A First Time for Everything

By nature of this adventure that we're on, there are undoubtedly going to be a lot of "firsts." I got to experience one on Friday, although not really of the greatest kind. I managed to lose my cell phone on a minibus. I have never done that before and the panic that ran through me when I realized what happened is something I really could do without experiencing again. Granted, it's just a phone and it's relatively easily replaceable, but the thought of having to deal with the logistics of replacing it was unexciting at best. The fact that I only had the phone for less then 4 days and this was sort of a costly mistake aggravated me even more.

Thankfully, I was going to meet some friends for coffee so they were able to help me figure out what to do. We tried calling the phone. Someone kept answering the phone and then hanging up. Clearly, someone had found the phone but honesty was the last thing on their minds. Chris tried calling the phone and got the same response. Our relocation agent, Fannie, tried as well. I thought that if someone called who could speak Cantonese, the person might be a little more honest. That was to no avail because we all got the same response. It quickly became obvious that I wasn't getting my phone back.

I needed to go to Vodafone and cancel my sim card. Sort of a pain but at least it was in the direction that I was heading after coffee. Don't worry, though. I didn't head to Vodafone until after coffee. I figured that I might as well enjoy myself. It wasn't like I was going to get my phone back. Actually, cancelling the sim card was one of the easiest things I've done here. I'm thinking I'm not the only one who has lost their phone, especially in a city that is obsessed with mobile phone. I couldn't, however, bring myself to buy a new phone at that same time. I was still holding out hope that just maybe I would get it back. What I failed to think about was that since I cancelled the lost sim card, I didn't really have a way to connect with the phone anymore. I'm not always the brightest bulb in the bunch. Needless to say, I didn't get the phone back and I ended up buying a new one on Saturday.

There have been a couple of other firsts in the last few days:

• We went to our first BBQ at a friend's house on Saturday night. The food was amazing and we had probably a little too much fun...I really haven't gotten off the couch today and feel a bit like death.

• I saw this at a butcher stand in the Wan Chai market on Thursday. I was with a group of people and none of us had seen this before. If you look on the left, you can sort of make out the jaw (teeth included) that was also there for our viewing pleasure.

I saw these cow legs/hooves at a different market. I think you're starting to get the picture - random animal parts just about everywhere.

Murphy's Law

Well, it's been a week since the "technician" came to our house to see about all of our plumbing problems. Don't ask me why they just don't call him a plumber; that's apparently not the way they roll in HK. I was starting to become what some people (i.e. my husband) might call a bit cranky with not hearing anything from Fannie so I left a polite reminder yesterday. It seemed to work because two technicians came to our house today to fix our several plumbing problems:

1. The master bath sink no longer leaks so we can actually use it. In actuality, it wasn't the worst thing in the world because we have a second bathroom. It just tended to be a problem when you wanted to wash your hands and you remembered you couldn't.


2. The sink in our guest bath now drains at a reasonable speed.


3. Supposedly, both of our tubs drain at a reasonable speed now as well. I tested the tubs before the technicians left and they seemed to be draining better. Tomorrow morning will be the big test when we actually shower again. In a disgusting sort of way, we were almost getting used to having water up to the middle of our calves when we were showering. I am, however, very excited to not have to clean out the tub after every shower.


4. The exhaust fan in our master bath now has a string attached to it to pull the vent closed. It is clearly broken so the technician sort of jimmy-rigged it with a string so that we can pull it close and all of the hot humid air doesn't come in. It doesn't, however, open really all that well. You can only imagine the conversation that I was having with this guy; I almost started laughing. I would say that we might as well have been talking two different languages, but that is exactly what was happening. He spoke maybe 10 words of english and I clearly speak zero words of cantonese so it was quite the spectacle of him showing me some clip thingy that broke off which is why the vent doesn't really close. Then I was trying to ask him if it was o.k. that the vent door doesn't open if the fan is running and I really couldn't get my point across. He just kept showing me this little piece of metal with his thumb and saying something that I'm sure made complete sense. Fannie says the landlord won't replace the fan because it's not completely broken so we're going to make do with whatever this guy just fixed today. There are some human traits that transcend geographical borders and cheap landlords is one of them.


