Cockroachs and Water Bills

Curious what this post is about? Well I have been living in Hong Kong for about three months and by now I actually thought that I more or less know what the city has in petto. Well I was proven wrong today, as we received our first water- and electricity bill.
Nowadays one hears a lot about rising energy prices in Europe, so we payed close attention not to overuse the water heater, air con andof course to switch off the light when leaving the room. We even went that far to set our fridge to "winter-modus" during summerly 30 degrees! But see for yourself what kind of misfortune struck us...

Turns out: Energy is ridiculously cheap in Hong Kong!! Besides the enormously high rent, one does not have to fear additional costs when renting an apartment. As the government subsidise the first 140 HKD of every electricity bill in the city, every month, we did not have to pay a single cent for electricity yet.On the contrary we had to settle a derisory amount of 24 HKD for water, over a period of 70 days! Oh, and of course this bill is defrayable at ever ATM in the city in less than a minute. One just gotta love this city ;)

Well back to the actual story of the protagonist! When my flatmate came home today he found a rather odd guest in our apartment (no, this time it was not a couchsurfer who is commonly found at our place) but a cockroach. Being omnipresent in the city and especially in the crowded partying districts, these little fellows are a common site. But in our apartment?

 Apart from us being tidy and clean people we wondered HOW this daily doze of protein could have managed to reach our flat on the 8th floor. The most rational theory  (2 out of 2 votes) is that our neighbours have a cockroach farm to earn a little extra money to pay the rent. Nevertheless we treated him with best hospitality and gave him/ him a piece of rotten banana. Enjoy! Unfortunately he is no longer staying with us as we threw him back to his world, the dark alley full of eatable waste from the restaurant next door.

Progress Report online

Hey Folks,

One of my countless reports was uploaded to the school's website. For anyone who can handle google translator or is capable of understanding German, enjoy!

http://mygsis.gsis.edu.hk/GSISDept_Erfahrungsbericht%204.aspx

Sightseeing #3:Lamma Island

First of all, to state the obvious, Hong Kong is great!On the one hand, this vibrant metropolis has that many highlights and advantages that I dont even dare to name them because I would probably forget some of them. However on the other hand, the noise and the pollution are reason enough escape the grasp of the city on the weekend. One famous sight for a short trip is the car free Lamma Island.

It is located on the south of Hong Kong and can be easily reached by ferry in about 40 minutes via the main ferry pier in central.

Lamma Island has, besides some sights and beaches, two small settlements where one can enjoy local seafood and take a break from everyday life. For this trip, I decided to start at the settlement on the eastern side of the island, Sok Kwu Wan.

As the Island is not very big one can cross is in about 90 minutes if  one is eager to taste some seafood on the other side or enjoy the various sides on the way there and take a lot longer. Along the trail up the hills there are beaches, small temples , shrines, even smaller settlements and a few shops which sell refreshments. In addition to these things one may expect to see, there is a more uncommon one, too. The Lamma Island power plant. A coal-fired power station which was build in 1982 but enlarged over the years. The total power output is said to be 4MW.

Who would not love to enjoy the sight of this fabulous landmark when laying at the beach? Oh and in case someone wonders, these people with the big hats, blue cloths and the rake are hired cleaners to clean the beach every day to attract more tourists from Hong Kong.

Even though the power plant kind of dims the mood, I actually like this small village along the coastline with a few diners and a nice beach. Especially because it is not exceptionally crowded like all of the other beaches on Hong Kong Island and because the diners offer free WiFi giving guests the option to sunbath at the beach and relax while skyping with friends and family from Germany who complain about the cold rainy weather.
Truely amazing

Somewhat later one arrives at the Yung Shue Wan at the western side of the island where seafood can be enjoyed as well. The restaurants have a huge variety of locals and oversee ingredients which are presented in tanks in front of the restaurant. One may even chose the lobster or crab for oneself or just order from the menu to not trouble the conscience ;)

So far I have tried all kinds of crabs, lobster, a few local types of fish, scallops and some veggies out of the see on my previous trips to Lamma Island and they were without exception really good. The advantage of having seafood on one of the Island is not only the guaranteed freshness of the ingredients but also the lower price as the restaurants do not have to 

pay such a high rent for the space they use or even own it.

