seen this picture in the news- if they zoomed out, we were walking about two feet to the right of her and saw the guy take this picture (which I then lifted off the news website). This was before things got really crazy in Hong Kong and China, and there were more stories of people making face shields and stuff out of household items. And this picture has her looking so serious but she took another one with thumbs up and smiling. I’ve kept the news caption below the picture as it gives credit to the photographer.

Since Hong Kong Disney was off the table (Mark was willing to go to make me happy, but he was also happy he didn’t have to) this was my one “Thing I Really Want To Do That Will Make Me Happy” I wanted to go on a junk boat ride. Junk Boats are the boats we all think of when you think of Hong Kong (or even South East Asia in General). It’s the black boats with the red sails, that look a bit like a lizard fin. They used to be every where in the harbors, but over the years they’ve become less practial compared to other transports and are mostly just used for tourists now.

The company we went with has a night tour of the area that coordinates with the light show around the city put on twice a night. It’s got a very vinatage vibe to it, it feels like the 1920’s on the boat. Because it was a little chilly, we even got blankets to put over our laps while we cruised the harbor.

My boys on the boat, waiting for everyone to get seated so we could take off. I was so thrilled to be doing this, even if it was a bit cold.

Alex was so thrilled with his blanket, but by the end was complaining of being cold and had Mark’s blanket around his shoulders too.

The boat moved a lot faster than I was expecting so we got a bit of a wind going too, it was a little hard to get some of the pictures that I wanted to as well.

As far as endings go, this was a pretty great way to round out an interesting trip.

Hong Kong is known for any number of things, scenic views, neon lights, and definitely dim sum. Of course Mark, being who he is, found us one of the best places to have dim sum. From the outside it doesn’t look like much, kind of a diner feel to it, but that’s what made it good.

These are meat filled buns, not steamed like I was used to, but maybe baked? They were delicious and definitely worth the walk to find the restaurant.

It was kind of perfect because a lot of the dishes came in groups of three so we all had a chance to try them.

Here we had turnip cakes and shrimp wontons- I liked the turnip cakes more than I was expecting… Alex didn’t mind that there were only two of those, he did not want anything to do with that.

Shrimp dumplings and char siu buns- chinese barbeque pork filled buns

Above is a spinachy dish, which was very fresh and delicious, and below is a pork and shrimp dumpling.

After eating all that food, it was a great time to take a walk and see some sights. We found a famous garden to go see, Nan Lian Garden and it was a perfect post lunch way to spend the day. This was an interesting time too because Hong Kong hadn’t had many cases yet, but there was a distinct tension around. From an area that had been hit hard by SARS, they took the threat of this new virus very seriously.

Wooden models of some of the buildings of the garden, they are very detailed, and made by hand, there were also models of other buildings that we didn’t see while we were there.

This guy has the hard job of holding up the roof of the building- I only thought to look for these guys because of the model buildings. In the models there was a similar guy in every corner, so when we got outside, I checked every building for a totem holding the ceiling up.

I think along with the zoo, this was my favorite place in Hong Kong– It was peaceful and calm, beautiful buildings, and even a store full of rocks– really pretty decorative rocks, but still rocks. I didn’t get a picture in there because you weren’t allowed, but it honestly made me want to buy a rock.

I don’t know why you can’t get close to the little pagoda, it was bright yellow and looked so very inviting, but the bridge on this side was closed and the walkway on the other side was blocked off as well.

Everywhere you turn here, there was something beautiful to see. This fountain statue has information carved into the base, latitude and longitude, something about the sun, It was educational as well as pretty to look at.

My masked up boys, still enjoying the lack of smiling

I never know the right name for this creature, is it a lion? Is it a dog? Is it a dragon? This one looks more like a dog to me, but I think it’s still a lion. This one is a male, but there is usually a female counterpart sitting on the other side of the entrance. How do I know it’s a male? Because there is a ball under its front paw, and a female lion will have a baby lion(dragon, dog thing) under its front paw. I will share Alex’s joke that he learned from a professor here…. ” You can tell that its a female because they take care of the babies, and because guys always play with their balls.” He’s had a colorful education here being with adults all the time, Alex loves this joke and tells everyone he can, regardless of the audience or situation!

