Tears in My Tea

It's been a while, but I did it again. Last October (like 14 months ago), I broke the handle off of my North Carolina mug and it was devastating.

Today, while washing the dishes, my hands were in their usual numb state (hand washing dishes with no hot water, and the temperature outside is somewhere around 25 degrees, so the water comes out just around freezing) as I made my way through the pile. 

I was rushing to finish one more mug before returning to class when I grabbed the O'Hare-Skelton Nuptials mug. And then it happened. I lost my grip.

I'm sad to see this little reminder of home go the way of the landfill. I'll try to be more careful next time.

It's Not Just Class

[We've been sick for the last week, like nasty sick, so sorry for the lack of posts]

In my last post, I indicated that our teachers, etc. left a little to be desired. Well, truth be told, they're not the only ones to blame. Pretty much all the resources available are… less than helpful. 

See for yourself:

This is an entry from the best dictionary available for the computer. I guess they couldn't decide which way to go on this one...

November in Review

Here's November in review.

Not much video this month.  Features a "holy walk" around the town, and Thanksgiving/Hanukkah.  Also, there's about 30 seconds of just a black screen.  Sorry.  This video was about to become a November and December in review, since it's already the middle of December, so I just wanted to post it.

Class Notes

Class is not my most favorite thing these days. Our teachers aren't particularly good, which means most of the burden of learning falls on us, the students. Maybe that sounds like the way it should be, but it's pretty ridiculous here.

The teachers pretty much just read through the book line by line, and if you want anything more than a recitation, you're going to have to make it happen yourself.

As a result, I spend a lot of time in my book, trying to make sense of 12th century classics and odd parables. See for yourself:

What The Anniversary Was *Really* Like

We recently celebrated our 5 year anniversary (you may have heard). As with all momentous events in our lives, here's how Stacy and I want you to think that it went down:

All smiles and bow ties and fancy-dressed-up-stuff.

But in reality, it was a lot less of that and a lot more of this:

Ice cream (in the usual absence of ice cream) will do that to a person. Even the most romantic of people.

Things Got Weird, Part 2

First of all, apologies for the low quality of this picture. I have a really nice camera, but it is generally frowned-upon here to take pictures in stores, so I was trying to be covert.

Last week, I featured a shot from Hong Kong of the drink selection at a convenience store. It was "dodgy" at best, as my Commonwealth friends say.

Well, when Stacy and I went out for our anniversary (there would normally be a link to the blog post about our anniversary, but Stacy seems to have forgotten that we have a blog and is leaving our readers woefully unaware of all the real things happening in our life…), we went for ice cream. At a place called "Dairy Fairy" - a subtle ripoff of Dairy Queen.

The menu sported a handful of fairly normal-sounding options, but the milk tea section of the menu decided to take a detour into stranger waters. See for yourself:

The top two choices are just an off-putting mix of ingredients: Mandarin ducks, grass jelly, milk tea.

As you descend the list, it gets slightly less weird (red bean? pudding?) but it's not till you get to the last item - chocolate milk tea - that you have anything remotely worth working with.

The drink selection over here is almost criminal.

5 years and 6 thanksgivings.

We've been married for 5 years and 6 thanksgivings.

Our first Thanksgiving together was on our honeymoon at McDonald's in Crete, Greece.  I'm not ashamed to go McDonald's in foreign countries.  I support and perpetuate that stereotype of Americans overseas going to McDonald's after only being in a foreign country for a couple of days. (To be fair, when we went to Crete it was the off season for tourists, so lit-erally nothing was open).

Anyway, enough about our first Thanksgiving and on to details about our 5th anniversary.  We decided this year to put all our vacation savings (actually for the last two years) towards a big anniversary trip in January (we're going to Oz and the land of the silver fern).  So on the day, we didn't go big, but we did have fun.  What we did summed up in 4 points:

1) Lunch at a restaurant we've always been intrigued by (not sure if we'll go back)
2) 100 minute foot massage (no picture)
3) Dinner at a new Thai restaurant (decent, will go back)
4) Aaron got his anniversary gift a little late.  (It arrived 6 days too late)

@ lunch
I had a friend cut bangs for me.  Shorter than I like, and I haven't quite figured out
how to make them look good, but hey, they'll grow back eventually.

