Polly want a city tour?

As we were walking through Soho one day (the area they called South Of Hollywood Road), my friend J and I noticed a woman a few feet in front of us with a colorful accessory on her left shoulder. Now I've seen some strange fashion accessory choices out here but this one had to be the strangest.

I had to get a closer look so I crept up behind the lady. Did this woman have a live parrot on her shoulder? She sure did. The woman walked through the crowded city streets and the bird stayed propped up on her shoulder. People passed her on the streets and didn't even look twice.

Pet birds are extremely popular here in Hong Kong. There are lots of stores where you can purchase or even adopt them. In Mongkok, there is an entire market dedicated to birds. As you walk through the market you can see a variety of colorful birds, cages and bird paraphernalia.

I heard that some people take their birds to the Yuen Po St. Bird Garden where they "walk" their birds. Elderly local men bring their birds in cages to the garden and walk around with them to get fresh air.

Birds aren't only used for pets here. Ducks and pigeons are specialties in many of the local Chinese restaurants. Apparently so are eggs!


Yes, this dish was served to us at a Chinese restaurant here in Hong Kong.
No, we didn't eat it!
Would you?

A Room With A View

On our recent travels to Shanghai, China, we visited the Shanghai World Financial Center Observatory. We made our way up to the 100th floor Sky Walk, the world's highest observatory. When we got off the elevator we stepped foot on to "the bridge across the sky".

The views were really quite amazing, despite the thick layer of pollution that covered the city. As you walked across the floor of the deck you could look down and see the city directly beneath you. This made me quite dizzy but moving over to the slanted windowed walls only made the room spin more.

The World Financial Center makes up an important piece of the Shanghai city skyline. Many people think the building resembles are giant bottle opener.



Data from: http://www.swfc-shanghai.com

Although the views (and air quality) were "breath taking" from the observatory, I preferred the Sky Arena on the 94th Floor. This floor housed the true room with a view.

That's so last semester...

A new semester...a fresh start.

The new semester at the school where I volunteer was about to start and I was excited to get my new group of girls. Last time, I had no idea what to expect since I had never taught English at the High School level. I had learned a lot from my girls and felt like I knew a lot more about 15 year old girls than I did when I first started.

I walked into the classroom, but down my bag (which my last class said was "cool") and introduced myself. I told the class about my life back in NYC (lots of o's and ahhh's) my family, and my new life in Hong Kong. Then I opened up the floor for them to ask me questions.

Question #1
How old is your brother? (this is an all girls catholic school so many of them have boys on their minds...and many of them don't)

Question #2
Do you have a face book account? (There is no sense lying to them since they are going to find me anyway..I just told them that teachers are not allowed to be "friends" with students while class is in session.)

Question #3
Who is your favorite singer? A smile came to my face as I immediately said, "Justin Bieber!" They all looked at each other and started laughing. A second later they all said "EWWWWWWWW"

EWWWWWW? My last class had worshiped Justin. They talked about him non-stop! I guess I was a little out of the loop because he is no longer "cool" at this school. What is? Japanese and Korean hip hop! If I had only known this a few weeks ago, I would have paid more attention to the music on my trip to Tokyo!

A few weeks have passed and I seemed to have regained my reputation as a "cool" teacher. I told the class that I wouldn't be seeing them next week since I'm taking a trip to Shanghai. As though their response had been planned, they all shouted in unison..."Souvenirs!"

"What type?" I asked. "Food and accessories," they responded. I told them I would see what I could find to bring back. One thing I know I won't be getting....anything related to Justin Bieber.