Sunday Morning
Katy, turning to David: "You want to move back?'
David: "Right this moment, yes."
You never consider how much logistics go into trick or treating with kids or take them for granted when you live in a great neighborhood like McDonald Ave. But apartment complex living sure has busted our Halloween this year. So yes thus begins our first real critique of Hong Kong living for an american family.
Our apartment complex which is 33 floors had a Halloween party on Saturday October 28 from 3pm to 5pm. Trick or Treating was from 5:30 to 7:30pm. If you wanted to open your apartment for trick or treating, you signed up, then the management produced a list of the apartments you could go to. Remember our apartment is yes 33 floors. 2 elevators.
So on Saturday, the kids both crashed with naps in the afternoon and were hard to get up. Nicholas being very tired wanted nothing to do with a costume. But we got the kids in them and headed down to the club house for the party.
It was nice. Food. Pageant. But the main event was a haunted house you walked through. Now in our house we have defined "silly Halloween" and "scary Halloween." No one wants anything to do with "scary Halloween." So as you can imagine the haunted house was out. With that there was not much for a 2 year old and a 5 year old to do. You could see not many of that age group around. So we headed back up stairs to wait to start trick or treating.
Maggie's friend Lacey invited us up to trick or treat with them. Now this entails either taking the elevator or walking up the service stairs. But the service stairs do not stop at every floor's front doors. There is one set of stairs for the odd and one for the even floors. OK. no problem. Maggie and even Nicholas do not seem turned off by the stairs at all.
We get to Maggie's friend's apartment in the same block as ours. (We agree to only trick or treat in our block.) Well Lacey has an older brother who has a friend who dresses up as the screamer with a mask. He puts it on to start trick or treating and Nicholas freaks out. The boy is very nice and feels sorry. But it is clear to me, Nicholas and I will have to go alone. Maggie and Katy stay with the group.
Well the first random apartment Nicholas and I stop at is answered by a middle school boy in a scary mask with blood. Well that is it for Nicholas. He does not, no way shape or how, want to go on and asks to go back to 17. (Our floor.) So Nicholas stops at exactly one apartment. I try another apartment and Nicholas has had it. The lady even comes out into the elevator landing, but Nicholas is too scared.
One the way down the stairs I run into the group and Lacey's mom and dad, no Maggie or Katy. They tell me Maggie has jumped ship as well and headed back to 17. Same issue. Too many scary apartments. I could see Maggie was bummed.
So we have 2 kids with exactly 2 apartment stops. With all the logistics of the apartment building, it comes down to alot of scary halloween masks.
Katy and I both feel that they missed out on Halloween this year which led to the interaction at the top of this post. As Katy said, with homes at least from a distance you can tell whether it seems scary. And the thing is in our McDonald Ave neighborhood, there were more fun Halloween homes than scary anyway. Not sure what the point is of scaring little kids.
Next year we will have to target only the apartments we know will not be scary.
Miss the fun family Halloween. Miss you McDonald Ave, the Yins, the Colwells, the Brittains, the Munceys, the Donaldsons all of you. Miss you Dilworth.
So today, yes James, I'm going to Carolina in my mind.
Sunday, October 30, 2011
Book o Ween Woes
You never think you have to defend your child's creativity so soon in life.
HKIS had what they call Book-a ween on Friday October 28. It was billed as an event where children could pick a character in a favorite book and dress up as them. It sounded fun and the restriction made sense: no cartooon characters.
HKIS had what they call Book-a ween on Friday October 28. It was billed as an event where children could pick a character in a favorite book and dress up as them. It sounded fun and the restriction made sense: no cartooon characters.
As a new family to HKIS, we thought it was a great idea. Maggie was excited and went through her books on which character she liked. She went back and forth between the mom in the Ugly Vegetable to Bree in Fancy Nancy’s Explorers Extordinaire all on her own. She chose Bree. We got together all the things from the book: binoculars, magnifying glass, notebook, hat. Maggie was very clear to collect all the right props. But the thing is Bree being a normal girl did not have a special costume. Maggie chose some clothes that matched Bree in the book.
When she came back from school that day, she seemed really quiet about the whole thing. We asked her, "how was Book-o-ween?"
