Out to pasture

While having these 3 days off to readjust my body clock has been a great mercy (and I think many pleasant thoughts at my boss for this chance to vegetate -- I mean the chance to catch up on my Tivo, with a paso doble set to "Pour Some Sugar on Me" by Def Leppard, or the Monday Night Football theme for the paso -- hee!) I think I really need to go back to work tomorrow, because I have been eating everything in sight! I am going to turn into a BLIMP!

Now I know why I am grazing like a demented llama (I am frustrated and angry about this whole Hong Kong mess) but knowing and stopping are two different things, so I am rapidly wiping out the weight loss which occurred in HK. Plus, I am not hiking up and down 45 degree streets to get anywhere -- NYC is completely flat in contrast.

Ah well, tomorrow is another day, one in which I will be far, far away from my kitchen cupboards. Hooray! Plus, I think it is time to get reacquainted with the gym, now that I've bought a new pair of sneakers to replace the ones which got destroyed by Typhoon Raccoon.

And in other cheerful news, they really take their paperfolding seriously in Asia. Check out Pikachu and Eeyore! And also, look closely at the watermelon in the snapshot underneath Eeyore. Wow!

Right now, I'm rotting what's left of my brain by watching more Tivo: Women's Murder Club, based upon a series by my friend Margaret's favorite author, James Patterson. Heh.

Later today, I'm off to Princeton to sit through a timeshare spiel for my free 5-day cruise to Bermuda. Like I said, 3 hours in exchange for 5 days (and nights)? I'll do it. Of course, I should at least UNPACK my clothes before I leave...um, I should also TAKE A SHOWER before I leave...it's so complicated being a slacker. ;-P

Pissed off

I am still awake. This is pissing me off. And I ate half a giant bag of Baked Lays. That is also pissing me off. Thinking about my late night conversation with my Hong Kong colleague is REALLY pissing me off. Basically, I am pretty pissed off. This all tends to tell me that I do not want to move to Hong Kong.

That about uses up my eloquence at this hour, so I am simply going to post some photos I took in HK.






Up, up, and away:
an example
of one of the classic ladder streets in HK

A storefront in Kowloon

Only YOU can prevent brushfires:
"FIrebeaters are only for putting out fires.
Please place back in the rack after using."
(a sign on Cheung Chau)

Munchies

So I know that I should be trying to go to sleep, trying to get my body clock readjusted to THIS side of the world, but I am having a case of the munchies, partly because I didn't eat that much for dinner, and it's now, um, 5 hours later, and partly because my colleague in Hong Kong royally pissed me off by calling @ 11:45pm. ("Oh, is this too late?" Gee, ya THINK?)

Bad enough that she called at that hour but then she shared some really fun work news with me that left me so aggravated that I get ticked off just thinking about it. Oh, and then she wished me a good evening, as I probably wanted to go to sleep. NOT BLOODY LIKELY NOW.

The whole thing makes me seriously question whether I want to transfer over to HK. I mean, for one thing, if she can't accept that I am NOT MOVING THERE PERMANENTLY (after repeated emphatic statements to that effect) then perhaps the only way she'll pay attention to that concept is when I REFUSE THE TRANSFER. So yes, I am now strongly considering turning down the offer.

Therefore, in order to soothe my aggravation, and calm myself before I graze my way through the kitchen, I am going to think of fun things, like finished baby sweaters and (heh) pandas.

The sweater on the right, which did eventually receive buttons before it went off to its new home, is made from a mixture of Cascade Sierra Quattro #88, Classic Elite Provence (whose color name I can't remember, but which I think of as bubblegum pink), and um, I forget what the green yarn is, besides soft & cottony. The new owner is really a ridiculously cute baby, tres Gerberesque: plump cheeks, rosebud lips, fair skin, and big blue eyes. It was paired off with the hilariously rude "Chinese toys taste better" baby t-shirt from T Shirt Hell which the parents found very amusing, as they live in Beijing and work in product safety and liability insurance. Heh!

