June 16 2007 Just a Normal Week in Hong Kong

For the first 6 months that I spent in Hong Kong last year everything was a new adventure. A trip to the grocery store, a ride in a taxi, my first climb to The Peak, the butterflies, the white parrots, the rain (the RAIN!); it was all new and exciting. Then, gradually, Hong Kong became more familiar and comfortable. Things here started to seem “normal”, and I stopped writing in my blog as much.

But I knew that I was missing out on recording perhaps the most important part of living overseas. What’s it really like to LIVE in another country? The first 6 months are more like being a tourist. After that you’re busy making a life here. I started out very excited about living in Hong Kong. I’m no longer excited, but I still love it here.

So, what’s it like to just LIVE here? Hmm…this week nothing momentous happened, but I had (as usual) a happy and fairly busy week. What did I do with myself? Let’s see…

Monday: I went to an early morning yoga class. Patrick’s class is both spiritual and challenging, so challenging at times that I start to wonder if it’s really okay for me to be there. Is it disrupting to others when I can’t do the pose; when I can’t do anything even CLOSE to the pose? But I keep coming back to his class. I like the additional time to meditate; I like the chanting; I like the extensive teaching he does as part of the class. And, when we get to the poses I can’t do – OH WELL! Being kind and patient with myself in those situations is part of the learning experience for me. One thing that’s weird about some Yoga classes for me – you’re in general not supposed to talk in Yoga classes, but sometimes when the teachers talk at the beginning of class I really have things I want to say – it’s so weird! I don’t know if I should; sometimes I do, and sometimes I don’t, and I never know if I should or not! Oh well, more kindness and patience is in order I suppose!

Tuesday: I was invited to play mahjong with a table of “good” players at the American Club today. I had played with one of the players before and had a good day, so she had decided that I was good. I don’t think I really am; I still don’t really know how to keep score, and sometimes I make stupid decisions when building my hand and screw things up. But what the heck; if they turned out to be mean or snobby, or I turned out to be stupid, then I just wouldn’t do it again. It actually turned out to be really fun! First of all they played FAST, and playing fast is more exciting. When the game moves quickly sometimes you have to make snap judgments about what to do and since at least half of mahjong is luck, sometimes letting your intuition take over leads you in a good direction, instead of over-thinking a hand and subsequently getting messed up. Secondly, they keep score for real, play for money (50 cents HK a point, which is not very much), and play an entire game, which I’ve never done before. Mahjong is normally played with 4 players. You play 4 rounds (North, South, East and West) and within each round there are at least 4 hands played, maybe more. Each hand takes around 15 minutes, so a complete game takes all day. We started at 11, and didn’t finish until almost 5. Normally when I go to play mahjong I’m really bored by around 2 or 3 and quit. This time I had fun all day long. Thirdly, it really was fun! We talked and laughed so much that at one point one of the other tables told us to keep it down a little (we ignored them). I can’t tell you what we talked about, just silly stuff. Anyway, I had a good time, and I hope I get to play with them again sometime.

Wednesday: I was actually able to get on AIM Chat a little with the Texas moms! It’s just so hard to find the time to log in to the weekly chat when it falls in the middle of a morning in Hong Kong. Usually I have a Cantonese lesson on Wednesdays, but Sandy is still in London visiting her new boyfriend. I have some coupons from renewing my membership in the AWA. One of the coupons was for a nail place in Central, so I decided to try it out. I got a manicure and a pedicure. They did a good job; my nails look nice, but I thought it was really strange that they used a Motodrill on my nails! I felt like the felts in a piano action (a little piano-tuner retrospective there).  It doesn’t appear to have done anything harmful, but I’m not sure I’ll go back. Besides, I like the little girl that does my nails at Paul Gerrard and I actually felt a little guilty that I didn’t go see her this time.

Thursday: This was a relatively busy day. I had an appointment to get my hair colored and cut, and a lunch appointment too. My hair is now a nice color, but he REALLY cut it short this time. It’s almost TOO short, but that’s probably just as well, since its going to be almost 6 weeks until my next haircut. Lunch was at the Congress restaurant at the Renaissance Harbor Hotel with Rachel, Tammy and Beth. One of the cool things about Hong Kong is how many friends I’ve made. I have my hiking friends, my AWA friends, and this group, which is sort of my “friends that I met through Adrienne”. After lunch Rachel and I went to the Fleet Arcade, which is the place where the US sailors enter Hong Kong. They have a little book store with all sorts of American magazines. American mags are hard to find in Hong Kong. You can find the British VERSION of American magazines easily, but that’s just not the same. I got a Runner’s World and I Yoga Journal. My hobbies! Then I went back over to Kowloon to the HK Art Museum to buy more “year of the xxxx” cards to use for birthday cards. It was very hot and steamy, so I concentrated on not going outside more than absolutely necessary. By using the subways (which are underground pedestrian walkways) and the MTR tunnels (the MTR is the subway!) I only walked outside for around a block, but that one block was enough to get sticky. Boy, entering air conditioning around here can feel SO GOOD!

Friday: I used another AWA coupon today to get a Thai massage. The spa was really, really nice, and the masseuse was good, but she was really strong – it was downright painful at times, and I usually like a lot of pressure. But today my muscles feel good, so I think it was fine. After the massage I wandered around Central a little. I was kind of looking for a red sweatshirt, which I never found, but as I was wandering I noticed that the LeSportSac store in the basement of the Landmark Building was filled with Chinese, snatching up REAL LeSportSacs left and right. Of course I had to go in and see what was going on. Turns out that with an HSBC credit card all the purses in the store were at LEAST 50% off, or more! I only bought one, but I got one marked at $1,060 HKD ($138 US) for $460 HK ($60 US). Not Shenzhen prices, which are probably ¼ of the real prices, but not bad for a genuine LeSportSac. I need to send a general email and see if anyone else wants one. The sale is on until the end of the month (if there are any left by then; those purses were MOVING!).

So, that’s the highlights of a typical week for me. Interspersed with all of this is too much time on my pc reading and writing emails, time on the phone with kids and my mom, random shopping, more Yoga, running, gym-time, reading, episodes of the Sopranos, adventures in eating, etc. It’s a nice life. And, yes, it’s a life being lived in a beautiful, exotic city, where it rains too much this time of year!