So close, I can taste it

Summer break begins exactly one week from today.  This year especially, I am itching to get out!
Its gearing up to be a busy summer here at Casa del Roesner.  My cousin and her friend Carla are due in any day, the last stop on their whirlwind 7 weeks in Europe.  Of course, it would be more wonderful if I were not working all next week, and didn't have a "goodbye" dinner on Tuesday night and a end of year after school party on Wednesday, but no way out of that stuff.  The good news though is that we'll be able to spend evenings together, they'll have their freedom, and we can look forward to exciting German traveling the first week of July. 
My cousin leaves on the 10th of July, and I am trying to convince dear Joern that I cannot live without spending a few days in Italy, lounging on the beach, and taking a few dips in the Adriatic.  We'll see how this works out.
I also am in the process of booking my ticket home for the summer.  I really wish Joern could come with me, but we're not in the greatest position to travel right now, you know, witt the house being built and all.  But, I am probably going to be home for about 4 weeks.  I am so looking forward to hanging out with my dad, my sister, my aunt, and my cousin (the one who will be here very soon.)  I have lots of shopping to do too! 
I can imagine that following my trip home, my final summer weeks in Germany will be spent packing, and wracking my brains about final decisions on the house. 
Fill the in-betweens with some doctor's appointments, and hopefully, quite a few books, and I have just completed my eight week summer vacation.  It goes so quick!

Rounding out the first trimester

Today is an exciting day!  Tomorrow, I'm 12 weeks!  This means I am thisclose to the end of the first trimester- already! 

So far, I have been pretty okay.  I noticed that I am more tired over the past few weeks, and am looking forward to my second trimester energy boost!  I have recently also been having some cramps.  I talked with my aunt, and did some reading, and cramping is kind of normal at 12 weeks.  It turns out that everything is really growing, and pulling on everything inside my body. 

As far as food goes, I've been eating watermelon like its going out of style.  Oh and peaches, I am so happy that peaches are starting to come into season.  I figure you can't really go wrong with peaches and watermelon though!

I'm starting to realize that I'm growing a little baby bump!  My stomach has never been the flatest to begin with, but over the past few days, it is getting much rounder, and although I still don't look pregnant, I definately look different!

We are going to the doctor next week Wednesday for our NT scan.  This was an optional test, and we decided to do it, not out of concern over Down Syndrome, but because it provides a really early look at the spine and the organs, so that we know if there is a problem.  I had blood work already at our last appointment for the NT scan, so now, we're just waiting until next week for the results.

Oh, something exciting happened today:  I got to work and checked my email, and my maternity leave cover was advertised internally today.  Wow!  I never knew what an exciting feeling it would be to see your own job advertised, because it is such an exciting thought to be on maternity leave!  I spoke with my principal today, and he would like me to come to the staff meeting on Wednesday and make an announcement (kind of like closing the stall door after the horse escapes, as the whole staff read the email today, and it listed my position and the location- which would leave only my friend Iris, or myself, as the pregnant one.)  Oh well!  And then I asked him about letting the parents know.  He said that I should tell the parents myself.  So, I talked about it with my colleagues, and we decided that I would announce at the beginning of our end of year party on Wednesday.  So, Wednesday is a day of big announcements at work!

Party Planning

I haven't really spoken about the Richtfest in a while.  Most probably because we moved the date, and then, I kind of stopped thinking about it.  But no avoiding the Richtfest anymore.  Because it is almost here.  A week from Saturday, yup, in eleven days, Joern and I will host the largest party I have ever hosted.  I think what is so difficult in the planning is that we don't have any idea how many people are coming.  I know the list of invited is over 100, but we currently only have about 15 definites.  It is not easy to figure out how much you need for between 15 and 115 guests.  Oy!  The problem is that the invitation process has been quite open.  Joern will bump into someone he hasn't seen in years, and say, "hey our Richtfest is on June 11, you should come by."

