Kids
- At the 7-11 checkout they have condoms and lighters at kid level.
- There are 328 stair steps, a monster hill, and a walk down a very busy road (one way) to Makena's school if you take the short cut.
- When you splurge and take a taxi you just throw the kids in the backseat and pray that there is a middle seatbelt...no carseats unless you own a car.
- Kids need to go to preschool five days a week as early as they can be admitted in order to "qualify" for primary school, which starts at age four.
- Helpers are usually the ones taking kids to and from activities and school, not parents.
- Kids often have an activity scheduled every day before and/or after school, including Saturdays and Sundays! Flats are so small that parents schedule their kids so they can leave the house!
Shopping
- Grocery shopping is a serious part time job and must be done every day.
- If you spend a certain amount in many stores they will deliver the item(s) to your flat for free.
- The Hong Kong government imposes a 50 cent surcharge for each plastic bag that you consume; everyone carries empty bags here for shopping.
- After a nice meal you are brought a container of toothpicks and are encouraged to pick at your teeth.
- Everyone drinks coffee. All day. Every day.
- With all of the coffee, you still never see anyone publicly drinking or eating anything unless in a restaurant. Still not sure about this one...
- Dogs do their business on the sidewalk - wherever they are - there is no grass in the city.
- It is very rare to hear a dog bark even though there are a LOT of dogs here.
- Dogs have their own designer wardrobes...if it is cooler than 75 F they all sport the latest fashion.
- Very few dogs actually need leashes - they follow their owners and/or their helpers around without noticing anything else...it's amazing!
- We have no dishwasher, disposal, heater, or oven, and that is pretty common.
- It's cold when you have no heater...space heaters work well though, but to get warm you have to sit right in front of it - and I'm sure it's safe that we bring one into the bathroom to give Makena a bath!
- De-humidifiers are ridiculously expensive and noisy, but incredibly important! The humidity went up a bit this week and I'm emptying ours twice a day (16L x 2)! It's only February!
- We have air purifiers in every room - a few minutes after you open a window the purifier will kick itself into high gear. A bit frightening, huh?
- You get used to having thousands of people being able to see into your apartment.
- I can tell you on any given day what our neighbors are having for dinner, and I know what time they get home because their Bose remote turns on our Bose!
- They pick up our trash every night from the maid's entrance.
- We have a maid's entrance, but her room is the laundry room and I just don't think that I can hire someone to sleep on top of the washer/dryer and shower RV style in the tiny bathroom!
