The Big Question

"What do you do all day?"

I get this question quite often from most people, and I can imagine that after not posting a real blog entry for awhile everyone is probably really wondering what I can be doing that I don't have time to post a blog?

Since I'm not working and don't have that many friends in Hong Kong, I think that it's definitely a legitimate question. Some quick answers.

No, I don't sleep in everyday (except for today but we had a very late night last night with way too many drinks). I am almost always up before Chris leaves for work at 7:30. He doesn't really like to eat breakfast at home so we don't eat together but I usually check my email first thing in the morning because that's when I generally find all the fun emails from friends and family in the U.S.

No, I haven't really started looking for a job. I have done a little bit here and there but I'm only now just feeling like I'm ready to start working again. Now it's a matter of finding the right contacts and finding something I actually want to do.

Yes, I do leave our apartment at least once a day, even if it's just for a little bit. I promised myself before we moved here that I would go out everyday and I've pretty much stuck to it. I'm happy I've done that because I think I'd go crazy if I was at home all the time just waiting for Chris to get home from work.

I actually do find that I ask myself this same question quite a bit because there are days when I really struggle to feel like I am adding any sort of value to anything. I know I sound a bit like I've been "brainwashed" by the corporate world, but I think it's more about human nature. Human beings need to feel like what their doing is important and "important" has a different meaning to everyone. For me, it's about getting things done that make a difference in my life, in Chris' life and in society in general.

So I try to focus my time on those things. Some days are harder than other because it is can be a bit ambiguous as to what is going to make a difference. Until we moved here, I did this mostly through my job, my personal relationships and some volunteering. Things have obviously gotten turned upside down a little bit but it's probably good for me to have a little less structure for awhile.

And now you're thinking, she still hasn't answered the question. Can you tell that I'm a lawyer's daughter :) Like I said, it's a little bit that I struggle with the answer but I've come up with a one-word answer:

Networking

I know you're all laughing, and rightfully so, but that's really what I do most days. It's a different kind of networking than I've ever done before and there are days when I feel like I'm back in business school where I'm going to events just to meet people and hopefully find a job. But really, networking is what it boils down to.

I have always been a joiner and a relatively social person but I find myself going to do things here just for the sole purpose of meeting people. I really spend a lot of time going to different meetings, events, lunches, etc. that I wouldn't normally go to, but it's the only way to meet people. This whole expat sub-culture here in Hong Kong is really very bazaar and largely surreal. I could write an entire book on it, but the cool thing is, everyone is in the same boat. I mean, there is an entire social scene built on giving people the chance to meet other people and everyone partakes with the hopes of finding some friends!

When I think about it, I don't think it's really all that different than if you moved to a new city in your home country where you don't know anyone. One of the great things about Hong Kong is that there is such a large transient population that it is relatively easy to meet people. I don't think you get that in a lot of other places.

I know my answer is a bit sort of out-there and you may still be thinking, what does she actually do for networking with the purpose of making a difference in someone's life?

Well, three mornings a week I take Cantonese classes (also known as singing lessons from a previous blog). Most people will tell you that it's a waste of time and you don't need to speak Cantonese here. I personally think that's crap, at least for me. Yes, you can get by without speaking the local language, but it is so much easier if you can speak at least a little bit. And the people are much more welcoming if you can at least sort of talk to them in their native language. Honestly, though, I really enjoy it. For me, it is very mentally stimulating and I like learning something new. I also try and spend as much time as I can studying it because it is such a difficult language.

I am volunteering with the American Women's Association on a committee that is putting together a Charity Bazaar. Apparently bazaar's a big thing here so I'm helping out with that. It's been a bit of an adjustment to work on a team of all women volunteers but generally it's a good experience.

I take an exercise class once a week. I like it but it's sort of a pain because it's in the middle of the day on Friday so most of your day is sort of shot. I also try and workout at least 4 or 5 times a week and am working on rehabbing my foot that I somehow managed to hurt right before moving here. So really, I've been spending a lot of time at doctors.

I meet people for lunch just for the sake of keeping connected with people. It's all part of this strange expat social scene but it's good.

I do a few other things here and there and am still working on getting our house totally put together. If I really concentrated and worked on it straight I could get it done quickly, but then I am not out networking and meeting people. That would be really hard for me actually because it's the networking part is the only way for Chris and I to meet people right now. We are at a bit of a disadvantage in meeting people because of where we're from. Just about everyone from the UK or Australia has met people through friends of friends. We don't have that so much but we're getting along pretty well so I can't complain.

I'd love to write a bit more but I need to go and get ready for tonight. We are going to a wine tasting at the Royal Hong Kong Yacht Club. Sounds official, doesn't it?! Not really but it should be nice. Hopefully we'll meet some new friends :)

Hong Kong Sports According to Chris

Its amazing the things you miss when you move away from home. I don’t miss the fact I’ve only had one glass of milk since I’ve been here and I can even live with the fact the pizza is horrible (think toasted bread, with some cheese and whatever else on top….that’s right, almost no sauce).

The big thing I miss in Hong Kong is that for the most part, no one follows sports. There are no local teams, so on the weekend or in the evening there is no sport everyone is watching. When I walk into the office the next day no one ever asks me about the game last night (although truthfully because everyone in my office is talking in Cantonese, they could be talking about sports and I would never know, but you get the point). I’ve tried to keep up with all aspects from home, and with the internet it’s quite easy. But for the NFL and Baseball, it doesn’t work very well. I do have my trusty slingbox, so on Sundays Erin and I have been able to watch the Badger football games that were recorded. But the NFL is on Sundays, so all the games are done by the time I wake up on Monday morning (and all the Brewers games are played while I’m at work…I watch many of them on the espn.com gamecast…not quite the same thing). Due to the fact I have fantasy football obsession, I need to check the scores and see how my teams did. I could never wait until Monday night to watch the games when I get home (ignoring the fact I usually get home from work around 8:15pm and I really don’t have 4 hours to spend watching a football game). Besides, part of the fun of watching sports (at least for me) is hanging with your friends, cheering during the good times, wondering what happened during the bad.