This was a little bonsai garden right outside the rock store, in the picture below you can see some of the decorative rocks in the background that they sell, except inside the store were gorgeous rocks with an almost turquoise color mineral running through them.

I really like the water wheel here, and the water fall in the picture below- I know I’m not alone in this, but the sound of moving water is very calming for me. I could sit by this area all day and enjoy the warmth of the sun, the slow moving water and people watch.

I’ve become really interested in the Chinese Phoenix- I think they’re beautiful and I like the concept behind the phoenix and rebirth from the ashes. I think I prefer the brightly colored versions more than the stone statues though.

There was a big pond in the middle of the garden with tons of Koi fish, I tried repeatedly to find this one huge Koi that was black with orangey gold accents, but every time I would have him in focus he would dart away.

So I had to settle for taking pictures of other beautiful Koi. Again these were all taken with my new camera from Mark, and I was amazed at the zoom I was able to get without losing any of the crispness of the picture. I don’t do ads or anything, but honestly, this is the best camera I’ve ever owned and if you’re in the market for one, hit me up and we can chat about it.

There were tons of fish around, but I didn’t see anyone feeding the fish.

This golden orange guy is my consolation prize for the black Koi I couldn’t capture. He was bright and shiny but a little slow so I could finally get a nice in focus picture of him.

Every where you looked there were hidden things around the garden to catch your eye, I don’t know if there is a meaning behind having this dragon above a door, but I imagine it’s for safety or luck or protection.

I have not seen a dragon statue quite like this one before, it’s actually on a pedestrian overpass looking down on the road beneath.

Attached to the garden, or more adjacent to the garden is the Chi Lin Nunnery, built as a retreat for Buddhist Nuns. It’s all done, the garden too, in the style of the Tang Dynasty- which seems to be an aesthetic I’m fond of.

Chrysanthemums are often seen in Buddhist temples as offerings- I thought these yellow ones were the perfect shade of yellow.

Water lilies and dragons in the fountain, these are a few of my favorite things.

I know the pink and purple of the lilies above and below look photoshopped, but I promise they aren’t. These were some of the brightest and most vibrant lilies I’ve ever seen.

The building of the Nunnery is Tang Dynasty too, and I love the attention to detail on the roof, they didn’t leave anything plain. It reminds me of the craftsman style in the US.

Another one of my guys holding up the roof. Each one is a little different too, with a unique look and personality.

This picture below is a picture of the light fixture around the temple, I thought it was such a good representation of the temple and the garden echoed back in something as small as the light fixture.

And used again here in the cover of the storm drain. It seems a little silly to get excited about a storm drain, but the thought that someone put in to having all these little matching details that most people wouldn’t notice– it makes me love this place even more.

All in all, this was a pretty spectacular day in HK- a lot of things that had been on our tourist list of things to do were closed, but we found more gems like this to spend our time. I can’t remember where we ate dinner this night, Mark is reminding me of places I only vaguely remember. One night we went to Indian around the corner from our hotel, it was good but not amazing. One night we had burgers around the corner from the hotel, good but very expensive… one of my favorite dinners in all of HK though was when we went to Tesco and picked up bread and cheese and some salad stuff , and we had a movie party in our hotel room with Alex and watched Singing in the Rain with him.

First, I’m going to love on my husband a bit, the camera he bought me for Christmas is the best. I love the pictures I’ve been able to take with it and I’m constantly surprised by the zoom on this thing.

The second day we started to make some plans for what to do, and everything we were thinking about was closed so we decided to pick up some lunch stuff and go to a garden in the middle of HK.

As soon as the cab dropped us off there were flowers lining the road.

I don’t know what these purple flowers are, but I want to try to recreate them in icing for a cake, they are beautiful!

Hibiscus of different colors, I love hibiscus almost as much as plumeria

This gate was at the beginning of the garden- It made me realize we don’t hear much about China or their contribution/part in WWII. So I spent a bit of time after this trip looking it up and including finding a Chinese movie with Bruce Willis in it called Air Strike- the movie was a bit awful, but it did set me on to other movies about China in WWII like Empire of the Sun.

