I love my life

4/1/09
13:49

Hong Kong.  I loved it.  Meredith has been studying there for 3 months and she doesn’t ever want to leave, so imagine my desire to stay longer having only experienced two days worth of Hong Kong.

We arrived around 6:30 or 7 am on Sunday.  As you know I couldn’t sleep so I watched us sail into the port area.  We docked right along the harbor mall and we disembarked the ship directly into the mall.  That was pretty sweet.

Meredith and I had been e-mailing back and forth and she was planning to meet me in the Ocean Terminal of the Tsim Sha Tsui mall at 10am with her friend Mark who is also from Minnesota but goes to Pomona University with a SASer named Martha, who lives in my hall.  What a small world, right?

I ate my breakfast, showered, went to the diplomatic briefing and waited for the ship to be cleared for disembarking.  It was 10:02 and I was starting to get nervous that we wouldn’t get cleared for a while longer and I would have no way of contacting Meredith to tell her I would be late, since my phone doesn’t get service….anywhere. Right at that moment it was announced that the ship was cleared and we could get off.  I gathered my troops, which consisted of Kendra, Braxton and his friend Riley, and went to meet Meredith.  Right as I entered the mall I saw Mere and we hugged.  She introduced me to Mark who was already conversing with Martha.  After introductions, Meredith saw that Braxton was wearing a Pitt sweatshirt and she crushed his entire world by informing him of score in the Pitt v. Villanova game.  Rough beginning for Mere and Braxton.  He got over it….eventually.  Still a sensitive subject.

Meredith told me stories of her adventures in Hong Kong and she was entertained by the fact that we call everyone SASers and that we have no concept of time whatsoever.  We refer to past events by country, for example:

“I haven’t had laundry since Mauritius”  or “My last test was 3 countries ago.”

Meredith and Mark then led us to through the streets of Hong Kong to an ATM and money exchange area where we all got the correct form of currency.  No more dong.  So sad.   Next Kendra and I bought our rail passes for Japan, which you can’t buy in Japan because only tourist are allowed to use it so they don’t sell it in Japan.  How silly is that? 

Once we got our rail passes, Mere and Mark took us to purchase Octopus cards which can be used for all forms of public transportation except taxis and also for various fast-food chains and markets like 7-Eleven.  7-Eleven is more popular in every single country I’ve been to except America.  It is going to be weird to go home and not be able to make a quick stop at 7-Eleven.  

We took the MTR, which is basically the subway in Hong Kong, and I loved it.  It makes getting around soooo easy.  I feel like cars would become obsolete if we had a system like this all across the US, but there are still plenty of cars in Hong Kong so I guess that theory is incorrect.

Anyhoo we took the MTR to get Dim Sum, traditional Chinese cuisine, with Mark’s parents who were visiting from good old Minnesota and also with Mark and Mere’s Chinese student ambassador named Ata, whom they had stayed friends with after she initially helped them adjust to living in China.  Ata’s mother joined us as well.  It was incredibly helpful to have both of them at lunch, since none of us knew what to order or how to speak the language. 

Ata ordered a plethora of dishes like fried squid, pot stickers, and my personal favorite Bau, which was a baked bun with barbecued pork in the middle.  The waiters brought dish after dish of food and I tried nearly everything.  It was all delicious.  I ate smaller portions, knowing that I had to share each dish between ten people, but I was still full from eating much less than my normal amount of food.  It pays to serve each course at different times.  I also ate slower because I can’t use chopsticks at all. Everyone laughed at me and gave me all kinds of pointers and I think I made some progress but it still took me a great deal of time to pick up a clump of rice or a piece of chicken.

 I remember getting Dim Sum at home one time with my mom and her friend Mark, but I was not that open to trying new foods at that point in my life so I didn’t enjoy it as much as I did this time.

After lunch, Ata and her mother invited us to their apartment.  They lived in the 17th floor of this apartment building and had a pretty cool view of the city.  Ata lives with her parents and younger sister and their four-room apartment is probably the size of my living room.  Her sister and Ata share a room and the kitchen is combined with the laundry room.  Everything is very compact.  And I think this is one of the larger apartments.  It was very interesting to see.  I also loved their decorating style.  There were little plastic toys on every shelf, stickers all over the place, a Narnia picture frame.  We asked about this one cat toy that we had seen everywhere and Ata informed us that it was a robotic cat from the 22nd century.  So matter-of-factly like, “Oh duh, it’s just a robotic cat from the 22nd century.”  Riiiiight.

We said our goodbyes to Ata and her mother and then Mere took us to Soho and we got egg tarts and egg puffs, which are delicious little snacks.  We walked around the area, took the travelators which are like the longest escalators ever, and then we all headed back to the ship to freshen up for the evening.

Mere picked Kendra, Braxton, Riley and I back up at the ship at around 5:30.  We met up with Martha and Mark, who had split off earlier, in Mong Kok where all the students from Mere’s program live. Mong Kok is more like Mainland China, as opposed to the rest of Hong Kong, which is very westernized and commercial.  It was nice to see that part of town. 

