one more sunday – absolutely required December 9, 2007

i’m beat. my feet are killing me. my eyes are sleepy. i’m happy to say this is not due to a hangover but general seeing people, events, and running around. i really need another weekend, or just another sunday.

Hong Kong is nothing if it’s not social. In the last 48 hours, I’ve bounced from event to event, meeting new people all the way. I’ve ate some really good food, including a gorgeous meal at the Panorama, Rennaisance Hotel, Kowloon. I had an excellent “trim and tasty” (not sure how “trim”) brunch this morning with a great group of people (i’m getting much better at meeting strangers!!), and enjoyed some organic wine and hummus later this afternoon. Most exciting is I’m meeting some really nice, great, interesting people and Hong Kong is a so much fun!

I met some really special folks but today I also met a woman from San Francisco that is considering moving here. She lives in Burlingame, and has a very large apartment with a dog there. She’s a bit in freak out mode after hearing what her colleague pays and seeing his place. I did my best to convince her that there are options and did a lot of the pep talk that folks gave me (Primarily KV – if you’re reading this!). Anyway, I hope she does it. Once I landed here, all my doubts subsided and I know this was the right thing. Now, it’s not for everyone, but it’s for a lot. I hope she does it

One random thought before logging off.. why every place one goes such a “small world”? Hong Kong is NOT small, but yet I met a woman today (local-gone-ex-pat-come-back-again) who is best friends with one a coworkers’ wife. so random. this is a city of 7.5 million. and they are both from HK! love it.

Updated pics with comments:

Dim sum (from last week):
http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/rachelmadams2005/MyFirstHKDimSumAndNearbyHKBuildings
These are my colleagues and team! They gave me a warm welcome by taking me for Dim Sum at a wonderful spot – City Hall Maxim’s place. It was quite grand, and this is one of the only places left in Hong Kong where they serve dim sum from the trolleys. Quite sad indeed. Highlights included the chicken feet of course. However, I did have some other tasty treats -mostly on the sweeter side. The Hong Kongers surely love their sweets!

View of the HK Island Skyline from Kowloon (from last night):
http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/rachelmadams2005/KowloonOverlookingHongKongHarbor
This is the view of HK Island from Kowloon. I had a great dinner with Eldon and Patricia at the Panorama Restaurant in the Rennaisance Hotel right on victoria harbor. This was unreal. The view of the city is amazing and grand. The food was excellent and i had CALIFORNIA wine. You guys do not know how lucky you have it!!

Ladies Dinner and after hour festivities (from last week):
http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/rachelmadams2005/HonkersDecember2007
Great girls! Had a great time and realized that these events aren’t scary at all. I also learned the true meeting of a cracker. For any UK readers I have, yes, I mean the christmas cracker! Katie was thrilled to learn our version of the cracker.

Soho (I think it’s considered soho??) street markets on Sunday: http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/rachelmadams2005/SoHoMarkets
After brunch today I wandered around the street markets. New friend in the picture – Melody. Melody is here from Taiwan and I’ve run into her twice now – at the ladies dinner and brunch!
To be honest, i dont’ know if these side streets are still considered soho, but if not, then i guess they are central or sheung wan. who knows and i doubt you guys care!
 