The trip to the islands is really worth it and it is a lot of fun to sit at the waterfront, eat seafood and chat with friends while watching the fishermen and small boots passing by. If you have the chance, you should go during the week though as it tends to get a little busier on the weekends.
The lush green hills and valleys in between  are a welcome change to the urban canyons of the city.


There are probably a lot more things to see and to discover if one is brave enough to leave the well
beaten tourist-paths.
In addition to the not so forward-looking coal-fired power plant, Lamma features the first wind turbine in Hong Kong as well. One can even walk up to it and wonder: "How could a turbine possibly be a tourist attraction"?
Back in Germany people are complaining that there are too many turbines being erected and over here a single one is so extraordinary that it becomes  a sigh for tourist. Hong Kong really has a long way to go when it comes to renewable energy and recycling!

 Even saving energy seems not to be part of  the every day vocabulary in Hong Kong. Due to the high light pollution in the city, I assume that one of the many things some locals have not ever seen are stars besides snow and Christmas trees.
Oh, and most do not know how to swim, ride a bike or drive a car either. Cultural differences I guess.

This is the sight I enjoyed while eating my lobster in one of the various restaurants in the end of the "across the island" trip. The advantage of a side trip to Lamma is that it can range from 4 hours of time up to a whole day depending on the mood and need for some quiet time.

A trip to either Lamma or Lantau Island should be one excursion if one stays in Hong Kong for more than three days. The sea food is definitely worth it!

  

Typical sights in Hong Kong: #1 Typhoons

For the past few weeks there has always been some ruckus about typhoons and weather they would hit us or just pass by unnoticed, like most of the time. The magical typhoon level is 8 as school, work and most of the shops do not pick up work on these days.

The same predictions made their way around and most of the persons I talked to believed in the inability of the Hong Kong Observatory to predict accurately but they were wrong!

http://www.hko.gov.hk/contente.htm

When I got up at 6 o'clock in the morning and checked my mobile phone my eyeperceived a sms saying that the level raised up to 8 and school would be suspended for today! Not only did I get a couple more hours of sleep out of it but the city fell asleep as well, which rarely to never happens in Hong Kong.
Moreover all the noise from a nearby building site died down and one could only hear the rain for the past 5 hours. Truly magical!

Now it is official, I love thypoon as they bring out the better parts of Hoong Kong :)

Would you be able to predict the typhoon is coming?

The magical number 8 which is supposed to bring luck  in China!

How to survive in Hong Kong: Lesson #1, the Octopus Card

Once, in a  country far far away called Germany there was a traceur, hindered in his movement as he was waiting for a train. He was exasperatedly because the 30 minute trainride cost a small fortune, the service was bad and the train ran only every half an hour, when on time. In addition one always had to carry around change as payment.

The traceur was so furious about this treatment that he flew to a myth-enshrouded place where one could board any of the many different vehicles available and pay conveniently by placing his wallet onto a magic button.

My one and only Octopus Card.

Okay enough of the tails, over here in Hong Kong the public transit system can be described as awesomness²! With the rechargeable Octopus card one can not only pay all public transit by swiping it over a sensor but at all Starbucks, 7-11s and many more stores. In addition you receive one free trip for every 100 HKD you spent (about 10 Euro). Moreover the fair is comparably inexpensive as one pays 2.3 HKD for the tram, 4.8-10.5 for the MTR (Mass Transit Rail) and 5-12 HKD for the bus and minibuses.

Taxis are comparably cheap too. Every Monday I have to switch campuses and therefore take the taxi which takes me about 20 minutes and the charge is only charged with about 75 HKD.

This one being the MTR-logo

The tram being the cheapest vehicle only runs, of course, on fixed tracks on Hong Kong Island. All of the routes go from East to West, covering the northern part of the island.
As one stop is just outside my door, it is really convenient for me to take the tram to most of my afternoon and evening activities. It is always a great sight to just sit on the upper deck and watch the street pass by. Once I have time, I will post some "off the tram shot" pictures.