You can’t see it, but Mark is making his regular face under the mask, this is a different type of Lion statue than we have seen before.

Nestled back in the plants was a little stone lantern, that I had to look up because I thought it was a cute house, like a fairy house in a US garden.

It felt like walking in Spirited Away or another Miyazaki film. The mossy lizard statue just gave it an old world feeling that made me want to spend the day on that bench reading.

Mark got this amazing shot of the scarlet ibis, he managed to zoom in enough to not get the grates of the cage in the shot.

We sat by this beautiful fountain to have our lunch, It was kind of cool, while we were in HK but this day the sun was shining and it was perfect for a picnic.

We came to this garden to get out and walk around and see some sights, what we didn’t realize was that this was a zoo. It’s a free zoo in the middle of the city and on the outside is a garden area and all the animals are on the inside of the circle. It’s not a huge zoo by any means, but it was a nice zoo.

This gibbon is just hanging out eating an apple. We were only a few feet away from this guy, on the other side of a small wood fence, they made it very easy to get some great pictures.

His neighbor was a white Cheeked gibbon, and was also snacking on some fruit while staying close to the fence.

I had to add this picture because I just thought he looked so cool like he was walking at a party.

My dudes and the cat, it’s apparently contagious because Alex has caught the pet every cat we see bug. This zoo cat was extremely friendly and the boys probably spent about 10 minutes with her while I wandered off to take more pictures.

Even after we were able to drag Alex away from the cat, the cat followed him to get more pets. Who can refuse a scene like this?

Above is a squirrel monkey, we must have come around feeding time because every animal had a large selection of fruit to choose from.

One of my favorite monkeys ever, the cotton top tamarin. Back in my youth when I studied anthropology, this was the first primate I learned about.

This is a DeBrazza monkey, I don’t know much about them except that people aapparently like to have them as pets and they are very expensive.

The comment from these two is that at least with the masks on they don’t have to smile for pictures– Mark may wear a mask forever just for this reason.

An owl statue to go with our lizard statue friend from earlier. It makes me want to have a very green backyard with statues all over.

Not really on our radar to do before everything started closing, but walking distance from the zoo is the Victoria Peak Tram. Usually this is an extremely busy attraction with long lines, but for us it was a walk on no line experience.

This is a old fashioned tram that takes you up to the top of Victoria Peak so that you can look out over the whole of HK. It’s famous for having such a steep incline that buildings seem to folding into the mountain like in Inception when the city starts moving.

My patient guys, honestly I love these two so much, and they are such great travel companions.

I am holding the camera level to give you a perspective of the angle, it’s said that the grading is between 4 and 27 degrees at different parts of the track, but it feels like you are going almost vertical due to the optical illusion.

So again, I’ve got the camera lined up with the buildings to show you the angle we’re going up at, it’s hard to get a good picture of how the buildings look like they’re folding in.

At the top of the peak! Not many people know this about me, but I have a weird phobia of escalators- I blame the Chicago suburbs education system for showing us a safety video (the kind that showed kids doing stuff and getting hurt by crawling under garage doors and getting hit, that sort of thing) of security footage of a kid sitting on an escalator and his clothes getting sucked in and choking to death. I thought for a while I was the only one who remembered this video, but in China on our campus I met Marilyn who is the same (ish) age as me, grew up in Chicago suburbs and also has a escalator issue because she saw the same video!

So if you’re every hanging out with me and watching hesitate or flinch when I step onto an escalator, now you know why.

The reason for sharing my most embarassing phobia (seriously it’s so bizarre) is that to get to the top of the Peak, after you ride the tram, you have to ride up about 4000 esacaltors- alright this is a gross exaggeration but it is legitimately on the order of 15 or so. Add heights to the esacalator issue and you have a very nervous person by the time you reach the top.

But man, is the view worth it! I was thrilled to make it all the way up here because it was a view like no other.

We had to wait a minute because there was a line to take pictures in the Heart, neither of them cared- this was purely a “make Mom happy” picture.

It was too hard to get a picture of, but there were two hawks soaring above us at the peak just circling and coming in close to the trees and then flying back up high.

On the way down we sat in the front of the tram (you go down backwards) so I could get a shot of the tracks.

