Huge in Hong Kong: Duck feet, not a treat.

Friends Ayu and Chi - and a cart lady in behind!.

On Wednesday was our 'test' for passing Beginner level 2, and once again, success! I'm trying not to get too excited as I still have a long way before I'd call myself capable of 'conversational' Cantonese, but it's a good start. Although it really has come in handy a few times, it generally seems like most times I try to use my Cantonese, people respond in English. I am enjoying both the challenge of it, and the amount that I learn about culture and history through language. I have decided to take a break, and have not immediately started level 3, but I likely will take it soon.

Mimi & I

After a successful 'pass' by myself and my 3 classmates, we went out for a celebratory lunch. We went to a 'traditional' chinese style restaurant, where ladies bring around cards of dim sum, meat, seafood, and vegetables, and you simply point to what you want. The 'restaurant' was massive, and the name 'banquet hall' would more accurately describe it. We were at table number 236, and there were well over 300 tables in the enormous room which would likely seat 1000+ very comfortably. This place is also so busy that it is often difficult to get a table. A classmate, Mimi had the foresight to reserve one for us. During this celebratory lunch, I felt adventurous. My 'adventures' included a bready-style of beef dumplings, pork belly (fatty, but tastes like pork should), and duck feet!! Yep, although they were 'out' of chicken feet, I can now say that I tried duck feet (maybe duck foot, since I only had one, I'm not a fan). For those curious, it's essentially like eating a chicken wing, but with no meat. It's just skin over bone. Being a bland Canadian, I'm naturally trying to avoid skin on meat (I lean toward boneless-skinless anything), but here they love skin. Hence the obsession with eating feet I suppose.

Duck Feet (left), some crazy seafood-pork wrap (right)

Pork Belly... a chubby pig likely.

Eating with friends.

Meat stuffed bready-dumpling. Delish.

Rich, Aline, Mike & I... horrible angle, but a great day.

Saturday was exciting as I attended my first-ever rugby match. One of the first people that we met in HK, through Rich and Aline (Canadian friends), was playing in a final 'championship' match on Saturday. The four of us navigated through the challenging and unfamiliar streets of Kowloon (suburb of HK with dramatically more 'Chinese'-feel and dramatically less English spoken) to find ourselves at a rugby match and surrounded by white people. My first light-hearted remark of "all of know of Rugby I learned from a Matt Damon movie" earned me a few glares from the more serious crowd. I figured I should just keep my mouth shut and cheer when they did. I didn't understand much of what was going on during the match, although the score was tight and the game was rough. One player was knocked out and his legs were flailing on the field, he was eventually carried off on a spinal board but we were later assured he was up and talking... crazy rough sport. I feel guilty admitting that I liked it. Our friend's team won, which was a nice excuse for an extra afternoon beer.

One other notable event this week was the arrival of our furniture from Canada! YES! We have a bed. No more camping on a futon in the living room. Below are various snaps of our new crib, avec furnishings. Visitors are welcome (our next one is arriving tomorrow)!