8-Mile Style

Yesterday Matt and I went out on the town,
to see a rap battle that was about to go down.
We heard it was "8-mile style", so this we had to see.
The venue was Circle Tower, and Lil' Mic was the MC.
The rappers were fresh, most definitely newbies,
and their raps were a mix of English and Cantonese.
While were weren't quite sure if the scene was "the bomb",
if we need any "hip hop culture expert consulting" we'll go to www.lilmic.com.

We realized the whole building was full of karaoke bars,
and Liar's Dice games and budding Cantonese pop stars.
We went to The Eight and met the owner, Alex Kwee.
He had been to school in Boston, a school named Berkelee.
He was as friendly as could be,
and offered us some black label whiskey.
We cruised some more bars, then headed out the door.
We headed to Soho cause we were ready for more.

Out first stop was a lounge called the Back Room,
After a vodka tonic and a few cheesy songs we decided to zoom.
We headed next to Jewel, which was the find of the night,
cause Matt threw a pillow and got in a fight.
This is how we met Michelle, a cool girl from LA.
Now we are riding a junk on Saturday!
While the night was a success,
Today Matt and I are a mess.



Name Cards 

Mid-Autumn Festival

Today was the Mid-Autumn Festival. Matt came home from work and we had a nice picnic-style dinner of cheese, meat, bead and wine and then we sampled our mooncake selection. We had bought some of the traditional kind, with the preserved duck egg yolk in the center, and some of the newfangled frozen kind. I preferred the traditional ones, and Matt liked the frozen ones. Of course, I carefully picked out the egg yolk before I ate it! Not that the egg yolk tastes bad, but it really doesn't taste that good either. Trust the Chinese to sneak something salty into their cakes! Our traditional mooncakes were filled with lotus seed paste, which is common in dim sum dumplings and is vaguely reminiscent of peanut butter. The frozen moon cakes were filled with something which reminded me of the "Macau style ice cream" that I had tried on our trip to Macau. I don't really like it that much, it is too dense and more chalky than creamy.

After dinner we were supposed to go to the festival in Victoria Park, but instead I had a melt down about my Dad. I am actually sort of glad that it happened, because I was beginning to worry that I was just blocking my feelings insude so well that I would never feel them. This whole time that I have been in Hong Kong, I have been distracted by everything that is new and different, and if I even try to think about my Dad or about home it is impossible, it is like my mind shuts off. Part of the problem is that I feel like I have to keep it secret from the new people I have been meeting. I don't really want to get so personal with them right off the bat, and I don't want to bring up such a heavy and sad subject when I first meet people. Strangely, Matt and I were having a discussion about the upcoming presidential election and somehow that lead to me crying and a locking myself in our bedroom. So, it was sort of a rough night, but at least I know that I am not some robot that is on autopilot or something. The only thing I am worried about is that all of this is coming out now, when my friends are about to come stay with us. Since they are my friends though, at least I can talk honestly with them.

After that huge upheaval, we finally made it down to Victoria Park at around 10 and the festival was still going strong. There were tons of people crammed onto a field, sitting with their families and burning candles in their empty mooncake tins. I am not quite sure why they were doing that, but I think it has something to do with remembering their ancestors. They seem to do alot of that here! There were lanterns everywhere and the kids were running around with laterns hanging from sticks. There were two huge stages with music and some giant lanterns that were about the size of a car on it's side. The best part is that tomorrow (Wednesday) is a public holiday and so is Friday (because it is National Day). Matt gets both days off from work and he is taking Thursday off too...so we have a 5 day weekend!


Mid-Autumn Festival 

The Other Side of the Island

Today Matt and I ventured over to "the other side of the island." It is like a whole new world over there, I felt like Gilligan discovering something that was right under my nose the whole time! We browsed at the Stanley market and sat by the beach watching the sailboats and the windsurfers. It was very relaxing and it felt somehow familiar to be near the coast again. The feeling was definitely more laid back than in Central, and it was absolutely teeming with expats. I sort of felt like I was at a Jimmy Buffett concert. (You know, lots of drunk, sunburned, rich white people dressed in resort gear. It was still fun though.) The restaurants that lined the boardwalk blared music and had seafood and beer, and it was generally an excellent way to spend a Sunday. The thing I was most excited about was the place we found that rents kayaks, sailboats and wind surfing equipment! Hopefully Matt and I will be able to come back and rent a boat next week, since Matt gets three days off work for the Mid Autumn Festival and for National Day.