I love this picture of little man, it reminds me of a picture from our exploratory trip to China when he was 7 and we were on a boat in West Lake- he’s changed so much and not at all, all at the same time.

When I landed in Shanghai post Uganda, I was shocked to see the airport that empty. Regardless of the time we’ve landed, there has always been a line at immigration at least 30 people deep, this time there were maybe 5 people in front of me- all from my flight.

It was a surreal experience that would set the stage for our next trip and the next nine months (so far).

I got home and I was just so thrilled to see the boys, that first day/night is a bit of a blur. I know we did some unpacking and repacking, Alex got his souvenirs from Uganda, which we put aside because he’d have plenty of time to look at them when we got back from the family trip. We have been wanting to go to Hong Kong for a while now, but the timing was never right- given that there were less tourists this year due to protesting, we decided that this was our moment.

This was Jan 26th, when we were all just hearing about Covid and wondering what affect it was going to have on us in Haining. We went on our trip anyway, but bought masks to wear on the airplane just to be on the safe side. The airport wasn’t as busy as usual and we didn’t have a full flight to Hong Kong, which I don’t think would be the case under normal circumstances.

When we got to Hong Kong, we hopped on the train that takes you from the airport to the main section of down town. The ride there is really beautiful and you get to look out the windows and see some amazing countryside.

We were staying a smaller hotel on a busy street, the benefit of that being that we were walking distance to the metro line- which was a lot important given that I was still limping everywhere we went. The first night we checked in to the hotel, they took our temperatures and then sent us on our merry way. When we went down in the morning, a table had been set up with disposable masks, hand sanitizer and a thermometer- and every time in or out they would take our temps and write that down with our room number. It wasn’t a big deal yet and we were kind of joking around about it but we followed the rules and we kept our masks on all day while we were out.

The downside to all this is that big attractions in Hong Kong kept closing due to covid- museums, Hong Kong Disney (let me tell you how heartbroken Mark was not) New Year’s festivals. So we decided to make the best of what was still open and have our best possible time.

First stop was to a bagel shop (we’re nothing if not predictable) It was a cute little shop and not terribly busy when we were there .

It had kind of a New York Subway type vibe to it.

This next picture is one of the last ones without Face masks on in public, the rest of the trip is our faces covered (which isn’t always a bad thing).

Alex got a plain bagel with plain cream cheese and was very happy with his choice (he has since ventured out quite a bit on bagel flavors)

Mark is also a plain bagel guy, but his sandwich was really good.

I was pleasantly surprised although it was a little ungainly to eat.

After the bagel shop stop, we walked around the shopping area down town. We weren’t looking for anything in particular but found a Marks and Spencers to pop in. Its a UK store that I didn’t get a chance to go to in Liverpool, but it’s similar to a Target in the US in so much as it has clothes for men women and children, groceries, but not so much electronics or household goods type stuff. We ended up getting Alex some clothes there since they fit him a bit better than some things we can find in China.

I liked seeing the double decker skinny trolleys, they reminded me of the Knight Bus from Harry Potter.

They had a Five Guys in Hong Kong, we didn’t go eat there but it was weird to see a US company out of the blue like that. Hong Kong had a lot of amazing food options, you could be there for weeks and not have to have the same thing twice.

The boys were the most excited by Ichiran, the Japanese Ramen place that was their favorite spot in Japan. This wasn’t 100% the same as the ramen in Tokyo but I think I was the only one who noticed.

Those are some happy ramen faces. The big plus was we waited an hour to eat at Ichiran in Tokyo , and almost walked right in here in HK.

That is an amazing bowl of rameny goodness right there, a little spice added, but I forgot to add extra garlic and green onions.

We knew when we were getting ready to leave for HK that there were still protests going on, and I thought a lot about how to deal with it as a tourist and how I was going to reflect on it here on the blog. We didn’t see any protests going on, partially because we avoided the areas that they were planned for or that we knew had happened the day before– but we were crossing a bridge to get to something and saw this from up there.

We saw very little graffiti, although some stickers on walls- I thought a lot about what we would do if we happened across the protests- as a Mom I don’t think I could watch kids get beat back by police, but I didn’t have to test my nerves on it. There will be more on this in a later post and I’ll hopefully have a better response to the importance of this issue.

