It will take quite a while for us to get everything setup (we have day jobs, you know ;>), but in the meantime I'll keep the blog posts coming with tours of the various facilities we have in the complex. Stay tuned!
Saturday, March 29, 2008
A look at our new place...
Time for a five minute video tour that shows you what our new place looks like before we move anything in...
Typical Hong Kong fast-food breakfast...
I thought I might show you what a very common breakfast looks like at a traditional fast-food place in Hong Kong (a locally owned and operated place, not a globally franchised place like McDonald's ;>)...
A soup composed of macaroni, pork, and a
certain kind of pickled Chinese vegetables.
Katherine posing with the goods.
Total cost: about US$3.
Total cost: about US$3.
A fresh lemon, sliced and steeped
in hot water and honey. A wonderful drink!
in hot water and honey. A wonderful drink!
A soup composed of macaroni, pork, and a
certain kind of pickled Chinese vegetables.
Freshly baked and buttered bread, scrambled eggs, and a slice of spam.
(Spam is a very common breakfast meat, along with ham and hot dogs.)
(Spam is a very common breakfast meat, along with ham and hot dogs.)
The only other item was a ham and egg sandwich, which was so similar to the last picture above that I didn't feel like you needed a close-up. ;> Note the lack of crusts on the bread - this is the most common way of serving a sandwich.
Some similarities with breakfast food we might be used to in the States, but also some stark differences. Yummy nonetheless! :>
Some similarities with breakfast food we might be used to in the States, but also some stark differences. Yummy nonetheless! :>
We have a place to live!
It was a long, strange road, but this week we finally signed a three-month lease on a new place...and we moved in immediately. Here's a look at our new landlord posing with us in the dining area...
His name is Anthony and he's truly a wonderful fellow. But why sign for just three months, you ask? The answer lies in that long, strange road I mentioned. First, some background...
Before we left Ann Arbor, Katherine applied to become the warden of a residence hall at the University of Hong Kong. (Similar to a prison warden, I guess, but with students instead of inmates. ;>) A warden manages most aspects of the dorm (procedures, policies, discipline, admittance, the general atmosphere, etc) and, in return, is given an apartment situated atop the dorm. It's a wonderful way to make a positive impact in students' lives outside of the classroom.
As part of the warden hiring process for this particular residence hall, Katherine participated in three different interviews (with current students living in the dorm, alumni of the dorm, and the wardenship selection committee). They all went very well, so we felt pretty good about her chances.
Unfortunately, though, on February 28th, she was informed that another candidate had been selected for the position. We were disappointed, but quickly picked ourselves up and started looking for a permanent place to live (instead of the more expensive, month-to-month arrangement of the "service apartment" we had been living in). Let's walk through a timeline from that point until now...
March 1st: We found an apartment we wanted. After some difficult negotiating, we came to an agreement with the landlord and planned to sign the lease agreement on March 2nd.
March 2nd: At the last minute, the landlord used a pressure tactic and changed the terms of the agreement (raising our rent by a few hundred US dollars). I suppose he was hoping that we were desperate enough to swallow the pill, but we weren't since we still had a full month left in our current lease. So we walked away.
March 4th: We found another place - one which we liked even better than the first. We made an offer and, without any negotiating, came to an agreement with the landlord (a much nicer process than the first go-round). We setup a 3pm meeting to sign the lease on the following day. (Note that the landlord had to drive about 3 hours from mainland China to be present for the signing.)
March 5th: Only an hour before the lease signing, Katherine was informed that the wardenship selection committee was not quite as certain about their candidate selection as once thought. She was asked to wait on signing a lease for one week to let everything get sorted out. This put us in a strange position. The landlord was already on his way from China, so we couldn't really cancel the meeting. Instead, we went and explained the situation and the landlord was unbelievably understanding and sympathetic - a really wonderful man. The kind of landlord you dream of having, actually. He did not ask us to sign anything and told us to contact him again if the warden's position fell through.
Three weeks passed and we heard nothing from the wardenship selection committee. The lease in our current place only had a week left in it, so we decided to give up on the wardenship and contact the landlord again. The place hadn't been rented yet, amazingly, so we setup another lease-signing meeting for 11AM on March 25th.
March 25th: At 2AM, 8 hours before our signing, Katherine received an e-mail from the head of the wardenship selection committee, telling her that the originally-selected candidate had officially backed-out and that the selection committee would now be recommending that Katherine be extended an offer for the job. Katherine was up late working, so she got the note as it arrived and, of course, she woke me up to deliver the news. We were in shock and had to figure out what to do with the lease signing that was hours away.
