Jet-lag

I'm starting to feel like I really belong here.  Yesterday, I stopped to watch some Japanese tourists taking photos of my neighbourhood!  I felt like saying "I LIVE here!  Aren't I lucky?"  Later on, a young woman (Israeli) asked me what kind of milk to buy when we were at Park and shop (which I have dubbed Park 'n fly).  I guess I'm starting to even look like a native!  It's all in one's attitude.  This is a photo of the escalators and some of the shops along the way.

The week has been busy - it feels like September used to when we were busy signing the kids up for swimming and all of the other extra-curricular activities.
On Monday morning (after very little sleep), Jeff pointed me in the general direction of the YWCA, and off I went.  An hour later, I was still trying to find my way out of the maze of paths in the botanical garden/zoo with no YWCA in sight.  But the weather was lovely, and it felt so wonderful to be in a beautiful park.   I did manage to find the Y (not easy because of the expressways and the zoo in the middle of my journey), and signed up for their signature course called At Home - it's an intro to HK for newly arrived expats.  Reminds me of Julie's orientation for "foreign" students at Caltech!  She made nice new friends through that program, including Eric!  My goal is to find one kindred spirit in the group.
Speaking of the YWCA, they offer normal courses like Chinese cooking and Mahjong, but also some weird ones like "employing a domestic helper" and "party dress shopping".  I'm planning to take advantage of their historical walks, art tours, and perhaps their book group.
Activity number two on Monday was joining Pure Fitness http://www.pure-fit.com/en/hongkong/studios/studio.php?location_id=2 - a nice step up from Dunfield (Linda - the spinning bikes are terrific but the instructor was not as good-looking as Lance; Monica, Judith, Diana, Florrie and Lulu - there seem to be a lot of instructors who are as good as Barb).  The club is filled with young expats (except for a few huffing and puffing 50+ men in my spinning class), the locker rooms are clean and beautiful with dry and wet saunas, and they even provide you with workout clothes (shorts, sox, tshirts), which is a good thing since our belongings are still on that slow boat/plane to China.  The staff wipe down all the mats in between classes!  The best part of the gym is its proximity to our apartment - about a 10 minute walk down the steps, and up the escalators on the return journey.
Other housekeeping duties this week have included getting my HK i.d. card (the picture is better than my passport - I was allowed to smile!), opening up a joint bank account at HSBC, buying a cellphone, and getting the wifi to work at home.  All in all, very productive.
Now if I can only figure out north-south, east-west in this city!  It's truly upside down for an ex-Montrealer/Torontonian.  The harbor is north, we live up the hill - south.  Expressways criss-cross, streets are not on a grid.  And don't get me started on Causeway Bay - the area where Jeff's office is located.  I walked out of Times Square (a large indoor mall) and tried to find Jeff's office building - after 10 minutes of cutting through both small and large streets, I was right back at T.S.!   I was tempted to buy a cellphone with GPS!  The subway stops have multiple exits, and Jeff and I had arranged to meet at Exit F at Causeway Bay.  Times Square is exit A.  Yup - I went back into Exit A, paid $3HK to go through the turnstile and find Exit F!
What made me laugh out loud:  There's a very popular chain of small take-out kiosks called Herbal Tea and Soup Square.  Two of their packaged meals are:  "Cooked chicken with Chinese wine for supplementing blood and Qi" and "Lily bulbs and crocodile meat double-boiled with chicken soup for invigorating lung".  I kid you not!