I also surfed across a Chinese travel show on Chengdu featuring my favorite bears, da xiong miao (a/k/a pandas). As I mentioned in a previous post, they can shred your clothes without meaning to (yikes!) but they are still irresistibly cute (well, to me anyway). They make me smile and calm me down. (It's hard to remain furious when you're grinning like a sap.)

And in other pleasant news, I came home to find some messages telling me that I won a free 5-day cruise for 2 to Bermuda, based on a sweepstakes entry I filled in during the New York Times Travel Show. What's the catch, you ask? Simple: I need to sit through a 1-hr. timeshare spiel...somewhere in NJ. Hmmm...3 hours of my life (including travel time to/from wherever it is) in exchange for a free cruise on Royal Caribbean's Explorer of the Seas? Tempting.

I'd have a year to use it, and the tickets are transferable. Now I know that I'd be put in an interior stateroom (let's be realistic here: free = least desirable accommodations) but still...also, my tay in HK has prepped me for small quarters. Okay, maybe not THIS small, but you get the idea.

All this posting and I still want to eat. I guess this means I really am hungry. Although really, my stay in HK has completely wrecked my ability to eat healthfully. Oh you mean I can eat all sorts of greasy food, be fed constantly throughout a 16-hr. flight, and STILL lose weight? These are not the concepts that will help maintain a healthy lifestyle. Argh.

Thunk!

I'm home. I'm exhausted. I'm practically passing out here on the keyboard, but since I left, the trees have all burst into bud during the past month. In fact, I just realized that I fell asleep sitting up for 45 minutes. Whoops. Perhpas that's a sign that I should go party with my Tempurpedic pillow. *yawn*

Nothing

That is what I had planned for today (Saturday, April 26th) and I cannot TELL you how excited that made me. Friday was ostensibly a day off, but scheduling 2 apartment viewings, a lunch with a friend, and the new Jet Li - Jackie Chan movie, well, I was exhausted. So today, after sleeping late (YES!) I spent the afternoon in my extremely comfortable feathertop bed watching The Aviator before venturing outdoors.

That's my building, Shama Midlevels, to the left, which goes up to 21/F. I'm on 7 which in the US would be 8. Like I said, practically every building in HK is a sliver building. I mean, just look at the street to the right: the verticality of this city is insane. There's a reason that cabbies put the parking brake on during every red light. (And don't even get me started on the cabbie who spoke no English or Mandarin and got lost trying to take me back to my apartment earlier this week. I finally wound up walking home part of the way that night ... very slowly down a steep, curving [blind curve, natch] side street.) And the more apartments I see, the more I realize that I was very lucky in landing such a pleasant flat.

As for steep stairs, Rocky was a wuss: for a REAL training workout, he should have run up and down the aptly named Ladder Street or perhaps Aberdeen Street for a more scenic jaunt.

So okay, around 4pm (errr... I did feel a little slothful at leaving the building at that late hour) after bequeathing all of my butter, sugar, milk, etc upon Carli, the South African expat on the 9th floor, I toted my bits and pieces over to the office to await my return (tupperware, plastic wrap, measuring cups, etc.) It was also a chance to see if I could manage to take public transit to the office without getting lost. (Success!)

Then I wandered around looking for a place to eat near the famous Midlevels escalator (see pic on right) after I refilled my prepaid HK cellphone with some cheap minutes.

These semi-aimless meanderings often lead me to find interesting scenes like the electrical goods store on the left (holy...!) or the temple surrounded by high rises and "antiques" shops.

Appropriately enough, the temple is also framed by a backdrop of a real estate ad, for apartments owned by a hospital. (Tungwah Hospital actually owns quite a lot of properties... hmmm...) The photo at the bottom of this post will give an idea of the density of buildings here.

Oh, and you know how I mentioned that it's always humid here? Well apparently in warm weather, it's either humid, or on fire watch: which is so helpfully (and alarmingly) indicated by symbol #17 on the TV weather status ticker.

And I did manage to find a tasty tagliatelle dish in expat ghettoland (at one point I looked around and saw NO ASIANS) at a little cafe named Portobello. It's in HK's Soho, which stands for South of Hollywood Rd. (or perhaps more accurately: See Only Homogenous Occidentals).