I realized that the food for this event could not equal the impressiveness of our Thanksgiving feast.  Instead of pureed celery root and apple, it will be potato salad.   The secret is to keep it simple and make a lot.
So far, this is the menu:
   Appetizers
     Chips & salsa (and maybe a layered dip.)
     Chicken wings
   Meats
      Würstchen (akinA as hot dogs)
      Hamburgers, and yes, we are still in the great hamburger tryout phase
      Pork steaks
   Sides (here's where I'm a little weak, and have admitted to needing help,)
      Couscous salad with feta and dried cranberries
      Potato salad
      Possibly baked ziti, if Joern will ever agree to it.
  Desserts
      Cookies
      Texas Brownies

Today's job was to buy some, scarily not all, but some, drinks.  We bought more beer than I imagined.  And of course, now I'm left wondering if we might need more.  But I must admit, I have never been in possession of 20 cases of beer!

All 20 cases loaded, a very proud Joern!

                                                    Very proud of his Gallo wine too!

Frightening to think how quickly this will go!

Obviously, there is quite a bit more work to do.  Fortunately, this weekend is a four-day weekend.  I am planning on baking cookies on Thursday.  Friday will be errands day, including purchasing the meat, the final paper products, and my Richtfest outfit!  Saturday will be decoration day, setting out all the decorations, and printing photos and such. 
Next week, busy week.  It looks like our 10th anniversary will be spent up to our elbows in potato salad and couscous salad.  And Thursday will be busy brownie baking night. 

Although I am looking forward to the Richtfest, I am more looking forward to putting this behind us, and to moving on with the house!

Our last full day in Hong Kong

Saturday was a bittersweet day for me, because I fell in love with Hong Kong, and I only had one last day to soak it all in.
On Saturday morning, we returned to the fair one last time.  On the last day of fairs, many of the exhibtors are looking to offload their product samples so that they have less to lug back home.  And others, are willing to give samples to serious buyers on the last day of the fair.  Before we went into the convention center, we set out our plan of attack.  We had about 4 halls to visit, and at least 20 exhibitors to find, and pick up the samples that we had earlier requested. 
While Joern and his parents planned their route, I snapped some more pictures of the way to the convention center from the hotel. 

Inside the convention center

In total, we needed about 3 hours to get to everyone we needed to get to.  We had an especially enjoyable conversation with the head of a company from which Joern's family purchases poker items.  He was extrordinarily knowlegable about many, many markets.  He also explained to us a lot about the US market, which seems to run a bit differently than German. 

Afterwards, we split up with Joern's parents, and decided to meet later for dinner.  Joern and I decided to take the Star Ferry back over to Tsim Sha Tsui, because they had a great souvenir shop, and there was a lot more there to check out. 

I was also happy because the weather was a bit clearer, so I was finally able to get some better pictures:

Gloucester Road

The old exhibtion center

Again, I was happy and thankful for the clearning, in order to take some clearer pictures from the ferry.



Once we landed, we headed first to into the Ocean Terminal Shopping Center.  It is a mall located extremely close to the ferry terminal.  Oh my gosh, the mall took my breath away!  Joern really wanted to go into the Toys R'Us inside the mall, so this was our first destination. The Toys R'Us was almost cooler than their flagship Times Square location.  It was so well planned out and there were so many interesting little sections!

From Toys R'Us, we headed up to the balcony overlooking the harbor.  There was a fab restaurant there, that would have been perfect for enjoying a cocktail, but we were a little pressed for time.

Sadly, we didn't have enough time to explore the entire mall.  Of course, I'm sure Joern would not have said there was anything sad about not being dragged all over the mall :)  From the mall, we headed back up towards all those crazy huge designer stores, and found a beautiful building, and decided to check out the area.

It turns out that the area is now named, 1881 Heritage.  The very obviously British influenced building that serves as the backdrop was the headquarters of the Hong Kong Marine police from the 1800s until the handover of Hong Kong to China.  It is a beautiful area now with luxury stores, a hotel and restaurants. 

We then realized it was time to head back to the ferry, as we planned to meet Joern's parents for dinner.  I had to run to my favorite little souvenir shop first to do some last minute gift shopping. 