The MTR is by far the most used public transit vehicle transporting most of the professionals from Kowloon through the tunnel to the many office buildings on the island and back. The reasons why so many people use this way of transportation is because it is fast and really convenient as the waiting time only ranges from 1-10 minutes and the railway area covers most of the urban area.

Every morning I bestow my way to work by bus hence this route is not covered by any other pt-line. Some bus routes are exceptionally busy during rush hour and therefore slow but most of the times the bus is a good way to reach ones destination as well. However during rush hour I prefer to switch to the MTR for some stops hence traffic is sometimes time consuming. Moreover on the bus you can sit on the upper deck up front and enjoy the view while travelling or take a nap.

Tram, double-deck bus and of course a German Benz!

Lastly there is the option to chose a taxi for travelling. The time and money you have to spend for a trip depends mostly on traffic likewise driving skill and English capability vary greatly from one to another driver. So far, the most annoying driving style I have experienced is the constant gas on/off way, at an interval of one acceleration per second. Not only does one have to hold on to a handle but fear for his life as well as the driver is apparently not well schooled. In addition your stomach should not be upset if you board one of these taxis or you lunch/ drinks might cross your mind again.

Sightseeing #2: The Ten Thousand Buddha Monastery

Today my post will not have to much text as sightseeing is about pictures, not facts! The monastery (in fact it is a temple as there are no more monks living there) was build about 50 years ago by hand and consists of a few buildings, towers and a pagoda. In addition about 12,800 buddhas are displayed, ranging from a height of a few inches up to a couple meters.
Due to its historical significance it is listed as a grade 3 historic building which basically means that it is of somewhat important. Enough of the babbling, enjoy the picturesque photos. All credits go to a friend of mine who took them. It was just the humble me who did the editing and sharing.

The great hall with thousands of tiny statues. In reality the galanty show was mesmerizing!

Another shot of the smaller statues in the great hall.

The sage Buddha I assume? He must have been meditating for some time to grow such long eyebrows!

This one being my favorite Buddha of all times! Even though it is not a tradtional one it just looks amazing!

Challenge the impossible e.g. learn Mandarin

I guess everyone of us has at least one thing in mind which we have been wanting to do since ages but just could not realise it into reality. For me, one of these cogitations is to learn 7 languages.

Now that I finally signed up for a Mandarin course at a language school, I came one step closer in pursuing this goal.I have 10 weeks to study for approximately 400 hours to get into the university course starting in January. This digit should be taken seriously as it is the official guideline recommended for the entrance exam of the course.
Two 120 minutes sessions per week plus homework should give me a good foundation for this challenging task. In addition I got a "private tutor" (a friend of mine who has doubtful and pestering amazing and innovative teaching methods. As I won't be able to speak much Mandarin in Hong Kong I will have to seize every possible practise I can get.

Wish me good perseverance and an alert mind.
www.hk-mandarin-school.com.hk
http://www.cuhk.edu.hk/clc/ssp_series_4.pdf

So far my study material consists of a textbook/ workbook, a phrasebook, podcasts and some software for my audio capability.

This one being my textbook.

As you sow, so shall you reap.

Sightseeing #1: The Symphony of Lights

Yesterday, I went over to Kowloon to watch the "Symphony of Lights", a ligh/ laser show of the island‘s skyline. The background music reminded me of a tv show for children I watched a few years ago but I guess it was kind of nice. The skyline on its own is already impressiv though with the tall IFC building on the right, being my favorite building. Lets see. maybe I will work there one day ; )

Another shot of the unique sight.

Parkour In Hong Kong

Which happy day, I was invited to train with the HK Parkour Association!

Parkour was part of my daily life in Germany and it was always fun to train with my team at the weekend or go out for dinner with them! Over here I really missed that feeling of zero gravity when you close a gap with a precision-jump and the state of  high concentration when you conceive a sequel of moves. But I am back, there is a fairly active team over here which invites everyone to train with them on Tuesday nights.
Hopefully the training sessions will become more frequent as soon as I get to know some other guys better. My overall fitness and particular my endurance has to be improved before I can start to train more serious again though.

