Moving Day
Of the six movers who arrived at our apartment, five spoke no English and one spoke about as much English as I speak of other languages. (In case you haven't witnessed this, my foreign language abilities are very minimal, mostly incorrect, and with a lot of grand hand movements to get my point across.) So...this made a few things tricky, like trying to get them to differentiate between Isla's room and the "baby's" room. I accepted this as a lost cause after about an hour and just moved everything later.
The lead mover, using his big hand gestures, was able to make clear to me multiple times that he disapproved of how many boxes of clothes we had. He had me come in the master bedroom while he counted multiple times and then threw his hands in the air, which mostly just made me laugh and clearly frustrated him. Since he didn't understand what I was saying anyway, every time he counted the boxes, I just started saying random things back like, "Yup, we are Americans. We need stuff!" or "Well, what was I supposed to do with all my sweaters?!" or the one that cracked myself up the most, "I don't even go to work anymore, but look at all these shoes! Could you really get rid of these shoes?" He just stared and threw his hands up a few more times, so I nicely reminded him that the moving company gets paid by kilogram of stuff moved, so really I was doing them a favor. I think he kind of picked up on that comment and we shared a laugh. Although I wouldn't be surprised if he urinated in my dresser drawers later on.
The highlight of the day, other than them refusing to move anything they thought was "big" (i.e. nearly all our US furniture) up the stairs, had to be the quick lesson on furniture placement I was given. I had placed post-its on the wall where I wanted the master bed and nightstands on either side. The lead mover motioned for me to come in and through pointing and broken English told me he would be putting these items on the opposite wall. I asked him why as I had measured and was showing him that I thought they would fit. He shot back while pointing, "No, no ma'am. THIS WALL! FENG SHUI!" And that settled it. I'm not sure our 10 boxes of clothes fit his definition of feng shui, but he was adamant about this bed placement. This jerk better have put my bed in the corner that brings me good fortune, good health and sleeping children! So far, all is well so maybe he was right, after all.
Black Market Electronics
We were lucky enough to rent a place in Australia that had TVs in it and we didn't spend much time watching it, so we never bothered getting a DVD player. However, now that Isla's seen enough movies on airplanes that she understands and likes them (and since we have all our DVDs with us anyway), we decided to buy a TV and DVD player. We figured since all these electronic items are made in Asia, they can't be more money than in the US, right? Wrong. They are so much more money! The electronics store here that would be like an Asian Best Buy had basic DVD players staring at like $250 US dollars. I told Nate about a teeny, weird electronics store I found that was about the size of a closet, but sold me some universal outlet converters (OMG, the number of outlet converters in our house is insane) and suggested maybe they have other stuff. This store has ended up being our electronics jackpot. We got a well-priced DVD player, which Nate negotiated for, as well as our internet router. Our understanding of stores like this are that the products are technically imported illegally so you don't get the official warranty or anything, but they are the real deal (LG, Samsung, etc). What a find though! We have ended up here at least weekly, negotiating our next electronic / conversion / new voltage needs. Now, if only they sold breast pumps, I'd be set! The only downside is that our DVD player and remote is actually all in Chinese characters, but I'm not a complex girl when it comes to DVDs. I got "play" and "stop" so all is right with the world.
Carrying Huge Wads of Cash
According to, well, everyone, opening a Hong Kong bank account is an awful and lengthy process. So, we are trying to see how long we can get by without one. For any major bills that are due, like our massive air conditioning bill, or water, you generally have 3 options: 1. Pay with a HK bank account (no thanks) 2. Go to a designated store and pay in cash or 3. At that same designated store, pay with your Octopus card, which is actually your mass public transit card, like a DC SmarTrip.
So, we ventured down to our nearest 7-11 store with a huge wad of cash and paid our first set of bills. The conversion ratio of Hong Kong dollars to US dollars is 7.8, so basically imagine always carrying around 8 times the amount of cash you would normally need to pay all your bills! I feel like a baller carrying around six $100 bills until I remember that is only $77 US dollars. "Okay, fine, I guess I'll pay my water bill AND get a pack of gum today."
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| Checking out Hong Kong Park |
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Loving the markets! Right after I took this pic, she shoved her hands into the bowl of
bean sprouts in water. We'll keep practicing proper market etiquette.
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We can hike to the Peak from our apartment, but it's one heck of a hike!
We discovered the best strategy is taking a taxi up, and hiking down.
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Very thankful Hong Kong also believes in babychinos for children.
Isla would have been devastated!
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