In celebration of my 3 months of service at my job, and in honor of the fact that they let me take vacation after 3 months of service, Martin and I spent the entire week of Thanksgiving in Hong Kong. Awesome.

UAL flies directly there from Chicago on a big 747. I absolutely love this feature they offer on their audio at United where you can listen to air traffic control and if you know your flight number (as you always should) you can hear them say "cleared for take-off on Runway..." It's really cool. Or have I just become an airline nerd, finally and completely? The greatest thing is that ATC (air traffic control) calls the big planes "heavy" so I was just thrilled to hear them say "United 828 Heavy cleared for landing" on our trip home. But I digress, as usual.

Hong Kong is a huge crowded city and nothing really like I expected. Almsot everything is in English and despite it technically being a part of Big China now, anything and everything is for sale in a capitalism run amok environment. It is truly amazing. We did the touristy things of taking the Peak Tram and seeing the world's largest bronze buddha at the Po Lin Monastery. We also rode on a red-sailed junk boat across Victoria Harbor for the Spectacular Spectacular Lights Show on our last night in town.

We went high class on this trip staying here. Pretty fancy. They gave us fresh fruit on our first night and then we had turn down service each night. Chi chi.

I think Martin would have lived on dim sum for the entire trip and it was indeed yummy! We also tried Peking duck, and some sort of crispy chicken served with the head. My cousin said that maybe it was so we would know what we were eating. Good guess.

We bought a lot of stuff, probably should have bought more, it was all so cheap. This is the first time we ever checked baggage on an international flight. That's how much stuff we brought back!

Movies I watched on my flights:
Inside Man (Everyone said this was really good. I just found it confusing but forgivable since there was Clive Owen and diamonds involved)
Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest (again and again...Stellan Skarsgaard!)
A Praire Home Companion ( I love Garrison Keillor's voice, but I kept falling asleep and there was Lindsay Lohan and something about an angel)
Cars (Is there a movie that Owen Wilson isn't in????)
Lady in The Water (actually pretty good and I think Shaymalan's acting is improving)
Talladega Nights: The Legend of Ricky Bobby (gay NASCAR, I love it!!!!)

More later...