Oh Shanghai! (sung to the tune of Oh Canada!)

I know you all are sitting on the edge of your collective seat waiting to hear about our adventures in Shanghai but alas, you shall have to wait. I have uploaded the pictures and will try to send out via Snapfish tonight or tomorrow morning but the blogging will have to wait until we get back from Thailand next Monday. I know, I know, you are severely disappointed and are possibly going through Marc-and-Brina-blog withdrawal however, I promise you the stories are plentiful and highly entertaining. Highlights include:

1 - A ride in a magnetic levitation train (not joking). If you don't know what a MagLev train is (like I didn't before Marc explained it to me), then read here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maglev_train. The dang thing LEVITATES due to the polar opposite attraction of the magnets on the tracks and the train. I swear sometimes I feel like I'm Jane Jetson riding escalators and levitating trains!

2 - The Shanghai Zoo - lions, tigers and (panda) bears, oh my! As well as elephants, kangaroos and spider monkeys! "I'm gonna come at you like a spider monkey!"

3 - Drinks and dessert on the 87th floor of the Jinmao Tower.

4 - A favorable mooncake experience on the plane.

OK, that's it for now, I don't want to ruin the surprise. Have a great week everyone!

Blog Homework

Your homework, while we are in Shanghai for the next few days, is to rent the movie "The Beach" and watch the first half of it (before Leo goes off the reservation). Each of the places that Leo travels to in that movie are the same places we will be visiting when we go to Thailand next week. So, if you want to get a sneak peak, just watch the movie. Oh and the scenery (a/k/a Leo) isn't hard on the eyes either. ;-)

We're off to Shanghai in a few hours, but not to worry, we have been tracking Typhoon Wipha and the eye of the storm is currently south of Shanghai. There will be some rain but Shanghai is not supposed to be affected. Everything is business as usual, so quit worrying Moms! :)

Cheung Chau, Man Mo and Squash, Oh My!

This weekend, we finally decided to get off our butts and find some adventures. See, when the weekend rolls around and we wake up to a hazy cityscape, we usually end up making breakfast, skyping people and watching movies until we get cabin fever and eventually leave the apartment at about 4pm. Not very conducive to adventure seeking.

So, on Saturday, we decided to go to Cheung Chau. Now, who can remember what Cheung Chau is? Anyone? Bueller? Okay, I don't blame you, these Chinese names all tend to run together and I can't remember my subway stop half the time, much less the outlying islands. Cheung Chau, along with Hong Kong island (where we live), Lantau Island (home of the Po Lin Monastery), and Lamma island (home of lamas, j/k, I don't know what is over there) are the main islands which together with the mainland portion make up Hong Kong. There will be a quiz later.

Stick with me, kids, you'll learn geography, as well as where to buy blue wigs (hint: next to the escalator):

Can we say RANDOM?

Anypoodles, so off we go to Cheung Chau. The 50 minute slow ferry costs a whopping $2.18 (US) in deluxe class. We're big pimping. On the way back, we splurge for the 30 minute fast ferry which costs $2.56 (US), also deluxe class.

The slow ferry is quite nice, slowly swaying us like we are in the womb and Marc promptly falls asleep so I'm left to entertain myself for the next 48 minutes. After watching the in-boat entertainment advertising the splendors of Cheung Chau and an amusing infomercial about how smoking is bad for you (no, smoking will not make you look cool or give you more energy to brainstorm), I flip through my trusty Frommers. I learn that Cheung Chau (or CC) is only 1 square mile, there are 25,000 people crammed onto this tiny little fishing village, and there are no cars on the island. How quaint!

We arrive and it becomes clear to me that CC is the Chinese Venice but without the canals and those annoying Italian guys pinching your butt and shouting "Ciao Bella!" Since there are no cars on the island, everyone rides bikes to get around. The small alleyways are crammed with souvenir shops selling t-shirts, flip flops, shells, board shorts and various beach town paraphernalia. What surprises me even more is the McDonalds right next to the pier. How do they find the most remote places to peddle Big Macs?

