HKW04: Random Observations for our 4th Week

1. surgical masks -- people wear them to keep their germs in. i have seen school kids in uniform and wearing masks. josh says dr. offices have signs saying that if you have a cough or runny nose to wear a mask.
2. ticker -- the public buses in hong kong are from one company, and they all have tickers inside just above the driver's seat. only bus 1 has ever had a working ticker. bus 1 is the first bus i took here, and because it had a ticker that helped me find my stop, i assumed all city buses would have the same benefit. nope. all other buses i have ridden have tickers, but they just say welcome in english and in chinese.
3. humidity -- it is SO humid here, that when the kids drop a cheerio and i don't pick it up right away, i later find it all puffy and soft and soggy. from the air. my god!
4. laundry -- i am a laundry slouch. i admit it. i am inept at laundry. i do not separate colors unless we have a new item i know will bleed or a red item. i rarely get our stuff dry cleaned. i rarely use a temp other than warm. even with all these things against me, i can get our clothes clean. here? where we send our laundry out? NOTSOMUCH. our laundry keeps coming back stinky, stiff, and STAINED. i pulled a sweater out of my drawer this morning...i have worn it a couple times and had it washed at least once. it stinks. like i've been sleeping in it for days or like i just pulled it out of the laundry hamper after letting it sit a few days. two items of the kids' clothes have mysterious oil stains on them...like maybe they got washed with chapstick. i am NOT impressed and can't wait to screw up my own laundry when we move out of the closet.
5. hanging clothes to dry -- i hand washed some stuff of the kids b/c they got chocolate gelato all over the stuff, and i knew if i just tossed it in the laundry bag and waited a couple days to take it in that those stains had no chance of ever coming out. instead, i had wet laundry on our 2 foot by 2 foot balcony. for two days. it took two days to dry...and those were days that were mostly sunny. wow. how do folks hang their clothes to dry here...do they have 2 or 3 wardobes so that they don't have to run around naked during the two days it takes clothes to dry?!?!?
6. step up...all business have a step up into them. the only place i have found a wheelchair ramp is at the library/activities building. i asked another expat if he knew why, and he said it probably had something to do with feng shui and/or the fact that it rains pretty crazy here for a period of months (prevent flood damage).
7. 220 volts...a couple weeks ago, quinn decided to test out the 220 voltage by removing the ac adapter from his noise machine (while it was still plugged into the wall) and putting it in his mouth. there was a lot of sad baby for a few minutes followed by a stern discussion on why we DON'T unplug things and especially don't unplug them and then put them in our mouths!!
8. bamboo...have seen many, many bamboo scaffolds on constructions sites everywhere. i knew bamboo was strong, but i did not know it was that strong!
9. combined washer-drier units SUCK!! it looks like i will have to revise item number 4 or at least deal with it.
10. our son has an incredible pain tolerance. he bit what looks like a hole through the middle of his tongue today. he spewed blood for a few minutes, finished crying, and went about his day. the only other time he indicated that he was in pain was when he ate a salty snack.
11. while the storefronts here are beautiful, we are having trouble finding convenient ways to get general household items. we looked around the central area for a couple hours the other night trying to find a place to buy towels and a blanket...nothing doing. we found jewelry, bags, shoes, clothes, and makeup/perfume, but no household products. fortunately, there is a store just down the road from our new apartment called japan home, and it has almost everything we need to set up the house...it just wasn't where we were the other night :-)
12. finding some babyproofing items is nearly impossible here. i have found many alarms for doors and windows and about a hundred different types of door pinch guards, but i have not found door knob covers to keep the q from opening doors he should not...like the front door. did i mention that he knows how to work the elevator and to press G to get downstairs??
13. it is impossible to find dayquil/nyquil here. we have had to just hope for the best when buying adult cold medicine, and we haven't had much luck. and it's super expensive. and it's not safety sealed. the 8 pills, which cost about 8 dollars USD come in a really wimpy blister pack that is likely to burst open just from being dropped. we are very careful to store our cold meds very high up.
14. living in a high-rise apartment building is a unique experience. i've only ever lived in walk-up apartments, and trying to figure out where to take our trash and recycle was interesting (turned out to be incredibly easy...so easy that i feel like i am getting away with something...much easier than hauling trash out to a dumpster that is a quarter mile from your apartment). i also am fascinated with the front of our building and our lobby...both are beautiful. dealing with management in a building like this is very different from a walk-up apartment complex with a mgt. office, too...we are learning to navigate the system. right now, i'd say the very best perk about our building is the super-cheap shuttle service that gets us down into central with a minimum of fuss.
15. not that i am biased or anything (hahahaha), but not only do i think olivia is beautiful, but so does everyone we meet here. i really thought that quinn with his red hair and blue eyes would be the one attracting attention, but i was wrong. it's the bug with her gigantic brown eyes and wild curly brown hair that gets the attention. everywhere we go, ladies stop us to tell us how pretty livie is or to pinch her cheeks or touch her hair. she loves every minute of it :-)
16. we had really good mexican food today at a place called taco loco...it was delicious, and it was pretty cheap!
17. we have been away from happy valley only 2 days and already i miss the fruit stands and bakeries...we haven't found either of these types of shops close to us yet. it seems that we are in what's like the suburbs here whereas we were in more of an urban area in happy valley. we are a very short walk from the central shopping district now; the only problem is that that walk is comprised of many flights of steep stairs...i will have to wait until i have my hip carrier to carry quinn when he's not walking...navigating much of the mid-levels and central with a stroller is impossible.
18. rugby 7s was this weekend, and it was quite the learning experience. between the move, the kids, and the scarcity of tix, going was not an option, but we had fun just checking out the people who were going. we walked by buzz lightyear on the way to the store...that made quinn's day!
19. speaking of rugby...this is an interesting and INTENSE sport. a couple weeks ago, we all went down to the sports fields that are in the center of the happy valley race track (very near our apartment in happy valley and right next to the park the kids and i went to every day) and watched a rugby match between two women's teams. it was CRAZY. i know nothing about rugby, but i have to say i'm pretty intrigued after watching the bit that we did. a week or so after this, we were walking by a pub where many young men were drinking to their recent rugby victory...in their skivvies. livie thought this was HILARIOUS!!
20. in just 2 days here, we already have met more neighbors than we did during the entire time we were in happy valley. it took me the four weeks we were there to notice that we never saw any other kids in that apartment building. here, there are kids EVERYWHERE...we feel much more at home and at peace with our loud, boisterous crew.