Look what I made!
Oh, and here’s the pirate ship that’s been parked at the Discovery Bay pier all week. I go on little imaginatory adventures every time I pass it. I also make up words like imaginatory.
Today I went grocery shopping for the first time. You know, for staples. Olive oil, peanut butter, jam. Things you buy when you know you’re going to stay in one place for a while. It felt really good. And anyone who knows me knows I love grocery shopping. The Discovery Bay ParknShop is different from the southside Kroger in many ways, but it’s grocery shopping nonetheless. And I liked it.
I bought steak, eggs and honey from New Zealand. My milk came through Singapore. Dried apricots from Turkey. Cheese from Bangkok. Orange juice from nearby China. Nice and fresh. The trolleys actually roll smoothly, even side-to-side. It just about rolled by itself it was so smooth. If they installed a slanted floor you could just let it roll down the decline, tossing things in along the way.
…
I stepped up to the cashier station and asked how I can get one of their cash back cards. Teresa, the cashier, says I have to fill out a form then get a card. So I take the form and push my cart off to the side so the gentleman behind me can check out. Teresa won’t have it. She comes out from behind the register to where I am over by the shampoo and wheels my cart back into her line. She insists that I fill it out there in line using my 12-pack of Coke Light. I don’t know why it’s called Coke Light and not Diet Coke. Sometimes you see Diet Coke. Sometimes Coca-Cola Light. They have the variety with a hint of lemon. To me it seems like more than a hint, but I prefer the lime anyway.
Back to the check-out. As I’m completing the form, Teresa takes it from me and runs off to get my cards. She goes through the formality of showing me the cards. “They all have the same number. This one,” she points, “goes on your keychain.” It has a little hole. This all makes sense. She scans the card and hands the packet with one credit-card size card and three keychain-size copies. I don’t know what I’ll do with all those cards. I guess I’ll do the same thing I did with the Kroger cards and Dick’s cards and CVS and Walgreens cards. Whoever thought of those keychain-sized cards should’ve thought to get rid of the credit-card-size ones. All I need is another card in my wallet.
I’m pondering all of this while Teresa is ringing up my cereal and peanut butter and pretzels. I put the cabinet items up there first, and the big items. The Coke Light and three big bottles of mineral water. Then she gets to the honey. It doesn’t have a bar code so she looks at it for a second then tries punching some numbers into the system. She gasps. The machine reads, “Deli item / $16,000.”
“Sssshhhh…” Teresa whispers, with her finger to her lips, her shoulders hunched a little. She looks around to see if anyone’s watching then scurries off, to return seconds later with a key that allows her to void all the transactions. “Sssshhh.”
I sort of laughed and tried to tell her it’s ok. No worries. She voided the whole transaction. So she has to pull out the three big bottles of mineral water, the Coke Light and all the rest so she can scan them again. But first she needs my cash back card. I pull it out of my wallet and fork it over. I’m glad she remembered it.
I laugh a little more and watch the register screen. I always forget to bring my reusable bags for things like this. But I guess because I ran to the grocery it wouldn’t have been easy to bring the bags. Next time. I’m planning to go back Friday to pick up some wine and beer. I’m still looking for clothespins too. Maybe at WingOn upstairs. Oh, and a drying rack. I couldn’t figure out how to get it from Ikea. The tag said to see customer service, but they didn’t know what I was talking about. Drying rack? Not here, they said. I bet they’ll have lighter ones in WingOn, anyway. Who wants a heavy drying rack? You’ll just have to move it. It’s better to have a lighter one, for moving purposes, as long as it dries. I guess they should all dry pretty much the same.
Steak and eggs and bread and milk. A $16,000 jar of honey. I’ll remember this.
“This is my last day here.” Teresa looks around, points to the store, the place. “This is not a good place.”
“Oh. Where are you going to go?” I ask her.
“Home,” she says, ringing up the last of the cold items. She’s had enough of ParknShop. I bet it’s her first week, and her last week. She seems really smart, maybe she’s on summer break from school and wanted to make some spending money. But is it really worth it to be here at the grocery wearing a glove on one hand and double-bagging dried apricots and setting the bulky items aside for delivery? I love how witty she is. She knows her boss will see the voided transaction. I’ve worked in retail and food service. You’re supposed to minimize those, for whatever reason. I thought it was a dumb rule too.
I really didn’t want this to be the last meeting between Teresa and me, so I asked her if she wants to hang out sometime. Her English comprehension is really good, but she doesn’t believe her ears. It’s not that I’m some hot shot. It’s just that most customers probably don’t tell their cashier they hope to hang out some time. “You know, get dinner or ice cream or hang out,” I say. “I’ll give you my phone number. Yeah,” I say, as she grins and laughs a little bit, just like I laughed a little bit when she told me how the ParknShop really isn’t a good place.
