What's NOT for dinner!

You are looking at it!

The main reason I'm blogging about this subject matter this week is because my wonderful brother Jason, (author of the comical blog comments) is gallivanting through the wine country of France and will not be able to comment on this one. It's not that I don't LOVE his comments, it's just that this Blog may not be kosher.

Last week I strolled into a street market in the neighborhood of Wan Chai. Wan Chai was described to me as the Meat Packing district of NYC. It's currently going through a re-gentrification. At night, people venture to Wan Chai to visit new bars, restaurants, and some of the hottest clubs. Some people also go to visit the strippers, prostitutes, and various massage parlors. As most of you know I'm usually fast asleep by midnight so you don't have to worry about me visiting Wan Chai for this scene.

The Wan Chai market has a little bit of everything. You can pick up an umbrella for when it starts to down pour out of no where, underwear since your washer/dryer takes an entire day to dry anything, veggies, (yes mom I found cucumbers for less than $3.50 USD.) and of course fish and meat.

You want it, they have it! The market has everything from pigeon to pig hooves. Our friend who was visiting this weekend from NYC tried the pigeon and said it tastes similar to duck. He also tried the turtle jelly. Enough said.

The market has live chickens in cages. You can pick out which chicken you want and the man will just chop its head off and prepare it for you to take home and cook for dinner. A friend from college who lives here told me it's probably fresher than what we buy at the market. The sad thing is he's probably right!




A guy I met at a party this weekend, showed me the menu from a restaurant he had eaten at in China. They served cat, dog, and donkey intestines. You can't get that stuff in Hong Kong, or can you? From the looks of it you can get some kind of animal tail. You can definitely say Hong Kong has something for everyone, even for me...as long as it doesn't come from this market!

The shoe you've been asking about!

Claustrophobia in the underground

It was Friday night at around 6:00 and the streets seemed pretty empty. I wondered where the large crowd that filled the streets on a daily basis had gone. I figured people were home from work, ready to get their weekends started. Boy was I mistaken.

We took the escalator down into the MTR (the subway) and tapped our Octopus Cards (metro cards) against turn style machine. These Octopus cards can be used at stores such as 7Eleven and Starbucks. They are linked to your credit card and all you have to do is tap the card on the machine. You don't even get a receipt for your purchase so it's easy to lose track of how much you are spending. It's a good thing for D that I don't drink coffee. The pastry shops charges on the other hand, may prove to be a problem.

As I looked up ahead of me I saw a massive group of people trying to get down an escalator. We waited our turn in line. Although there were several hundred people, no one seemed to be pushing or in a rush to get anywhere. As we approached the lower part of the escalator, my mouth dropped open. Never in my life had I seen so many people waiting to get on a train.




Now the MTR stations in Hong Kong are very clean and efficient. When you arrive at the train platform everything is clearly marked. There are slots for you to stand in so when the train arrives the doors always open right in front of you. There are four slots per door. People stand in the slots and then line up behind each other. On a usual day, the slots might be 3 people deep. On this night, however, the slots were about 35 people deep.

The trains come every 3 minutes during rush hour so you don't have to wait long for your turn, but once you get on the train you are packed in as tight as a can of sardines. It's not like the NYC subway, where each car is closed on both sides by a door. These trains are completely open so you can see from the beginning of the train all the way to the end. This allows a lot more people to ride the train at once.

We filed into the train and I quickly looked around the area we were standing to make sure no one near us was wearing one of those masks indicating they were sick. Then, I buried my face into D's chest so I didn't have to smell the breath of the people standing next to us.

The train began to move and I thought "2 stops Marisa, 2 stops." The train pulled into the station and I got ready to jump out. Getting off the train, however, was not as easy as getting on. People were pushing to get on the already overcrowded train, which left no room to walk out. A small child would have been suffocated in the space provided to exit. Thankfully, D pushed through the people and we got off the train.

Well, that was a week ago and now it's Friday night again. I'm supposed to meet D in Central after work to start his weekend birthday festivities. Well you know one place you won't find me....Taxi please!

Cheat sheets...don't leave home without them

My first solo shopping experience proved to be an expensive one...