We realized, though, that we did indeed need a place to stay for the next three months, since it is likely that we wouldn't be able to move into the warden's apartment until sometime in June. We could renew the contract for our current place, or we could move into this new place. We ran a calculation and, if we offered to pay the entire agent commission (equivalent to one month of rent, usually split between landlord and tenant) as a concession for all the trouble we had put this landlord through, the cost of living here and the cost of living in the new place would be nearly the same for 3 a month period. Moving incurs more effort, and we'd need to buy some extra furniture and various odds and ends, but we decided we would rather go through that in order to keep our promise.
The last piece of the puzzle: Would the landlord be willing to sign only a 3 month lease? This is almost never done. Usually, the minimum is one year. At the meeting, we talked through everything and, in the end, successfully negotiated a 3 month least at the same rent price we had originally agreed upon a month earlier. The lease was signed and we were ready to move in immediately. Whew!
March 28th: Movers came to transfer all of our goodies and we're in! Nothing is setup yet, but we made it. ;> A wild ride, no?
His name is Anthony and he's truly a wonderful fellow. But why sign for just three months, you ask? The answer lies in that long, strange road I mentioned. First, some background...
Before we left Ann Arbor, Katherine applied to become the warden of a residence hall at the University of Hong Kong. (Similar to a prison warden, I guess, but with students instead of inmates. ;>) A warden manages most aspects of the dorm (procedures, policies, discipline, admittance, the general atmosphere, etc) and, in return, is given an apartment situated atop the dorm. It's a wonderful way to make a positive impact in students' lives outside of the classroom.
As part of the warden hiring process for this particular residence hall, Katherine participated in three different interviews (with current students living in the dorm, alumni of the dorm, and the wardenship selection committee). They all went very well, so we felt pretty good about her chances.
Unfortunately, though, on February 28th, she was informed that another candidate had been selected for the position. We were disappointed, but quickly picked ourselves up and started looking for a permanent place to live (instead of the more expensive, month-to-month arrangement of the "service apartment" we had been living in). Let's walk through a timeline from that point until now...
March 1st: We found an apartment we wanted. After some difficult negotiating, we came to an agreement with the landlord and planned to sign the lease agreement on March 2nd.
March 2nd: At the last minute, the landlord used a pressure tactic and changed the terms of the agreement (raising our rent by a few hundred US dollars). I suppose he was hoping that we were desperate enough to swallow the pill, but we weren't since we still had a full month left in our current lease. So we walked away.
March 4th: We found another place - one which we liked even better than the first. We made an offer and, without any negotiating, came to an agreement with the landlord (a much nicer process than the first go-round). We setup a 3pm meeting to sign the lease on the following day. (Note that the landlord had to drive about 3 hours from mainland China to be present for the signing.)
March 5th: Only an hour before the lease signing, Katherine was informed that the wardenship selection committee was not quite as certain about their candidate selection as once thought. She was asked to wait on signing a lease for one week to let everything get sorted out. This put us in a strange position. The landlord was already on his way from China, so we couldn't really cancel the meeting. Instead, we went and explained the situation and the landlord was unbelievably understanding and sympathetic - a really wonderful man. The kind of landlord you dream of having, actually. He did not ask us to sign anything and told us to contact him again if the warden's position fell through.
Three weeks passed and we heard nothing from the wardenship selection committee. The lease in our current place only had a week left in it, so we decided to give up on the wardenship and contact the landlord again. The place hadn't been rented yet, amazingly, so we setup another lease-signing meeting for 11AM on March 25th.
March 25th: At 2AM, 8 hours before our signing, Katherine received an e-mail from the head of the wardenship selection committee, telling her that the originally-selected candidate had officially backed-out and that the selection committee would now be recommending that Katherine be extended an offer for the job. Katherine was up late working, so she got the note as it arrived and, of course, she woke me up to deliver the news. We were in shock and had to figure out what to do with the lease signing that was hours away.
We realized, though, that we did indeed need a place to stay for the next three months, since it is likely that we wouldn't be able to move into the warden's apartment until sometime in June. We could renew the contract for our current place, or we could move into this new place. We ran a calculation and, if we offered to pay the entire agent commission (equivalent to one month of rent, usually split between landlord and tenant) as a concession for all the trouble we had put this landlord through, the cost of living here and the cost of living in the new place would be nearly the same for 3 a month period. Moving incurs more effort, and we'd need to buy some extra furniture and various odds and ends, but we decided we would rather go through that in order to keep our promise.
