Time to Back Track and Cover a Few Things I've Missed

My brother commented that based on word count the highlights of my trip so far have been monkeys and dumplings. And he's right, except that word count skews what the actual highlights of my experience have been. Because of this I have decided to go back and rehash a few aspects of the experience that I have not yet focused on because I've been focusing on the details of my day, not the overall experience. Often I notice overarching cultural comparisons as I'm walking down the street, and I'll forget to type them out. Here are a few things I haven't covered. I hope it balances the word count.

Farewells in Richmond: Before I am too far removed from farewells in Richmond, I want to thank my family and close friends for such a warm send-off. I wouldn't have been able to make it over to Hong Kong without you all. Sara, I borrowed a photo from your Facebook to post. Miss you all tons.

At Dad's house, 8/13/10, a few days before blast off.

Being and not being a tourist: The first week in Hong Kong I spent half of the time sleeping/trying to sleep and the other half of the time being a tourist. I've told you all lots about the activities I've done, but I have not included many of the observations I've made while doing these activities, at the risk of feeling like an outsider to my own surroundings. I'm trying to meld in and adjust to the place I will be living for a while and tend to look for more similarities than differences between here and home. Sometimes it's hard to deny the differences, though. Anyway, I think it is safe to say that I now have a basket full of cultural observations. For instance, I was here 5 days before I saw one black person. If I see a fellow blond person walking down the street I stare, because it is not a common sight in this neck of the woods. When I see them I wonder if they speak with a British accent or an American accent. Most tend to have a British or Australian accent. I've begun to get used to all of the dark hair and petite people. The men and women are quite smaller in size than Westerners. Particularly the men. Everyone dresses well, though. An older expat friend told Rob that if you live here long enough you get so used to seeing working people in custom made clothes, that when you travel other places, off-the-rack clothes look like they fit strangely. I'm "off the rack" at this point, I guess :).

Another observation, the streets are VERY clean. Cleaner than any American city I've seen. It's remarkable because this is such a metropolitan city and has as many inhabitants as Manhattan. 7.5 million. A few years ago during the Avian flu scare, Hong Kong decided to clean out and clean up urban areas to avoid the spread of disease. The trend has stuck. This city is spotless. The metro, er MTR, is also spotless.

When you're walking along the windy streets on the small sidewalks, construction will be going on around you and there won't be much protection or guardrailing. Men will be dragging carts of glass on a dolly, up the same steep sidewalk on which you're walking. Look out. There is no real regulation or safety enforcement for these things. One is required to watch out for oneself. That's not to say that Hong Kong isn't a safe city; it's one of the safest in the world. There is little red tape or residual legal cushioning for your day-to-day actions. In fact, you could walk through the streets drinking two cocktails and you would not be breaking the law. At the same time, if a piece of glass slid off a cart and cut you, I'm not sure if you would be able to blame someone else for that. I'm basically living in a Communist country, and there's less red tape here than in the US. You're more responsible for yourself and seemingly more free to do what you want than in the US.

My last cultural observations pertain to quality of life here. The cost of living is pretty high but also skewed from how it is in the States. Apartments are expensive, even more expensive per square foot than in New York. The cost of food, however, varies greatly depending on where you go. It ranges from very cheap to very expensive by US standards. Same goes for clothing. I can have a beautiful suit made to order by a tailor (skirt, pants and jacket), using the finest wool and cashmere for $370, but then I can also venture into a flashy store and buy something similar that is much more expensive. On that same note, I could also find a suit that is not as well constructed without spending much money. In this city, though, quality seems to be important.

Domestic help--something I never considered having at my age in the States--is also quite inexpensive here. Every expat family we have met here have "helpers." If you don't have your own domestic helper, most apartment leases come with a maid service that cleans at least once a week, but often cleans every day. At the apartment where I live now, our land lady's "helper," comes to clean for two hours once a week. Even two hours feels like a lot of time to spend cleaning a 400 square foot apartment. In addition to cleaning and doing laundry and dishes, she will organize my closets, go to the grocery store, and even take things to the dry cleaners. She couldn't be any nicer or more helpful. It feels weird not doing the chores myself. I do feel bad, though, that by law helpers from the Philippines have a lower minimum wage than people from China/Hong Kong. I am not sure why that is.

Anyway, those are just a few observations that I have been thinking about. Thank you for sending me questions and comments. If you have any other questions or things you'd like for me to talk about please let me know! I always love hearing from you :)

CIAO!

Lizard