5. The dishwasher miraculously works. I just about died. I am clearly not a plumber (or a technician for that matter) but I am pretty sure that I can work a dishwasher. I mean, that is one of my favorite appliances. The guy brought me in to the room to show me that it was working and draining just fine. I of course didn't believe him. So I made the dishwasher stop and then showed him exactly what I have done the last 10 times I've tried to get it to run. And, hmm, of course it worked exactly like it was supposed to! I'm starting to feel like I am a living example of Murphy's Law. We'll see if it still works tomorrow when I want to wash some actual dishes. I'm pretty sure that it won't but maybe I'll get lucky.

So they fixed quite a few things, which is really great. We do, however, still have some of the "great outdoors" in our apartment. This is because the landlord is still investigating on the cheapest way to fix the kitchen water heater or at least that is what Fannie told me. When I asked her how long he was going to "investigate" this for, she just told me that she would continue to follow up with them. It's the sort of double-edged sword of renting as opposed to owning your own home. It's nice not to have to do any of the work yourself but you are at the mercy of the landlord with what seems to be very few legal rights. Not entirely surprising I guess.

Some other fun things from the last few days:

• I went to get my HK ID card yesterday. This is sort of like your driver's license, but, since most people don't drive, you need an ID card. It has a smart chip in it so I feel a little bit like I'm part of a sci-fi movie or something and people are watching my every move. They even take your thumb prints (both thumbs). Like everywhere else, there were a million people there but they have a rather orderly, appointment-type system so you end up really only waiting about 90 minutes. Not too bad, all things considering. And the people who help you are quite pleasant. Not anything like the people who work at the DMV in the U.S. Here they actually let you re-take your picture if it is bad!



• Once I got my ID card, I was able to go and get my mobile phone (I'm working on fitting in with the lingo here). It was the most bazaar thing. I just felt so much more like a normal person again when I finally walked out of the store with my phone. Considering I really only have one person to call (that would be Chris) it doesn't really make a whole lot of sense that I was feeling like that, but, actually, being able to call him or text message (or SMS as they call it here) him was so liberating. I know, totally ridiculous, but I think we've all just become so used to having the option to call someone at a moment's notice that it is a bit suffocating when that option isn't there anymore. Anyway, I'm very excited. It has a camera and an MP3 player. Now if I could just remember my phone number and figure out how to actually use the phone...



• I was with another American girl today who seems to be somewhat obsessed with Kraft Mac & Cheese at the moment. We were close to a Park 'N Shop (one of the two big supermarket chains) today so we had to go in and look for the mac & cheese. She's apparently been to a few other stores and they are all out. We didn't have any luck either so it seems as though their entire Park 'N Shop warehouse is out of stock. I'm guessing the Kraft container is stuck on a boat somewhere between HK and the US. I've never noticed this kind of thing happening in the US - where an entire distribution network is out of a relatively simple food staple - but I wonder if it's just that I never looked for something that had to be shipped overseas. I'm guessing it's the latter. The moral of the story, always buy an extra box of mac & cheese.



• Chris is actually playing in a Texas Hold 'Em tournament tonight at some bar. He was feeling guilty about leaving me home tonight but I told him that was just crazy. It's been awhile since he's had a Wednesday night of poker with the boys. And while it happens to be at Philia instead of Rosie's and with a bunch of people he doesn't know instead of his closest friends, hopefully he'll have fun and win big. We'll keep you posted.

Our 2nd full weekend

We did a little bit of cruising around this weekend but tried to stay either in the shade or in air conditioning whenever possible. It was a hot one with very few clouds. This would be perfect for a summer day in Wisconsin, but no clouds means the sun pounding down on you. We keep marveling at how hot it actually is here right now!

I did also manage to figure out how to work our wash machine. Very exciting to have some clean clothes finally! It seems to work fine with the exception of REALLY long cycle times. Most of them are between 2 and 2 1/2 hours. That makes getting a couple of loads of laundry done in one night sort of difficult. The dishwasher is still another story. We haven't gotten that to work yet but I'm convinced that it's not hooked up properly (this of course is my expert plumber opinion). I tried running it based on the manual. It really shouldn't be all the difficult or different from what we're used to, but I ended up having to drain over a gallon of water from the bottom of it because it just sat that way for like 12 hours. Hopefully we can get that fixed this week because washing dishes by hand sort of sucks. As promised, here is a picture of some of the buttons that I couldn't figure out on our wash machine and how I am keeping things straight.