Today was D's first day of work so I decided to check out the mall we are currently living on top of. It was filled with extremely high end shops like Gucci, Prada, Channel, Dior just to name a few. I can't really think of a mall back home that you could compare it to. The Short Hills Mall actually has a few shops that people could afford to buy things in. This mall, not so much. You would be surprised how many women were in these stores actually making purchases. I was told that the "housewives" of Hong Kong love to lunch and shop. To me, shopping means browsing the stores and maybe purchasing something every now and then. To some of these ladies, it means carrying home several shopping bags on each arm.

July is "sale" month here in Hong Kong, as the stores are getting rid of the spring/summer merchandise to make room for the fall/winter collections. Even with the sale sign in every window, I had a hard time digesting the prices. Well I guess it was hard because I went out without the cheat sheet D created for me!

Nothing I touched was under $2000 Hong Kong. That number is just daunting. I know in American dollars it is $258.06 but I still get thrown off seeing such a high number! I stepped into a department store here called Lane Crawford. I guess it would be similar to a Saks in the states. I only allowed myself to look at the sales shoes on the first floor. EXPENSIVE MISTAKE!

Of course I found a pair I loved, had a hard time converting the thousands to hundreds, didn't have my cheat sheet, and now I'm the owner of a pair of Elizabeth and James black heels. From now on anytime you see me I will be wearing these heels to justify the purchase. Just don't ask me how much they cost in US dollars!

A Hong Kong Numbers Game

As many of you know, math has never been my strong suit. Whether figuring out how much something costs when it's 25% off to splitting a dinner bill 4 different ways with friends, I'm never the one to ask for a quick response. I always counted on the smarter friend to crunch the numbers for me. Do you think it's a coincidence that the man I chose to marry was a math major?

When I first started teaching I landed a position teaching first graders in Chinatown. On the first day of school my dad jokingly said to me "Good luck with your first day of teaching. I hope you can handle that first grade math!" That year was filled will shapes, and adding and subtracting using pictures. All of which I could handle. The following year I was promoted to the 2nd grade. My dad once again joked with me about the 2nd grade math curriculum being even harder. Although I have to admit I had some very strong math students the 4 years I taught 2nd grade, teaching the math was no problem for me. This past year I was promoted to the 3rd grade. When I told my dad the news he laughed, "This year the students really might be quicker than you in math." Sadly, he may have been right.

Most of the challenges I've had over the past few days have had to do with numbers.

1. The weather is in Celsius. Celsius means nothing to me. I'm told you have to divide by 5 multiply by 9 and then add 32. That is so not worth my time. Most likely the weather is just going to be hot with 100 percent humidity anyway so what's the point in figuring it all out.

2. After 12:59 p.m comes 13:00. Well im ok with this because I know that 13 come after twelve making that 1:00p.m. but by the time it turns 21:00 I find myself counting up on my fingers like I did in grade school. Maybe getting a digital alarm clock wasn't such a good idea.

3. The conversion between the American Dollar and the Hong Kong dollar is giving me nightmares. You actually have to divide by 7.75 to figure out how much the price is equal to in American dollars. D had to make me a cheat sheet which I walk around with in my hands ALL day. The store owners punch numbers into calculators to tell me the cost of something then I have to look at my cheat sheet and then punch in my own numbers to figure out the amount in American dollars. The vendors must think I'm crazy because I can't add a few numbers in my head. D starts work on Monday. Thankfully he will be getting paid in Hong Kong dollars so I can stop worrying about the conversions of everything.

Thank goodness the time difference is 12 hours between here and the US, switching AM to PM is something even I can handle!

Dim Sum...to be shared with all

And so it begins.....

The 16 hour journey over here was a breeze thanks to our good friends at Cathay Pacific. For all of you already planning your trips to come visit us, the search for tickets is over...Cathay Business is the only way to go (yes, I'm beyond spoiled). The flight attendants were super nice, the seating was extremely comfortable (extends into a flat bed), the entertainment system was wonderful (even though I watched a very depressing movie), and the food was really good according to D. I, of course, packed my cucumber and avocado sandwich on a whole wheat bagel. Who can really stomach Spicy Kung Pao Chicken at 4:30 in the morning after just waking up?

