Adventures in Shanghai

Hello everyone!  It's been a while since my last post as I haven't had much free time to write.  I have been to Shanghai twice since my last post.  The first trip I was there for 3 days, the second trip was two days.  I was there for work, so most of my time was spent working.  However, I did get a little spare time to do some sightseeing.

I knew next to nothing about Shanghai prior to my arrival so didn't know what to expect at all.   Shanghai is the largest city in the People's Republic of China with a population of about 23 million people.  The city is very large and very spread out and there's a lot of traffic.  Many people ride scooters and bicycles but don't think that the traffic lights apply to them.  So while you are in a car, at a light waiting for it to turn green, scooters and bikes are just whizzing by you going right out into the intersection.  I saw lots of close calls but no accidents thank goodness!  Also, the pollution is pretty bad there so the sky was mostly hazy so you can't really see much out in the distance. 

The airport is about an hour away from the city so we had a long taxi ride to our hotel.  But, it was the FASTEST taxi ride I've ever had.  The driver must have been going about 100 MPH and weaving in and out of lanes in this old Toyota with no seatbelts!  It was terrifying.  

On my second day there, we had a little free time so we went to an area called The Bund.  The Bund is an area along the Huangpu River where tons of tourists go to take pictures.  It was a really cool area with a wide open walking path along the river and really amazing buildings on both sides of the river.  The tall tower is the Oriental Pearl TV tower.  The metallic spheres are supposed to resemble jewels.  The largest and lowest is a dance hall and karaoke bar.  The second one up is a rotating restaurant.  The top one is an observation deck. 

 

 

                                                   

We then walked along a pedestrian shopping mall area that was closed to traffic except for these little shuttle buses.  I thought this one was the cutest.  The shopping area was bustling with tourists and locals and people were lining up to pick up their mooncakes for the upcoming Mid-Autumn Festival.  Here's one of the lines:

 
As I mentioned earlier, a lot of people ride scooters and bicycles in Shanghai.

I was pretty impressed with this guy's riding skills.  That is a lot of shoe boxes!
 

On my second trip, I was able to go back to The Bund at night.  This was truly amazing.  It was a beautiful, cool evening and the skyline was just spectacular.  Standing there just made me realize what an incredible experience I am getting to have over here and I am so thankful for that.  You could say I had a moment...

The river was filled with sight-seeing boats of all shapes and sizes and they were all lit up.  Most were your basic sightseeing boat but there was one that looked like a dragon that was really cool.  I tried to get some pictures but they didn't turn out very well.  Silly me didn't bring the camera on this trip so all I had was my blackberry camera :(

I met a co-worker for dinner at a restaurant called Dragon Phoenix at the Peace Hotel.  This is the building pictured above with the green roof.  We decided to order Peking Duck.  Oh my goodness, this was wonderful.  For those of you vegetarians out there - you might want to skip this paragraph...  The server brought the whole duck out on a trolley and sliced the super crispy skin off into small pieces and placed them on a large plate.  We were also provided with thin pancakes, sliced cucumber, sliced scallion and a hoisin-type sauce.  Pure duck awesomeness!  A short while later, they presented us with a dish of the stir-fried duck with noodles and some vegetables.  In my duck eating frenzy I forgot to take a picture of the stir fry dish but trust me it was delicious!

We also ordered Shanghainese Soup Dumplings.  These are a traditional dish in Shanghai where the soup is actually inside the dumpling as well as pork. 

I forgot to take this picture until after we inhaled half of them!  It was an amazing dining experience and to top it off, we were seated at a table with a view of the river and skyline.  It was a great night - my only regret is that Zack wasn't there to enjoy it with me. 

I am happily back in Hong Kong and we are looking forward to a fun weekend.  This weekend the Chinese celebrate Mid-Autumn Festival and National Day so I also get Monday and Tuesday off.  YAY!!!  We're going to see fireworks and lantern displays so I'm sure I'll have some great pictures and stories to share in my next post.

