Countdown

A week from today I'll be on my way to Hong Kong. My mom has invited me to join her on this trip to celebrate my 40th birthday. I'll be gone for a total of 16 days, 5 of which will be in China. While I've been to Hong Kong and Taiwan as a child, this will be my first trip to China. Plus, I'm sure Hong Kong has changed a lot in the last 30+ years, not the least of which is that it is once again part of China and not a British territory. Of course, I'll be taking my camera and my computer, so hopefully I'll be able to keep my blog updated (as if I were so good at that anyhow, but one can dream). What I will not be taking with me is my husband and my daughter. They were not invited. Well, it's not like my husband would want to take that much time off from work to hang out with my extended family anyhow, and my mom thought my daughter would be too much to handle at this age.

I'm really looking forward to this trip. I had a great time exploring Montreal last September, but that's tame compared to Hong Kong and China. I'm expecting to really stretch my comfort zone and experience something different. It will be nice to reconnect with that side of my family again, but I'm also looking forward to spending some time by myself (as any mother of a 6 year old would understand). I'm even looking forward to the flight as an opportunity to get some reading done.

Another interesting aspect of this trip is that my husband will be taking care of our daughter by himself while I'm gone. This will be the first time he's done this for more than a day. I imagine he'll gain a whole new appreciation for parenting (and all the fun stuff that goes with it like laundry, cooking, doing dishes, keeping a fire going so that the house doesn't get too cold, etc.) I wish him luck (otherwise I'll have a whole lot to do when I get home).