Hong Kong

My first post!

I awoke this morning to the sound of my friend's mother speaking Chinese and a fogged window (the air is very moist). My friend's parents live on the 45th floor of an apartment building in west part of Hong Kong. Actually, I'm not exactly staying on the 45th floor because the building omits the 13th and any floors with the number 4 (means "death") such as 14 and 34. Today it's 11 degrees C which is about 52 degrees F).

Having survived multiple airplane flights from Minneapolis to Chicago to Tokyo to Incheon and to Hong Kong, I am finally able to settle down in one place a week. Although my plane flights actually went quite smoothly. It helped that the plane offered a variety of films, music (got a little taste of K Pop, J Pop, and Chinese Pop) and the fact that I sat by passengers who were willing to put up with my chattiness. Of course, this changed when I entered inter-Asia flights and the number of individuals who spoke English began to diminish. I attempted to converse in broken Korean (all present tense) with a few people on the planes and at the airports, but for the most part signs were also written in English. I find it amusing because the Minneapolis airport claims to be an international airport, but most of the signs, etc are written in English with a few Japanese or Chinese words here and there.
When I first arrived in Incheon, my host family friend commented on how chilly it was outside, but I just laughed because the weather was nothing compared to the below zero F weather I left behind in Minneapolis.

Now in Hong Kong, I am determined to shrug off this jetlag and was in complete denial all the way until last night when I had to admit that my eyelids were shutting against my will. However, today is much better.
Hong Kong is quite a change of pace. My friend and I have been riding multiple city buses and the MTR, which is the subway system. Basically, you have to think quick and be aggressive or you will never make your way onto any means of public transportation. And the drivers are insane! When sitting in the back of a double-decker bus, I could practically touch the bus in front of me! Actually, one bus bumped another when pulling up to the stop.

However, I think he must have known the driver because it didn't stop and complain. Just kept going going going! I think I would be a hazzard on the road because I have the Minnesota driving mentality, which would land me with hundreds of hooking horns telling me to get out of the way and well...the sharp turns are awesome to experience as a passenger (better than a rollercoaster almost!) but not as a driver.

I'm still trying to find the right words to sum up Hong Kong, but this is difficult because every corner holds something different. Walking down the street I'll be surrounded by stalls in a wet market, turn the corner and find higher class department stores, cross the street to find restaurants of nearly any cuisine, and end up on an escalator that seems to stretch on forever. Essentially for me Hong Kong appears to be a shoppers dream (consumerism!), endless food options, skycraper galore, and a multitude of cultures collected in one area. For lunch I ate at a small local restaurant and ate some kind of chicken dish, soup and a mixture of 5 different teas.
I bypassed the chicken feet found in my soup and bones in the rice dish. In America I am use to boneless meat, but at this place the bones are left on each piece of chicken. I saw very fresh produce and meat. When I say fresh, I mean FRESH. There were people slicing raw meat and live fish flopping around on plates. I saw the hearts of skinned fish beating due to reflex which was...interesting to say the least and crustaceans finding there way off of a table. Hong Kong is definitely a happening place!