Everyone Says Goodbye

1/10/14

Whenever a trip ends, I become a bit melancholy.  It is a deep melancholy that pulls me back into the past; to moments of my life that were once meaningful, but are meant to stay behind me. The end of something always seems encourage the ghost of the past to float around in my brain. I think that this kind of depression is just a part of my being. In order to have such high moments in life, it has to be balanced by the memories and feelings of the past. For most of my life, I have lived internally, experiencing the world from the confines of my own thoughts. As a young person, I was much more comfortable within the confines of a book with my tape player sounding out the accompanying soundtrack than with people my own age. I still associate certain Dave Matthews tracks to specific chapters of books. In many ways, I am still that pudgy young kid that would rather fantasize about a novel rather than deal with new scenarios and unfamiliar faces.  However, as I have grown older I have found myself open up quite a bit.  Many of my work personality tests show that I have turned into some sort of half-crazed extrovert that has to constantly walk around the office to chat with lots of people and pastes images of himself with important people all over his own office space. I guess I have changed quite a bit. I know that I have grown up because I have to budget money (although I did that better than my parents when I was young), maintain a car (I still would prefer pretending to drive a car with my legs hanging out of the front of my bottom bunk bed.  One of my favorite things to do when I was a child was to turn on the windshield wipers for my rather then it rained. To this day, I use my wipers at an exorbitant amount simply because it reminds me of the past), and have a big boy job (although my job rarely feels like work because often I get to do things that are incredibly relevant to my interests).  

My mind is constantly running a projector of multiple scenarios and fantasies that help me cope and hide from serious things like death. You don’t really have to think about death when you use your force powers to open the sliding glass grocery store doors. Death maybe an overly dramatic example, but it really is a large part of my life.  I try to live my life knowing that I could die at any moment. I am charitable because I know that I only have so much time to do good things for others and that it makes me happy. I try to experience as much as I can now because it makes me happy. I travel a lot because movement is often better than standing still. What I like most about traveling is that I get to live out my imaginations and fantasies in real life. To be honest, sometimes the reflection back on the experience is sometimes more powerful then the actual episode itself, however, I am much better at living in the now than I ever have been.  My trip to Hong Kong showed me that I am ready and capable to take control of the next steps of my life.  I feel my confidence has been reinforced and I am ready to become a world traveler and business person. I need to keep reminding myself to live and breathe in this moment and to let it soak into my mind.

Getting off the plane, I ran to the bathroom. My guts have been constricting and contracting and gurgling for far too many hours.  I blame the copious amount of raw fish that come with just about every meal you have in Hong Kong. I nervously speed walk through the sterile hospital like terminal in San Francisco (I hate United). I really hate being late to my gate and although I know that I will still be early, my anxiety is still high.  Nobody wants to go to the bathroom in a plane, NOBODY. I finally find the nearest men’s room and Dick Van Dyke my way over several rolling suitcases on their way out the wrong side of the bathroom.  I notice that there are so many white people here…where am I?!  I run around to the back section of the bathroom where there are only stalls.  There is a line!!!  Luckily there is only one man in front of me, so I quietly take my turn.  Growing up, I was never a man’s man. I never really felt the urge to bro it out with others of those who shared the same sex. I particularly had issues with men’s bathrooms, in that I refused to use public ones for the first two decades of my life.  As a grown up, I still don’t like it, but sometimes you just have to.  The man in front of me was middle aged with a bit of a potbelly wearing the American uniform of jeans, t-shirt and worn baseball cap.  He impatiently tapped his foot and kept pacing in front of the stalls.  Finally, he raises his hands in disgusts and says,  “They need to pinch that shit off and get off the pot!” and he saunters away.  As the man is halfway buy me, he turns, laughs and smiles at me in order to share the moment. I am pretty sure that if I had raised my hand we could have high fived at that moment.  Welcome back to America.

            At the end of my journey, I need to spend a moment to thank those that have made it possible.  Firstly, thank you to Daniel, Monica, Selena, and Rebecca (although your contribution was mostly drooling on my leg) for supporting us financially and, most importantly, also being our family in Hong Kong. I really treasured our moments together and I hope that we all get to meet up together soon.  Thank you Eric and Coleen Slosberg for the finances and for encouraging us to take this long journey.  You both helped us figure out a budget that worked and emphasized the significance of family in our travel plans.  See you both in London in 2015!  Thank you to my boss, Jon, for helping me to see what we are doing as an organization in Hong Kong and showing me many great places to eat.  I will never forget the Sushi place.  My life will be spent trying to relive that event.  

            Well folks, I hope that you have enjoyed my ramblings.  Many of you have comments on the length of my posts.  You do have to remember that I wrote a 300-page dissertation and that details are kind of my thing.  I write these diaries because I believe that someday I will go back and edit them into some sort of book.  I really do enjoy writing for an audience, so that you all that have taken the time to read.  You should all start writing your own blogs so that I can have more junk to read myself! I already read both Mike Chin and Manan Shah’s lovely blogs and I would love to add more to the list.

