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Week 17: 7/24/05

Hi Friends and Family,

It's great having my cousin Josh here for a few weeks to wrangle the children so that I can get more than 120 seconds at a time at the computer! I'm trying to catch up so that I can tell you about all the awesome things were doing right now! Week 17 was pretty awesome though!

Boys on the Loose!

At Parkview we live on the 17th Floor, which Nathan knows as always presses the button on the elevator when we get in. He also knows that we get off at "L" for Lobby. On Monday I was desperately trying to get the boys out the door for Nathan's sports class. It was literally two steps forward, one step back, as after 20 minutes of nagging and threats, Nathan FINALLY got his shoes and socks on, but while I was slipping on Ben's sandals, Nathan got upset that I wouldn't let him have a yogurt two seconds before we walked out the door, so he ran into his room, slammed the door, and took his shoes and socks back off. Trying to calm him down and get them back on was no fun, and I seriously wished my Fairy Godmother would appear, wave her wand and deliver us to Nathan's class dressed in unwrinkled clean clothing with our shoes and socks and happy attitudes firmly in place. Instead it was more of a struggle, and finally the front door was opened and the boys raced down the hall to the bank of three elevators. I brought up the rear, dragging the stroller along and screwing the lid on the top of Nathan's sports bottle. The boys reached the elevator before I did, and evidently hit the "Down" button. I didn't think they had, since when you press the button, it lights up, and when I looked up, the light was off. The reason it was off was because they had already pressed the button, the elevator had arrived, and the boys had stepped inside it and pressed the "L" button. As I got to the end of the hall and stepped around the corner, I saw my boys staring at me as the doors to the elevator closed. I was an inch away from the doors when they sealed shut, and I heard an ear piercing scream from behind the door as the elevator began its descent.

I hit the down button continuously and another elevator quickly appeared. As I entered the lobby, I didn't see my kids anywhere. I ran to the doorman and shouted "Have you seen my kids? They got in the elevator without me!". The doorman, who is the oldest and normally slowest moving of the three, raced to the bell desk which has three monitors showing the interiors of the elevators. He was just in time to see them exiting the elevator, hand in hand, on the 17th floor. I looked at the elevators, and all three of them were on the 23rd floor, so they would have to come all the way down to the lobby, then return me to the 17th floor. Without wasting a second, the doorman picked up a radio and told housekeeping to book it to the 17th floor via the stairs and grab the boys. Someone called back and said they were on the 16th floor, they'd be there in a second. So as the agonizing wait for the elevator stretched on, I could only pray that they'd stay put and wouldn't attempt to try and find me, or that someone other than housekeeping would not find them unattended and do them any harm. Finally the elevator arrived and I got in it with a family from Australia. Suddenly the loud speaker in the elevator crackled to life and the doorman reported that housekeeping had my errant children on the 17th floor. I shouted thank you, not knowing if he could hear me or not, and the Aussie family looked at me like I was nuts. At that point, I probably was. I jumped out and ran down the hall, where my buddy Edwin, the housekeeping manager, was letting them into our apartment. Not knowing anything that had happened, he had come around the corner and saw Nathan standing on our floor by the elevator crying very hard. Ben was gripping Nathan's hand, but he was not afraid or crying. Not knowing what was going on, Edwin led them to our place, hoping to find me there. I told him briefly what happened, while Nathan collapsed into my arms. At the time, I was so scared. The doorman isn't always standing right at the door, so they could have run into the street. Or someone else could have gotten on the elevator at any floor between the lobby and 17, and I shudder to think what could have happened. Now I see how lucky we were that it happened here at Parkview where most of the employees know my kids by name (Nay-Saan and Bon-bon are what they call them, as we call Benjamin "Ben-Ben" but they never quite get that right, and Ben is kind of round and sweet like a bon-bon, so it sort of fits) and not anywhere else in Hong Kong. The good side of this was that Nathan suddenly had a whole new appreciation for me, when he'd start to say something rude and angry like "I wish you would leave, mom!", I'd say "oh, like the other day in the elevator?" and he'd be moved to fresh tears and grab tightly to me and say "No! Never leave!". After Nathan's class, which we were very late for, I took Nathan to each of the doormen and told Nathan each of their names and said if we are separated, stay with them. I guess the bonus of us having so many things go wrong in our apartment and having Edwin here almost daily is that he knew right where to take the boys. And having worked in a hotel for several years myself, I know the man must not be surprised at anything he sees!

