by Veronica
The title of this post has nothing to do with anything other than its my favorite candy bar.
So, I'm back in Hong Kong, my long-awaited visit home now a past event. I had lunch with my friend, H, and we talked about what its like to go home. She now holds the record among my HK friends of who has not been "home" in the longest time. She arrived in August and is scheduled in early June to go home for the summer. She can't wait. I told her that for me it was just what a vacation should be: relaxing, fun, hectic, sleepy, drinky, eaty, chatty, lots of shopping and a few times I asked myself if I really could go back to HK.
While I was home, Mr. Veronica asked me "What are you telling people when they ask you if you like living in Hong Kong?" And I answered him honestly, "I tell them I like it a lot more now, but if I had come home at Christmas, I probably would not have come back to HK." I mean, of course I would have come back, I would have needed to pack and collect my cats. But now I have a life to come back to and that makes for a cozy symmetric feeling for me. I have a life here, I have a life there, Old McDonald would be proud.
I loved driving our car while on vacation, but I missed all the walking we do here in HK.
Oddly, I was sort of creeped out by all the buildings and the lack of population. Yes, two vastly different "urban" areas - ours contains 1.2 million and Cleveland contains 300,000 - still, to run/walk for nearly 50 minutes and not see more than 3 people was bizarre - I should qualify that by saying - lots of cars drove by(!) so I "saw" more than 3 people. We walked on Bowen Road today and saw at least 30 people in less than 50 minutes.
My Dad clipped two articles about Hong Kong and was so excited to ask me about the locations that were mentioned and I was so proud to know where Pedder Building is and the difference between Causeway Bay and Mong Kok.
Because we have HK i.d. cards, when we come back into HK we skip Immigration - we insert our i.d. cards into a reader, step into a booth, place our thumb over the reader, the gate opens and we're on our way to Customs - which is several people in uniforms standing around two exits, "Declarations" and "No Declarations." Sometimes they pull people out of the crowds passing through "No Declarations" but mostly they just scan the incoming folks and chat among themselves.
My friend, H, says that she likes to look at every day as an adventure - its what has kept her going all these months. I'm going to call Year One my "learning-curve" year and anticipate that Year Two will be the Adventure Year. I'll keep you posted...
The title of this post has nothing to do with anything other than its my favorite candy bar.
So, I'm back in Hong Kong, my long-awaited visit home now a past event. I had lunch with my friend, H, and we talked about what its like to go home. She now holds the record among my HK friends of who has not been "home" in the longest time. She arrived in August and is scheduled in early June to go home for the summer. She can't wait. I told her that for me it was just what a vacation should be: relaxing, fun, hectic, sleepy, drinky, eaty, chatty, lots of shopping and a few times I asked myself if I really could go back to HK.
While I was home, Mr. Veronica asked me "What are you telling people when they ask you if you like living in Hong Kong?" And I answered him honestly, "I tell them I like it a lot more now, but if I had come home at Christmas, I probably would not have come back to HK." I mean, of course I would have come back, I would have needed to pack and collect my cats. But now I have a life to come back to and that makes for a cozy symmetric feeling for me. I have a life here, I have a life there, Old McDonald would be proud.
I loved driving our car while on vacation, but I missed all the walking we do here in HK.
Oddly, I was sort of creeped out by all the buildings and the lack of population. Yes, two vastly different "urban" areas - ours contains 1.2 million and Cleveland contains 300,000 - still, to run/walk for nearly 50 minutes and not see more than 3 people was bizarre - I should qualify that by saying - lots of cars drove by(!) so I "saw" more than 3 people. We walked on Bowen Road today and saw at least 30 people in less than 50 minutes.
My Dad clipped two articles about Hong Kong and was so excited to ask me about the locations that were mentioned and I was so proud to know where Pedder Building is and the difference between Causeway Bay and Mong Kok.
Because we have HK i.d. cards, when we come back into HK we skip Immigration - we insert our i.d. cards into a reader, step into a booth, place our thumb over the reader, the gate opens and we're on our way to Customs - which is several people in uniforms standing around two exits, "Declarations" and "No Declarations." Sometimes they pull people out of the crowds passing through "No Declarations" but mostly they just scan the incoming folks and chat among themselves.
My friend, H, says that she likes to look at every day as an adventure - its what has kept her going all these months. I'm going to call Year One my "learning-curve" year and anticipate that Year Two will be the Adventure Year. I'll keep you posted...
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