            Should you travel to Hong Kong?  Yes – it will change your life. I would move to Hong Kong if I could manage to get a job that would pay for me to live in a flat that wasn’t the size of my current bathroom.  If you want to see a city that blends both East and West in a way that is worlds beyond what you would find in any American city, go to Hong Kong. If you want to find a city that incorporates nature into its very being, then go to Hong Kong.  If you want to see what the future is going to be like, then go to Hong Kong and start learning Chinese. 

Go travel, love and write.

Buddha Grande

1/4/14

It has been a couple days since I have been able to update.  We have been keeping everything pretty jam packed, so I rarely get a chance to sit down at a computer.  Perhaps the hand written diary would be easier, but I would also have trouble trying to figure out my handwriting.  Two days ago, I wrote a blog entry about how I had the day off.  I spent most of it reading Survival in Auschwitz by Primo Levi, which is pretty light reading.  I find the barter system in Auschwitz to be fascinating.  One not only had to survivor the terrors of their captors, but also they had to integrate themselves into the black market in order to survive.  It really puts my privileged life into perspective.    

              So, after a day of reading about dark things and when Deborah finally got back from Ocean Park (which I thought was a water park, but apparently is an amusement park – I am very happy that I didn’t go) we met up with my boss, Beatrix (who works in our office at CTY Hong Kong), the former office manager of CTY HK, and a friend of Jon’s.   I apologize for that last sentence – remind me to edit this later and by later I mean never.   I feel like Mike Chin would totally not approve.   Anyway, we went to an amazing Indonesian restaurant called Indonesian Restaurant 1968 near midlevels in Central.  I would put it in the top 10 eating experiences of my entire life.  The spicy fish dish altered me in ways that I am still trying to comprehend.

            The following day, yesterday, was probably my favorite of the trip.  We started off the day by going to the jade market, which is near Tsim Sha Tsui. It is an inside market with dozens and dozens of individual stalls, all selling the same jade trinkets. We found that it probably isn’t the best idea to go to one of these markets in the middle of the day because we were the only couple there.  The vendors jumped on the opportunity to hock their junk to some stupid white Americans.  We were able to confirm their believes pretty quickly.  I knew that I was supposed to barter, but when you are the only people there, you can’t even check out the different shops without people jumping all over you.  Old lady after old lady ran up to us with their calculators and their “morning deals”.  Deborah was not prepared for this type of interaction.  Now, I watch a lot of Pawn Stars, Storage Wars, and American Pickers.  TV has taught me to never take the list price; in fact, in some cultures it is disrespectful to not barter.  Deborah, on the other hand, doesn’t really know what a TV is and still thinks that Bruce Lee is alive. We were on a bit of a mission at the jade market; we wanted to find a bangle for my cousin as well as some other jade things to give to people.  I believe that I made our first purchase of a couple jade turtles and I got the price down to maybe a 100 HK dollars.  I am for certain sure that I was completely ripped off, but it was really exciting to go back and forth with the woman.  “Great morning deal!  Oh nooooo! Can’t do that!  You make poor!”.  We passed back the calculator several times and I won my first cheaply made jade set of turtles.  Deborah’s turn was a bit less successful.  I had to remind her that we wanted to work the price down, not up!   She did get a few dollars off of her goods, and we do have to keep in mind that we are not talking a lot of money.   I believe we spent about 100 dollars US for 8 pieces of jade.  My favorite vendor was this young hipster guy who explained to us the different types of jade, and why certain types were more expensive than others.  In between talking to us, he was chatting with someone on his giant phone (everyone has a giant phone here-  if you don’t have a Samsung phone that is the size of your head, you ain’t nothing in HK, son!).  I liked his style so we returned to by the bangle and some other junk that we don’t need.  I heart shopping.  I talked to my boss later about our successful trip and he explained to us that you should be able to get at least 1/3 off of the price with bartering.   Well, everyone has to start somewhere!  Perhaps I am not very good at bartering either…

            From the jade market, we hiked on over to the ladies market.  This one is outside on a long and narrow street with thousands and thousands of people milling about.  My first experience of it was pretty overwhelming, but after awhile you begin to realize that market places in Hong Kong actually aren’t that stressful.  While there are lots of people, they tend to be pretty polite and don’t run you over too much.  I feel much more comfortable here than I would in a large crowd in NYC.  Anyway, Deborah was transfixed by old lady scarfs and picked up another one for far too much money. We figured this out because when Deborah gave the woman a figure, the woman exclaimed, “For just one!?!!? Yes!” As we walked, I found a stall that sold toys, comic book toys.  As a browsed through the selection, I saw a transformer figure that looked like the joker and started to get excited. Just a few steps away from this toy was a box that would make the entire trip worth it.  In a strange packaging that included both Marvel and DC characters lay a Green Lantern figure.  I bartered the woman down to 35 HK dollars (which is like negative 5 cents American) and skipped away with the love of my life.  I then remembered to grab Deborah and we rode off into the sunset.