Anyway, I've managed to pack AND do laundry (!) this evening, but not, er, write any postcards for the whole trip yet (except for one -- hey, I was too busy being worked to death!) so I will toddle off now, and FINALLY catch my twice-postponed flight home in the morning.

Motivation

...to learn Cantonese, after my cabbie last night was hopelessly lost. I actually KNEW how to get home (for a change) but only in English. DOH! He did not speak English or Mandarin, and so we wandered around the maze of one way streets that is HK Island. Finally, I couldn't take it any more and told him to let me out (not much English needed for THAT) and I walked the rest of the way home (only 10 min.)

So unless I want to remain permanently quarantined in the expat ghettos of HK, I will need to polish my Cantonese, as there are not enough Mandarin speakers out there to keep me safe from my own idiocy.


There's also motivation to finish this last competitor profile report today (ARGH) which is why I'm up at 4am local time, using the crappy company laptop.


I'll say one thing about my technological travails this month: it's tought me more patience with the 'puters. Instead of yelling, I simply wait for the damn little hourglass to finish twirling (or whatever). Well, I could either accept it or have my head explode. I choose option (b): non-exploding head.

Kind of like how I have simply accepted that it's not a question of whether, bu WHEN, I will get lost while going to meet someone somewhere that is not my apt or either office building that our department is housed in. Just double the amount of travel time for local residents and that might do it for me.


Speaking of glitzy (or non) office towers, the photo above is our flagship (?) building in Hong Kong when it's all lit up at night. Neat, eh?


So yes, I have about 24 hours left (!) in my trip here, after I switched my original departure date to Saturday instead of Friday. Somehow the idea of having a 7pm business meeting and then having to get ready for a 7am departure to the airport was causing me just a WEE freakin' bit of stress. So thanks to the magic of business class tickets, I switched the date without a penalty.


And no, I am no clearer about my job offer / relocation package here. Had a meeting with local HR this morning (finally) after which I realized that I was no closer to an answer: I wanted to know the info on certain subsidies before I accepted, and they were holding off on calculating the exact figures until I accepted. You see the problem, yes? It's a good thing I'm picking up the zen thing, or my head really would make like a Bill Plympton 'toon and go BOOM!

Squish, squish

So yesterday was Typhoon Signal No. 3. YIKES! That was a real tropical downpour. When I came back from looking at a few apartments with a realtor whose English was limited and Mandarin nonexistent (and my Cantonese is minimal -- boy, THAT was fun afternoon), I took off my sodden sneakers outside the apartment (no need to drip all over the Pergo. I thought) and walked across to the kitchen in my socks....and then realized that I was leaving big wet footprints across the floor. Oh well, I tried.

Then I went out to meet a professional acquaintance for dinner -- cute, straight, smart, funny, with fantastic English (you have no idea what a relief that last item is when I come across it)...but sadly accessorized with a girlfriend, I found out over dessert. No identifying details shall be mentioned as I am mortified at the thought that someone I know professionally (or worse yet, someone who knows him) might wander across this blog.

In any case, I was dreading the thought of going back into the deluge, despite the thought of entertaining, attractive (and as I mistakenly thought, single) company for dinner. My New Yorker experience came in handy when I had to fight a schoolboy for the cab which got me there (hey, I was waiting there much longer! what did he think I was doing there? enjoying the blazing sunset?) by dashing down the road and hopping in.

By the time we sat down to dinner, my shoes were squelching across the floor (such graceful sound effects), my jeans were soaking wet, and we both looked like we ran through a waterfall (which is in effect what we did) despite each of us having large, caned umbrellas. [I can see I will have to invest in some serious raingear: galoshes, jackets, etc..] Dinner at a Japanese place named Watami was fun (and I was much more relaxed when, 3 hours in, I found out he was attached). The rain had magically stopped by the time we left after 4 hours of chatting (no, not chatting UP, just chatting -- sadly).

I think my disappointment over Mr. Fun Dinner Companion stems in large part from my loneliness. I know a few people here, but not very many. The language barrier [as most of you know, Cantonese bears almost no resemblance whatsoever to Mandarin or Shanghainese] + lack of knowing where I am going + how to get there + how to explain it to the cabbie if he doesn't speak English! (see: language barrier, above) + business meetings in limited English + colleagues who are will not stop me to ask what I mean [it's a cultural thing] = me as one big ball of stress & isolation.

