crash course

Is is possible that we are going to learn all the hard lessons in less than six months of living here?

Car accident, car broken down, stitches at the hospital, and on and on.

I didn't have this many issues in five years in the US.

This conspicuous letter arrived today, and while this wasn't exactly what I wanted to find in the mailbox, I think I prefer this over the humiliating side-of-road encounter with the blue lights.

The letter just tells us that we were speeding on Friday night at 9:30 - going 69km in a 50km zone.  What it does not say is how much this is going to cost!

Really?

Monthly - almost - there are articles in the South China Morning Post relating the problems of pollution. Often, I read about anti-pollution drives, but there are definitely road blocks. Nonetheless, it seems many people in HK don't take pollution lightly.

Pollution is definitely something we have to deal with in HK, but Shanghai and Bejing rarely see the blue sky, and I heard Shanghai schools were closed yesterday due to the API (air pollution index).

But this week, an article in a nationalist newspaper in mainland China actually suggested that pollution had its benefits! Communism at its finest.

Forrest and I decided we needed to post this:

In America, we're used to our government, our industry and our media putting a spin on events to make the world seem a brighter, better place than it really is. But China is showing some impressive spin talent of its own, with a rationalization for pollution that is, quite literally, breathtaking.

Much of China has been suffering through choking smog in recent weeks, which has hampered daily activities and forced the closure of schools. In response, the government published a list of reasons documenting the benefits of smog. Yes, benefits.

A Time magazine translator indicated that Global Times offered up the following rationalizations for smog:

1. It unifies the Chinese people.
2. It makes China more equal.
3. It raises citizen awareness of the cost of China’s economic development.
4. It makes people funnier.
5. It makes people more knowledgeable (of things like meteorology and the English word haze).

That's some interesting rationalization. Following that line of thinking, hurricanes also unify people by forcing them to leave their isolated homes and gather in collectives. Tornadoes give people a sense of the power of nature. Wildfires place everyone on an equal footing by burning everyone's possessions to the ground. See? The problem isn't nature, the problem is you.

Oh, but the disinformation campaign wasn't done. The Global Times, a newspaper connected to the Communist Party's preferred publication the People's Daily, noted that smog has a defensive benefit. “Smog may affect people’s health and daily lives," the newspaper wrote, "but on the battlefield, it can serve as a defensive advantage in military operations." The article pointed to military operations in Kosovo and Saudi Arabia that used smoke as a means of obscuring the enemy's sight lines and fouling electronic equipment. This takes "we had to burn the village to save it" to a completely new level.

Assuming these comments are real — and the Chinese government historically has little patience for satire — it's a stunning attempt to deceive a populace about the true seriousness of a man-made environmental threat.

In future weeks, expect the Chinese government to endorse smoking (toughens your lungs!), junk food (purchasing larger items of clothing helps the textile industry!) and reality television (gives you a healthy distrust of your closest friends and family!).

Contact Jay Busbee at jay.busbee@yahoo.com or on Twitter at @jaybusbee.

Library Day

Taylor is a wiz with directions. She really knows her way around parts of this very confusing city, while I continue to get us lost on a weekly basis. 

After her immigration appointment on Monday, we finally arrived at Taylor's school and found her class had already left for the library. They use the public library two blocks away.  

The girl at the front desk greeted us as we walked in the door three and a half hours late for school, told us Taylor's class was gone, and then said, "I have no idea where the library is. Taylor, can you get to the library?" Taylor said, "Sure. Mom, do you want to walk with me, or do you need to catch the bus?" 

Really, everyone is okay with this.  I follow along, cross two intersections, kiss her goodbye, and hail a taxi (I was finished with buses for the day).

missing the bus

We caught the wrong bus from immigration, but we encountered the interesting aspects of HK, and I am always camera ready. 

The bamboo scaffolding is the norm because of it's strength, but I always do a double take when I see the men assembling the scaffolding. 

Precarious. 

The men don't seem to be secured in any way as they lash these poles together. 

Not for the faint of heart. 

immigration

In HK everyone, eleven years and older, is required to possess a HK ID card. Once a child turns eleven, the parent has thirty days to get the child's ID. 

Taylor just turned eleven last week, so we booked a morning appointment with immigration to make sure she didn't miss a full day of school. Perfect.

So, I took Taylor on Monday morning for a 10:15 am appiontment, and I arrived at 9:45, thanks to someone we know, who happened to be on the bus with us, and who happened to be getting off at Immigration Tower (he works in the building next door), and who graciously walked us to the very door of immigration. 

And, much like when Jeff, the boys, and I got our IDs, we were in and out in less than one hour (I find this massively busy arm of the governement to be incredibly efficient). Taylor and I walked in with our documents and were given a number; we watched for our number to be displayed on the screen, and we walked to the booth number that was displayed with our customer number. Easy.

But it stopped being easy at the escalator.  

We got outside to the bus stop near the tower, and we immediately saw bus 104!  Fabulous luck. We needed bus 104 because bus 104 stops right in front of the school.

But, within minutes, we were heading into the cross harbour tunnel, which takes us off HK Island (Taylor's school is on HK Island) and into Kowloon.  In the tunnel we became enlightened to our failure - we had failed to catch the bus on the correct side of the street. 

These roads in HK are unforgiving! We needed to get off the bus and get on the 104 going back through the tunnel onto HK Island. 

If we had caught the 104 bus from the opposite side of the street from Immigration Tower, we would have arrived at Taylor's school in about 15 minutes (11:00), but instead we arrived at 11:55.  It took us over an hour!  I love public transportation, but I am GREEN!

Christmas in HK

No, we are not spending Christmas in Hong Kong.  No, I brought no Christmas decorations from the states because I knew we would need them in the mountains - where we would be spending Christmas. 

But, everyone revolted when I said there was no need to put up a Christmas tree.  And, Jeff was the leader of the revolt. 

Seriously, we leave seven days before Christmas and we don't get back home until 10 days after Christmas (that math makes me crazy because I know we only spend 11 days in North Carolina, but the crazy time difference and the enormous amount of time on a plane cancels out some of those days). 

Yes, it now seems like Christmas in HK, and I'm glad there was a revolt.  The tree is beautiful and I bet we didn't spend $100 US in ornaments thanks to a little felt, thread, styrofoam, glitter, and twine. 

commute

I love this picture of Taylor riding at a stable in the New Territories. She always looks so comfortable and so peaceful on these animals, but it is anything but comfortable and peaceful to her out to this place. From school, she takes a taxi to the subway to another taxi, and that's just the ride getting to her lesson. On the way home, she gets a taxi to the subway to the city bus. But, this is what I find most everyone accepts as normal here.  I will never again complain about commutes again. 

On the other hand, I was able to walk from the market to pick out my Christmas tree directly from Washington state and have it delivered the same day to my house! 

Dim Sum?

 I'm positive this bamboo thing is for dim sum and not cupcakes!
Although I love dim sum, my guess is that it will be years before I will ever use this for its true purpose.