From a traveler to a resident

Slowly as it is, I am transforming from a traveler to a resident here at home in Hong Kong. Last night, I think it has been the first night I slept 8 hours straight without waking up in the middle of the night. Maybe I was just too tired, or I have finally started to filter out the noises, a little more everyday anyway. My room has become more livable, now I have a desk, a bookcase which I already half filled, even though my stuffs shipped from the US has not arrived yet. I have no idea what I'll do when it does, where and how to keep my stuffs in this tiny room. I'll figure something out.

Before I came back, I thought I would be very glad to eat at home, to taste my parents' cooking. But it's very strange to say, I have started to miss cooking for myself. I miss going to shop for foods in the supermarket, and prepare dinner for myself, even though I can only cook a very limited variety of things and they are not very good either. It's that autonomy in making your own decision, choosing something for yourself without compromising. I think I really miss that. I mean, I have no complaint about the food at home at all, and it's not like my parents controlling what I can do per se, but it is just different between living on your own or with a non-related roommate and living with your parents. So, I still say I'll keep my goal to move out as soon as I can afford it.

Curt, my roommate in Chicago, were here to visit for a weekend, we had dinner last Thursday and Saturday. It was great seeing Curt. Make me miss Chicago more, in a good way. Last night, a friend and I went to see a Volleyball match for the East Asian Games: China vs Taiwan! China won. 3 sets straight. A quick game. It is an interesting experience. Except soccer, I have never really gone to any other sport games in HK before. In US, I saw the baseball and hockey games a couple times. The difference between sport games in US and HK: in US, everyone get drunk, talk loud to each other, cheer and boo at their team at the same time, it's a social event, the sport itself is important, but there is also a social thing going on in the audience that has nothing to do with the sport. While in HK, the audience are usually more tamed, very focused in the game, and the stupid MC makes you play the silly human waves around the stadium, kind of shit. The cheers are usually positive, and no beers or nachos in the stadium.

I have officially sent out my first job application letter (email) today. It is for a Business Analyst/Biostatistician position for a healthcare forecasting company. Honestly, I doubt that I will be able to get this job, not because I don't have any experience in biostatistics or working with medical data, but it's because I haven't had a job interview for a million years, I think it will take me a few times to get back to the game. I am still reworking on my cover letter format anyway, I have a long list of sound bites that can be used to describe myself. I am trying to write a piece that is not too lengthy or self-deluding (yeah right, it's freaking cover letter!), but at the same time, have the right amount of indigents to promote myself. We'll see how it goes. But to start is the first place, I am glad the first letter is out, the next thing I'll do is to contact some employment search firms this week.

Just a head up. I probably will end this travel blog very soon, as the title suggests, I am no longer a traveler. But I will probably open and keep a personal blog, to keep a journal on my bittersweet daily life here in HK. I shall invite you to see the new site soon.

Photos here: East Asian Game

Settling in yet... not really but getting there

Been back to Hong Kong for 4 days now, I am sitting here in my living room at 2:30pm in the afternoon, waiting for the cable guy to arrive to set up the internet for me. Quite frankly, I can't wait. It will give me so much more to do in the days and nights, to research for job, to get my resume ready, to check email, or just to chat with friends. Like all technology, soon enough we become so dependent on it, now without internet for days, almost feel like I am disabled. Quite scary that way really. Want to quit it, but so hard. :)

Things are getting in places slowly, while money is drifting away rapidly. I have got a bookcase and a desk from IKEA, a coffee press from Starbucks, a new pillow and other necessities for my room, also a new cell phone number without the cell phone from One2Free. I just use my old phone from the US, do need to pay a fee to unlock it (since all phones from the US are shamelessly locked to avoid you to use other providers' sim cards, here we don't have that restriction). I need to sign a one year contract with the phone company though even though I just open an account for the number, quite annoying really. The internet should be ready today as well, it's a 2 years freaking contract. Everything requires a contract, tied you up for life if they can, a legal way to practice slavery. Now, I am just waiting for the furniture to be delivered on Wednesday and my stuffs from the US to arrive in 2 weeks. Then I should be able to begin my "new" life here.

