Little Victories

When you're starting from scratch in a somewhat bewildering place, it's best to focus on the positives. I try to view every acquisition or discovery as a victory. Finding things in the US is so easy by comparison. Need a beach towel? No problem, just go to Walmart and pick one out. Hong Kong is another story. After a week of searching, I finally found a beach towel (and it was Thomas the Tank Engine!) today and almost danced a jig on the spot. So in that vein, here are some of our little victories from the week.

My brother Dave is coming for a week tomorrow, and although we have an extra room, there's nowhere for him to sleep, unless he wants to share Evangeline's bunk bed. So we decided to get an air mattress. It turns out that air mattresses are not easy to come by in Hong Kong. I looked in all the expatriate forums and found this place that sells them, Outdoor Mart. They had a map on their website that was very clear as to their location; they were on the second floor of New City Centre, close to an MTR (metro) station. So on Wednesday, Evangeline and I trucked across the city to find Outdoor Mart. I assumed that New City Centre was a mall, of which there are many in Hong Kong. There's an area near where we live where there are like five different malls that all bleed into one another. It's amazing. And they're always incredibly easy to find. So I thought I'd be able to see the mall from the MTR. When we got off the train, I looked on the station map and had my first warning sign, because New City Centre was not indicated as being in the area. But I shrugged it off because I was so sure about where it was. We walked down the street, no mall to be found. There were restaurants, little shops, apartment buildings, and a big industrial complex. We passed a gas station and worriedly crossed a street. The next building turned out to be a courthouse, and I knew we had gone too far. Luckily a policeman was walking toward us, so I flagged him down and showed him where I was going on my phone. He frowned at the map, said he had never heard of New City Centre, and pulled up Google Earth on his phone. It said that it was the building next to the gas station, so we headed back. It looked just like an apartment building, with rows and rows of mailboxes in the open foyer. But there was a small sign inside saying that it was New City Centre! We went further into the building, and a security guard waved us through to some industrial elevators. By this time it seemed like we were in a parking garage, not an apartment building. But this was New City Centre, so it had to be here! When we got to the second floor and wandered around a little, we saw a sign for Outdoor Mart and made a beeline for it down the passageway. It was a tiny little store, no bigger than our living room in Urbana, completely packed wall to wall with camping gear. I had to leave the stroller outside because it wouldn't possibly fit. But there was our air mattress, and the owner was extremely friendly. He wanted to know if we found the store on the internet, and where we lived. But then a terrible realization - I didn't have enough money! I thought for sure that I had a $500 bill in my wallet, but I had been wrong and I was about $30 short. And of course, a small store like that doesn't take plastic. I told him that I would run to the MTR station and get some money from an ATM, but he said that his partner would walk with me to the station so I wouldn't have to make the extra trip. He tried calling the partner on the phone, but no answer. So he took the phone, closed up the shop, and insisted on taking me himself. I felt so bad, even though there weren't any other customers. But by the time we got to the "lobby," his partner ran up! We said goodbye to the owner, and the partner walked with us back to the station. She made sure to carry the bag, and I wondered if she was trying to be nice since I was already pushing the stroller, or did she think I would try to run off without paying? I had to chuckle at the thought of me making a break for it, trying to run down the crowded street with the bag and the stroller. I don't think we would have gotten very far! Not wanting to put the woman out any further that we already had, I picked up Evangeline's stroller with her inside and carried it up the huge flight of stairs. Once inside, we got the money and exchanged it for our bag with the mattress. And we went home victorious, more proud than anyone has a right to be for just buying an air mattress!

On a different note, I had some anxiety about a social excursion on Tuesday morning. Evangeline and I were invited to join a group of moms at a water play area. I had met only one of the moms before, so I was apprehensive about being in a whole group. I get nervous meeting new people, especially en masse. And we were going to be at a water park, so I would also have to keep an eagle eye on Evangeline, since she doesn't have much sense of her limitations in the water. And Evangeline would be around new toddlers in a new situation, and you always worry a little bit about how that is going to go. But the only way to become friends with people is to spend time with them, so I knew I'd just have to grit my teeth and do it. And of course, things went just fine. Evangeline had a great time, with only some sharing squabbles at the end when everyone was tired and hungry. The women I met were approachable and friendly. Walking back to our apartment in the punishing heat of midday, I declared the morning a victory.

