Well. I've been busy. If you don't already know I've moved to Hong Kong. Jon and Mitch helped me get my luggage to the curb and bid me farewell.
My layover in Shanghai was fairly long, and I wasn't allowed to check my gmail or facebook because of course I was in China.
Then I got to LA. The state of the payphone banks in LAX was such a shambles that I had to borrow someone's Ipad to email my parents to let them know that I was on time.
This was the first time that I ever considered buying anything from the Skymall catalog.
The plane rides were all fine but the douschy, ironical, hipster, beard cozy made me want to use the barf bag.
When I got home I spent plenty of time with my parents, Stuart, and Dotty.
Found a dead fox in the woods and buried it so I could dig it up in a few years to get the skull.
Then I got back on a plane for San Fran, Taiwan, and finally Hong Kong.
EVA airlines has some kind of deal with Hello Kitty, and I was forced to watch this looped advertisement for 40 minutes while sitting on the tarmac while some maintenance was performed on the plane. Normally I'm pretty calm but this was too much. The TV screens can't be turned off, and I didn't have my leatherman on me to smash it with so I just cried.
Once in HK I took the bus to my hostel where I stayed for 4 nights.
The view from my hostel window.
I've been living on HK island and I love it, I get to take a boat to work everyday. The Star Ferry to be exact. It costs 60 c /trip.
Here's my office.
Here's the view from our offices of the future site of the WKCDA.
http://www.wkcda.hk/pe2/en/conceptual/oma/en/presentation_panels.html#
And here's a picture of the future WKCDA from a helicopter that I did not ride in.
And until I have a real place to live I've been stashing things in my cubicle.
Our kitchen has a bottomless supply of tea...
Coffee....
and we even have a tea lady (not shown here) who makes sure that we all have what we need in the caffeine department.
The best part of my office is that the air is quite breathable.
After 4 days in the hostel, I rented a short term bedroom with two other flatmates. One from Lille France and another from southwestern Korea. She actually got a math degree from the U of M. So we've got some stuff in common. Here's the view from this room.
I went up to the roof to see what's going on up there. I'm on the 5th floor and after investigating the roof I realized that the roof was actually the 6th floor at one point. I don't know what happened to the roof. But the new roof has a bathroom and tiles on it.
I don't know what this is in my stairwell but I avoid it and I can't figure out why no one has cleaned it up yet. It resembles a diaper dropped from a roof, but it doesn't smell anymore and it's hardened so... whatever.
Here's some not-so-great street shots, but I've got some OK ones in there too.
Just looking at them makes my neck hurt all over again.
What I call "The Seussean Road"
There are double-decker busses and trams to ride here. Between them and the ferry and the driving on the wrong side of the road......
Jeezy Creezy
I've met a couple film makers since I've been here. Hong Kong of course being one of the great film making cities in the world. The HKIFF is going on right now, and I was lucky enough to score a couple of tickets from coworkers. I saw "The Look" the tedious ramblings of Charlotte Rampling. But she was there to introduce the film so I just slept instead of getting up to leave. And I saw "For Ellen" which I'll recommend but don't want to spend the time typing about here.
Subway......
I went to the New Territories with a couch surfing group that Charles (my French roommate ) does stuff with. I met lots of great people there. All continents were represented, sans Antarctica. And I was the only fool that only spoke one language.
We went to a secluded beach and drank beer and ate grilled items. To get there we had to take a minibus to a town and a taxi to the end of a long road then hike 20 minutes around a hill.
Yakkity Yak
Looking back to the village from the end of the road at the end of the day.
Today I went tool shopping. All of the supplies and tools (minus building materials) are located in the same area where my first show will occur called Yau Ma Tai. The Hilti store was having a sale so I bought about 9,000 HK$ worth of tools. There are a few parallel streets that have store after store of different tools and supplies. Shanghai St, and Reclamation St. There are also tons of kitchen/household wares too. I was going to go to shoe street but I didn't have time.
One for you NPR Weekend listeners
Bamboo Lashers Local 336 hard at work.
And here is my favorite shop. I'm calling it the Seven Corners Ace of Hong Kong. The big hammer makes it easy to find. But you have to walk up to the third floor to find the tools, anchors, and various necessities of the trade.
SCAHK stairwell from the second floor landing
Feels and smells like home.
This will be the store that I buy all of my Bosch tools from I have to duck in here because of all the reciprocal saws and hammer drills hanging in plastic bags from the ceiling. It's like a scene out of a horror movie made for an audience of power tools. I wonder what the gasps would sound like.
I need to go. Apartment hunting all day tomorrow.......