Apparently some girls made fun of her since she did not have a real "costume." I asked, "What do you mean? Yes you did." Then we find out that a lot of girls went as princesses and bought their costumes. Now you would be right princesses such as Snow White and Belle are fairy tale story characters. But come on. Either way I was annoyed that Maggie's creativity took a hit.
I told her that anyone can choose a princess, but that you were very creative in your choice. I doubt in made her feel any better....maybe a little. I am still very proud of her choice. Pictures are Maggie as Bree from Explorer Extraordinaire before school.
Sunday, October 23, 2011
A Hong Konger work is never done...Really?
Moving and especially working here, an American notes how long everyone stays at work. Wow you think people here must be very overloaded. I leave work pretty much the normal time from the States at 5:30-6pm and people are still at their desks. Sometimes I actually have to look at my watch and confirm it is that late because I walk past alot of people still at their desks.
Now I think I have a pretty good handle on my work. Not only that but with the night phone calls, I fell pretty good about it. But you still doubt when you look at the Hong Kongers. You start thinking maybe their is something to this Asia work ethic. They wear as a badge of honro staying in the office till 8pm. But then again, something always seemed a little off. I could never put my finger on it.
I usually eat lunch at my desk, while mostly everyone here takes a nice long lunhc break. So I thought maybe that is it. I dont take long lunches and usually work through lunch when trust me the floor is a literal ghost town from 12:30 to 2.
Then I read an article in this the Sunday Morning Post and things got a little clearer and not in a good way. The article "Miracle Worker," is about the extreme challenges working women with children have in Hong Kong. Women here are expected to keep the family needs first if they choose to work. This is another story, just think all the progressive gains women in the workplace have made in the US, Hong Kong is just starting down that equality path.
In the article, Bishop's qoute is what made it all cealr to me. Robins is the COO of an NGO promoting work-life balance. (Side note 70% of polled Hong Kongers do not being they have a healthy work life balance.) Robin says, "Hong Kong is built on a hard work ethic. The local culture tends to reward employees for how visible they are as opposed to their output. The more time you are seen to spend at the office, the more committed you are."
Think about that for a minute. "How visible you are as opposed to your output." Wow.
I remember my manager at Chase telling me directly, "There are only 2 reasons you work late every night. One you do not know how to manage your time and that is not good or two you have too much to do and you need to let me know because that is not good."
I still think the American work ethic that prioritize output is the better one.
Now I think I have a pretty good handle on my work. Not only that but with the night phone calls, I fell pretty good about it. But you still doubt when you look at the Hong Kongers. You start thinking maybe their is something to this Asia work ethic. They wear as a badge of honro staying in the office till 8pm. But then again, something always seemed a little off. I could never put my finger on it.
I usually eat lunch at my desk, while mostly everyone here takes a nice long lunhc break. So I thought maybe that is it. I dont take long lunches and usually work through lunch when trust me the floor is a literal ghost town from 12:30 to 2.
Then I read an article in this the Sunday Morning Post and things got a little clearer and not in a good way. The article "Miracle Worker," is about the extreme challenges working women with children have in Hong Kong. Women here are expected to keep the family needs first if they choose to work. This is another story, just think all the progressive gains women in the workplace have made in the US, Hong Kong is just starting down that equality path.
In the article, Bishop's qoute is what made it all cealr to me. Robins is the COO of an NGO promoting work-life balance. (Side note 70% of polled Hong Kongers do not being they have a healthy work life balance.) Robin says, "Hong Kong is built on a hard work ethic. The local culture tends to reward employees for how visible they are as opposed to their output. The more time you are seen to spend at the office, the more committed you are."
Think about that for a minute. "How visible you are as opposed to your output." Wow.
I remember my manager at Chase telling me directly, "There are only 2 reasons you work late every night. One you do not know how to manage your time and that is not good or two you have too much to do and you need to let me know because that is not good."
I still think the American work ethic that prioritize output is the better one.
Monday, October 3, 2011
You are new in town, aren't you?
It's a Monday evening and Maggie and I return a broken dehumidifier at Wing On (Americans read Sears). We meet up with Katy and all head home together.
So I notice across the street a "Taxi Stand" sign. Great. We head to it. About 10 feet away from the sign(Read no where near the sign), the Hong Kongers have lined up to wait for a taxi. A taxi driver points to the line and says to us,"That is where you line up." Ok without missing a beat we line up with about 7 people in front of us no where near the taxi stand sign.