 再见, zài jiàn (goodbye in Chinese)
Carla

Settling in to daily life

Greetings and salutations from the future!!

Great news all!  We have finally moved out of the hotel and into our apartment.  YAY!!  We have all our stuff unpacked and put away.  We did lots and lots of laundry.  The apartments in Hong Kong are very small and have these combo washer/dryers.  The machine itself is quite small and you can't really do a whole load in the sense of what we're used to being able to do.  It's probably about a 1/3 of what we could wash at home.  It also takes a long time to do a single load - about 3-4 hours!  And since we haven't had access to laundry for over 3 weeks you can imagine how many loads we had to do.  

We took a trip to Megabox and Ikea over the weekend and got ourselves some things to make the place feel like our own.  We bought the most adorable and entertaining duvet cover and pillowcases.  Looking at these creatures just makes me smile!  The bed - not so much - it's really hard and not comfortable at all.  I really miss my sleep number bed!

Another thing we learned this weekend is that they don't use top sheets over here - they just sell the fitted bottom sheet and pillowcases.  People just use their quilt or duvet as their cover.  I also going to be able to get some plants for the apartment.  Back home, I can't have any plants because my cat eats them (and then throws up the leaves or flowers as a present for us - lovely). 

Random musings on life in Hong Kong...

Groceries are expensive.  We are lucky to have a fairly well-stocked grocery store nearby, but a quick trip to the store adds up really fast.  Most people in Hong Kong eat out a lot and we're starting to realize why.  You can get a really tasty meal for a really good price so it's not worth cooking much.  Plus, the kitchen isn't really much to speak of so what you can cook is limited.  The thing I'm confused about is how do the people stay so thin?  The portions you get are pretty generous so if you're eating out all the time - and eating lots of rice and noodles - how come they aren't overweight???  I hope to figure out their secret and when I do, I will share it with all of you :) 

Communication with locals can prove to be challenging sometimes, but also entertaining, as you both try to figure out how to express what you are trying to say, but in different languages.  Many people speak fluent English here, but depending on where you are, there are plenty of people who don't.  Recently, we were at a drug store and I was looking for a small plastic pill box.  I was repeating "pill box", "pill container" and met with a look of confusion.  We walked all over the store with her and couldn't find what I was looking for.  She finally (or so I thought) realized what I was asking for and led us to where they would be.  However, she didn't understand what I was asking for and took me over the the pregnancy test and birth control section!  I guess she understood the word "pill" but in a different context that I meant! 

The packaging on products here is, simply put, awesome!  They have all kinds of animated creatures selling all kinds of products.  Sometimes you can make the connection, but sometimes, not so much.  Here are some samples:

The bag on the top tasted like beef flavored cheetos.  The other two bags are flavored potato sticks.  The green ones are spring onion and were very tasty.  Haven't tried the spicy red ones yet but I bet they are good too.   

These were little Koala bear shaped cookies filled with chocolate.  A co-worker gave these to me.  I promptly devoured the entire bag!

That's all I have for now. TGIF!
Carla

September already

I can't believe it's September already.  Back home everyone is enjoying the last weekend of summer and it's starting to cool down.  College football season is starting - Go Badgers!!  It's such a great time of year.  Being away from all the things we're used to makes me sometimes feel like I'm in some sort of alternate universe.  Oh wait, I kind of am!

I started last week in Dhaka, Bangladesh as you know.  It was a quick trip and I was back in Hong Kong by Tuesday morning.  How to describe Bangladesh?  It was pretty much what I expected it to be.  There is a large contrast between those who have money and those who don't.   The airport is surrounded by a metal fence and men with large guns. Even though we arrived at almost midnight there were large crowds of people everywhere.  Security at the hotel was tight.  You had to go through a metal detector before going inside and put your belongings through an x-ray machine.  I didn't sleep well that night due to my new surroundings and being in yet another time zone.  And since Bangladesh is a Muslim country, I was awakened at 5 AM by loudspeakers putting out the call to prayer.  This happened several times throughout the day.

