After grabbing the last video, I realized I might as well go ahead and get a view from the other side of the apartment at the same time...
This starts towards the south and pans westerly. Once the camera starts moving west, many of the buildings you see are part of the University of Hong Kong. In the last frame, you can see the HKU "main building" near the upper left corner - it's colonial architecture is rather distinct and the easiest way to recognize it is probably the bell tower (a rather short bell tower in comparison to the surrounding structures). The video resolution may be too small here for you to really make it out, but that's where Katherine's office is (as well as where she'll teach her classes).
Sunday, January 6, 2008
A glimpse of Hong Kong from our balcony...
We have a teeny-tiny balcony, just adjacent to our kitchen, where a dual-purpose clothing washer/dryer is installed. I ran out there this morning and shot a short vista...
A bit of a concrete jungle, no? There's actually quite a lot of greenery not too far from here, but the balcony doesn't have a good angle of it. The video starts by pointing in an easterly direction and then pans toward the north by the end. Your seeing a small chunk of the Mid-Levels West district and, if you look closely, you can even see the very common Hong Kong practice of hanging your clothes outside to dry. While we do have a dryer ourselves, it isn't very powerful or energy efficient, so we mostly opt to use Nature's own method as well. It's actually quite fast and convenient.
Also, at the end of the clip, you can look through the buildings and see a small slice of Hong Kong harbor. It's not a very far walk down there, actually.
Speaking of easy walks, Katherine can hop over to the University of Hong Kong from here in about 5 minutes. It's in the opposite direction, so you can't see any HKU buildings in the video, but perhaps I'll record that view some other time.
A bit of a concrete jungle, no? There's actually quite a lot of greenery not too far from here, but the balcony doesn't have a good angle of it. The video starts by pointing in an easterly direction and then pans toward the north by the end. Your seeing a small chunk of the Mid-Levels West district and, if you look closely, you can even see the very common Hong Kong practice of hanging your clothes outside to dry. While we do have a dryer ourselves, it isn't very powerful or energy efficient, so we mostly opt to use Nature's own method as well. It's actually quite fast and convenient.
Also, at the end of the clip, you can look through the buildings and see a small slice of Hong Kong harbor. It's not a very far walk down there, actually.
Speaking of easy walks, Katherine can hop over to the University of Hong Kong from here in about 5 minutes. It's in the opposite direction, so you can't see any HKU buildings in the video, but perhaps I'll record that view some other time.
Only the finest for Fui Fui...
In our household, we only serve choice cuts of Australian meat....
(you might have to click on the image to see how Australian it really is ;>)
It's like eating at Outback Steakhouse every night!
(you might have to click on the image to see how Australian it really is ;>)It's like eating at Outback Steakhouse every night!
Friday, January 4, 2008
Downtime...
The last few weeks, including our first one here, have been pretty high-paced for us, so we'll be walling ourselves in for a few days to recharge the old batteries. During that time, I'll mostly be video gaming (specifically: Mass Effect) and Katherine will mostly be working on her final dissertation revisions and preparing to teach her first course, Language and Society. Not quite fair, but she'll actually get a week vacation in about a month when Chinese New Year arrives, so it'll even out then.
We've adjusted to the jet lag, Katherine is no longer hobbled by her ankle, Fui Fui is constantly playful again, we've gotten a good feel for the surrounding community, and we have equipped ourselves with all the basic day-to-day necessities. I'm also able to go out on my own and navigate, purchase, eat, etc in Cantonese, so no need to worry about me feeling trapped in the apartment (if any of you were worrying about that ;>).
Life in Hong Kong has begun!
We've adjusted to the jet lag, Katherine is no longer hobbled by her ankle, Fui Fui is constantly playful again, we've gotten a good feel for the surrounding community, and we have equipped ourselves with all the basic day-to-day necessities. I'm also able to go out on my own and navigate, purchase, eat, etc in Cantonese, so no need to worry about me feeling trapped in the apartment (if any of you were worrying about that ;>).
Life in Hong Kong has begun!
Wednesday, January 2, 2008
A shockingly sweet surprise from home!
If you asked me to make a list of things I never expected to see in Hong Kong, this would be near the top...
Are we in Winston-Salem's Chinatown?! No! Apparently, Hong Kong now has four Krispy Kreme stores, all which make fresh doughnuts throughout the day! Let's see the six we picked up...
From left to right: (top) Cappuccino Kreme, Cinnamon 8, Original Glazed (bottom) Green Tea, Fruitful Mandarin, Original Glazed
The also had a number of other unique flavors (Almond All Over, Strawberry Angel, Neapolitan, etc) and served freshly squeezed mango juice (among other juices, coffees, teas, and smoothies). Fortunately, it is far enough away from where we live that I won't often have cause to stop in, but tonight was a special first-day-of-work celebration with Krispy Kreme. ;>
Are we in Winston-Salem's Chinatown?! No! Apparently, Hong Kong now has four Krispy Kreme stores, all which make fresh doughnuts throughout the day! Let's see the six we picked up...
From left to right: (top) Cappuccino Kreme, Cinnamon 8, Original Glazed (bottom) Green Tea, Fruitful Mandarin, Original Glazed
The also had a number of other unique flavors (Almond All Over, Strawberry Angel, Neapolitan, etc) and served freshly squeezed mango juice (among other juices, coffees, teas, and smoothies). Fortunately, it is far enough away from where we live that I won't often have cause to stop in, but tonight was a special first-day-of-work celebration with Krispy Kreme. ;>
Katherine's first day on the clock...
Today was Katherine's first day as an assistant professor at the University of Hong Kong and, since I had nothing more pressing, I joined her. ;> It was mostly administrative (filling out forms, etc), but we ran into many of her colleagues and had a great lunch with the School of English leadership. Great people.
I secretly shot a tiny video of Katherine filling out her "pink form" (for payroll, etc) so you could get a quick look into the day and see a touch of Hong Kong U colonial architecture...
The first time Katherine ever visited Hong Kong U (when she was in Form 6, equivalent to 12th grade), she took a picture right in front of this fountain. Now her new office will be only a few doors away from it.
I secretly shot a tiny video of Katherine filling out her "pink form" (for payroll, etc) so you could get a quick look into the day and see a touch of Hong Kong U colonial architecture...
The first time Katherine ever visited Hong Kong U (when she was in Form 6, equivalent to 12th grade), she took a picture right in front of this fountain. Now her new office will be only a few doors away from it.
Tuesday, January 1, 2008
Bamboo construction...
Instead of iron, which is what we're used to seeing in the States, Hong Kong construction companies use bamboo for scaffolding due to its combination of strength and flexibility. You see it everywhere, including right outside our apartment, so I thought I'd take a short video to give you an idea...
...there plenty of window glare, and my Macbook Pro isn't the easiest to point-and-shoot, but hopefully you can make out the bamboo. Mostly I did this as a quick test of creating a blog video with Quicktime on the MacBook - not too bad. You'll see more (and more interesting ;>) videos later.
...there plenty of window glare, and my Macbook Pro isn't the easiest to point-and-shoot, but hopefully you can make out the bamboo. Mostly I did this as a quick test of creating a blog video with Quicktime on the MacBook - not too bad. You'll see more (and more interesting ;>) videos later.
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