...Spoonfuls of Sugar...
I'm not the diary entry kinda gal, but I do want to share some of the things that have happened as I walk through the streets here or glance around me or just think too much as is often the case. Funny, dumb, serious...
I know most of you have the attention span of a three-year old when it comes to long blocks of text. So I added color since there aren't any pictures...
…In the States when you’re walking home at night and there’s a couple that’s having a fight in the middle of the street, usually you hear a lot of obscenities “you are such a b(*^h, you f(!@#n whore, I f^%$*n hate you!”… in Hong Kong, as I walked up the escalators returning home from Batman Begins, there’s a guy yelling at a girl in broken English “You dirty girl. You dirtiest girl in Hong Kong. You just trying to get VISA!” As soon as I was out of earshot I was laughing at how different obscenities sound here…
…Hong Kong manages to achieve a feat that I have yet to experience in any other city. Day and Night are almost interchangeable. At night time in the Central district there are so many lights pumping out so much wattage that midnight was just as bright as the day time. One rainy morning I went outside and the clouds were so think that I did a double-take to my watch, wondering if I had slept through the day. (Maaaaybe I was just out a little to late the night before?)…
…The MTR (train system) doesn’t have doors between the trains, so when there aren’t many passengers you can see all the way from one end of the train to the other on a straightaway – while the over-head handles are more like whack-you-in-the-head handles…
...Where are the engines on double-decker buses? And why do I duck under bridges when I sit on the top deck? Do I really not think that this bus driver hasn’t done this route a million times?...
…Every morning, as I walk to the escalator I cross paths with a very curious coupling. One is an old, worn woman – probably at least 80 – whose top half of her body has been bent over in almost a ninety degree angle. She would probably only be five feet tall if she was standing up straight, and with this condition she is absolutely tiny. I don’t think that she can actually lift her head up to look forward at where she is walking, as she is lead by another person: A young girl who should probably be in school since she looks to be around the age of twelve. The old woman holds one hand out and the young girl walks in front of her as though she has a dog on a leash. Daily I reinvent the story of their lives and histories in my imagination…
…My route to work: down the street, down the longest escalator in the world (no joke!), down to the International Finance Center building, down to the train station, train to Sunny Bay station on Lantau Island, bus to the site office. Average transit time: 45 minutes…
…”Smash Culture” – my way of thinking about Hong Kong where polar opposites are smashed into each other in an area-deficient space. West is smashed into East. Water is smashed into land. Buildings are smashed in the sky. Tradition is smashed in to pop culture. Religion is smashed into Capitalism. It’s not like these things “co-exist” or “intermingle” – they are SMASHED...
…Outside, Hong Kong has the hottest, stickiest air I’ve ever felt in my life. Inside, the A/C blasts and you have to wear a jacket or else you’ll freeze. Now add glasses to the mix. If you wear glasses, you know where I’m going with this - anytime I walk outside, my glasses fog up immediately. This led to the discovery that if, on a particularly hectic day as I step out of my apartment on to the street, I don’t want to be surrounded by Chinese people, I can just take my glasses off and for a couple of minutes I don’t notice what anyone looks like. And then they smash into me…
…Black rain exists in Hong Kong. I’ve never seen it, but I’ve heard of it. It is what the government labels rainfall that exceeds 2.7 inches of rain an hour. We experienced Amber rain one day - stairs turned into waterfalls, streets turned into rivers, and thunder rattled deep into the buildings. There’s Amber, then there’s Red, then there’s Black…
…Just finished reading: “Tournament Poker and the Art of War”…
…Occasionally I find myself wishing I could understand what people are saying. Two hours of public transportation and all around me is indistinguishable chatter – is it Mandarin? Cantonese? I can pick out the Tagalog and Spanish and German, but everything starts to fade into the background. Everything blurs and slurs and turns into white noise. And there’s this little thing inside me that reminds me that I don’t understand anything that they’re saying and I’m a foreigner and this is not home. And that same little thing keeps a tiny search-and-rescue light on, listening for English, hoping for something that includes me. And then I’ll hear it! English! On the train right across from me! And you know what? English conversations here are just as mundane as they are on the trains and buses in the States. Unless someone is trying to get a visa.
Love you all! Miss you!