The Chase's Have Left the Country...

After a particularly heinous work week for Mike last week, he got an unexpected last minute day off in the middle of the week. I wasted not a second in deciding we'd head to another little country here called Macau. Macau is a tiny country about 12 square miles, a part of China which was settled by the Portuguese in 1513 when it was pretty much just a barren island which they used for stopping over on their way to ship things to Japan. Macau had a delicate relationship with China for a few hundred years. When the Chinese communists came to leadership in China in 1949, the role of Macau was brought up, with the decision of Macau's ultimate fate tabled for a few years. Riots broke out in 1966 when pro-communist Chinese and the Macau Portuguese police clashed. Portugal tried twice to give Macau to The People's Republic of China, but both times the Chinese government did not accept administration of the territory. In 1979 China finally officially acknowledged Macau as "Chinese territory under Portuguese administration." The exact meaning of that was still a little unclear until 1987 when it was decided that Macau would become a special administrative region to China in 1999. So really, Macau is much like Hong Kong, which is a former British colony now also a special administrative region to China. Although China practices socialism (An economic system based on government ownership of capital), Hong Kong and Macau can continue to practice capitalism (where there is private ownership of capital) for at least 50 years after their reunification with China.

We rose early and made our way to the China Ferry Terminal where we bought Super Class tickets and a VIP room (literally a few US dollars more than economy) all to ourselves on the fast ferry to Macau. We hadn't had any time to research what we were going to do there, so this was a blind adventure, the VIP room giving us a sense of being visiting dignitaries. An hour later we passed through immigration and made our way outside where we were mobbed by a crowd of people begging us to let them take us on a tour of Macau. It was the hottest day of the year to date thanks to a typhoon that hit ground in Southern China, so between the heat and the crowd, we were overwhelmed. Try as we might, we could not get away from them, and when one enterprising young man followed us across a bridge to an underpassing where we could catch our breath and figure out what we were going to do, we finally gave in and got in his air conditioned touring station wagon (with tour company and license number painted on the side) and set off to see our way around Macau.

We had heard various tid-bits about Macau, like you can have fun there in the day time, but get off the island before dusk or you'll experience a whole different and unpleasantly seedy country bearing no resemblance to the quiet colony town you see in the day. We just decided that we'd play it by ear and make our decisions based on the kids' moods. Our personal tour guide took us to six places of historical interest in Macau, including the border to China, which was incredible, that we are so close but a world away. It was amazing to stand outside the border building, watching a steady flow of people entering one side with crates of random items, like a case of Red Bull energy drink or giant packages of new socks. On the other side of the building was a steady stream of people exiting China, most with empty arms. It reminded me of an episode of The Simpson's at Homer's nuclear plant during shift change, a mile of people going in and a mile of people coming out. I tried to take photos that would capture this feeling, but none came close. We also loved the architecture all around Macau, a mix of traditional Chinese curved rooflines with European white shingled windows and bright painted houses.

The highlight of the day was our final stop on the official tour, a walk through the ruins of St. Paul's Church. It was designed by an Italian Father, and the construction began in 1602 and was completed in 1637 by Japanese craftsmen. Three times between it's completion and 1853 the church caught fire and had to be rebuilt. The final time it was beyond repair, with only the front, and most valuable, part saved from the devastation. The front is like a catechism lesson carved in stone, with both Asian and Western symbols telling the story of the virgin Mary, Jesus Christ, and the saints. We were in awe that we were standing in front of this 400 year old structure that was in such great condition. Under the ruins is a crypt which is believed to hold the remains of one of the priests from long ago. The most moving thing about the crypt however, was that the sides are lined with glass cases which house the bones of martyred Christians killed for their beliefs in the 1700's. As an American living in the millennium age, I can't even wrap my mind around being killed for my beliefs, we have so much protection to believe whatever we want! And yet there I was, staring at the empty eye sockets in a skull of someone who had no such protection and in fact lost their life. I did get a taste of what the Asians must think of the Westerners who barge into all the Buddhist temples here with their flash cameras and loud voices, tramping around the worshippers. While Michael and I stood there with the boys, in came a tour group from China, who took dozens of photos while they made silly faces, tossed some coins, and then barged out. I wasn't really offended, being a Westerner myself, but it did help reinforce our decision to not take photos of the inside of the temples here as though they were mere tourist attractions.