Next, Braxton wanted to buy a shirt for the night so the boys and Martha went shopping and Kendra and I went to see Mere’s apartment.  Her apartment is basically the size of a typical college dorm room but it is equipped with a sink and a hot plate.  Very cute, though.  Mere let me borrow a dress for the night, being the sweetheart she is, and also let me use her internet quickly to check my bank account balance.  Dwiiiiindling.  After the quick costume change we met up with the boys and another one of Meredith’s friend named Tad to go get dinner.  They were taking us to eat on top of Victoria Peak, which gives a scenic view of Hong Kong.  We took the peak trolley up and planned to eat at Bubba Gump (I’m sure Dano and Sam would have been in heaven with all of the Forrest Gump paraphernalia) on the top floor of the mall on the peak.  The cheapest meal was about $12 US for a salad, so being the cheap students we all are we opted to go to Burger King instead.  Cultural?  No.  Delicious? Yes.  I got a double bacon cheeseburger.  So good.  Hit the spot.  It was a funny sight, too, I’m sure because we were all dressed up and scarfing down BK.  Good times.

After dinner we went to Lan Kwai Fong or LKF, which has a great nightlife.  Even though it was a Sunday night, lots of people were out because it was the Rugby 7s in Hong Kong.  People from all over the world were there celebrating, wearing ridiculous costumes or Rugby jerseys.  Mere and I befriended some Australian rugby fans.  We promised to visit them some day soon.  I will make good on that promise.  Along with all the rugby fans, there were countless SASers.  We always manage to find the clubs and take over.  All the 7-Elevens had been raided by SAS-folk.  So the gang danced at the clubs for a while and then Mere, Kendra, and I headed back to the ship accompanied by one of Mere’s gentlemanly friends who wanted to make sure we got home alright.

The next day Mere and I met up at 9:15 to go for a run.  I was so thankful to be running on land with someone who has about the same pace as me.  Meredith and I ran along the waterfront past the Avenue of Stars.  We had to dodge plenty of tourists and locals alike, but it was a fabulous run.  Mere and I reminisced about home and high school.  It was so nice to see someone from home.  I am so so so so grateful that Meredith took me and my friends around Hong Kong.  She really made the trip.

After the run we both went to go shower and planned to meet up at 11:45 in the mall.  I showered, got in some free internet time in the mall, ate a quick lunch with Ben the med student, who had no plans for the day so I invited him along with us.  On my way out I ran into Riley who also had no plans so he tagged along as well.  We decided to go see the Tien Tin Buddha statue and Po Lin Monastery on Lantau Island.  The Buddha statue is ginormous.  I have seen big Buddhas in the past 3 countries, but this one takes the cake.  We took the Ngong Ping Cable Car which gave us a great aerial view of the natural beauty of Hong Kong.  It was surprising to see nature amidst all the skyscrapers.

Once we had taken our pictures with Buddha and walked the path of wisdom located near the statue, we took the cable car back and went to the Ladies’ Market in Mong Kok.  We were all starving so we got some food from street vendors.  Pork dumplings, pork buns, and this pancake-like slice of bread.  Meredith says she thrives off of this food and I can see why.  It was soooo good.  I want more.  I didn’t buy anything at the market because nothing was really that appealing, so my souvenirs from Hong Kong are memories, pictures, and tram/cable car tickets.  I’m fine with that.  We ran into Braxton in the market and he took the MTR home with us.  Back at the ship I got my computer out to do a little more free internetting and said goodbye to Meredith.  I can’t say enough how grateful I was to see a familiar face and to have someone that knew her way around the city.   I don’t think she reads my blob but THANK YOU MERE!

Now I’m on the ship traveling to Shanghai.  There are only about 150 passengers on the ship currently because most people, students and faculty alike, took trips to Beijing to see the Great Wall or do university visits.  They will just meet up with the ship in Shanghai.  It is weird being on the ship right now.  It is empty.   No class though, so it has been extremely relaxing.  I have caught up on schoolwork/artwork, slept a great deal and worked out since we don’t have to sign up for certain times because NO ONE IS HERE.

 The crew tries to make this ship time as enjoyable as possible for the few passengers aboard so there has been free give-aways at the spa.  I got a 15-minute foot massage yesterday.  Amazing.  And they played the movies Yes Man and Stepbrothers yesterday.  Good movies.  Especially Stepbrothers.  And also we had a formal 5-course meal yesterday.  Fruit cocktails, soup, salad, STEAK, and pound cake for dessert.  And we got free wine.  I’m not a big wine drinker, but I tried the blush wine and it was dece.  A bunch of people dressed up all fancy.  I changed out of my sweatpants into jeans….so that counts right? My table was the chill table.  None of dressed up.  It was Caroline, Braxton, Travis, Kyle, and Doug.  Good kids.  Good conversations. 

There is another fancy dinner tonight.  I think I might dress up this time.  Maybe.  And then tomorrow I will be in Shanghai.  In the morning I’m going to do a kindergarten visit and hang out with little Chinese kids.  I can’t wait.  I miss hanging out with little kids.  I miss my Livybabe.  The other day I painted with one of the Abby, one of the faculty member’s daughter.  She is 4 with crazy, curly blonde hair.  So cute.

I can’t believe today is April.  Only a month left here. I don’t even want to think about that. I don’t want to go back to the real world.  I love living the life I’m living right now.  I don’t want it to end.