Welcome to Hong Kong

I'm here... Here being Hong Kong.
I made it safe and sound despite an overheating laptop, a snafu in United Airlines computer system and a rotation of crying babies on the flight from Chicago to Hong Kong. Actually the trip wasn't that bad.
Rufina was at the airport to welcome me and if this looks familiar, don't worry you aren't seeing things.

Things have been going well in Hong Kong and I am learning to get around on the MTR (subway system). It has been a bit colder than I expected and that has taken some getting used to. But overall things are going fine.
On Saturday, I went with Rufina to the class she is teaching at one of the local universities.
After the class there was a party to celebrate the end of the term and Chinese New Year. It was a great way to get to meet some more locals and experience some Hong Kong culture.
The guy on the right in the gray coat is a student in the class, but he also works for a large catering and food services company here. In fact, they run the restaurants and food court at the college where we ate. The company also owns most of the Starbucks franchises in Hong Kong and some in the Mainland also.
It was one of the girl's in the classes birthday, so we also had birthday cake (before dinner).

The great thing about Hong Kong is you never have to guess what you are eating because they conveniently leave the head on all the animals they serve. So there was no doubt that we were having barbecue chicken or sea bass because the meal was staring right at me. After trying some interesting food combinations for dinner, we had some dessert I could really relate to- blueberry cheesecake and a fruit cocktail with melon, dragon fruit and mango. Mmmmmmm

Finally, one of the real treats was to meet and get my photo taken with another of Rufina's students...

This is Olivia and she is a world class athlete. She actually played for the Hong Kong national badminton team. That might not mean much to you, but over here in Asia badminton is about as popular as baseball in the States (minus the HGH).

There's more to come so stick around.