Learning to Appreciate Quiet Time

Our whole life schedule has been turned upside down since moving here. When we lived in Portland we often had most of our summer weekends planned out by early June. Even in fall/winter we had taken to X-ing certain days off the caladar just so that we could have days that weren't planned out in advance. I loved filling up my free time with fun activies with all the wonderful people that we know in the Portland area. Since moving here it has been just the opposite. We don't know many people besdies ourselves very well and all of our friendships are pretty new. Sometimes we have an evening or an afternoon planned with friends on the weekend. But, most weekend days we wake up and say "What do you want to do today?" and we take it from there. Often we do nothing more than hang out at home: play a board game, drink home brewed coffee and read the news paper or discuss current events, catch up on computer stuff (email, WOW, blog, skype, the news, etc), spend a few hours reading by the pool, go to the gym, make a big breakfast, lay on the couch together and watch a movie...baically we do "nothing", but we have learned to love it. There is something wonderful about the simplicity just being together and just being. Being in a place were we soak up so much that is new and different during the normal daily routines of the work week, it is refreshing not to spend too much weekend time just out exploring. And we still do get a lot of time to explore new parts of Hong Kong. But we have also been forced to be more introspective, to depend on others less social stimulus and to rely on ourselves and each other more. We have taken the time to get to know ourselves and each other better. And this will be on of the most valuable lessons that we bring home with us from Hong Kong....not what we have learned about Asia or Hong Kong, but what it has taught us about ourselves and how it has enabled us to take the time to deepen our understanding of each other and our relationship as a couple as well.