favorite things >> july

A good friend of mine blogs about some of her favorite foods each month and her entries (plus the fact that I recently listened to the soundtrack of Mary Poppins), have inspired me to blog about some of my favorite things each month.

Since so much of this month was spent traveling, most of my July favorites are items that came with me. Here are this months winners :)

{1} Vanity Fair: July {2} Tarte Amazonian Clay {3} La Mer watch {4} Uniqlo tailored jeans
{5} Free People sunglasses {6}wallet from a local boutique {7} bag from the philippines {8} aloe vera vaseline {9} earrings from a street store {10} jellies

Summer of Doing>>Disneyland

A couple years ago Disneyland came to Hong Kong, but I haven't made the time to visit until NOW. My momma is actually an avid Disney pin trader and has a season pass (I know, I was horrified at first but I actually think it's pretty awesome), so we decided that since she gets in free, why not be the overgrown children we are and go for the price of one (my ticket being the one). Since my mother is such a frequent patron at Disney she had our entire day mapped out. Our goal was to hit eleven sites, we made it to ten, but if you count our stop to trade pins we got to eleven! My favorite, the lion king show.

Summer of Doing>>Ferry Trip

A friend from high school was invited to play a set of his music at hard rock cafe last night so my friends and I went out to support him and enjoy (as we always do) watching him perform. While we typically take the train, after a week of straight rain, it was the perfect opportunity to take advantage of clear skies- so we took the star ferry. Our trip proved to be quite a treat and was such a reminder that our city's skyline is so incredibly beautiful. We are so lucky to be a harbor city!

"Welcome Home"

"We are not here to save, we are here to serve." I am officially one year out of college and can now say I have lived a year as a working adult. Since is the first time I've been home since I joined the corp I have been asked countless times over the past few weeks what is is I do and how I feel about it. Every time someone asks me a question of this sort I never quite know how to respond. Sometimes, it's because I don't want to burden people with my experience (knowing they aren't interested), but most of the time it's because I am unsure of how to articulate what it is I do accurately. What I can say is that everything we do as corp members is driven by the fact that we care an incredible amount for our kids, we fight for their well being and we work fiercely for them. We aren't here to save our students (despite the conception many have of corp members), we're here to serve. 

*Dr. Camika Royal delivered an address at Teach For America's opening ceremonies six weeks ago at the Philadelphia Institute.

twister > typhoon 10

You never get too old for twister. Well, maybe you do, but thankfully we aren't there. This is how we spent our evening shut out by Vicente. It was an intense game and there may or may not have been some biting involved to win the game.

Typhoon Vicente

The latter part of summer is always rainy season in Hong Kong, so typhoons are pretty typical. Typhoon Vicente however was ranked a10, and we haven't seen a high 10 in 13 years. Heavy wind and rain ripped more than 600 trees out of the ground and left them scattered all across the city. Proof.

Summer of Doing>>Junking

In ninth grade one of my friends had a birthday party on a junk. We had such a blast that we have made it our annual tradition to go on a junk trip each summer (even when all of us were in college, now post-college). While we miss our friends abroad and working, it has given us the opportunity to extend invitation to friends of friends, and we still have a grand ol' time! We spent five hours sun bathing, swimming, banana boating and sipping on sangria. On our way back to the port we got hit with a typhoon one, which made for a rocky ride but it didn't ruin our perfect day (:

 

Summer of Doing>>High Tea

In true Hong Kong fashion, we scheduled time this past Friday afternoon to attend High Tea. Hong Kong was a  British colony up until 1997, so as a society, we acquired the best of the Brits (vocabulary, architecture, city planning, etc.). While we usually book high tea at hotels, we decided to try our luck at a tea room. The tea room is located on the ground floor of a residential community and the owner has done a lovely job replicating the look and feel of a quaint European tea room. We gorged ourselves on hand selected tea leaves, delightful scones and pastries, beautiful open faced sandwiches and an assortment of sweet desserts. It was a wonderful two hour affair!

 

cousins then and now

This summer I have been taksed with purging my room and facing the large collection of junk I have hoarded since grade school days. Among my junk I stumbled upon BAGS AND BAGS of photographs and cards. I spent the morning going through my pictures and stacking them in categories (in attempts to eventually create some type of archive). Lucky for me I found a photograph of my cousins ten years ago- then and now. (:

Summer of Doing>>Cycling

After a trip to Malaysia and the Philippines I'm back home and ready to continue with this summer of doing! Yesterday my friends and I decided it was about time we went cycling from Tai Mei Tuk to Tai Po, a route that we never even completed back in high school. So, under the heavy Hong Kong heat, we spent the afternoon cycling. This activity ended up being rather eventful- once we were almost at our end destination, the bridge we were on was blocked off because a group was filming. When we asked to see a permit that gave these people permission to close off the bridge, we discovered that while they had access to use the bridge they did not have the right to block it off. During all of this, an awesome old chinese man said..."first of all, they have a Ferrari down there which is not allowed, and they probably have some beautiful girls dressed in no clothing"...

When we cycled down the bridge we saw that this older gentleman was spot on.

Summer of Doing>>Kayaking

A friend of mine in Philly mentioned in passing once that she was going to make sure that she had a summer of doing, and I thought this was a fabulous idea! Of course, I jumped on the bandwagon and decided I too would have a summer of doing. To launch this self-declared campaign, my friends and I decided to venture off to Sai Kung to go Kayaking. This excursion took place after I got back from Malaysia and before I set off for the Philippines. On our way to our kayaking spot we made a pitt stop to grab a glimpse of Hong Kong- it was amazing! Most shots of our beautiful city are of the skyline and the lights but this view is what I see when I think of my home. It's so easy to forget about the mountains and the ocean when you think of Hong Kong, given our reputation for crowds and shopping and eating. It was the greatest welcome home day I could've ever asked for.