The Deep Exhale...

What a year it has been!  A quick year in review...

We started 2011 with a fun party with friends at our condo in the Pearl... and a hangover!  :)

 

January 31st... my best friend and the most kind, sincere, intelligent, not to mention smashingly handsome man I have ever met became my fiance after a proposal at Piazza Italia.

 

In March, we moved from the Pearl to our cute house on Hume Street... this was the "after" picture.  We put a lot of work into it - painting the interior and exterior, re-finishing the floors, replacing the hearth, etc.  We loved our house, our neighborhood, and our amazing neighbors...

 

July 15, 2011 - Brian and I became husband and wife.  We put a lot of work into making the day representative of what we wanted it to be; I think it was a good expression of our love and our dreams for the future.  It was so amazing to get to share our love in front of our family and friends from all over the US.

  

Next stop... our honeymoon in Peru.  We spent an amazing 10 days in Peru, of which 5 of them were a trekking trip over the Salkantay mountain pass and into the breathtaking Machu Picchu Incan ruins.  A fantastic trip, but to be honest, not the most relaxing honeymoon a couple has ever taken...

This is where facebook and our time with friends went dark for about two months...  about one week after we returned from Peru, I got an e-mail from an old Nike friend that had gone to work for Reebok/adidas about 5 years ago.  He told me about a job opening with adidas, working in Hong Kong.  I had been wanting to move to Asia for some time, but the right opportunity just hadn't come up at Nike.  This job was not only an amazing opportunity for me, but it was also probably the best location we could have hoped for - Hong Kong is pretty much the most western city in Asia, which makes things like language, groceries, and transportation a piece of cake.  Over the course of the next few weeks, I had ten interviews, including one in Hong Kong... I was only in the city for one day - which meant that my travel time was actually longer than the time I was on the ground. In the end, I finally got the job offer.  It was one of the hardest decisions I ever had to make... Nike felt like a family to me, and adidas was a big unknown.  Brian and I spent many sleepless nights deciding what to do, and, finally, on September 19, I gave my notice at Nike.  To be honest, I still can't drive by campus without getting a tear in my eye.  I loved working there, and miss it terribly.  At the same time, Hong Kong, and my new job, are both great.  I'm finding my way in this new company, learning the people, the culture, and the acronyms.  :)

Right before I gave my notice, we had a very exciting new addition to the family, Oliver Adin Crowley, born on September 17.  We were so happy to get to meet this little guy before we left for Hong Kong.  We made a whirlwind trip through Ohio and Washington D.C. right before we left.

 

The Crowley Family - we can't wait to see you in March!!  :)

 

After many goodbyes, and eating way too much food in trying to have one LAST meal at all of our favorite restaurants, we sadly left Portland on October 14th.  We LOVE that city, our friends there, and the life that we had.  It was tough to leave, but so exciting at the same time.  We arrived to the madness of Hong Kong... people everywhere, tall buildings, and a hectic new job.  It's been exhilarating, but insane at the same time.  For my job, I was on the road for all but about 2 weeks of our total time here, and Brian also started working nearly immediately, which also added a layer of insanity to our lives.

Which brings me to why I called this post "The Deep Exhale"...  it's what we've been waiting for since we got married... we didn't really get it during our honeymoon, and it certainly never came in the madness leading up to the move to Hong Kong.  We've been waiting for that moment where you just find yourself sitting down, and taking that one, deep, cleansing exhale that signifies some semblance of peace in your life.  And, we finally had it this Christmas.

Rather than continuing the craziness with an international flight home, Brian and I decided that we'd take our Christmas holiday to have a relaxing trip to Phuket, Thailand.  I had been there once before, so we went with the safe bet and booked the same resort I had stayed at about 5 years ago, Le Meridien.  It was amazing there, and certainly didn't disappoint this trip either.  Most of the trips I have taken in my life have been jam-packed with activities.  Brian and I made a conscience effort to NOT plan too much this trip... most of our days consisted of breakfast by the pool, laying out on the ocean, working out at some point, a mid-day pina colada, more ocean time, and dinner with amazing food.  We also tossed in a snorkeling trip, an elephant ride, a trip to see the world's largest seated marble Buddha, and a cooking class.  Other than that, it was pretty much lazy days...  :)

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Our pool-side breakfast...

