This is a very small town

Last Wednesday, I began my weekly volunteer assignment at King's College, a high school in the western Mid-levels, about 15 minutes (walking of course!) from our apartment.   The goal of the program is to give students a chance to practise their English conversation skills.  My group consisted of 8 17-year-old seniors.  We had a lot of fun getting to know each other.  After they told me their names, I tried to remember them all - it took a few rounds but I finally got it.  My ice-breaker was a roll of toilet paper.  I passed it around and told each student to take as many squares as he wanted to.  Some took one, others two or three.  Then I told them that they had to tell that many different things about themselves.  What a bunch of chatty guys!  Their English skills are very good (the better ones have Filipina maids who only speak English), and they loved ribbing each other.  Because the program is during the lunch hour, the kids are allowed to eat while we talk.  A lot of the conversation centred around food, and at the end of the session, the boys offered to bring me lunch next week!  I will bring egg tarts for dessert.  After the program, I took the subway to Causeway Bay ("downtown" where Jeff works), and went to the library to return/pick up books.  On my way back to the subway, a young Chinese boy said "Dale?" - it was Michael, one of my King's students!  I even remembered his name!
The moral of this story is - foreigners can't assume that they are invisible in HK.

My favourite coffee shop has closed.  Oscar's made the best cappuccino that I've had in HK.  Unfortunately, business was terrible, so bye-bye.  Their downfall was their location - a side street filled with little shops and small local restaurants.  Well, there's always Starbucks or Pacific Coffee for those who need a caffeine fix.  Speaking of Starbucks, Jeff was on his way to lunch a few weeks ago, with his book in front of his nose.  He walked to his favourite Korean restaurant, opened his eyes, and found a Starbucks in its place.

Coffee shops are great places to talk to strangers.  This morning, the fellow in line ahead of me was holding a hockey stick!  I said "I guess you must really miss Canada!".  Turns out he's been living in HK for 15 years (he's originally from Unionville, north of Toronto).  He owns a company that manufactures hockey sticks.  Their factory is just over the border in mainland China.  We talked about the one ice hockey rink in HK (mega ice).   He still plays pick-up once a week.

Our neighbourhood dumplings restaurant (Hometown Dumplings) (reminds me of the Yangtze in Montreal) had to move because the building is being torn down (it's only 20 years old, but it will be replaced by a 40-story condo).  Luckily, the owners found a new location two doors down.  The food is still good and cheap but the atmosphere is definitely more upscale - the original restaurant had old wooden tables and chairs, toilet paper rolls instead of napkins, ancient calendars and menus lining the walls, and a couple of cats running around (I didn't ask why...).  The new place has glass and rattan tables, flowered seat covers, clean menus, napkins, and five 50-inch televisions.  Same surly staff, but the food is always fresh and delicious.

We hosted our first little dinner party (it's about time, eh?) a couple of weeks ago.  Our guests were Ursula and Stephen, our first HK friends.  Jeff met them last November at the HK Jewish Film Festival.  Stephen's office is across the road from Jeff's and they often bump into each other grabbing a fast lunch-to-go at the supermarket in Jeff's building.  Ursula is my walking buddy - we have a standing date to climb the Peak bright and early Thursday mornings.  She's also the fashionista who introduced me to shopping in Shenzhen.  The dinner (salmon cooked on our George Forman grill, carrot/ginger soup, etc.) was delicious, but at the end of the evening we had lots of dishes to wash by hand - how I miss my dishwasher!

HK celebrated the Mid-Autumn Lantern Festival on September 23rd.  We're not exactly sure when autumn officially begins here, but in Canada, Sept. 23rd is the third day of autumn, and mid-autumn falls towards the beginning of November!  Lanterns decorated the city for a couple of weeks before the holiday.  On Sept. 22nd, we joined thousands of locals in Victoria Park, admiring the decorations and listening to the music.

Good news/bad news:  The good news is that our very noisy neighbours upstairs in 29 E have moved out.  The bad news is that the new owners are renovating the apartment.  We now listen to jackhammers inside as well as outside (an enormous building is going up right next door).  It's impossible to find a neighbourhood in HK that isn't being redeveloped.
There's a huge dig taking place on Stanley Street in Central.  I think they are replacing the pipes under the street.  The construction has displaced the dai pai dongs (outdoor restaurants) that used to line this pedestrian-only block.  On Saturdays and Sundays, the construction crew take off, and as you can see by the photo, restaurants pop up again right next to the dig!

Speaking of renovations, I checked out Wing Lee Street a few days ago (blog May 10, 2010).  Almost the entire block is covered in bamboo scaffolding and green netting, but there are still signs of life in the middle of the construction.  The city has offered to move the residents to public housing at very low rates, but there are still a few who are desperately holding on to their homes.

Jeff and I love to go to museums, temples, and galleries in the summer when it's hot.  I've also been to a lot of art fairs and exhibits with friends during the week.  The photo on the left was taken at Che Kung Temple in Sha Tin.  The young girl brought her pet turtle (turtles are symbols of good luck) to the temple  to bless it at the various shrines.
This temple is across the river from the HK Heritage Museum, where we saw a very creative display of social documentary photography.(Photography exhibit)

Last month, Chloe and I went to a Japanese photography exhibit at the HKU Museum and Art Gallery.  We also admired the permanent collection of furniture, ceramics, paintings, and sculpture.  The chair in the photo on the left has stag antlers for arms!  Chloe, Isabel, and I also visited the Tao Hung Museum of Food Culture.  We were expecting an explanation of  Chinese food - its preparation and presentation.  Unfortunately, we got a wax museum of local foods.  In the photo, Isabel and Chloe are sitting in front of the fake dim sum lunch!  The owner of the Tao Hung group of restaurants collected a lot of junk relating to food and restaurants.

The most interesting item was the old cash register in the photo on the left.  It looked like it had been damaged in WW2 (or perhaps earlier than that!).  The library in one corner of the room had shelves of note books, and also some paperbacks (in Chinese).  None of them seemed to have anything to do with food or restaurants.

A more successful outing was the Edward Burtynsky (member of the Order of Canada) exhibit at the Sundaram Tagore Gallery.  Burtynsky's room-sized photographs of industrial landscapes are breathtaking, even the photo of used oil drums!





Well, once again I seem to have had a lot to blog!  Jeff and I have covered a lot of ground in Hong Kong, but there's so much more to see.