Stanley 


St. Stephen's Beach 

They Really Like Movies

Matt and I went to see The Terminal last night at the mall in Mong Kok, which isn't really an expat area to hang out and so the audience was mostly Chinese. It was a pretty funny movie, but man, they thought it was hilarious. Even the mildly amusing things provoked huge outbursts of laughter, and when people slipped on the wet floor in the terminal, all hell broke loose! During the love scene between Catherine Zeta Jones and Tom Hanks, I turned around to look at the audience, and they were looking up at the screen as if they were completely enraptured and in awe. (Now this is not to say that the audience thought the movie was so funny because they are Chinese, I am merely making observations. It was quite remarkable...Matt and I kept looking at eachother and laughing during the movie.)

It reminded me of when I went to see There's Something About Mary with my Dad right before he dropped me off for my first year of college. He was slapping his knee, had tears running down his face and he could barely stay in his seat! If you know my Dad, it is very unusual for him to do more than chuckle, so I spent the whole time watching him instead of the movie. That was the only time I saw him like that.

Triple A Quality

Today I went into Shenzhen, China, with my friends E and M. I had heard alot about the glorious and cheap shopping to be had in Shenzhen, and how the market was huge and full of people trying to get you to buy things and bargain with you. There is even a book about shopping in Shenzhen, complete with diagrams of the lay out of the mall and strategies for shopping. Alot of the expat women had talked about how poor it was and how it was very depressing to go there and how you should never get into a lift or wear any jewelry because you will get mugged. I was picturing something sort of like India, an out door market in the dirt or on a poorly paved road, with tons of beggars and animals and feces in the street. I was very surprised when the market turned out to be a really huge mall, with airconditioning and everything! Now granted, it's not an overly luxurious or orderly mall like the ones in Hong Kong or the US. The shops are tiny, they are overflowing with stuff, and there are people everywhere handing you flyers and trying to get you to come with them and shouting, "Missy, Missy!", as they seem to call all western women. E and M are both experienced shoppers in Shenzhen, and they have their certain ladies that they always go to, so I was really happy to go with them and meet their sales people. It could be very overwhelming trying to navigate through all of the sales people in there, it is better to look like you know where you are going!

Our first stop was to pick up a formal dress that E had made for her first trip back to the UK since she has moved to Hong Kong. Her tailors were very nice, and they had stacks of magazines and fabric samples so that you can pick out what you would like to have made. E's dress looked gorgeous, it was one of those Cheongsam-style dresses, you know the ones with the mandarin sort of collar and the two slits up the sides? I searched through the magazines but there were so many choices and I was sort of overwhelmed, so I decided I would look through magazines here in Hong Kong and pick something out. It is better to go with an idea of what you want rather than try to pick something out on the spot.

After that we hit the electronics section of the mall. E knew exactly where she was going. It must have been a slow day for electronics, because the minute we ventured near, the touts seemed to come out of no where to urge us into their shop. E knew exactly where she was going and blew right past them, and knocked on a shop that looked closed up. I was sort of startled when someone ran up from out of nowhere it seemed like, slid the metal door up, nudged us inside, and then slammed the door shut again! There were two other western girls inside and the walls were lined with digital cameras and other electronic stuff. A Chinese woman pulled up little plastic stools for us and gave us giant folders with the covers of the DVDs that she had for sale. I picked out 6 or 7 "girl movies" that I know Matt would never watch with me (for when he has to work late) and Season 2 of The Sopranos. When the three of us had picked out our movies, we gave them to the woman, she yelled something to a guy helping her, and he proceeded to take a panel out of the ceiling, and scurry up into the roof! I was amazed! She put the ceiling panel back, we waited, and he knocked on the panel again and started handing down our DVDs. Each DVD only cost 8 HK$, or 1 US$. The real test is to see how watchable the DVDs are, but E had been there quite a few times and said that this was a good shop to go to.