Plus, it has been 6 months since my SO and I broke up after 2 years together (I really think this lack of identifying details is a VERY good idea that I will stick to: those of you who know me, know who I mean, and the others who randomly ran across this blog, don't need to) so I am finally capable of noticing when someone is attractive. Hey, can I mention again that Mr. Dinner Partner's English is fantastic?

To me, the ability to communicate and be articulate -- in both directions -- is extremely important, in business and personally, so between the INSANE workload, and the isolation, I am increasingly hesitant to accept this transfer. In the end, I will probably still do it, but I go in knowing that I will be depressed, isolated, and stressed out for the first several months. What a lovely prospect to contemplate.

Combat pay

That's what I want. 'Cos they're killin' me here.

Halfway through my edits (p. 15!) and I give up and am crashing.

Views from our office

-- the low orange building in the vertical photo is the HK Jockey Club, home of the Happy Valley Racecourse which gives the neighborhood its name

-- the tall skyscraper in the landscape photo is frequently wreathed in mist/fog/smog at the top floors.

Here's hoping they don't make us move (we suspect possibly to another building) as threatened.

Cruise director alert:

I (yes, me - the visitor) am introducing 2 people I know here (residents) in HK before I leave so they can hang out together while I'm back in the US. HA!!!

Patience, grasshopper

Well THIS got my attention when I came home. Actually, Typhoon Signal #1 is no biggie. Now No. 8 gets your attention, since everything closes down and you'd better make sure that your various insurance policies are paid up: life, auto, home...yes, life in the subtropics is kinda different.

Oh, and the government has forecasted a higher than normal number of typhoons this year (6 - 8, lucky me) -- thank you, La Nina. And tonight's event was the second earliest warning since WWII. Is my timing for transferring to HK great or what?

Okay, tonight I am really procrastinating, since I am avoiding the revising of a Chinese government document into more polished English. Not only is my Chinese completely not up to the task, but when you see that government circulars have titles such as "Measures on Administration of Chinese Representative Institutions of Foreign Insurance Institutions" (that's actually more lively than the one I'm currently working on, believe it or not) well, hey, would YOU be all excited to get crackin'? So far I am on page 4 of 29. *SOB* There will be a lot of iced tea ahead this evening.

So I know, I know -- I should just quit putzing around and DO IT. Thankfully, even THIS laptop can handle editing WORD documents. Usually. I did snag the mouse from the office though, to help with the highlighting.

Even the desktop at the office though, is not so zippy, leading me to frequently mutter to myself, "Patience, grasshopper" which my co-worker (also named Shirley) finds hilarious, since she also watched Kung Fu while growing up. Not unreasonably, after working next to me for 2 weeks, she asked me today, "Do you always talk to your computer?" Um, yes. And usually not something polite.

So adieu for now. Time to go wrangle with a government policy paper. (Can't I just go to bed and hide under the covers instead?)

UPDATE:

90 minutes later, I have only finished revising 3 more pages --> only 22 more to go! SHOOT ME NOW. Please. At this rate, let's see: 30 min./pg. = a mere 11 hours more. As I said, just shoot me, since my eyes are crossing and I'm practically ready to pass out on the keyboard.

Why am I even doing this you ask? Is this what a corporate researcher does? Not usually, but my colleague says she suspects the senior management is testing my English, which leads me to think that acing this test may not actually be to my benefit (i.e., I could get more of these!).

Lame-o on Lamma

So today I went back to Lamma Island, after doing a load of laundry in my "free" washer & dryer. Took a taxi (down a road with a 45 degree incline!) in order to catch the 2pm ferry (there's one every 1/2 hr on Sundays) and as soon as I got to the pier I realized that I had left my cellphone plugged into its charger at the apartment. Now this would not be such a big deal...except for the fact that I was supposed to text Christine (that's her above) once I was on the ferry, so that she could meet me. Since I had never met her before (she is a friend of a friend of a friend) this was kind of key.


