Flying Across the Seas: Thanksgiving in Hong Kong

Our visits to Hong Kong are always enjoyable since our daughter pulls out all the stops to make sure everyone has a great time. We see her family only about once every six months so there’s always a lot of catching up to do when we get together. On the first day (Nov 23rd) we got to visit grandson Conner’s class at Hong Kong Academy, a private school located in Sai Kung, about 10 miles from Christa’s house in Lobster Bay. Christa got to read a story to all his classmates and we made “trace your hand and turn it into a turkey” artwork. Meryl and I helped out which was great fun.

The schools in Hong Kong are very multi cultural which makes for a great learning environment.

Here we're helping the kids trace their hands on construction paper to make Thanksgiving turkeys.

The classes are highly multi-cultural, with Chinese, Indian, British, Australian and other nationalities represented and it’s interesting to see how the kids approach problem solving and other issues from their varying cultural perspectives. One thing we noticed immediately was there were very few discipline problems, indicative of the Chinese approach to education where disruptions are highly discouraged. The Chinese take eduction very seriously which I think provides an better learning environment. While many of the teachers are American and Australian, the days are split between communicating in English and having classes taught in Mandarin by Chinese teachers.

After school we did some shopping and explored the waterfront walk along Sai Kung village, with lots sampans selling fresh seafood and a row of Chinese seafood restaurants with large aquarium tanks full of every type of seafood you could imagine. Talk about fresh food.

That night Christa and Nash took us out to a very posh hotel where they specialize in Peking Duck. The kids had a fun time watching the cooks prepared the various dishes in the kitchen area which is part of the restaurant. Our grandkids are very fortunate to have such adventuresome parents who can provide them with such a culturally rich upbringing, a world of difference from how I grew up in blue collar Tacoma, Washington.

On the 25th we went into the Central District to the Preforming Arts Center to see a production of Roald Dahl’s “The Twits.” Great fun in the last act watching all the kids take off their shoes and wave them over their heads (the reason for doing so escapes me, but it was part of the play).

On Thanksgiving Day the Nash-Webber’s hosted a traditional Thanksgiving Day celebration, complete with a touch football game down at the Clearwater Golf and Country Club soccer fields and a huge Thanksgiving Day feast complete with three turkeys. With about 40 people attending, it was quite the event. A tradition of Christa and Nash's is going around the room and having each person say what they are most thankful for. One Brit commented he was so glad that America had elected Donald Trump as that would take the pressure off of England for doing idiotic things such as Brexxit.

Living so far away from the grandkids I so miss being able to read them a bed time story.

The rest of our stay was spent exploring the local parks, taking the grandkids to playgrounds, and Christmas shopping at the myriad of high rise malls that are seemingly everywhere in Hong Kong. We even got to go shopping for a Christmas tree in Hong Kong, but found that only a few nurseries sold the trees and they only get one shipment right after Thanksgiving, so our choice was very limited. Luckily Christa picked out a tree, that after a little trimming and lots of decorating, turned out great.