- I carry an umbrella everywhere now. I need it for sudden, HARD showers, or to keep the sun off my head in 100+ degree weather.
- Budget busters are no longer trips to Target and gasoline for the car. Now they are buying fresh milk, taking too many taxis, and buying too many iced cafe mochas. Oh wait….guess that’s a budget buster in both places.
- I now have the motto of, “I’ll get there when I get there”. So much is out of your control when you take public transportation that you can’t stress about being punctual. You also can’t stress over people not meeting on time. You have to build in 10-20 minutes grace periods, for both sides. Life is so much nicer now. Ahhhh….
- I sweat all.the.time. You can’t avoid it, unless you never, ever leave your house. I hate to sweat.
- I never wear cute shoes. You can’t walk far in cute shoes.
- I am a cell phone junky out of necessity, NOT preference.Every single person you see out and about has a cell phone. Young, old and in between. It’s how you connect with people and the most important piece of information you can give someone.
- I see billboards all the time and many are not rated G, if you know what I mean. (For those of you not living in Maine, billboards are illegal there. There are none! It was such a treat to go back and NOT see them).
- I never leave my house without a cell phone, tissues (for noses, napkins and toilet paper), hand sanitizing gel, house keys, Octopus card (for public transportation), pen and paper, Octopus cards for all the children, and a folded up bag or back pack to carry home whatever I might pick up while I’m out. I’ve gotten brave recently, and stopped carrying my map with me. That was a huge step for me. But that’s just the minimum. It gets more involved from there, depending where we are going. Plus, you carry all that. You can’t just toss it in the car in case you need it.
- I have children in private school and we walk to school and home each day. I’m still adjusting to that one.
- I use cash all the time, for most everything as HKG is very cash based. It’s been strange to get used to carrying so much cash, and burning through it so quickly!
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September 4th, 2008 at 1:49 pm
Having that much cash on a regular basis must make you feel like Donald Trump, but without the hair.
September 4th, 2008 at 2:56 pm
I love reading about your life there!
September 5th, 2008 at 6:05 am
That public transportation issue drives me nuts. I can’t do anything that requires being punctual. I’ve learned that it seriously annoys folks to have people standing around near their businesses. Why? I don’t smell bad. I’m attempting to look like I belong there. Can’t they just let me stand there until it’s time for me to be where I need to be on time? Gah . . . In Switzerland, you can set your clock by the public bus. We need that here. Yesterday.
September 6th, 2008 at 1:30 am
I could NOT deal with the heat/humidity… I heard there may have been mentions about what would happen to my HAIR in Hong Kong…
That’s not right.
September 6th, 2008 at 11:41 pm
Here an unbrella also serves as weapon againt would be robbers and stray dogs.Have you ever seem this Grammy walk with purpose swinging my 3 ft unbrella? bus schedule whats that ……wait on the corner till it comes….cute shoes? nope gave them up too..I was thinking of replacing them with cute umbrellas! Bill boards.. for plastic surgery..full frontal view ewwww. We can use bank cards most of the time…cell phones ,no, only ticos can have them. You have to know someone who might include you on their plan. but it’s nice not to be attatched to one all the time, there was cell phone withdrawl. As far as hair goes people here use gell to slick the friz…it’s sold by the kilo!
September 20th, 2008 at 1:47 am
Are you losing weight? LOL