Speaking of food, yesterday D and I ventured into the Times Square area of Hong Kong and came upon a building where hoards of people where entering the doors. Curious what the big comotion was, we followed the people up two escalators and around a bend. Sure enough, DIM SUM! We figured this must have been a really good place to eat Dim Sum considering the amount of people eating here so I went up to the host and asked for a table. He told us we had to sit with other people. No problem, I thought. The tables were big so we wouldn't feel like we were eating on top of the people next to us. We sat down at our table and looked over the menu. Too bad it was entirely in Chinese! Good thing for the pictures next to each item. Dan and I circled the items we wanted, although we weren't sure what was in the insides of all of them, and handed in our sheet.

Let me start by saying we were the only non-Chinese people in the restaurant and stuck out like a sore thumb. Besides the host, we were the only people in the entire restaurant who spoke English. Two men were seated down next to us. After about 5 minutes they asked the waitress (in Chinese) to switch tables. So as not to offend us, one man grabbed his arms and said "cold" as he left the table.

Next a single woman with a terrible cough sat down. I immediately thought oh no, it's the swine flu! There are still signs around the city regarding H1N1 which doesn't please me. She was drinking lots and lots of a brown soup like/tea like substance. Thanks to my Chinese/Korean friends from work, I know you are supposed to drink these concoctions to rid the body of sickness.

Our food came and we devoured it. How could I go wrong with steamed shrimp dumplings and coconut buns? D and I are not quite sure what he ordered but the lady across from us sure seemed to like it. She had her eye on our food the entire time we were eating. When we finished D got up to use the restroom. The sick woman and I sat alone at the table. I pushed the plate which still had dim sum on it toward her and said, "would you like this?" She pointed at D's empty seat as to say he will eat it. Then she mumbled something in Chinese. I told her we were very full and rubbed my stomach to make sure she understood. She then took a small bag out of her purse, slid the steamed chicken??? and rice lotus leaf near her and dumped it into the plastic bag before returning it to her purse. I smiled at her and got up to leave the table. She looked me, smiled back, and said "thank you." I may not speak Chinese (yet) but I sure know how to speak Dim Sum.

As simple as a bag of fancy chips

Crunch, Crunch, Crunch.

At the end of each year, we take a vote on the type of class party the students would like. We make a huge list on the front board with everything ranging from Ice cream party to McDonalds party to Noodle and Dumpling party. Usually the class has earned this party so money is no object.

This is a very serious matter. First, the students vote on their top three choices. Then, the students close their eyes and raise their hands when they hear the choice that they would like to vote on. I'm really not sure what the purpose of any of this voting is since EVERY year the class always chooses a Chip party! (the easiest and cheapest party for me!)

This isn't your typical potato chip and pretzel party. This is a full out chip extravaganza! We have every type of chip you could ever think of. Honey BBQ Cheese Doodles, Onion Rings, Pizza and Ranch flavored Doritoes, (eww!!!) and Hot and Spicy Fries to name a few. My all time favorite are the Shrimp chips. I literally gag from the smell of them when I open the bag. I try to think of reasons not to serve them. For example, I had one child this year who was allergic to crab and I told the kids we couldn't eat them because they were part of the seafood family. Another teacher told me I better get used to the smell of them because they will be served as snacks all over Hong Kong.

As I walk around the room passing out the chips the kids wait patiently for their "handful" of each kind. Sometimes this handful includes a meager 5 chips but I never get complaints. After the chips are passed out I pass out ziplock baggies to take home the leftovers. I watch closely as each child carefully transports every single crumb from their napkin into the the baggie. Half the kids don't eat a single chip during the party. They are so proud of their chip baggie that they want to bring it home to show their siblings.

The day after a chip party, I once again see those same ziplock chip baggies. They are back for round two! The children bring them back to school with a few of the chips missing. They know there is a good chance that there are leftovers from the massive amount of chip bags they saw the previous day. Who knew that making twenty six kids happy at the end of a school year was as simple as a bag of fancy chips!