Here are pictures from some other fun things over the last few days:



I was at the Stanley Markets with my Foon Ying (which means welcome in Cantonese) group on Friday. Please note the material used to make my skirt and the material used to the make the dress being sold in one of the stalls is exactly the same. Very crazy. I bought my skirt at Old Navy a year or two ago.











Saturday we went to the 10,000 Buddhas temple. It was beautiful there but we had to hike up over 400 stairs to get to see it. Along the way they have 12,800 buddhas lining the stairway. It's too bad that we can't read Chinese because we really had no idea what any of them were supposed to mean.






Chris at the start of our hike. In about 2 minutes, he'll be drenching with sweat from the heat.










This is what the entire walk looked like on the way up.



















If this guy could speak English, I'm pretty sure he'd be saying "Get in my belly!"




























The very cool pagoda in front of the temple.









A little change of scenery on Saturday night. We hit a local noodle shop for dinner and then headed to Lan Kwai Fong for some drinks. It was a good night filled with a bad mojito (I was missing Cubanitas at that point), lots of Miller Lite (finally! I was so excited) and Elvis. We have no idea why this guy walks around. Spiderman was also in the area but, just like in the movie, he is very hard to catch.

Our First Visitor!

O.k. so he really was here on business and not just to visit us, but we got to have a great night with our friend Brant. He's been traveling in Asia for two weeks and was a bit sick of Chinese food so we went out for a great Italian dinner close to our house. Here's a picture of Chris & Brant at Staunton's Wine Bar where we met up before heading to dinner a block away.

We hope to have many more pictures of visitors on our blog in the future (hint, hint).

Mid way through Week 2: no toilets!

8:30 a.m. Wednesday, 18 July 2007

Well, I made it through the night and I still have my thumb. :) I am very grateful for that especially since, as Erin Bilot gently reminded me, neither Chris or I should really be self-diagnosing since we aren't really doctors. At one point I thought maybe we should call our friend, Brian Reeder, who is an actual doctor, but then I realized that maybe I was over-reacting just a bit. In all honesty, a really tight bandaid seemed to work after I had ice on it for awhile (surprising how both Chris and my dad were right - never seems to fail). I do have to say though that I must have woken up about 5 times last night because I was convinced my thumb was still bleeding. Enough about my obsession for now...

We have had quite a few adventures in the past few days but let me just share with you a letter that I found in our mailbox on Monday morning. It is dated 14 July 2007 and is from the management office.

"As informed by the Water Supplies Department, an alteration work of public
water mains is scheduled to be carried out at Robinson Road from 10:00 p.m. on 17 July 2007 (Tuesday) to 06:00 a.m. on 18 July 2007
(Wednesday). In order to facilitate the work, the flush water
supply for Robinson Place will be suspended temporarily in the mentioned
period..."

Yes, you are reading this correctly, we cannot flush our toilets during this time period. Gross, on many different levels. Please note "cannot" in present tense, not past, which I would have used to indicate that something was over and done with. It is 8:30 a.m. as I'm writing this and we still can't flush our toilets. After talking with 4 different guards downstairs (so hard when you can't speak Cantonese), it's supposed to be turned back on shortly. We'll see.

While we're trying not to have the mentality of "this isn't how we do it at home" because that makes assimilation so much more difficult, it is really hard not to think that in this case. Chris and I haven't lived in a lot of different cities, but we have lived in a lot of different apartments / buildings / houses and neither one of us can remember something like this ever occurring. The thing is, we knew that it would never be just until 6:00 a.m. That would be way too easy and I'm pretty sure that's not how things work here. In so many ways, Hong Kong is so much more advanced than the U.S. (public transport, technology, etc.) and then in so many other ways, it is in the dark ages. It's really quite amazing. You just sort of roll with it, I guess.

One thing that isn't very different is how confusing it can be to pick a cell phone company & plan. Yesterday I went shopping for plans at three different stores because being without a mobile here (nobody has heard of a "cell" phone) is sort of like walking around without a map. You just feel lost, even if you're not. There are plenty of options to choose from so I will have to get out my spreadsheet to figure out which is the best value for me. I know, sort of ridiculous, but I just can't get past my ACFIN routes (the MBA program I did at UW) and give up my spreadsheets. The good news is, even the most expensive plan here is half of what you pay in the U.S.

