An Afternoon at the Science Museum
The other day, before Jenn had to start day 1 of her new position with Critical Mass and the reason we transplanted our lives to Hong Kong. We put on our tourist hats, and truly to date they are the only ones we currently know how to wear, and went looking for adventure.
View of the Hong Kong Observation Wheel from the ferry.
Amelie wanted to visit a museum. Really? OK. We planned our trip and decided that taking the ferry across to Kowloon and the mainland would be the most fun. A short ferry ride later we landed on the shores of Kowloon (sounds exotic doesn't it). grabbed a taxi and arrived at the Hong Kong Science Museum. Sometimes trying to get somewhere in a language you cannot speak is not easy. While the driver was more than willing to take us to our destination for the fare, we had some difficulty explaining to him where exactly that destination was. Now in the old days it may have involved some miming or special sound effects. But today it was more brining it up on Google maps, thinking that should be clear as day, and showing it to him. Well it turns out that my google maps is not written in Chinese characters and for the driver to understand what he was looking at was to find a colleague of his at the taxi stand that did understand English and show him the phone's screen displaying Google map pin. It worked and a short taxi ride later we found ourselves at the science museum.
How does a fish see?
We were in luck, at least Jenn and I thought so. There was a temporary exhibit on loan from a British museum showcasing ancient Egyptian artifacts, mostly mummies. Cool, right? Looking at and learning about how they embalmed their dead. I thought it was fantastic, the girls apparently did not have this mind when they asked to go to a museum. They were looking for those interactive learning displays that you often find with the museums' permanent displays. We spent some time filing through the Egyptian showcase and then the girls were rewarded with a nature science display. They ran from one installation to another exploring all they could see and touch.
They had a great time and it showed, I had to carry Juliette back to the apartment. A nasty combination of sustained excitement and jet lag did her in. To make the journey back easier we opted for a taxi instead of the ferry. You should have seen Amélie's face when we told her that we were currently driving in a tunnel under the ocean (the bay between Hong Kong island and Kowloon). She seemed a little astonished and maybe a little worried for all the water situated above us.
All in all a great day and more to come.