We wander through the alleys until we reach the other side of the island where the beach is:
There is a cheap wind-surfing rental place but there isn't any wind to make it worth our while and after the Hobie cat debacle of Bahamas 2007, we decide not to risk it. On the way down to the beach, however, we are accosted by 2 friendly Aussies who invite us to an Ibiza party on the beach. Their exact words were "You guys look like you're looking for a party! You gotta come to the f'ing party!" (except they didn't say f'ing). Nice. We didn't exactly make it to the party but we were close enough to listen to the techno music while we lounged the afternoon away.

As the sun was setting, we wandered back to the pier and walked along the main waterfront promenade. On the water, we could see the house boats where many families live and work. We also found the freshest seafood restaurant ever. You literally pick your food (still living and swimming in open air tanks) and they will fish it out and cook it for you. Here is Marc pretending to pick his food:

We didn't really eat there because we couldn't be sure that the fish were not caught in Victoria Harbor which is very polluted but the whole concept is very different and neat. We hopped on the next ferry and sailed back home.

The next day, Marc went to the gym and I decided to figure out where the Man Mo Temple was. I had heard about it from Nancy*, the wife of one of Marc's colleagues, and I knew it was really close to our apartment. Unfortunately, it is under renovation, so there was bamboo scaffolding everywhere but that didn't stop everyone, their mothers, grandmothers, children and 2 tour buses full of Westerners from being in there. Apparently Sunday is the day to bring sacrificial items to the Buddha, although why he needs oranges and grape Fanta is beyond me. What I really enjoyed is a ritual that Nancy had told me about and if she hadn't told me anything, I would never have understood. For $100 Honkeys (about $12(US)), you can get a bundle of about 50 popsicle sticks with Chinese writing on them in a wooden can. You shake the can with all the sticks in it until one of the sticks falls out. I have no idea how only 1 stick makes its way out of the bunch, but it happens every single time! Then, you can take the "chosen stick" to a man who will interpret the writing on the stick and tell you your fortune. The Locals take this VERY seriously. The woman in the pink shirt with a blurry image in front of her is doing the stick can shaky thing but she is shaking it so fast, you can't see the sticks:I didn't get my fortune read but I'm going back and taking Marc so we can do the stick shaky thing, it just looks cool. Plus, who knows, the fortune-teller might be right and he'll pick my winning lottery numbers!

Later that afternoon, we set out to the public squash courts. Marc has been threatening to play squash and even went out and bought a racket, so off we went to try our luck. Let's just say I don't exactly have a knack for that whole hand-eye coordination thing but we had a great time chasing after the ball and Marc looked really cute.
I can't wait to go back again so that I can really unleash my squash playing skillz and really kick Marc's butt. Don't let him know I'm a squash shark! ;-)

Stay tuned because on Wednesday we are going to Shanghai (returning on Sunday), then next Tuesday, we are going to Thailand. I'll be sure to have lots of adventure stories and pictures to share!

*Names have been changed to protect the innocent.

Heaven on Earth

OK, so I know that I said Shenzhen is Shopper's Mecca. However, I have found Heaven on Earth and it is LIII LIII Couture. Read this article, starting at "Catwalk": http://www.northshoremag.com/cgi-bin/ns-article?article=/travel/03-06-hongkong.html

Yes, that is right, LIII LIII is a cobbler store! No, not like peaches and blueberry but an actual shoe-maker! Messrs. Alan, Joe and Billy Chan are the craftsmen of ANY KIND OF SHOE YOU CAN IMAGINE (or not imagine). Pining over a pair of Pradas? Jonesin' for some Jimmy Choos? Craving some Channels? Salivating over a pair of Salvatore Ferragamos? Just bring in a picture of the shoe you are lusting after and one of these gods on earth will create it, just for you. Hate the bow on the side? No problem, they can put a rhinestone piece instead. Carrie Bradshaw may be able to strut on her stilettos all day long, but my calves certainly can't take that. So, I can ask for a shorter/wider/no heel.

