Tuesday May 9 2006 - Chi Lin Nunnery

I went on a tour of a Buddhist Nunnery in Hong Kong today. It was in the far reaches of Kowloon; kind of in the foothills of where I guess the New Territories start. The building and grounds were actually fairly new. The Nunnery itself was started in the 1930’s and the gardens and the shrine were built in the 1990’s. They are modeled on Buddhist shrines built in China in the Tang Dynasty (8 Century AD).

I bought a little book about the shrine because they didn’t want us to take pictures of the Buddhas inside the temple. They were very, very beautiful; gold, as most Buddhas are, and surrounded by paintings, guardian figures, drums, and ornate wood carvings. They allowed us to take pictures of the actual temple and the garden. Our guide said they didn’t want pictures taken because they didn’t want to advertise the Nunnery too much. It’s a quiet, peaceful place, and they don’t want a lot of tourists.

Probably the best part of the tour was our knowledgable, cheerful, irreverent Buddhist Nun tour guide. She was a wealth of information, and seemed happy and content. They were having a special prayer week and the grounds and the temple were permeated by the sound of the nuns chanting in the shrine area below the gardens. They used speakers to pipe the sound of the chanting throughout the Nunnery. We apologized to our tour guide for taking her away from her prayers but she said she didn’t mind at all, with a naughty twinkle in her eye! Another funny thing was, there she was with her shaved head and brown robes, but we hear a ringing noise and she pulls a mobile phone out of one of her pockets!

I had a great time talking to the women I met on the tour. They were all from the US, but not all of them were American born. One lady was actually from Germany, but had lived in the US for 10+ years before moving to Hong Kong. And yes mom, she asked for a coke, no ice! Another lady was originally from Taiwan. We were all different ages, from new moms with babies and toddlers (enjoying their fulltime help!) to other empty-nesters like me.

After the tour we went out to lunch together and talked and laughed until around 2 PM. Then I walked to the bank and the post office, trying to stay inside the malls and covered overhead walkways as much as possible. The women were saying that the hot, humid weather will stay this way, and get even worse as the summer progresses, so I’m looking for how to get around in the afternoon without venturing outside. If I do have to go out I’m starting to really understand why the Chinese use their umbrellas in all sorts of weather! A little bit of shade really makes a difference here.

It was fun to meet other women going through the same things that I’m going through, but most of them are a little farther a long, so they have book clubs, know how to ride the buses, etc. Its funny, I’m going from nobody to play with to a fully booked schedule! I have a lunch date tomorrow AND on Thursday! Golly!

I wonder when I will “crash” since everyone says that you do eventually. Maybe I’ll just have little crashes. I had a minor one on the phone this afternoon. I was trying to figure out how to view our credit card information over the internet. I managed that part, but then couldn’t figure out what the billing date was and when the amount on the card was due. I called the bank hot line and the first person I talked to wouldn’t give me any information because I wasn’t the name on my “husband’s” credit card! I completely lost it! One part of me was royally pissed off and really giving her a hard time, while another part of me was actually watching the whole interaction from afar and wondering what she thought of my behavior! Was she really thinking that I had “lost face” by losing my temper, as I had read somewhere? (And did I care at that moment…not at all!). She finally sent me on to someone else, who was quite accommodating and gave me the information I wanted without any problems. I’ve been very “oh well they just do things differently” about stuff here up until this interaction. I REALLY didn’t like being treated like a second class citizen because I “wasn’t the primary account holder” on our credit card! What’s even stranger here is that we’ve got one credit card account, but Lee and I have two different credit card numbers, and when you look at the transactions online they’re split between ones made with his number and ones made with mine! But of course, they all get paid out of the same place!

Then tonight I watched a Grey’s Anatomy and it was one I hadn’t seen before (the one where Christina realizes that she’s pregnant and everyone finds out that Meredith is sleeping with Dr. McDreamy). As usual GA got me all choked up about something at one point (oh I know, it was where George and Dr. McD were talking about Mere at the end of the show and George says “she’s pretty great, you know” and Dr. McD says “yes, I know”). SIGH!

I’ll post some pictures of the Nunnery for you all to see.