I have to say that yesterday was a bit of a day. As I was getting ready in the morning (I had a 10:00 meeting), I realized that our bathroom sink was leaking. I had the same problem last week and was able to fix it by adjusting the faucet handle. No such luck yesterday. There was water all over the floor. At that point, I had just about had it with our apartment so I called Chris to ask him to please deal with it and let our relocation person, Fannie, know what was going on. I put two big towels down on the ground t osoak up the water and left for the morning. I got back around 2:00 and the towels were soaking wet. Water was all over the floor again and the sink was still dripping. For some reason I thought it would magically just stop. I called Chris and he told me a plumber was coming tomorrow (Wednesday at 11:00 a.m.). I mean, that's great and all but what the heck am I supposed to do until then?! I managed to squeeze a ziploc bowl behind the sink to catch the water. Crisis slightly averted for now.

I had about an hour before I needed to leave again so I thought I'd take the garbage out. It really just goes across the hall outside of our door so nothing too difficult. Right, except for that our door automatically locks which tends to be a problem when you don't bring your keys with you! So here I am, standing outside of our apartment, realizing that I have no way to get back in. I don't have a phone to call anyone (see 2 paragraphs up) and I have no money to go anywhere. Ugh! This is where the whole "we need to keep our sense of humor" motto should come in to play. That's really hard to do when I then go talk to the guards/management office and realize, or better yet, remember, that Chris and I are the only ones with keys to our apartment. It's not like being in a high-rise apartment building in the U.S. where the management office is in charge of all of the units. Here, all of the units are independently owned and the management office just takes care of the common areas. They say that they could call a locksmith but that seems like it would cost a lot of money and take a lot of time. So I call Chris at work from the phone at the security desk and he has to come all the way home (40 minutes in a cab) to let me in. Thankfully I remembered his work number because I still don't know our home phone by heart. This is the kind of thing that can happen anywhere, I know that, but it feels much more difficult to get through when the only other person you can call to help you is 40 minutes away.

...I interrupt this blog at 9:30 a.m. to tell you that we can now flush our toilets again! Woo hoo! It's the little things. And now back to my regular programming...

In all actuality, the day really wouldn't have been that big of a disaster if it had ended on a better note. I made it to my 4:30 meeting only a few minutes late even after having locked myself out and went to one of the Western grocery stores on the way home. I knew Chris was having a long day with having to come home in the middle of it so I wanted to make him an actual dinner. I had fun cruising around the grocery store and marveling at the cost of things (i.e. U.S. $8 for one chicken breast from America). I had called my dad when I got home. I was starting to feel like I was getting a head cold from all of the aircon blowing on my head and I knew he would have a suggestion as to how to stave off the cold. Zinc tablets! Great idea and I even had some with us. He was also able to talk me through shutting off the water on our dripping faucet - things were looking up. This is why even at 29 I'm not sure what I would do without my parents. And then, 5 minutes later, I just about cut the tip of my thumb off. There is instantly blood all over. My dad is trying to figure out what happened on the other end of the phone. I'm trying to stop the bleeding with my hand high above my head and, at that very moment, Chris walks through the door and looks at me in total panic as he's trying to figure out what happened. I was just done with the day and poor Chris had to make dinner.

I'm hoping that today will be a bit better than yesterday. Fannie is coming with the plumber in an hour. She is also supposed to be bringing the manuals for our dishwasher and wash machine as well. I'm very excited about that but undoubtedly there will be good stories as a result.

Updates coming

I had planned to update the blog this evening because there has been quite a lot going on. However, I have managed to slice my thumb pretty good so I'm trying to get it to stop bleeding. As Chris says, "it's a bleeder." Typing with one hand is a too much work for me. I'm hoping my stories tomorrow don't involve the Hong Kong emergency room. I'm just really not up for that yet.

And as I read this to Chris (he is in the kitchen finishing the dinner I started), he wants me to tell everyone that he really doesn't think that I need stitches.

Day #5: Thursday, July 12, 2007

Today's goal: make it to the AWA (American Women's Association) newcomer welcome / orientation.

Location: Starbucks inside the Alexandra house.

According to the directions I received, the Starbucks is between the Landmark and IFC (both are buildings) in the Armani building, as in Giorgio Armani. Here's the thing about Hong Kong. It's a lot like other big cities (i.e. Chicago, New York, etc.) where people know the downtown area by the names of the buildings. That's all fine and dandy, but they also refer to things based on which insanely expensive designer label has itself plastered on the outside of the building. The Alexandra house is the official name of the building I went to but it also houses the main Giorgio Armani store. It's a little bit like referring to the Marshall Field's Building in downtown Chicago except for the fact that there is a 80-story office building plastered on top of it.

