Today we headed into the city and took the kids on one of those cheesy double decker bus tours of Central, Hong Kong Island. Those bus tours are a thing for me--one of my regrets in life is not taking advantage of doing stuff like that more often on my layovers when I was flying the friendly skies. Today I figured it would be a really easy way to cover a lot of area above ground (versus the mtr which is all underground within the city) with the kids. The kids liked it and it wasn't too sunny or hot so it was a good day for it.

I learned how to pronounce the word Bauhinia today. And you just never know when that may come in handy.

We treated the kids to McDonald's in Times Square (yes there's one of those here too.) It was packed! We shared a table with a young 20ish girl and then when she left an older couple sat down to share with us. The woman spoke pretty good English and seemed to be intermittently translating our conversation back to her husband. But he was wearing a hat that said "New York City" so really they were probably talking about us. But they were sweet.

Table sharing is just part of the culture over here. You just ask if you may sit or if the seat is taken and viola, you're sharing a table. You don't usually interact with the people at all. Places are crowded so it's done out of necessity. At Starbucks recently I actually shared a love seat with a stranger. Would that ever happen in the USA? I just can't see that happening...

Tomorrow B and I have a sitter scheduled to watch the kids in the afternoon so we can go pick out a computer desk and a shoe cabinet. Probably from Ikea. We have been living with the computer on the dining table and shoes all piled up by the door. I don't have to explain why the computer on the dining table is wrong on so many levels. But I will say that shoe cabinets are a complete necessity here. There is no such thing as an entry closet and the bedroom closets are wardrobe cabinets. No place for shoes in there... I have had people ask me "Have you joined the club(pool) yet?" and answering with "Gosh we don't even have a shoe cabinet yet!" actually works as an answer for that question.