Maybe I will take some pictures next time. This week we only did conditioning for two hours straight therefore I  feel really sore and did not have the urge to take pictures.

In this spirit, I am looking forward to another intense workout session next week.

In the end, the link to their website:http://www.parkour.hk/

The only thing constant in life is change

Time flies; 5 weeks have passed and I still have not adapted a constant weekly cycle. Maybe it is because there are so many things to do, maybe because rapid change is constant or maybe because I do not wanna define a fixed schedules hence there might turn up something better tomorrow.
My primary goal at the moment is to enrol for a Mandarin course at a language school but the options are vast and I want to make sure that I chose the one which fits me best. In addition I am pondering about my sport schedule...fixed classes?, mood-wise? , 3 times a week?, 5 times a week?

Anyways, in the past week I received my Hong Kong ID-Card,  met tons of interesting people from all kinds of backgrounds, I discovered that the world is indeed a village, my favourite Dim Sum (bite sized delicious snacks) got competition: castle layered spongecake!, I cooked European food for friends for the first time, Southpark was watched extensively and intercultural exchange took place. I do not want to go into detail as the topics were somehow private but we had many laughs and I enjoyed every last minute of my weekend!

More updates and pictures will follow later, work is calling!

Amazing day

Yesterday, I spent another amazing day with friends and friends to be. The day started with Dim Sun for lunch at a famous place in Sheung Wan. We shared about six dishes and all of them were delicious. Other then food we talked about Cantonese traditions, manners in Hong Kong and of course Cantonese itself. I do not have the time yet to put a lot of effort into it though.
After lunch we headed out to Repulse Bay beach and had a good time relaxing at the beach and going for a swim in the warm water. So far we only missed one Sun/ Sandyday at the beach and it was always worth the trip. Repulse Bay does even feature free government WiFi giving us the possibility to skype next to the water.
Some photos will follow up ;)

In the evening we went out for a traditional dragon dance to Causeway Bay. The actual dragon dance was not too exciting as it was exceptionally crowded including many many tourists so one could only barely see the dragon. Good thing that we went there with some Couchsurfers! We spent the time after the festival at a restaurant talking about life and work. It is all about meeting new people, getting to know their life's work and making new friends. In addition one always learns something new e.g. that there is a language school close by our place where one can take lessons almost for free.

Later on  we will go to the beach again and celebrate the Mid Autumn Festival with traditional Moon Cakes, good food, friends and hopefully a clear sky. The last part could be a problem...

We are no slavedrivers

Okay, first of all, I LOVE quotes because it is up to interpretation and context what you make of them. Moreover it reveals in which paradigm people think.  

One of my really nice colleagues mentioned it in a sub clause, hinting that the other teachers and her pay close attention that I have enough breaks, food and room for myself. As there are these very supporting moments, there are others as well…Last week I got asked to laminate a new learning game consisting of din7 cue cards, din6 cue cards and Din4 paper which adds up to 56 pages (Din4). Bad news is, there are 10 of these games!! I have to stuff the smaller cue cards, edge on edge, into a laminating foil, laminate them, cut the page back into 8/6 cards and sort them again. Oh and yes, it is as time consuming and annoying as it sounds.

But as there is always a downside to everything you have to look on the “bright side of life”. For me, the bright side is that I meanwhile listen to Chinese podcasts or audio companions. In addition I dare to believe that this is a onetime only situation hindering me only for some time to work with the kids. I would have liked though, to be informed about this prior to the beginning of work as my field of work  was defined like that “ It might happen that you will have to produce some worksheets and other material for lesson, maybe even a little more in the beginning”.

Besides that one task there is not really anything at all I can complain about at work. My colleagues are always chatty and helpful, the kids are tiring but it’s a pleasure to work with them and even my boss is far away from the klischee-tyrant.  She updates my knowledge about school frequently, provides me with information about town and gives me advise how to live life over here.
In conclusion I am like my work, all the teachers around me and of course the school staff.

