Michelin Star Food In My Pajamas
Nothing in that title is an exaggeration. This city has some of the most inexpensive and casual Michelin-rated restaurants in the world. One of our favorites is a dumpling place that is just 2 escalator rides up from the Airport Express train station (so we are in the vicinity pretty often!). It's about 1/10 the size of your average Panera Bread with a typical line of about 50 people, but they really make some tidy dumplings! Our go-to items are the steamed shrimp dumplings and the barbecue pork buns. Nate and I couldn't decide where to go on our date night a few weeks ago, so we went to a great bar for expensive cocktails and then spent less than half of our cocktail price on a ton of dumplings and just sat on some cement stairs near a shopping mall to eat them. It was magical! Dumplings are just the tip of the iceberg though. We've now become well versed in Japanese Ramen, Vietnamese Pho and Banh Mi, as well as lots of Thai and Malaysian dishes. You'll notice I make no mention of local Cantonese food. Truth be told, I prefer Americanized Chinese food and crave it regularly. Generally speaking, traditional local cuisine places a lot of emphasis on dark and fatty meats as well as a lot of duck which isn't my cup of tea. So, we tend to immerse ourselves in dishes like dumplings and forego the meat dishes most of the time.
Mo Prams, Mo Problems
There is an infamous, tragic day in our recent past we refer to often in our family. I refer to it as "The day Isla forgot to get out of the elevator." Isla refers to it as, "The day Mommy left me in the elevator." Ugh, 3 year olds are so dramatic! Anyway, she obviously survived forgetting to exit the elevator one day when my hands were full of shopping bags and I thought she was right behind me. While having my kid alone in a moving elevator in our building did send a quick parental panic through my bones, it actually wasn't that hard to figure out what to do...I hit both the up and down buttons and listened acutely as her screams got quieter and quieter as the elevator went down...and then louder and louder a minute later when the elevator came up, up, up and right back to me on the 15th floor. She had a good cry, and frankly, learned an important lesson that day - Mom and Dad don't wait for slowpokes, keep up!
While I never imagined I'd live in a massive high-rise with young children, I realize this part of our lives certainly isn't all that unique as lots of kids grow up in large cities like New York (and I'm sure forget to get out of the elevator from time to time!) However, what is unique is to be raising young children in a city that was really only ever intended and designed for able-bodied adults. When I do bring the kids out with me on various adventures or runs, we get a lot of stares and a lot of photos taken of us, which mostly has to do with Isla's long flowing blonde hair, a coveted treasure in Asia! Occasionally, if I'm feeling particularly bold, I'll pop one of the kids in the jogging pram (keeping it British here in HK) and brave the severe downhill to the mountain-side running trail and then back up the hill on the way back. The world-famous "Peak Tram" actually goes up alongside the hill I have to run up to get back home. If I am pushing a kid up the hill while running, without fail, almost every person leans out the tram window and snaps a photo of us. I don't know what the heck they eventually do with these photos later. I imagine some couple showing their elderly parents their Hong Kong vacation photos, swiping through and then they get to one of me pushing a pram up the hill and probably go, "And look at this moron trying to push that thing up a hill!"
Firm Butt, Weak Knees
I'm not sure how much elaboration is needed here - the mountain, the stairs inside, outside, and even underground in the metro are like no place on earth I've ever been before. My butt has never been in better shape, but my pour creaky knees have aged about 10 years in the 1 year we've been here!
Pho Real
This just wouldn't be an accurate picture of the last year of my life proportionally if I didn't have at least two sections about food. Pho...where should I even start?! First, the Vietnamese are brilliant. I don't know how they make such an amazing broth and such a satisfying dish that is really only just, well, soup. It fills a void in all weather. In fact, one of my absolute favorite things to do after a long hot summer day is order beef pho for delivery, put on my pajamas, turn the air con way down, and eat the steaming hot soup while getting goose bumps on my legs from the air conditioning blasting. Just thinking about it makes me smile.
Safety First...Just Kidding!
