Joyce's Hong Kong Blog #8

Joyce’s Hong Kong Blog #8

Here's a picture of our apartment building. Ours in right in the middle, to the right of the red Chinese writing, and to the left of the light green building. There are 23 floors, so if you count down from the top to 18, you'll be looking at our bedroom windows!

Thursday, Sept. 3, 2009

“What??!! You’ve never been to the Peninsula Hotel?” Kathryn had exclaimed into the phone. “Well, tell Ernest you have a date and I’ll take you there.” So there we were, sitting in a beautiful restaurant in an elegant, historical, six-star hotel. Up on the balcony, a quartet was playing: a flute, a violin, a cello and a string bass. Later a soft jazz quartet played. The extra tall ceilings, columns and arches, ornate wooden tables, and formally dressed waiters created a wonderful ambience. Kathryn and I shared a plate of raisin scones and drank iced coffee—served with sugar syrup and cream. Of course, we had driven up to the front door and our car was parked by a valet.

Afterwards, Kathryn drove us to Bible study. The driving here always amazes me. There are so many entrances and exits to the roads. Drivers are constantly changing lanes, usually with only inches in between vehicles. But there is a rhythm to it, and they alternately force their way into traffic and then allow others to cut in on them. There is some horn honking, but not as much as I’ve heard in other big cities.

At Bible Study, Rajiv had invited LT, a man from the Ravi Zacharias’ organization, to help us with a very difficult Bible passage, Hebrews 6. There are several different interpretations, which LT explained, and then we discussed the passage.

Friday, Sept. 4

Buses are a blessing and a bane! There are huge and noisy and abundant!! As soon as the last passenger has scanned his Octopus card, the bus lurches forward. Many times I’ve ended up running down the aisle as I’ve tried to catch my balance. Trying to climb the twisty stairs while the bus is in motion is quite difficult and I have many bruises to prove it. One day I was holding onto a pole by the exit waiting for my stop when the bus jerked. Two ladies lost their balance and fell into me and we would have all landed on the floor had I not been holding onto the pole so tightly!

At one bus stop in Causeway Bay, the line was long and I was back where the next bus stop began. Our line doubled up beside the other bus lines for at least 4 bus lengths. Of course, this was on a crowded sidewalk so people were still trying to walk past the double lines. When the bus finally arrived, I found I was the 16th person in line and they allowed 81 people on the already partially full bus before closing the door on the last 5 potential passengers. We stopped at two more stops and added more people until the aisle was stuffed full.

One night Ernest and I were running for a bus at the bus terminus, as were 2 other people. Since no one was standing at the bus stop with an arm out, the bus didn’t stop and we all missed the bus. Even if people are standing at the bus stop, the buses don’t generally stop unless someone has an arm out. You have to get your arm out with the elbow straight—like hitchhiking only without the thumb sticking out. That means you have to pay attention to every bus that comes by and watch for its number. No dozing while waiting!