UPCOMING:
…McQueen
…REAL Chinese Food
…12 Pedder Street Shopping
…Current reading selection
…Relative Expenses
…What time HK shuts down
...More getting lost in HK
…Abyss
I know most of you have the attention span of a three-year old when it comes to long blocks of text. So I added color since there aren't any pictures...
…In the States when you’re walking home at night and there’s a couple that’s having a fight in the middle of the street, usually you hear a lot of obscenities “you are such a b(*^h, you f(!@#n whore, I f^%$*n hate you!”… in Hong Kong, as I walked up the escalators returning home from Batman Begins, there’s a guy yelling at a girl in broken English “You dirty girl. You dirtiest girl in Hong Kong. You just trying to get VISA!” As soon as I was out of earshot I was laughing at how different obscenities sound here…
…Hong Kong manages to achieve a feat that I have yet to experience in any other city. Day and Night are almost interchangeable. At night time in the Central district there are so many lights pumping out so much wattage that midnight was just as bright as the day time. One rainy morning I went outside and the clouds were so think that I did a double-take to my watch, wondering if I had slept through the day. (Maaaaybe I was just out a little to late the night before?)…
…The MTR (train system) doesn’t have doors between the trains, so when there aren’t many passengers you can see all the way from one end of the train to the other on a straightaway – while the over-head handles are more like whack-you-in-the-head handles…
...Where are the engines on double-decker buses? And why do I duck under bridges when I sit on the top deck? Do I really not think that this bus driver hasn’t done this route a million times?...
…Every morning, as I walk to the escalator I cross paths with a very curious coupling. One is an old, worn woman – probably at least 80 – whose top half of her body has been bent over in almost a ninety degree angle. She would probably only be five feet tall if she was standing up straight, and with this condition she is absolutely tiny. I don’t think that she can actually lift her head up to look forward at where she is walking, as she is lead by another person: A young girl who should probably be in school since she looks to be around the age of twelve. The old woman holds one hand out and the young girl walks in front of her as though she has a dog on a leash. Daily I reinvent the story of their lives and histories in my imagination…
…My route to work: down the street, down the longest escalator in the world (no joke!), down to the International Finance Center building, down to the train station, train to Sunny Bay station on Lantau Island, bus to the site office. Average transit time: 45 minutes…
…”Smash Culture” – my way of thinking about Hong Kong where polar opposites are smashed into each other in an area-deficient space. West is smashed into East. Water is smashed into land. Buildings are smashed in the sky. Tradition is smashed in to pop culture. Religion is smashed into Capitalism. It’s not like these things “co-exist” or “intermingle” – they are SMASHED...
…Outside, Hong Kong has the hottest, stickiest air I’ve ever felt in my life. Inside, the A/C blasts and you have to wear a jacket or else you’ll freeze. Now add glasses to the mix. If you wear glasses, you know where I’m going with this - anytime I walk outside, my glasses fog up immediately. This led to the discovery that if, on a particularly hectic day as I step out of my apartment on to the street, I don’t want to be surrounded by Chinese people, I can just take my glasses off and for a couple of minutes I don’t notice what anyone looks like. And then they smash into me…
…Black rain exists in Hong Kong. I’ve never seen it, but I’ve heard of it. It is what the government labels rainfall that exceeds 2.7 inches of rain an hour. We experienced Amber rain one day - stairs turned into waterfalls, streets turned into rivers, and thunder rattled deep into the buildings. There’s Amber, then there’s Red, then there’s Black…
…Just finished reading: “Tournament Poker and the Art of War”…
…Occasionally I find myself wishing I could understand what people are saying. Two hours of public transportation and all around me is indistinguishable chatter – is it Mandarin? Cantonese? I can pick out the Tagalog and Spanish and German, but everything starts to fade into the background. Everything blurs and slurs and turns into white noise. And there’s this little thing inside me that reminds me that I don’t understand anything that they’re saying and I’m a foreigner and this is not home. And that same little thing keeps a tiny search-and-rescue light on, listening for English, hoping for something that includes me. And then I’ll hear it! English! On the train right across from me! And you know what? English conversations here are just as mundane as they are on the trains and buses in the States. Unless someone is trying to get a visa.
Love you all! Miss you!
UPCOMING:
…McQueen
…REAL Chinese Food
…12 Pedder Street Shopping
…Current reading selection
…Relative Expenses
…What time HK shuts down
...More getting lost in HK
…Abyss
posted by Stephanie at 9:43 PM
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