As the line winds down, a well dressed westerner stands right under the sign and keeps looking at our line annoyed. You can see him getting irritated by this. At some point he comes up to us, yes not the 4 Hong Kongers in front of us, and says "the Taxi line is over there." and walks back to the taxi stand sign.
I tell him, "Well, the sign may be there, but the line is right here" as I look at him and think "Hey Mr. Von RighteousHousen, why don't you explain that in Cantonese to the people in front of us. Oh you can't speak Cantonese? Well let me explain something to you. Here in Hong Kong, the line is wherever we decide it is. That is how we roll."
Yes I am becoming a local.......
So I notice across the street a "Taxi Stand" sign. Great. We head to it. About 10 feet away from the sign(Read no where near the sign), the Hong Kongers have lined up to wait for a taxi. A taxi driver points to the line and says to us,"That is where you line up." Ok without missing a beat we line up with about 7 people in front of us no where near the taxi stand sign.
As the line winds down, a well dressed westerner stands right under the sign and keeps looking at our line annoyed. You can see him getting irritated by this. At some point he comes up to us, yes not the 4 Hong Kongers in front of us, and says "the Taxi line is over there." and walks back to the taxi stand sign.
I tell him, "Well, the sign may be there, but the line is right here" as I look at him and think "Hey Mr. Von RighteousHousen, why don't you explain that in Cantonese to the people in front of us. Oh you can't speak Cantonese? Well let me explain something to you. Here in Hong Kong, the line is wherever we decide it is. That is how we roll."
Yes I am becoming a local.......
Monday, September 12, 2011
Fanta and Fire Sticks
This past weekend was a long weekend for us. The moon festival is on Monday nite. So we decided to take the kids to Macao for a short vacation. Macao is about 50 minutes from Hong Kong by ferry. So on Saturday we left for Macao.
We stayed at the Hotel Okura in the Galaxy Casino and Hotel complex. They have the world's largest roof top wave pool. It is impressive. Maggie and Nicholas loved it. We spent the first day there.
Sunday we decided to see Cirque du Soleil's 5 pm show called Zaia. Katy and I had seen it and thought "this would be a nice show to take the kids too." Ok. Well we had a nice morning at the wave pool, ate lunch. Nicholas took a nap while Maggie and Katy went back to the pool, then changed and off to the show.
Zaia is playing at the Venetian Casino/super mall/food court/hotel/vegas style show venue site. It is impressive. We arrived at 4pm and casually walked by some posters for Zaia. In one was a man with a fire stick. At one point in the show, I think they have a whole cast with fire sticks and fire flags doing a section of it. Rewind back to our trip to Borneo. During one of the days, the outdoor restaurant had a ethnic Borneo dances which included fire stick. Now the men were very fierce and scary and close up. Maggie and I had to leave. Maggie got scared and rightly so. So now Maggie is looking scared about this whole "Zaia" thing. She starts saying she does not want to go. Nicholas picks up on her vibe and starts getting worried. We tell her that it is only one part of the show and we can of course leave during it but you will like the rest. To be fair, I think in Borneo there were 4 men with fire sticks and this show has about 20 and with fire flags.
Well as we get closer and closer to the theatre, Maggie and thus Nicholas start getting worried even more. No amount of popcorn will allay it. As the show starts, Maggie sticks it out, leaves with Katy and heads to a seat near the door. I try and pacify Nicholas for the next 30 minutes. He is of course concerned. Where is Mama? Where I Maggie? Somehow when they start the snow machine and it starts snowing from the ceiling that is the final straw for Nicholas. So he and I leave and I notice Katy and Maggie sitting next to the door.
I try about 3 times to get Nicholas to come back in with me. Each time, we hang out in the back and he wants to go. Then the last time, I really think I got it. Nicholas is comfortable, even laughing and I think "Ok now is my time." As I start to head to a seat, yes you guessed it, the fire stick and flag part starts. Literally on cue these giant flames ignite from the back of the stage, men start howling with fire sticks and, on cue, Maggie heads to the door, Katy behind her and Nicholas and I behind them...for good.