After the DVDs, we went to check out the designer hand bags. E and M both had been to this one lady whom they thought had an excellent selection. These girls are really into designer purses, and apparently they have alot of these designer knock offs. We met the sales woman at one shop and she had her assistant lead us up two stories to another shop that had a bunch of clothing in it and no hand bags. She led us to the back of the shop, we climbed over some boxes of merchandize, and opened a door and we were in The Back Room, full of Triple A quality designer knockoffs. The stuff that they keep in the front of the shops is not good apparently, you have to get to know someone so they trust you and will take you back to the good stuff. The room was full of Gucci, Chanel, Louis Vuitton, Fendi, Prada, and other designer stuff. Our sales lady was very cautious about security. The door that led to the room had no handle and she opened it from the inside with a string that she very carefully attached to a latch before she shut the door. When we wanted to look at some of the jewelry or ties that she had in catalogs, she would call her assistants on a cell phone, and they would bring the stuff to us from somewhere. Apparently, she had been busted the police before and was forced to operate out of the Shangri La Hotel, which is an upscale hotel across the street.

Now, I am not a hand bag afficionado, and I don't really know much about designers or what purses are good this season and which were good last season. Alot of the bags looked heinous to me, or looked extremely gaudy. Frankly, I don't like it when things have giant labels across them, it seems sort of vulgar. Despite this, the whole process seemed so exciting and secretive that I was entranced by it, and I bought a white quilted Chanel purse, a Gucci handbag, a Louis Vuitton umbrella, and two Tiffany bracelets, complete with the blue box and bag. Knowing that the shop owner had been busted before made it even better. The British girls were really into the designer bags, and were buying stuff for all of their friends back home. They really liked the Burberry and the Louis Vuitton brown bags.

After that we hit the shoe store, but by that point I was totally overloaded and my brain could not make any decisions. I bought some shoes, but now that they are home I really don't like them. But hey, I only payed 30 HK $ for them, which is less than 5 US $.

Another interesting thing about shipping in Shenzhen was the prevalence of squatters rather than Western toilets. I hadn't seen one of those since India and it made me very nostalgic!

Next time I go back to Shenzhen, I am going to get a manicure and pedicure. It only costs 20 HK$ for both! And of course, I will need a massage too.


Contraband Gucci 

Newborn Code Monkey

I am very excited because I just learned how to change the template code of my blog and things and change things. It is a whole new world to me! I would like to say that I figured out this stuff on my own, but of course that is not the case. My blog friend Kim wrote the code to add in the new side bar on the left that has links to web sites and blogs. I just copied and pasted what she sent me, but for some reason I am still very proud of myself right now! Check out Kim's blog, and also the blog of my cousin Seamus. He hasn't posted anything yet, but I hope he will soon.

Communication Breakdown

I have never spent so much time with British people in my entire life. Most of the expat women I have met are British or Australian, and they are very nice and welcoming. Everyone here insists that there are Americans everywhere and that the largest expat community is American, but I have yet to meet any of them. Not to say that I need to hang out with Americans, because I don't. It is interesting though, because I feel like I have more communication problems with British people rather than with Chinese people.

Today I went out to Dim Sum with two British women that I had met through the At Home Group and one of their friends. It was a very entertaining lunch and the food was excellent, but through most of the lunch I sat there trying to interpret what they were saying. It sounds ridiculous, but I felt like they were whispering rather than talking. They talk so quickly and quietly! I swear one girl was mouthing the words and no actual sound was coming out! I thought to myself, "Ok Meagan, we are all speaking the same language here. This should not be that difficult." I just could not hear them. Then I started to get a complex about my own voice. Am I extremely loud? Am I talking slow? Do I sound like a simpleton? And the way they speak seems so proper in comparison to the way I speak. Every thing is "quite lovely, isn't?" and it is "rather hot" and things are "a bit difficult." Even though they assured me that I was not a "loud American", and we all laughed about it, I was still sort of feeling loud and crude. But hey, if I am loud and crude, at least people can hear me, right? Maybe I am just used to Matt, who I think speaks very loudly, or the Cantonese people, who also speak very loudly. Our Cantonese teacher told us that Cantonese people find it rude if people are speaking quietly because it means that they are saying something that they don't want other people to hear.

