Saturday, August 27, 2011

Old People. They're Social, Too.

I realized today as I was walking around that I forgot to mention something in my other posts that I had thought to be a rather important thing. Guess food was the biggest thing in my head at the time. What I wanted to mention was my amazement at the amount of older couples I saw actually holding hands and putting their arms around each other. There are so many older people hanging around outside during the day, no matter how hot, playing with their grandkids, soaking up the sun, or just chatting with friends on a bench during lunch just like we do at Centenary. They’re so socially active, and even the ones in wheelchairs are getting out and doing things!

People here respect their elders. They don’t seem to just toss ‘em into an old people home. Not just that, but they seem healthy and happy. They take care of themselves as well. It makes me wonder if that could ever be possible in the U.S. I suppose that if it’s ever going to happen, it’s gonna have to start with us, with our generation. Who says we have to wait for other people to get the ball rolling? Why can’t we enjoy our lives no matter the hardships? Why can’t we enjoy being old together and be just as social as we were when we were teenagers? The only thing preventing us from doing so is our own self-pity and the stigmatism of the older generation.

One of the things that seems to make this possible is the fact that most people are forced to be next to each other. Many people don’t have cars and only ride the buses or walk. There are also many small parks and bench areas with shade and cover near local shopping areas. They’re clean and well-kept, and everyone can enjoy sitting with their friends and talking about old time or the prospects of a brighter future for themselves as well as for others. Seeing the couples holding hands, and the older women chatting, laughing, and just plain smiling . . . it made me happy. I wish I could see more of that at home. But we are separated. Everyone’s kept to their own space.

Speaking of space, it’s almost as if people here don’t have it. It’s not unusual to bump into someone. It’s not strange to stand shoulder-to-shoulder in lines or sit next to someone you don’t know at all on the bus. They’ll be right up behind you talkin’ up a storm with their buddies back there, and you wonder if they’re touching you and you just don’t feel it, because their voices are so close. I got used to it pretty quickly, but I think that’s just because I’m generally not a “Oh my gosh get away from me” type of person. I wonder just how old some of these people are. It would be awesome to find out. To find out how they view things, what their ideas are. If I could speak Cantonese, I probably would have already tried asking them something.

Friday, August 26, 2011

Trial and ERROR

Orientation. It’s something every new student has to go through. Problem. I’m a third-year student and have already gone through an exchange student orientation (not to mention that Centenary gave us a week-long new student orientation). Rules are similar. Encouragement to balance school and play? Received that already. Graduation requirements? I won’t graduate from Lingnan. I understand the need for exchange students to hear some of the talks and activities, but many are just repeats of what I’ve already experienced. Makes orientation kind of boring. It also makes me wish classes would begin.

The other day I tried more food. Only one really tasted good enough to eat. It was steamed egg yolk and flour. Essentially, egg yolk between layers of fluffy breading. Didn’t taste bad at all. Too bad I don’t remember what it’s called. I also realized this morning that I forgot to ask about dark meat chicken. I was reminded of this because they had some for me to try this morning, and it was the best food I’ve eaten here that hasn’t come from an American restaurant. Granted, it wasn’t smothered in sauce so I don’t know it it’s any different from the stuff back home. It tasted different, slightly, but I don’t really know how to ask about it. Yet another food I must inquire about.

Lunch wasn’t bad either. There was fish surrounded by batter, some noodles, vegetables (which I didn’t eat because they were cooked), and some beef. The fish kind of smelled like okra, and it tasted pretty good. Don’t get me wrong. I like the smell of okra, but I don’t like eating it. A German exchange student and I were trying for a while to figure out what the meat was before someone told us. It didn’t taste like fish at all. The noodles were edible, but the beef was rather mediocre. The dessert was probably the tastiest. It was some sort of chocolate mousse. Very fluffy.

I am still amazed that I can get a burger, fries, and an ice cream cone for just about $2.50. The meals even are only about $3 or $4, if not cheaper. Many things here happen to be cheaper, but there are still some things that are about normal (for us I mean). The price of clothes, for instance, seems to depend on brand and location. The larger the mall the higher the prices, but they also have a lot of sales, if you identify the sale signs when they don’t blatantly say SALE.

Oh, and by the way, for those of you I haven’t told yet, I must inform you of my experience with the hostel washing machines. First off, you have to pay to do your laundry. That made what happened next worse than it normally would have been. Mostly. I pay at a little box thingy with my Octopus card (yes, you read that right) and put my clothes in the washer. I come back at the right time, but when I open the washer and reach in to grab my clothes, the bottom half is drenched, but the top half is dry. I thought I had put too many clothes in it, so I moved some into the next washer.

