Reading Week

In the past two weeks, I've met at least 5 other exchange students, all of whom are very nice, and all of whom I will likely never see again. This seems to be the way such things go -- it takes roughly a semester to get the feel of things, and there's all that traveling in the middle, and just when the city is feeling like yours, and you have the time and energy to make friends beyond the small circle you met in the heady rush of orientation, it's time to go.

I remember in Spain, I lived in an apartment with a French med student, a German law student, and a Spanish DJ. The French guy was dating an Indian woman, the Spanish guy was dating an American, and my British friend Vic was crashing on our couch. We were a regular little L'auberge Espagnole (did anyone else ever see that movie about a bunch of exchange students living together in an apartment in Barcelona...?) and would have dinner parties in which we went around the table saying the word "penis" in all of our native languages, to many giggles [note: the words is recognizable in basically all languages of these languages :-)]. I felt so worldly, and we all vowed to stay in touch -- that lasted maybe 3 months. Since that was also pre-Facebook and pre-ubiquitous-Gmail addresses, I have a small list of old contacts "@hotmail.com" or "@netscape.com" that no longer work.

Now, of course, the HK students and I are internet-savvy, and I have a host of new Facebook friends. But it really is too bad to have to leave just at this turning point when my comfort with the city has begun extending past Tom's and my routines to encompass somewhat of a social circle. My friend from college, Ellen, extended her junior semester abroad to encompass the spring as well as the fall, and although at the time I couldn't fathom missing out on springtime in Providence with my college buddies, I think time spent in a place beyond the 5- or 6-month mark is different than time spent in a place before that.

That being said, I won't miss our closet of an apartment. Tom and I had to find somewhere for him to live in Portland (and for me to live in Portland the 4 or 5 days a week I'll get to be there!) and we gleefully perused the pages of craigslist to see how much more bang for our buck we could get for housing back in Maine. Suffice to say that we're getting a fully furnished, 2-bed/2-bath apartment for a short-term lease with parking and all utilities included for less than we're paying to live in ~180 square feet right now. I'm daydreaming about the cooking projects I can take on with access to an oven and a dishwasher, while I know that Tom is excited about the studying he can do on the formal dining room table (as opposed to hunching over the foot of the bed, which serves as his current desk). Put that apartment in HK though, and I just might consider staying :-).

My next post(s) will be all Thailand-centered -- we leave on Saturday. Five days up north in Chiang Mai (three of those hiking in the hills), six days in Koh Tao on the beach, and four days in Bangkok (including NYE)...

A Visitor!

It's been awhile since I've written in the blog, and my excuse is that my lovely mother came to visit for 8 days and we were too busy doing for me to take any time to write. But she's been back in the States for more than a week, and I'm always happy for an excuse to procrastinate from studying (it's exam time right now, and although Tom and I only have to pass, we don't really know what to expect, so we're on total lock-down!)

Mom stayed at a place called CHI Residences, which is right near our apartment, and it was entirely lovely. Her serviced apartment was more than twice as big as ours and had a few key elements that made me want to hang out there all the time: namely, a couch and a toaster. Eating toast with my scrambled eggs while curled up on the couch instead of having to sit on the bed was just about the best luxury I could imagine.

But anyway. Since she had been brave enough to come on her own, and this was her first time in Asia, I wanted to make sure that we did as many cool things in Hong Kong as possible. I may have gone a bit overboard in the planning department, but I was flexible with changing plans -- I just didn't want to have that dreaded vacation morning moment when no one really knows what they want to do for the day and you end up spending two hours being indecisive.

Some of the things we did were highlights from earlier in the trip that Tom and I wanted to repeat -- hiking the family trail on Lamma (with the best weather and the bluest skies we've seen all semester) and eating ridiculous amounts of fresh seafood at one of the waterfront restaurants; going to the track (where Mom's lucky gambling streak didn't fail her -- she won her bets twice out of four races); bringing her into the notorious Chungking Mansions for lunch at the Khyber Pass (our Wednesday afternoon tradition); introducing her to the best dumplings in the world at Crystal Jade.

But we also interspersed some new stuff in there, which was really fun. I think it's easy, after a few months in a place, to get into a routine and to know what you like and just do that, but a visitor brings a whole new perspective/impetus for trying new things. One of the highlights was our visit to the temple of the 10,000 Buddhas in Sha Tin -- you walk up a steep hill lined with hundreds of gold buddha and warrior statues (and stalked along the way by monkeys which are NOT statutes -- and which are terrifying!) until you get to a temple in the hills with all sorts of lovely, unexpected corners, and 12,000+ little buddhas in the main building (yes, 12,000+, despite the name...). The smell of incense drifts by, and thanks to the incline, there are fewer tourists than some other places. The city stretches out below, and it's all so unexpected and quirky -- truly one of my favorite sights in this city. It's Hong Kong, so it's kind of commercial, and kind of "fixed up" in a sort of inauthentic way -- but despite the newness and the plastic, it has its own authenticity.

We also checked out the Chi Lin Nunnery, which was meticulously restored in 1998, but had such an aura of peace and tranquillity (and I swear it was at least 5 degrees cooler inside its gardens than in the neighboring areas) that it didn't matter that the buildings actually weren't all that ancient -- the feeling of them was. In Hong Kong, too, you have to grab at peace and tranquillity during those rare moments that you find it, so we lingered to enjoy the feeling.

Mom and I did some of the more touristy stuff too, like having lots of dim sum, checking out the antiques along Hollywood Road (spoiler alert: they're very fake), having drinks at the Eye Bar overlooking the gorgeous harbor at night (we could see everything from the balcony!), and having shirts tailor-made from a little shopfront in Admiralty. We also took the scenic bus (Route 6, which goes along winding cliff roads and which caused me to grip my armrest in terror for the entire 40 minutes) to Stanley, which was full of expats and their dogs and babies, but also beautiful blue water and the best fish and chips I've ever had, consumed on a high-up balcony overlooking the water (for those who ever come here, the restaurant was called "The Boathouse" -- yes, just like the only restaurant in NewB, so Mom and I felt at home :-)).

It was a lovely week or so, and when I sent Mom to the airport (after utilizing the amazing transportation system that is Hong Kong and checking in her bags at the MTR stop right near my apartment!) I was newly in love with the city. Right in time to buckle down and spend all my time in the library!

We have finals for the nest 2.5 weeks, and then we're off to Thailand for Christmas and New Year's. Updates to come; timing dependent on internet access!