Halloween

Hello and Happy Halloween!
Also, Happy Birthday, Mimi!
Ordinarily I do not dedicate posts to people, but this post is dedicated to Anne Taylor because she requested a post after I had not written for a few days and to Mimi Worrell because it's her birthday!

It is a lovely Sunday morning here in Hong Kong. I am yawning and recuperating from a big time celebrating Halloween last night. When I came to Hong Kong I had no idea that Halloween would be celebrated here. Well, it is. It is a BIG holiday. It is so big that I needed an official letter, proof of residence, and a police escort to allow me to return to my apartment last night. I live near Lan Kwai Fong, the "Bourbon Street" of Hong Kong, and the crowds can become quite boisterous when people are celebrating Halloween on LKF. Luckily Hong Kong is a very safe city. I attempted to stay away from Lan Kwai Fong last night, but there was no way to avoid its crowd presence as I returned to my apartment.

Some of you have asked if I planned to dress up for Halloween. Indeed, I did because Rob and I were invited to a progressive Halloween Party dubbed "Liquor Treating." This inspired some creative costumes. One Englishman even sported a burka. Another man dressed as Sarah Palin. I asked the guy wearing a burka where one might purchase a burka, and it turns out he bought it when he "went undercover in Northern Afghanistan." His friends earnestly confirmed this story. Interesting guy with interesting stories. My costume was fairly plain and simple--I was Little Red Riding Hood. Rob was a Mexican and wore a NY Jets pin on his poncho. The Halloween party was fun. I was able to tour various Hong Kong apartments, and I met some smart people. One guy took our conversation as an interview and practically offered me a job. While common sense would say that was the "liquor treating" talking, I plan on following up. After a few stops at various apartments on the Yale Liquor Treating route, Rob and I left and met my friend Anne (the one who is from Raleigh, went to UNC and moved here from NY with her husband). I drank a lychee martini and called it a night.

After all that, a serious run is in store this afternoon.

Before....

...After

"Bobby Sanchez"

At my friend JS' apartment. I caught the Sultan kissing the hand of his fifth wife. Sarah Palin observes from the back of the room.
I ask myself, is dressing up for Halloween politically correct as an adult? 

With Jess and Anne at Wagyu Lounge for a night cap. Anne dressed as Betty Draper.

Monday!

Greetings on this glorious Monday morning,

I hope your work days are off to a solid start. I began mine with a quick nibble of muffin and a trip to Holly Brown, my go-to coffee shop. HB is decorated in Carolina blue and white, so I feel at home there. It offers free Internet, delicious cappuccinos, and up-beat elevator music, which requires one to bring her noise-canceling headphones. Nonetheless, Holly Brown helps me log a few hours on jobsdb.com and efinancialcareers.com.

As I reflect back on the weekend, it was a fun one. Miraculously Hurricane Megi never threatened the blue skies. We ended up spending lots of time outdoors. On Saturday I went to Kowloon to watch Rob play in his first softball game since joining the expat softball league. I was the only girl there this week and felt like I was crashing man time, but it was lots of fun. Funny quote of the day was overhearing a bystander say, "Wow, that's a tall first baseman!" Rob is tall, and he played really well!

Later in the afternoon I hit the gym and then met our friend Sarah for Saturday night bowling! I have always been a TERRIBLE (and I mean terrible) bowler, but whatever, bowling is fun. I learned half way through bowling that I held and released the bowling ball the completely wrong way. I used the wrong fingers and then would throw the ball back handed, which caused me to have little control of the ball. I have done this my entire life and never had a clue this was wrong. It is no wonder that my game-end score would be 30 on a good night. After Rob showed me the right way to bowl, my score improved. I can't tell you how beyond shocked I was when I finished with the highest score of the group at the end of the night.The group was laughing; nobody could believe it. Anyway, it was just fun. We went out after and had a great time.

After making a big night of it, Sunday was relaxing. Not much to report on that except, oh ya, KFC (Kentucky Fried Chicken) delivers in Hong Kong....Yeah, we ordered KFC delivery.

What did you guys do this weekend?!

TGIF!