            After this glorious event, we decided to kick it up a notch and find a British Pub.  Some of you may know that I lived in London for a semester in 2006 and have yet to get a chance to return.  London burned deeply into my soul during those few months and whenever I get a chance, I try to relive my experiences there.  Those of you who have read any history, would know that Hong Kong was once a British Colony, so there is still a lot of that culture on the Island.  Near mid-levels (which is a shopping/restaurant area that is built on huge hills connected by long escalators that stretch on for miles) stands a magnificent restaurant called The Yorkshire Pudding.  I had my first Fuller’s London Pride pint since leaving London and we had amazing fish and chips.  The only disappointment was that they didn’t have any vinegar. How does one eat their chips without any vinegar!?   However, they had HP sauce and they had cricket playing on the telly.  I pretended to watch/care just like I did in London.  Of course, I go all the way to Asia to eat in a British Pub with a bunch of white old dudes.  Next trip:  London, England 2015!

            That night, Deborah and I got dressed up for an alumni networking event for Johns Hopkins. Hong Kong is interesting because you can get terribly lost on your way to an important event and still easily be able to correct your mistake and only be five minutes late.  I love the public transport here!  I will not bore you with all of the details, but President Daniels gave a speech with a shout out to CTY, we talked to a woman who was our age that works for a toy company that produces Star Wars and Star Trek toys (I got her card and totally e-mailed her as soon as I got home), and I ended up having a long conversation with a CTY parent who has sent her twins to CTY for 3 years.  She was incredibly nice and I tried to explain to her that her 13 year olds would safely be able to travel from Hong Kong to JHU by themselves with the help of CTY.  We have been doing crazy things like that for years. I really enjoy talking to parents because it reminds me why I love the organization so much.  At the end of the day, we provide a really important service to these kids and it always amazes me how much I can nerd out over CTY.  I think I really sold her on the traditions and experiences at some of our older sites.  The night gave me a taste of what international work would be like and I am so excited to be a part of it.  Part of me is nervous that they will suddenly decide that I should be moved to a domestic site, but I can’t worry too much about that.  I really want to be at the forefront of the growth of gifted education in Asia.  Next week, I get to tour our new site at the University of Hong Kong and build the parent/student handbook.  It will be a challenge, but I so happy to have such an interesting project to work on.  Anyway, we had a few drinks after the event with my boss and his friend and ended up taking a taxi home.

            The following day (today) we met up with Selena and Daniel and made the long trek to see Tian Tan Buddha (AKA the Big Buddha) For more information, check out: http://www.discoverhongkong.com/eng/see-do/highlight-attractions/top-10/the-big-buddha-po-lin-monastery.jsp.  We took a bus, then the MTR, and finally a bus that went up and down huge hills with the ocean at our side.  It was a very curvy and bendy trip and I tried to forget that sometimes I get motion sickness.  Before I talk more about the trip, I just want to note that Selena (the three year old) is like a real person.  She has her own purse with her old bus card that she touches to the sensor herself, she calming sits on the bus and plays quiet games/sings to herself during super long trips, and she practices speaking in different languages on a pretty regular basis.  I am quite impressed with the child and I hope that my kids are as city savvy as this kid.  Also, I think that she would find it important that I mention her real name here.  She prefers to be called by her full name, Ariel Rapunzel Fairy Princess, just something to keep in mind when you have your next business meeting with her. I hear she that just invested in Coach stock…we should probably all do the same. 

            We ate our vegetarian lunch at the base of the hill, which consisted of giant spring rolls, tofu, and soup and then headed out on our adventure.  The big Buddha is really f’ing big! It is at the top of 100 and some stairs (I forget the exact number, but Selena and Daniel counted them all in German, Spanish, Cantonese, and English) and is at the top of a huge hill that is surrounded by multiple other green rolling hills.  It is an amazing site and the experience is made stronger by the sounds of the monks singing.  I would love to spend the night there at the hostel and do some of the many hikes that wind through the thick forest. Pictures do not do this place justice.  Another short hike on the wisdom trail takes you to an area that is breathtakingly beautiful.  We climbed to the top of a large hill and had a three hundred and sixty view of the ocean and mountains.   The space is almost completely untouched by man.  The beauty of this island is just too hard to describe.

We stayed for a few hours and then we had to get the baby home.  My only regret is that we didn’t take the gondola for a 25-minute ride over the mountains.  Next time!

            We ended our night with sushi in Aberdeen.  I really hope that this vacation never ends.  I might not go back to the United States…

New Years Eve?