After some stress, confusion, and embarrassment (apparently my permanent state of being here in HK), we did finally meet up, and along with another friend of Christine's, we went off for some yummy Thai food in a hole in the wall establishment that Sally (the other person) frequented. While I would not be bold enough to wander in there on my own, I was perfectly content to follow along meekly after the 2 British expats.


Post-pork pad si yew & chicken massaman curry, we went off for what Christine called "a little bit of a hike"...silly me: I forgot the classic sense of British understatement. We scrambled up the rocky path to the peak near the island's windmill with no problem. However, the DOWNhill path left me angst-ridden (I suck at scrambling DOWN rocky, sandy paths). This would be an example of one of the reasons why I would never audition for The Amazing Race, as my teammate would want to strangle me at the amount of time I took to climb down. (And wandering around frequently lost, in a country where I don't speak the language, while trying to get somewhere before a certain time, well, that would sum up the other.)


But back to more positive thoughts: Lamma is beautiful once you get away from the built-up areas. (Please note: buildings are limited to 3 stories, but no one mandated that they are actually aesthetically pleasing.) And the hiking -- this includes the walk back to your own home -- would definitely keep you in shape. (Yes indeed, I will be sleeping soundly tonight.)


Lamma is also a great antidote to the frenetic pace of Hong Kong Island and Kowloon, which is kind of exemplified by the night skyline.

Can't believe that my trip is halfway over. The pace has been so nuts that I can only post here on the weekends. Hopefully I will know more about my future life here (i.e., transfer details, like, oh, say, salary) after Tuesday, since I will be speaking with NY HR on Tuesday night (finally) -- wish me luck.

Pictograms are my friend

So I discovered during a call to my mom last night (Saturday morning, NY time) that my Shanghainese now has a Cantonese accent. I am SO CONFUSED! When I complained to my mom that I now sounded Cantonese, she replied matter-of-factly, "Of course. You will be influenced by the languages which surround you."

Ergo, my Shanghainese sounds vaguely Cantonese. My Mandarin sounds sort of Shanghainese. (Actually my Mandarin probably sounds like an utter mishmash: an American. raised by Shanghainese parents, trying to speak a third language.) And according to my boss in NYC, my English sounds a bit Chinese-inflected (the tones, the lilt, etc.). Unsurpisingly, my brain is utterly dizzy.

And an hour of conversing in Mandarin leaves me feeling exhausted. (No wonder some Chinese colleagues zip up during English language meetings.) I'm sure my Chinese grammar is an utter train wreck, but as my co-worker Shirley (yes, it gets very confusing, esp. since we site right next to each other) kindly pointed out, "But it more important that you can communicate" (i.e., I can still get my point across; I'm just not grammatically correct). My reply is that she now has not one, but TWO, 6 year old daughters. Heh.

So when I go out, I have 2 options: (1) play the ignorant foreigner (not so far from the truth) and stick to straight English and hope for the best, since many people can speak or at least [like me] understand some English, or (2) try out my Mandarin and hope they don't then launch into a rapidfire stream of Chinese (at which point I revert to option #1).

Sometimes, I can actually grasp a lot of everyday Cantonese, but am just not able to speak it, leading to moments of surpise ("wait -- she actually understood what I said? oops").

Example #1: co-workers lapse back into Cantonese after conversing politely with me in English, and one person reveals that she is 4 months pregnant, at which point I burst out [in English] "Congratulations!"

Example #2: Shirley #2 is helping me explain to the tailor that the once superbaggy/droopy pants from my black pinstripe suit which she altered for me are now a bit too snug (oops). Tailor (reasonably) "Why? I measured her in them before altering." Shirley #2 (apologetically) "Well we did just come from [a business] lunch." Tailor: "Well tell her not to eat so much!" whereupon I burst out laughing.

(Which reminds me: with all of these business meals, I desperately want to go buy a bathroom scale somewhere, but all of those chichi shopping guides to HK don't mention basic household goods like soapdishes and scales! At least my clothes still fit, so I must be doing okay. Plus, the portion sizes here are MUCH more sane.)