I returned to mainland China yesterday for a second shopping trip. This time I knew what I was looking for, and I knew where these items were sold. Despite our brief time together last time, most vendors seemed to remember me, what I bought and how much I paid. I was shocked. It was remarkable. I am very impressed with their quick mental recall of faces, names and figures. I aimed to secure better relationships with these vendors so that I can continue to do business with them conveniently and at a good price.

Last time I went to the mainland I bought a particular purchase and showed a picture of it to a friend from home. She was intrigued by this purchase and asked if I could find one for her. Of course I could. I am more than happy to do this. Today I dropped it in the mail, and it should arrive in the US within 10 business days. Eee, can't wait!

I was also a little selfish in my purchases. The best purchase I made for myself this trip happened to be really dorky but practical--new prescription glasses! Yep, I have brand new prescription lenses and frames. I wasn't sure how the lenses would turn out, but I figured that if the job was botched, it wouldn't set me back too much. Much to my surprise, they turned out great! The hardest part is that I now have to retire my old lenses and frames, which have been with me since 10th grade. Oh, dork memories! To balance out the dorkiness, I also bought stiletto ankle booties, which I can hardly take off. Rob even caught me wearing them in my workout clothes.

Now that we have a massive hurricane approaching I'll probably need to take them off.

Big news here seems to be the approaching storm that is Hurricane Megi. (I think that's an Australian name). The alert level in Hong Kong is 3 right now. People don't get too serious about the storms unless the warning level reaches 8. I hope the storm passes by us without much damage to people or places.

Have a great Friday and weekend!

Lizard

Progress

Took a day off from blogging and miss it already! Hope you all are doing well at home. I miss you guys very much.

I'm doing my best to keep a positive attitude about the job search and am finding more success this week than last as things have picked up a bit. Knock on wood! I hope it stays this way, but there's no way of predicting. All I can do is the leg work and hope it pays off. As Lee and Jarrett say, let's hope the popcorn pops!

I went to a different gym this morning. It is located in the IFC, which stands for International Finance Center. The IFC is quintessentially Asian. It is an enormous complex that is home to many financial companies on the structure's higher levels. It also offers a smorgasbord of high-end shops, restaurants, hotels and even a movie theater on the lower levels. Pathways connect the facility to other buildings, which are designed in a similar fashion. This network of shopping and corporate business spans across all of Central Hong Kong. You can walk anywhere in this large network without getting wet on a rainy day. The IFC is also connected to the metro and to the ferry terminals. If heading to the airport, you can even check your bags at IFC!

My gym sits on the Northeast corner of the 3rd floor of IFC and overlooks both the Harbour and a mammoth construction site. It is nice to see so much construction here, as it is a visual representation of progress. Even though I gave a shameful performance on the treadmill this morning, I was inspired by the progress in front of me. I couldn't help but want to get back to my computer and make something happen on the job front. I've never really observed a major construction site in action, particularly since the recession struck two years ago, but watching dozens of cranes working at once and watching diggers dig huge holes in the earth reminded me what effort and action can build. Even though my efforts haven't begun to pay off as much as I would like, having reassuring surroundings helps keep a positive, pro-active attitude. Now...must get back to the search.

Hasta la vista!

Lizard

p.s. I love hearing from you guys (it's what keeps me going)! Promise I'll write you back.

Go Heels!

Marley and Me

I woke up this morning to find "Marley and Me" on HBO. I had never read the book or seen the movie, although I had heard memorable things from my brother and college roommate. I guess I was waiting for the right time to enjoy the movie, and there was no better time than this morning. So I watched it. 

...Old Yeller much? Wow. I LOVED the movie, but it'll set you back a few Kleenex. Note to self: Must emotionally prepare before watching "Marley and Me." 

I miss you, Bay Bay!

Liz

A few things from today

It's the end of Friday here. Rob and I are preparing dinner and staying in this evening. We're having sauteed veggies and pork with pasta. Rob is playing in a 14-hour softball tournament tomorrow with an expat league. We looked all over town today for a baseball mitt and could not find one anywhere. We were able to find badminton rackets, though. I picked up some new running clothes.