Of course, it just occurred to me that my hearing problems might be due to my ear candling procedure yesterday...but I don't think so. I have been having trouble hearing the British for quite awhile now. It has just finally happened often enough that I decided to write about it.

It is funny cause I feel more accustomed to Chinese people. I think it is because my Dad's girlfriend Quinnie was Chinese by way of Malaysia, and alot of people here remind me of her. Quinnie is very friendly and open and so are most Chinese people I have met here. They make a huge effort to undertand you and to be understood by you, and they seem genuinely interested in your life and very excited to tell you about Chinese culture and just generally seem happy that you are in Hong Kong.

Ear Candle

Today after my At Home Group meeting, I went in for one of my beloved foot massages. My masseuse and her friend were chatting and giggling away. I decided it was a good opportunity to ask them about something that I had always wondered about: ear candling. They tried to describe it to me and the only word they could say were "relaxing" and the rest they tried to pantomime. The put their hands together and and their head to the side like they were sleeping and they put their fingers on their temples with crazy looks on ther faces. So of course, after all of this work on their part, I had to get my ear candled.

The masseuse took me upstairs and had me lay down, and she stuck a hollow candle in my ear. Then she lit the candle, pressed it deeply in my ear and massage the back of my ear and along my jaw line. This was somewhat relaxing because she was rubbing behind my ear, but also extremely not relaxing because there was a lit candle in my ear. As the candle burned down, the sizzling sound of the flame got louder and louder. At this point I still didn't understand the purpose of this and I was sort of scared...I kept thinking about how when I was little and my mom told me that if I stuck a Q-tip in my ear too far, I would go deaf. This made me a little worried about having the whole ear candling process. After it was done, the lady showed me what had come out of my ear. It looked like a bunch of lumps of dried candle wax with some ear wax mixed in. Not very pleasant...

When I got home I had a headache in my forehead, but that doesn't necessarily mean anything because I seem to get alot of headaches lately. I googled ear candling and it turns out it is not such a good thing to do...someone in the UK had hot wax drip into her ear and burn her ear drum. It bummed me out because I had hoped I had discovered a new and wonderful massage technique that I could enjoy for the rest of my time in Hong Kong! I am glad I tried it though because the massage ladies were so excited about trying to describe it to me and seemed elated when I decided to give it a try. I kept asking them if it would hurt and they would say, "No pain, no pain!" I think they thought I was hilarious because they were giggling so much. I think the maids in our building think I am hilarious too, because when they come into clean the one maid says "Jo san" (Good Morning) with a huge grin on her face.

Food, Glorious Food

One of the best things abut Hong Kong is the food. There is so much variety here, and it is all so yummy. There are SO many good restaurants and our tiny kitchen makes it hard for us to cook at home. We went to TGI Fridays with some other expats last night, and even there the food was really good. Currently I am addicted to the mango with sticky rice at Thai restaurants and the taro-filled steamed buns that they have at dim sum. Matt's coworker told him that weight gain is a big problem for expats when they first come to Hong Kong, and I can see why. Not only is there so much good food, but it also seems like everyone eats alot here. Chinese people can really pack it in, and yet they stay thin.

Today I had two great food finds. First, I found a place down in Central that makes fresh soy milk. It is a little stall that has huge vats of soy beans, and you can watch them put the soy beans in a machine to make milk. I only bought one bottle of soy milk because since it is fresh, with no preservatives or anything, it will go bad quickly and since Matt hates soy milk, I will be the only one using it. The woman thought it was strange that I only wanted one bottle, so she gave Matt and I straws and ordered us to try it. I guess she thought that since it is so good, we surely would want another bottle. Matt's face looked really horrified when he tried it, it was pretty funny. It is a lot less sweet than the store brands because nothing is added to it, no sugar or anything else.