This gets me to the point of my story, on Saturday night I was informed by our new friends from the UK that we were going to a bar called The Canny Man in Wanchai (fairly close to our apartment) to watch rugby. It turns out the Rugby World Cup is going on right now and we would be watching England vs USA live. This bar shows all manner of European sports live no matter what time they come on. If there is a 3am Cricket game you want to watch, they will have it on. There is no bar time in Hong Kong (which deserves a completely separate blog entry) so time is not a problem. They also record all the late evening games and replay them the next day.

The game started at midnight, so a group of us went to a luau at the American Club Hong Kong (that’s right Polynesian dancing in China, it was more fun then it sounds, somewhat like the luaus Erin and I saw in Hawaii, but much shorter and much better food). We took off and arrived at the bar early which allowed us to watch the end of a Cricket game. I now understand Cricket and how it is played, let’s just say after you understand the rules its just as boring as before you knew the rules. Moving on…luckily Richie (one of the UK guys I’ve meet, please look at the Cheung Chau Island blog entry for more details) took the time to explain to Mike (an American I’ve meet, he’s from Chicago and follows the Bears and Ohio State…I’m trying not to hold that against him, its just nice to be able to discuss American Football with someone who understands what I’m talking about besides Erin. I think she is also thankful I’ve found someone else to talk football with!) and I the rules. Basically its like football but you never stop, there are no pads, and there are two 40 minute halves. So we all grabbed a couple of pints of Carlsburg and got ready to follow the action. It was surprisingly entertaining, and the entire bar was into the game much like an NFL Sunday. Since our table had the only 4 USA fans in the entire bar, we were a bit outnumbered. Did I forget to mention England is one of the best rugby teams in the world? I think you can guess, the US was one of the bottom tier of teams. In the end, England won 28-10 but the US team put up a good effort. It could have been much worse; I was told the US is on par with the Japanese team which had just lost 91-3 to someone. A moral victory for the Americans I guess. On a side note France lost to Argentina the night before; the French people were devastated. The Rugby World Cup is being held in France. France was a top three team and expected to compete for the title, and let’s just say Argentina is on the level of the US (hello Appalachain State!!!).

Richie and I are going back to The Canny Man tonight to check out the USA vs Tongo game and may also try to watch England vs South Africa (another very good squad) this weekend. Its a bit different from what I’m used to, but its great to be out with friends again enjoying sports, especially when you understand the game and its rules. Now if someone would just tell me where Tongo is……


Chris

Back to School

While Labor Day and the beginning of the college football season are being celebrated this weekend only in the U.S., Back-to-School season is being celebrated in much of the northern hemisphere. To help refresh your mathematical skills, I thought I'd share with you a recent exercise I went through at the supermarket. It's a prime example of why everyone needs to pay attention in math class.

The local supermarkets don't really have "deli counters" because the Chinese eat noodles in place of sandwiches. So I have to go to the Western supermarkets to get cold cuts. Anytime "western" is used here, it basically means 2-3 times the cost of what you would pay for it in the U.S. This is why I usually only by 6 or 8 slices of turkey at a time - it's so expensive that I don't want to have to throw any of it out.

While at the very luxurious deli counter in "Great" (the Western supermarket I go to most often purely because it's convenient), I have found this amazing smoked gouda cheese to eat with sandwiches, or really just by itself. I am quasi-obsessed with it. I always feel like I'm being pretty good, too, because the cheese I like is the cheapest in the cooler. Now, pretty much every thing here is in the metric system so I still a little trouble knowing how much I am getting and how much it costs. As I was waiting for my cheese to be sliced on Friday, I decided I should really figure out how much I was actually paying for this cheese. Here is where the math exercise comes in:

"If smoked gouda cheese costs HK$26 per 100 grams, how many U.S. $ does it cost to buy 1 pound of smoked gouda cheese at Great supermarket?"

1. 1 pound (lb) = 453.6 grams (gm) . Therefore, 100 grams = (100gms / 453.6 gms/lb) = 0.22lbs
2. So, the cheese costs HK$26 per 0.22 lbs
3. Now, on a per lb basis, the cheese costs HK$118 / lb. This comes from taking $26 / 0.22 lbs.
4. Here comes the currency conversion :) US$1 = HK$7.80 so HK$118 = (HK$118 / (HK$7.8/US$)) = US$15.12
5. Yes, the correct answer is that 1 pound of smoked gouda cheese costs US$15.12.

This is a great exercise! Some basic algebra, decimals, conversions. All very exciting, isn't it?...until you get the answer. I just about fell over. It never seems like that much money because I only buy a few slices at a time. I should have put my math schools to use awhile ago.

I instantly started trying to remember how much I paid for cheese at Sendiks or the Metro Market. I'm pretty sure that it wasn't ever anywhere close to $15.12/lb, except for that amazing blue cheese that I used to get at Metro Market. The problem is, the cheese is so good! Chris is a fan of it as well. So we talked about it and decided that as long as I didn't buy a pound of cheese at a time, we should keep on enjoying the creamy taste of heaven.

We hope you enjoy your long weekend. It was just a regular one for us - no public holiday tomorrow. The good news is, we got our slingbox working and were able to hear about the fantastic Michigan loss and watch the big Badger win! On Wisconsin!