Hard Rock, a Zombie and Ocean Park

On Friday, the kids had medical assessments at the University Hospital in the morning followed by entrance exams at the school. We got to the hospital with no problems, but it was a little confusing when we got there and had to fill out some forms. The forms were in chinese and portuguese so I needed a little assistance properly filling them out. The forms are generally formatted the same as back home so I could figure out the name, date and DOB lines, but the rest was tougher. The doctor was a small lady that was about 4 feet tall and looked around 14 years old! She was very nice with the kids and by the time we left there, we were late for the entrance exams. Kaidyn's exam was rescheduled to Monday, but Kylisha was able to write hers. It took her approximately 2.5 hours to write it and she performed quite well to boot! While Klash was writing, Pat, Kaidyn and I returned to the Hard Rock Pool, where Amanda and Klash met us after their day at the school ended. At least Pat brought a full swimsuit this time rather than the 2 bottoms she brought last time! We spent a couple more hours there and then returned home around 6 pm.

Tonight I was invited to a poker game! I have never played poker and that was probably the biggest reason they wanted me to come! I walked over there with one of the teachers that lives in our building and he met me in the lobby with a couple road pops for the short walk. He referred to them as sport performance beverages......I liked his thinking! We collected a couple more teachers and headed to the north end of Taipa (which took 10 minutes to walk), bought some more beer and headed to the apartment. I was questioning the condition of the apartment from the exterior and throughout the corridors, but it was actually very nice once inside the unit. It also had a great view of the Macau Jockey Club (horse racing) from the balcony. It was 100 MOP buy in (around $15) and I am glad to say that I was not the first person out! It was a blast and I actually added the Texas Hold'em app on my iphone so I can practice up for the monthly games! Needless to say I consumed just the right amount of Tsing Tao and we stumbled our way home late that night. I had to be sober enough to look the right way for traffic when crossing the street!

After a short sleep, we headed to Hong Kong for the first time to Ocean Park. Ocean Park is like Magic Mountain mixed with Seaworld! We took the ferry to HK then caught the MTR (LRT) to the Ocean Park Express Bus (double decker). The trip to the park was very easy despite the huge network of ferries trains and buses. Imagine a theme park built on a huge hill overlooking the ocean......the views were spectacular and so was the walking. Most of the hills had escalators, bu the huge area the park covered required many steps! This was the only time Kaidyn didn't complain about walking since he got here! The funniest part of the day was Amanda mentioned she noticed a person taking her picture, then while in the gift shop, a Chinese boy asked me to take his picture with her! It was quite hilarious and we are thinking of charging HKD for each photo! We left the park around 6 PM to do some quick shopping at H&M. On the way to H&M, Kylisha was sitting by a young man (looked like he worked at the park) and he was TIRED! His eyes were rolled back in his head and he looked like a zombie (see pic). We and other passengers on the bus had a good laugh at him. This area of HK was what I would image NY to be like......lights everywhere, tons of people and lots of shopping. After shopping we walked around looking for a restaurant, but oddly enough, there were no restaurants within 2-3 blocks of the store. Everyone was tired and hungry so we decided to head back to the ferry terminal and hit one of the many restaurants there! We caught the 9PM ferry back to Taipa and arrived home around 10:15pm and everyone crashed hard!

Sunday we didn't have any formal plans so everyone got up whenever, and lounged around. Kylisha still needed black shoes for school so the girls headed to Senado Square for some last minute shopping. Kylisha also had plans with some new friends to hit the Cheoc Van Pool for lunch, swimming and dinner! Some friends of ours were in Zhuhai (mainland) for the weekend as he plays Australian Rules Football and they had a match there. Before the kids got here, I asked my dad to buy us a high wattage travel converter for the xbox, wii and other electronics we have that are only 110V (here it is 220V) so he could send it with Pat and the kids. He found one, but once here, it did not work so that meant no video games at all for us (mostly Kaid and I). Our friend managed to grab us UK power supply units for the both the Wii and XBOX so he brought them back last night and they work like a charm! Plus they were only $25 for both! Things are dirt cheap in Zhuhai so you can imagine the great bargains you can find!

While Klash was out socializing, we headed to Old Taipa so Pat could check out the oldest part of Taipa. Kaidyn picked a fine time to get the runs (while on my shoulders), so he and I headed back home while the girls continued to explore! That is 3 of the 4 of us that have gotten some sort of bug, so the clock is ticking for Kylisha!!!!!