Joseph bought a TV off of Craigslist this week, which went very smoothly. But they had it mounted on the wall, so the stand wasn't screwed on, and they didn't have the screws that came with it. We didn't want to deal with trying to wall-mount it this week, so we decided to try to find some screws. Easier said than done. Joseph had a terrible outing this afternoon where the shop owners either didn't have the screws or didn't want to sell them to Joseph. But finally he persevered, and now our "new" TV is in our living room on its stand. But the big victory from an otherwise unpleasant experience is that Joseph took this awesome picture by the store where he was finally sold the necessary screws. Um, I'm pretty sure Bill Clinton didn't authorize that endorsement, however true it might be:

I'm sure he hits up Guang Dong Barbecue EVERY TIME he's in Hong Kong...but this is perfect because it shows how little respect for intellectual property there is in China.

On an unrelated note, here are some pictures of Evangeline playing at the playground in our apartment complex:

This is in the "toddler" playground

"My mom is so awesome! She can buy an air mattress!"

Which Evangeline is the real thing?

Steering on the "big kid" playground

Monkey bar staredown

"Hey, she's not doing it right! It should be MY TURN!"

You can see the helpers off to the left, making phone calls (to home?). On the right are the elderly people who are wheeled there every day in the late afternoon to socialize and watch the kids play.

Settling In

Sorry for the lack of blog action in the last week! We have moved in to our new place and are trying to get settled. Luckily our apartment came partially furnished, which made things so much easier. But it still takes a lot of effort to figure out where we can buy things. It's not like the US where you can go to Target and buy everything you need in one place. And we're making forward progress, one day at a time. Evangeline feels very at home and loves to hide in various places around the house, which gave me a heart attack until I got used to it. The wardrobe in our room is one of her favorite spots:

On Joseph's last day "off" before he started work, we went down to the harbor and the Avenue of Stars. It's modeled on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, but is much nicer! It's actually clean, for one thing. :) And the view can't be beat.

The obligatory cheesy picture

That's Hong Kong Island behind us

Scenic view of Hong Kong Island

Bruce Lee's star

Our fellow tourists

Evangeline burning off some energy running

Joseph is getting nicely settled in at the University. He got to pick out a Chinese name, which is really cool! They gave him some suggestions and he chose from the finalists. It's 鍾以施 and is pronounced something like Jones Yi Shi. Joseph lost the meaning of it already, but it has something to do with bestowing advice or knowledge. Lots and lots of paperwork and bureaucracy, but he is finding his way.

Also, we are now official Hong Kong residents as we picked up our official ID cards a few days ago. On the way home we decided to take the ferry instead of the metro, and it was beautiful!

I'm already "in" with a local mom's group, which is also really exciting. Joseph ran into an American family in our complex; the wife happened to be one of the organizers. They meet every week in one of the rooms in the clubhouse of our complex, although they're not officially getting started until September. I've already been to the pool with her and her two boys, and am looking forward to the companionship and local knowledge.

Speaking of the pool, Evangeline absolutely loves it. It's going to be great having this for us to do nearly every day. Here's a picture:

We'll just have to make sure that we don't fry to death in the unforgiving sun, but so far, so good!

Out and About

I think I mentioned in the last post that we've been trying to do something fun for Evangeline every day, since she has been spending a lot of time doing boring things like looking at apartments and sitting in banks and shopping at Ikea. So here are pictures from a few Evangeline-centered excursions.

On Sunday we went to the Hong Kong Botanical and Zoological Gardens on Hong Kong Island. It was really, really hot! I thought Illinois was humid, but this was another level. And Hong Kong Island is very hilly, so we were basically headed straight up hill the whole way there. Poor little E had sweat dripping from her curls. But she got to see the primates, which was a huge highlight for her. One of the orangutans peed from the top of its cage while we were close by, a huge fountain of urine. She was talking about that for quite a while, unfortunately!

King Orangutan does not approve of us

"Mommy, he's peeing!"

"Don't take a picture of me; I'm too damn hot!"

On our way we went by a film set, which reminded us that Hong Kong is a big film center for China. They were shooting some sort of protest scene down a street. When we walked by again hours later, they were still there and hadn't moved very far. Ugh, how tedious!

