What happened to September?!

I can't believe September is already coming to a close. What have the Hales been up to? LOTS! (Which is why I haven't had time to post.)

My life has been swept up with the beginnings of school and coaching soccer. Weekends have been filled with getaways, stay-ins and a quick trip to HK.

When we started school, we spent the first two weekends at our favorite hotel (one weekend because it was a deal and the other because it was a long weekend). It was fabulous as usual. The Intercontinental Shenzhen never fails to impress, and we enjoyed their pool, awesome breakfast buffet, happy hour, and of course luxurious rooms. One of the weekends we made had Amy come and watch Paul while we went out in the area.

We had heard about a new (and only) craft brewery in Shenzhen, so we decided to try it out. The place is called Bionic Brews. It's down a little alley with a door that looks like it goes to a wet market (which it used to be) and inside isn't much nicer. It has a few tables, and pretty ingenious rig for dispensing beer, and the art work on the walls is awesome. It was done by a local graffiti artist and it makes the place seem cool, but not over done. You feel lucky to have found it, and only people who really want to be there make the effort to get there, so the atmosphere is friendly and chatty. And the beer is fantastic. We ended up going back the next weekend with some friends and enjoyed it just as much. It's such a relief to know that a place like this is here, and I suspect we will be going their often. :) A few pics from the those weekends:

All were delish.

Their brewing area.

The door in...creepy, right?

The alley into Bionic.

Playing in the sand at the hotel.

This place has a sandy island in the middle of it's pool. 

LOVE IT!

More brew pics.

Some Mid-Autumn love.

The weeks have been busy, I am coaching soccer again this year, and our schedule is demanding. We practice three times a week, and often have at least one game each week also. We've also had a Saturday with three games in a row! My team is not so good, but in their defense, only 4 of them have ever played soccer before, so it's a steep learning curve. We lost our first four games, but have won the last two...hopefully we will win again today. In addition to coaching, I've started playing on a women's league once a week. It's basically 2 hours of running, kicking, falling and sweating, but I like it and I feel like I have a better sense of the game for coaching. It's fun to meet other women in the area, and most of them are not educators. They come from all over the world and are a lot of fun to play with. I want to keep it up, it's just rough the next day after playing until 10:30pm. Ugh.

Off to play!

The field I play on. We play five on five.

My MS Soccer team! (they designed their own uniforms)

Some practice in between games.

Our super cute team.

Trying to stay cool in the unbearable heat.

So Donnie had been itching to go shopping at Marks and Spencer (an English grocery chain) in Hong Kong. So one Sunday (after a long previous Saturday of soccer), we jumped on a morning ferry over to HK. We walked through the central district, which we hadn't really done before. It's really cool! International foods, steep hills, interesting shops and lots of people to watch, it actually reminded me a lot of Chinatown in SF. We were in heaven at the store too. There were so many good foods to choose from, including fresh pre-made food, hummus, baked goods and reasonable wine. We did our shopping, then headed back to the ferry via a covered path that would have taken us straight to the store. We found another awesome super market on the way back, but we just browsed before catching the 3:30 ferry home. It was a fun excursion, but a little too expensive to make a habit out of. :)

The water looked so blue!

It was a gorgeous day in HK.

This month has also brought some interesting weather. It's been hot, of course, but not so polluted. We've enjoyed clear days for a while now. Last week, a typhoon came in our area, so we got to spend the day at home. :) It was nice, but a little bit exhausting to spend the WHOLE day playing trains. Whew. It was a great way to break up the week, and actually we headed out to Luohu to meet Dad for dinner because he was back in town!!

Paul took this pic. I was being a '"mountain" for his trains.

Rain and trains.

Last weekend, Dad was in town still, so he met us at Donnie's campus for the International Brunch. This event was put together by Donnie and it included all teachers and students bringing food to share from their home countries. I think more than 20 countries were represented and I even cooked a recipe I found online over the summer. I didn't really want to share my peanut butter bars, but I did. :) Donnie got there early, and so did Dad and Paul and I arrived with the crowds by bus a little later. The food went fast! But we had a good time playing on the playground and got to sample a few goods, the ones from India were especially yummy. 

This picture makes me hungry.

On our way, reppin' the USA!

So good to spend time with these two. Makes my heart full.

Playing at the Brunch (Photo by Dad)

The next day, Dad and I went for a hike up the mountain, it was intense! But the weather has started to cool. Photo credit to Dad for the pics below. Actually, I think that was the first cool day we've had. It hasn't really stuck around, and the pollution is back though. After our hike, we cooled down and then headed out for some food at the Paulaner Brewery. It was the perfect way to end the weekend, but Paul and I weren't done yet! We headed to a super fun birthday party of one of his friends. We had fun, but I was pooped! 

So that's what we've been up to! This week has been rough, Paul has become sick as he usually does right before we travel, which has led to little sleep and missing school. But this Friday we are headed to HK to start our journey to Thailand! I'm so excited, I can't wait! This time next week, I'll be relaxing in Koh Phi Phi. :)

Hope everybody's month has been wonderful and a very happy birthday to V and Andie who celebrated earlier this month. :)

Love to all and I'll post soon I promise!