In my dreams, our largest Asian office would be in Shanghai, and not here in HK, so that I could probably get around easily... although during my last trip in 2006, I learned Shanghai has so many new non-local arrivals that Mandarin may be more useful than Shanghainese.

Therefore, I thought this photo of Campbell's Select (American co.) Russian "Borsch" soup, supertitled in Chinese, was oh so appropriate. Oh, and the exchange rate is approx. HK$7 = US$1 so the soup is really only about US$2, which is quite reasonable really. Also, the "please give up this seat" sign above from the MTR...succinct, no?

Food here is cheap, especially if you buy goods produced on the mainland (NOT!) unless you go of course to superswanky restaurants targeting silly white folk. Even after dividing by 7, some of the prices there make me pale, which is quite a feat considering how much sun I'm picking up from walking around.

Speaking of "premium" (i.e., expensive) services focusing on expats, our nice service flats (apt. bldg.) does not charge for the laundry room; you only need to buy "washing powder" (detergent). I guess the rent here is so steep that unlike the Wynn Las Vegas, they don't nickel and dime you (or US$5 or US$10 you, in the Wynn's case). So it's time for me to go pick up stuff from the dryers, and then head off to meet a friend of a friend on Lamma Island.

Jackhammer magnet

Yes, that's what I am: a jackhammer magnet. This morning, amongst the bamboo scaffolding (hey, metal exoskeletons are a BAD idea in the land of constant 97% humidity) facing my studio service flat, jackhammers. The OTHER side of my flat (HK is just filled with sliver buildings, so at least I get a cross breeze...and mosquitos ) was simultaneously being assaulted by more jackhammers, as the next building bookending mine is under construction/renovation. And at LUNCH today, in the swanky looking Kowloon Hotel, yet MORE jackhammers as they renovate their restaurant area. So evidently, they have followed me from my home, facing Frederick Douglass "4 years of roadwork hell" Circle, to halfway around the world in Midlevels, HK.

Speaking of things which leave me bemused, why is my tap water yellow? Just a question... now I know why HKers are voracious bottled water drinkers. (Oh the plastic...)

Also ran across a Chinese language travel program on TV today. They were going to Chengdu to see PANDAS! They also mentioned the "working vacation" package where you pay for the privilege of scooping out panda poop. Remember: at 40 lbs. of bamboo per day, there is a LOT of panda poop to scoop.

The interviewer was (understandably) finding them adorable...until they started climbing all over her -- then she was squeaking in alarm. They were probably looking for treats or just plain curious, being rambunctious adolescents and not placid adults. However it IS a little alarming when young bears the size of a collie start pawing at you. Pandas may be vegetarian, but they still have all of the hardware of their carnivorous cousins, as the reporter's clothing demonstrated afterward: giant holes the sizes of US quarters / HK$10 coins.

Speaking of food, a former colleague took me to a yummy Japanese restaurant on the Kowloon side of HK. I got lost twice on the way to meeting up with her, so now I started off a identifying myself, when she picked up, as "This is your idiot child calling again." Luckily the subway here is wired for underground, AND the exits are numbered and lettered, making for easier logistics ("Meet me at Exit F of Sheung Wan Station")

And opposite to the MTR (subway), a colleague and I went to the top of Sheraton Kowloon today for some coffee, and a spectacular view. Or it should've been a spectacular view -- The air quality was Beijing-esque in its opacity. Oh my.

So I will leave with a nifty shot of Kowloon at night. I go beddy-bye now. (Thunk!)

A/C = happy me

Today I made the happy discovery that not all HK ferries are open air: the ferry to Lamma Island is air-conditioned. Oh, happy me! While it is not yet truly hot, it is still insanely humid (a drop of water on the kitchen counter will remain there from morning till...well, the next day, unless I wipe it up...quite mindboggling, especially after Easter week in Vegas) and humid air + mildly warm weather + any exertion at all = very sweaty people.

A/C is especially appreciated since the ferries here bob and weave rather more (i.e., MUCH more) violently than any that cross NY Harbor, and well, I don't usually get seasick, but I really don't do well in hot weather. (Yes, yes, I know -- very ironic that I'm being transferred to a subtropical climate. C'est la vie.)