To their credit we saw about 1 hour of the 1 and 1/2 hour show.
Ok Katy and I are a little worn out and the kids are hungry.....this never ends well.
We had wanted to eat at a McSorley's bar and grill at the Venetian. When we found it before the show, it was actually a hard core bar. The "no smoking section" consisted of 2 tables which reeked of cigarette smoke. IT was filled with rugby fans who were watching the world cup. So as we headed into Zaia, we had no plan for dinner.
Katy though has a map and we find a "family friendly" Japanese restaurant. Great let's go. Maggie likes Japanese and regains her excitement. We get seated and realize that somehow "family friendly" means we will seat you at a table with fine porcelain Japanese table wear and when you ask about a baby seat, they look at you like you have 2 heads then proceed to to ignore you. "Yes we do have 2 small children who are hungry, so it is fine if we don't get served for the next hour."
Then Nicholas starts getting cranky because, yes, he is hungry. The last straw was when he threw a porcelain chop stick holder. So we leave. And head to the "Food Court." This ws actually the saem Food Court we crossed on the way to the Japanese restaurant and of course poo pooed it.
The odd thing about this Food Court is that it looks exactly like any food court in an American mall. The only difference is that most of the places serve Asian food and everyone there is Chinese. The other thing is unlike the Galaxy, the Venetian including the Food Court has a persistent lingering smell of cigarette smoke. To be fair, the Galaxy has a persistent smell of air freshener, a kind that one would use to dissipate cigarette smoke, but I digress.
We find a seat. Katy and I are frazzled. Now the kids are super hungry. I will make the first run. We pasted a Fat Burgers. So I head there and get a hamburger, fries, onion rings and a milk shake. I also notice the Japanese place has fan fried dumplings. So I go there and order them for Maggie. One of Maggies favorites.
I head back and the kids start eating. Nicholas decides today is the day hamburgers will not cut it. He continues to be cranky. Great. Katy heads back with Maggie who ate her dumplings in record time to find something for Nicholas and Maggie and Katy. Maggie wants some noodles. Yes Maggie is becoming our Asian cuisine lover.
They return with a piece of pizza for Nicholas and a huge bowl of pork noodles: the crunchy kind that soften in the sauce. We all have some. Katy then laughs, hands me the soda pop that came with the noodles, (no choice of soda) and says, "Want some Fanta?" "Why yes", I say, "haven't had it since the roller rink." We have a laugh together. I think this noodle fast food place says, "Fanta, no Coke."
There is no better way to end such an evening than with a Fanta.
Epilogue: we do finally all get fed well and head back to the Galaxy. But on my way, we stop at Fat Burgers and I buy another vanilla milk shake. The best I have had here.
We stayed at the Hotel Okura in the Galaxy Casino and Hotel complex. They have the world's largest roof top wave pool. It is impressive. Maggie and Nicholas loved it. We spent the first day there.
Sunday we decided to see Cirque du Soleil's 5 pm show called Zaia. Katy and I had seen it and thought "this would be a nice show to take the kids too." Ok. Well we had a nice morning at the wave pool, ate lunch. Nicholas took a nap while Maggie and Katy went back to the pool, then changed and off to the show.
Zaia is playing at the Venetian Casino/super mall/food court/hotel/vegas style show venue site. It is impressive. We arrived at 4pm and casually walked by some posters for Zaia. In one was a man with a fire stick. At one point in the show, I think they have a whole cast with fire sticks and fire flags doing a section of it. Rewind back to our trip to Borneo. During one of the days, the outdoor restaurant had a ethnic Borneo dances which included fire stick. Now the men were very fierce and scary and close up. Maggie and I had to leave. Maggie got scared and rightly so. So now Maggie is looking scared about this whole "Zaia" thing. She starts saying she does not want to go. Nicholas picks up on her vibe and starts getting worried. We tell her that it is only one part of the show and we can of course leave during it but you will like the rest. To be fair, I think in Borneo there were 4 men with fire sticks and this show has about 20 and with fire flags.
Well as we get closer and closer to the theatre, Maggie and thus Nicholas start getting worried even more. No amount of popcorn will allay it. As the show starts, Maggie sticks it out, leaves with Katy and heads to a seat near the door. I try and pacify Nicholas for the next 30 minutes. He is of course concerned. Where is Mama? Where I Maggie? Somehow when they start the snow machine and it starts snowing from the ceiling that is the final straw for Nicholas. So he and I leave and I notice Katy and Maggie sitting next to the door.