i can live here. i can do this. November 23, 2007

so far this move has been a little too easy. the movers came and did a great job, although they did pack my backpack with all my important papers including my visa and passport and i didn’t notice it missing until they were just about gone. i will take some blame there though. but everything else was just too easy. becky, my darling friend, offered to take me to sfo so that was a huge lifesaver. then there were no airline delays. no issues getting through immigration. no issues with customs. i was even able to man-handle my 2 very large pieces of luggage. no issues getting into my little apartment (stress on the word “little”), i have internet, and i have 50 cent cans of beer. what more can a girl want? so here’s the highlights of my day, and even though it’s only 5:15 pm, it will wrap up. i’m exhausted
9:30 am, arrived to Hong Kong. took a taxi to the apartment in sheung wan, central. the cab driver questioned quite bluntly why my suitcases were so heavy and why did i need so much stuff. i explained the move and commented on the lovely weather. i got no response in return.
10:00ish – check in apartment. it’s cute, and totally livable. the closet space/area for clothing is a bit tight. i mean maybe if i had more than 3 hangers. i can buy hangers but I know that I’m moving like a million out here. the stove.. well at first i thought it was a scale.
10:30ish, after shower. Walked around sheung wan the majority of the day. I saw lots of dried stuff, ginseng, and birds. the birds were a highlight. i almost want a bird living here. they are pretty cute until they get the flu. had lunch at this packed place. it was spacious and didn’t seem too overwhelming at first and they had a menu on the wall that was also in english, so i went for it. i was the only white person in there, without a doubt. i got the stewed pork and sweet corn with rice, and a honey tea drink. the total cost was about $3 usd. i’m going back tomorrow. i’m going to be a regular there. yeah i can live here. i can do this. i sat down and ate and within minutes the place was out of control packed. so many people and then some guy just sat down with me. didn’t ask, didn’t smile, didn’t do anything. just sat down and ate. that’s cool. i can live with that too. no need to be polite when you’re hungry and people are lining up out the door. i think i also realized at that point that it probably wasn’t a good idea to have a relaxing-read-my-tourist-book-at-lunch type of lunch, so ate fast and left. went to the man mo temple, which was quite nice, and i want to go back to have my fortune read. the guy that does the fortunes in english already had a client so i skipped today.
walked down Cat street, i think it’s called that. and up ladder street, and then considered finding the office, but thought better of that. went to the grocery store to pick up a few items (water, laughing cow cheese, oranges, 50 cent tsiang taos, and lots of probiotic products – i can live here. i can do this).
here are some pics from my first day. Unfortunately my battery died in the man mo temple so the pics are cut short. and i didn’t get any pics of the birds or my date at lunch, but next time.
http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/rachelmadams2005/HongKongDay1SheungWanManMoTempleOtherStuff

p.s. in case anyone random ever reads this and you are interested in knowing the restaurant, i think it was called Cafe de Coral or something like that. i’ll find out

a day of darkness November 23, 2007

here’s a post i wrote from the plane.

flying west to asia on a red eye is an interesting experience. i didn’t know what to expect. it’s been pitch black for the last 11 hours (3 hours to go) and I expect the sun will just be rising when we land in taipai. they served us dinner within an hour of getting on the plane (1 am-ish). and to all those wondering, it wasn’t thanksgiving dinner. it was along the lines of braised chicken with bokchoy and rice. I’m sure I slept a good 7 hours but it’s hard to know since it was total blackness waking up. the flight is packed (!) and I had the middle seat.  my guardian angel smiled down at me and placed me with a couple that wanted to be next to each other, so window seat I got. and since I don’t have perfect karma (i’ll work on that buddha), I got stuck with the 18 month old behind me who is kicking my seat and cries a lot. I am probably completely off but I think we’re flying over japan now, I see land and buildings. crazy, i’m nearly there and I completely skipped thursday. It’s friday morning! time to eat breaky as my friends and family get ready to eat your turkey and pies. welcome to my asia

 Listening to: Radiohead, In Rainbows (and the crying baby)
Reading: The perks of being a wallflower, chbosky

Last days of good-byes. November 10, 2007

My big plan was to start a blog when I moved to Hong Kong. At the very least, I could share photos with my friends and family, and perhaps some thoughts here and there. I’m not much of a writer so I doubt this will be a very interesting read, but who knows, maybe someone will find something amusing and come back for more.

I’m less than 2 weeks to go before my big move, and I still feel like I have a million things to do. In all actuality, I just have a million pieces of junk (collected through the years) to get rid of. Everything else (what would seem to be the hard stuff when you move 7000 miles away) is complete. I got the visa. I have an airline ticket. I have a place to live.. for 30 days. I feel good about things, but I still have crap EVERYWHERE!

This is my second to last Friday night in San Francisco, and I’m going to relax and think about Hong Kong. Maybe when I get to Hong Kong, all I will do is think about San Francisco. The two cities certainly have a connection, and I will miss my friends and this beautiful city oh so much. I’m working on getting as much in of her as I can.

New experiences await and hopefully some interesting reads.

xxoo, rachel