Now, these Pièces de Résistance aren't exactly Shenzhen cheap (more like starting at $200) but when a pair of Jimmys can go for $5,000, what a bargain! Or, at least, that's what I'm telling Marc since I'm ordering my wedding shoes right now....

Mooncake Madness

Well, it's that time of year here in Hong Kong when everyone goes nuts over mooncakes. And what, pray tell, are mooncakes, you ask? Allow me to elaborate:

On day 15 of the 8th Lunar Moon (or Sept. 25 for you Westerners) starts the beginning of Mid-Autumn Festival, or Moon Festival, celebrating the harvest and the brightest moon of the year. It is many people's favorite festival as the city lights up with thousands of paper lanterns in all shapes and sizes. Everyone partakes in the festivities and at night, there are parades with the infamous Chinese dragons. People also eat special sweet cakes known as mooncakes.

Mind you, I got all this information from reading my travel guides and this:

http://www.discoverhongkong.com/eng/heritage/festivals/he_fest_mida.jhtml

(quite informative, you should read it, it's neat)

Long before I knew all about Mid-Autumn Festival, though, I kept seeing signs for Mooncakes. "Mooncakes - Coming Soon!" "Stop here for Mooncakes!" "Mooncake Specials!" "Mooncakes in All Flavours!" These signs can be seen in all the grocery stores, bakeries, restaurants, tea shops, and even the Godiva chocolate store (they have their own limited edition "Mooncake Chocolate":

http://www.godiva.com.hk/EN/store/product.asp?id=800)

So, being the inquisitive person that I am and figuring if they are cakes, they can't be that bad, I bought 2 different flavours (yes, I'm becoming British) from Maxim Bakery last week. I passed on the lotus seed paste, sesame seed, tofu and bean paste flavours and opted for the more conventional (at least in my mind) flavors of blueberry and mango. The girl at the bakery unsuccessfully tried to give me instructions as I had told her this would be my first mooncake experience. To this day, I still have no idea what she was trying to tell me.

I went home, made dinner, ate and then with great flourish, presented the blueberry mooncakes to Marc. They were really pretty but really white, like they were uncooked, but hey, you gotta live a little right? Well, we bit into them and they were really doughy and sticky and just didn't taste right at all. I mean, we could taste the blueberry filling but the outside tasted like raw dough. (I wish I had thought to take a picture, sorry.) Mind you, the entire wrapper has Chinese writing and absolutely no English. So, I looked them up online: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mooncake

The picture looks like it has been baked, right? So, I put it in the oven, I guess 350 degrees, maybe 10 minutes, I mean they are 1 inch cubed, can't take that long, right? Um, yea, so after about 12 minutes, I take it out and it is oozy and gooey and not at all like the picture on Wiki. At this point, Marc, who ate 3/4 of a mooncake himself, is not feeling so good, so I chuck the whole thing.

The next day, I sent Marc to his office with strict instructions to find out what we did wrong. So he asked his Chinese work colleague what we should have done differently and told her what kind of mooncakes we bought. She said we were eating them right the first time, uncooked, and claimed they were delicious. His British counterpart exclaimed that they were the foulest thing he has ever put in his mouth. I think, after much deliberation, that mooncakes are an acquired taste and that, unless you also eat chicken toes and fish heads, you will never be able to eat a mooncake without gagging. And that's all I have to say about that.

Yes, I'm a Slacker

Sorry for the lack of posts lately. I've been doing really mundane things that don't require narration, so I thought I would spare you the details.

I did want to write about an interesting thing that happened to me a few weeks back though.