The orientation (the first of 3 meetings) was good and I'm hoping that this will be a good way for Chris and I to meet other people. There are people from all over, not just the U.S. like the name sort of implies. And while they're all women in the group, it's surprising how similar people's situations are. Just about everyone has given up a good career and isn't working for the first time. It's nice to have that in common with other people as I continue through this whole inner-battle that I'm going through.

And just to show that the world is really a very small place, the president of AWA, who happened to be at our meeting, grew up in Sun Prairie, WI. Very crazy. There was another girl who is from Ohio, went to The Ohio State University (nobody's perfect) and lived in Chicago the last few years. It's nice to have some Big-10 fans and fellow mid-westerners around.

Chris didn't get home until 8:30, which has been normal so far, so of course I had a lovely meal waiting for him. A tuna fish sandwich on toast. I'm pretty sure that I'm the worst housewife ever! The good news is, he was happy with it and we even had a bottle of wine. How gourmet! As Chris put it, "It's very us." And true to form, we managed to find Fools Rush In on t.v. Thank goodness we are able to find crappy t.v. in HK as well. It just wouldn't feel like home otherwise.

Day #4: Wednesday, July 11, 2007

My major task for the day was to get a few of Chris's shirts pressed at a dry cleaners. I know I'm not working but the thought of ironing those shirts is truly dreadful. Slaving over a hot iron...ugh. Plus, we sent them to the dry cleaners in Milwaukee so why not in Hong Kong!?

We are in a pretty convenient spot and there are actually several dry cleaners within a two block radius. I did do a test and found that one of them was cheaper than the other. That made me super happy because I always love a good deal. The first one was HK$14 / shirt ($1.80) and the second was HK$10 / shirt ($1.30). I thought that both prices were relatively expensive given that they were just ironing, not laundering, but such is life in Hong Kong.

It really was an uneventful day, which couldn't have made me happier. I went on a tour of the "Western" grocery stores (sort of like Sendiks / Metro Market / Whole Foods) with a girl I'd met the previous day (after the bus debacle). There are quite a few around town so that's good. The challenge is remembering where they're located in the massive high-rises. That is one thing we're going to have to get used to. Everything is in a high-rise and everything's connected by enclosed walkways so it's not always easy to tell where things are.

We did stop at a noodle shop for lunch. You can sort of think of it almost as local fast food. It is quite the experience. The good ones have lines out the door but they seem to move pretty quickly. You order as you're in line and then sit down as soon as there is space for you. And by space I mean space at any table. So you could end up sitting at a table with a few other people who are all there eating by themselves. Just like everywhere else in HK, people are in every free spot. My lunch was delicious - a huge bowl of noodle soup with 3 big shrimp wontons - all for the bargain price of HK$14 (yes, the same as what I paid to get one of Chris's shirts ironed).

I did get to go out for a real "Chinese" dinner with Chris's department. And, yes, they do refer to the restaurant style as Chinese. Chris's boss and his girlfriend, Dorys, live in our complex so Dorys and I cabbed it over to the other side of the harbor (Kowloon) to the restaurant. It was good to get to ride with her and hear that she's having some of the same problems as I am. She spent about 3 days trying to get their wireless hooked up and had to go to the other side of Hong Kong to get it taken care of. I am dreading the day I actually make an attempt at our wireless. I couldn't figure it out in Milwaukee, I can't imagine what it's going to be like here.

Our Chinese dinner really was very good. Although, the fried rice was the only thing that we ate that would even come close to showing up on a Chinese restaurant menu in America. I'm pretty sure A8 China wouldn't really cut it in Hong Kong, but that's just my opinion. The fried rice comes at the end of the meal and was in the shape of a pyramid and covered in egg whites / meringue. It really was very tasty. I'm pretty sure that you're not supposed to the really eat the last course because it's sort of rude and shows that you didn't get enough to eat throughout the night, but it was so good and we were a small group so I ate it anyway.

The rest of the meal was (mostly) equally as good. There were a couple of things that weren't my favorite but overall it was a good experience. Here are some of the highlights:

• All the food goes on a lazy susan and is shared family style. This works out really well except for when people on opposite sides of the table want the same thing. That's a big of a negotiation.
  