This is the view from my hotel room early in the morning and then later in the day when things get going...

Here is the view from our office.  The buildings in the forefront were described to me by the office manager as the wealthy area.  Across the lake you can see what he called the slums. 

As I mentioned in my last post, the traffic getting to the hotel was like nothing I've ever seen.  When we were trying to get back to the hotel from the office, our car was surrounded by other vehicles going the other direction ON BOTH SIDES OF US!  To try and escape this, our driver drove in reverse for about half a block.  I thought we might go in reverse the whole way back at that point!  When we were at the airport leaving, we saw several men who were all dressed in white robes.  I was told that these men were making the trip to Mecca.  The Hajj is the Islamic pilgrimage that every able-bodied Muslim must do at least once in their lifetime.  During the Hajj, male pilgrims are required to dress only in the ihram, a garment consisting of two sheets of white un-hemmed cloth, with the top draped over the torso and the bottom secured by a white sash; plus a pair of sandals. Thank you Wikipedia!!  All in all, it was a very interesting experience and the people I met were very gracious and welcoming. 

Back in Hong Kong I spent the rest of the week working.  We did get the good news that we can move into our apartment on Thursday.  We are really excited to get out of the hotel and into our own place.  We've been in the hotel for so long now, that many of the staff know us by name.  Zack has become quite friendly with Andy who is basically in charge of everything on our floor and hooks us up with lots and lots of water bottles. 

I had an interesting encounter with a taxi driver last Friday.  Now, most taxi drivers here don't speak a lot of English.  You give them a card with the address of where you are going, they say ok ok, and off you go.  This particular driver was the first one I'd met who could speak English.   Shortly after starting our journey we encountered a woman walking down the middle of the street, right in our way.  The driver started making this "tsk tsk" sound and mumbling under his breath.  He then proceeds to tell me this woman is "mainland Chinese" and how much he hates them, how stupid and disgusting they are.   He goes on to tell me how everyone in the world hates them and that they have no regard for anyone else.  I was pretty surprised at his open hostility but had previously been advised that there is a lot of tension between Hong Kongers and the mainland Chinese. There have been protests on both sides of the matter and people are very open about their feelings on the issue.  This is an ad that was published earlier this year by a pro-Hong Kong group.  Basically, this ad is comparing mainland Chinese to locusts who are taking over. 

 

After he finished his verbal tirade, we then spent the rest of the trip talking about the apparel industry as he had spent many years working at Bugle Boy in the 80's.  Remember them??  What a blast from the past!

Hope everyone had a nice Labor Day weekend!!
Love to all,
Carla

Change, change and more change

It's been a little over a week since we arrived in Hong Kong.  It's been alternately exciting, terrifying, overwhelming and amazing.   My dreams have been very vivid and strange (although they are often strange - I once had a dream that my cat was wearing a police uniform.  I won't tell you the rest or you might think I'm bonkers!).  After my second day of work I had a dream that I just went home.  But being a dream, of course it wasn't actually my home but some bizarro home where strangers had inhabited the place and made a mess of it to boot!  They were also letting my cat, Owen, wander around outside.  I yelled at them - " What are you doing ? I told you he is an indoor cat!". Naturally, they disregarded me and kept letting him outside so I had to keep yelling at them.  I woke up exhausted.  The funny thing is that I know my home and my cat are in such good hands right now that I have nothing to worry about on that front!

The first week of work was really busy.  Lots of meetings.  I worked until 6:30 - 7:00 PM Monday, Wednesday and Friday.  The office is very quiet. This I am not used to and find a bit disconcerting.  My office is NJ is a bustling place where everyone is either on the phone or talking to a colleague about a situation or project.  I am finding that I don't like quiet in the workplace and I miss my work peeps a lot.   The other difference is that even though I am in Hong Kong, I have quite a bit of dealings with people in our NY office.  So it's kind of like being on a 24-hour work cycle.  I am reading my emails at ALL hours of the day and night. 

