Photos of our new flat will be posted shortly...since there have been many holidays, the housekeepers have not made their rounds to our flat...and it looks like Ikea exploded here with all the bits of cardboard and stuff everywhere. Some highlights, it's a 1 bed/1bath in the middle of Causeway Bay that overlooks a McDonalds and KFC(which has wireless access)and is next door to a bookstore. It was furnished really nicely and Jeff has a small area for an office that has a window.

Causeway Bay(CWB)is the shopping mecca for HK. Lots of name brands(Calvin Klein, Coach, Benneton) side by side with nice inexpensive trendy fashions. We're still acclimating to the weather and dense population. Most interesting ice cream so far is Lychee flavored Haagan Daz, most interesting sight is many old men walking around with their prized birds in cages similar to people at home walking their dogs. Birds here are prized for their singing and not necessarily their plumage. The food is amazing especially the fresh, inexpensive seafood. A really good organic vegetarian chinese restaurant around the block and all the wuntun mein soup every 20 ft from our bldg.

The Moon Festival(known locally here as the Mid-Autumn Fesitval) was really fun. During the festival kids have the opportunity of running around with their music playing mechanical lanterns and glow in the dark trinkets or be like Jeff and me running around with our old-style lanterns that were lit with real candles. Kind of dangerous either way since the high-tech ones may have loose wires and sharp corners that had adults yelling, "Be careful, you might poke out someone's eyes!" And of course running around with paper lanterns with lit candles which could turn into balls of fire with adults reminding children how to drop it and run!

The children stayed up late since the next day was a holiday. All the large parks were crowded with people attending the festivities(music/cantopop, moon/lantern gazing, and just plain socializing). What's a moon festival with out having moon cakes...the latest craze right now are frozen mooncakes made of moshi with sweet fillings like strawberry or nutty like chestnuts. Mooncakes are usually high cholesterol baked pastries filled with lotus paste and an egg. I wrote up about my Starbucks experience previously with their coffee flavored mooncakes.

Friday was National Day(similar to 4th of July) so there were fireworks and another day off for most people. EM came to visit and we sat at Excelsior's top floor bar/lounge to watch more fireworks(probably left over from last nights National Day fireworks) and admire the Kowloon skyline.

We haven't really gotten into a routine since the holidays are throwing us off...also we've been concentrating on visiting relatives and settling down into our new place that all other regular activites are on hold (i.e. Lisa hasn't been running).