My expat neighbors in the building (Brit, Aussie, and South African) decided to head off to Lamma Island today, instead of Macau, since one of their HK colleagues offered to be a tour guide. I was happy to tag along and add to the melange of accents. We had a lovely tea break at an organic farm which raised rabbits (fear not: the bunnies provided fertilizer, not food) and chatted with some Americans at the next table who lived in Shenzhen (which is right over the border in Mainland China) who are teaching English at the international school there. I particularly liked their novel re-use of bottles on the garden. Oh, and my lemongrass tea was yummity.

Of course, the charmingly bucolic aura on Lamma was rather spoiled by the 3 giant smokestacks from the sprawling power station which dominate the horizon.

I also engaged in my first bit of bargaining as we all bought straw hats to stop from burning to a crisp. While I know that HK$25 vs. HK$28 is not much in the scheme of things, it's just the principle of the thing. And it's something I've got to get the hang of. It even (mostly) fit my gigantic head. Shocking.

On the way back to HK Island on the (violently bobbing) ferry, I received my 2nd call on my new cellphone, which I think is darn cute. It's just a super-basic Sony Ericsson which has no camera, etc., but does have FM radio, which is great, b/c I don't have a working radio in the apartment. I did, however, finally remember tonight that I can tune into "Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me" on NPR (where I learned that Barack Obama is apparently a lousy bowler) and WCWP-FM, a NY metro jazz station, via the web.

Then this evening I went off to Lan Kwai Fong (the expat ghetto) for some spectacularly good sushi with a work colleague (a/k/a the phone call on the ferry). It turns out that my posting here will be perfect for his unit's research needs, as it involves facilities for Chinese tourists and our thorough & lengthy work-related discussion more than justified the hefty price tag. Re: the fab sushi -- if you judge the quality of the sushi by how little soy and/or wasabi I use, then put it this way: I used almost none (and could've used zero, really). Through about 10 dishes. Yum.

Okay, I should really go to bed now, since I will have to figure out yet more new & different forms of public transit in the morning, since I'll be working at a different office for the rest of the month. And not only will I get to wrestle with yet more new & different office connectivity issues (problems) but I'll be helping to unpack the library there, as we've just moved in to new, and most likely temporary (!), offices. Sigh.

My people!

The Shanghainese, that is. It turns out that my co-worker's husband is from Shanghai. Hooray! I could chat with them yesterday in my mother tongue and it was so comfortable not to have to struggle with my lame Mandarin or worry about blank looks when faced with English language comments or questions. It really helped kill off some of my homesickness.

And by homesickness I mean the sense of dislocation which comes from living in a foreign country which has a difficult native language. I am so grateful that I retained at least some minimal Mandarin, and can understand a little Cantonese. (Shanghainese is not common here, although Meilee's husband tells me that there is an enclave of My People in the North Point area. Hmmm...) I cannot begin to imagine living here in HK without any Chinese knowledge.


Meilee and her husband were kind enough to take me hiking on Cheung Chau island yesterday. Not only was it refreshingly green, so unlike the hustle and bustle of Central or Lan Kwai Fong (a bar district which Meilee hilariously -- and accurately -- decribed as being "like Chinatown for gwailos") but it reminded me that there are relaxing activities to do once you escape from the office.




Being a public holiday, the commercial districts of Cheung Chau (reachable from HK Island via a 50-min. ferry ride) were overflowing with daytrippers like us. Long Island (the literal translation for Cheung Chau) reminded me of Coney Island or the Jersey shore back home: a seaside resort which is very casual. For dinner, we had fresh shrimp, fresh whole fish, and some other dishes involving fresh shrimp. REALLY fresh seafood, as in: swimming around earlier in the day.

No cars are allowed on the island, except for ambulances, so pedicabs are available. Hauling groceries uphill to the various homes perched on the mountainside must suck though. Jiming (my co-worker's husband) pointed out that you could potentially use bicycles, but everyone we ran into (as we wandered around lost, looking for the route back to the ferry) was on foot... carrying groceries.


