Joyce’s Hong Kong Blog #5 Wednesday Evening, August 12 We rode the minibus over to Aberdeen to look at some stores. I know it sounds like we go shopping a lot, and we do. We have a list of things we need to buy in order to finish settling in, like a bracket for the rod to dry clothes, a “drawer” to go under the bathroom sink, light fixtures, a laundry hamper, and a love seat since a couch won’t fit into our living room, and it’s very difficult to find items with the exact sizes we want. Besides, we try to only purchase what we can cart home on the bus. Life without a car is complicated, but in Hong Kong, having a car is even more complicated because of the congestion and the lack of parking places. Besides, driving on the “wrong” side of the road is disconcerting!! We didn’t find much but when we got back to Ap Lei Chau, we realized we hadn’t ever walked to the east end of the town even though we can see it out our window, so we decided to explore. (We’ve been the 8 or so blocks to the west many times because that is where we catch one bus and that is how we walk to South Horizons.) At the East end of Ap Lei Chau Main Street is a grassy area that is some sort of sports field, but we’ve never seen anyone in there. Beyond it we could see a large soccer field, only it’s cement painted green, we are pretty sure. There are often people out playing soccer. Beyond that is a basketball court, and beyond that is a tennis court. To the south the road curves back around and there is a large Baptist School. We walked north toward the bay and found ourselves in a very nice park with a cute children’s play area and many benches and some tables. There are many parks in Hong Kong and most of them have very nice children’s play areas with playground equipment. On the north side of the park was the promenade by the bay which we’ve walked on, just not that far to the east. Although most of the 70 ft. fishing boats are gone at night, there is still quite a bit of activity with the 30 ft. sampans and tour boats darting around the bay. We began walking west and saw the community garden with 50 (according to the diagram) raised vegetable beds that are about 5’x5’ each. Next is the local Taoist Temple—we can see its roof and courtyard out our window. We were at our street and walked the block south into our cul-de-sac. Thursday, August 13 Ernest pointed out the group of people across the bay on the Aberdeen Promenade doing Tai Chi. Tai Chi is a Chinese system of exercise characterized by slow and deliberate balletic body movements. (Yes, I got that out of the dictionary.) I’ll bet there were at least 40 people doing Tai Chi together. We haven’t ever noticed them before so don’t know if this is a regular occurrence. It was small group night, so I hopped a bus and Ernest got on 3 stops later. Cell phones are so amazing. What did we do before we had them? I can let him know which bus I’m able to catch, then he jumps on the same one. Everything was running smoothly and I caught the bus without having to wait very long, so we ended up downtown (which is what I call Causeway Bay in the N Central part of Hong Kong Island where most of the large businesses and large shopping areas are located) an hour before we were to meet Mailing. We generally get a Mickey D’s ice cream cone because we eat lunch at 1 P.M. and dinner isn’t served until 8 P.M., so it’s a long time for our stomachs to wait. Next door to Mickey Ds is a food kiosk that always has a very long line so I’ve been curious about this snack everyone buys. Since we had time, I got in line and ended up with the right snack by pointing to what the young gal in front of me had purchased. Later we found out they are called egg cups. They are like waffles only they have round raised sections and they are creamier inside. Very, very tasty. We walked by another fast food kiosk with several types of kabobs and 5” octopus legs. There are such a wide variety of snacks we don’t recognize—and will never try! During dinner, Sunita announced at our table, “Ladies, ladies, we’ve had prayers from last week answered. My shoulder pain is gone and Ashwin’s (her son) allergies are better and I think it’s because of XanGo.” This announcement turned into a multitude of questions and 5 ladies bought bottles of XanGo that night. (That’s why Sunita had wanted 3 cases, so that she had enough for others in the Bibles study group.) Wow, that was an easy way to do business. As usual, we got home at 11:30 P.M. Friday, August 14 Ernest had his conversation class tonight and four people attended. I found out that Anton Garrity, one of the top XanGo distributors, was coming to a meeting at the XanGo office; so I skipped the conversation class and rode the bus to the XanGo meeting. I forgot to push the bell when it was time to get off so I ended up a block down the road. I could still see the building and made my way back without any trouble. Anton spoke in English about his 7 month, rags-to-riches XanGo business odyssey while another man translated into Cantonese. There were about 35 people packed into the meeting area, but I was the only native English speaker. I sat next to a couple whose English was fairly good and they kept me informed during the parts of the meeting that weren’t translated. Afterwards I stopped in a large Wellcome store to find something