This picture is of a place called Megabox. 


Hong Kong has got to have more mall/shopping/food emporiums than anywhere in the world.  This one is a block away from my office and is filled with shops and restaurants, even an Ikea for when I have a hankering for some Swedish meatballs!  It really stands out and is a helpful landmark when getting a taxi to go to work.  You just tell them "Megabox" and they know where you need to go. 

Tuesday and Thursday we spent the afternoon looking at apartments.  Space is at a premium in Hong Kong so most one bedroom apartments are about 500 square feet.  We do think that we've found a place we like and should know by Monday if we get it.  

I have already embarked on my first trip out of Hong Kong.  As I write this post, I am at the Westin Hotel in Dhaka, Bangladesh.  My company has an office here and I have a meeting there tomorrow.  Being more than a little concerned about the water, I bought three large bottles of water, along with some peanut M&M's and breath mints at the airport.  I also brought a variety of healthy snacks - trail mix, granola bars and banana chips. It was dark when we arrived so I didn't get the whole experience yet but I can tell you the traffic was INSANE!!  Buses, cars, taxis, these small cars that I think are called tut-tuts and are basically metal cages - motorcycles, bicycles and rickshaws all honking and flashing their lights just fighting to move forward.  There are lanes on the road but they seem to be little more than loose guidelines on where to go.  There were people riding on top of the buses also.  It's quite hot here, so I imagine it's a bit cooler up there.  Here's what it's like: 


I need to get some sleep now and get ready for tomorrow.  Love to all and thanks for following along!
Carla

Our first few days in HK

Greetings all! It's been a few days since we landed and we are adjusting fairly well.  The flight over was quite long - about 16 hours - but fortunately we got to fly Business Class which takes the sting out a bit!  We were immediately greeted with a glass of champagne and then fed almost non-stop for the next two hours.  The highlight of the food for me was the cheese course with port and then the ice cream sundae with toppings.  I felt like Jerry Seinfeld when he got to fly first class while poor Elaine was stuck in coach. 

I had arranged car service through the hotel they were waiting for us at baggage claim.  A wonderful feature this hotel has is that once they pick you up, they start your check-in process.  This was awesome because we got to the hotel around 10 PM and were whisked off to our room where we were told that since we were staying here so long, they were upgrading our room to a suite at no extra cost.  YAY!!!

We woke up early Saturday, enjoyed our breakfast and headed out to explore.  We walked along the waterfront, up one of the main shopping streets and ended up in Kowloon Park.  It's a beautiful park surrounded by commerce and high-rises.  There is an aviary in there and we saw some really cool birds. We then walked down Nathan Avenue which is like Fifth Avenue in NYC.  All the big designers have stores there and naturally we had to go in the Tommy Hilfiger store.  It was like a little bit of home for me on the other side of the world :)  The crowds in this area were a bit overwhelming at times, but the worst part was these guys hawking "copy watches" and suit tailoring services.  Every two feet some guy is trying to get your attention and they are very persistent!

Oh, by the way, it is really, really hot here.  Like sweat through all your clothes hot. We've been to New Orleans in August so we've experienced some heat and humidity but this is beyond that. Thankfully, our hotel has a very nice pool so we know we can cool off and relax when we are done sightseeing.

On Sunday, we decided to take the Star Ferry over to the Central District on Hong Kong Island.  It's super cheap ($3) and super fast.  The Ferry goes back and forth all day long and runs constantly so you have virtually no waiting time.  Once off the ferry, we tried to navigate what was a very busy area.  There are a lot of covered walkways which are great for beating the heat.  We walked to the Peak Tram which takes you to the highest point on the island.  Unfortunately, many others decided to do the same thing so we were met with a line that was going to mean an hour and a half wait in the sun.  We quickly changed our plan and decided to head to the nearby Hong Kong Zoological and Botanical Garden instead.   Much better choice.  This park was even more beautiful than Kowloon Park. The zoo consisted mainly of monkeys, lemurs, a few orangutans and of all things, one raccoon. The raccoon was kind of an odd addition.  This park also had an aviary with an even greater variety of birds.  

