Shenanigans: All Sorts of Ironies

I honestly don’t know how to start this post.

It’s been 3.5 days, and it’s practically indescribable. I suppose the most logical place to commence would be from the top…

We (Gloria and I) flew to Chicago from our respective cities and rendezvoused. The next and last stretch was the homer to Hong Kong. Fourteen something hours. We spent fourteen something hours on that plane fifteen feet away from each other, separated by an inferior center row. Fourteen something hours. It was the longest fourteen something hours of my LIFE.

Once we landed, life was grand – for a little bit. We had no troubles getting through the airport (or so we thought – this will be referenced later). I don’t think the realization that I was in a different country, after being State-side for 16 years, dawned on me until the first wave of humidity hit, and it hit hard. I never take warnings as strictly as I should, and Hong Kong’s weather was no exception. Trust me when I say that you can’t even begin to imagine. We hopped on a taxi at the airport to take us to CUHK (Chinese University of Hong Kong). This was when I decided to break out my less-than-up-to-par, rudimentary Mandarin. Obviously, it got us into trouble. Per my instructions, the driver took us to Hong Kong University (香港大學). Little did I know, that Hong Kong University was not CUHK (香港中文大學). I invite you to take notice of the two Chinese names and the difference of two characters in between. Those two characters caused us quite a bit of confusion. Not matter though, this set-back allowed us to meet the nicest, littlest, old man EVER. Our second taxi driver was precious. How so you ask? This time around, to clarify where we were trying to get to, I gave him a pamphlet with the address rather than attempting to mash it out in Chinese. Upon receiving the document, he immediately started rummaging for what turned out to be a magnifying glass. This was obviously the first sign of adventure. He eventually got us to where we thought we needed to be, but only after stopping, chasing and on one occasion honking at a group of people to make sure he knew where he was going. I wish I knew his name; he made an amazing first impression on behalf of the Cantonese people. Simply precious.

If you took note, I previously indicated that we were dropped off at where we thought we needed to be. Evidently, we thought wrong. Only after running into another frazzled exchanged student did we realize how ill-prepared we were. We only had ourselves to blame for the lack of information. We really should pay more attention to the documents we are sent. Anyway, we pushed onward once we established the details of our next mission (to find our orientation dorm) and a map. Then came the stairs. This behemoth flight of stairs in a wet, dark, suitcase-weighted setting was not the sign of encouragement we both needed at the time. Of course later we discovered a round-about but less treacherous course we could have taken. Hindsight’s always 20/20. Who needs 20/20. We eventually reached our destination and completed the day’s mission. Before we headed off to bed, we were in store for one last surprise: Gloria did not get her student visa stamped at customs when we passed through the airport (here’s that promised reference). The solution to this problem: go to Macau within a week to leave HK and enter again to get it stamped. Wow.

The next day contained your basic orientation stuffs. Registration sounds complicated, and my schedule is still up in the air, and classes start in a few days. I’m keeping my fingers crossed for a Monday-Wednesday schedule. Later on in the day, the two of us and a new friend (Ji Fei from NY) decide to head into town to do our preliminary round of shopping. Thank goodness Ji Fei’s with us. She’s fluent in Cantonese and most likely saved us from ourselves who knows how many times. We take the rail into the city and stop in Kowloon Tong first. Our first stop (after getting lost): Festival Mall. It’s impressive and quite pricey. The only two occasions to note at this stop: 1) stopped into HSBC to inquire about opening an account and received a ‘no comment’ from an employee in response to a question – I’m going to start using that phrase from now on; it’s gold. 2) found the swankiest McDonald’s I’ve ever seen – we stopped for drinks at the McCafe – Gloria spots a few computers with internet access (we’re a bit starved for net-time after no access for over two days) and immediately starts scheming of ways to get the small boy at a seat to give it over to her. She then maneuvers herself directly behind him (inches away) and proceeds to attempt to wait him out. The boy’s tougher than he looks, so she switches tactics and asks him bluntly if she can use it. I try to tell her that he’s on a timed-session (one he most likely paid for), and all that she would have to do is wait out the time. She’s having none of this. After realizing her mistake, she apologizes profusely and urges him back on to finish his remaining time. The entire interaction was priceless.

The rest of the night found us walking Mongkok and then Kowloon’s notorious Temple Street, filled with snazzy gadgets of all sorts. The mission: find Gloria a satisfactory phone and camera – mission accomplished.

This account puts us up to Thursday morning. I shall leave that for another post. My geezer self and I have to put me to bed now. I’ll update my picture slideshow soon with HK sights. The view blows my mind every time. The colors. GOODNESS the colors.

One last note: When walking around campus, occasionally we’ll get a whiff of potatoes, usually raw, un-cooked potatoes. One instance today convinced us that that particular olfactory sensation was of potatoes of the mashed variety, perhaps with sour cream. It’s the oddest thing. Someone told us it’s the sewage, but we believe there to be a secret underground potato farm.

Okay. Not really. You must admit that the potato sensations are a tad strange, and it’s not just me either. Gloria smells it too. We’re just not sure if anyone else does…