The last piece of the puzzle: Would the landlord be willing to sign only a 3 month lease? This is almost never done. Usually, the minimum is one year. At the meeting, we talked through everything and, in the end, successfully negotiated a 3 month least at the same rent price we had originally agreed upon a month earlier. The lease was signed and we were ready to move in immediately. Whew!
March 28th: Movers came to transfer all of our goodies and we're in! Nothing is setup yet, but we made it. ;> A wild ride, no?
A beautiful bowl of noodles...
Monday, March 24, 2008
Glamourous Hong Kong tutors...
It is very common for Hong Kong secondary school students to receive after-school tutoring, especially when preparing for their Certificate and A-level exams. A whole industry has been built around this and, amazingly, it is marketed with techniques that are very similar to those used in the entertainment industry. Let's look at an example advertisement (which I found on the back of a bus yesterday)...
This is an English tutor, but you'll find ads like this for tutors in every subject. Individuals are promoted like movie or recording stars and the actual company they work for is mentioned more like an afterthought. This can drive up the popularity of particular tutors - and the more popular a tutor is, the more expensive, and the more he or she is paid. The really popular ones, for example, make an excess of US$1 million per year. Want to come be a tutor? ;>
This is an English tutor, but you'll find ads like this for tutors in every subject. Individuals are promoted like movie or recording stars and the actual company they work for is mentioned more like an afterthought. This can drive up the popularity of particular tutors - and the more popular a tutor is, the more expensive, and the more he or she is paid. The really popular ones, for example, make an excess of US$1 million per year. Want to come be a tutor? ;>
An Easter lunch with Katherine's parents...
Two days ago I promoted "no food" posts. Yesterday I retracted that with an Indonesian food post. Today I'm back to my old food-post tricks. Inescapable.
Yesterday we took a trip to Katherine's parents' place (still very much in Hong Kong, but about 45 minutes by bus from where we live - Hong Kong is big) for an Easter lunch (feast!) that Katherine's mother had prepared...
Yesterday we took a trip to Katherine's parents' place (still very much in Hong Kong, but about 45 minutes by bus from where we live - Hong Kong is big) for an Easter lunch (feast!) that Katherine's mother had prepared...
A fresh fish steamed whole with ginger,
cilantro, and shallots (extremely tender!).
cilantro, and shallots (extremely tender!).
Young Chinese broccoli with Chinese pork sausage.
Squid with a cabbage-like vegetable that
Katherine's mother pickled herself.
Katherine's mother pickled herself.
Eggs stewed in a "special sauce".
Rather like Chinese Easter eggs! ;>
Rather like Chinese Easter eggs! ;>
Watercress soup.
She also prepared "bajek", an Indonesian salad very similar to "gado-gado" (which we ate at the Indonesian restaurant a few days ago). I'll give you a component-by-component walkthough of its construction...
Peanut sauce. This is the key!
Fried chunks of tofu.
Cabbage and string beans.
The above components are combined with bean sprouts.
And then fried chips are placed on top.
Gado-gado would use shrimp chips, this salad used
fruit chips (of which I know no English translation).
Gado-gado would use shrimp chips, this salad used
fruit chips (of which I know no English translation).
Dig in!
Saturday, March 22, 2008
An Indonesian dinner...
Okay - so, in my last post, I proudly reported the lack of food coverage this week. A day later, I have caved. It was inevitable, I suppose. ;>
Katherine and I went to Causeway Bay yesterday for a few hours of furniture shopping (though we don't have everything finalized just yet, we believe we have found a new permanent place to live and expect to move there in under a week). Afterwards, we visited an excellent Indonesian place called "Padang"...
Katherine and I went to Causeway Bay yesterday for a few hours of furniture shopping (though we don't have everything finalized just yet, we believe we have found a new permanent place to live and expect to move there in under a week). Afterwards, we visited an excellent Indonesian place called "Padang"...
The interior. It's popular. :>
Indonesian roti (flat bread)
Gudeg ayam (jackfruit with chicken and eggs in a coconut sauce)
I'm not sure that the pictures make everything look yummy, but it very much was! Following our meal, we engaged in something very key to Hong Kong culture: the late-night snack! Nearby, just outside Times Square (a huge shopping mall in Causeway Bay), we stopped by a favorite snack stall and picked up two small things...
"Little Chicken Eggs"
(a delicious waffle-like treat that has a hint of coconut flavor)
(a delicious waffle-like treat that has a hint of coconut flavor)
Yum!
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