The other "people" of mine are knitters: I wandered across a yarn shop yesterday stocked with Mondial yarn and a gazillion buttons.


I just happened to be looking into a commercial building while exploring a the "downtown district" and saw a "needlework shop" with what appeared to be a wall of yarn behind the window. I discovered that when properly motivated, I can dredge up my Mandarin. Heh. I found a street vendor on Li Yuen Street West (no, it's not referred to as West Li Yuen Street -- HK uses directional suffixes a la DC or Deattle) who was selling Patons yarn as well.

256MB of RAM

That is what this crappy laptop has, and that is what I'll be stuck with while working in Hong Kong until April 25th. (Breathe, Shirley, breathe...) It makes working on anything difficult, since it is sooooo slooooow, and it makes opening Outlook for work impossible, so that I am reduced to using the remote login web interface, which is unbelievably sucky.

Okay, enough bitching and moaning (for the moment). Hopefully, next week I'll be able to use a free (open) PC at our other HK office (i.e., the one where I'll be relocating to, vs. the pressure cooker HQ tower I was working in this week...on my decrepit laptop).

I think I am feeling a bit mopey because I'm tired. This afternoon, I was actually ridiculously pleased to go grocery shopping, so that I could eat something besides peanut butter on toast when I stagger home from work @ 10pm every night. (I refuse to be any food produced in China though -- I've researched too many product recalls originating from the PRC.)

And the serviced apartment I am staying at, while compact (470 sq. ft.) is very pleasant, with a great view and sleek furnishings. (Small = minimalist = modern / contemporary = sleek) They also really believe in applying the serviced apartment concept to its fullest: there are no kitchen sponges for washing any dishes!

Actually, the building is nice enough, and well maintained enough that I'd stay here, or in one of their other properties for my transfer... assuming I could afford it: still no info on the transfer package/offer.

Ah well. In more amusing news, my hair was absolutely flat while in Vegas, the land of 0 humidity. It even approached the straightness of what most people assume Chinese hair is like. In HK, I've yet to see the humidity drop below 85%, even at midnight (which reminds me: must remember to take my melatonin tonight in my continuing quest to slay the jet lag demon). I mean, check out the view at night. Ergo, my hair has accordingly turned into a 'fro. Whoops.

But the view really does make a difference: psychologically, it feels much more open, even though this place would make most NYC apartments look palatial. The city is very vertical, and reminds me strongly of Honolulu: skyscrapers stacked on the sides of lush mountainsides, surrounding pretty harbors and beaches. The roads make San Francisco switchbacks look like geriatric wimps though. Wow. I mean, the neighborhood I am staying in is called Midlevels for a reason, and The Peak is, well, self-evident, in terms of topography, real estate price and consequent social status. In fact, the apartment came stocked with a thick glossy called THE PEAK which I have not felt like rubbernecking at yet. (The issue of HONG KONG TATLER with Pansy Ho on the cover, however, I will be all over.)

The cab ride to visit a friend who works for Lehman and lives in Repulse Bay was (a) vertiginous, (b) scenic, and (c) long by HK standards, about 30 min. Cabbies the world over appear to hate being stuck in traffic, so this one took a route over The Peak, instead of via the Aberdeen Tunnel which was apparently a mess at the time. (My mom would have been sooooo carsick with all of the hairpin swerves.)

Andy and his family live the glamorous expatriate lifestyle one hears of, as demonstrated by their view. Holy...! Though my favorite shot from their balcony is this one to the right. Yowsa. And the size of their apartment...!

Real estate awe aside, it was so nice to speak with someone from home. In American English. Folks with the same cultural references (hey, they even lived in Manhattan before transferring here) which didn't require me to mentally pick through my skimpy Mandarin.

I can easily see becoming homesick, especially since my future boss was blunt and advised me that my first 6 months here will suck, both workwise and otherwise. (Hey, better blunt honesty than the primrose path.) Balancing that, as Andy pointed out, since their is indeed a large expatriate community, people can be very friendly. Exhibit 1: I am off to Macau tomorrow for a day trip with some neighbors I met in the elevator today, IT consultants who've been living in the building for a few months.