Everyone gets ready for another take

Not impressed by Hong Kong cinema

Another interesting thing we saw was the phenomenon of the maids' day out. Apparently the Philipina/Vietnamese maids (or "helpers," not sure what is worse) only get one day off a week. That day is Sunday, and they all go and hang out together in the public spaces on Hong Kong Island. There were quite a few in the parks and squares that we went by, which makes sense. But I was shocked by how many were sitting in the shade in underpasses and non-scenic areas. They bring something to sit on and a picnic lunch and visit with each other and play games. We used an ATM under a bank building, and all around us was a riot of women:

The view to the south

And to the north

I mean, I guess I'm glad they're having fun. But it seems so weird that it doesn't get any better than sitting on the icky sidewalk in the middle of the financial district. To make it even more strange, there was some sort of Miss Philipina Hong Kong pageant on a street that we walked by:

The stage

Congratulations?

Needless to say, it'll be interesting to see if the whole maid thing gets any easier to swallow after we've been here for a while. 

On another morning, we went to Kowloon Park, which is a really nice oasis in the middle of an extremely urban area. There is a great play structure that E just loved. We were the only ones there, but it seems like people in HK aren't early risers. It's pretty common for stores to not open until 10:30 or 11:00. After the playground, we went to the aviary.

Climbing up to the top!

At the flamingo lagoon

It was pouring today, but we were at our new apartment getting the utilities turned on, so we spent some time in the indoor playroom at the complex. There were other kids there and it was kind of pathetic how excited Evangeline was to be around non-adults. They were a lot older than her, but she still had a great time. So hopefully once we get settled we can get some more kid time!

Signed, Sealed, Delivered

Our big news is that we've officially signed a lease. Yes, we have a new home! It will probably take a few days for us to fully move in, but it's a big relief to end the apartment search. We ended up being pretty restricted because of our non-negotiables: 1) must allow dogs, 2) must have an oven, 3) must have a washing machine. The oven/dog combo was the most difficult, since ovens are pretty rare (our landlady lives in the same building and also has an oven, and confessed that she has never turned hers on in 13 years). Add that to the fact that we were only looking in the New Territories because we didn't want a huge commute for Joseph, and there wasn't an overwhelming number of options. We ended up taking the first place that we looked at; we had such a good feeling about it when we were first there that we debated even continuing to search, but we felt like we should do our due diligence. It was like one of those wedding dress things where the first dress you try on is the one you end up wearing.

We'll be living in Tai Wai, which is a fairly sizable community in the New Territories, over a small mountain range from Kowloon. There aren't a lot of non-Chinese people there, but I think that will give us a richer experience. It's three short stops on the same metro line as the University, and shouldn't take too terribly long to get into the heart of the city for entertainment purposes. Our apartment complex is literally against a leafy hillside, which we love. It has a gorgeous pool, a gym, and a playground that is already Evangeline-approved. Our landlady, Thanh, lives in the same building and is a native Vietnamese who spent a long time in Australia and then married a Hong Kong citizen. She wrote us an email on Saturday night giving us the top ten reasons why we should pick her apartment, which definitely helped to win us over. :)

We went to a very strange apartment complex on Saturday afternoon that I had high hopes for because of its bay and mountain views. It was enormous, first of all, with eight huge towers and thousands upon thousands of units. The only thing we could really compare it to is Las Vegas, with huge decorative pools and fountains everywhere, and all the common areas done up in marble to look like a European palace or some such thing. All the employees had those little earpieces like the Secret Service wears, and they were everywhere, opening doors for you, etc. I was sorely tempted by one of the units we saw that had its own private 680 square foot patio. Evangeline and Fred would have loved it, but we couldn't get over how fake the complex was. And we might not have been able to handle the fact that literally a thousand people could be watching us on our patio at any given moment. Kind of creepy!

Along those same lines, we have a Rear Window-esque view from our temporary apartment. The building across the street has a fitness studio on similar floors to ours, so at any given time when we look out the window we see at least three levels of classes. It seems to be mostly dance-based, which is very entertaining. Almost entirely women, but sometimes there is a lone man, and invariably he is extremely into the dance moves!

