Our moving FAQ...

I think it's time to give some answers to frequently (and not-so-frequently) asked questions! In no particular order...

1. Where and what is Hong Kong?
   Have a look at the wikipedia entry - it's much more thorough than I can be here. ;>
2. Why are you moving to Hong Kong?
   Katherine was given a fantastic job offer from the University of Hong Kong, so we put on our little booties and marched right over.
   
3. How long will you be in Hong Kong?
   Katherine's initial contract at the University of Hong Kong is for three years, so we'll be here at least that long. Near the end of that, we'll see how we've enjoyed the experience (from both the working and living perspectives) and decide if we want to stay longer.
4. What will you miss the most?
   Friends and family are top of the list, but I expect I'll also miss things like Eastern Carolina (and South Carolina) pulled pork BBQ, good pizza (though Hong Kong may have some - I'll dedicate myself to discovering it), all sorts of Cajun food, and immediate access to certain sports / TV shows / movies. There will probably also be some life details, which we completely take for granted, that we don't yet realize we'll miss.
5. What are you most excited about?
   Katherine is probably most excited to return to her family and start her new career as a professional linguist. For me, it's probably the chance to learn and grow in a place so completely different from my life's sphere of experience. I'm also really, really excited about the food!
6. Speaking of food, what's it like in Hong Kong?
   Incredible. No other way to describe it. You have access to the best and most varied Chinese food in the world, but also countless other cuisines. Food may be the single best reason to visit Hong Kong (other than to see us ;>)!
   
7. How about the weather?
   Right now, during the fall and winter, it tends to be in the 60s, but can get as cold as the 40s or as warm as the 70s. The humidity is low too, so it's rather nice. The summer is a completely different story (very hot and humid) and Spring brings typhoons.
8. Where are you living?
   To give us the most flexibility, we decided to start in a fully-furnished service apartment and, after three months, find something more permanent. The apartment is a quick walk (under 10 minutes) from the University of Hong Kong and has access to lots of nearby conveniences (grocery stores, farmer's markets, boutiques, bakeries, restaurants, public transportation, etc).
   
9. Can I come visit?
   You bet! In fact, we very much want you to! Things are a little squeezed in our service apartment right now, but as soon as we have a more permanent place (no later than May 2008), we'll have a guest bedroom with your name on it. All you'll need to do is reserve the time and save up for the flight.
10. If I clean your place every day, can I live with you?
    Maybe. How are your cooking and market bargaining skills?
    
11. Where are you working?
    Katherine is an assistant professor in the University of Hong Kong School of English. I'm keeping my job with the University of Michigan Medical School and working remotely full-time.
    
12. How are you handling your taxes?
    I talked to about 30 different accountants (both in the USA and Hong Kong) and found that the Hong Kong branch of Delottie had the best combination of comprehensive service, friendly people, expertise, and reasonable price. Not that it's cheap - it isn't - but I'd rather be safe than sorry with my slightly complicated tax situation (working for a US institution while living abroad).
13. Will you be double-taxed?
    During the first year, it is likely that I will be, but once I establish that I've lived in Hong Kong for a year, then I'll become eligible for a complete US income tax exemption. I'll still owe Hong Kong tax, but that will only be about 12%, which is less than half what I pay in US tax each year.
    
14. How about your banking?
    I looked at a number of international banks but found CitiBank to be the best fit for my particular situation. I'll keep a CitiBank account open in the USA (to receive my paycheck direct deposits) and a different CitiBank account open in Hong Kong (so I can easily move US currency into Hong Kong Dollars at no charge). Katherine will also have an account open in each territory, but her US account won't be touched very often.
15. What's your favorite color?
    Katherine and I, coincidentally, both like green best.
    
16. What stuff are you taking?
    Mostly books, DVDs, clothes, linens, and non-electric kitchen elements. We didn't take any furniture and only a select few electric appliances (XBox 360, PlayStation 3, laptops, hard drives, etc.)
    
17. How did you move it all?
    We looked at about six international movers and chose the Hong-Kong-based Links Relocations to handle the transition (they, in turn, contracted with Meyers Van Lines to handle the USA portion). We weren't in any real hurry to get everything to Hong Kong, so we chose to save some money and have Links put our stuff in an ocean-bound shared cargo container (the container doesn't set sail until it is filled, and we only occupy a tiny chunk). It should take about two months for everything to arrive and, all told, cost around $3,500.
    
