Hong Kong Trip: Getting There

Planting the Seeds

Two weeks ago my principal held a small meeting with me and the other full-time English teacher about the upcoming Winter Camp hosted by our school. It will run from Monday, January 20^th, until Friday, February 7^th, with a break for weekends and for Chinese New Year from Friday, January 30^th, until Tuesday, February 4^th.  Winter camp is split into two sessions, and since fewer than twenty students signed up, only one English teacher is needed for each session. The other English teacher took the first session, and I took the second session, which means that I now have ten days of no responsibilities. In my world that means sleep and explore, so over the next few days I researched and booked a five-day round-trip flight to Hong Kong!

The following two weeks were full of reviewing class materials, taking finals, and tying up school-related loose ends. I took some time researching hostels and hotels in Hong Kong, but ultimately decided on trying out CouchSurfing for the first time. I also decided that because it is my break and because Hong Kong is a relatively small area, that I would spend this break exploring of course, but mostly relaxing on the beach (screw the “cold”!), hiking (Lantau Peak, here I come!), and eating fabulous Hong-Kong-ese (I’m sure there’s a better adjective, and I will ask around for one when I arrive) food.

Saturday, January 18th: Taichung

Cut to 5am Saturday the 18^th—I am up anyway, so I decide to be proactive and twenty minutes later find myself fully packed, save for a few toiletries and electronics in need of a charge. I finally get to sleep around 7am (my sleep schedule is horrific, but hasn’t backfired too much), and wake up around 1pm to go tutor from 1:30-3pm. On the way back from tutoring I pass a store—in reality it is one of my versions of a magical place—full of writing, art, and home-DIY supplies;  after at least seven years of traveling I *finally* have baggage locks (only one of which I accidentally left in my apartment! Victory!). I also bought three small tape measures of varying lengths.

Realizing I would be away for five days and that I have plenty of food in my refrigerator which was probably at the point of going bad within the next two days, I took the time between tutoring and leaving to cook ALL of the food. Two batches of stir fry, a few sweet-potato-egg-tofu-burgers-with-avocado, and a pile of newly-cleaned dishes and Tupperware containers later, it was time to leave. I caught a taxi and arrived at the airport at 7:20pm, exactly two hours before my flight was set to leave. Fifteen minutes later, after checking in, going through security, going to the bathroom, trying on a bright purple handbag, and eating one of my burgers, I settled in at the gate to wait for my flight to be called.

This might be the first time I have ever been the only non-_______ person in an airport. It isn’t at all about being the only white, or non-insert-country/race/ethnicity/whatever-here, person, because I am sure that not everyone in the airport tonight is from Taiwan, but it is interesting and strange to not hear the varied mixture of languages that I have grown accustomed to from my previous travels. Argentina had French, English, Portuguese, and German mixed in with the Spanish. In Israel I wasn't surprised to hear more Russian or Arabic than Hebrew in any given place. Even in Austria I was able to get by with some Hebrew, French, and English (don’t ask how—I still don’t know). I understand, however, that my inability to pick out different languages most likely stems from my lack of understanding of spoken Asian languages.

Saturday Night: Hong Kong

The ease of the journey on the Taichung side lulled me into a false sense of security, which was bashed upon arriving in Hong Kong. By the way, in the super-long line at Customs there were so many Americans. I haven’t seen more than three together at a time since leaving the US, myself often being the third in the group. That was totally strange. Sketchy wi-fi meant that I could not contact my CouchSurfing host.

After an hour in the Customs line, I waited for another half hour for a bus that I wasn't sure would even come. When it finally did come, I did not have the correct change to pay for the bus. Luckily, two kind adults paid for my trip (if I am in this late-night transit situation again I will take a cab like I usually do—this was all just silly). Later on the bus I wasn't sure when my station would be called (if at all), so a lady let me sit with her and ultimately told me when it was my stop, but not before I fell flat on my face trying to right a gigantic fallen suitcase (coincidentally owned by the couple who had helped me out with the bus fare).

When I finally got to my bus stop, I couldn't call the guy I was supposed to stay with, but a couple around my age helped me out, and at 1:30am I made it to my destination in one piece. My host gave me tea and was incredibly nice about me arriving two hours late with little contact (oops).