The job search was pretty slow this week. Hopefully it will pick back up next week. I tend to run off the stress when job stuff slows, so I've been spending more time at the gym. Yesterday I did a bootcamp class, which may be the most difficult workout I've had since Mr. Warner's pre-season field hockey practice. Today I decided to switch it up and run. Leave it to bootcamp, but I ran my highest mileage yet....all while watching the European synchronized swimming tournament on TV. That is an impressive sport.

I guess the main theme of this week has been "When you don't have a job, you spend extra time at the gym," followed by "Televised sports in Asia are weird awesome." Click here for picture.

Dinner's ready. Have a great weekend.

~Lizard

You Learn Something New Every Day

...and today I learned that badminton is a competitive and televised sport in Asia. As I logged miles on the treadmill this morning, I was pleasantly surprised by this televised sport. I could not understand what the Chinese-speaking commenters were saying, but the sport is still fun to watch when you sub the audio with Passion Pit and Milkman.

...If only the networks would air NFL football games, we'd all be happy!

Congratulations!

Congratulations Schwab and Brian!!
(Schwab, will we have to start calling you Anna?)
Love and Miss You!!!

Weekend Pictures

So exhausted today...here are a few pictures from the weekend:

Polishing up before heading to my surprise birthday dinner! (at Posto Publico...so yum)

post-dinner champagne at Wagyu, a favorite watering hole for Westerners  in Hong Kong. Great music and dancing!

I love bubbles

Roberto goes along with zee bubbles
I almost convinced him to dance to the 80s music that was playing, better luck next time...

This random guy, Charlie, (walking through the picture) was a Canadian wild man. He was very friendly but kept walking through our pictures and striking up conversations with us. The necklace he is wearing is actually his house key--his friends make him tie it around his neck when he goes out so he won't lose it. I truly wonder if he remembers this or us.
He is a good representative of the Lan Kwai Fong going out scene...more pictures below

Lan Kwai Fong going out scene on a Saturday Night. You can walk anywhere in Hong Kong with drinks in hand.

Rob, Thayer and her college roommate, who was visiting from New York.  

Hong Kong horns

At Beijing Club...the first "real" club I've been to in Hong Kong. We were the only non-Asians there. All music was new Western music. 

One full day later, Rob and I decided to have Vietnamese food for my birthday on Sunday night. Vietnamese is my favorite Southeast Asian cuisine. This is the seasoning here. We did not take pictures of the fried soft-shell crab spring rolls, which we eat at least once a week it seems. If you can get your hands on some vietnamese ravioli, do. It's good.

Jasmine tea. I've grown to enjoy tea. I used to think it tasted like grass.

We finished the day at Holly Brown Coffee, where I had tiramisu and chocolate gelato.

The works. Worth every bite.

Flowers :)

Close-up

Happy 10/10/10

Today's date is 10/10/10-- I'm really happy about that for two reasons: one because it's an awesome date, and two because it's my birthday!

It's the end of the day here in Hong Kong, and I must say that today (as well as the rest of the weekend) has been an absolutely wonderful 25th birthday--complete with Rob and new friends, but also with pancakes, champagne, an Asian spa day, several surprises!, a new favorite restaurant and chocolate upon chocolate! Now that I feel more than spoiled, it's time to watch my Shenzhen edition of Gossip Girl Season 3. Gym will have to wait until tomorrow...

I miss all of you whom I could not spend the day with!
*Polly and Rawleigh, Happy 1st Anniversary :)

~Lizard

Others who were born on 10/10: Brett Favre, John Prine, Dale Earnhardt, Jr.

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Humidity

Trying to blow dry your hair straight for an interview in a tropical climate is next to impossible, even when you have a dehumidifier whose water tank you empty every day. I've touted the positives of Hong Kong...this is a major negative!

Shenzhen/The North Pole

Hello!

Just awoke here in Hong Kong in a very sleepy way. I am wiped out from yesterday's day trip to mainland China with my friend Anne and a new friend, Farizeh. If you're like me, you probably haven't heard much about Shenzhen, but chances are that many of the clothes in your closet were made in or near it. I had no intention of going until Anne asked me to go, and boy I'm glad I did.

