June 1, From Incapable to Enraptured Foreigner

On Monday morning as most of my classmates went off to work, I set out on my own to prove that I could handle HK solo…it was a mild disaster. My practice run to work on the MTR (subway system) was going just fine until I realized, wedged up against a set of train doors with 800 fellow Hong Kongers, that I needed to exit the train from the opposite side of the car, which would require fighting my way through a tangle of sweaty businessmen who were all giving me the “what are you doing here?!” eye. So I patiently waited (Janene will call me out on this…I rephrase: I quietly freaked out…) as I rode for two extra MTR stops until I could finally “m goy” (“excuse me”) my way past the entire population of the Peoples Republic of China to exit the train. This is why I practice my route to work in advance.

Then came the challenge of the grocery store. While most of my neighborhood in North Point is small markets and vendors, more commercial areas of Hong Kong do have grocery stores. I prefer the Wellcome market, whose mascot is Paddington Bear. (Why is America so far behind on grocery store mascots?) Grocery shopping here is tricky – half the battle is recognizing the product you want and half the battle is sifting through the Cantonese characters to find the fine print in English describing what the product actually is. I went in for hand-wash laundry detergent and almost came out with drain-cleaner. I spent 10 minutes looking at different packages of oatmeal. Savory oatmeal is very popular here (must be because Congee – rice porridge with different meats on top - is a main Cantonese dish) and as I sifted through boxes of anchovy flavored oatmeal and corn flavored oatmeal and something called oatmeal fish drink, I finally found the plain stuff. My bland box of course comes with recipes on the back, suggesting that I add homemade fish balls to my breakfast. I’m slowly getting the hang of it all, but it’s definitely a scarier experience than Meijer, and that’s saying something.

Then it was lunch time. Eating alone here – without the safety blanket of my fellow idiot American classmates – is the hardest. Everyone nearby stares at you, probably talks to their friends in Cantonese about you, and without an English menu or a picture menu, your best option is to just leave with your tail between your legs. Melinda once got shooed away from a restaurant before she even got halfway in the door. I have also been out several times where it’s ended in discouragement and dinner from 7-11. Today, I skillfully pointed, smiled and nodded my head at what I wanted. What was brought to me resembled nothing of what I asked for. So I ate the noodles and tasted the broth and picked some “safe” looking bits of the meat – it was absolutely delicious – but even now I distract myself from picturing from which animal, and from what part of that animal, my lunch was created. After living here for several days and seeing what is available at the markets, the possibilities are rather endless and many less palatable than others. After lunch, I promptly went to the hotel concierge and asked him to write down in Cantonese characters “Do you have an English menu?” From now on, I will just hold up that piece of paper before walking into a restaurant. Somewhat humiliating? Yes. Better for digestion and peace of mind? Yes.

The rest of the afternoon was fantastic, and took me from being discouraged as a foreigner to relishing in my position to explore a new world as a total stranger and be a part of something so very different from myself.

Jessica and I went to Sheung Wan to the antiques district where we admired ornate furniture and artwork, and tried on all kinds of jewelry. Jessica bought a gorgeous jade (so they say…) necklace. We went to the Mo Man Temple – one of the first traditional-style temples built during the colonial era in Hong Kong. Inside, the temple is thick with fragrant plumes of smoke from dozens of incense coils that hang from the ceiling and incense sticks at the prayer altars. The incense are said to carry prayers to the spirit world and the golden altars and red shrines are constructed in the image of the Taoist gods of literature (Man) and war (Mo). The center of the temple has an open roof so that the incense prayers float to the heavens; the light that filters through the dark temple and the smoke adds to the weighty feeling of being in a sacred place. I lit incense in the prayer room and wished for happiness and luck to my classmates here in Hong Kong and to my family back home.

After the temple, Jess and I rode the Central-Mid-Levels Escalator. Since much of Hong Kong is mountains and hillsides, often the only place to build is up. One of the most desirable places to live in Hong Kong (think Georgetown for DC or the Hollywood Hills for LA) is on the Mid-Levels, literally mid-way up a hillside. Restaurants, shops, schools, homes, offices are all built into this hillside, and the only way up or down is on the world’s longest (800-meters) covered escalator. It’s not one long continuous escalator, but instead is broken up into sections – so you can get off at different platforms (levels) for shopping or eating. Jess and I noticed a ton of bars and pubs running along the side of the escalator, so we’re thinking of planning an “escalator-bar-crawl” sometime soon!

The final highlight of my day was talking to my family before going to bed (as they were heading off to work) and hearing about my cousin Jason’s wedding – mazel tov to Ali and Jason!

Will post pictures of Man Mo Temple and the escalator ASAP!