Snorkeling trip to the Similan Islands...

Love...

The view from the top of our hike...

Salah the elephant...

The Big Buddha... in case you couldn't tell.  ;)

Our resort by night... yes, this place was amazing!

CRABS!  Yum!

Cooking class, poolside.  :)

Finally, we got to Christmas morning.  I have to say, it was a bittersweet year for me.  I've been home to Ohio every single year of my life, spending Christmas with the same people.  I was so happy to spend our first Christmas together as husband and wife, but at the same time, I missed my family terribly.  I guess growing pains don't got away, even after you enter your thirties.  We didn't have stockings (Santa is hopefully making a list for next year), so we improvised...

We had a really nice Christmas morning... as usual, I was up at the crack of dawn, WAY too excited to sleep.  We Skyped with both of our families, and opened our stockings (we had already opened all of our gifts before we left - BAD!).  The day was peaceful... beach time and more pina coladas.  The hotel put on a special Christmas dinner that evening - we really enjoyed it.  Our flight back to Hong Kong was unfortunately at 3:00 am on the 26th, so we had just a few hours of sleep, and then had to leave our wonderful resort.

It was all in all a fantastic vacation, and we finally are feeling a little bit of peace in our lives.  Here's hoping we can keep this feeling as we enter the new year...


 Wishing you all the very best in 2012!! 

Celebrations

Well, as we are finding with many things here in Hong Kong, celebrating Christmas is just a LITTLE different here.  Let's start with our tree.  I was convinced that we needed to have a real tree for our first Christmas as husband and wife.  With a little research, we found that we could get one at IKEA for a MERE $50USD.  We thought, wow, that's quite a premium on what we would pay in the US, but, hey, it's Christmas.  So, Brian begrudgingly went to IKEA after work one day (seriously - is there a WORSE place to go!?!).  He ordered the tree and arranged for delivery for the day I returned from my business trip to Vietnam.  He sent me a text when I was at the airport telling me "our Christmas tree is AWESOME."  Getting ready to revel in its awesomeness, I made my way home.  When I saw the tree, I almost peed my pants from laughing so hard.  It was 90 centimeters,  which roughly translates into a little less than 3 feet.  I am not sure if we didn't SEE the measurements, or didn't really THINK about what this meant, however, this is quite possible the smallest tree I have ever seen!  The worst part of it is that we paid for delivery when we could have easily fit it into our backpacks!!  Oh well, lesson learned!  :)

 

We really need to learn the metric system

The next foray into getting in the Christmas spirit was making Christmas cookies.  I awoke last Sunday with a mission in mind - I wanted to bake four different types of cookies!!  Oh yes!  I started with my favorite - the peanut butter blossoms... we were off to a great start.  Next order of business were the snickerdoodles.  They called for cream of tartar... I couldn't find it at the grocery store... there are very few things that we can't find here, but that was one of them.  I thought putting something that had "tartar" in the name sounded gross anyways, so I left it out.  This was the result (no comment on my attire... this was "Sunday wear")...

After a bit more research and a consultation with my friend Anna via Skype, it was confirmed that in fact Cream of Tartar IS a necessary ingredient, so I was able to find a replacement and round 2 went much better... All in all, we ended up with some great cookies.  We shared some with our neighbors, who were surprised but so thankful.  To be honest, it was a little scary to knock on strangers' doors, but now, it feels really nice to know our neighbors.  One of them even dropped off some Japanese cakes for us last night.  Here are the results of a day of baking... 