18. How did you move your cat?
    Fui Fui flew on our Continental flight in a special pet-safe area of the cargo hold. Before he could fly, though, we had to fill out quite a lot of paperwork (involving our local vet, a USDA-certified vet in Lansing, MI, the Michigan Department of Health, and the Hong Kong Department of Agriculture and Fishery) to prevent quarantine. It was an awful lot of work, mostly handled by Katherine, but it was well worth it to make sure our little family stayed intact through the move.
19. How are you going to use the electronics you brought?
    Hong Kong uses a different power standard from the USA (220V, 50Hz), so you might think it a challenge to make use of what little electronic equipment we toted with us. Fortunately, a large amount of recent electronics are being produced with external transformers (little bricks that sit outside of the equipment and are connected to the power cable) which know how to handle a wide array of power standards. The only challenge really is finding the right kind of cable to swap in (replacing the USA power outlet plug with one that'll fit in a Hong Kong wall). This is true for every piece of equipment we brought except for the XBox 360. In it's case, we need to get a different external transformer and I'm hoping to take care of that in the next day or two.
    
20. How will you stay in contact with everyone?
    Skype, baby! It's a brilliant all-in-one communication tool that will let us have video, audio, and text chats with people all over the world...free of charge! My parents and I have already had a very successful video chat, so we know it works well.
    
21. Why is the sky blue?
    Wikipedia seems to know.
    
22. How will you be watching Hokie football?!
    Really, this question should have been listed first (since I know all of you are most interested to hear the answer), but I thought I'd leave you in suspense for a little while. ;> A good buddy and colleague of mine at the University of Michigan, Vince, has a Slingbox (which allows you to access your TV through the Internet). He offered to let me use it from Hong Kong so I could watch VT play Kansas in the Orange Bowl come January 3rd. God bless him! After the Orange Bowl, I'll have about eight months to figure out how to see all of the games next season (some of which I'll see in person). Go Hokies!

Okay - I think that's a pretty good start. If you have further questions, bring 'em on!

Katherine's poor foot!

Katherine had a little accident yesterday as we were exploring our neighborhood for the first time...


It's a grade 1 sprained ankle. The yellow skin discoloration comes from the treatment she received from a Hong Kong "bone doctor" (a special kind of Chinese herbal doctor who treats these sorts of injuries) about a block from our place. Hong Kong Island is extremely hilly (similar to San Francisco in certain areas) and, as we were window shopping for some necessities, Katherine missed a step on a staircase and took a tumble. Fortunately she didn't hurt anything else and she's resting comfortably at home now.

For the Red Dwarf fans in the audience...

So, when we arrived in our service apartment, I noticed that many of our appliances had a special brand name...












(stovetop, microwave, and refrigerator door, respectively)

Smeg, as it turns out, is an Italian appliance manufacturer. Until now, though, I thought of it only as a slang word dreamed up by the writers of Red Dwarf. I'm so happy to have a little smeg in the apartment. ;>

A high-level look at the moving process...

To give you a sense of the process, here's an abridged set of our to-do list highlights starting in the summer of 2007. (There are about 50 bullets here, but the original list is closer to 150.) Just before this began, from January to May 2006, Katherine and I completed another large to-do list for our wedding...not to mention that, throughout this list, Katherine and I were both working full-time (Katherine on her dissertation, me for the Michigan Medical School) and, on weekends, I traveled to Virginia Tech football games. I guess we've been pretty busy for awhile. ;>

Take a deep breath - here we go...!

• Begin selling property that won't come to Hong Kong (1 July 07 at 1:07PM)
• Check with HKU about relocation reimbursements (19 Aug 07 at 12:40PM)
• Open internationally-friendly bank account (19 Aug 07 at 12:41PM)
• Draft moving and monthly HK living budgets (19 Aug 07 at 4:53PM)
• Decide on USA forwarding address, update needed services (20 Aug 07 at 9:48AM)
• Query international accountants (27 Aug 07 at 2:17PM)
• Query international moving companies (9 Sep 07 at 10:22AM)
• Move UM direct deposit, PayPal, etc to new bank (10 Sep 07 at 9:53PM)
• Apply to HK AF dept for Fui Fui's import premit (13 Sep 07 at 5:36PM)
• Book flights for Gray, Katherine, and Fui Fui (16 Sep 07 at 3:18PM)
• Change billing information for needed online services like Skype (17 Sep 07 at 7:05PM)
• Order extra copies of marriage and birth certificates (20 Sep 07 at 8:43AM)
• Link new bank account with investment portfolio (1 Oct 07 at 2:45PM)
• Enroll in internationally-friendly UM health insurance plan (8 Oct 07 at 7:36AM)
• Fill out intent to vacate form and submit to landlord (1 Nov 07 at 12:37PM)
• Choose international moving company (4 Nov 07 at 2:39PM)
• Obtain medical records (12 Nov 07 at 1:58PM)
• Cancel unneeded services like Netflix (27 Nov 07 at 4:45PM)
• Choose international accountant (4 Dec 07 at 10:32AM)
• Decide on Hong Kong apartment (6 Dec 07 at 8:56PM)
• Place remaining property for sale on Craig's List (8 Dec 07 at 7:51PM)
• Get move-out packet from landlord (10 Dec 07 at 8:53PM)
• Sign contract and pay international moving company (11 Dec 07 at 8:49PM)
• Sign contract and pay retainer fee to international accountant (11 Dec 07 at 9:10PM)
• Get Lexus and Toyota dealerships to appraise the car and make offers (12 Dec 07 at 6:00PM)
  
