This week has been nearly non-stop for both Katherine and I, so I thought I'd round up all the action into a single digest. Let's walk through it day-by-day...
Monday: During a conference at the Chinese University of Hong Kong the previous weekend, Katherine met Jennifer Heung and her sister Angela. Jennifer is an assistant professor of Anthropology at
Saint Mary's College who independantly discovered
our film, purchased it, and now uses it in her curriculum. Katherine uncovered this when she overheard Jennifer tell other conference attendees about a "great Hong Kong code-mixing documentary". When Katherine inquired further, thinking that she was going to get a lead on some new material for her own classes, she found out that Jennifer was referencing our own work. Amazing! On Monday, we took Jennifer and Angela out to dinner and then to a nearby dessert shop that we hadn't tried yet...
Angela is on the left, Jennifer the right
I decided that this would be a great opportunity to show you a Hong Kong dessert shop menu, so here are both sides from this shop...
Tuesday: Katherine's parents asked us if we would like to join them on a trip to
Shenzhen to visit some extended family. We hadn't been to mainland China since moving to Hong Kong, and I have never been, so this seemed like the perfect opportunity! In order for me to go, though, I needed to secure a Chinese visa. For that, we went to the
Wan Chai branch of "China Travel Service" and submitted my application with a few required documents (passport, Hong Kong ID, and picture). In return, they gave me a receipt, which I'll use to claim both my passport and new visa once the processing is complete...
Afterwards we decided to head to
Ebeneezer's Kebab, a local Indian + Middle Eastern fast food chain (with a branch in Wan Chai) that came highly recommended to us by one of our Hall residents...
I was famished, and couldn't wait to pose for a picture, so I just ripped into my chicken kebab pita wrap with cougar-like ferocity...
Wednesday: Wednesday night was the School of English end-of-semester party (and a farewell party to some faculty who are moving elsewhere for the next phase of their careers), so Katherine and I got gussied up and spent a few hours there. After it was over, a subset of the attendees went out for a little dessert, but we didn't bring our camera. :(
Thursday: A day of rest! Or, at least, a day we didn't go out. I was on a work-related conference call until midnight, so I suppose it wasn't exactly "restful". ;>
Friday: Dinner (Shanghainese) and a movie ("
The Day the Earth Stood Still") at Cyberport with Katherine's brother. Also a day we didn't bring the camera out. :(
Saturday: We started Saturday by having our residental tutors (somewhat like RAs - they are graduate students or HKU staff that live among the residents and provide hands-on guideance) over for brunch. Two of the tutors couldn't make it, but we had a great time with those who did...
After brunch, Katherine and I took three of our residents (one from
Xi'an, one from the
Phillipenes, and one from
Macau) to an eye-opening and heart-wrenching exhibition in
Sham Shui Po which focused on the unimaginable lives of "
cage-dwellers". First, we toured the museum-like exhibits...
...and then we joined a walking tour of Sham Shui Po to learn more about its facinating history...
Sunday: The winter solstice and
Dongzhi (a Chinese holiday) meant a day focused on food, friends, and family! First we had one of Katherine's best friends, along with her family, over for lunch...
...and then we went to Katherine's parents' apartment (the old one - they haven't yet moved into their new one) for a feast...
(and this didn't even include the two fish Katherine's mother was still steaming!)
With a very satisfying week in the books, there was nothing else to do but collapse...
Snazzy! To personalize this experience for you, though, I will no longer refer to this object as "visa" - instead, he will be known as "Karl". Let's see what we did together tonight...
Karl and I reminiscing outside the place where we first met.
Karl and I sharing some some coconutty, waffle-like "gai daan zaai" from an extremely popular street vendor.
Oh! Karl notices a Filipino restaurant - something neither of us has ever tried!
Karl and I share a bounty of Filipino dishes.
Angela is on the left, Jennifer the right
Afterwards we decided to head to Ebeneezer's Kebab, a local Indian + Middle Eastern fast food chain (with a branch in Wan Chai) that came highly recommended to us by one of our Hall residents...
I was famished, and couldn't wait to pose for a picture, so I just ripped into my chicken kebab pita wrap with cougar-like ferocity...
After brunch, Katherine and I took three of our residents (one from Xi'an, one from the Phillipenes, and one from Macau) to an eye-opening and heart-wrenching exhibition in Sham Shui Po which focused on the unimaginable lives of "cage-dwellers". First, we toured the museum-like exhibits...
...and then we joined a walking tour of Sham Shui Po to learn more about its facinating history...
...and then we went to Katherine's parents' apartment (the old one - they haven't yet moved into their new one) for a feast...
(and this didn't even include the two fish Katherine's mother was still steaming!)
Here's a mid-flight shot Katherine took of a secret world between the clouds. :>
Katherine, now in San Fransisco, catches up with two of our old Ann Arbor buddies: Tony and Hermann!
Katherine catches up with another Ann-Arborite-turned-San-Franciscan: Mei!
Sunset on Fisherman's Wharf (while having dinner with Mei).
A few days following that, we met up with Michael Meyler, a conference attendee from Sri Lanka who is a good friend of Dushy's, for a hot pot dinner in Tsim Sha Tsui.
And to close out the week, before watching the ACC Championship game, we went to get the keys to Katherine's parents' new apartment!
I'm heading back to the States on Wednesday and will be staying in the West Virginia / Virginia area for a month. Katherine still has some teaching to do, and a conference to attend in San Francisco, but she'll join me just in time for Thanksgiving. It isn't likely that I'll do any blogging while I'm there (Katherine will have the camera), but you never know. :>
It's very light, compact, versatile (over 1000 percussion sounds), and perhaps most importantly, quiet (I can plug in headphones so that the rest of the hall doesn't have to listen to me). It also makes a nice conversation piece - and might let some of the residents (including Katherine!) get the drumming experience they've always wanted. ;>
We were shown out of the elevator into seemingly endless dark corridors...
...before my camera mysteriously went haywire, refusing to capture any of the horrors that lurked within. Fortunately, though, everyone made it out alive, and my camera returned to normal.
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