I was incredibly lucky that my good friend Vicky from college, born and raised in Hong Kong, was back there working to be a barrister (I anxiously await her getting a wig, because yeah, they still wear those and it's going to be awesome). She and her family generously offered to let me come stay with them for a few weeks. They even suggested that I stay a few days longer than planned, so clearly I kept my weird enough in check and the "quirky charm" shined through.
Here's a lovely view from The Peak, a mall-like complex at the top of a mountain with walking trails that have spectacular views of the skyline.
It might sound strange to Americans that my successful friend would be living with her family. This is in fact the norm in Asia, as not living with your family is the outlier. In fact, this is common in pretty much the rest of the world. Most Chinese parents expect their children to live with them until they marry, even if they go somewhere else for school. And on top of that, Hong Kong is insanely expensive, so if you want to live there, you better hope that you have family or mafia ties, because I couldn't afford to live in a bathroom.
Despite loving my family, I'm used to my independent lifestyle, and find the concept of living with them as an adult potentially awkward, because I have a love life. No need to research this, it's obviously a fact that I have a love life. It would waste your time. So, let's look at a lovely skyline view.
However my friend Vicky has really easy going parents who let her come and go as she pleases, and rather her family only eats dinner together because they genuinely enjoy each other's company. I can't generalize that this is a better cultural idea than America's, because people are individual. I rode a plane with a guy who wistfully talked about how he had dreams of living and working in Shanghai after college, but didn't have the courage to disrespect his parents, so he went to live at home. I think more than anything, my experience with Vicky's family wasn't so much a win for a cultural construct, but a win for loving families.
Hong Kong is considered an island, but it consists of multiple islands, just like NYC is more than Manhattan. The skyline is beautiful and situated in a very hilly, green blanket. A very hilly, mountainous environment with roads that twist every 10 ft. and cause me to have vertigo.
My first night there, I was whisked off to a birthday party which turned out to be a Carnegie Mellon reunion. It was quite a swanky affair and change of pace from my previous exploits in China. The birthday girl had the cutest cake topper, to match her cuteness. I want everything to be covered in prints of these bears.
Wow, Hong Kong is beautiful! I went once when I was 4, but you can't appreciate those things at 4. Or remember them 20 years later...
Posted by: Kristan | November 11, 2009 at 04:49