Hong Kong: Part 3 of 3

Day 6) Saturday was supposed to be very relaxing since Shawn would be taking his test the next day. Pretty early we got on a bus towards "Central" (The main island that is Hong Kong). We stopped at this amazing nunnery. Chinese architecture and their little bonsi style trees are always awesome to me. From the nunnery we could see this brilliant orange bridge in a park that was fairly close to where we were. Naturally we went there next. The landscaping was with the little trees and the carefully tiled rocks... just cool stuff. I also met some people from Iowa. The one guy owned a company in Chaska. Eventually we made our way down to take the famous "Star Ferry" across to Hong Kong Island ("Central"). We had some pretty decent tacos for lunch. There are only 2 mexican places in all of Hong Kong, because Chinese people really don't like Mexican food... which baffles me. Finally we reached our main and intended destination, the "Sothebey's Auction" at the exhibition center. We walked through hundreds of Chinese Contemporary painting that were almost all valued at well over a million dollars. It was pretty cool. Unfortunately we were pretty exhausted by the time we got there anyway, and only spent a few hours there when we could've spent much longer. We got lost on our way out, finally found the bus home, and splurged on a meat lover's pizza from pizza hut. Goodnight.

Day 7) We woke up bright and early to get Shawn to the testing center. We waited with him a while until he could get in the building. Then Carmen and I took a bus over to Asia Lutheran Seminary. I was going to go shopping at the famous "Stanley Market", but instead stayed at ALS and made a "Congratulations" card. I was really anxious for him to get back, so around 2pm I started waiting outside the building, walking back and forth between the train station and ALS. Finally I gave up, but about a half hour later he showed up! He had made a friend and walked to the train station instead of taking a taxi. He said the test could've gone better, could've gone worse, but he seemed to feel pretty good about it. That or he was just relieved to be finished. Then we discovered the Sem pictures of both "Roger Woller" and "J.P. Meyer". We took pictures. I did a little shopping in a nearby market, and then we went to church! It was super encouraging, and we even saw a few old friends! Everyone knew our parents! It was nice to hear a real sermon. Afterward we went to Outback Steakhouse, but I didn't let Shawn get a steak because it wasn't in the budget. Looking back, he had just finished his LSAT and deserved to celebrate. We could have payed Mike back when we see him next month anyway. Sorry Shawn. Next time you can have two.

Day 8) We woke up at 4:30 to leave by 5. We made it through customs and immigration by 6, and were at the airport around 7. When we arrived in Xi'an we had about a 7 hour layover and splurged on the hourly rate hotel. Shawn slept like a rock. I couldn't take the plumbers snaking the drain next door and went out to complain. She offered to move us down the hall, but Shawn was sleeping so well that I decided to just let him. We got up around 5pm, caught a flight at 6pm, and we home in Ningxia by 8.

and THAT is the whole story.