Feb 28th

Today we got to a special tour of the Prince of Whales hospital.  Dr. Patrick Yung was our tour guide of this amazing hospital.  It was very interesting to see the difference between old and new, as the original hospital was built in 1985 and the new addition opened about  6 months ago.  The SARS epidemic transformed how they now practice medicine in many ways.  Thank you to all the doctors and staff who gave their time to show us your beautiful hospital.

February 27- Big Buddha

This is my first post on our blog, so I hope I am doing this right! The GSE team had another activity filled day in Hong Kong. I was able to begin my day with a hike with my host "Mom" Wanda at Tai Po Kau Nature Reserve in the New Territories. She meets with a group of friends every Sunday for this peaceful hike. It reminded me of trails back home. We then had Sunday "brunch" dim sum with her family and her parents, another Sunday ritual. From there we met the rest of the group for our trip to Lantau Island where we went to Ngong Ping. This is a tourist area home to the world's largest Buddha statue and Buddhist monastery. The GSE group was accompanied by local Rotary members, host families, and the outbound GSE group that will be visiting us in April. We piled in to a cable a car to take us the park. It turned out to be a beautiful sunny day. Sorry guys, no snow here! We all had a wonderful time eating local dishes outside and getting to know one another better. Climbing up the 268 steps to the Big Buddha was well worth the view. We finished our day with an elaborate buffet dinner with great food and great conversation. Our first official visit and presentation is tomorrow. Wish us luck!

Saturday Feb 27, 2011

After a restful sleep the team met for a delicious buffet breakfast at the hotel. We toured the 7 story shopping mall attached to the hotel and made our way down the street to exchange money at a bank.  We met Mr. Wong back at the hotel for a dim sum lunch and got introduced to our host families with whom we will be staying with for the next 2 weeks.  We each went with our host families for the afternoon but met at dinner at the Chinese Chamber of Commerce for the GSE Welcome Dinner.  While sharing a beautiful meal we met the the the GSE team from Hong Kong, the District Governor of District 3450 as well as many other wonderful and gracious people. 

Greated by District 3450

We safely arrived in Hong Kong at approximately 7:00 PM (Hong Kong time) on Friday night Feb. 25th.  We were greeted by District 3450 and safely transported by colorful bus to The Royal Plaza Hotel by Mr. Wong and Mr. Lee.  We quickly checked in and freshened up in the beautiful accommodations.  The team enjoyed a wonderful toast and buffet dinner at the hotel; including Austrian ribeye, lamb, sole, curry chicken, to name a few items.  Exhausted and weary from travel we all turned in early.

Thanks for a great send off!

Thank you for all the good wishes.  Several family members and Rotarians were present to send us off.  Special thanks to Grace for organizing this amazing trip.  We were treated with homemade muffins by Melissa Guy, a speacial treat that we enjoyed once we got through security!  Thanks Melilssa!  All of us on the trip are so grateful for this oppurtunity and want to thank Rotary and our families for making this happen!

Dress Rehersal

Thank you Rotarians for being our audiance last night for our dress rehersal.  Your feedback was very helpful.  Also thanks to District Governer Ann Lee for dinner.

Check out our story on Governor Ann Lee's February newsletter

http://www.clubrunner.ca/Data/7780//HTML/117323//February2011Newsletter_red.pdf

Count down!

The team is very excited about the trip. Final preparations are being made and suitcases are being packed!  We leave for Hong Kong out of Portland, Maine February 24 and arrive in Hong Kong on the 25th.