I try about 3 times to get Nicholas to come back in with me. Each time, we hang out in the back and he wants to go. Then the last time, I really think I got it. Nicholas is comfortable, even laughing and I think "Ok now is my time." As I start to head to a seat, yes you guessed it, the fire stick and flag part starts. Literally on cue these giant flames ignite from the back of the stage, men start howling with fire sticks and, on cue, Maggie heads to the door, Katy behind her and Nicholas and I behind them...for good.
To their credit we saw about 1 hour of the 1 and 1/2 hour show.
Ok Katy and I are a little worn out and the kids are hungry.....this never ends well.
We had wanted to eat at a McSorley's bar and grill at the Venetian. When we found it before the show, it was actually a hard core bar. The "no smoking section" consisted of 2 tables which reeked of cigarette smoke. IT was filled with rugby fans who were watching the world cup. So as we headed into Zaia, we had no plan for dinner.
Katy though has a map and we find a "family friendly" Japanese restaurant. Great let's go. Maggie likes Japanese and regains her excitement. We get seated and realize that somehow "family friendly" means we will seat you at a table with fine porcelain Japanese table wear and when you ask about a baby seat, they look at you like you have 2 heads then proceed to to ignore you. "Yes we do have 2 small children who are hungry, so it is fine if we don't get served for the next hour."
Then Nicholas starts getting cranky because, yes, he is hungry. The last straw was when he threw a porcelain chop stick holder. So we leave. And head to the "Food Court." This ws actually the saem Food Court we crossed on the way to the Japanese restaurant and of course poo pooed it.
The odd thing about this Food Court is that it looks exactly like any food court in an American mall. The only difference is that most of the places serve Asian food and everyone there is Chinese. The other thing is unlike the Galaxy, the Venetian including the Food Court has a persistent lingering smell of cigarette smoke. To be fair, the Galaxy has a persistent smell of air freshener, a kind that one would use to dissipate cigarette smoke, but I digress.
We find a seat. Katy and I are frazzled. Now the kids are super hungry. I will make the first run. We pasted a Fat Burgers. So I head there and get a hamburger, fries, onion rings and a milk shake. I also notice the Japanese place has fan fried dumplings. So I go there and order them for Maggie. One of Maggies favorites.
I head back and the kids start eating. Nicholas decides today is the day hamburgers will not cut it. He continues to be cranky. Great. Katy heads back with Maggie who ate her dumplings in record time to find something for Nicholas and Maggie and Katy. Maggie wants some noodles. Yes Maggie is becoming our Asian cuisine lover.
They return with a piece of pizza for Nicholas and a huge bowl of pork noodles: the crunchy kind that soften in the sauce. We all have some. Katy then laughs, hands me the soda pop that came with the noodles, (no choice of soda) and says, "Want some Fanta?" "Why yes", I say, "haven't had it since the roller rink." We have a laugh together. I think this noodle fast food place says, "Fanta, no Coke."
There is no better way to end such an evening than with a Fanta.
Epilogue: we do finally all get fed well and head back to the Galaxy. But on my way, we stop at Fat Burgers and I buy another vanilla milk shake. The best I have had here.
Saturday, August 20, 2011
August 20: What a Week!
This past week was a typhoon of change. It was one day after another: Maggie and Nicholas both started at new schools and took new buses.
Nicholas had been going to the Woodland Montessori school near us. We had wanted to move him to Woodland Harbourside from the beginning and an opening came up. Maggie started kindergarten R-2 at the Hong Kong International School (HKIS).
Monday: free day for everyone. Except Katy and I.
Tuesday: Maggie, Katy and I went to HKIS for meet the teacher and after school sign up day. After school sign up was in the morning. Maggie is focused on Girl Scout Daises, swimming and gymnastics. We were invited to lunch by our HKIS host mom. Then off to meet the teacher, Ms McGinnis. She is from New Zealand and we think we will get along great.