Quick review

After some request, the first pictures of my apartment in Hong kong! It is not very spacious but it features everything one needs to live in Hong Kong and a couch-bed, which is already used by travellers. In the next days I will put it up on Couchsurfing as well. More pictures will follow soon.

As normal as it gets…

In this post I want to give you a broad overview about my daily life; especially my work at the Pok Fu Lam campus of the German Swiss International School. My work consists of authoring teaching materials, assisting the teacher in class, break duty, bus duty,extra tutoring for weak or strong students, PE lessons and an afternoon activity at the Peak campus.

Generally I get up at 6am or earlier, if my body comes to an agreement with my mind that it is a good idea to push my heart rate by accelerating my legs to a fast pace. Either way, I need to have breakfast and shower until 6:35am to leave the flat and shift to the next bus stop.

The following 25 minutes are mostly used to chit chat with colleagues on the bus or to repeat some Chinese vocabulary by audio guide. At school I can still enjoy 5 to 10 minutes of silence until the children arrive by bus. As we have close to 300 students ranging from three to six years of age, a mornings bus duty is no bed of roses. I have to help every single student to depart from the bus, whereas some of them just learnt to walk recently. After my bus duty I have a long breakfast break in which I mostly do research on the Internet, write blog-posts, private mail as well as work mail.  I do look forward to the day where my have-to-do-list is blank.

After the break I have five lessons and two playground duties following the regular German Schedule of two lessons, break...At the moment there are still many office wise things to complete so I do not work with the kids as regularly as I would like to since they are mostly exceptional cute and have good manners. Some are only really cute and behave nicely though, screw them ; )

Playground duty is still stressful hence the new kids do not know about the rules and it is not easy to keep an eye on all of the kids around me. Tidying up the toys after the break is another point where there is still a need of improvement

After the 6^th lesson the whole fun starts again as all of the kids have to get onto their bus again. To ensure a smooth flow, all of the kids gather at their bus location in the gym and wait for their bus to arrive. Depending on the bus number, one has to shepherd the children for 5 to 30 minutes.  After the children are gone I have my second break of the day.

Later on, afternoon activities, private tutoring or, if neither of these apply to my schedule, office hours begin and last till 3:20pm. Normally I would be allowed to leave at that time but I generally stay longer as there is still stuff to be done. My free time activities after work (yes I still have a life over here outside of school) will follow in the next days.

FINALLY, my registration got approved and I will be a regular Hong Kong resident soon :))))

Learning by heart at the language exchange group over a German Meisel!

An important note at the end: If you send me your home address or a post card, you will get at least one post card back from me for each one of the two. It does not matter if I know you in person.

I was blind, but now I see

This quote could indeed be an extractfrom the bible but my source is a different one and my intention is certainly not to convert anyone.

On my flight from Dubai to Hong Kong the movie “Limitless” mesmerized me.  The protagonist was given a brain doping drug which increased his brain activity up to tenfold and allowed him to become the master of his soul; the captain of his fate, with some detours.

This quote amazed me as the protagonist was able to see his surrounding very clearly and his brain became able to process all of the data he received by his sense. For me, in Hong Kong, it meant to see myself without my surrounding and therefore the purer essence of me. Within one week in Hong Kong I became much more aware of my qualities and how I might use them in the future, as well as through passive feedback from others. In addition my weaknesses appeared evident  as well as the conclusions which made them a mere task to work on.

Moreover I devoted myself to the book “7 habits for highly effective people” by Steven Covey for a second time and it is stunning how much I was able to implement these habits into my life but I still lack. There is still a long way to go.

Hong Kong will be a good environment for me though as it will be a test me, what I can achieve through my own hard work in 10 months, without help from other people I knew before. Problem solving will be one of the qualities to master over here as well as getting to know other people and networking.

Furthermore one just cannot always plan ahead as the Chinese mentality presupposes a spontaneous and creative way to adapt and change rock-solid plans made a hundred years ago. Okay that might be exaggerated but it is indeed differs from the German approach.

In the end, another quote which I thing is very important for young ambitious individuals like me.

                                                         

                                                    -Be humble, especially if you are capable-

Two weeks in Hong Kong

Back again! Since we do not have Internet in our flat yet, blogging is only possible from work.