We are so blessed to have wonderful families on both sides.  We have been getting Christmas cards from all over the US, which makes home feel not so far away.  :)  Brian's Aunt Bernadette carried on her family tradition of sending Christmas ornaments every year; I'm so happy to be a part of the family this year.  :)

On Wednesday evening, our relocation company invited us to a harbor cruise to see all of the Christmas lights in the city - it was beautiful!!  :)  Here are some of the pics:

Finally, our most recent celebration was Brian's birthday.  Those of you who heard about our honeymoon might remember that during our LOOOONG layover in Atlanta, we became sadly addicted to Angry Birds... I saw this birthday cake in a shop on the way home from work and couldn't resist!  :)

 Here's my wonderful husband on his birthday:

 

We celebrated by going to one of our favorite restaurants, a Belgian place called Frites.  It was a lovely, lovely evening.  :)

Okay, so I know that I'm grossly overdue on pictures of the apartment, but, here's the deal: the walls here are CONCRETE!  So, we have a handyman coming to DRILL holes into the wall to hang all of our stuff... we already had one little "mishap" with hanging something, so we don't want to take any chances...

For now, I leave you with a picture of the view from our apartment - we had a beautiful full moon the other night.

  












Wishing all of you the merriest of Christmases and a happy and healthy new year!!! 

Good Morning, Vietnam!

Over the past few weeks, I've been on a whirlwind trip for work.  The team that I manage and the factory partners that I work with are spread out all over Asia, so in order to meet them, I need to travel to Fuzhou in North China, Guanzhou in South China, Jakarta in Indonesia, and Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam.  It's been a crazy few weeks with hardly any time at home, but it was great to make these connections.  With all the time away from home, though, I was really missing my husband!  We are still newlyweds afterall!  :)  Since I was gone over a weekend for one of my trips, we decided that he should come to meet me, so he came to Vietnam for a three day trip.  I had been here before, but only for factory visits, which doesn't really allow a lot of time for sight-seeing, so we both got to see a lot of new things.  Like this:

 

In Vietnam, having a car is REALLY expensive (someone told me the tax is 200% - ouch!), so most people just ride scooters.  You see all kinds of crazy things on the road... my favorite was two guys on a scooter, with the guy in back holding a pane of glass.  Yes, that's right!

We wanted to get out of the city a bit, so on Saturday afternoon, we booked a guided trip to see the famous Cu Chi Tunnels, which is what the Vietcong used as a strategic way to defeat the Americans in the Vietnam War.  This system of tunnels was unbelievable, and so well thought-out... they had really thought of everything.  For example, they had kitchens underground, but they knew that if the Americans saw smoke coming out of the ground, they would bomb that area, so they found a way to re-direct the smoke to come out somewhere else.  Really not a very sophisticated thing, but genius in and of itself.  Along the way to the tunnels, we saw a grove of rubber trees.  Brian and I had both never seen one, so we stopped to have a look:

 

We finally got to the tunnels, and had the opportunity to try to get in... I was afraid that my generous rump would not be able to fit through, but, luckily, I fit.  :)  Here is how you do it:

 

First, stand with the lid over your head

 

Then, lower down with the lid still over your head

 

Where did KP go??

There was also the opportunity to fire some huge guns... I figured, why not?  But, in reality, I was terrified!  :)

 

So, I made Brian go first!  :)

 

This is me in a tunnel that had been dug out bigger to allow Westerners to go through - I was seriously claustrophobic, so I'm glad that we didn't try to go through a real one!  :)

 

Vietnam was a French colony for about 100 years, so there is a lot of French influence in the city, like the Notre Dame cathedral in the center of Ho Chi Minh City

Saturday, we went for a tour of the Mekong River Delta... it was a relaxing day on the river, and we got to see some interesting things, like how to make rice paper, how coconut candy gets made, and a local band playing Vietnamese instruments.  We really enjoyed it!  :)

 

This was our lunch!

 

Part of our tour was getting rowed on a canal by this strong woman!  She rowed four of us, and we passed everyone else in our group!

Sunday evening, we got to have dinner with my friend and mentor, Toh.  She was the person who originally hired me to Nike, and honestly taught me everything I know about costing.  She's living in HCMC now, so I'll get to see her a lot more often than I would have if I was still in Beaverton.  It was great to see this wonderful lady.  She still teaches me something new every time I talk with her.

Just one parting photo...

 

Brian and I are thinking this might be the way to go for family travel in the future!  Some people worry about car seats, but our kids are gonna have the coolest helmets ever!  :)

These are a few of my favorite things...