This is where more mistakes were made. The washer I had been using really did not work right, and I was the one to figure it out. Lucky me. It just filled the thing with water and that’s it! But, hold on! That’s not the worst part! Next, before I realized the latter, the door to the other washer jammed and wouldn’t close all the way or open for me to get anything out. Immediately the washer starts and water pours out the washer. I have to lean up against this thing’s door for about ten minutes trying to prevent all the water from coming out, before another student comes down and then goes upstairs to get help. Needless to say, I got my clothes washed after yet ANOTHER cycle of washing. At least the dryer didn’t break on me. (By the way, this caused me to miss the last part of orientation. Oopsie.)

Today I bought some fruit to try. Three bananas and an orange. (The oranges don’t look all that appetizing, but I figured I’d try it anyway.) They shall be my breakfast, and I hope it is a good breakfast. I had completely forgotten about fruit a while back, but if everything checks out okay, then at least I have something healthy to eat over here! But, I also got some sweets. Some pocky-like stuff I thought I’d try out. A lollipop. And something that looks like Oreo sticks. . . . I think the people at McDonald’s are going to remember my order without me having to speak, after a while anyway. I get the same thing every time, and only one or two people actually speak a little English. You have to be VERY direct, and oftentimes they’ll just ask you to point at what you want. Not easy when you want a PLAIN cheeseburger.

Monday, August 22, 2011

Food No Food

It’s Monday morning, and it’s sunny with sparse clouds. Oh, and it’s probably pretty hot, too. The humidity and heat are lower than at home, and so at first my lips chapped a bit. Not fun at all. And I realized that it wouldn’t be good to drink Dr Pepper here. Most of the water I drink goes to sweat from walking around campus and the town. I need the hydration! Sadly, they have no cold water in the hostel. Also, many people seem stunned that Burger King sells bottles of water instead of putting it in a cup. (By the way, McDonald’s DOESN’T sell you bottles of water. Instead they put some warm water in a little cup for you, with no ice.) I even went to a restaurant yesterday evening, and they gave me a cup of water that was about steaming.

Speaking of the restaurant, I tried chicken and rice (with some sort of sauce). It didn’t taste bad, but for some reason I just couldn’t stomach it. I could hardly swallow. I can tell I’m going to have to learn how to eat some of these things here, quickly, I mean. I got some clothes washing detergent, some M&M’s, and some Dove chocolate as well. They didn’t have any Hershey’s chocolate except every kind that I disliked. No Hershey’s milk chocolate! So sad. So very sad. The Dove chocolate tastes really good, though! Kind of creamy.

In case you did not see my post on Facebook, I would like to say that I have found pizza, and it is acceptable. Doesn’t mean I’ll eat it all the time, mind you. It’s not good enough to eat one after another, but it does taste good compared to other things. May I remind you that though this is pizza, it is made it Hong Kong and therefore will have a different taste, just like everything else, including McDonald’s and Burger King. You can’t get upset with me because I’m trying new things! I just don’t like the majority of them. I watched some other students cook their own food at the restaurant and then eat out of the little pot thingermajig. That was interesting, but I wasn’t gonna eat it!

And now to tell you about the rest of my day, which was actually filled with quite a many things. We had orientation for exchange students, in which we met others like ourselves, from Germany, Spain, the Netherlands, Turkey, Mexico, the UK, Korea, Taiwan, the US, and of course, from mainland China. We also had a scavenger hunt of sorts around campus and off. Then we went to the mall and completed some tasks there related to the scavenger hunt. It was supposed to help us learn the places. I still don’t really know how to get everywhere yet.

But, I’m getting too far ahead of myself. I’m sure y’all would just love to know what Chinese food I have tried on this day. Firstly, there were these beef barbecue bun things. The outer bun thing tasted interesting, not bad, but not exactly delicious. Altogether, I could only take a few bites of it. It amused me, though, that if you didn’t bite into it, it looked exactly like that stuff in King Fu Panda, you know, that white roll thing he and Master Shifu (Sp??) are tossing around in the first film.

The next thing was actually a dumpling, or at least, that’s what I remember them telling me. It had crab meat in it. And it was not yummy. Then there was the spring roll. I actually ate the whole thing. It was edible. Not really something I would want to go buy though. There was also tofu, which was squishy and so was not going anywhere near my mouth, and then soup, which was also okay, like the spring rolls. It was . . . really soupy? Now, the other thing I tried was something I will never try again. Ever. Chicken with that sweet and sour sauce. Not to be offensive, but it tastes like barf, and it almost made me do so. I had to force myself to chew and swallow, and I had the throw-up feeling for the next hour.

