I can’t even talk about leaving the US right now. It is such an odd concept that I can’t even wrap my mind around it! So...I’ll talk about becoming a Hong Kong resident.
Welcome to the first day of sanity after our first week in Hong Kong. Today is really the first day that I am able to think clearly. Jet lag and the terrible twos are a really bad combination. A note about Makena. She turned crazy (and still has some of the jet lag crazies in her as I write this) and completely unrecognizable upon getting to Hong Kong. Let me just say that wandering Hong Kong’s streets from midnight to six in the morning is not my idea of a fun activity! Hitting, temper tantrums, screaming, “MINE, MINE”, and other lovely things happened to her. Things are finally calming down on the jet lag front, although last night was our first *good* night, so we’ll see what the next few nights bring! I was ready to jump off a building the other night when she was up from 11:30pm to 7:30am - just because she didn’t want to sleep. That girl has super strong will power and the jet lag attitude! The attitude will start to go away once she gets accustomed to the time - it has surfaced during all of our fun experiences with toddler jet lag! That is why our first week is a big blur to me...
I did have the good fortune of landing a spot in last week’s International Montessori School tour (yes, it’s not a guaranteed spot...?) that took place about 11 hours after we got off the plane from Newark. It is the perfect place for Makena - too bad they are completely full. We are on the wait list though and are trying to decide what to do in the meantime. The issue is that they don’t tell you until a day or two before she needs to be in attendance; if she is not there on the designated day they automatically give her spot to the next kid. Charlie asked if we could just pay for her to go and have her actually attend at the end of a different preschool’s semester. Nope! They want “butt in seat” or they give it away - apparently money is not the issue and it is that way at every school. So, if we enroll her in a different preschool we would have to pay that school’s cancellation fee for her to start IMS if she gets in...the cancellation fee comes out of our pocket and is around $10000-$11000 HKD, which is in the ballpark of $1500 USD. Seems like a lot to pay just to not attend a school...ugh. The other funny thing is that they ask about bus service - they have light buses for kindergartens (as her school is called) and each bus has a bus mother. Charlie and I haven’t yet decided if we are willing to put Makena on a bus to school at the age of two. We don’t have a car and would need to walk her to school each day and pick her up. It is not necessarily close but would be a nice walk on a nice day...during a typhoon though? Not so sure.
Friday morning was my appointment at immigration. Charlie took a few hours off to go with me and we enjoyed a family breakfast at The Flying Pan, which serves an *American breakfast* on our way. Yum! After snaking through the lines of people, my fellow immigrants, I finally made it to the right place and after three lines and some interesting folks, I got my temporary Hong Kong ID card. The real one will be ready for pickup after Dec 3rd. I’m official! Makena doesn’t need one as a minor under the age of 11, and Charlie got his in October. So that means only one more trip to the Immigration Bldg for the next year, since we get to go once a year to get them renewed! That is good news.
It was so nice to *have* Charlie for the weekend. We got to start our weekend off getting my new iPhone 4! Yay! We had ordered it on Tuesday and it got in early, so we were SO excited to go get it. More for the fact that I wouldn’t be stranded than for the cool phone though. We had all of our paperwork ready (passport, proof of residence, Hong Kong ID card, etc.) and everything went smoothly, until it was time to pay! They only take Visa/Mastercard and we are an American Express family, so when my only Visa was declined (?!?!? - still not sure about that) and our debit cards were too, we thought we were out of luck! Turns out, they take cash! So...we pulled all of our change together and went to an ATM and tried out my debit card (which thankfully we remembered and properly calculated what our daily limit was) with success! We actually sat in the Smartfone shop and counted out over $6k HKD for the phone and two-year contract. Very strange...funnier still was that after all that, the phone they pulled for me was broken! All is right with the world now, except for the fact that US-based Web sites don’t work well at all on my phone. I will have to say good-bye to using Facebook on my mobile until I figure out if there is a way to make it more functional!