Dinner at the Thai restaurant.
Oh, what's that?  an anniversary scarf?  Yeah it is.
He knows what I like.

His package finally made it from Greece.

We've got quite the collection of starbucks mugs from cities that we love.

Happy Thanksgivukkah Everybody. L'chaim!

Today is Thanksgiving Day.  It is also the first full day of Hanukkah.  This won't happen again for 70,000 years.  So I hope you're prepared.  We are.

Aaron spent all morning Wednesday morning prepping the chicken (no turkeys on the roof of the world) for Thanksgivukkah.  

Mazel Tov!

But This One Goes To 11...

I've been using the same microwave for over a year. It's a shared microwave in our dorm's community room, pretty standard stuff. And by "standard," I mean junky.

Or so I thought until recently.

While defrosting some chicken last week, I noticed something special about our microwave:

Oh, what's that? A setting higher than High? Called "Light Wave"? 

Yep, that's right - we're on the cutting edge of technological innovation over here. Just wait, soon all the microwaves in the US will have a "Light Wave" feature, and will revert to using dials rather than buttons to select the mode...

Sometimes you've just gotta ride the lightning, know what I mean?

5*

Five years ago today, this happened:

Oh my. You can call me the luckiest man alive.

New Friends (2013 Edition)

Recently, Stacy and I made some new friends. My friend's name is M, Stacy's friend is named Fred Chan.

Fred and Stacy.

"They have a thin candy shell. Surprised you didn't know that." - Tommy Callahan

Keeping it real with the locals. No big deal.

A Walk In The Woods

Stacy and I love to hike. It's a little hard to do up here, but when we go other places, we always try.

On our trip to Hong Kong at the end of October, we had plans to hike across Hong Kong's New Territories and camp on the beach. Those plans ended up falling through, but we still got to walk in the woods a bit.

We loved it.

Trust Me, It'll Hold

I love Hong Kong. It's got everything - hyper urban metropolis side-by-side with rural parks and hiking trails. HK is also just one of the coolest, most advanced cities I've ever been. 

I'll just admit that I'm a little starstruck.

However, as cool and advanced as Hong Kong is, they still do some things the old-fashioned way. Like when they build construction scaffoldings.

This little gem is 100% bamboo. That's right folks, a bamboo scaffold that looks homemade. Used for constructing some of the world's tallest buildings.

OSHA would literally soil themselves if they saw this. I think it's pretty awesome.

Things Got Weird

I was in the drink aisle in a convenience store in Hong Kong, when things got weird.

Seriously, what happened? Did they get a sweet deal on nasty ingredients? Is this the Hong Kong version of a "suicide soda"? Are aloe and cactus and green apple vinegar about to blow up in the US and Hong Kong just got there first?

I don't know. Maybe we'll never know.

My Little Communist

Stacy, friend of the people's struggle. Viva la Revolución.

The D Stance

In many sports, there is a specific "defensive stance" that players learn. In some of the sports that I've played, they look like this:

Basketball (not me)

Football (I can't remember if this is me)

Lacrosse (also not me) 

Well, recently I saw that China has a bus especially for people doing these "D-stances." The only requirement seems to be that you can hold your stance for a long time.

One day I'll ride you, Long D stance Bus. When my endurance is a little better.

Hottie in Hong Kong

Stacy and the Hong Kong skyline (slightly obscured by some abnormal pollution).

That same hottie in a bit of a fro-yo stupor. Whenever we have access to frozen yogurt (maybe 2 times a year), she likes to hit it. Hard.

Another look at the "Fro-yo Face of Happiness."

October in Review

Here's October's video compilation.

It features:
being extras in a movie
soccer
a trip to Hong Kong
Halloween with the foreign students
"Opening Ceremony" for school
KTV (karaoke)
Canadian Thanksgiving
picnicking with some cows
English corner activities (dancing)
and Snow!

If you missed the other months in review, just click on either the video tag or the months in review tag below to see them.

I'd Never Say...

I saw this banner in Hong Kong, advertising the apparent return of the "legendary violinist." Whoever that might be.

Really, the only remarkable thing about this is that, let's be honest, I don't know anyone who would ever say any of the things listed in that testimonial, let alone trying to string them all together in one sentence.