The CS language club was definitely worth the visit! Not only did I meet new people but they could actually support me with profound knowledge about the level of difficulty of learning Mandarin/ Cantonese and simplified/ traditional. Now, I am more confident that simplified Mandarin combined with some Cantonese to get along is my reconsidered choice. This Evening I will see them again and learn some new sentences in Mandarin.

Before that meeting last week we went to a Sichuan place, where they featured "mouth numbing" noodle soup. I expected it to be exceptional spicy but instead my whole mouth started to tingle and prickle for about 10 minutes. At first it was just funny but as the tingling grew stronger I really felt uneasy about it. Good thing it stopped!

For our new apartment we chose different sources for articles of daily use. Luckily our teachers and friends over here are extremely kind and provided us with cutlery, blankets, pans& pots...Some more stuff

came from the local supermarket and Ikea. The only thing missing are electronics, like a water boiler and a rice cooker. We will probably but them used as there are some good deals on Asia.expat and craigslist.

Finally school has started for real and I develop an actual daily rhythm. Getting up early is always hard but it is worth it as we only have to work till 3pm. In addition my work is getting more interesting as all of the boring labelling, printing and laminating  will decrease over the next few weeks. When I have actually adapted to a daily schedule I will post a “regular day”; well as regular as it will get from my work at least ; )

Now that school has officially started, I got to know some parents at the entrance ceremony and even received some tutoring-requests which I gladly accepted. Not only do I need the money but I actually enjoy to support the willing ; ) I think it is remarkable that some of the kids grow up with two or three languages at the same time.

I found a minibus who takes me to work in 20 minutes  which is amazing as I can sleep longer in the morning! In the afternoon it does still take me ages to get home as the traffic is so bad. The best option so far is to take the bus to the first MTR station and from there on, take the train.

A couple posts ago I noted that the Chinese mentality is guest friendly. After one more week I want to add to that statement. Not only are they courteous but really generous, too. In my opinion most of the Germans should follow their example. We get regularly invited to drinks, music- or sport-events or even dinner.Maybe I have already acquire this quality earlier as an old lady in a coffee shop tried for at least a minute to communicate that I am very attentive; in her broken English.

Nearly every day I try new food, like the Japanese sponge cake which is really airy, soft and sweet and in different flavors available. On Sunday evening my friend Joyce invited us over to her place for dinner with her parents. As her mother is an angel, she created a fantastic dinner on short notice and provided us with even more cutlery for our apartment. Now we can feed at least a dozen people from plates!

At her place we had seafood (fish and clams) with a cucumber like vegetable, rice; of course and beef For dessert we had sweet young ginger, yellow kiwis, some dark coloured Tofu which smelled and tasted like old cheese and another bitter vegetable. Besides the bitter one, I really enjoyed the food, especially the delicate ginger!!

Oh and last Friday we went out for seafood to Lamma Island by ferry.  We got invited by our teachers from school and besides the tasty seafood it was an entertaining trip to a more quite place of Hong Kong. At first I was sceptical but there actually exists something like a quite spot on these islands. Afterwards we payed a visit to the Red Bar in Cetral, where you can enjoy your own beer with a superb view on the Kowloon Skyline. In Germany a spot like that would be commercialised for sure!

On Saturday we slept in for once and went over to a colleague to enjoy a German barbecue with them and German speaking expats. Always nice to know that the German culture lives on, even in Hong Kong.

We still have no Internet, no washing machine and no stove but at least the last two are getting connected today. We hope that we will be able to take over an Internet contract from some expat who returns to his home country as the minimum length of contract is 18 months.

But as these contracts are on high demand, we did not have any luck yet to acquire one. We definitely need one soon though! I just "wasted" my whole breakfast break for blogging   :(

Getting used to it

After a few days of absence, our Internet connection is back up and I can blog again! On Saturday we went to Macao to activate Cornelius's visa. As we were short on time we could only visit the famous casino Venezian. As the name implies, it is a replica of the venetian architecture with channels, gondolas, a Bellini Lounge and of course the "old" Venetian buildings. It sounds amazing and partially looks amazing as well but indeed it is just artificial. The gondoliers (Asians) sing venetian songs, the floor is made out of plastic, Mac Donalds and other shops appear to be miss placed in this setting, the lighting is factitious and the sky is only painted. In conclusion I was more deterred than amazed by this tourist attraction, or more precisely, by this non sustainable money factory. Oh, and of course the whole place was cooled down to about 18 degrees Celsius.

