A shrine to a deity in our housewares store...

Groupa: he was still alive when we picked him out for dinner at the shop on the ground floor of our building.

Utter decimation

My little Eskimo! Veronica

Award for the shortest escalator in Hong Kong goes to the SOGO in Kowloon

The skies were clear and the view tremendous.  This is home now.

Octopus, Red Snapper with salt and lemon, and Ahi tuna sashimi... Word of the wise, don't order Ahi here, it travels too far to stay fresh and just doesn't taste nearly as good as the Yellow Tail

There comes a time, when living in this city, when the sheer volume of people begins to get on your nerves.  Whether you’re exhausted from an almost fruitless day of walking around the city (only to find that the shops you wanted to visit are closed and the shoe size you needed isn’t available at the location you made it to) or just a general exhaustion from restless sleep on a mattress that would be better suited as a box spring or even the mental exhaustion of dealing with your mom, who you called internationally on mother’s day to be a good daughter, who couldn’t muster any more approval of you than she could when you still lived in the same city as her, the people will start to get to you.  Now, after a fantastic night’s sleep and a little yoga, I’m ready to face the always busy streets of Hong Kong.  Today it doesn’t matter to me when the old lady in front of me on the escalator just stops when she gets to the top making it impossible for any of the 60 people behind her, myself included, to get off without practically trampling one another.  I don’t mind the domestic helper dragging 3 kids behind her down the street and “accidentally” shoving me off the sidewalk into oncoming traffic.  I can even understandingly shake my head when I finally sit down on a bench to eat my lunch and open my computer and there are, almost instantaneously, so many people crowded around all nonchalantly looking over my shoulder and blowing smoke into my face.  This city is home now and the unintentional rudeness of nearly everyone on the street is an easy thing to suffer through when I consider how it could be.  Thankfully there is no smell of bum piss on my building doors in the morning, something I had gotten quite used to at home.  There aren’t actually any bums here at all, the exceptions being: 1. seriously maimed and obviously disabled elderly people that sometimes sit, or huddle, under the highway overpasses next to pedestrian thoroughfares with a cup out just in case someone wanted to throw down a dollar or two, and 2. the men who dress up as Buddhist monks to beg at the big tourist markets such as Temple Street Market or the Ladies and Night Markets.  I’ve not heard a drive by shooting since I arrived, and I’m pretty sure they don’t exist here.  The streets aren’t covered in litter as in a majority of big cities. There are at least 5 individual means of public transportation that are clean, affordable and safe.  I really don’t have it that bad when the biggest worry of my day is “I hope I don’t knock anyone down on accident while walking from A to B today.”  And I have to remember, Sundays are always bigger and busier days than others in Hong Kong and I'm not the only person on the streets. I think I'll be able to suffer through the pains of getting used to this city, and like my momma always told me, "things will look better in the morning."  So all I can do is be understanding and go to sleep, hoping that the sun will rise on a brighter and more understanding Micah Gabrielle.