1/2/14

            The last few days have been incredibly busy, so although I really wanted to update the blog, I couldn’t really find the time. One of my goals for the trip to Hong Kong was to see the fireworks over the water on New Years Eve.  That plan was altered when we saw the crowds starting to grow at around 5 pm.  At that time, there were already thousands of people lined up along the sides of the water.  Most of them had their video cameras fixed to the sky.  I wonder how many terrible videos there are of the same event.  I am just as guilty of this, but sometimes it is better to experience the world outside of the limits of a viewfinder. One thing I have learned here is that pictures can never really accurately capture the immense presence of the city.  At all times, huge skyscrapers with all different types of architecture, bright blue water and deep green mountains surround you. Hong Kong is unlike any other city that I have visited. It is relatively clean, sunny, warm and a mix of new and old.  Everything appears to be constantly changing as buildings are torn down and new modern ones are put into their place. Huge machines that push soil into the water are literally filling in the sea. In a few years, buildings will be built on top of what was once water.  At the same time, Hong Kong has huge nature parks with winding trails through dense forests.  Everything is a bus ride away AND you never have to wait for a bus for longer than 5 minutes.  You begin to lose your sense of reality here… “Where is that bus!?! We have been standing here for at least two minutes! We will surely die in this 60 degree beautiful weather!”  One almost forgets the pleasures of the red line in DC, the mentally challenged little brother train of the DC metro system that can’t seem to understand how to perform its one purpose in life. Hong Kong is a magical place where everything is efficient and you almost never get lost.  While my description leans toward the overly positive, there are still some aspects of the city that annoy me.  The market areas are overcrowded and people meander around at a snails pace. Luckily, I am taller than everyone so I can just step over people when needed.  Also, I have had a few miscommunications with some of the storekeepers, but that will come later.

           

So, our New Years Eve started with large expectations.  After our workout, we headed out to meet my boss Jon for coffee.  We met at the top of a hotel that overlooked Tsim Sha Tsui (where his hotel is) as well as many other famous city landmarks.  The view was amazing and I wish that I had taken a picture of it.  After our meeting, Deborah and I decided to wait in line for two hours to take the tram to the top of Victoria peak.  Now, because Deborah reads this blog, I will say that the tram ride was probably the best thing I have ever done in my entire life.   The wait was totally worth it!   The old creaky tram slowly pulls you up a giant hill along side many older buildings.  I wonder what the people think of the super loud tram going up and down all day right next to their windows.  The views from the tram were quite beautiful and we ended at a large mall at the top of the highest point in Hong Kong.  While I wasn’t really excited about being in a western type mall, I did find a store called the DC Comics Super Hero Store!  I returned to the store twice to try on a three hundred dollar (US) Green Lantern varsity jacket, only to decide that it didn’t quite fit right and the faded style of it made it look more ratty than chic.  Later, I would discover that these stores only exist in a few places in Asian and that most of the merchandise is unique.  I feel that I will be conflicted about my decision for the rest of my life.   Speaking of money, with our Octopus cards, the trip up the mountain was less than 5 US dollars and getting out onto the viewing area was only another few dollars.   Whoever said that Hong Kong was expensive only buys clothes and alcohol here.  We struggle to spend money! Granted, the generosity of the Slosberg and Slosberg Bank paid for our flights and hotels here.   We are forever in their debt.  I am literally in their debt for forever…   

            The view of from the top of Victoria peak was inspiring, even though the pollution was a bit high that day and you couldn’t see as far as I would have liked.  We stayed for an hour or so, got some cheap lunch at a café and took a minibus back down the hill.  I was warned that mini buses are not always known as being the safest form of transportation in Hong Kong and I was concerned when I entered the cab and saw a large digital speedometer for everyone to see.  It was a huge red sign that I thought was going to show us what street we were headed to, but instead showed us how close to death we were.  However, the ride was actually quite fun and safe.  We traveled down curvy roads with tremendous views of the water.  Whoever lives in the houses on top of the mountains in Hong Kong must be super duper rich.  We took the bus to the Star Ferry and crossed over the water to Tsim Sha Tsui, so that I could go to the Avenue of the Stars.  The Star Ferry costs a few pennies and it is really the best way to see Hong Kong from all sides.  I got a lot of really great pictures from the boat.  We walked from the boat to the Avenue of the Stars (which is similar to the Hollywood Walk of Fame) in order for me to see the Bruce Lee statue.  Deborah kept asking me if Bruce Lee was still alive and I just kept walking without a response.   After my moment of silence we met Jon at his hotel for a drink.  From the hotel, we went back to Aberdeen to rest up for the night.  We took the MTR to our bus stop and saw that the streets were being closed off!  Deborah and I ran to one of the last buses as the street barriers went up, blocking traffic. Breathing hard in the bus, I looked at Deborah and made the game time decision that we were going to take it easy and not kill ourselves trying to get to the water later that night.  I would rather have an easy New Years Eve than one that was full of disappointment because you are around a million stinky drunk people that obscure the view of the fireworks.  It is like when you go to a concert that you have been anticipating for months only to have to deal with the crowd and terrible seats.  Sometimes you have to be realistic. Also, while I knew that Deborah was game, I knew that she was tired from the day and I didn’t want to push her too much.  We ended up trying the restaurant in the basement of our hotel.  It was quite good, but I think the waiter was new and he didn’t understand some of the things we were telling him. I wanted a rum and coke and just got the coke,  I took it as a sign that maybe I shouldn’t drink on this New Years Eve.  We shared a Mexican quesadilla with salmon and some sort of mango soufflé for dessert.  I hope I am not putting on weight! I should go to the gym soon!  After dinner, we went to our room and turned on the tv.  Deborah instantly fell asleep and I tried to find a station that covered New Years.  I don’t know if I was ever successful because the last thing I remember is looking at the clock that said 11:50 and then I fell asleep. 