Here is another view on one of the many halls of the building! Due to curiosity I looked up some facts about the building. It was finished in July 2007 and cost 2,4 Billion $ but fills about 980,000 m2 with 3000 suits, 3400 slot machines, 800 gambling tables and a 15,000 seat arena for entertainment/sports events. It is vast!

Saturday evening; I have been here for almost a week now. Jet lag, if I even had any, is gone and it became absolutely normal to stroll around a few corners to find an yet unknown place to eat. As a prefix, I did not want to go to the same place even once for the first month. In addition only Asian food is an option for breakfast, lunch and dinner. So far I have tried a lot of different food from a few Chinese cooking styles, Korean, Japanese, Thai cuisine and Malaysian. I will not add everything I have tried to my diet but there were   many tasty things I discovered. Eating spicy food became a habit, too.

On Sunday we decided to go to the beach, to Deepwater Bay. Unfortunately we had to change plans as Deepwater Bay had red tide on Sunday, so we had to take a detour and go to Clearwater Bay in east Kowloon. Not only was the water actually clear but it was not as crowded as we expected! In addition, most of the Chinese guests preferred to stay in waist-deep water so we could swim around freely.

After a nice bath in 26 degree Celsius water we went over to some locals and joined their game of volleyball. They were really friendly and we had a great time with many laughs, even without communicating much. Over here, you are always welcome if you carry a smile on your face and treat everyone the same.

In the afternoon we went by some shops to get an impression how much money we will have to spent for our daily food and for outfitting our apartment. In conclusion, furniture is cheap, as well as local food. Meat, fish, milk and all western products are as expensive as in Germany or even more expensive. Our choice of supermarket was Wellcome, which is comparable to a German Rewe. I guess we will find a cheaper way to acquire food though.

Today, we opened our very own bank account at the HSBC bank! Not only was it another step to settle in but we were able to get a direct contact through our head of accounting department which made the process a lot easier. In a bit we will head out to our first couchsurfer meeting nearby. A language study group based on learning English and Mandarin from each other. I am excited and look forward to meet new people!

Home is where your flat is!

After days of exhausting search we finally found a suitable apartment! As there is still a rusty pipe to fix and a bed missing it will be a few days until we can move in but we are relived to have one less thing one our mind.

It is located in the heart of Wan Chai so we have any possible means of public transit to get to work or to Kowloon. The size is just under 500square-feet (45 square meters), it has a new kitchen and for guests a sofa-sleeper. On the contrary we still need to do some handy work and get a table `plus chairs.

Many thanks go to the mother of our friend Joyce who helped us prodigiously by checking all conditions of rent and talking to the real estate agent. Without her we would not have a flat yet as we were anxious to get fooled. Now we are tremendously more confident that we found a good place to stay.

Pictures will follow after the renovation is done--> August 26th.


Tomorrow [yesterday due to weak internet connection this post was not published ] we will leave Hong Kong to visit Macao as we want to activate Cornelius's Visa to apply for a Hong Kong ID-Card. In the next days we will open a bank account at HSBC, get us registered at the embassy and of course meet new interesting people.

Welcome abroad to all the other volunteers who arrived at their final destination :)

Traditional food

A few days ago I had the luck to be invited to dinner by an old friend of mine from Canada who was born and raised in mainland China. Long story short, he asked me to come to a so called tea house for dinner with him and two of his friends who are in Hong Kong for two days.
The interior design was quite old and, as he informed me, the restaurant has already been in business for 70 years and is apparently well known. The food served was very tasty but traditional so the ingredients do normally not appear on my diet. I do not remember all courses as the dinner had many diverse components.
For an appetiser we had pigeon lung in a rich source, followed by pork liver (cooked), pork liver soup (white colour), fried ham, pork feet, fried fish and finally a soup for dessert which was made from milk and some kind of nuts (very tasty).