Unpacking... it's not exactly my favorite thing to do.  And, it seems like I've been doing it a lot lately.  If you count temporary housing, I've moved 5 times in the past two years.  Ick. 

One of the nice things about unpacking, though, is uncovering your favorite possessions.  I wouldn't consider myself a materialistic person, but I am quite sentimental.

Just a few happy memories that I uncovered while unpacking over the past week...

* the wedding gifts with my new name that we received from my parents, Brian's parents, and Brian's grandmother... they all have our new name on them, but are all unique.  We moved in such a hurry after our honeymoon, that we hardly had a chance to enjoy them while we were still in Portland.

* the espresso set that I bought with my dear friend Michelle Middlebrooks in Dublin... A reminder of a great trip with a wonderful friend.  My, has life changed for both of us since then.  I miss and love her dearly.

* my running scrapbook.  When I moved to Portland, I had never run more than three miles and didn't know a soul.  Nine years later, I had run 8 marathons and made some of the best friends I've ever known.  The scrapbook is the record of all the miles we've run together, and the friendships that have grown over the past years.

* my Hong Kong painting.  If you've been to my house, you know it.  It's a beautiful painting of fall trees and Asians scurrying about.  It's lived in three continents now, and I bought it in Hong Kong originally about five years ago.  I guess everything has a way of coming home eventually.  :)

* our wedding pictures.  Everything happened in such a blur this year, that it's really hard to imagine that we actually DID get married.  We never even got to hang these pictures in our home in Portland, so I'm so excited to find a place for them here. 

Okay, so I'm feeling a little sappy on a Saturday evening... but, what I'm really saying is that we love and miss all of the people that were such a big part of our lives... and we are surrounded by the things that remind us of you.

Hope the start of the holiday season brings all of you much happiness and the comfort of friends and family!

Home Sweet Home

There is no place like home. 

We are so happy to announce that we are FINALLY home.  After one month in temporary housing, we moved into our permanent apartment today!!!  We are in no shape to post pictures yet, but we are getting there.  Our temporary housing was in a pretty busy part of town called Causeway Bay, where simply walking out the door involved swimming through a sea of thousands of people, so we are so happy to be in our permanent home, which is located in the part of Hong Kong called the "Mid-Levels".  It's a bit of hike to get up here (and I do mean UP - you take the world's longest escalator to get here), but once you are here, it is pretty peaceful. 

We ran into a pretty funny event today. We were getting our cable and internet connected "sometime between 4 and 6 pm" - you know how that goes.  Dude didn't show up until 7:30... but I digress.  Anyways, the catch was, we HAD to have our TV by 4, otherwise, he couldn't hook up the cable.  Problem with that was... Brian started his job this week (yay!!  teaching at the American International School - they took one look at his resume and were ecstatic to have a teacher of his caliber), and I am working like a maniac, so we don't have a ton of time during the week to do things like pick out a TV.  So, that fell to today... and we didn't really have a good plan.  We went to the mall, thinking, great, we'll pick out a TV, they will deliver it for us in a few hours, and, boom, we are done.  Um, not so much.  The earliest most places could deliver the TV was next Tuesday.  Hong Kong... we have a problem.  Anyways, we eventually found a place that had a TV actually IN STOCK.  They couldn't deliver it for us today, but they would let us take it with us.  This is where the circus began... people don't really do this kind of thing here... but we didn't really have a choice.  So here are Brian and I, weaving through the thousands of people in, you guessed it, Causeway Bay, with our huge TV box... down the elevator, down an escalator, and through a stream of people.  We had to wait in line for a taxi, and people just stared at us like we had eight heads.  Luckily, the TV fit in the cab... otherwise, I'm not quite sure what we would have done.  Problem was that I didn't really fit in the cab with the TV too, so I just kind of perched on the edge of the seat and hung on for dear life.  Long story short (well, not really), the TV got to the apartment, the cable is activated, and we can watch all the Chinese reality TV we want.  :)

We'll post pictures as soon as things are presentable... currently trying to figure out how to say "NEED MORE STORAGE" in Cantonese.  :)

Love and miss you all!