After my little trials of food, when we went to the mall, I couldn’t go into any Chinese restaurant without wanting to throw up, because every time I smelled it I got the taste of the other food in my mouth. Luckily, however, I did get to go to Pizza Hut. (Yes, I was also surprised that it was here.) Apparently, they do not normally do cheese pizzas, so I had to special order one, along with a glass of water WITH ICE. It tasted different, but it was still the best food I’ve had here. Is that sad? Probably. I think there are just some foods that people will never like. . . .

Sunday, August 21, 2011

No Title?

So I forgot to mention that there is a keypad on the door to the bathroom. (We have a hall bathroom/shower area rather than individual ones per room.) The door remains locked, and if you have no code, you can’t get into the bathroom. I feel sorry for any visitor that needs to go potty in the middle of the night. There is also a keypad with a code to get into the hostel, which I have yet to memorize. I have to carry a piece of paper with all the codes on it so that I don’t get locked out. And then there’s that ONE key that opens my room door. It needs a keychain.

I tried the roll, thinking it didn’t actually have something in it. However, there was smoked ham and cheese. I will heat it up and continue my food testing later today. I also tried the English bread. Not too bad, but not really my thing. It will be eaten though. The noodles I tried first, well, weren’t the greatest, and they made me lose even more of my appetite than usual after about ten bites. Cool thing? They have a tank in the kitchen filled with boiling water, which you then can put into your soup to cook it instead of placing it in the microwave.

It rained today for a short amount of time, which took up the time I was planning to go walking. I still have lots of daylight left, though, so I may very well still go walking. Maybe even get some night shots! That’s not really a bad idea, especially since I really need to get out of the computer chair, which is where I’ve been nearly all day. For over an hour, I have been talking to Pete, Ross, John, and Steven on Skype. Quite amusing, and I’m very glad they enjoy Rotary. It makes me miss everyone back at Centenary even more!

Oh, and then I realized after I bought my food that I had bought Cheese Curls instead of Cheese Balls. I hate my lack of attention sometimes. Or, well, most of the time, or maybe all the time. I really can’t think of a time when I could appreciate my lack of attention. Oh wait! There are those times in which people mention bad things or do bad things in my presence. You guys know who you are! Anyway, lack of attention must be appreciated in those moments.

Saturday, August 20, 2011

Not Long in Hong Kong

Okay, so let me get this straight. . . . No Dr Pepper. No pizza. No Playlist.com. No Pandora. No Netflix. Some of my apps say no. Did I miss anything? Oh, and there seems to be a lack of stuffed animals. My friend Hung said that I am like a typical American, since I went for the chips the first time we went into the store. Hey, like I said before, I was tired and didn’t feel like figuring out what looked or sounded good. I just knew what WAS good. Yesterday we took the railway, and then we walked about 10 minutes at night back to the hostel.

Just so you know, believe it or not, I think they make McDonald’s hamburgers better in Hong Kong than in the U.S. Not so fond of their fried chicken, though. However, I did not just eat at McD’s this time. I wandered the market by myself, and I bought some English bread and some sort of roll at a bakery that I plan to heat up and try tonight for dinner with my NOODLES. Oh, and while I was sitting in McDonald’s, I saw this guy run down the walkway with a cart of what I assume to have been drinks. The strange thing? He was shirtless. And no one seemed to care.

I feel rather accomplished now that I have made the trip by foot to the market by myself and managed to purchase things without a translator. By the way, did I mention I got that roll plus four large slices of English bread for just something around $1.50 USD? And I got an ice cream cone at McD’s for about $0.32 USD? My camera, however, was a bit over $300 USD (expected for this camera, even in the U.S.). It actually wasn’t a bad deal at all. It’s a very good Nikon. I got an 8GB SD Card for free, a little tripod, an extra battery (both of which are rechargeable), the cords and plugs, a carrying case, a bag, and even a mug. Pretty awesome in my opinion.

Oh, and guess what? The movies which were originally made in English ARE in English. They just have Cantonese subtitles. That makes me happy. And they’re not as far behind us with the movies as I thought. “Rise of the Planet of the Apes” is playing here, so that says enough. Don’t think I’ll be going to see a movie in a while though, not yet anyway. That reminds me. I need to check and see if my movie app works here. . . . Darn. It’s no help at all. I think the majority of my apps hate Hong Kong. At least my games still work. Haha.

Thursday, August 18, 2011

Traveling To Hong Kong

I hope you're ready, because this post is gonna be a long one.

For the first time in my life, I am traveling alone, by plane, with no clue as to what I am to do when I arrive at my destinations. I’m worried that I’ll misplace something. I’ll get delayed. I won’t check in or out properly. This is one of those moments when you feel simply clueless, and at a disadvantage because of it. I was extremely nervous. There is no one to depend on. No one to keep me going in the right direction. But somehow I can’t help but see this as an opportunity to learn, to experience something new.

