HK Asia Women's Conference 2011

Last weekend I was able to go to Hong Kong to attend the Asia Women's Conference again. It is kind of like a Time Out for Women but specialized for expatriot women in Asia. Since I have spent the last 9 months, at least, chasing after Ander during church and never getting to hear more than two sentences strung together, it was so nice to get to choose which classes I got to go to and what I wanted to learn about. It was great. 

We had one lady who spoke, tell us all about this orphanage up in the mountains outside of Cheng du, China. She had video of the children and some of the English songs and things they have taught them. I felt so humbled and privileged to be able to do a service project while at the conference, for these sweet children. We spent quite a bit of time making alphabet cards (among other things) so that each child would have their very own set. I love how living over seas seems to bring more opportunities to be involved in things like this. 

What was not cool, however, was the frantic text I received from Nathan shortly after 5pm on Friday. He had tried to call but for a time all of the lines were busy. After the earthquake hit in Japan it was only a matter of minutes before Nathan received multiple texts and emails from TAS and our car leasing company etc. warning us of the tsunami warning that had been issued for Taiwan. 

There was also one for HK and Nathan new that our plans likely involved being somewhere around the harbor that evening... Thankfully we were able to confirm shortly thereafter that although Japan was just beginning to understand their crisis, we were in no real danger in HK or Taiwan. 

Largely unaware of how bad things were in Japan, we headed out for a girls night in HK.

Ahh, there is just so much to love about Asia. Here are two puckered examples.

 This is a store we found in a night market that had all these wigs and hair pieces...

 I would've pimped out my girl's dress ups if the stuff hadn't been so expensive. It was almost like they were selling this stuff to be worn seriously...     Curious.

 Aly saw this picture and told me that our hair looked "lovely".

 One thing about Asian Night Markets is that your poor nose will be subjected to all manner of offensive smells. By far the worst offender would be Stinky Tofu. That stuff will burn your nose hairs out. And it's unavoidable. So at dinner that night I received a special gift in the form of a lemon wearing panties. The original purpose of the "panties" is to keep the seeds from falling in your food when you are squeezing the lemon juice onto your food.

 But, because I am resourceful I brought the lemon wearing panties out on the town with us. Every time there was an offensive smell, I sniffed away unabashedly. It worked like a charm. Except with the Stinky Tofu. The lemon didn't even take the edge off.

 Saturday after classes we headed to the Hong Kong temple. It was a great way to end the conference.
Nicole? Um, how is it that this is the only picture I have of you from the whole weekend?! Not okay!

Me with Lori, my roommate this trip. You know, if you stay up late enough in the night you really get to know your friends a lot better. You are welcome to use my lemon, Lori ;)

PS~ Nathan gets the father of the year award because two of the kids had the stomach flu while I was gone and the other two had nasty cough/colds. The flu resulted in a lot of carnage. It was gory and Nathan was exhausted- but I still came home to a clean house and children in bed. How is it that he does my job as well as, if not better than me?! Thank you and I Love you Nathan!!!! xoxo