On the way to the Macau Ferry, my Friday night trip, the buses pass the Belcher high rises where Ernest used to catch the bus from his old apartment. As the hill slopes down, the road becomes an overpass that varies from 2 to 6 stories up in the air. It winds its way through the high rises then ends in a steep curve as it reaches the bay. Although the buses tend to slow down, I always feel like I’m on a rollercoaster ride with the bay looming straight ahead for any buses that miss the last curve. When I arrived at the Macau Ferry to tutor Arnold and Bruno, I was able to duck into the subway and walk under the street and come up almost exactly where I needed to be for our meeting place. Ernest figured that out for me. Before this we walked about 6 blocks to get over the street and around to the right office building. I took an elevator but it deposited me on the 10th floor and I couldn’t seem to get to the 15th floor from there. I finally went back to ground level and the security guard pointed me to a different elevator whose first stop was the 15th floor. Bruno and his Grandfather were already there when I arrived. With true Chinese hospitality, Grandfather poured a cup of hot water for me. This is the beverage of choice for most traditional Chinese. Since I was hot, I would have loved to be offered a glass of ice water, but that is not the norm here. Sat., Sept. 5 Erica came over for conversation and brought Lychee fruit. I haven’t tried it before because I wasn’t sure what it was. I actually thought it was a vegetable since the outside is green and bumpy. She told us to wait 2 days to eat it because it wasn’t quite ripe yet. We walked with Erica to South Horizons at noon where her mother lives, then Ernest and I continued walking another 15 min. to the far side of Ap Lei Chau Island where we’ve never been before. There’s an outlet mall and a Ferrari car dealership there. En route we passed a drivers’ training school. The mall had many furniture, clothing and accessory stores. Although it was an outlet mall, it was quite high end and even at half price, the prices were outrageous. They did have a great English bookstore with lots of children’s books. I purchased Chinese Cinderella after reading a page or two. Even though, in typical Chinese style, I used my umbrella to shield my head from the sun, I was still on the verge of heat stroke (well, it felt like it…) by time we reached the mall back in South Horizons. There is a large Park ‘n Shop in the mall so we were able to find some Ranch dressing and a few other illusive food items. Plus, the mall had COOL air! It was a great break from the sun before our 15 min. walk home from there. We fixed shrimp, sausage, and eggplant Jambalaya for dinner, tossed salad with Ranch dressing, and a cauliflower/broccoli dish. Sesame cookies and Neapolitan ice cream finished out our meal. Flora, Ernest’s co-worker who helped him find our flat, and her husband and son joined us for dinner. They all speak English, which was helpful. She specifically ordered an American dinner. We explained that Creole food is regional from my place of birth, Louisiana, and that it isn’t necessarily typically American. The 13 yr. old picked at his food, but the adults seemed to enjoy it. We played the game, Flinch, for a couple of hours. Sunday, Sept. 6 After church we rode a couple of buses up to Kowloon on the mainland where we walked (and walked and walked) around an area of street markets that are mainly filled with tools and electronics. There were booths with thousands of carabineers, some with hundreds of clocks and watches, others with cell phones, and some with tools. Ernest found a few wire channels, which was a blessing. He’s been looking for weeks. It’ll be great to get our t.v. cable off the floor and onto the top of the trim—hidden within the wire channel. Unfortunately, they didn’t have enough, but some is better than none! We walked a few blocks away and there were stores with hardware for the garment industry: buckles, clips, buttons, trim, ribbons, scarves, lace, etc. Several stores had thousands of types of beads, all neatly arranged in large, see-through jars and tiny, clear bins stacked floor to ceiling as well as in the exceedingly small aisles. The variety and amount of products was overwhelming. We didn’t get home until about 6 P.M. It was a long day. Monday, Sept 7 Laundry day, again. Oh how I miss having a dryer. The Chinese Cinderella book by Adeline Yen Mah is fascinating. Didn’t accomplish much today because I couldn’t put the book down. Unfortunately, it’s a true story and very, very sad. It showed how little value is placed on girls in Chinese culture, although that has changed somewhat recently. Rode the bus downtown in the afternoon to buy some more XanGo for Sunita. She’s having an exclusive Indian jewelry show (jewelry from India) this week and was very busy preparing for it, so I told her I’d handle this for her. Her helper met me so now he knows where the office is. While there I headed back to Ikea for a few more household items: another octopus for drying socks, some hot pads, and a couple of mugs. I was sorely tempted to buy their Italian meatballs, but a medium size bag was $75 HK, equal to almost $10 US, which seemed quite expensive. Guess we’ll stick with Ern’s concoction of Tulip canned luncheon meat to add to the spaghetti sauce. Tuesday, Sept 8 We attended an English Speaking Union poetry forum at The Art Center this evening. The venue was annoying. We were seated on folding chairs in a small circle near the elevators on the first floor (we would call it the second floor) stairway mezzanine. We could hear the people talking on the ground floor, and people walked up and down the stairs, talking of course, throughout the evening. But we persevered and the presentation turned out to be interesting. The author was from New Zealand and has written 2 series of four books each on teaching English as a second language through poetry. The books were quite well laid out. He has a third series coming out with poems which focus on Hong Kong and it has been approved for use in the high schools. The purpose of the ESU is to promote worldwide understanding through the learning of English. Wednesday, Sept 9 I noticed that the local temple had erected a tall canopy in the temple plaza. Today a large figure, approximately 12 ft. tall, appeared under the canopy. From my window, it looked like a cow sitting on its haunches. However, Ernest and I walked by and decided it was just a very large figure. They’ve also put up several lower canopies covering dozens of small altars with incense and candles in front of them. I wanted to take some pictures, but wasn’t sure if that would be appropriate. This is a continuation of the Yu Lan Festival, or the Serving of Food to the Hungry Ghosts with Praying ceremony which I mentioned last week. It is hosted by Taoist priests to get ancestors out of hades. “Hades” money is burned for the deceased, and joss paper (like thick tissue paper) is burned on the streets for the “hungry ghost.” The Festival also encourages charity and thanksgiving so they collect and donate rice to the poor. We rode the bus to Quarry Bay this evening to look at a loveseat. It’s sure been difficult to find a sofa that is 50 inches wide or less. This one will do and it fits our budget. The back, arms, and seat are white leather, but the rest is plastic and the whites aren’t the same shade. Their apartment was approximately 100 sq. ft. larger than our 366 sq. ft. Ours feels more spacious because when you walk in the front door, the livingroom/diningroom is open. In their apartment, you enter into a small hallway that goes past the kitchen and then opens into the livingroom/diningroom which is smaller than ours. They are moving because their daughter graduated from a university in Australia with a design degree. She designed an apartment in a new building for them. Hong Kong only has 8 universities and it’s very difficult to get in since there are more applicants than openings, so many students attend a university in a different country.