I'll be the first to admit that the overcautious, warning-heavy mentality in the US is sometimes a bit much for me - I mean, how many tags does a pair of baby pajamas really need to fairly inform the purchaser that those pajamas are, in fact, flammable if you were to put your baby into a fire? The polar opposite of that warning-heavy mentality is Hong Kong. Here's a quick summary: No car seats, no crosswalks, no fences at cliff faces, minimal food prep oversight / regulatory body (if you live here, you'll get E coli. It just happens), personal medical information laws are mostly a gray area. In short, getting hit by a taxi while trying to get to your doctor because you have E Coli while your doctor shares with your friend that you are on your way in for diarrhea again would not be an uncommon combination of events! The lack of rigid rules and guidelines is actually quite nice most of the time. But, if we all make it out of this city without having been hit by a taxi at least once, it will be a darn miracle!
Adult Nap Time Anywhere and Everywhere
One of the strangest things to get used to is the general schedule nearly all people keep in this city. Typically, Hong Kongians stay up super late, roll into work around 9am and remain at work until 8pm, but with a pretty sizable break / nap in the middle. From 12pm-2pm, culturally, there is no expectation of doing work. From 12pm-2pm, people take some serious naps...pretty much anywhere. People sleep at their cubicles, on the floor, or out at a lunch table. Near Nate's office, there is a huge construction site where it looks like they've mostly just been digging with shovels in the dirt for about 6 months (maybe they are searching under old concrete for dinosaur bones?) I'm sure an engineer could correct me, but it just looks like moving dirt for months on end. Anyway, from 12-2, all the construction workers take off their shirts, put them behind their heads, and just lay down in the dirt or on various bulldozers for a nap. Every time I walk by, it think it looks like a scene straight out of a James Bond movie - Bond came, he found the secret computer chip needed in a capsule underground, then he could leave no witnesses! So, here I am, just looking at all these half-clothed murdered bodies while riding the mid-level escalator up to get some pizza. That Daniel Craig is so brutal.
One Lump or Two?
The strong British influence in this Asian city might actually be one of the coolest things about Hong Kong. There are a number of Marks & Spencer stores, which I could best describe as a British Trader Joes with items like cheese, tea cakes, wine and a variety of tasty snacks and groceries. It also is easy to find fun pub to go have "a pie and a pint" when you've had your fill of rice and noodles for the week.
Isla goes to an international pre-school with kids from all over the world, where many of the teachers come from the UK. This has resulted in Isla coming home with quite a blended accent. I often have to ask her to repeat things a few times because I have no idea what that kid is saying after hanging out with a whole bunch of French and Aussie kids all morning! She now regularly comes home saying new words she's learned with a British accent, as her teacher, Mr. Ian, is a Brit. This week, they've learned about healthy habits and different kinds of healthy foods, so Isla came home adamant that we could no longer eat "PRO-cessed" (insert accent) foods!"
Know Your Strengths
When I quit my job to move to Melbourne a few years ago, I was a bit worried about how I would handle not working. But, I probably should have known that if you have a knack for something, you'll find a way to do it anyway. Sure, I don't make lots of budget spreadsheets or create new nurse scheduling systems these days, but I've become the "unofficial visa / travel agent" in my apartment building. After the kids go to sleep and before Nate comes home is when I plan all of our travel. Asian travel is definitely a bit tricky as lots of countries require visas and additional paperwork with your passport. Additionally, many countries are not as developed as the western world, so a variety of travel companies try to trick you into thinking you must use an agency. Some airlines are even a little more sketchy than others (you couldn't pay me enough to board a plane of an airline here called "Scoot!"). Put simply, there are a lot of gimmicks and it can be intimidating.
Our apartment building has a group text for questions or information sharing. After the 4th time I saw someone post the question of what agency they should use for a China visa, I felt compelled to act as many people spend hundreds of dollars more than necessary for visas. I responded and said I'd be happy to help anyone with their visas and that they should save that agency money to spend while on their trips! I got about 5 private texts back within 10 minutes. So, I now assist people regularly with visas to China, Vietnam, Cambodia...and also with getting global health insurances to pay for breast pumps...unrelated, but a request I've happily helped with. So, my current job, that no one pays me for, but I enjoy nonetheless, is as a travel and breast pump planner. Who knew?
