Thanksgiving 2010 in China

I did not think I would still be in China for Thanksgiving but as I have always said with this job....you never know what your plans will be or when you will be leaving from your current assignment.  Just before Thanksgiving I was able to get two days in a row off and took a mini trip to Hong Kong.  It also worked out that I did not have to make the trip alone, Tom was able to join me.

We arrived in Hong Kong late Sunday night and hungry.  Since we had been in China for a while (Tom longer than me, but still...) we were definitely looking forward to eating more Western type food.  Tried Outback Steakhouse but it just closed.  Saw a sign for a Thai place that was open til 3AM but it probably took a good 15 minutes wondering around the area of the sign before we figured out how to get there.  Since Hong Kong is small and expanding, they expand up!  Since both Tom and I had been to Hong Kong before, we were not interested in doing tourist things but more so in getting good food and relaxing.  After sleeping in until noon, we ate Subway for lunch, Haagen Dazs ice cream for dessert, walked around the pier area on HK island, and made our way to the Kowloon side to watch the Light Show at 8pm.  The light show consists of corporate buildings which have lights on timers that go with the music along with lasers blasting from the very top - very cool!

Afterward we met up with Tom's friend Maggie who is from Hong Kong.  One great thing I love about this job is the connections you can make with people.  Tom met Maggie when he was working in Belgium.  You meet people from around the world allowing you to be able to reconnect in other parts of the globe as well!  All three of us went to Outback for dinner and then to a midnight movie - Skyline.  The next day Tom and I went to the grocery store to pick up items we can not get back in Qinzhou along with some Thanksgiving dinner things.  We had kebabs for lunch and made sure to pick up Subway again to bring back with us for dinner.

On Friday the UOP crew had Thanksgiving dinner and celebrated Ben's birthday.  We were able to get Parky to allow us to use his projector at his bar so while eating dinner we could watch some football games on delay.  Combine that with the feast we had made equals just like Thanksgiving back home. Turkey did not make it to the table but I think the meat we did have made up for that.  The feast included 2 pigs, 7 chickens, brats, 50 mashed potatoes which were peeled, cut and mashed by hand, sweet potatoes, stuffing, deviled eggs, green beans, and cranberry sauce.  Definitely had left overs!  While we were eating dinner we noticed a few Chinese people with really nice cameras taking pictures of our festivities - which we had no issues with but found amusing.  Brent ended up doing the 'Chinese' thing and just butt into what they were doing so he looked over their shoulders while they were at their computers.  Apparently they spoke good English and he found out they were posting the pictures and story about our Thanksgiving get together on the website for the town called qinzhou365.net.  All and all it was a great Thanksgiving!

Internet connection not allowing me to load pictures into the text at the moment but feel free to check out more pics from Hong Kong and Thanksgiving  HERE