After a 45-minute metro ride to mainland China (yep, the real deal!), you go through immigration and walk outside. In front of you is the most mammoth grey complex I have ever seen. It is the size of a Super Wal-mart but with 5 levels. Truly enormous. Tiny shops are jam packed into this complex. It is here that you find any textile product you could imagine.

Throughout the day I kept saying how it felt like a dream--a really good, really strange dream, complete with VERY few English speakers! Most of the people in the shops are tailors, manufacturers or salesmen who don't seem to bother themselves with the concept of Copyright. Most of the buyers mean business and seem to know what they are doing as they haggle prices down and nicely argue with the shopkeepers. I am almost certain each shopkeeper could double as a currency trader, too, as you can pay for goods and receive change in many currencies. All of the shopkeepers I encountered knew the current exchange rates.You can find anything here with a quality that rivals the "original." Handbags, shoes, watches, jeans, jewelry, ipads, iphones, Wii, dresses, scarves, DVDs--at prices that make Wal-mart look expensive. I had heard the stories about getting "cheap stuff" in China, but this gave me proof. Wholesale in China is impressive.

I went to China yesterday with the intention of having a tailor make custom copies of my favorite dresses for $15 USD, but I found better value elsewhere and decided not to have the dress copied. When I returned to Hong Kong and looked at my loot, I felt like I had visited the North Pole.

I hope you'll come visit so I can show you. Mom, I kept thinking about you while I was there...you've got to come visit.

Green Curry

This morning Rob asked me what I thought we should have for dinner tonight. We discussed a few options, and the most exciting idea we came up with was green curry. There are tons of good Thai restaurants in Hong Kong, and we have sampled a fair number, but tonight I wanted to stay in.

After spending some time climbing up and down the mountainside of Hong Kong today, I needed a nap this afternoon. When I awoke, I found that Rob had been to the markets, where he had picked up the ingredients for green curry! Turns out he had decided to cook for me, making my favorite Thai dish from scratch. It was delicious! I was so touched, I decided to share the pictures here:

The chef at work

Green curry paste, coconut milk, a mixture of favorite veggies and chicken--these are a few of my favorite things!

Our table setting

The accomplished chef

Macau--ow oww!

Greetings Loved Ones and strangers ;),

Yesterday was National Day in China. That means that all of China was celebrating China's "61st Birthday." AKA 61 years of Communism. It's funny, though, because in Hong Kong you don't see many traces of Communism beyond kitschy Mao trading cards and jokes about Mao and Obama. As a Special Administrative Region (SAR), Hong Kong is still under it's own government, not that of the People's Republic of China. It seems that people here basically celebrate the national holiday as a day off from work. In Hong Kong you don't hear many references to government, just to prosperity. Rob and I thought it may be a great day to grab our Passports, stretch our sea legs and head over to Macau, which happens to be the only other Special Administrative Region in China. If you aren't familiar with Macau, it is an island on the Pearl River Delta, and it was settled by the Portuguese in 1503--338 years before the British settled Hong Kong. Macau blew my mind. It is is a hidden gem to this part of the world, and I urge all of you who have not been to go.

There are two contradictory sides of Macau. One is the old, historical side, which demonstrates a beautiful combination of Eastern and Western cultures that has been developing since the 1500s. Macau was once a trading post on the water route of The Silk Road, and it was open to many different cultures and peoples. A fort was built on the solitary peak of the small island in order to defend the settlement from other European colonists who were jealous of the settlement's successes (the Dutch attacked repeatedly). You can go visit this tropical fort today. In many ways, it reminded of St. Augustine, Florida, but with strong Asian flare. Just below the fort stand the remains of St. Paul's Church, which was burned in a fire 200 years ago. Only the grand staircase and the facade of the Church remain. It is striking. As you wander down the staircase into the old town, you see the streets, which are paved with smooth, wavy-tiled mosaics and lined by Portuguese-style buildings. Vendors fill the buildings and urge you to sample goods--pork and beef jerky as well as Macanese egg tarts! The island is famous for its egg tarts...Mmm. Words cannot describe how good these little desserts are. Anyway, that is one side of Macau. The other side feels like the antithesis of this historical place. If you walk about 200 yards down the road, you will reach the pumping, neon side of the island. Bright lights, big city casinos line the avenues. Fountains explode. You are in Vegas, baby, at the MGM Grand. You are in Paris, cherie, when you walk through the Arc de Triomphe Hotel and Casino. You are everywhere you want to be at once. As a matter of hearsay, the Macanese prostitution industry is a booming industry. You see fancy women lingering on the corners of the brand new Louis Vuitton/Gucci/whatever stores. It is fascinating that this new wealth is part of the other place down the road, where the old, Church and fortress rest.