 

Tomorrow is my first day at work so wish me luck!

Counting down the days...

The last few weeks have alternatively gone so fast but seem to be taking forever!  We're a few days out from leaving.  Friday was my last day in the office.  I have handed off my projects and tried to think of everything I could before I left. They threw me a really nice Bon Voyage lunch complete with cards and gifts.  That was so unexpected and so touching. 

One of the gifts included an assortment of Peeps products.  Many of you know that I have an affinity for all things Peeps - my mom sends me holiday care packages that always include Peeps and every Easter I anxiously await the results of the Washington Post's Peeps Diorama contest.  Every time I see the winners I wish I had some artistic talent so I could submit my own diorama.  Sadly, I do not.  Here is a recent picture of me at the Peeps store in Bethlehem, PA:

 The delicious assortment of Peeps treats in my gift bag:                                   

I am so lucky to work with a great team of people. I am truly going to miss seeing them every day.  

All of the travel details have finally been completed.  Flights are booked.  Hotel is reserved.  Transportation has been arranged.  The biggest remaining task is the packing.  I started today and there are now piles of stuff all over the place.  Now to get all that into the suitcases...

As Zack mentioned in his blog, I signed up for the Hong Kong Groupon.  They send a lot of restaurant offers and it's interesting to see the different types of food that are available.  There is a lot of variety - Indian buffets, a taco truck, seafood extravaganzas and of course many styles of Chinese cooking.  Some I think sound exciting and delicious, others make me a little queasy.  Here is a sample of the latter:


This is described as "Classic South African Abalone and Goose Paw".  OMG they just chopped the paw off and served it with sauce!  We do like eating a variety of cuisines and this trip will definitely expand our culinary horizons - but I believe I will also find out what my limits are!  I do appreciate the two asparagus spears though so you're getting your veggies :)  

The other things I've seen in the Groupons include passes for studios that have yoga, Zumba and even Bollywood dancing classes.  I think it would be really fun to try Bollywood dancing classes so fingers crossed there is a studio near us that will have it. Jai Ho!

Thanks to all our family and friends who have come out to wish us well on this journey.  We couldn't do it without all of your love and support.  I can't wait to share this experience with you. 

Let the adventure begin...

You just never know where this life will take you.  One minute you're sitting on a beach in the Outer Banks, relaxing with your family. The next minute you are contemplating what it would be like to live and work in Hong Kong.   A short week later you find yourself filling out an Application for Entry for Employment for Professionals form for the government of Hong Kong.

I am fortunate to have been given an amazing opportunity to work in my company's Hong Kong office for the next 3-6 months.  My husband, Zack, will be joining me on this journey and I am so happy we are going to be able to do this together.  A good friend will be house-sitting for us and taking care of my wonderful cat, Owen (who I am going to miss like crazy!).  It seems pretty surreal when I think about what we are about to do - but it is very real and very exciting!!


We leave on August 16th which is coming up so quickly.  We are trying to figure out so many things - how you pack for that long, what kind of shots do we need (typhoid and Hep A it turns out), scheduling visits with family and friends and lots more.  We have been reading several books about Hong Kong and have already learned a lot that will help us navigate the country and the culture.


We will be staying in a hotel for a few weeks while we get the lay of the land. The hotel is in an area called Tsim Sha Tsui which is about 20 minutes from where I will be working in Kowloon. We will then get to look at a few furnished apartments and hopefully find one that will be conveniently located for my commute and also have plenty of restaurants and stores nearby.

I am going to miss our daily life here in the Garden State but I know we are going to learn so much about a part of the world we might never have seen.  On a personal and professional level, this trip will change our lives in ways I can't begin to imagine.  I can't wait to begin this journey and share our adventures with you.  Stay tuned!