After the last stop, Benjamin was fast asleep in his stroller, sweat pouring down his temples. We were starving for lunch, so we asked for a recommendation for a good local meal, several people directed to a Portuguese restaurant. The food was so great, beef sandwiches, Portuguese rice, orange rolls for dessert, and lots of ambience shoved into a tiny hole in the wall in a small alley. Ben woke up in time to finish up the rest of the rice and some of Nathan's ice cream. The rest of the day we spent exploring what we could reach on foot. Considering the tiny size of the country, it was a lot! We walked to the shoreline, and into the casino area just as the dreaded dusk was falling. It was like we were transported instantly to the strip in Vegas, sparkling neon lights everywhere you looked advertising all the gambling you could possibly want to do. Pawn shops near by indicated that there are some people who seem not know when they should stop! We went into the Casino Lisboa Hotel for dinner, and had the first truly awful Chinese food we have ever had in our lives. It consisted of things we recognized, like sweet and sour pork and beef with broccoli, but everything was either dried out or greasy, or like the fried rice, totally lacking in any flavor. We suffered through the meal, the kids getting cranky over the long day of walking. A group of drunk Chinese businessmen took bets on whether Benjamin was a boy or a girl, so I realized that again it's time to trim those angelic curls that bring me so much joy. When we finally paid and left, we went back down to the lobby by a different route and were greeted by a happy sign welcoming us to Pizza Hut. My stomach turning from the Chinese food that wasn't settling very well, I growled at the sign and what could have been. Oh well, in the world of adventures, you win some, you lose some.

We grabbed a taxi back for the Ferry Terminal, and booked return passage to Hong Kong. Going through immigration was a little strange, as we had to go in the "Hong Kong Resident" line instead of the foreigner line, which for me made all this seem so much more official, and strangely I felt happy to be "home". When we walked through the door at 11:00 p.m., the skies above suddenly let loose with the fury that they had been holding back all day, filling the sky with impressive lightning and massive thunder. Michael actually caught a photo of a lightning strike over the Hong Kong skyline. It was an amazing day, a mini-holiday from our normal stress-filled and Michael-missing existence. It was also Mike's last day off for almost two weeks, so it was awesome that the day was filled with so much to be grateful for.

Next Week...

The Calvary arrives! Heather's 15-year-old cousin Josh arrives for a four week stay to help us out! Fun times are in store, so get ready for some major adventures to come your way soon as the balance of guys vs. girls in the Chase household goes way up! But for now, go amuse yourself with some photos!

Happy traveling!

Heather, Michael, Nathan, and Benjamin Chase

Ben and Mom in the VIP room on the ferry to Macau	Nathan and Dad
Our first glimpse of China, right on the other side of the river. So close, yet a world away.	The border to China. The building behind the arch is border control.
Drying fish in the sun next to a busy street.	Shark fin soup anyone? This shop sells the shark fins, and in the back you could have a taste of the soup. We declined.
The Macau Fortress which once protected the island from invaders.	One of the many cannons that the boys spent much time climbing on in the hot, humid sun.
A gorgeous house mixing the best of Asian and European architecture.	A Catholic Church in Macau
The Ruins of St Paul	Overlooking Macau in the foreground and China across the river.
The inside of the Ruins of St Paul	Artwork depicting the martyrs.
The Casino Lisboa where we had truly horrible Chinese food for the first time in our lives.	Nathan demonstrates the way not to use chopsticks.
People enter China on the right, and exit on the left in a constant steady stream.	Lightning over Hong Kong, taken with Mike's camera after our return from Macau.
The Chase Family in front of the Ruins of St Paul, built in 1602