            Happy New Years 2014!

            The following day was spent playing with the kids near Daniel’s apartment.  We ate lunch and dinner there and I took a lot of great pictures.  One of my cultural miscommunications was my effort to try and top off my work phone.  You can do this at many different shops in Hong Kong.  The main one that people go to is the local seven elven.  We went to two different stores where nobody understood what was going on.  I was told to pull out my sim card, I was told to put it back in, I was told to dance around.   The woman at the final store seemed really frustrated with me as I kept handing her the sim card rather than money.  I found out that all they need to know is the company of the card and then they can add my money to their system.  You get a receipt with a code on it that you text to the company and voila, you have more minutes.   I did what the receipt said, but I still have no idea how to see the minutes left on my phone.  I put another 100 hk dollars on it (which is like 12 US dollars), so that should last for a while.  It is kind of funny how things work here.   You would expect EVERYTHING to cost a fortune because it is Hong Kong, but things like public transportation and phone stuff is incredibly cheap.  I probably will never have to put money on the phone again.  

            I now have most of the day off as Deborah is taking Selena to Ocean Park.  It is nice to get some time off, I will have to do the same for Deborah soon…

Ap Lei Chau and Other Places

Number 2   12/31/13

Soundtrack of the day: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jkknDFu1BJQ

Sexy!

I woke up at around 7 am today, which is quite an accomplishment for someone who couldn’t sleep past 4 for the past few days. This might be too much information, but my stomach doesn’t feel quite right after last night activities, but I am getting ahead of myself (no – it doesn’t have anything to do with drinking.  I haven’t had a drink yet since coming to Hong Kong! We will see if we can change that on New Years Eve).  We are planning on taking it easy today because we pushed it a little hard.  Little did I know, that in one of the largest urban environments in the world, one can still get lost in the woods.  I am not quite sure how we do it, but we consistently find areas where people do not live and that look like upstate NY or anywhere in Michigan.  I guess it is a skill?  Yesterday, after our normal breakfast and hour workout in our hotel, we decided that we would try and hike from Aberdeen to Victoria Peak, which is near midlevels.  When Deborah talked to a staff member at the hotel, she laughed in our face.  “Oh no, it is much too far  - may I get you a taxi?  I will write information in Chinese on a card and you can give it to taxi!”  We must look pretty incompetent.  In this part of Hong Kong – where the MTR is being built, it is quite easy to get from point A to B by bus.  While HK has lots of people, it still is just a set of relatively small islands.  Buses either go north/south or east/west.  If you have an idea of the name of the place you need to get to, there is a bus with that name on it.  For instance, Daniel lives on a small island named Ap Lei Chau (which according to Wikipedia is second most densely populated island in the world) and we can just hop on the bus with the same name and get there in no time. Anyway, we had decided that walking 10.0 kilometers was very doable because we hike that much on a pretty regular basis.  Also, we wanted the experience of being able to say that we quite literally walked across of good chunk of Hong Kong Island.

          

Pretty!

  So, we headed off without our breakfast bars and bottle of water into Aberdeen proper.  You literally can walk straight from our hotel and 30 mins later be in the middle of the woods.  The idea was to walk up to the Aberdeen Reservoir to see some of the views of the island and then to cut back through the woods, which would lead us to Pok Fu Lam park and then eventually would be able to climb Victoria Peak at the end of our journey.  Daniel assured us that this was possible, which it is, but we didn’t end up making it quite that far.  His directions were pretty sound, however, some of the landmarks have changed and therefore we kind of got lost.  We ended up walking about 10 kilometers in large circles around the park without making it into the western section. On our way to the park, we walked up a giant road that was almost at a 90 degree angel that ran near a temple and several schools.  One school that I remember was called Saint Peter’s Catholic School.  The area was quite beautiful with small rivers that to the side of our path.  At points, the drop-offs were quite steep and you could tell that a bad rain would make the hike very dangerous, but on a sunny and warm day it was an excellent time.  We cut back and forth through the forest and sometimes would see glimpses of huge skyscrapers and parts of the harbor. 

Graves!!!!!!