There are many reasons for this dichotomy, and one of them happens to be Hong Kong. When the British came and settled Hong Kong (just 40 miles from Macau) in 1841, much of the trading industry migrated from Macau to Hong Kong. Macau, once a major trading post, became just a blip on the region's radar. Not to mention, by the 1800s, Portugal was not as powerful as Britain, especially when it came to colonial powers in far away lands. Hong Kong, with its deep waters for large sea vessels, stole the show from Macau. Macau's main industry became the match-making industry, which lasted into the 1920s...no, literally, Macau made matches and match books. Perhaps this is how it got the idea to advance its prostitution industry, by matchmaking in another way, but that's another story, and probably not the right one. In more recent years, as Macau has ceded from the Portuguese back to the Chinese, Macau has undergone more change. While it still values its historical past, it sees dollar signs in its future by way of the casinos.

Needless to say, Rob and I had a great time exploring the many sides of Macau on National Day. The visit was made complete by a farewell firework competition between Italy and China. Not surprisingly, China won.

It was spectacular. Pictures below.

The Hydro-planing, high-speed boat we took to Macau. Takes 1 hour to go 40 miles. I thought the boat was awesome on the smooth ride over there. Our ride back was the opposite. Really rough. I'll spare you the details, but thankfully Rob and have strong-ish stomachs. Many others did not.

But...we arrived and were fast exploring the city by foot! Here: Old Macau on National Day in daylight. Beautiful architecture and wavy mosaic streets. Notice McDonalds in the background. Asians LOVE McDiesels.

The pork and beef jerkey. Vendors give out samples of any flavor you would like to try.  I liked the sweet and spicy.

Walking up the tiled, vendor-lined streets. St. Paul's Church remains in the distance.

The staircase adds a powerful effect.

The area leading up to the fort is a park. Many Chinese bring their dogs.  Golden Retrievers seem to be the dog of choice in Macau. I met some super cute ones and their proud owners. There is even a dog W.C! There are also public elliptical machines for their masters. The dogs can take a load off while the master works it. Kinda funny.

The entrance to the fort is now a European style concession stand with Coca-Cola products. The inside looks like a Bavarian Hansel and Gretle house.

The top of the fort is now the Musea De Macau. Rob and I did a quick run-through of the museum. Many of the facts I mentioned above came from here. Neat place. I <3 museums.

Read this how you will. East-West style cannon once aimed at attacking Dutch ships now aims at casinos.

Rob and I ventured back down to the facade of St. Paul's Church and climbed to the top of the facade! This was one of the views looking down--a Chinese temple. Neat how the two religious structures coexist.

Proud owner with his beautiful retriever.

Historic Macau on National Day at night.

Historic Macau on National Day at night.

Casino Land! Hotel Lisboa and it's ENORMOUS casino. Robert Stephens standing in front for scale :).

Wynn Hotel and Casino

The real Arc de Triomphe. Ask anyone inside!

Macanese cuisine is unique because it is a fine melding of various ethnic cuisines. Here Rob and I are at Dom Galo with African Chicken, a dish of potatoes, chorizo, shrimp and olives, as well as mussels with bacon and garlic. Definitely was not a light meal, but it was pretty good. Rob and I first had Macanese food in New York at a great, great restaurant called Macau Trading Company. Macau Trading Company is cool, and you should go if you are in New York. It's owned by the Employees Only people, and they serve great cocktails and food!

Grand Finale!
Chinese finale of the fireworks competition. It was out of this world. In Macau they do it big, especially when it comes to competition and fireworks!