  
• When you order seafood, they bring it to your table in a clear plastic bag before they cook it. Keep in mind that it just came out of the fish tank so the things are flapping around all over the place. We had a whole fish, which was massive, and prawns which were almost as big as my feet. Again, not an exaggeration.
  
  
• You really don't get any silverware except for a spoon and chopsticks - obviously it's a Chinese restaurant!. Please keep that in mind as you imagine us trying to eat our whole prawns (now still the size of my hand after they are cooked) that have their heads and shells. I mean, it was totally ridiculous. There is no doubt that I looked like and sounded like an idiot as I was trying to chop of the head with a spoon and practically breaking the plate. I really tried not to use my fingers but I would have starved!
  
  
• The Chinese don't drink water; they drink hot tea. This is sort of a problem when you can't stand the taste of tea like me. So, I politely asked for just some water. I've done this before in the restaurants near our house and haven't had a problem. Not so lucky in this place. They gave me water that didn't have any tea added. In other words, hot water. This was a serious note to self. I couldn't bring myself to drink the hot water so instead I enjoyed the wine that our table had ordered. It tasted better anyway.

All in all, a relatively uneventful Day #4. If only they were all like this!

Day Three: Tuesday, July 9, 2007

O.k. I realize that I have to stop counting the days that we're here. Neither one of us really doing that; it's more a good way to keep track of the ridiculous stuff that is happening the first couple of weeks. And like the first two days, the third was really no exception. At least we're consistent.

I had two goals for the day: get to a 10:00 meeting at the American Women's Association and organize our kitchen as best as possible given that we still have rental dishes and stuff. Again, these seem like small and easy tasks when I set them but they inevitably turn out to be some sort of disaster.

Let's take the 10:00 meeting for example. It was a newcomer orientation so I was really excited about going to be able to meet some new people and start to get involved in the city. And, for as much as I fight the notion about being an "expat's wife" and all of the stereotypes that come along with that, it really is what I am at this point. It's really more about this whole internal struggle between my need to overachieve and be independent and my desire to really get to experience as much as possible on a personal level. But I digress; the story of getting there is much more entertaining.

The meeting was not really within walking distance of our apartment so I decided I should try and take public transportation. Basically my two options are the public bus system or a privatized minibus system. The minibuses are just like minicoaches driving all over the island. It's quite the system and quasi-complicated when you're new at this. So I bought this whole book that has all of the bus and minibus routes. It's about 100 pages. The websites I had found weren't very helpful in telling you what routes to take. So I spent at least 20 minutes looking at the book (sort of like an atlas with bus routes overlayed) trying to figure out where our apartment was and where the meeting was. Once I figured that out, I spent at least another 15 minutes trying to figure out which bus would take me closes to the meeting. At the end of everything, I decided I should take minibus #28 that would pick me up about 5 blocks from here where Chris and I shopped the other day, down the mountain. No problem, I could figure this out for sure.

I left at 9:10 thinking 50 minutes would be enough because it really wasn't that far and I knew I could always take a taxi if I had major problems. And major problems I had. When I got to Caine Street where the bus stop was going to be, I walked up and down the street looking for the bus stop sign. I knew I was way too far when I saw a #28 bus turn right in front of me! So I pulled out the book and noticed that the bus stop was supposed to be at 79 Caine Street and I was at about 45. Clearly went too far. So I turned around and back-tracked until I found 79 Caine Street and of course there wasn't a labeled bus stop, just a little indentation in the road to pull off. Lovely. I'll just wait here and flag down the bus when I see it coming.

A few minutes later I see the bus coming. I put my arm out to have it pull over and it drove right by me! At that point, I'm wasn't sure if the bus driver just didn't see me or didn't like me because I'm some dumb American trying to get on the bus. It's now about 9:35 so I am on to Plan B: hail a taxi. Yeah, good luck. You see, 9a.m. to 10a.m. is morning rush hour in Hong Kong. People start working much later here. I waited at least 10 minutes as taxi after taxi kept passing me by already full. Now, if only I had a cell phone to call someone and share this ridiculous story with at the time but, alas, we haven't ventured down that path yet so I'll have to settle for Plan C: hike back up the side of the mountain to our apartment where there is a taxi stand and I'm know that I can get a taxi. This really wouldn't have been all that bad because quite frankly my expectations were very low. But when it's 90 degrees outside with 80% humidity and you're literally climbing at least 20 flights of stairs, you're so sweaty and disgusting. The good news is, I was able to get a taxi at our apartment and I was only about 10 minutes late to the meeting. I am really glad that I made it there because I met some nice people and will likely become pretty involved in the organization.