Eventually, we started to head back down to Aberdeen in defeat.  As we were walking down a new path, we happened upon a couple of cramped headstones. I wanted to explore more, although I was a little nervous about the cultural expectations of random white people taking pictures on sacred ground.  I figured I could just play the dumb tourist role, so we started to walk through the graveyard.  Due to the fact that there was such limited space, you literally had to walk on top of the graves to get to other sections.  As we moved further, we were surprised to see that the graves went on and on and on.  The cemetery was massive! It had been built into the side of a large hill and took up miles of space along side views of huge blue and green skyscrapers on one side and wooded mountains on the other.  It was beautiful, but also pretty eerie. The stones were all in Chinese, so I couldn’t really tell when the people were buried, but they almost all had black and white images of the individuals.  It was if the dead watched us as we hiked through their last resting place. You could almost feel their eyes on you as you stumbled from headstone to headstone. Finally, we made it to a path that led us back down into Aberdeen and into the city proper.  We headed back to our hotel, both of us exhausted.  My legs still hurt from the incline of some of the hike. 

           

Ready to cook live things in!

That night, we decided to go to the Daniel and Monica’s apartment to go out to dinner with them and the kids.  I have found that having children in a massive city involves lots of time doing anything.  Getting from their third floor apartment to the lobby takes several false starts and some tears (mostly from the adults).  Monica is very picky about the food that her children eat, so she makes all of their food to take with us. So, we often wait for her to cook before we go out to dinner.  Another obstacle to our eating out plans has been the lack of child seats in Chinese restaurants. Rebecca is only like negative years old or something, so she has a tough time living let alone being able to sit on a chair or do other normal human things.   So, the solution is to drag a full high chair (including detachable legs) with us whereever we go.  I was in charge of carrying the chair.   Now, I often like to pretend that I am a suave James Bond type when I travel in large cities.  Sometimes if I am feeling saucy I imagine myself as a Bruce Wayne or Indiana Jones.  It really is hard to do this when you are carrying a bright red chair through the mean streets of Hong Kong.  So, we hop in a cab with 3 adults and 2 children.  I always have to sit up in the front with the driver because I am the largest thing that Hong Kong has ever seen.  I often share an awkward glance with him as he asks me “Where go?” and I never have any idea and have to get people in the back to save me.  The drivers also seem to have 6 to 7 cell phones attached to the dashboard of their cars for some reason.  I try not to ask too many questions.  Another tradition of these trips is that nobody knows where we are going.  There is never a plan other than eating somewhere. So, I could quite accurately answer the driver with, “Go eat!”. We ended up in Aberdeen and we all wandered around (me with a red child plastic high chair seat) until we found a traditional Chinese hot pot place.  This was the only restaurant in HK that I have been in where nothing was in English.  I was quite excited to try some more authentic food. 

       

     As we enter the restaurant, everyone stared at us.  I assume that most of these people had seen white folks before, but probably not carrying a red chair with super loud three year old speaking in English who also likes to touch everything and everyone.   Monica has eaten at these places before, but she was wrapped up with trying to take care of/feed her children.   So, the wait staff seemed kind of annoyed that we weren’t eating our food in the right way.   A hot pot is a pot of hot water and noodles and other things (depending on what you ask them for) that boils in front of you on a hot plate in the middle of the table.  The staff brings you out options for a sauce concoction that includes some sort of liquid with hot things and nut type things.   THEN, they bring you out food to cook in the boiling water.  Being a veggie that dabbles in the fish world, I thought that I would be pretty safe with seafood options.  So, I ended up having very traditional fishballs, shrimp, and tofu.  What I didn’t realize was that the strip would include their heads, legs, and other shrimp type things.  I wasn’t sure if you were supposed to eat the head bit, so I kind of just ripped that part off.   Halfway through the dinner, Deborah pointed to one of the not-yet-cooked shrimp and exclaimed that it was still moving!   Sure enough, the shrimp was far from dead.   My stomach dropped a bit after that revelation, but overall, I am really happy that I had such a traditional meal.  We survived the night and headed home with the children.   Writing the next day, I realized that perhaps I should take it easy on the traditional Chinese food, because my western guts are quite adjusted to it.   

Hong Kong is pretty awesome.

FIrst Entry

Jetlag is something that I always feel like I have conquered on my last trip abroad. I get home and think, “well that wasn’t so bad” and I forget about the many sleepless nights that lead up to adjusting to the new time zone.  Today, I woke up at 4 am (it seems like I am reverting back to eastern time) and couldn’t go back to sleep. Deborah gave me half of a sleeping pill, but I think that my body needs a lot more drugs to get my brain to slow down.  Half of a sleeping pill just makes me feel more stupid and not really any sleepier. So, I decided to finally start a travel blog to document my journeys so far. I have always been a big fan of reading books about travel or novels that take place in mysterious parts of the world.  One has this romantic idea of an author sitting down to his/or her typewriter with a drink in hand at some Parisian (the fantasy almost always takes place in Paris even though my short time there was spent in freezing rain) typing away about their Indiana Jones-type adventures from the day before. In my own experience, I have found that it is not so romantic.  One has to take advantage of sudden inspiration and just go with it.   At this exact moment, I am sitting no a toilet in my hotel room in Aberdeen with my laptop on my lap and my feet up on the bathtub.   Apparently, most of my inspiration comes from being on the toilet…

