Our stay in Hong Kong this time was brief– just about a week, and then we spent 5 days in Okinawa, Japan with my mom, sis, and Brianne. It was a girls’ trip intended to help my mom cheer up a bit from the loss of my grandma earlier this summer. During our week in Hong Kong, we didn’t do much. Brianne still had school, so we’d take her to school in the morning, then hang out with my sister or visit family for a few hours, pick Brianne up from school in the afternoon, and then have dinner with family. Although Christmas festivities seemed to be in full swing in Hong Kong, with lots of lights and decor everywhere, we really didn’t feel like braving through the crowds much.
The girls were very much into the new heelys that we bought for them, and skated everywhere together. The few times that they didn’t wear their heelys, they almost forgot how to walk! 🙂
Two things we did a lot of on the trip: eat + play. Being with family is the absolute best. I’m so grateful that my sis drops everything when we’re around to be with us, and treats us like VIPs. Thanks sis, for always making sure our stay is comfortable, for driving us around all the time, and for always ensuring I get to eat at my favorite restaurants!!
Since I do travel with Bridgette quite a bit, I try to have her learn new things during our travel….usually life skills that she may otherwise not learn as effectively in the classroom. Now that she can read and write pretty well, she keeps a journal of her travels, documenting the things that she finds interesting. For this particular trip to Hong Kong, I taught her how to execute instructions on getting from one destination to another. Since my sister usually drives us around, we didn’t get to practice it too much, but when we had the opportunity to take public transportation, I would verbally give a step by step instruction to Bridgette on how to get to our destination, and she would be responsible in executing the steps correctly to get us there. Here’s an example:
Bridgette, today we are going to meet Mimi at the taxi station outside of Festival Walk mall in Kowloon Tong. To get there, here’s what we have to do….
1. Take MTR train going towards X
2. Get off at X stop
3. Change to another MTR going towards X
4. Get off at X stop
5. Find the exit that takes us to Festival Walk mall
6. Find the tax station. Hint: If you are unable to do so, there should be an information desk where we can ask someone.
I gave us ample time to get to our destination so that Bridgette could take her time figuring things out. That really helped me in staying patient with her, and not feeling the need to jump in. She loved the challenge, and did an excellent job each time getting us to the exact location that we needed to go to! She learned how to read and navigate through the MTR system quickly, and the survival strategies in taking MTR during heavy commute hours! 🙂
For learning purposes, we tried all different types of transportation– MTR, trolley, bus, taxi, and vans, which turned out to be quite fun for both of us!
Part II. coming soon…
