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Fair ~ High: 71°F ~ Low: 52°F Wednesday, May 22, 2013 |
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What a Difference a Year Makes
Posted Sunday, May 22, at 5:40 AM Earlier this week, on May 17 I think, it was the first anniversary of my departure from Marshall and the Democrat-News. To call it an anniversary makes it sound like something celebrated, which is not the case. Rather, I just find it interesting to see how much has changed in just 365, or a few more, days...
No Room for Shyness This past week was the annual Territory-wide System Assessment for the sixth graders in Hong Kong. These exams, given in both English and Chinese, are designed to assess schools, and their students' performance, throughout the city. The English exam consists of two spoken parts. ...
My faithful readers will remember that a couple of entries ago I wrote about the impending probability of cancelling my trip to Japan during the Easter holidays. But literally a day or two before the deadline to cancel my flight, the British government lifted their travel warnings to the Tokyo area and the US soon followed. So, I actually went to Japan after all and spent a lovely 10 days there...
The Doorman Always Rings Twice When I moved to Hong Kong, the company I work for advised all its new employees to live only in apartment buildings with 24-hour security and doormen. That was one thing I'd never even considered when thinking about a place to live here in the city! I don't think I'd ever known anyone who'd lived in a building like that in America...
The Disaster in Japan, as seen from Hong Kong When an earthquake struck northeastern Japan on March 11, and was then followed by a deadly tsunami, I received a few comments and posts to my Facebook account from friends and family, checking to make sure I was alright. Of course, miles away here in Hong Kong, we didn't feel a thing from the natural disasters, though I read that the seawater levels did rise a bit. But really, if not for the Internet and television, we'd never even have known of the event...
Tea for Three It doesn't seem that too many British traditions have continued here in Hong Kong after the handover. But one that has is high tea in the afternoon. It is not a tradition that is observed by the everyday locals I don't think, but more of a tourist attraction and a social event for the well to do...
I Never Continuing on the theme of my last post, I thought I would write about some other expectations, those I didn't have. These are some things I didn't expect about coming to Hong Kong but have nevertheless encountered. I never thought a two-bedroom apartment could be as small as 300 square feet...
Great Expectations When I decided to live and work in Hong Kong, I was basically choosing to return to China in a slightly easier, more-livable fashion. What I mean is, I expected the city to be mostly Chinese, but rather Westernized thanks to the previous British influences. I was not trying to move to a place with a culture the same or very similar to my own, though I didn't want to live in an underdeveloped place either. Nor was I really focused on the fact that I was going to live in a former British colony...
Groundhog Day If there were groundhogs in Hong Kong, which I'm pretty sure there are not, I think they'd see their shadows today. But, only because it's a nice sunny day, possibly the warmest day we've had in a while. The temperature this afternoon was in the mid-60s, and the sky was bright blue. It actually was the first time I've been outside and not felt a chill since before Christmas...
The Music of my Life For almost of half of my life, I have played the oboe. I began when I was 13, and up until I came to Hong Kong, was still playing at the age of 24. Even further back, at age 10, I began playing the recorder. So, it really can be said that more of my life has involved music than not...
A Holiday Abroad As I mentioned in my previous post, I spent the holidays traveling in Thailand and Laos with four fellow teachers: three girls and one boy, all English. This was not my first venture into underdeveloped countries, having traveled to India, mainland China, and actually Thailand, before. But, it is always an adjustment to enter a world sans streetlights and McDonald's, where cows might cross the "highway" and people constantly haggle with you...
A Very Disney Christmas I have never been to the original Disneyland in California, but as I child I visited Orlando's Disney World several times; so many, in fact, that I became a bit sick of the theme park. There is a Disneyland in Hong Kong as well, and I was a bit surprised at how much I wanted to go...
Baby, It's Cold Outside Okay, so it's not really cold outside here in Hong Kong. Compared to the below-freezing temperatures at home, it is positively balmy. But, it's surprising how chilly 50 degrees can feel when it hasn't been cooler than the upper 60s in many, many months...
The Queen's English When I came to Hong Kong, I certainly expected to have many cultural exchanges with the locals here. And, of course, I have: surgical masks, moon cakes and dim sum, to name a few. But, I didn't really foresee encountering so many differences between my English colleagues and myself. After all, at one point, America was part of the British Empire. However, our two allied countries are not as similar as you might think...
A Hong Kong Thanksgiving I'm a little late in posting about my Hong Kong Thanksgiving, but it's not because I have nothing to say about one of my favorite holidays. Actually, my Thanksgiving experience here was much better than I expected it to be. I have spent one turkey day away from home before -- when studying abroad in Australia, and my mother was visiting at the time -- but this was the first time without any family members present...
Chinese Food for Thought A comment on my last blog entry has inspired the theme of this post about some of the foods I have encountered here in Hong Kong. Having been to China before, I knew a bit what to expect in terms of the general food offerings: rice, noodles, dumplings, etc. Now, I can say that a typical menu will offer meat and rice dishes, noodle soups and noodle stir-fries. I have eaten sweet and sour chicken a couple of times, but other American staples like cashew chicken and egg rolls are not to be found...
Germ Warfare For a city that is in many ways quite unhygienic -- dogs using the sidewalks as their toilet, raw meat hanging in open-air markets, people putting bones/gristle on restaurant tabletops -- Hong Kong and its people are quite concerned with clean behaviors...
I have always been a big fan of Halloween because I like dressing up, and I consider candy to be a food group of its own. But, I didn't expect the holiday to be very exciting for me here in Hong Kong. Of course, the festivities and merchandise here can't compare in scale to at home, but they are present enough to make Halloween a fun time. And actually, some of my English friends said that the holiday was bigger here than in their own country...
The Cost of Living Staying with a similar subject as my last post, I thought people at home might enjoy knowing how much some everyday items cost here in Hong Kong. These prices are just off the top of my head, so there is no rhyme or reason to what is listed below. And, I haven't converted the prices to US dollars, but the exchange rate hovers around $1 US=$7.75 HK...
How the Other Half Lives Depending upon how you look at it, you could say I grew up a fairly privileged and spoiled child. I never wanted for anything, and I tended to rake in the presents at Christmas and birthday times. I took dance lessons and oboe lessons for years, and spent a week or two of many summers at some sort of camp...
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Little Town Blues Goes to China  - Blog RSS feed ![[Feed icon]](http://www.marshallnews.com/images/icons/feed-icon-14x14.png){kind=icon} - Comments RSS feed - Send email to SYDNEY STONNER - Login Something about music. Something about small towns. Something about Hong Kong. Or maybe something else entirely.
Sydney is a former staff writer for the Democrat-News. She received degrees from University of Missouri in both music and magazine journalism. She played oboe with the Marshall Philharmonic Orchestra and the Marshall Municipal Band while she was in Marshall. Hot topics What a Difference a Year Makes(0 ~ 5:40 AM, May 22)
No Room for Shyness
Yes We Can (go to Japan)
The Doorman Always Rings Twice
The Disaster in Japan, as seen from Hong Kong
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