          

  I am not sure if the Chinese really enjoy taking showers with people watching them, but all the rooms in this hotel come with glass windows into the room.  During the day, you can get a nice view of the large wooded hill outside of our window while you are taking a shower.  It is pretty amazing, but you also have to remember to close the blinds on the bathroom window or else you will be doing your business practically with the person you are living with.  Deborah and I have not reached this stage of our relationship.  Our room was moved yesterday because our initial booking had been screwed up and we had two double beds for a few days.  The double beds were nice because I could use the other one when I got up early to read comic books while Deborah slept.  As I get older, I seem to sleep less and less while my partner in crime could be out for 12 hours at a time if I let her. When we moved to the new room, we were surprised to find a cradle next to our king size bed. After all of the incessant baby talk over the past few weeks, I demanded that the hotel staff remove the offending object immediately.  Our new room is on the 35^th floor (as opposed to the 22^nd that we were on before) and has a much better view of the giant rolling hill above and below us.  If you look directly down from our window, you can see the outdoor pool, which looks more like a small pond from this height. I have spent a lot of time looking out that window and have even made friends with one of men I see walking along the paths (in my head of course).   Everyday I see a small Chinese man with a white hat walking with several dogs from what appears to be some sort of hut or small dwelling.  I wonder if he has any sense that some American is staring at him from the 35^th floor of a hotel above him. The area that we are in seems to be in constant development.  There is construction going on everywhere and many of the roads are a labyrinth of blocked sidewalks and metal railings. The MTR is being built here has Hong Kong’s public transportation system reaches further out to connect all of the islands further together. On my several bus rides to Aberdeen from Central or Kowloon, I have noticed that this area still has some smaller several story buildings that just don’t fit into the vertical construction of the rest of HK.  I imagine that Aberdeen will look even taller in the coming years.  I do feel privileged to be able to see what these areas look like before they grow into something different.

One night, I was asked to take Selena (Deborah’s three year old niece) to go play at a playground near their flat while they wrapped Christmas presents.  Selena is a pretty affable, energetic child that fears almost nothing.  She carries her own purse around with her own octopus card to use on public transportation.  At age three, I feel like she is much more cosmopolitan than I ever will be. Half-Chinese and half-white, she speaks several languages and is learning German and now Spanish.  I have dabbled in some languages and have been teaching her how to say, “my name is” in French, Spanish, and German. I think she tolerates my pathetic lessons the best she can.  Selena also has the trait of running ahead of everyone when she gets excited. So, while I was perfectly capable of taking care of a three year old for an hour by myself, I was also a bit nervous that I was going to be left in the dust in the dark by my child guide.  I also had no idea where we were going. The Slosberg’s live in a building that has, I would guess, 40 or 50 floors.  Daniel said that each complex has about 1500 people and there are dozens of copycat towers along the harbor.  They live in tower seven on the third floor, so it isn’t too difficult to find.  I was surprised to see that there are elevators (lifts) that are specifically for odd floors and others that are only for the even ones.  Part of living in Hong Kong is waiting and waiting and waiting for the lifts to come to you. Also, I was told that many of the buildings do not have floors that end with the number 4 because 4 also means die or death in Cantonese. Now, that could be complete bullshit and I probably could Google that, but I prefer to live in my own naïve ignorance.  Luckily, Daniel showed me exactly where the indoor playground was in their clubhouse in the middle of the towers. I began to realize that the complex was built similarly to how American style suburban areas are built.  You have apartment complexes with common areas in the middle for kids and adults to play.  They are just a ton bigger here.  So, I was left by myself with Selena with a bunch of kids playing in a relatively small room with a small plastic playground and other random toys.  Selena is not a big fan of sharing and I had to remind her a few times that the amount of presents she received was directly related to her not pushing other kids in the face.  I know that Hong Kong is a really diverse region, however, I couldn’t help but feel like I stood out as the giant white dude with the mixed race child running around beating up any other kids that tried to take her toys.  Apparently, Selena’s toys are all the toys.  I ended up being the only “parent” that walked out into the playground to keep Selena entertained by rolling soft plastic logs back and forth with her.   There was one white kid there that spoke with possibly a British accent.  I don’t like to make assumptions, but my assumption was that he was there with his Asian nanny.  She was very nice and kept smiling my way because this child wanted to order food for Selena, who wants nothing to do with other children.  So, as a I tried to coerce Selena to make some friends that she didn’t want to punch, the kid asked me to order food with him with his toy pad and paper.  I played along just long enough to get the kid away from me before I look like some random giant white pedophile. Luckily, no one else was hurt during our time at the playground.  Well, perhaps some ears were hurt when Selena made me sing some of her songs while she played the drums.