We met our relocation people at our new flat on Monday morning. It is lovely...there are no words to properly describe the feeling of walking into your new home that you’ve not seen before you actually move in though. Okay, maybe *awkward* comes to mind, but otherwise, no words! Who knew it could be so complicated to live in a flat though, keeping in mind that it is only 850 sq feet! There are five separate air conditioners, two hot water heaters, remote controls to go with each (yes, remote controls for the hot water heaters and AC units), four additional venting fans, seven different keys, a very technical wine refrigerator, and a microwave that requires a scientist to run it! Turns out, I have been spoiled all of this time (or deprived, I haven’t yet decided). Every appliance that has heat and/or cold associated with it, requires you to set the temperature and the RPMs. The actual temperature...40, 600, who knows? We also are already missing a few of the niceties of our old home (and almost all American homes)...a dishwasher and an oven! We do have a clothes dryer, so from what I understand, we are doing very well in the appliance category! dd
Our flat is filthy. They had it “professionally cleaned”, yet there is so much junk everywhere that you can’t sit down without ruining your clothes. I am working on getting it cleaned up, but if you want to garner a lot of attention in Hong Kong...be a white woman carrying a mop and a bucket of cleaning supplies up the escalator/stairs in Mid-Levels. Ha! I’ve never gotten so many puzzled looks in my life! People didn’t know what to do with me! The people who lived there seemed to ask where my helper was...the helpers laughed that they weren’t doing it...the tourists just felt sorry for me! Our flat is at the top of the Mid-Levels escalator and the nearest shops are down a street, so to get to the market you have to go down a number of staircases/escalators. Pretty humorous, actually!
Tide. I broke down and bought Tide. The cashier at the market looked me right in the eye and asked why I wanted imported detergent (in broken English...I think that’s what she said). I love Tide...and from what I hear, the local detergents don’t really get your clothes clean. Clean clothes is a necessity - especially when you have a little kid who is so enthusiastic about food! A little perspective on the Tide though. It is a little bottle, the size that you see at Target and wonder who buys only that much...college students? It was $129 HKD, which is the equivalent of about $17 USD (give or take...my on-the-spot conversions are pretty bad). The local brands in the same size ran from around $24 to $39 HKD. Maybe I am a bit crazy...
We got a referral for a “curtain lady” who makes reasonably priced custom black-out curtains. She is coming tomorrow - and can’t make them soon enough! Not only are the windows floor-to-ceiling and look right into other people’s windows, but the sun is blazing hot and bright during the middle of the day! I am actually quite excited about picking out the styles and fabrics tomorrow and am hoping she has things that we like. I was completely and pleasantly surprised that she spoke English after she heard my greeting on our phone call. Yay! That will make it so much easier when she comes for the consultation. Unlike when the plumber showed up and I had to practically mime what the plumbing issues were, to include a broken toilet! Too funny...talk about a You Tube moment! It’s a little crazy all of the things that can go wrong with a brand-new apartment with brand-new appliances!
I heart our doorman. I have no idea what his name is, although he told me and even wrote it down! He’s very friendly though and is understanding of my ignorance of Hong Kong living. Turns out, our doorman pointed us to some super fun amenities that we had no idea even existed! There is a pool, albeit a small one, and a gym, which is small too, in our building. Now I just need to find out on what floor...five? We will still join a big gym (we have our eye on the one that is right on the escalator that has a bar/restaurant for the first floor - super social place to hang out), but it will sure be nice to have something in the building for rainy days or weekends when we don’t want to head with the crowds.
Haha...funny story! Our air shipment of household goods, which contains things like sheets, towels, Makena’s favorite potty seat (which is super important when you are two), and other requirements for moving into our flat, didn’t show up yesterday like scheduled. Turns out, it is still in America! Whoa...what? Our shipping person is a bit on the clueless side, at least that is how it appears on this end, but he didn’t even tell us that it wasn’t going to be here! He claims, after we had to call to find out what was going on since he wouldn’t return email, that the toner terror scare stopped all air freight shipments and now everything is backlogged. Maybe that is true, but it would have been nice to know that before we booked our hotel reservations to be checked out on Thursday! Makena and I will likely keep going to our flat in the morning each day, but staying in the hotel - assuming that there will be a room for us! Fingers crossed...it’s all good though. I was afraid that it was lost when he had to ask what our Hong Kong address was (after it was supposed to already be here!). We are supposed to have an ETA tonight - hoping it is good news...living in hotels is not ideal!
All is good. We are adjusting, albeit slowly, and will do much better once we are actually in our home. Thanksgiving will be just like any other day for us this year, although we did get invited to a friend’s home on Saturday, and there will be no Black Friday. It’s kind of sad to not be getting up super early on Friday with a latte and arguing over who gets the $4 puzzles this year!
Roaming international...
