Practical Matters

I suppose I should take some time also to explain my basic living situation at the moment. I currently reside in a very cheap but very serviceable (and safe) hostel down the street from two of my AU colleagues’ apartments, in Causeway Bay on Hong Kong Island. My room is maybe 200 square feet, so I am still trying to figure out where to put my luggage so it doesn’t block the door.* I am staying here for another week or so as I am planning to move into a place on the 16th that I hope is worth the wait. Apartment hunting here is not difficult, per se, though it presents the typical challenge for a person on a budget – usually the places are smaller and less nice that you’d like. I saw a few studios, all largely alike, on Thursday and would be fine living in any of them. They are uniformly tiny (200 – 250 square feet) and lack much in the way of kitchen or living space (think one sink and a “hallway,” in addition to a bedroom area). Lest any potential visitors get scared away, however, I do think I would have space for a guest, so long as you don’t mind coziness. The studios I saw are located one neighborhood to the West, in Wan Chai (not the best neighborhood, but not the worst, either) and in the same building as one of my classmates.

I am holding out for a slightly better option, however. My hoped-for apartment was advertised on Craigslist Hong Kong, and is for the second bedroom in a two bedroom flat in the same neighborhood I live in now. The pictures look great (there is a kitchen!) and I spoke at length yesterday to my would-be roommate, an American teaching English in the city. We will meet next week to see the place (he currently has his parents’ friends staying in the second bedroom and so does not want to show it until the 10th) and firm up our verbal agreement over the phone. Please keep your fingers crossed for me.

In other news: I have met three of four of my colleagues from AU Law. The fourth was sick during the orientation period; there are two men and three women. There are only ten foreign law students studying here, a figure that struck me as surprisingly small, and I have yet to meet any law students or professors. Our orientation period was geared largely to the sizeable undergraduate contingent studying abroad at CUHK, some 450 students from all over the world. It was a little weird living in a dormitory with undergrads again (I stayed on the main CUHK campus, located way north in the city, for the first few days), made me feel my age in a not-unpleasant way.

What else? I miss Sichuan food, for real. Hong Kong cuisine (the affordable, average sort, that is) leaves a lot to be desired for my spice-acclimated tongue. I am still searching for the best places to go, but I will say I am sick of shrimp already. For my PCV peng yous, shrimp is to Cantonese food what pork was to Sichuan food. Blech. There are loads of delicious Western restaurants, though, but I am hoping to find some good places to enjoy local fare.

Let me know what you all are curious about, otherwise I’ll just continue to write about whatever comes to mind. No mailing address yet, though I hope to have one soon. All is well, more from me soon.

*I am taking pictures to post here, but my camera transfer cable got lost while I moved out of my DC apartment, and I bought an incompatible one in the market the other day. I’ll get photos online soon, just you wait.