We're making forward progress on getting Evangeline adjusted to the new time zone. The first few nights were rough--she got up anywhere from 1am to 3am and didn't really go back to sleep. But the last two nights have been better, and this morning she didn't get up until 5:45, which is approaching what we would expect! She has been such a good sport, considering that we've been schlepping her all around the city. We've been trying to do something every day that she would consider to be fun, and I'll write more about some of those adventures soon. It's amazing how flexible kids are, though. Her life changed so drastically and she takes it all in stride. She loves escalators and is already really good at stepping on and stepping off. And she really enjoys the metro, especially holding on to the pole. Whenever the train slows down approaching a station, she shakes her head and me and says, "Not yet, Mommy!" But her true love is the minibus, which we took once from the Tai Wai metro station to our new apartment and back. It's basically an extra large van, with sixteen seats. I don't know if it's the fact that she gets to sit in her own seat with a big person seat belt, or the fact that it's really bumpy and the drivers go terrifyingly fast, but she adores it. Now whenever she sees the minibuses around, she perks right up and even shouts, "That's my bus!"

More to follow, and many more pictures!

Evangeline on the MTR with her pole

So Far, So Good

So long, USA!

We arrived in Hong Kong last night and everything has been going so smoothly that it's almost scary. Our flights were basically on time, our luggage was already waiting for us when we cleared customs, and our little temporary apartment was just what we expected.  Since I'm a Murphy's Law kind of traveler, I would have gone out and bought a lottery ticket last night if I knew how to do it!

Evangeline has been a real trooper.  She only had one bona fide meltdown, and that was in DFW when she didn't want to get in her car seat when we got on the plane. Given how little sleep she's had since Monday, it's really lucky.  Her favorite part of every flight was the landing.  She would laugh and say, "Again?" once we finally stopped bouncing around.

Our SFO to HKG flight was on Cathay Pacific, and it was nice to be on a non-US airline for the service alone, although it had its oddities.  First, there was the business of our car seat.  They took it from Joseph before boarding "to make sure it would fit."  They never brought it back, so Joseph preboarded to check on the situation while I waited until the last possible moment with Evangeline so she could play in the concourse.  When Joseph got to our seats, the car seat was haphazardly buckled in to the aisle seat and there was a crowd of flight attendants waiting for Evangeline who were very disappointed that she didn't board with Joseph.  He got the car seat properly installed in the window seat; when Evangeline and I finally boarded, once of the flight attendants grabbed her hand and danced with her down the aisle (E was a little weirded out by this). Even though it probably wasn't sincere, it was nice of the crew to at least pretend to be excited to see a toddler coming on board. We are used to being viewed as lepers by 90% of the traveling public and airline employees (not that I blame them), so it was a nice surprise.

Then as we were preparing for takeoff, a group of no less than three flight attendants came over to tell us that we couldn't have E in her car seat for takeoff or landing. According to their regulations, babies over 18 months have to be in a lap. They gave me a seat belt extension to strap her on to my belt, at least.  We had to laugh that the airline thinks it's safer for a small child to be on a lap than strapped in to our FAA-approved car seat with a five-point harness, but when in Rome...

The taxi ride in to the city last night was just gorgeous.  The sun had just gone down, so the sky was a lovely dark blue and all the lights on all the buildings made for a surreal tableau.  I had to laugh when E pointed at the taxi driver as we were zooming along and asked, "Who's this?"  I don't think she's ever been in a car that hasn't been driven by a family member, so she probably thought it was strange that we didn't introduce her.

Our project for today was to apply for our Hong Kong ID cards, which all Hong Kong residents are required to have. We had made an appointment last week, so after finding coffee and a few basic groceries this morning, we headed to Hong Kong Island and the Immigration Building. We went up eight sets of escalators (not easy with a stroller!) to the proper floor and joined the queue. All in all, the process was very efficient and I have to tip my cap to the person in charge for managing expectations so well.  When you first check in, there's a prominent sign that says the process from start to finish takes an average of 75 minutes. Of course, we groaned and were glad we had eaten lunch before we came.  When we made it through all three stations in only 40 minutes, we left with a spring in our step and a positive view of the staff.  Well played, Hong Kong Immigration Department!

We didn't have time for any sight-seeing, as it was time for E's nap and she was obviously running on fumes. She slept well for the first part of the night, but got up at 1am for a few hours and slept fitfully after that.  I'm sure it will be a while before we can get her little internal clock reset, but I'm sure being out in the sun this morning helped a lot.  I'm looking forward to establishing our new routine.

All in all, a great first day.  I'm so thankful!

Backpack? Sunglasses? Blankie? George? This is how she rolls.