August 20-24, 2012

We arrived safely in Hong Kong. Our apartment is very nice and we have about 650 square feet. We have a large bedroom with a queen bed, a desk, and wardrobe that Tom's clothes are in. In the other bedroom there is a twin size bed, a desk, and a second wardrobe with Garnalee's clothes in it. Both of the beds lift up with storage space under them. That is where we have stored our suitcases. We have a nice dining area with a table that seats 6 people very comfortably. Our kitchen is a u-shape that is just big enough for one person. We have a small washer and dryer combo machine in our kitchen. It only does small loads so we have to do laundry every three to four days. It takes aboutf five hours for the machine to run the complete cycle. The living room has a couch that can seat three people, a large cabinet with a TV, and a rocking chair. There is an air conditioner unit in each bedroom and in the living room. The church has provided a dehumidifier for each apartment. Our living and bedroom windows look out at a beautiful pool area of a hotel across the freeway. Our hotel/apartment building is right on the harbor. We are on the Kowloon side which is the penisula and Hong Kong island is across the harbor.

We have about a 15 minute walk to the bus station each morning. We can take the hotel shuttle to the bus station if we want but it takes about the same amount of time to get there. The building we work in is across the harbor in Hong Kong and it takes about 15-20 minutes to there after we get on the bus. The transportation system is very good and inexpensive. Tom gets to ride for half price because he is 65, lucky him!

The weather has been fairly mild for our first few days here. It rained the morning of our first day. Then has been partly cloudly and sunny. One can feel the humidity in the air when we are outside. When we went out this morning we discovered the windows had been taped with big X's which is for a predicted typoon. The typoon went by the southern edge of Taiwan yesterday.

We have been enveloped in the love of the other senior couples. We were invited to the homes of three other couples for dinner so Garnalee wouldn't have to worry about cooking andcould just get adjusted to the new environment and the time change.