In fact, I don't even know what The Sunday Times is trying to say.

I'm a bit skeptical that they even knew they were talking about a violinist, because I'm pretty sure you could use the same sentence about a juggling clown.

Mowvember

Whatever you call it - Mowvember, No-Shave-November, Mustache Mowvember - there is no bigger fan than Stacy. She looks forward to it each year, and especially relishes the pictures on our anniversary each year, which falls right at the end of a nice long month of facial-hair cultivation (me, not her).

Stacy in Hong Kong at the end of October, eagerly anticipating the glorious facial hair November would bring.

Here we go again Stace. Your wait is over.

Ham

I'll be honest, 'ham' sounds so much better. It just does.

The Tradition Continues

No, this post isn't about my Fall Facial Hair, though that post is soon in coming. It's about a Christmas ornament.

Every year since we got married, Stacy and I have bought a Christmas tree ornament to represent that year, and it's become one of our favorite family traditions. This week, Stacy finally found the Asia O'Hare's 2013 Christmas Ornament:

Is Stacy pregnant, you might ask? No, definitely not. Are these little versions of traditional Himalayan boots adorable? Absolutely.

Just to reiterate: Tradition. Adorable boots. No baby.

October Has Been a Good Month...

For pictures of me with my (super hot) wife.

On the set of a TV show we were asked to be extras in.

Picnic. Cows.

Canadian Thanksgiving. Or Columbus Day, as it is more properly known.

She's hot and she's mine. Sorry I'm not sorry.

Magical Meat Fest

Despite being well into the semester, our school thought it might be nice to stage an "Opening Ceremony" (6 weeks after school started). One of our classmates gave a speech in 3 languages (very impressive - but not the best part of the event)

and then...

We went to a buffet that had all-you-can-eat steak tips and lamb chops. Oh my.

Pictured above is my second plate of steak. I made 4 more trips for steak, until they ran out, and then switched to lamb chops. I think I finished with 6 lamb chops under my belt.

In case you didn't know the O'Hare motto, it's "Eat through the pain."

Represent

A week ago, I was asked to represent the school, along with a handful of students, at a banquet being held by the city government. Perfect chance to strut the new bow tie my mom bought for me this summer.

Southern Swag. Thanks Mom!

So Much More Than Shoes

So, yesterday I announced that we didn't have anything exciting going on in our lives. Boy was I wrong.

My dad mailed us a package with some things we had ordered for ourselves and had delivered to my folks' house, including a pair of shoes I'd ordered for this winter.

When I opened up the package, lo and behold, my shoes were there - filled with quite the surprise:

Now, if you don't know, I love Atomic Fireballs. So much so that I think I have cracked both of my back bottom molars on Fireballs in the past year. No worry, science is making great advances these days, I'm sure they'll come up with a solution.

Now I'm stocked for at least another 6 months of dental destroying delight.

News Flash: Week of October 13

Literally nothing exciting is happening in our lives this week. Nothing.

Happy Canadian Thanksgiving

Today is Thanksgiving in Canada. Happy Thanksgiving, Canada.

Y'all know what I'm talking about.

September in Review

Here's a video compiled from last month's events...or anytime I remembered to bring a camera. Footage includes a trip to a village, Bathing Festival (where all the locals go to the river to bathe or wash their clothes), ultimate frisbee, frisbee golf, soccer, and other random clips. 

A lot of jumpy video this time. Just close your eyes, and the spinning should stop.

Oops, I Did It Again

Shameless Britney Spears reference - classic. But I digress...

Before we went home for the summer, I made myself a bow tie (maybe you recall). I then gave that bow tie to my brother Isaac as a wedding gift, leaving me "American-flag-bow-tie-less."

Don't sweat Isaac's swag.

Since I had a little of the material left, I decided to make myself an identical bow tie. That way Isaac and I can wear them at the same time. So cute. Twinning.

Here's how it went down:

Gather materials - fabric and bow tie to act as a pattern.

Lay out the material...

... lay out the template bow tie...

... and mark it.

Now we've got a template to work with. Time to cut it out.

Now just pin it and sew it.

Doing work... *by hand*

Sewing complete, time to flip it inside out

Done-ski!

Don't sweat my swag either...