Then, I found this really great Italian food store in the building across from our apartment. I was so excited -- it has fresh pasta made daily, good italian bread, homemade panna cotta, and all sorts of yummy italian deli meats and cheeses. I was so excited. I bought their fresh prociutto-filled tortellini for dinner tonight, along with some olives, spicy ham and a seafood rissoto type thing.

The Inevitable Comparisons Begin

I have to admit, yesterday and today I have been thinking nostalgically about San Diego. I guess it is inevitable that when you move somewhere new, you make comparisons to the place that you just left. I am trying REALLY hard not to do that, because after all, it is not like I was that pleased with San Diego when I left either. Yesterday I was listening to Slightly Stoopid, which I have been informed by one of my dear friends is really lame and that I should be embarrassed to listen to it, but still I like it and I listen to it. Slighly Stoopid is one of those white-boy reggae-type groups that are so prevalent in San Diego, the kind you would hear at Winstons or somewhere down in Ocean Beach. It really brought back to me that sort of laid back atmosphere that San Diego has. Later on I was watching BBC World, and after listening to all of the stories about the genocide in Darfur, the shootings of British tourists in Thailand, and the bombing in Jakarta, they showed footage of a little dog surfing in San Diego. It was pretty funny.

So far, I feel like there is a hoity-toity, materialistic atmosphere to Hong Kong. I am not sure if it is because of the neighborhood we live in or the people I have met, or if it is just a general feeling. Or, it could be that I have never lived in such an urban place before and that is how things are in urban places. I am not sure. On the one hand, I love having all the things that come with this sort of attitude, like the good restaurants, cute stores, nice parks, and the well-maintained city. On the other hand, it just seems kind of gross to me to see everything with designer names and to see the other expats walk around Central in their business suits like they are the Gods and Goddesses of Asia. In San Diego, I remember feeling like everyone was too damn rich and showy there, so maybe this is just a personal problem that I have. It makes me appreciate my Dad though, cause he managed to "keep it real" when he was working with all the LA corporate types.

I am sure I will get used to everything, and I hope I will look back on this entry and laugh at myself for being silly. I am really excited for my friends to come visit me next month, so they can tell me if I am just imagining things or not.



My Old Neighborhood 

Trip to Macau

This weekend Matt and I took a trip to Macau. Macau is a former Portuguese colony, and now it is sort of like the Vegas of China. It was recently returned to the Chinese government, and is now a Special Administrative Region of China. We stayed at the Grandview Hotel on Taipa Island and it was quite nice, although the hotel staff acted like they had never seen gwielos before and the taxi drivers seemed to have no clue how to get to it. On Saturday we ordered room service and then headed out for a day of sight seeing. We saw the ruins of the Church of St. Paul which was interesting cause I am not sure how just the front of the church stayed so perfectly intact, while the rest of the church was obliterated. There was a tomb underneath with stacks of bones. Then we did some shopping in the gajillion furniture stores that are in Macau. The furniture was gorgeous, all made of dark wood and it was very inexpensive. We talked to a shop keeper and she said that they could custom make any furniture that we wanted. If Matt and I ever live in an apartment here that is unfurnished, we should definitely shop in Macau rather than Ikea.

After some more browsing, we headed back to our hotel and I had a Wonderful massage. I love the Chinese style massages because the women aren't afraid to climb up on top of the massage table and straddle you to get better leverage. Also, they tend to use much firmer pressure, which is what I like. It was one of the best massages I have ever had. After that, I was so relaxed I didn't want to go out for dinner, but I am so glad we did. We went to a restaurant called Ristorante Litoral, and it was so yummy. It had Macanese cuisine, which is a mixture of Portuguese and Chinese food. We had clams, African chicken, and chocolate mousse for dessert. They say you aren't supposed to eat shellfish here, but it is so good that I can't resist.

After that we went to the Casino Lisboa, which is very much NOT like the casinos in Las Vegas. There weren't many slot machines, mainly table games, but there didn't seem to be enough tables. Huge crowds of people stood around each table, and I guess the people in the crowds were betting on the people sitting at the table's hands. We moved over to the Greyhound Race betting area and that seemed to be the hangout for the "working girls". We were the only non-Chinese there as far as I could tell. I don't think the girls liked me very much; I got alot of stares and one walk-by shove in the back. For some reason whores categorically hate me. I am fascinated by them, and I try not to let it show, but obviously it doesn't work. I was looking around at their potential clients and I felt really bad for them, cause 90% of the men there had mouths full of black teeth. The girls looked so young and pretty, while the men looked disgusting. I guess that is one of the downsides of that profession, you can't choose your clients.



