Yearly Archives: 2003

The Leaking Accent

My English accent seems to be com­ing through in my Cantonese more and more now. I’m not sure if being sur­round­ed by Cantonese speak­ing peo­ple has sim­ply made me more aware of my accent, or whether my tongue is tired from speak­ing so much. When I’m rushed to say some­thing, it’ll come out so slop­pi­ly that it’s unin­tel­li­gi­ble. It’s rather frus­trat­ing when my Cantonese seems to be get­ting worse, although the fact that I can rec­og­nize my improp­er pro­nun­ci­a­tions means that I can at least work on them.

"We Got Him"

I was watch­ing the news of Saddam’s cap­ture on TV, and there was one scene where US admin­is­tra­tor Paul Bremer was giv­ing a press release. As soon as he said the words, “We got him”, most of the first rows of reporters cheered. Some even stood up and raised their hands because they were so hap­py. I can’t believe that these peo­ple have the fuck­ing audac­i­ty, the utter stu­pid­i­ty, to show opin­ion on such a mat­ter. How are peo­ple sup­posed to trust the news they’re giv­en now? How do peo­ple know that for every American flag raised on TV, there isn’t one burned as well?

Welcome to Hong Kong

Two attrac­tive women in air­line uni­forms greet­ed me as I entered to bag­gage area of the Hong Kong air­port, hand­ing me a guide to Winterfest activ­i­ties and a book­let of coupons. “Welcome to Hong Kong. Merry Christmas”, they told me, and I was hap­py.

I’m set­tled back into my room now, feel­ing very com­fort­able and at ease. My trip to Beijing was almost non-stop, going from one place to the next. For some rea­son I feel at home here, even when the bed isn’t mine, even when my cat isn’t here to sleep with me, even when my friends aren’t here to talk to. I was relieved when the plane touched down, when I could smell the Hong Kong air, when I could see the per­vad­ing Christmas lights.

People are try­ing to con­vince me to stay here, even though the tech sec­tor is prob­a­bly in worse shape here than at home. I’ve always con­sid­ered liv­ing in Hong Kong, but have nev­er tak­en it seri­ous­ly because of the ter­ri­bly humid weath­er that’s around for most of the year. Now I’m turn­ing the idea in my head more and more.

I’ve grown to love this city, the atmos­phere, the peo­ple, the cul­ture, the spir­it, in such a pro­found way. I think I under­stand what Dina was telling me about, after her trip and the attach­ment she devel­oped to such a for­eign land. When I first got here, I was won­der­ing weath­er or not I would find leav­ing dif­fi­cult.

Now I’m just hop­ing my eyes won’t well up when my grand­moth­er sees me off.

To The Mainland

I got my visa to China approved, good enough for two vis­its, and booked a five day trip to Beijing. I’ve nev­er been to the main­land, and I’ve always want­ed to see the Great Wall. I’ll also get the chance to vis­it places such as Tienanmen Square and the Forbidden City. The flight is only a cou­ple hours from here to Beijing, and the tem­per­a­ture there can match the chill of Canadian win­ters. The weath­er reports all say that it’s snowed there so it should make for some great scenery. My flight leaves in a few hours, and I should be back some­time on Sunday. I might do a trip to Shanghai lat­er on.

The Streets Of Hong Kong

Thumbnail: Bird street 1
Thumbnail: Bird street 2
Thumbnail: Flower street
Thumbnail: Fish street

I vis­it­ed Bird Street, Flower Street, and Fish Street yes­ter­day, per­fect exam­ples of how Hong Kong has devel­oped in a very con­cen­trat­ed man­ner. Each street is one long row of stores relat­ed to one type of thing, and peo­ple can come to shop around from an over­whelm­ing selec­tion of a spe­cif­ic mar­ket. Bird Street was the most inter­est­ing though, because it starts off as a stone walk­way with signs warn­ing that no dogs are allowed. The walk­way is sur­round­ed by trees on both sides, and peo­ple con­gre­gate there to hang their birds in their cages on the branch­es, and social­ize. Walking fur­ther on, one is greet­ed by end­less rows on rows of birds in front of stores. The sound of birds chirp­ing can be thick­ly heard from the street over.