We went to a famous place Mark found called Duck &Waffles, there is a clear duck theme here.

Duck topiaries and egg lights, the theme ran deep.

We picked a goat cheese bread starter, which was good, but there was significantly more bread than cheese- my preference would always lean the other direction.

I had this lovely fish over peas and vegetables, it was so tasty, I would get that again in a heart beat!

Alex got a very fancy sushi served on a salt block, he was a little underwhelmed by the amount of food but it was very delicious.

He was also a little excited at being in a fancy ish restaurant as the youngest person around that we saw.

Mark’s duck & waffle, the signature dish. He was very happy with it and I think would recommend it to anyone who went there. So far so good on our HK vacation!

I know you all have been waiting on bated breath as to if I survived my Uganda illness, breathe easy… I pulled through.

When Christine saw me the next day, I was limping and coughing and just in general miserable- and since no one had gotten back to us on meeting with them for the official work stuff, I took the day off and slept most of it away in the hotel room. I walked with Christine down to a corner market where she mothered me into juice, kleenex, fresh fruit, chapstick, and some ibuprofen. She was trying to convince me to go to the doctors but for those of you who know me, I’m pretty stubborn and convinced I can survive anything.

She did call my advisor who was going to be in town the next day and ask her what she thought I needed and they both decided on some gigantic antiobiotics, a full ten day course.

Apparently what I ended up having was a respiratory infection caused by all the dust on the roads and on the safari- particularly on the safari. The animal droppings dry up and then get stepped on and turned into dust and breathing it in can cause issues for some people, lucky me! I was told that the next time I go to Uganda, I won’t get sick again, that’s it’s a one and done kind of thing… but I’ll probably take precautions anyway.

These are my peeps, Caitlin (she has the same name as me… together we’re Caitlin^2) my Advisor Sue, Christine, and Ross– who is going to be my fieldwork buddy in the future too. This was at one of the restaurants at Sue’s fancy hotel down the road from our hotel- Christine made me drink dour tea, essential in Uganda for this type of respiratory junk. It was a ton of ginger and some other things I don’t remember what- it tasted pretty rough, but it did make me feel better. Sue and Christine were both pretty bossy in making me drink the whole pot- and there was more than one pot over the next couple of days.

We then left to go to COCTU, Coordinating Office for Control of Trypanosomiasis in Uganda, the people we were there to meet. It’s a lovely complex and we have an office there somewhere when I go back, if I want to work at it instead of the hotel.

Caitlin is so super photogenic– so I used her picture in front of the COCTU sign, not only do we share a name, but we share an extra office at the University that we’ve comandeered.

After the meeting, we went to the new office building they had built in Jinja, where historically there have been people working on sleeping sickness for years. Eventually this new building will have offices and some treatment facilities.

Next to the COCTU building was a field full of cows- not like the cows we see in the midwest though, and they are most free flowing- some even crossed the busy street, but the cowherd (learned that new word today, just for this post) got them back to the right side. He was calling to us when he saw me taking pictures and we’re pretty sure he was saying we could get closer, but I didn’t want to interrupt them.

Moses was joking with me that the next time I come to Uganda he will find me a farmer to hang out with since I’m so into cows. I said I’d be fine with that, I like cows!

After the meeting and the building and the two hour ride back, it was dinner at a nice Indian place, it had great mood lighting so I didn’t get any pictures but it was delicious, and we had a group of 14 I think eating with us. This little guy was hanging out on the wall in the restaurant eating mosquitoes, I just thought he looked really cool in the lights.

The next day we had a little time in the morning before heading out for our flights to our respective countries. So we went with Moses and Bridget, our new friend and hopefully soon new student at ZJE- for breakfast and some quick souvenir shopping.

I didn’t take pictures of the market where we went shopping, but it was really cool. It was a lot like the markets in China, except less aggressive. I’m not a great haggler, so I just paid for everything full price. Moses bought me a lovely scarf to commemorate my first trip, and it’s got elephants on it– I didn’t take pictures because I thought I was going on a one week trip to Hong Kong and then I would be back to take pictures of it…. so we’re 9 months into our one week vacation. I will update with a picture when we get back to China.