I did find out during my meeting that the minibus stops aren't always labeled, and, if the minibuses are full (which is common in the mornings), they just don't stop. So maybe the odds were just stacked against me at that point.

Getting the kitchen set up was much less adventurous. I mean, there were definitely some quirky things but nothing too dramatic. I did attempt to wash a towel in our washing machine. That was a mistake. I was pushing buttons and turning nobs and it ran for like 3 hours. That's not even an exaggeration. Apparently there is a manual that we are supposed to be getting in the next few days. I'm just going to hold off on laundry until then.

Chris didn't get home until 8:00 so we walked down the block to the grocery store to get some wine for dinner. Did you know that Franzia comes in a bottle too? We were amazed! The good news is that the Italian Deli next to the grocery store has a much better wine selection and Peroni galore. It's not quite as good as having Bilot around all the time but it makes us think of her when we stop in there.

Here's to Day #4 and figuring out how to use the dry cleaner!

Day Two: Monday, July 9, 2007

Our sea shipment arrived today. They were supposed to be here at 11:00 - they showed up at 10:20. I don't think that ever in my life has someone showed up early for an appointment like that. It is all a little surreal when you walk down to the loading dock with the agent. He shows you the documentation with the lock number and asks you to verify that the sea container is locked with that lock. This is stuff that adults deal with, not me. I do have to keep reminding myself (as I'm about to turn 30) that I do qualify as an adult. Nevertheless, I was very excited to have all of our stuff delivered to make it feel more like our home. That's when the fun began.

A little background: in Milwaukee, Chris and I decided that we were going to bring both of our beds with just a regular bed frame - we didn't have enough room for a bedroom set. I even went out and bought a second bed frame since the one we were using only worked with our head/foot board. We had the movers in Mke store our bedroom set but ship our bed frame. So, you can imagine my surprise when the little Chinese guy walked in to our apartment with our headboard and foot board. I just about fell over. So now we have two beds and three bed frames. It's all a little ridiculous but I just had to laugh.

I mean, I swear that I was perfectly clear with our movers that I wanted it to go in to storage. But, as I looked at the inventory sheet I used to check off our boxes as they arrived (that I incidentally signed in Mke when the movers left), there it was in black and white: MBR Foot board & MBR Head board. I mean, it couldn't have been more clear. Lesson learned: even when the movers are staring at you and wanting to leave, make sure to read the fine print. Not sure why I chose to ignore my parents' advice at that point in time, but I did. So if anyone knows of someone looking for a queen-sized bed frame in Hong Kong, please let me know.

Other fun things from the day:

• I'm still trying to figure out how to get hot water in the kitchen sink. I had to fill up a bucket in the bathroom and bring it in to the kitchen so that I could wipe down all of our cabinets. I didn't know I'd be camping in my own apartment but that's apparently the case for now.
  
  
• Our moving woes didn't end with the bed frame. The rug we brought for the guest bedroom is too long (mostly because the wardrobes are in the way because they can't be moved out of the room - one of those, you can only keep them in the room that they are assembled in) so it's now rolled up in a corner. It was like I couldn't win!
  
  
• The Chinese don't have a box spring and a mattress. The mover looked at me like I was crazy when we only had one empty bedroom and both a box spring and a mattress. Thankfully that at least fits in the room.

Day One: Sunday July 8, 2007

From the email I sent out to everyone saying that we arrived safe and sound:

Our apartment is pretty good. Things are slowly coming together. There are a few minor glitches that we are trying to get taken care of but, other than that, I think that things will work out nicely. We're not totally fluent on how to use all of our appliances yet but hopefully that will come without too many disasters as time goes on. The good news is, our appliances don't have Chinese writing on them. The bad news is, there isn't any English either. Everything is done via pictures - I'm assuming so that these appliances can be used in all different parts of the world. The problem is, we don't really understand what the pictures mean. We're still working on that.

Our first full day (Sunday) was pretty successful. Our goal was to get some plug adaptors and a telephone for our apartment. We were laughing at ourselves because it really shouldn't be all that big of a deal but when there is no Target around, things seem to get a little more complicated. Thankfully, we found what we needed and managed to pick up an electric shaver for Chris at the same time. Woo hoo!