to eat. They had Japanese finger food that looked and tasted like thick French crepes. Delicious! I shared with Ernest when we met up. Saturday, August 15 They’ve been building a new shop on our corner and today it was open for business. It’s a triangular shaped shop and we are estimating that the back two walls are 9 feet and the front is about 11 feet across. They seem to be selling hot snacks and cold drinks. They were burning incense in front of it for good luck, which is common. (As we walk down mainstreet, there are many small cans along the sidewalk next to the doors or shops with incense being burned to their ancestors or gods and food offerings, also.) When large businesses open, the sidewalk in front is usually lined with many, very large flower arrangements: think the largest funeral bouquet you’ve ever seen. But this was a small shop, so it had one elegant potted plant in front. They had two very small folding tables set up next to the rails on the edge of the sidewalk by the street, which didn’t leave much room on the sidewalk for pedestrians. It seems to be a popular hang-out for the older teens/twenties group. When stores close for the day or night, they pull down large steel “wall” from the top which cover the entire front of the store. There’s an opening for a regular size door to fit in, which is how they get in and out once the metal “wall” is secured. At night it’s like walking through a warehouse district in the states. Erica came over and brought “long ngan,” a small round fruit with a thin skin similar to a kiwi skin but not fuzzy. The fruit was a translucent white with a very black seed in the center. The fruit is larger than a black olive but the seed is a bit smaller than a black olive seed. The fruit is sweet and tastes a bit like a green grape. We mentioned that we were planning to get a larger refrigerator since ours is only 35”x21” plus a small freezer section above it. She was very surprised. “Why would you need a bigger refrigerator? If you buy your food every day, it’s fresher.” Hmmm. Since I had two refrigerators with freezers plus an upright freezer in Colorado, this is quite a change in thinking for me. (Ernest’s boss is amazed that we invite people into our home. He said that they probably feel privileged, but he also added that we should never expect to be invited to his home. I guess it isn’t the Hong Kong way.) We went to the market together so Erica could explain some of the wide variety of food. Some of the bags of herbs we thought were for soup are really for tea. We went in a shop with many dried items like beans, squid, fish gills & fins, white fungus, and much more. Erica gave me 3 different recipes for making soup and dessert and helped us buy the ingredients for carrot soup. You use a green carrot and a red carrot which is much sweeter than regular carrots, some white things that look like a cross between flat beans and small seashells, pork pieces, and dried sugar plums. I don’t remember ever seeing sugar plums before—I thought they were just part of the “ ‘Twas the Night Before Christmas” poem. She said we could boil everything for 45 min. but that the Chinese boil everything for 3 hours. Then they take out the food, throw it away, and eat the broth. There are these 14 inch long green veges that I couldn’t figure out: they are rope green beans!! You just cut them before cooking. We also walked through the fish market and she pointed out 4 types of live shrimp; the pig intestines, hearts and kidneys; live eels; and many types of fish. After she left we purchased several food items for lunch from a booth at the market. We pointed at our choice and the lady fried our items. One looked like a muffin, but turned out to be a white carrot fritter. It looked like sauerkraut inside but didn’t have a “bite” like sauerkraut. It was delicious. We think the kabobs were fried tofu. We passed a bread and cake shop on the way home and purchased a red bean dessert muffin and a cream puff. The muffin was sweet and tasty. The cream puff turned out to be an elongated sweet white roll with whipped butter and coconut on top, which tasted good after my taste buds figured out it wasn’t a cream puff. Ernest has been doing research trying to find a three-step stool with wide steps as opposed to a step ladder. We looked in at least 8 stores before he finally found one on-line at a Wing On Super Department Store, kind of like a Sears. We went there after dinner and even had a choice of two stools. The Japanese stool was sturdier than the German one, so we chose that one. Wow, it was a great store with lots of interesting items. We also found some white Corelle dishes that go with the dishes Ernest already had—I’ll bet we’ve looked in 20 stores for large (regular size) plates that match his set. Then we went to Price Right for a cable to reach from the tv outlet in the wall to the tv. In that store there’s about a 12 foot section from one part of the store to another where the ceiling is so low that Ernest’s head almost brushes it. We weren’t sure if the bus driver would let us on the bus with a step stool that came up to Ernest’s shoulder, so he got on first and half hid the stool behind him as he swiped his Octopus card. The bus driver didn’t say anything, so we were relieved. Sunday, August 16, 2009 Today at church one of