The flight home was surreal- I almost didn’t make my connecting flight from Doha to Shanghai because the gates are on opposite sides of the universe from each other, and when I did, there were so few people on the plane that I got my own row of four seats, everyone in my section had their own rows ( or shared with families).

I got home and crashed again. Mark and Alex were a sight for sore eyes, and I had a lot of unpacking and repacking to do– we left for Hong Kong two days later.

*Little bit of a warning, there are some slightly graphic videos of lions eating- nothing too bad, but if you read this with your kids I want you to have a heads up.

We left off at super sick, up at 6am choked down some breakfast and back in the truck. By this point I had figured out that I had not snapped my achilles tendon, which is what Mark was concerned about based on the noise, because it didn’t look like what Dr. Google says a torn tendon looks like and I could still walk on it- kind of. It had already started bruising and honestly it was a pretty solid bruise from the back of my knee to my ankle. I had figured out how to shuffle along without picking it up which made it better, and I had even figured out how to pull myself into the truck (which I’m sure was as graceful and delicate as you’re picturing and not at all like my little panda friend below)

I was ready to go, at least as ready as I was going to be. I took all the boxes of tissues out of my room, and I think the roll of toilet paper too- I was sneezing pretty much constantly. I’m surprised I didn’t scare any animals off!

We popped the roof on the truck so I could have standing room and to take better pictures when we got to animals, the first thing I saw was this butterfly who landed on the safety bar. It seemed surreal to see a butterfly on safari in Africa that looked the same as butterflies back at home… I was also really tired and maybe a little loopy.

I wanted to stop and see the family of elephants that was right outside the hotel (those grey blurs in the picture) but Eddie was on a mission – he had heard from another group that they had seen lions and we had to get there right away.

We raced as fast as we could down some pretty scary little dirt roads to get to the point where the lions had been sighted. In the reserve there are somewhere around 40 lions if I remember correctly, but this was a small juvenile pack of 3. I missed them taking down the impala (which I don’t really mind) but we got there while they were still eating. To give you a better picture (other than the beautiful pictures below) it was like something out of a movie, it was a little misty and so early that the sun hadn’t come all the way up yet, it was very quiet and only two other trucks were there with us-so it was pretty quiet. I was no more than 20 feet away from the lions and it was magical.

Not to wax too poetic on this, but there was something truly special about being this close to these animals- I never in my life thought that was something I would get to do. I made eye contact with this one a few times- she just seemed so nonplussed by all of us watching. We stayed there for about 45 minutes watching them, I could have stayed all day but there was so much more to see.

Water buffalo, we saw quite a few of these in biggish herds, kind of just big cows.

More giraffes! I think Eddie was a little surprised by how much time I wanted to spend with them.

Sometimes you can see what the animators of the Lion King were thinking, water buffalo, giraffes, warthogs, all in the same area just hanging out.

Because I was in no shape to hike to the top of the falls, when we were done looking at animals, Eddie drove me to the top of the falls to see them. The falls narrow to a width of about 20 feet, and an enormous amount of water flows through there everyday.

Even managed to get a shot of the rainbow, for luck!

My Guide Eddie, looking cool as a cucumber on a hot hot day! Honestly, Eddie was great, I’d book with his tour group again any day- and if you’re ever headed that way and want any advice about this trip or a guide, send me a message, I’ll give you all the details.

We had a 5 or 6 hour drive back to Kampala, and honestly, I was just trying not to die on the way back. The sneezing and coughing were worse, and I felt just absolutely drained, like sitting was exhausting. Along the way back, we had to stop for something and Eddie bought a couple of pineapples. We stopped at a school and asked if we could borrow their shade and in exchange we gave them a pineapple and Eddie cut one open to share. There were two lovely kids there, their dad runs the school and I think their mom is a teacher there as well. Really beautiful kids, the older boy was Alex’s age and his little sister was just delightful. It was nice to get out of the car and stretch a bit before heading the rest of the way back to the hotel.

I got back to the hotel, took a long shower to get all the dust off and then went to sleep- in the nice cold air conditioning that didn’t shut off at 9pm.