Ruins of the Church of St. Paul 

The Fringe Club and the Electronic Brain

Today I finally met the girls I had been emailing from the Geoexpat Website. There was 6 of us, mainly British. We sat at the Fringe Club in Soho for four hours and then browsed the shops in Central, which I guess is a luxury that people have that have maids and money but no jobs or kids. It still seems sort of strange to me. I think it is going to take me a long time to get used to not working or being in school. Hopefully I will eventually find a job or start a graduate program, but I don't plan on doing that for at least another year because Matt and I are having visitors, and I have to make trips back to the US to finish up stuff with my Dad's probate. The girls I had lunch with assured me that I would get used to it very fast, and that it would give me time to do all the things I never had time to do back home, like taking classes and travelling and stuff like that. It is true that it is nice to be able to do that, but I guess I still feel a tiny bit worthless not working on something. I have this thought in the back of my mind that if I stop working now, I will never be able to work again. Matt tells me that is ridiculous, and I guess it is. The other expats were very nice and I really had a good time with them.

Matt and I had our first Cantonese class today. It was fun being in a class with Matt, we have never been in a class together before. Our teacher, Linda, was pretty funny, almost like a stand up comic. Cantonese is a very interesting language, and it is one of the oldest. She described how some of the words came about, and why some words mean two different things when you say them with different tones. She was a very good teacher and everything seemed to make sense, but I think the tones are still going to be very difficult to master. My favorite part was that in Cantonese, they never create new words. To make new words they just string old words together to get a new meaning. For instance, instead of creating a new word for "computer" or saying the english word, they string together the words "electronic" and "brain" to mean computer. Or, instead of making a new word for "air conditioner" they say "cold air machine". The maids were just in here and when they left I said, "M goi!" and they just sort of laughed nervously...I think they had no idea I was trying say thank you! (I just realized they are probably Filipino and might only speak Tagolog. Oh well, can't blame me for trying.)

Triumph at Giordano

They say that Hong Kong is the shopping capital of the world. There are malls and shopping centers EVERYWHERE, so many that I am amazed that they can all stay in business. Thousands of mainland Chinese come to Hong Kong every year to shop and so do many people from the rest of the world. I have gotten lost down in Central too many times, wandering from building to building. The buildings are all connected by flyovers and so many of the stores are the same or similar that it is easy to forget how you got to a place and it is hard to figure out how to get back that place if you ever want to find it again. Being lost there is sort of like being caught in the twilight zone or some kind of weird time warp or something. Hopefully later I will look back at this and laugh at myself for not knowing my way around cause it will seem so obvious to me...

With all of this shopping going on, it is strange that I am so intimidated by the prospect of shopping for clothes here. Normally I love buying new clothes and especially new shoes. But in Hong Kong shopping is different that shopping in the US. For one thing, even when shopping at Watsons (a drug store like Longs or Rite Aid), the moment you walk in, sales people swarm around you and grab your arm and try to lead you to products that they think you should buy. If you do find something that you like, they immediately snatch it way from you to put it up at the counter. I am a very indecisive shopper and I like to take my time to browse the selection, and hold the things that I MIGHT want, but if I find something better I might put the other things back on the shelf. The other thing that I am worry about when shopping here is that none of the clothes or shoes will fit me, and I will have to go to one of those plus size clothing stores advertised in the expat magazines. Not that I think I am huge or anything, but everyone is so tiny here! Also, when I was in India, the shop clerks would yell at me, "We have huge sizes here! Come inside, huge sizes available!" or they would look at me and shake their head and say, "Nothing will fit you here." Of course, this only happened in the little towns, not in Delhi, but I think this scarred me in some way because now I am deathly afraid that it will happen here. The shop keepers were just being honest, but I don't think my psyche could take it again!

