Ears are not handles for lifting

And before we knew it, the weekend was over. Which meant V was going back to work.

I'd be lying if I said I wasn't a bit anxious to be left alone on the streets of Hong Kong to fend for myself. Luckily, V's been teaching me a lot about the city and how to get around it and stuff. I think she'd agree, that I'm an old pro at navigating my way around the MTR and I've been taking the bus a lot by myself too and I'm pretty familiar with the one bus route that gets me from home to a lot of areas in TST (a major shopping/dining/cultural area on the peninsula side of HK), including where V works and back home.

So getting around...pretty much no problem. Or at least I haven't gotten lost yet. I'm also flying solo in so far as, I'm not taking a tour book with me when I go out. No maps, no bus schedules or directions. There are a lot of signs around pointing out where major attractions are and stuff like that, and while they are helpful, I'm pretty much going by memory a lot of the time.

Case in point, V and I went to the Peak (big mountain on the Island side) yesterday. We were hunting around for the Peak Tram to get up the mountain. The Peak is a pretty big tourist attraction, so we were following the government posted signs in order to find the tram. But, for the most part we had come out of the MTR station and were searching for it simply by memory. At one point we were looking for one of those government signs to make sure we were heading in the right directions. We found one, but instead of it reading Peak Tram, it said Peak Team. And that's not even Ingrish, that's just a typo.

So, back to my anxiety. Like I was saying, I'm not so much worried about getting lost in the middle of HK somewhere and while there is a real possibility that could happen, I'm more concerned about the language barrier. While I know some Cantonese, I don't really think it's enough. Plus, people take to fast for me to follow along with what they are saying. I try my best, but I find that for the most part, I'm relying on other people to know English for me to survive here.

In an attempt to calm my fears about that, V had me order lunch for us yesterday. I think she was trying to show me that I can get away with using English for the most part and that I shouldn't be afraid to venture out on my own and just live life normally here in HK. While I'm still a little apprehensive about surviving all by myself here, she definitely made her point.

After lunch up at the Peak, we came back down and crossed the water back to TST to pick up my suit for the wedding. Crossing the water from the island side to the peninsula side happens in one of two ways, MTR which goes under the water, or the Star Ferry. Must be my fascination with boats or my love of the ocean, but I love taking the Star Ferry. I guess the novelty of taking this turn of the century vessel across the water, just hasn't worn off on me yet. Sure, it's a regular mode of transportation for a lot of people, but I don't get to take a boat ride everyday.

As I was saying, I went to pick up my new suit yesterday. That's right, I am now the proud owner of a tailor made suit. Nothing too fancy about it, it's just cool that I had input into making my own suit. After we picked up the suit, I had to go hunt for a pair of dress shoes. Seems the shoes I brought along for the suit, just won't cut it. So, I began the task of finding new shoes. I've learned that I should never by the first pair of shoes I try on, no matter how much I like them or how comfortable I think they are. Thus, I wanted to try on a bunch of different shoes and try to find the best ones I could. But, holy crap! The sales people in HK put on the pressure. I'm mean I could understand the hard sell for something like a car or an expensive TV or something, you know a big ticket item...but, pressure sales tactics for a pair of shoes...seems a bit hardcore. The other thing I noticed, was that in almost every place I went into, the pair of shoes that I was interested in maybe purchasing, but that I wanted to think about before I actually bought it; that pair of shoes was always the last one in it's size. Whaddup with that?

Anyway, I finally found a pair of shoes. So, we headed back home to drop off all of the stuff. Plus, V's dad came home on Monday from working in the UAE for the past 3 months, and we figured we should stop in and see how he was doing. After being domestic for a while (i.e. laundry) we headed out for dinner.

If you haven't experienced a HK buffet, it's something you really have to do before you die. There are almost too many choices at the buffet. It's quite ridiculous how much food is there. And while I wasn't able to try everything, everything that I did have was exceptionally good. If you hadn't guessed, we went to buffet last night for dinner. We met up with a couple of V's friends (although I suppose they are my friends too) Johann and Katie. Anyway, they just got back from Japan. There's another country with tasty, tasty food. Johann and Katie both work for Cathay Pacific as flight attendants. So, they asked me about the flight attendants on my flight out to HK. Turns out that all of my observations about their co-workers and friends on the my flight were pretty accurate. All in all, good food and conversation makes for a pretty good evening. I ate sooooo much food.

One more thing, just before we headed out for dinner, I was sitting on the couch by the door putting on my shoes, when V asked me something...I don't remember what she asked me, but like I do sometimes, my answer was smart ass. In order to get my attention, she lifted my head by me ears, sort of how you might lift up a bucket by the handle. But, instead of a bucket, it was my head and instead of a handle it was my ears. Two things in that instance made it super funny to me. Firstly, the fact that she lifted my head by my ears and secondly, just how much it actually hurt. Holy crap, V is freakishly strong.