Seriously out of my Element

Greetings from Hong Kong!  I needed a break, and now i find myself in Hong Kong.   I kept thinking that perhaps my father was right (as i was wandering aimlessly through security filling out random paperwork) that HK would be a lot like Britain.  I don't think that I agree with that now.  They do drive on the wrong side of the vehicle and the wrong side of the road here.  There are a lot of bilingual signs, not all of them, but a lot of them, and there are a lot of places where they speak English, again, not all of them.  There’s also a large amount of fat people, not sure if that’s true in Britain – I can’t remember, but they’re all either white or black, and most likely from the United States (perhaps I’m stereotyping, but I distinctly remember looking almost like an anorexic in comparison with a lot of my fellow Americans).  I think that’s where the similarity ends.

There’s a ton of people in Hong Kong who speak Cantonese, and a smaller amount of people who speak Mandarin, most seem to be bilingual and can speak both, but the locals here are proud to be Cantonese, and do not think that they are actually part of China, regardless of what country is claiming them.  I can kind of see their point, they have a different monetary system, i.e. Hong Kong Dollars instead of RMB, and there’s a crazy border and immigration set up between here and the mainland.  I think that setting up something like that only drives home the differences every time someone crosses.  There’s even a duty free shop in between the checkpoints.

Hong Kong appears to be a city where you can get absolutely anything you want.  As I was looking for a pharmacy that sold something other than lotion, I was approached numerous times about suits, shirts, and watches.  Every side street you look down is full of shopping and deals to be had.  My hotel room looks out over the harbor, and, while I can’t see any boats, there are lights everywhere.  While Shenzhen is a newer city, HK seems a whole lot bigger, bigger buildings, more lights, and a much higher population, I’m not sure if that’s true or not, you’d have to look up the statistics, although I think that those are a little off in southern China due to the southern Chinese refusal to report child births accurately (avoiding taxes and fees).

I’m sitting in my hotel room now, and I’ve had a lot of time to think, between my ride over here, the long, long train (metro) ride, and wandering around, sort of lost.  I have to say, I feel completely out of my element in China.  While I feel safe, I also find it extremely stressful not being able to communicate.  I was talking to a friend today about that issue, and getting his take on it.  He asked me how long it would be before I was able to easily tell someone about my day, and to converse with them in a meaningful way.  I told him that I expected about 6 months, and he agreed with me completely.

When he had first gotten his apartment, he had a water heater go out late in the evening.  It took 3 days of frustration, to get the problem solved.  His Chinese appears to be good to me, but he’s still seriously lacking, and has only recently been able to communicate with cab drivers, everything else is over his head.  It’s taken him 4 months to get to this level.  He is here on his own as well, everyone else that we know have a company to back them up, take care of them, make sure that everything gets taken care of, but we’re both on our own trying to get it all working.  While I think that the positive of that is that we’re both seriously motivated, and will probably surpass the others in learning the language, it also puts on a serious amount of stress and frustration.

My friend told me that he’s come to the conclusion that the next possible girlfriend he gets, he’s going to pledge his undying love, and devotion, and date her until his Chinese improves.  It seems kind of funny, or perhaps a little shallow, but I believe that he probably has something there.  I think right now, he’s trying to find a Chinese roommate, and doesn’t really care if he gets robbed of most of his possessions as long as he has someone who is able to help him learn the pronunciation, and the language.  The tones are killer, the learning curve is steep.

I honestly thought that my knowledge of Korean, and of Korean custom would be a great help here, but I think that it’s more of a hindrance than a help.  If I were to do this again, I would do it completely differently.  If I were to advise someone who was thinking of doing this, I would advise completely against it, until I was able to get more connections, and some of the language down.  You quite simply cannot do this on your own.  The school will help to a certain degree, however, what do you do on the weekends?  What do you do in the middle of the night when something important breaks?  When I was asked that question, my only answer that I can come up with is, “Panic!!”.

I almost wonder if there’s a business idea in there somewhere.  I think there is, it’s just something that I’m going to be considering over the next year or so.  I do know that those who I know here or have met here who are able to communicate have all done so via their Chinese boyfriend or girlfriend.  Those who don’t want to deal with the Chinese dating insanity are vastly lacking in skill.

As for Chinese dating insanity… ask me about that sometime, I think that they all are candidates for psychiatric care, definitely in strait jackets.  There are a ton of positives about dating Chinese women, but there are definitely some craziness that goes along with it, that may be too much for many, I have yet to decide.  I do know that the language barrier is brutal, as is the cultural barrier.  It’s very difficult to figure out what’s going on 90-95% of the time.  I’m still trying to think things out, I thought I was conned earlier, and now, I’m not so sure, I still need to think about things.

I think I’m going to go watch Skyfall, then perhaps take some pictures of the lights…or maybe I’ll take pictures tomorrow and just take advantage of a bathtub, and an actual soft bed….i’m very excited!! 

I should mention that my neighbours finally figured out that I was stealing their signal, so, that’s over with, I still need to find some way to get internet at my place, I’m going to work on that next week, I think.  If you don’t hear from me, that’s why, I’m still writing regularly, it just takes a while to post some times.  I also have a broken water heater, but I don’t have a clue as to what to do about it, I think it’ll end up being easiest if I just find someone to install a new one for me, rather than trying to deal with my landlords.  My shower is either burning hot, or freezing cold…but…there is a 1 minute grace period where it’s actually just warm, the trick is using it in that time period, then shutting it off, soaping up, and restarting the system.  Get everything done before you get scalded.