This was the end of my safari- I could have gone for days if it wasn’t for the money, being sick and hurt, work….. well, you know. I thought it was going to be a cool thing I could mark off my bucket list, but it really ended up being one of my favorite trips ever- the one thing I would have changed is that it wasn’t the same without Mark and Alex. I would have loved to see their faces when we saw the lions or the hippos. I don’t know when or how, but I will bring them to Africa with me and we will go on a family safari.

I spent my birthday in Uganda without the boys, but they celebrated in Shanghai for me, and Christine and I had cake to celebrate in Kampala.

My birthday gift to myself was a safari, I had a weekend during the trip that was unaccounted for- no one wants to meet on a weekend and work, so safari it is! I researched a bunch of places, and even more options at those places- chimpanzee treks, gorilla treks (not for the faint of heart or out of shape– otherwise I would have been on that, I’m hoping to bring the boys with me next time and we could go together), rhino preserve, and then truck safaris. I signed up for a two-day truck safari to Murchinson Falls, I got picked up at 6am by Eddie, my guide. And buckle up folks because this is going to be another Caitlin adventure.

Christine is so worried about me going on this safari by myself and that I need to text her a picture of the driver and the license plate, so if I’m kidnapped, they can find me. Eddie was the nicest guy, no threat of kidnapping at all, besides, let’s face it, I’d be a little hard to kidnap. So, picture taken and sent, I go to climb in the truck and as I’m stepping up, I hear this really loud snap and my whole leg feels like I’ve been stabbed. But you know me, I got in the truck anyway because I figured I had 5 hours of sitting in the car and surely it would feel better by then right? And I wasn’t going to give up my opportunity for a safari. I put my foot up on the ledge and tried not to move it.

Turns out it was just me and Eddie, no one else had signed up for the weekend- so I had an 8-person truck all to myself. Around an hour and a half outside Kampala the truck breaks down… now one aspect of this safari is that we have to be up at the park by a certain time to get to do a Nile River Cruise- so Eddie gets on a motorbike with a local mechanic and heads back to find the piece that fell off the truck to see if it can be fixed. And I sit in the truck by myself on the side of the road at someone’s house, and panic because that’s what I do.

This cat belongs to the house we stopped at, he was hunting bugs in the grass, and was very cute- he reminded me of our cat Jack- and just watching him was calming.

This was part of the house that we were stopped at, there were pigs and chickens running around, and a small boy who was intrigued by me in the car. I felt like it was a nice little slice of Uganda life that I got to steal a peak at.

My safari truck, with the local mechanic and Eddie working on whatever belt was broken. It was neat to see them working on it, I’ve never seen an engine under the seats before.

Luckily for me, all the tour guides know each other, and another truck stopped to check out the trouble, and Eddie worked it out with the other guide (Alex) to take me with him up to the Falls so I wouldn’t miss the cruise. The bad part was climbing out of the truck and up into the other truck on my jacked-up leg. My calf was as hard as a rock and hurt with every step or even while sitting, but I’m nothing if not stubborn.

I was so thrilled to see a monkey, it’s not the best shot as it was taken from a moving vehicle, but man was it exciting! We accidentally ran over a really beautiful snake crossing the road, but we saw lots of birds and monkeys on the way.

This was my view at lunch, it is a camp site inside the park with a little restaurant that most if not all the tour guides stop at. There are also some resort hotels on this side of the Nile at all price points ( although the campsite is cheapest).

I don’t remember what I ate there, I remember it being good though- chili and rice maybe? But the most important thing was the beautiful ice-cold coke! After 4 hours on the road in a not super cooled car, it was perfect.

After lunch, it was off to the Ferry and the Nile Cruise. The boat was mostly full, but we still had some room to move around and change seats to avoid the sun a bit.

To get onto the boat, I had to step up and one giant long step from the land to the boat… I was not sure I was going to make it with my leg, I made it but just barely and only really with the help of the captain. I wasn’t really sure how I was going to get off the boat on the other side- but why borrow trouble?

Just a bird sitting on the fence by the ferry- I will warn you that a few of the cruise photos are a little blurry because we were moving, if I had a better version of the picture I would use it, but I want you to see as much as you can!