            One of my favorite things that I have done here so far was take the ferry across the harbor to get to Daniel’s flat. The ferry is more like a tiny boat that you hop on with a bunch of other people to cross the short distance across the waterway.  He lives on a different island, so you can either get there by taking a bus across the bridge or taking the boat.  The ride is pretty short, but it is quite exhilarating because you can see so much more of the area from the water.  You can also use your octopus card to get on these boats, which is amazing to me because it seemed like a pretty small operation. I also found it interesting because, while it is pretty safe to get on and off, there is an area that you step on that is pretty narrow and doesn’t have railings.  If you were to slip you would go directly into the water below. I really like to pretend that I live life dangerously (even though when I hike back home there is a gap along the boulders at Great Falls where we precariously climb across on a weekly basis that is probably a thousand times more treacherous that anything I have done here). Living life dangerously abroad is just THAT much more exciting.  

         

   We have also spent some time at the Ladies Market in Kowloon and in Midlevels in Central.  The former is a large market place with thousands and thousands of stalls.  It is incredibly overwhelming with endless crowds of slow moving people. It is a giant flee market type environment where you can by anything from live goldfish to Iron man underpants.  Deborah picked up some salted almonds that tasted delicious for our mid day snack.  We went with the Slosberg clan which includes two babies, so finding a place to eat in the area that had a child seat for Rebecca who is like negative months old or something ( I have a hard time figuring out how old kids are when they are young – it seems like my brain power shouldn’t be wasted on such trivial things – either the kid is pooping in their pants, or they are in college).  In our journey to find a place to eat, we started with a Thai restaurant (so exciting!),  couldn’t go there because there wasn’t a place for Rebecca.  Next, we found a vegetarian restaurant ( OMG!!), couldn’t go there because they wouldn’t let the kids eat their mother’s pre-made food (don’t ask) there because it had meat in it. We then move to a Sushi place (drools!), and we can’t go there.  The ONLY place in the area that could accommodate us was an American style restaurant.  In any other circumstance, I would have ran away, but I am a guest and our hosts have been nothing but amazing to us during our stay.  I won’t go into too many details about the quality of American food in Hong Kong, but I would advice that you avoid it at all costs.  The Hong Kong equivalent of Deny’s just doesn’t hold.  Maybe they should add Moon over my Hammy to spice up the meal.  The best part about lunch was that it cost 26 dollars US for four people to eat.  We totally covered that meal.  Another thing about Chinese culture is that it is customary for the older siblings to take care of the younger ones, so we are getting a lot of free meals out of the deal.  While we are incredibly grateful, Deborah and I are trying to figure out how to sneak in a nice meal for their family.  I think that Daniel and Monica don’t realize that we live in a city and that HK prices, while expensive are somewhat comparable to DC exorbitant prices.   

          

Midlevels is more of my style, probably because it is a bit more western and less intense.  There are a lot of western style shops (Patagonia is one that sticks out in my mind) and a great deal of electronic stalls where you can buy phones and cases for a few dollars. Also, there are these huge escalators that haul you up from one hill to the next.  It is similar to Seattle or San Francisco with huge hills everywhere.  I am definitely getting my workouts in here because my thighs feel like jelly all the time.  It might also be that we are working out everyday, in the small, but adequate gym. I just have to work out everyday in a gym that has views of huge falcons and/or hawks ( I don’t really know the difference) that fly right in front of the window for hours.  It is amazing to see these majestic birds swoop down and do tricks in the air.   I love it.

       

     The sun is still down and I am still siting on the toilet in the dark.  I should probably try and get some more sleep, but I will probably just go read instead.  I am excited to start the next day.  We always wake up and go down to have our free breakfast in the lobby.  We are the Americans who are staying for two weeks, so everyone knows us now and says hello.  I grab my hard boiled egg and watered down rice pudding concoction with a croissant or two and grab the Chinese newspaper to glance through.  I saw a story about the booming glass manufacturing partnership between Toledo, Ohio and China. I didn’t realize that a lot of the Toledo glass museum was built with glass from China.  So much for being the AMERICAN glass city…  But the benefit is that both sides are investing in each other and perhaps Toledo will get some financial success out of the transactions. After we finish our breakfast, we head back upstairs, change into gym clothes, and head to the p5 level gym to work out/watch birds for an hour. I have been listening to both the Melvins and Katy Perry recently, which is quite a contrast, but feels appropriate on my Hong Kong trip for some reason. Typically we have a full day before anyone else in the hotel is awake…which is really a great way to spend a vacation.  I do hope to get some more rest over the coming days and to better adjust to the time here.   Perhaps I should take a full sleeping pill?

Victoria peak today!   I also want to make sure that I see the Bruce Lee statue at some point during my time here.   Let’s make that happen!