As most of you know, I am unemployed, by choice mind you. I couldn't very well keep up my law practice when moving to Hong Kong. Clients don't like it when they have to call you extremely long distance to get legal advice, and I don't blame them. So, I've been the dutiful house-fiancee, taking care of the cleaning, cooking, laundry, etc. As you know, moving here has taken some adjusting and I needed the time off to figure things out like where to buy real food, get laundry done, buy furniture, etc. so the time hasn't exactly been wasted. We've also been traveling and planning trips so while I don't have to ask The Man for vacation time, I'm pretty much living it up.

However, I am starting to get brain rot and I figured I should probably start looking for a job. I had a lead on a job from a contact I worked with while in Atlanta. The contact works in Spain for an international trust company and he had mentioned that they had an office in Hong Kong. My ears perked up like Ella when she hears me say "Let's go outside" or "Ella-bella, you want a treat?" or "Hmmm, what I am going to do with this extra piece of bacon?" (The latter elicits the same response from Marc.) He put me in contact with the head of the HK office and we made arrangements to have a meet and greet (not a real interview, but I knew enough to bring my resume).

The morning of my quasi-interview, I got all decked out in business attire the likes of which I haven't worn since I quit my job. I've got to tell you, wearing shorts and flip flops everyday is awesome, it should be the new business casual. I wanted to print my updated resume but had to get the fancy schmacy resume paper and go to Marc's office to print the thing. So, I hailed a cab (since I didn't want to sweat in my business clothes) and headed down to the mall. Once I got there, I quickly jumped out of the taxi and promptly left my leather bound portfolio containing my old resume and my contact's info on the back seat of the cab. As soon as I got in the mall, I realized what happened but sure enough the cabbie was long gone.

Being the resourceful person I am, I bought not just resume paper but a new leather portfolio at the mall and high-tailed it to Marc's office to do the printing. I told him what happened and we looked up the contact info again on the internet since I still needed to know how to get there. Twenty minutes later, armed with a new portfolio and a stack of freshly printed resumes (or C.V.'s as they call them here), I was off. I got to the guy's office on time and the meeting went swimmingly.

Fast forward about 2 weeks.

The guy I met with calls me 4 times and leaves me a text message but I miss his calls and message because I didn't hear my cellphone ringing. I think to myself, "By gosh, this is it! He's called to offer me a job!" But alas, that was not why he was calling. When I got in touch with him, he said had an interesting phone call from the police who had called him and told him they had something of mine and whether he knew how to get in contact with me. Utterly shocked, I conceded that I had left my portfolio in a cab and had thought it was lost forever (because you really want to tell a possible employer that you are so flaky you misplaced important documents like your resume). He gave me the info for the police and I went down to the station with my tail between my legs to retrieve my old portfolio.

When I got there, a very nice receptionist took down my information and within 3 minutes, had retrieved my portfolio, just the same as I had left it just 2 weeks before. I couldn't believe it, so I asked her how they found it. She said the taxi cab driver put the portfolio in a post box and the post office, not knowing where to deliver it (since it had my address in Atlanta and an Atlanta telephone number, remember this was my old resume) turned it over to the police station.

At this point, let me state that Hong Kong has no crime. Seriously, you never hear about murders or muggings or drug deals ever. I think that HK just has no tolerance for crime, so if you do something terrible, you will certainly pay the consequences. Just ask the FDA guy who was executed for the tainted toothpaste scandal. So, I guess since they don't have any bad guys to chase, they called my contact whose HK info was in the portfolio and found me that way.

Can you believe that? All those people went through so much trouble just to get my portfolio back to me. If that had happened in New York, I would never have seen it again and I had honestly thought I never would. But somehow, people here are different and I guess they really cared enough to go through the effort to get it back to me. I'm still truly impressed.

As for the job, I don't think it really hurt my chances and I'm still following the lead, so I'll keep you posted if I get the job. In the meantime, I'm going to send out my resume to a few other places, just in case.