I was finally forced into shopping today because most of my clothes are still on their way here, and the few clothes that I brought need to be washed now. So, I picked the least intimidating store, Giordano (which is everywhere and sort of the equivalent of Old Navy or Gap in the US), and told myself, "Meagan, just be assertive." With that frame of mind, I went inside a Giordano far from my house, over in the Causeway Bay MTR station. I walked inside and the salesladies surrounded me, so I figured I had better just go with the flow and take their help since they were going to surround me anyway. So I said , "I have no idea what size I am, and do you have any pants that would fit my big American butt?" One lady laughed and measured me and picked out some stuff for me to try on. I actually ended up liking their help because they brought me tons of different sizes and colors, they complimented me on how I looked, they smoothed the cuffs on the pants and they tied the belts for me. I could get used to that! Especially the complimenting part...but the best part was that I was not even close to the biggest size in the store. I walked out of the store with two pairs of cropped pants, a shirt, and a shawl that the lady said made me look like a butterfly. It sounds silly, but I really feel like I triumphed by shopping for clothes successfully. Now maybe I can work up to shopping at one of the cool little boutiques down in Soho.

At Home Group

I love the location of the apartment that Matt and I live in. We live on the 19th floor so I sort of feel like I am in a really high tree house or something. our living room and both of the bedrooms have big windows and the bedroom windows have these nice little alcoves where you can sit or put plants. Being so high off the ground makes for a very peaceful, secluded feeling in our apartment. From the window, you can see the skyline of Central and you can see all of the trees and the flamingoes at the Hong Kong Zoo and Botanical Gardens. Also, you there are two other giant buildings right next to us. One of the buildings houses the YWCA, and we can look down on their pool and watch all of the kids taking their swimming lessons. The other building has some kind of toy factory or clothing manufacturer or something like that. They work very late hours in that building and I always see a short Chinese woman with a tape measure around her neck standing by the window hard at work, cutting fabric. There are two signs in the window directly across from us: one says "Educational Toys" and the other says "Children's Book Club, 16/F Coda Plaza." Maybe the woman in the window is making toys? I am not sure, but she has a huge clothing rack behind her while she works.

The nice thing about living right next door to the YWCA is that there is an english speaking members department on the third floor. I signed up for the "At Home Group" for new arrivals to Hong Kong and my first day was yesterday. I met alot of other expat wives and girlfriends and it was very interesting hearing what their experiences were. It seemed like alot of the were "serial expats", as in they had been posted in several locations outside of their home country. They were giving me advice on how I should be managing my maids. Ha! Pretty hilarious. I am meeting up with some of them on Thursday for lunch at the Fringe Club, so that should be fun. Matt and I are also going to take a Cantonese class at the Y.

Getting Started

Today is my first day as a blogger and my third day as a Hong Kong resident. I have the worst jet lag that I have ever had...I used to think that I was immune to jet lag but these past few trips back and forth to the US have really hit me hard. I think that it is a combination of stress and the knowledge that I have do alot of stuff in the near future that I really, Really don't want to have to deal with. Hopefully I will overcome the jet lag soon so I can start enjoying Hong Kong and stop irritating Matt.

Even though I have only been here three days Matt and I have gotten alot of stuff done. I have a cell phone now, we figured out how to set up long distance service and most importantly, we got our feet massaged. We went to a place down in Wan Chai called Tibet Spa or something like that, and had the foot reflexology massage which was fabulous. It lasted 50 minutes and it was well worth the 20US dollars that it cost. Two spots on my feet were extremely painful when the masseuse touched them, and he pointed to the spots on the reflexology diagram and both spots corresponded to my uterus! I am a little concerned but I figure this warrants more foot massages in the future to monitor my condition.

This morning for breakfast Matt made the yummiest, most perfect omelet ever for me and I ate a Dragon Fruit with it. I picked it out at the grocery store because it was so bizarre looking: it is large and pink with green bristle type things. When I cut it open it looked like cookies and cream inside and I ate it with a spoon. I was sort of disappointed with the taste cause it wasn't sweet at all, and I love everything to be sweet. It was cool and crisp tasting though so it might be good to eat on a hot and humid day.