Besides the dinner it was nice to actually talk to some locals and get to know about their opinion about education, overpopulation, travelling, working for the government and food of course!

At the 16th Cornelius and I started to work at the GSIS and we have been extremely busy since then as we work at the school from morning till afternoon and go flat hunting afterwards.
So far, we have been enjoying our work at  the school as everyone is mighty friendly and supports us from the bottom of their hearts. We receive many hints where to get good food, cheap shopping or get invited to lunch. In addition we can sometimes leave earlier if we have a flat-viewing in the afternoon. As school starts on Monday it will get more busy and we will have to work overtime for a few days.

That is why we try to find an apartment as soon as possible but it has been a drag so far! After hours on the Internet searching for flats, followed by numerous calls to agents and lots of flat viewings we finally found 2 possible options for accommodation. Wish us luck that something  works out!

edit: picture of the four of us in the tea house.

Nature vs. City

Today I was in the mood to take a look at some of the lush-green spots of Hong Kong. Therefore my journey took me, besides other places, to  KowLoon Park which is extremely beautiful and located just north of a popular shopping area. It is a neat place to escape the heat, sitting under the ancient mangrove trees watching the fish in one of the numerous ponds.
I used the time on a bench to discover the secrets of my new HK-SimCard.-->Proud owner of a Hk cell phone number :)

On my way back to the Island I had the chance to take a great shot of the skyline which I do not want to keep from you.

Back on the island I headed towards the Mid-Level-Escalator which is a mixture of stairs and escalators going up- and downhill. They connect the district Central with Soho and Mid-Level, one being popular for its nightlife and the other a fancied living district halfway up the hill, hence the name. The 30.000 people probably chose to live there because of the panorama like view and the quick way to work in central or maybe because of the beer on the way home?! ;)

 At the top of the "escalator" I took a turn left and walked downhill towards the zoological garden which is really  worth the trip. It features some reptiles, mammals and bird, too.

As the space in Hong Kong is limited by steep mountains it is amazing how architects use the available space to place infrastructure, buildings and parks next to each other. Most of the times the shift between concrete and soil is abrupt as ground is highly expensive.

The plans for tonight are to meet an old friend from Canada who is in town and pick up my future roommate Cornelius at the airport.

First Contact, first impression

As I arrived yesterday I can finally share my first impressions of Hong Kong!
My flight was pleasant and public transport perfect as it is cheap compared to Germany and you can even pay with a rechargeable card called the Octopus Card. I was in such good spirits that not even the high temperature of 36 degrees and high humidity combined with a long walking distance and heavy luggage couldn't break my spirit.
The hostel in Causeway Bay has really good service,is neat, good located and clean. My friend and future roommate, who will work at the GSIS as well, and I decided to search for a flat to rent on site. Wish us luck!
During my first day I was just strolling through town for about 8 hours without a real destination, just lead by intuition and mood. My first impressions were somewhat like that: Hot, humid and lots of people/ shopping centres/ skyscrapers.
In the end I found myself on the Peak sky platform offering me this great view!

Tomorrow, my future roommate Cornelius will arrive and we might already search for a suitable accommodation...or discover more of the town, depending on the time and his mood. On Tuesday we will have our first day at the school even though the students still have summer vacation :(
Well, I guess it is good to get to know our colleagues and the school plus we won't have to work full time.

"Hong Kong is like life, full of unknown things but riddled with chances to grab"

Just two days left..

Finally, I have settled all my obligations in good old Germany! The requested first-aid course for my work in Hong Kong was literally completed during the last days of my stay at "home".
Only packing is left to do as I already got my Visa, my place to work and a temporary place to sleep (hostel).
In the next two days I will piece together my precious belongings to fill two bags of lluggage memories to move on to pastures new.
Uncertainty, a thirst for adventure and an open mind will be my constant companions for the next weeks. Obviously I will share a selection of impressions on this blog. Just give me some time to get my jaw back in place as I will probably flabbergasted by this amazing city!