There's a Storm A Brewing

So there is supposed to be a big typhoon hitting tomorrow. The problem with typhoons though is that you don't know if they are going to stay on course or blow off so you don't know if it's actually going to hit you until it's hitting you. This one is supposed to be pretty big and it is coming toward us. We'll have to see how things go tomorrow.

As far as today goes, it was a beautiful sunny day with only a few spurts of random rain droplets. And we definitely lived the day up, just in case we're stuck inside for a few days. I didn't go to sleep until late last night, like 12:30am- ish. But my body wouldn't let me sleep in. At 5:17 am I woke up thinking I was supposed to be awake. When I looked and saw what time it was I rolled over and tried to go to sleep. I was able to fall back asleep, but a little before 7am I woke up again. I tried to turn over again, but knew that trying would be futile and the best I would get was another 15 minutes in bed, but probably not 15 minutes of sleep. That didn't even matter though because right after I checked the clock, I heard Luke playing music on his laptop. I tried to ignore it, but there was no way. My body was telling me get up and Luke's music wouldn't let me sleep. So, on Saturday morning, I was up and going at 7am. I did a little workout in my room, ate breakfast, and showered.

After my shower I got online and spent my morning looking up hotels in Hong Kong. It took a long time because I had to look at the hotel, what it offered, and where it was in comparison to the things I wanted to do. That means that I also had to look up the things I wanted to do and also where those things were. I wasn't super successful, but I was sick of being on the computer and so I got off. Natalie and I started talking a little bit in the kitchen and she again asked me how to get to Carrefour. I asked if she just wanted me to show her again. She was really glad that I asked and said she would love it if I showed her. We had an hour and a half before Amy was coming to meet us at the apartment and so we took off. I'd seen a sign pointing to Carrefour on a street we ride on all the time and I had a feeling that that road would be a more direct way to get there. I explained to her that we were going a new way and she was all for it. We made it there (it really is a better way to get there the way we went today) and we went inside to get Natalie some sunscreen. She wasn't given the warning to bring her own because the stuff here is expensive and she feels bad asking Beth to bring her some so she had to drop some money on sunscreen.

We made it back way before Amy came over (we were back in time to meet her, but she was 30 minutes late, so that's why I say we were back WAY before). Amy, Natalie, and I were going to go hiking at a hill near by. We put together a picnic and then headed out. Amy led the way on her scooter and Natalie and I followed on our bikes. Amy slowed down and was constantly checking in the mirror to make sure we were behind her, but it's not like we could expect her to go too slowly, so we were booking it the whole time there. The hike was more like a walk, but it was up hill and it used a sufficient amount of energy to get up to the top. Once we were at the top we ate our lunch. Natalie had bought some raisins at the store, but it turns out that they still had the seeds in them. I guess that grape seeds are healthy for you and keep you looking young, so it's not unusual to have seeds in your raisins. It was interesting, I'd never had raisins with seeds in them before. I think that I prefer mine without, but they were edible.

Mist started to roll in on the mountains across the way and we felt some rain drops so we decided that we should start our decent just in case the typhoon was coming a little early. But the rain stopped, the mist dispersed, and the sun kept shining and so we went exploring several different paths as we slowly made our way down the mountain. Even though Natalie and I were getting along a whole lot better today then in the past, she still drove me crazy at times. She only REALLY bothers me when she is being inconsiderate. (Sorry, short bitter diatribe, but I promise to keep it short.) It seemed to me that she made most of the trip all about her. She would ask our opinion every once in a while (probably because I gave her a dirty look or something) but I knew that she didn't really care. I can't really explain it, but it was aggravating, but stand-able, so on the whole I most definitely had an enjoyable day.

Natalie wanted to go and get juice after the hike Amy was thirsty too and so we went to the downtown market to get some juice (I passed, I wasn't really hungry- and that's one of the times I was irritated with Natalie because she knows Amy hates spending money, even on small things). While Natalie and Amy were drinking their juice we walked around a few of the stores. After juice we split, Amy went back to her place and Natalie and I went back to ours. I was so tired. I had been up and moving all day, no rest. OH!!! And I forgot. I was extra tired because when we went to the store to get stuff for our picnic, I took Amy on the back of my bike. Natalie was saying that she could follow us on her scooter and then I was just teasing and said, "or you could just ride here" (pointing to the luggage rack of my bike). Amy said "Really? Are you sure?" Which made me realize that she really wanted to. It was much easier to take Amy on the back of my bike then it was to take Nancy. For one, I'd already had the practice, two, I think I'm getting stronger, three, it wasn't as far, and four, there were no hills I had to go up. Amy was pretty proud of me and told me she thought it was funny. I thought the same thing. But boy was it a workout. It may have been easier then pulling Nancy across Green Island, but it was still harder then biking myself to the store.

But, regardless of being pooped, we still needed to head out and pick up food for tomorrow's dinner. I could hear that Luke and Kaylene were back and so I asked them if they wanted to go and get the food. They said they had just gotten back and were too tired and asked if we could go in 30 minutes. Kaylene wanted cheese cake for dessert and the place closes at 6pm. It was a little after 5 pm when we got home and so I told her that the cheese cake place wouldn't be open if we waited. That got her up. I told her that we were tired too and so we could just make this a quick trip. And we were pretty successful at making it quick. We went to the market that is right by the cheese cake place. I was the only one who knew my way around and so I was able to navigate the group and do it with speed and precision. I was worried that Natalie would wander off and look at other things, but we had a cheese cake that we needed to get back home and we bought fish that also couldn't be out too long and so if she started to wander, I had a little speech ready to deliver, but there was no need. I think that the whole chickens laying dead on the table stifled her desire to run away on her own (she only saw the fresh food section, not the clothes or bakery section so she didn't know what she was missing I guess).

When we got home I made a new concoction using my beans. I put rice in a frying pan and heated that up, then I added chili pepper and an egg. I fried that up a little bit and then added in beans. It turned out pretty tasty actually, I was pleasantly surprised. After dinner I got back on the computer and did some more research on where to stay in Hong Kong. I got onto Google Earth so that I could pinpoint the locations of the attractions I want to see and also the locations of the hotels. I ended up choosing the Cosmopolitan Hotel, not because of it's stellar location, but because at their website they give me information about how, how long, and how much it takes to get to a bunch of different attractions from the hotel. Then, I tired to get back to the website I had been on with Sabrina. I typed it in without the .tw and the website was in English. Yay! But in English it told me to choose my country and when I pressed Taiwan, everything turned into Chinese. I fumbled around a while trying to find a way to get it to be in English, but there was no way. I finally decided that I would pull up a translator in another window and just piece my way slowly through the process. It took me a long time, but I didn't get anywhere. Verbatim translation isn't super helpful and I thought that I had selected flight and hotel, but that's not what it was giving me. I had to give up. I haven't given up on the trip, I've just given up trying to help myself get through a Chinese web page. But this had better all workout, I'm looking forward to it so much! I really just want to have the tickets purchased right now so that I can be assured that I'm going.