God Bless the Bubble

Allow me to start by saying: HAPPY BIRTHDAY, MOM!!

Now, since I'm staying in a decent hotel and I know with almost 100% certainty that this is the last really nice hotel I will stay in for the rest of my trip, I decided to squeeze every moment of enjoyment out of it as possible. So I got a late start this morning but, hey, you have to enjoy a hot shower while you've got one!

I have found that it usually takes me one day to figure a place out, get my bearings and after that I'm all good. So it didn't surprise me too much that the walk to the metro that took me 20 minutes yesterday only took me 5 this morning. Or that the walk from the metro to the harbor which took me nearly 30 yesterday also only took me 5 today. I love that. I love being able to go to another, totally new country and figure it out. It gives me a great sense of satisfaction, even more so when it's in a country where I don't speak a word of the language and can't read a letter of their alphabet.

After going back to my newly discovered bubble tea place for my morning bubble tea (you didn't think I could start the day without one, did you?), I took the ferry over to Kowloon today and spent pretty much the rest of the day walking. I walked to a temple, a jade market and all along the main street that runs through Kowloon. I maintain that walking is always the best way to see any place. Yesterday, since I was trying to accomplish so much, I did a lot on buses and metros, not walking from place to place myself. Today I did it all on foot and I really got a much better sense of the place. I was in and among the people, wandering through back alleys and street markets, eating in little divey local restaurants where you sit at a table with other people, smiling and nodding a lot since you can't say a word to each other. Love it.

At one point, I was walking across a bridge and I came upon a beggar, a man who was burned so badly that he was barely recognizable as human. When I offered him the measely money I had in my pocket, he made a gesture of thanks that was so genuine, it broke my heart. I didn't walk more than 10 feet away from him before I started to cry. And I couldn't stop; I stood on that bridge for 15 minutes and cried, thinking of him. And thinking of myself and how completely ungrateful I can be sometimes. This man has REAL problems, problems that affect every moment of every day of his life and here I am, on an amazing journey around the world, completely blessed to be able to do what I'm doing and yet I find myself griping about dumb things like not having hot water or having a flight be delayed. It gave me some much-needed perspective.

And lastly, a couple random things I have seen or heard since being here:

1. An ad of sorts telling about where you can find the women in town who will put a curse on someone with whom you have a problem. Turns out that "discounts may be available for mulitiple curses". Good to know.

2. When handing people things here, like money or a ticket, they always use two hands. In turn, you are supposed to receive it with two hands as well. So every time you pay for something and/or receive change, they hand it to you with two hands and nod and you take it with two hands and nod. To be honest, it feels a bit awkward and overly laborious to me but, hey, when in Rome. Or Hong Kong, as the case may be....

3. I have noticed this one in several countries now, starting back in the Middle East. In pharmarcies and drug stores everywhere, there are skin-lightening products. American brands (Nivea, Olay) as well as lots of brands I don't know promote creams and washes and treatments guaranteed to give you "clear, bright, light skin". In the metro station here in Hong Kong there is a huge sign advertising 50% of a surgical skin lightening treatments for men. In all the countries, I have also noticed an abundance of marketing of all sorts of products with fair-skinned, light haired, big blue eyed people as the spokesmen. They're selling products to dark skinned, dark haired, dark eyed people that make them feel like they need to be something they can never be. As in all marketing, it's selling the impossible, creating a need for something (completely, physically, literally unattainable in this case) and making people feel bad for not being able to achieve it. But, hey, they have just the cream to solve that problem.... It's so sad.

4. Americans, for all their flaws, know how to respect a good line. We make a line, we stick to it. If I'm in line before you, I get to go first. If you're there before me, I would never cut in front of you. We're very serious about our lines and their place in maintaining order in society. Not the case in Hong Kong. In just two short days out on the town, I cannot count the times I have been the good little American, waiting my turn for something, respecting the almighty line, and have had people just walk right up in front of me and go about their business. The first time it happened, I figured maybe it was just a fluke. After about the fifth, I started to catch on that there is no such thing as line etiquette here. It's cut or be cut.

P.S. Bubble tea, bubble tea, bubble tea. Turns out a person can safely and comfortably drink 4 bubble teas in a 24-hour period. Oh, yes they can.