the Doctors talked about Absalom and “A Bad Hair Day.” He also shared some personal stories about pride and how the Lord has helped him develop a better attitude toward his patients. The family from England returned, which was fun. They are very outgoing. After church we rode the bus into town. We were chatting with Rainbow about how Ernest was trying to help me notice landmarks. She laughed and said that Ernest knew Hong Kong so well that if she got lost she would call him via cell phone to help her find her way. (We think she was born here.) We decided to walk through the MTR tunnels to be in air conditioning. A German bakery looked inviting so we purchased two small, oval individual chicken pizzas and a pineapple pastry. Quite tasty. We had better success at Ikea today and found about 8 items that we were looking for. Ernest and a lady called back and forth many times regarding a ceiling light fixture she had for sale. We were able to connect with her at the World Trade Center and bought it for $13.00 U.S. We were laughing that if we ever have anything to sell for only $13.00 U.S. it would be much easier to give it away than to make dozens of phone calls and have to find a meeting place! ($100.00 HK equals approx. $13.00 U.S. so that is a fairly common selling price for second hand, cheaper items.) Time to try the carrot soup. We first just ate the broth like the Chinese do. We’re not used to sweet broth, so it wasn’t terribly appetizing. But I had kept the food and we ate the red carrots and the pork but not the green carrots, the white “stuff,” or the sugar plums after tasting them. We’ll finish this dish off tomorrow, but I won’t make it again. Too sweet for us. No wonder so many of the Chinese are so thin—they just eat the broth. Also, Erica told us that the Chinese ideal is for women to weigh 100 lbs. no matter how tall they are. Ernest’s boss confirmed it, but also stated it’s ridiculous and that 120 lbs. would be much more reasonable. Rita brought me a swimsuit today and it fits—it’s a XXXL. I really don’t like their sizing system!!! Our neighbor had dropped an item of clothing onto the air conditioning unit below her window awhile ago. Our window is at a right angle to hers, so Ernest decided to retrieve it for her and have me return it to her front door. He took the long pole we use for drying clothes and taped a hook to the end. He leaned out the window and I peered out to watch his progress. At that moment our neighbor opened her window to hang out some clothes. She was very animated that she didn’t want Ernest to pick up the clothing, so he put it down. Then by her gestures we thought she meant she wanted him to get it so he picked it up again. She emphatically indicated he should not pick it up at that point, so Ernest put it down again. It really was funny with us all leaning out the windows, EIGHTEEN STORIES UP, about 7 feet from each other. I had bought a bag of M&Ms for her because she had given me a bag of cashews 2 weeks ago, so I rang her doorbell. When she came to the door, she took the bag of M&Ms but gestured for me to wait while she went back in her house. She kept talking to me LOUDLY in Mandarin, and brought out a red tassel with small glass red, green, blue & yellow chili peppers hanging on it in five groups of four with a colorful bead in between each group. After she gave it to me she ducked back into her apartment and reappeared with two books. They had Japanese ladies on the covers with beautiful white skin and fancy hair with decorations in their hair, somewhat similar to the tassel. She kept patting her cheek and pointing to the pictures and then at me. She continued talking loudly and excitedly for several minutes and we had no clue what she meant. Finally Ernest had her write something down in Chinese so he could take it to work and have it translated. Jong (Young) finished writing and then disappeared back into her flat. She is friendly and animated and talkative!! Monday, August 17, 2009 I holed up and chatted on the phone much of the day. The girls were driving from Canon City to Siloam Springs today (their Sunday) so we talked several times. Did three loads of laundry and managed to find places to hang the clothes up to dry. We bought some hangers that are 33” across the bottom. They are great for drying clothes. We also bought a plastic octopus. Its legs fold up next to its body for storage, but stick straight out when it is hanging up. Each of the 8 legs has 2 clips which is perfect for hanging up socks. Bit by bit we are getting organized! I walked around town and went into several stores. A watch shop had merchandise on only one side and the aisle was only wide enough for one person. I was looking for a clock and found a cute Citizen clock in a small shop where the lady spoke some English. Wandered through the market and purchased some extra long beans and some tomatoes. Then I visited a tutoring center that Ernest had noticed had the name Karin and “native English speaker” in the window. There were two Chinese young men there who spoke some English. They told me that Karin teaches there on Saturdays, and they wanted to know if I was looking for a job. I’m not at this point, but it will be interesting to talk with Karin. She’s from South Africa but lived in the States for awhile. Ernest found out that