• Sign contract and pay for HK apartment (18 Dec 07 at 11:18PM)
• Katherine defends her dissertation (18 Dec 07 at 1:00PM)
• Submit IRS form for tax status change to UM HR (20 Dec 07 at 12:07AM)
• Moving company packs and takes items to cargo ship (20 Dec 07 at 3:49PM)
• Turn in UM keys and parking pass (21 Dec 07 at 4:00PM)
• Make final sales of property that won't come with us (22 Dec 07 at 3:36PM)
• Close friend makes an offer on the car, we accept! (22 Dec 07 at 6:00PM)
  
• Complete change of address form with USPS (23 Dec 07 at 8:33PM)
• Visit vet within 10 days of departure for required Fui Fui check-up (24 Dec 07 at 12:37PM)
• Scan important documents and convert to PDF (24 Dec 07 at 2:15PM)
• Have Department of Health send rabies stats to USDA vet (26 Dec 07 at 9:00AM)
• Learn how to sell car to private buyer (26 Dec 07 at 12:00PM)
  
• Prepare Fui Fui's travel kennel with "wee wee pad" and labels (26 Dec 07 at 11:26AM)
• Return cable box to Comcast (26 Dec 07 at 4:41PM)
• Go to Lansing, have USDA Vet notarize Fui Fui's import documents (27 Dec 07 at 9:59AM)
• Refill any needed prescription medication (27 Dec 07 at 12:02PM)
• Transfer remaining balance from local bank account to international account (27 Dec 07 at 1:53PM)
• Call HK AF dept for Fui Fui and e-mail import documents to them for review (27 Dec 07 at 10:25PM)
• Mistake found on Fui Fui's import documents, return to Lansing for new set (28 Dec 07 at 9:00AM)
• Donate remaining unsold property to Habitat for Humanity, etc (28 Dec 07 at 12:57PM)
• Finalize sale of car (28 Dec 07 at 2:33PM)
• Send Fui Fui to Hong Kong (28 Dec 07 at 2:33PM)
• Walk through Ann Ann apartment with landlord (28 Dec 07 at 4:30PM)
• Pack items to take on airplane (28 Dec 07 at 4:30PM)
• Clean apartment (28 Dec 07 at 4:30PM)
• Fly to Hong Kong (31 Dec 07 at 12:07AM)

The timestamps you see here are more so representative of when I marked the item off the to-do list, not exactly when the event happened. We used a great on-line tool called Remember the Milk to generate this and keep track of everything - I'm not sure we could've executed so precisely without it!

Safely in Hong Kong!

We made it!

Almost exactly two years ago, in December of 2005, the University of Hong Kong School of English began talking to Katherine about becoming a member of their faculty. A few months later, after Katherine completed the application and interview process, they extended an official offer and agreed to hold the position until Katherine finished her PhD. We considered the offer for a month, and the decision wasn't easy, but eventually we realized that HKU had gift-wrapped a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity that we couldn't pass up. Katherine accepted in the summer of 2006 (the same summer in which I proposed to her), and the fuse was lit.

Now here we are, in our first Hong Kong home (a service apartment by the folks at Kush), recuperating not only from the 19 hours spent in travel time, but the year and a half spent in planning an preparation for this day. Did you know that delicious Chinese buns (like my favorite!) are one of the very best recuperation aids? Good thing we have bakeries surrounding us in every direction. ;>

I don't fancy myself much of a blogger, but I'm going to give it a try, and hopefully it will prove to be a nice way for Katherine and I to share GK+HK stories with you. (Not only those that follow today, but also a few that led us here.) If that sounds like something you're interested in, grab your favorite Chinese bun and join us for the adventure!