Discovering Macau and Cirque du Soleil

April has been a bussy month with many fun activities. One Saturday morning, we decided to take the ferry to Macau - Asia's Las Vegas. We took a taxi to the ferry station and the ferry ride took about an hour.

As we got into Macau, we went straight to the Venitian because we had ordered tickets to the Cirque du Soleil ZAIA show.

The Venitian was spectacular - unlike anything I have seen in Vegas. It was new and fresh and really over the top when it came to design. The shopping was amazing and the restaurants were fabulous. We went to a great Italian restaurant and then we checked the kids in to a massive playground for two hours and Henrik and I got some "grown-up" time :)

The Cirque du Soleil show was amazing. We all really enjoyed it. Mattias' favorite part were the "ninjas" climbing up and down poles doing tricks and the fire jugglers. Heidi's favorite part was the girls singing and when the heart baloons were released at the very end of the show.

It was a nice spur of the moment thing day. It was fun to see and experience. We are greatful for all of our experiences here. We are however getting homesick. The kids often ask how many more days until we go back to America. And when Henrik and I saw some pictures of the trees in our back yard that Judith sent, we looked at each other and we both had the same feeling: we miss home. That is a good thing. Thanks for your letters, e-mails and phone calls. It is so nice to stay in touch.

Love you all.

Dear 2nd grade at Willow Springs

Dear Class,

Thank for your letters class. I liked them - all of them. I felt happy when I found a "huge" envelope in our mail box for me with your letters. I wish I can come back to America and come to Willow Springs again. I will be there for 3rd grade.

I go to Delia School of Canada. I am in grade 3. I think the subjects are easy to medium hard. My favorite subject is Science. I built a car out of tubes and it was cool. I have metal bay blades that I bring to school with me. I have 5 recesses every day. I have soccer club after school on some Thursdays. We are going to Thailand for 6 days over Easter holiday. I am excited to get back to school after Easter.

It is fun to live in a tall building because I can see a lot of things like tall buildings and a lot of cars from a Birds Eye View and an Arial View.

This is what I see outside my window when I go to sleep at night.

Kung Fu is easy and a lot of fun. I am still working on my Dragon Patton and sparring so I can get my yellow/green belt. It is super easy to get higher belts. Here I am in my class practicing my jumps.

Baseball was fun but it is over. It is fun to bat. I did get a homerun and that was fun. Sometimes we get to go to the market where they sell live fish. It is fun to watch when they fish them out of the tank to sell them to people so they can eat it for dinner. They also eat Chicken Feet here. hehehe I am not going to taste it.

They eat mostly rice and noodles here in Hong Kong. That's what most of my friends bring to school for their lunch. We don't have a cafeteria at Delia School, so we all bring our own lunches and we eat in our class room. Most of the people in my class are from Korea, China and Japan. They speak funny. Most of them are good at speaking English, but almost all of them are ESL students (English as a Second Language).

I will let you know how my trip to Thailand went. I am excited. My mom says we can snorkle there.

Talk to you later.

From Mattias - "the little man"