The Real Housewife of Hong Kong

This week Foley and I went into to the immigration tower to apply for our HK resident cards.  When we were meeting with the immigration clerk, I had to state my occupation on a form.  I launched into a long-winded explanation about my profession as a teacher back in Canada, and how I intended to teach here, I just hadn't gotten a job yet... yada yada.  

The woman says "Ah huh. Well maybe you just write here house-wife". 

Me: "Huh?" 

Her: "Housewife, you write that here" (in a more direct tone).  

Me: "Oh. Right." 

I have nothing against being a housewife, I just never thought of myself as one (preferred the term 'lady of leisure').  In my new attempt to 'own the role' I bought a pair of house slippers (mens naturally, since womens only went up to size 7-8... I'm a huge housewife in Hong Kong).  

Also new this week, I enrolled in Cantonese classes which will begin on Thursday.  I will be in class for two hours every weekday.  I was reading through my course package... and I need 75% to pass. Gulp.

On Friday, we got the keys to our new and wonderful apartment (let the housewife duties commence!).  We were only given one set, so the real estate agent recommended this place to get copies done.  It was a dodgy-looking-but-likely-legit business in a side alleyway, very HK.

The apartment we found is in an area called the mid-levels.  It is more spacious than I was expecting to find (two-bedrooms, two-bathrooms, plus a small storage room), with enough space for guests! (wink, wink).  The space was a nice surprise, but my favourite part are the amazing views.

Living Room

Spacious Kitchen... yes, that's the whole thing you see there.

Washroom, in case you're curious.

Incredibly stunning bedroom with killer views.

View from bedroom bay window.  What we'll wake up to each day.

We won't move in for a couple of weeks, because our temporary apartment is paid until the 15th, and because we have no furniture here yet for the new place.  A trip to Ikea today was very successful, as we walked through room displays similar to in Canada, but with MANY more people around and lots of people just 'hanging out' on sofas and chairs.  Really?  Yep, it's a place to be.

Okay, this housewife has to go make some dinner now.

Gung Hei Fat Choy

It's the year of the dragon.

Celebrations for New Years here have been awesome!

Starting with some stunning decorations that have been all around the city for the past week or more... All red and yellow, colours representing luck, good fortune and joy.

According to a local newspaper, Chinese New Year is the largest annual human migration in the world.  Every year Chinese people return to the their families and often to where they were born.  I assumed this meant there would be fewer people in the city, but at the 'Lunar New Year Fair' we strolled through, there were still plenty of people around. (Various shots of the crowds).

Poor Foley didn't love the crowds, so we actually didn't last that long at the market.

We knew we wanted to see the fireworks, but after the chaos of the fair, we weren't sure how to deal with the crowds.  It's also been quite chilly here... I know we have no right to complain being Canadians, and seeing chilling temperatures back home right now, but we came slightly ill equipped for the damp, cool days (approx. 10 degrees yesterday).... Foley's bright idea, watch the fireworks from his office tower... BRILLIANT.  High, unobstructed views from the 36th floor of a downtown office building, and WARM.  Thanks to the quick tutorials from Keith Binns, I played around with the aperture and shutter speed of my camera to produce the following pics.

Gung Hei Fat Choy!

Visitors and Vistas

Only a day after arriving in HK, our first visitors arrived, Danielle and Keith Binns.  They are great friends who were on their honeymoon through Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam, and they took an extended 3 day stop over in Hong Kong en route home to Toronto.

It was perfect to have friends to see all of the big sites with (even when Mike had to go to work).  Here are some of the highlights with pics and short descriptions.... (in no particular order).

1) Catching views of the city and overpriced drinks on the 100th floor of the ICC tower.  Saw bits of the nightly laser show (every day at 8pm, over 40 buildings participate!)

 

2) Riding the Star Ferry back and forth from HK Island to Kowloon (suburb) across the Victoria Harbour.  A shocking $0.25 per ride.

 

3) Bus tours all around HK Island and Kowloon for some historical stories, cultural cues (acceptable to place bowl directly below mouth and shovel rice in with chop sticks but not okay to be late... doh), and to get an understanding of how to get around. 

4) Taking the tram up to "the Peak" in a mountain in the centre of HK Island.  It boasts incredible views and kitschy tourist stores with trinkets.  It was the most niagra-falls-ified site so far, except for the actual shoving in the line ups for the tram.  Seriously, we had an old man actually shoving us, and children, out of the way to get to the train first... wouldn't have been that big of a deal, if this didn't go on for over half an hour!

5) On the South side of the Island, we went on a boat ride to see the 'floating villages'... which were really just a few dozen fishermen who live on their boats and one floating restaurant.  It was nice all the same, and very cool to see the boats with skyscrapers in the background.

6) An excellent night out in LKF (Lan Kwai Fong, the 'bar/club' district)... not such an excellent morning next.

This was a pretty amazing past few days, and I would LOVE to say that it was a truly unique experience.... but apparently other people have seen this too... here are a few of them at a standard crossing light.

It was wonderful to have a couple of friendly faces in the crowds, but all honeymoons must come to an end.  Bye Danielle & Keith!! We'll miss you.

In a land far, far away...

*Disclaimer* This is my first-ever blog post on my first-ever blog... please bear with me.

Last Monday after a long but blissfully non-descript 16 hour flight from Toronto to Hong Kong, we arrived to this crazy, yet glorious city on the other side of the world.

We explored the neighbourhood of our temporary apartment, called Causeway Bay.  It has been described (by me) as the 'Times Square' of HK.  Always busy, great shopping, and always busy.  The photo is of Mike, on the first night here... yep, it's nighttime, yet no flash was required.

More tales to follow... I am just testing my abilities or lack there of.