This is a sausage tree, when I first saw them along the Nile, I thought that they were sandbags from boats that someone had thrown in the trees (kind of like being in the US and seeing sneakers thrown over the telephone lines). These are big fruits, they can grow to 3 feet long and up to 30 pounds, people can and do eat them as well as the leaves of the tree.

Baboon by the river, I just got more and more excited with every animal we saw. I know that animals don’t care if you’re on a once in a lifetime Nile cruise, so my expectations were low so that I wouldn’t be disappointed if I didn’t see anything.

I have a soft spot for hippos, partially because I relate to their soft cute exterior but secretly are one of the most deadly animals around … that’s goals, also because one time when I was sad, Mark made hippo noises and pretend hippo ears- still makes me laugh today.

So needless to say, I was super excited to see all the hippos, along the whole river I probably saw 150 hippos, maybe even more.

There were even some baby hippos floating around, but they were very hard to get on film.

First elephant sighting! I missed seeing him in the water so I could only get pictures of him walking away.

Because of the reputation of Nile crocodiles, I thought we would see tons of them, but unfortunately there were only two- one I missed while I was taking the land hippo pictures, the other one was this guy sleeping on the bank. There was no better shot than this, and it doesn’t capture his size, this was a large crocodile.

This family of elephants was a sight to see, they were all enjoying some time in the sun by the river- they were not too happy to see our boat though.

The lead elephant pushed the little ones off in the direction of the trees and turned to give us an impressive stance and flappy ears. It was cool to get to see baby elephants in the wild though.

This is the Murchinson Falls as seen from the boat.

A decent number of people got off the boat here to climb to the top of the falls, I was not going to do that before I hurt myself, so I certainly wasn’t going to do it now.

I do have to share with you my nerd story. In the pictures above and below is a tent looking thing, with blue and black sides, this is a tsetse fly trap. It’s used to eliminate the flies that cause sleeping sickness- which is why I was on this trip in the first place, to meet with the group working on sleeping sickness and make connections for my work. I was just stupid excited to see the traps in use, less so when I talked to my guide who told me that sleeping sickness isn’t an issue anymore because of vaccines (there is no vaccine for sleeping sickness and it is still an issue, especially for rangers who work around animals).

After the cruise was over it was back to the dock, where my original guide Eddie was back with a fixed truck ready to take me for a ride to the hotel through the park.

Eddie was hoping I’d get to see a lion that first night, I was just so thrilled that I was seeing any animals, I was fine. Above is a hyde, kind of like a big cow, not so fast.

Giraffe! I absolutely love giraffes and couldn’t get enough of them- sometimes there was just one, but often they were in groups of at least three.

I was trying for the Lion King shot, the sunset over the acacia tree, it didn’t turn out quite like that but I was still pretty happy with it.

We got to the hotel, I ate some dinner, I don’t remember that much about it actually- I got some water and a coke and went back to my room. It was so far out there that I could see more stars than I ever have in my whole life, it looked like a painting- absolutely fantastic. We were told not to go out of our rooms at night because being in the middle of the reserve sometimes animals come up onto the hotel grounds and I did hear commotion at one point early in the evening, so I think there may have been something around outside.

So fun facts about a hotel in a nature reserve in the middle of Africa- the power goes out after a certain point (roughly 9pm) which means the cell phone you’ve been charging, the air conditioning and ceiling fan all stop working. Now, I don’t know if this happens every night or if I was just so lucky to be there on a night when the generator wasn’t working right.

So it is pitch black in my room, my leg is just screaming with pain and now I’m hot, not just hot but like alarmingly hot… and then I realized I had a fever. I couldn’t stop sneezing and coughing, I got up and took 3 cold showers in the dark trying to cool down enough to go to sleep. It was a rough night.

It seems like forever ago, but this was in Jan of 2020… and I had come from China, I was so concerned that I had picked up corona virus in the airport and brought it to Uganda with me. I hadn’t on either account, but in the dark , alone in that hotel room, I was pretty convinced.

I woke up with the worst of the fever over with, but still sneezing and coughing pretty bad. Stubborn as I am, nothing was stopping me from this safari…. not a janky leg and certainly not some chest cold thing. We ate breakfast, got a packed lunch for the road later and we were off to find some more animals.