It’s not often people get the chance to do something like this, and so if you can, you should jump at these opportunities. Take them on. Challenge them. Don’t be afraid. Be excited. Being nervous doesn’t make you a coward. Just slow down a bit. Take time to breathe. You can never know how things will work out if you don’t at least try. Take a chance.

I don’t think anyone who has never been in a plane can ever understand how surreal it feels, looking down on the earth and wondering just how big those fields are. Seeing the clouds from above them rather than below them. You begin to see what people mean when they say the cars on the ground look like ants. And then you don’t see them at all! When we first took off, I had tried to find familiar places in Alexandria, LA, but from the air, everything looks entirely different.

One thing I didn’t enjoy all that much was my stop at Dallas Once I got off the plane, I had to find out which gate I needed to be at. Then I looked for food. I got a cookie. Figured there would be a better food selection in Los Angeles. And, of course, there was the waiting. Waiting for my boarding group number to be called. I’m always scared I won’t hear it. Luckily, though, it’s hard not to notice them calling numbers and membership titles. First class. Gold. Platinum. Group this. Group that.

On the Dallas to Los Angeles flight, I met two new people, one from Australia, the other from New Zealand, both having recently attended an educational/university-related conference. Pretty interesting. We were pretty chatty at first, but as expected, it died down when the place was in the air, and we all started doing our own thing, whether it be reading, typing, or listening to music (and looking out the window at the fluffy clouds below).

I don’t know how to truly describe the feeling I got when I saw the lightning light up the dark clouds off to the plane’s side. Being this close to something with such natural power. . . . It’s amazing! The sunset in the distance looks like cotton coated in the bright vibrant colors of lava, its glow extending far beyond its fingers to either side of us. The world below is dark blue, mysterious in anonymity of the place, with the clouds a light, misty blanket. It’s just so beautiful. And then all of a sudden there’s a mass of lights down there, as we pass over one of many cities.

As the darkness grew, I couldn’t help but really start to miss everyone back home. Mom and Dad. My family and friends. And especially Adam. It males me wish I could’ve gotten just one more hug. Just one more embrace. It’s hard leaving the people you love, leaving behind everything familiar, but I guess you just have to have courage. Tie a knot in the rope while you’re at the top, and hold on.

In Los Angeles, I went through more security, got food, and waiting. Hearing everyone else speak another language can be a little daunting. I only saw maybe three possibly American people. It’s just like sitting with any other people, except that when they are all different from you, you kind of can’t help but look and listen. I wonder if they feel the same way in the same situation.

The plane ride from Los Angeles to Hong Kong was so long. (Nearly 14 hours, to be frank.) I got no sleep, and my eyes hurt so terribly as a result. Otherwise, at least the plane had free entertainment. Games, movies, TV shows. Even The Walking Dead, which is a series I recently got into, thanks to Adam. I can now say that without friends, and possibly even with, riding on a place for that long is a miserable experience. (If you can fall asleep easily, it wouldn’t be so miserable. I just couldn’t sleep at all.) Serious jet lag time!

The guy checking my passport and visa in Hong Kong kind of scared me. He said something about the passport and, apparently, my visa. I told him I didn’t understand what he was saying, and he said something to the effect of: I am speaking English. How do you not understand? I very nearly cried. After that was finally squared away, I was lucky enough to have some guys help me figure out what to do and where to go. They even lent me a phone for a sec to call my friend who was supposed to be meeting me at the airport. Couldn’t understand their accents all that well either, but they were at least nice.

One of the first things I noticed was how expensive everything appeared, but I quickly reminded myself of the difference in currency. Can you imagine seeing a hamburger at BK costing $20? Overall, my meal cost $50, which is actually around $6.50 in U.S. dollars. I really need to download a converter on my iPod. . . . My friend found me, and we took a bus, then a minibus, and then walked the rest of the way. It was all a bundle of confusion for me, especially later when we went to the market. Let’s just say I grabbed American snacks, because I couldn’t understand a single thing on the packages and was way too tired to figure things out, even with a translator.

I got a new SIM card for my phone (meaning I have a new number, which will return to my original one once I return to the States). For those of you who’d like to have my new number in case of emergencies only, send me a Facebook message or email me at hmoore2@my.centenary.edu. I have a Lingnan email, but I probably won’t be using it for anything but stuff related to school. I also got plug adapters, thanks to my buddy who went and got them for me. Anywho, that’s all for now. I may post more within the next day or two, but this is what I have written so far!