“Do you have Skype?” I do. She wipes up the perspiration from the gelato container (Tiramisu gelato!), scans and bags the last couple items, and tears off a sheet of paper for me to write my Skype name. It’s probably because we can chat on there without talking out loud. Maybe to see if I’m a real weirdo or what. We wait for the debit card to clear while i write out my Skype info. She looks at the paper, folds it and puts it in her right pants pocket. I hope she finds it later and looks me up.
We smile and say bye. We really smile at each other.
Here’s my building, Central Plaza, pointed out with an assist from a handy crane. The crane is part of a construction site along the walkway to the Central Pier, where I believe they’re doing more land reclamation.
And my gym is in the tallest building (for now) in Hong Kong, International Finance Center two, or ifc two. Prominently featured in Batman: The Dark Knight!
Photo courtesy of someone else. Thanks, whomever you are. I evidently haven’t gotten around to taking a picture of the IFC buildings.
I had convinced myself people didn’t know what they were talking about when they complained about Hong Kong’s fog. That was before yesterday, when I couldn’t see Hong Kong Island from my bedroom window anymore.Today’s even worse. I can barely see the barge that parked outside my window earlier this week. Look!
And here’s a shot one day last week when it was, to put it lightly, a bit clearer.
And I’m really not a fan of this gunk that has seemingly settled in my lungs. Think I’ll ever get used to it? I hope not, but it has to get a little easier to bear after a while, right? Thankfully, buildings in the heavier business and shopping districts are generally connected, so in some areas you can travel a long distance without setting foot outside.
Good news — I now have a curtain rod. Hopefully once I get a curtain hung, I’ll be able to sleep straight through past sunrise instead of waking up when the bright, hot rays warm me beyond comfort. In order for that to happen, I’m off to Ikea! There are at least 2 Ikeas in Hong Kong. And I’ve heard rumors of a third. Pretty sweet. Easy. Almost too easy.
Here’s one more shot from my window, because everyone likes variety.
Lovely, eh?
One of my hobbies, which I’ve brought with me to the Kong, is smiling at strangers. In the U.S. when I’d cross paths with strangers on the sidewalk I typically look them in the eyes and smile. The usual response is that they smile back. For reasons beyond me, that doesn’t really happen here. When I smile at people they usually look away or stare at me with no expression.
Westerners always stand out to me, for obvious reasons, when we pass on the escalator or wherever. So I always try to make eye contact. But it’s rare to get a smile from anyone. When I do, I cheer to myself like I’ve scored some mini victory in my campaign for a more smiley world.
Like dark skies, smiling is good for you!
Today I went to the Hong Kong Book Fair. I’ll upload photos later, but all you really need to know is that I walked away with the following (and I haven’t stopped laughing since I left the fair):
In the words of “As Seen on TV,” … “but wait, there’s more!” I haggled and finagled my way to having the following thrown in with my Economist subscription (the price was right… about half-off the newsstand price):
I was debating between the 2- or 3-year subscription and the friendly salesmen (Dickson and some other guy who was also eating his lunch at the time though I think he was the leader of the operation) tried to convince me to get the 3-year subscription by offering this really nice-looking golf set.
“What am I going to do with a souvenir golf set, Dickson?” I asked the poor chap (he’s from the U.K. More on amazing accents later).
“Give it as a gift,” they both responded.
“My dad doesn’t golf! What else?”
That’s when they showed me the suitcase. Sweeeeet.
… still laughing and smiling and enjoying the free Internet access at Pacific Coffee Co. before I go to work. Speaking of which, there’s a meeting in 45 minutes. Thanks for reading!
Flower Market in Kowloon
It’s Saturday night and I’ve just moved in to my new home. My home for at least three months while roomie Phillis and I get acquainted. I’ll post some photos soon, but here’s what you need to know about the new place:
I say “Welcome to the Disco” because my neighborhood is called Discovery Bay. The locals call it Disco Bay or DB. I keep hearing the “Discovery Zone” jingle in my head. You know…
“DZ. Discovery Zone. Where I can cut loose and be on my own.”
It looks and feels like a Disney resort. And that might be because Hong Kong Disneyland is only an MTR stop or two away. My building, Cherish Court, is a good 10-minute walk away from the ferry pier, which puts us close to the coast and in a quiet, less developed location. It’s hella cool.
I think my brother Anthony gave the blog this name. I don’t know if I like it… but it’s confusing enough to work for me. Anthony, maybe you can shed some light on the blog name?
Hi there family, friends and strangers,
I’m Emily, and I moved to Hong Kong on July 12. I’ll be blogging and sharing photos here on my blog. As you might guess, it’ll be about my experience here. But from time to time I’ll likely comment about my other interests, namely soccer, the Indianapolis Colts, Purdue sports, journalism and food. I bet I can tie all those to Hong Kong somehow. Check back for updates, leave me comments when the feeling strikes you.
Thanks for stopping by!