Jong’s note said something about a piano player and someone who is quick with a gun. We think she must have been writing about the stories in the books. Hmmmm. ANYWAY, Ernest’s boss warned him that we shouldn’t keep giving her gifts, even though she gave us something first, because in Asian culture she will have to keep giving us gifts until she is in the poor house. Tuesday, August 18, 2009 Ernest left early today because he and his boss, MK, and Juliet went to China to visit their factory. I chatted on the phone with a new friend in Hong Kong as well as several in the states. Finished cleaning and organizing our new wardrobe. When the wardrobe door is open it almost touches the bed so we can’t get in and out of the bedroom when someone is using the wardrobe. Now everything has a place—but wait ‘til my 15 boxes arrive. (No, they haven’t been shipped yet! Annoying!) Nok and I went to Aberdeen for dinner. She chose a large Chinese restaurant that was in one of the malls. She had a pastry with fish inside and shrimp and I had sirloin with mushroom sauce. We wandered through several shops and then rode the bus home. Wednesday, August 19, 2009 Jenny from church invited me to a Bible Study in Central led by Priscilla, the former pastor’s wife, using a Joyce Meyer video series. I left early, fortunately. Followed the bus’ progress by watching the bus stop schedule Ernest had printed off for me. I rang the bell and jumped off the bus, then realized I was in the wrong place. The bus had made an extra stop. So, I walked in the right direction and arrived at the Macau Ferry Terminal within 15 min. In route a young man asked me for directions. I wasn’t much help but found out he had been raised in the Philippines but now lives in Spain. There was a public restroom near the sidewalk. There were 5 stalls with “squatty potties,” which are ceramic holes in the tile with places to put your feet on either side. These are the traditional toilets. They almost look like a urinal without the back, but they are down in the floor. Fortunately there was one “modern” toilet. Often the toilet paper is on a roll out by the sinks. I rarely remember to look before entering the stall. However, in HK everyone carries small packages of tissue with them, so this practice has benefitted me many times! It took awhile but I followed Ernest’s directions and found the Bible Study. About 25 women attended. Amy, a new Christian, told about a man who had entered her apartment through an open window and had robbed her at knife point. She kept praying and asking God what to do. He didn’t hurt her and was caught by the police as he was leaving the building, for which she was praising the Lord. She said her apartment is up high enough that she never thought anyone would come in through her window. As I walked back into Ap Lei Chau Main Street, a man was walking by holding a girl about 3 yrs. old. He stopped and told her to say “hi” to me. Of course, she just stared. Then he held up her hand and said, “high five.” So I smiled and gave her a “high five” and spoke to her in English a little bit. He smiled and nodded and then left. I thought that was very nice of him to try to talk to me with his limited English. One of Ernest’s English conversation class participants, Dawn, called today and asked if I would tutor her 7 year old son in English. Ernest thinks I would really enjoy her, but she lives almost an hour away, so we’ll have to see. I asked around about fees and tutors generally include traveling time in their prices. They can earn anywhere from $25.00 to $75.00 U.S. per hour depending upon their credentials and the age of the student. Younger kids take less preparation time so sometimes are charged less. (I think earning more than $50.00 per hour is unusual.) I called Sam, the blond Australian I’d met, to ask about haircuts. She said she trims her own hair until she’s out of Hong Kong, then she’ll go to a hairdresser. She said that most hairdresser here are used to Chinese hair and they either cut it straight across, just below the ears, or else they feather longer hair. A good hair cut for a foreigner/blond costs about $1200 HK, or about $150. Guess I’ll ask around for other opinions, but may end up becoming my own hair dresser. This evening Jong rang our doorbell and invited me over to her apartment. She is very animated, but I don’t have a clue what she’s saying. After about 10 min. she ran down the hall and got a young lady, Cindy, to come interpret. Cindy is mid to late twenties. She was surprised we had been here 3 weeks since we hadn’t seen each other before. Jong’s main theme was pickpockets, again, but this time it made more sense. She works in a restaurant in Aberdeen where there is a pianist and a singer who speak English. They are pickpockets and have a crime ring. Young’s husband came home and I met him, but have forgotten his name already. He fixes air conditioning units. Afterwards Cindy asked if she could bring her boyfriend over to meet us on Saturday. She seems very sweet. Most HK young adults live with their parents until they get married because apartments are so expensive here. We’ll skip the tiny lizard in my kitchen incident. Suffice it to say, he is (hopefully) happily enjoying the flower garden near the temple and our security guard said to me, “You have kind heart.”