Wednesday: First day of school for Nicholas. And first time taking the school bus. So Katy and I took Nicholas down the to school bus. It comes up to the lobby drive up level at 8:10. We put him on and drove with him to the school. He saw all the neat stuff at school and was like "bye bye." His day goes from 8:30 to 10:30 M-W-F. I went to pick him up and meet his teacher Ms Jemma. Again very nice.
Thursday: D DAY. Maggie's first day of R2. Her day starts with a school bus pickup at 7am down on the street level. As you can imagine a gaggle, if ever that word applied to people it does to parents standing around waiting for a school bus, of parents and kids. Maggie's bus came, she had a little hesitation, but got on. Maggie's day ends with the bus drop off at 2:15 or so. She had a great day per her own report.
Friday. D DAY PLUS 1. Niocholas' second day. We decide that maybe he should ride the bus by himself. Well he gets on OK and actually stays OK till it pulls out and leave then starts crying. Katy and I figure we will see on Monday. But when Eva picked him up at 10:30 the only thing she heard was he keeps being reminded to sit down in class. But as my friends at FUMCDC will know, it was hard for me to see him cry.
Later that morning I head to HKIS for new parent orientation. The principal and her staff all gave presentations. It was really nice and there will be a lot of chances for us to get involved.
Oh.....During this whole week, Nicholas on Monday somehow got scared of his shadow and would NOT GO TO SLEEP in his room. Crying, screaming, just..wow. So every night Katy or I would have to rock him to sleep. Thankfully it seemed to pass Friday night. The night we were most worried about was Wednesday nite, so Maggie got a good night's sleep for her first day. Through rocking and rocking we finally got him to sleep at 9:30pm. As Katy said, of all the weeks to pick to have sleep trouble, this was not our first choice. So during the week Katy and I got less and less sleep.
So that was our week. In a strange way after all that, I feel more a part of this place than before.
Nicholas had been going to the Woodland Montessori school near us. We had wanted to move him to Woodland Harbourside from the beginning and an opening came up. Maggie started kindergarten R-2 at the Hong Kong International School (HKIS).
Monday: free day for everyone. Except Katy and I.
Tuesday: Maggie, Katy and I went to HKIS for meet the teacher and after school sign up day. After school sign up was in the morning. Maggie is focused on Girl Scout Daises, swimming and gymnastics. We were invited to lunch by our HKIS host mom. Then off to meet the teacher, Ms McGinnis. She is from New Zealand and we think we will get along great.
Wednesday: First day of school for Nicholas. And first time taking the school bus. So Katy and I took Nicholas down the to school bus. It comes up to the lobby drive up level at 8:10. We put him on and drove with him to the school. He saw all the neat stuff at school and was like "bye bye." His day goes from 8:30 to 10:30 M-W-F. I went to pick him up and meet his teacher Ms Jemma. Again very nice.
Thursday: D DAY. Maggie's first day of R2. Her day starts with a school bus pickup at 7am down on the street level. As you can imagine a gaggle, if ever that word applied to people it does to parents standing around waiting for a school bus, of parents and kids. Maggie's bus came, she had a little hesitation, but got on. Maggie's day ends with the bus drop off at 2:15 or so. She had a great day per her own report.
Friday. D DAY PLUS 1. Niocholas' second day. We decide that maybe he should ride the bus by himself. Well he gets on OK and actually stays OK till it pulls out and leave then starts crying. Katy and I figure we will see on Monday. But when Eva picked him up at 10:30 the only thing she heard was he keeps being reminded to sit down in class. But as my friends at FUMCDC will know, it was hard for me to see him cry.
Later that morning I head to HKIS for new parent orientation. The principal and her staff all gave presentations. It was really nice and there will be a lot of chances for us to get involved.
Oh.....During this whole week, Nicholas on Monday somehow got scared of his shadow and would NOT GO TO SLEEP in his room. Crying, screaming, just..wow. So every night Katy or I would have to rock him to sleep. Thankfully it seemed to pass Friday night. The night we were most worried about was Wednesday nite, so Maggie got a good night's sleep for her first day. Through rocking and rocking we finally got him to sleep at 9:30pm. As Katy said, of all the weeks to pick to have sleep trouble, this was not our first choice. So during the week Katy and I got less and less sleep.
So that was our week. In a strange way after all that, I feel more a part of this place than before.
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