It's the little things

First of all, I managed to find this picture on the CUHK website. It was taken during our orientation week welcoming ceremony. The blonde dude in the blue t-shirt is Bart, a fun guy from Toronto. If you look at the next row, to the left, you'll see me in my brown t-shirt. Making a "V" (V is for victory) with your fingers is considered very cute here in Asia.

I've been here for nearly 3 weeks now and it still hasn't really sunk in that I'm in Hong Kong. It's the little things that drive home the fact that I'm on the other side of the world. I get slightly complacent, then suddenly I'll see insects or animals I've never seen before (I saw a gecko on the ground floor of my apartment!) Or sometimes I'll walk by a window and be awed by the view - the foliage of the forest (jungle?) and the mountains in the background. Heck, even when I'm just walking along a sidewalk I'll suddenly realize, "Hey! I'm in Hong Kong right now!" and begin to smile for no reason.

I've finally encountered a food dish that I actually crave... Sadly, it's vietnamese food, but still. It's lemongrass chicken with rice noodles in soup. I adore that dish. I've had it two nights in a row now, and wish I could have it for lunch too. Unfortunately life decides it needs a balance in some fashion, so it also introduced me to a dish that I couldn't finish. I don't know the English name, but translated directly from Cantonese, it's called "Horse bean." (Please don't make the obvious jokes.) It's some kind of white jelly pudding thing with pieces of corn in it. My local friend was devouring hers, but after two bites of mine, I had to shove it aside. It tasted like it had gone bad.

Corn seems to be a real treat here. At McDonald's, for an extra $5, you can buy a cup of corn! Yeah... Plain old corn in a plastic cup. All the KFC's here also offer roasted corn on a cob too. Corn was even offered on the pizzas at Pizza Hut. My local pal, Irene, was surprised to find out that corn isn't considered a desert item in North America.

Another cool thing that's quite different from North America is the traditionalness of things. I was walking around HK island one day and passed by a nice chinese garden. What was interesting though was seeing an older gentleman practicing with his bo staff in the middle of the garden. He wasn't trying to show off or anything, he was just doing what was natural to him. Last night I also saw a group of students from one of the on-campus martial arts clubs outside stretching and warming up with their weapons and whatnot.
Also, when you walk around in the New Territories, you'll occasionally see an old man or lady with a wide brimmed hat with a black fringe. It's part of the traditional attire of the Hakka people. I guess that it's surprising to see hats like these considering how modernized the world is becoming.

Stuff like this really emphasizes the cultural differences.

P.S.
If you ever want to chat, you can get ahold of me on Skype! My user name is mau_the_grump.