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…