I've think I've finally settled in. I no longer wake up in the morning thinking that this is a foreign country, get excited standing at the busy cross-junction at Tsim Sha Tsui or wait in anticipation at the prospect of taking the MTR. Instead, I've carved out for myself a nice routine of school, dinners outside, latenight shopping, random explorations to places away from the busy city centre and funny mahjong nights with the Hongkongers where I sit there and sing Cantonese songs for everyone because I can't play. I finally see the importance of learning mahjong.
I'm opening up, coming out of that shell I've been living in all my life where I dislike being alone in school. I've come to terms with going to classes alone and being enthusiastic about meeting new people and making new friends who sometimes turn out to be such interesting characters I could write a novel about them all.
The life I'm leading here is so different, so foreign and so independent, yet I'm basking fully in it and a part of me has forgotten the life I used to lead back home, where everything was taken care of for me and I didn't have to worry about laundry horrors and settling my own meals.
And after about two weeks of independent living, I've learnt several new domestic things about myself.
1) I love the smell of freshly washed clothing. I'd press clothing item to my nose and breathe deeply, thinking that it smells like a thousand roses. 2) I detest the faint yet lingering smell of food in the room. 3) I don't care for making my bed unless I have visitors (actually, that's not a really new fact, it's just a confirmation that I really do not see the point of making beds because you are going to sleep in it in about 14 hours.) 4) I have a compulsive behavioral trait which involves arranging my shoes according to height. Every other part of my room can be messy except for the shoe department.
Washing day was scary, and I never realised washing clothes required so much skill and constant prayer. After two weeks of no-washing involved, we finally put off the procrastination and got down to the laundry. Of course we've heard of the do not mix coloured clothing with white clothing rule, but my silly roommate (I still love you very much qi) very smartly put in a coloured towel with ALL our white clothing, resulting in the Red Sea spinning in a little compartment on the 10th floor of Jockey Club Harmony Hall, Kowloon Tong, Hong Kong.
So we watched in horror as our clothes bathed in red water, immediately thinking of ways and means to rectify the situation. Dry clean, bleach, was I sure all my clothes in it were white? I swear poor Qi squatted in front of the washing machine and stared at it forlornly in desperation for a good 45 minutes. But God really works wonders - this is a wonderful testimony of His mercy and grace on us, seriously. We were both praying very hard, and when the moment of truth came, somehow all the clothes looked normal without any red stains. A miracle, I must say, although I think there should be an emergency stop button on ALL washing machines.
Part Two horrors came shortly after when we discovered that 90% of our clothes had the label which said, "Do not tumble dry" on them. First, we spent about 15 minutes debating what "tumble dry" could mean. After deciding that it meant the dryer, we debated again why we couldn't tumble dry all our clothes when we just see everyone throwing their clothes into the dryer. The weather was cold, there is no proper place to hang our clothes other than the common balcony, and putting it in the dryer seemed like the only logical thing to do. So we dumped everything into the dryer. After some research with experts online, it turns out that the dryer shrinks everything. I ran upstairs immediately but it turned out that the laundry room had closed for the day and we would have to wait a night before the truth would be revealed.
The clothes turned out fine, although that was an unforgettable night of high trauma.
Girls' Night Out was pure fun and giggles, and I think I needed it very much. As much as I love hanging out with the boys, and listening to their nonsense, being one out of two girls in a group full of guys doesn't really enable them to fully get to know you for who you are and alot of the time you end up being at the end of a repeated conversation revolving around girls and football. So the spontaneous night out with Emma, Nicole, Lian, Enging and Qi was absolute heaven. Gushing over the Kate Spade bags, MNG sale, G.O.D. products and stepping into literally every roadside store and squealing over the cute outfits, blingbling and calculating how much we need to buy to make the most out of the sale at each store was liberating. And with our cosmopolitan group, it's really amazing to see how girls from different cultures are able to come together with a common goal - shopping.
The key of my voice raised about two notches in Kate Spade. The bags are gorgeous beyond belief, the selection is huge, and about half the price of those in Singapore especially with the sale. I'm getting one before I get back, even if it means me eating HK$10 super-saver meals in school every day.
I realise I'm really not bad at math when it comes to calculating how much discount I have on a particular item. The answer comes rather quickly.
The night ended with desserts at Hui Lau Shan and Nicole getting our order sheet stuck inside the table, resulting in five girls laughing and staring at her trying ways and means to get it out.
Jings' birthday at Bubba Gump at The Peak was a night of heavenly-tasting shrimp at the Forrest Gump themed restaurant, perfecting the art of taking pictures with the night mode function under the dim lighting, surprise Tiramisu cakes, birthday greetings and songs from the entire restaurant and silly birthday videos. The view from The Peak is beyond breathtaking. I loved sitting by the window by Bubba Gump and staring out of the glass window at the miniscule buildings below adorned with colourful lights even as the noisy chatter continued. The first birthday here in Hong Kong with at least four more to come, a tad surreal yet you feel at home being with the people that remind you of home. To the birthday boy, I hope you enjoyed your 23rd.
Like the icing on top of the cake, the week ended with a blast at the Hocc concert, which Cheryl and Claire flew down all the way from Singapore for. The first glimpse of the Hong Kong Coliseum, where every famed Hong Kong celebrity would have held their concert at was reminiscent of the Singapore Indoor Stadium, and even stepping into the vast enclosed area - I still felt like I was back home. But once the concert started, it was a totally different world. Fans jumped to their feet, banging their fluorescent green balloons against each other in unison, screaming, shouting, shrieking in the dark hall. Colourful dizzying lightsticks came to life and when Hocc's voice came through the speakers, it was pandemonium. But an experience whatsoever, the concerts here are filled with so much more life than those in Singapore, and I enjoyed every second of it. The costume changes, lighting and props were amazing, and it was obvious that Hocc didn't want the concert to end, with her skipping around the Coliseum and asking her fans for more song requests, as this was to be her last concert for this year's tour.
A star-studded week, no less, with Qi meeting Miriam Yeung at Times Square, and us bumping into Miu Kiu Wai and a few others at Miramar Hotel, and that close encounter with William So outside the Coliseum. Her songs are now perpetually on repeat mode in my head, and I remember laughing non-stop wtih Qi as we held up our "We stand as one" balloons at Hung Hom, thinking the tales of our lives right now were dreams not so long ago.
