Hong Kong Highlights

My parents picked me up at the airport.  Our car pulled into the garage and I leapt out, ran to the kitchen door, entered the house, and threw myself at our dog.  She spent my first day back confused and uncertain.  She spent my second day sitting on my lap.  On the third day I left the house briefly and she sat in front of my mom and stared at her, trying to gauge how my mom felt about me leaving, and when I came back an hour and a half later she greeted me excitedly at the door.  On the fifth day my mom and I packed a few things, grabbed a box of Christmas presents, and drove to Minneapolis so that I could meet my nephew.  My dog did not like us packing the car.  She barked and ran around the house and tried to keep us at home.  We returned on the sixth day and she once again took her spot in my lap.  We have now made it my to eighth day back in the country and we have returned to our normal routine: naps, sitting together as I do homework, snoring beside me as I try to fall asleep a

Maria's last test was on December 6th.  Excited as she was to return home after 6 months abroad, she decided to take advantage of her proximity to Beijing and visit for a few days before preceding back to Iowa. She had family friends with connections in Beijing who had asked to arrange her trip for her.  Accordingly, having only briefly glanced at her schedule, she packed and left for the airport (she was not sorry to say goodbye to her dorm bed).   And thus began an unintended game called "how many modes of transport can Maria take before checking into her hotel?"  After leaving her dorm, she took:  A taxi to the airport  A bus from the gate to the plane on the tarmac  An airplane from Hong Kong to Beijing  A shuttle or an "Automated People Mover" from one part of the Beijing airport to another  A private car from the airport to her hotel Maria was very amused by the time she reached her hotel room. Maria then spent four action-packed days ex