Still haven't found a local bank to open an account. Originally, I plan to use Bank of America here, since all my money in the US side is in BOA. I thought it might be more convenient to transfer money if I have another account in their Hong Kong branch. However, turn out the retail banking sector is no longer existed in Hong Kong. They sold to some other banks, so my big plan does not work. I can still get my money from ATM machines, just need to get a couple hundreds US dollar at a time and do it for a week or two (because there is a daily limit how much you can withdraw). Then, I will deposit my money back to a local bank, I feel like money laundering, but not really, it's my own money! I try to choose the local bank carefully, since they all have fees and restrictions written in small print under the table right by the thighs. Besides, the culture here is very strange, banks often links with retailers, and they get a certain advantages at a certain places. It is quite confusing and complex if you really dig it. But for me, I just want to choose one that is not the least favorable.

After I put the furnitures up this Wednesday, I'll take some picture of my room.

Culture shock in my own country

On my first night in Hong Kong, after a long flight, I went to bed around midnight. Being in my own room, but I felt like sleeping in a strange bed. By 4:30am or 5:00am, I got awaken by the traffic noises coming in from my windows. I just lay there for a couple hours and couldn't get back to sleep. I think I have forgotten how noisy Hong Kong is. I can already foresee that I will have a week or two rough night sleeps, and then my body gets really tired, eventually I naturally adjust back to this environment. When I first moved to the US, the silence in the evenings gave ringings in my ears. After a week or two, my body started to get used to it.

I have expected that it will take me a while to get used to the pace of Hong Kong anyway, even though I lived here for 26 years before I headed to study in the US and I have still remained connections with many individuals here over the past few years. However, the lifestyle of Hong Kong is rather different than Chicago's. Perhaps in the whole world, there are really only a very few cities that can compare with the fast pace of lifestyle in Hong Kong. Grab, eat, drink, work, talk, sleep, have fun... all at once. We have small spaces, but with lots of people. When you live here, you begin to create your own space internally to get away from the white noise surrounding you.

I manage to clear up the room a bit, where has stored many "old" stuffs. Both my parents are collectors of "antiques", but not from buying, nor are they worth anything. They are the old clothing and accessories of mine or my brother's, and their own stuffs that they would never use anymore. Actually, they don't throw stuffs away. So, when I moved out, it was just perfect that an extra room became available to store the old stuffs. My old hi-fi has been disconnected and kept at some high places in the house. My room has been repainted, and stuffed with plastic boxes of sheets and old clothes, discolored or with holes. Sounds like why wasting the space, right? Yep! I know, but my parents lived through the old days when they had nothing. I understand why, and usually I just pretend I don't see the boxes, or bags or whatever it is. Only when something's really rubbish and wasting the space I want to use, I just secretly throw those things away. I used to have some hanging shelves in my room, they are all gone now. Good and bad, I guess. I have a tons of books, CDs, DVDs, clothes, and many other stuffs were shipped by ocean fright from the US back here, they will be arriving very soon. I can probably buy the right furniture to accommodate them. However, this will cost some money. Intentionally, I reserve some money from my trip to spend in Hong Kong before I will be able to find a job. I was hoping the money will last me two to three months. But now I am not so sure. We'll see about that.

Find that without my Hong Kong ID card and any local credit card, things become very very inconvenient. I have gone to the local phone company to check the contract of my home land line which has expired for my mom. It was registered with my name previously. Anyway because I am unable to show the HK ID, they cannot provide me with any information, not even with my passport where they can find the same HK ID number shown in it. They say when you registered with a HK ID, you need to show that in order to do anything with the account. It is a privacy protection thing required by the government, but it becomes very inconvenient when I happen to have lost my ID. I try to open a new cell phone account and ask about getting internet, almost everywhere everything here are using credit cards, I mean most of the stuffs, you can still pay cash, but you just don't get any specific offers, extra benefits or have limited plans or options for you to choose. One of the banks I have visited even tells me that I need a HK ID to open an account. That's a freaking joke. The others are ok with a passport. At the end of my first day, I get some idea how I am going to do about my room and check around about a few stuffs such as cell phone, internet and some furniture choices. But I haven't gotten anything or made any solid decision yet.

My goal is to get a cell phone number, set up the internet and make my room more livable within a week, so maybe I can sleep better at nights and might feel more homey here. And my other stuffs should be arriving in 2 weeks, after that, my priority will shift to finding a job. Right now, I don't even have an extra pair of pants or shoes to wear. It is hard to feel like home really, but I try. Just hope the lack of HK ID and HK credit card will not cause me too big an obstacle for the coming days.