Once we made it to the ferry terminal, we realized that we were just in time to have missed the last ferry, and while we were waiting, we got to witness the Symphony of Lights, the nightly light show along the waterfront.  The show actually takes place on both sides of the harbor, but since we were on the Kowloon side, we could only watch the Hong Kong Island side, but it was impressive!

I would love to go up to the Peak  next time and watch the light show from there!

It was another busy day, and we weren't really very hungry for dinner.  After dinner, we took a little walk, but we were both exhausted.  We were only sad because it was almost time to leave the city that quickly grew in my heart.

A day in the life of our family, Hong Kong style

Since I brought my little pink point-and-shoot with me on Friday during our trip to Hong Kong, I was able to take lots of pictures during the day.  Good thing, because it was a busy day!
After breakfast and getting ready, we made our daily 5 minute walk to the convention center.  The convention center is in a really cool location, because it is right along the water.  It helps when you're tired after walking and walking and talking and talking to stop by the Dragon Lounge and to look out on the harbor.

We stayed at the fair for about 5 hours, until 4:00.  It was yet another busy day of walking up and down all the aisles of businesses, trying to attract buyers.  We met with a few regular suppliers of the business, as well as met with a few new people who had interesting products.  There were TONS of purse hangers, incredibly so.  Lots and lots of reuseable shopping bags as well.  For us, the waveboards were interesting, as well as some old-fashioned yet wonderful quality sporty-type items (think paddleball and travel soccer equipment.)  We picked up some new samples of Fun-Bands, as well as some "impulse items," like high bouncing balls.  It was a busy afternoon. 
At 4:00, it was time to leave the fair and hop on one of these:

We had an appointment with a new supplier at 4:30.  Many suppliers have showrooms in China.  When you get lucky, the suppliers have showrooms in Hong Kong.  The great thing about a showroom is it is a location where suppliers have all of their products to show, as well as some offices. 

It was my first time to Tsim Sha Tsui, on Kowloon (on the mainland.)  Sadly, it was a very foggy day, so the views from the ferry were, well, a little dull.



From the moment we left the Star Ferry Terminal in Tsim Sha Tsui, I realized that this area had a much different vibe than Wan Chai. 

We spent about an hour with the suppliers.  They had really cool items, like water guns and different shooting things.  The only thing that shook me a little was that the company was really large, and the two guys who founded the company were really young. 

After our meeting, Joern wanted to go back to an electronics store where he had purchased an Android touchpad during his last trip to Hong Kong.  The charging plug had broken on the trip back, so he wasn't able to use it for months, so he was hoping to buy a new plug.

Of course, what I enjoyed about doing this, versus heading back to the Star Ferry Terminal immediately, was the ability to walk around and check- out Tsim Sha Tsui.

I love Chinese in-your-face, loud advertising!

This mosque was quite beautiful.

                                                          And then, the shopping!

We headed back to the Star Ferry Terminal.  On the way, we noticed a large crowd gathering, and realized what was happening: 

Everyone had turned to TVs to watch the Royal Wedding!

Once we got to the terminal, we were lucky to find another TV.

I have to admit, it was pretty cool to stand in a crowd of people in China watching live on televison an event that people were watching all around the world! 

Once we were on the boat, I spent the short journey hoping that the weather would miraculously clear and that I would have a beautiful view of the Hong Kong Island skyline.  Sadly, it wasn't meant to be:

We headed back to the hotel for a little nap and to freshen up. On to dinner, at the White Stag.  We stayed in after dinner on Friday night.  It was a long day, and the jet lag finally caught up with us.  Plus, there was plenty to watch on TV, I had a lot of Royal Wedding catching up to do! 







Night out in Hong Kong

Hong Kong really comes to life at night.  During our week in HK, Joern and I would frequently go back to the hotel after dinner, which turned out to be pretty early, took a nap, and would go for a long stroll at night.  On our second night in HK, we took a really long walk from the middle of Hong Kong island over to the end.  It was a great night, and so much fun!

And before we went home, we stopped by the White Stag for last call.