With being home recently, we received many questions about our new life over in Hong Kong. Many of the questions were similar, meaning a lot of people want to know the same things. I compiled the most asked questions and our answers for those who we weren't able to see and talk with.
1) How long is the flight? - The flight is direct from Chicago to Hong Kong. Going to Hong Kong is 15.5 hours and going to Chicago is 14.5 hours. We try to spend the majority of the flight awake to fight against jet lag. We watch plenty of movies, tv shows and read magazines. Plus eating the 2 meals and a snack that you get!
2) Do you drive over there? - We do not drive ourselves in Hong Kong. Having your own car there is comparable to having a car in New York City. It's crowded, busy traffic and expensive. We use all forms of public transportation to get around...blog post on that later!
3) What do you miss the most? (besides family and friends of course!) - My answer: Target, Ryan's answer: Jack's frozen pizza
4) What is the weather like? - The weather here is similar to southern Florida. It is mild during the winter (50-60 degrees) and very humid during the summer. Luckily we arrived during the best weather season so we can get used to the weather slowly before the hot summer.
5) What is the time difference? - We are 14 hours ahead of central time here which means while you are waking up for your day, I am getting ready for bed (or still browsing Pinterest, which is normally the case). It is normally easier for us to adjust time zones flying to Hong Kong, while flying back home is quite difficult with fighting jet lag. This past trip home though was not easy, with me falling asleep at 8 pm every night and up at 5 a.m.
6) What currency do you use? - We use the Hong Kong dollar. The conversion rate is roughly $1 USD for $7 HKD. The easy math Ryan taught me is for $100 HKD is $12 USD and then multiply or divide from there. I still am finding myself standing in stores doing math on my fingers trying to figure out if the yogurt is really as expensive as I think! Luckily, there is an app for that :-)
7) Is there US tv stations there? - There are a few US tv stations here to watch. We have several different types of discovery channels, TLC, E! Network and FX to name a few. The difference here is that the shows are much older (they show 17 kids and counting vs 19 kids and counting) and a lot of things are blurred or edited out. No brands are allowed to be shown or spoken, cleavage is blurred out and any background faces are also blurred out. The commercials are not for products but for the tv programs on that network. The episodes are normally aired with 1 short 'commercial' break and then previews of other shows are aired for the remaining 8-10 minutes. Luckily for the Internet, we are able to keep up on all of our favorite tv shows back home that are unavailable here (Real Housewives for me, Always Sunny in Philadelphia for Ryan).
8) Is everything really expensive? - It depends. If your lifestyle is going out to Western restaurants and bars every day and night, then yes. If you can handle going to the grocery store and some more local restaurants, then not really. Many things here can be purchased for near the same pride or cheaper than in the states, it is just a matter of looking. Getting foods imported from the US is obviously more expensive here but there are many foods that can be purchased locally. It also goes for clothes. If you need high end brands from all the fancy stores downtown, then it is expensive. If you're okay with shopping at H&M or other similar stores, then the price is similar to the states.
9) Are you working yet? - Unfortunately, not yet. It is taking some time to get my license situated over here due to the paper work, but as soon as that is settled I will hopefully start working. There are many English speaking clinics in the western districts here that I will look into work at as you have to be fluent in Cantonese and English to work in the hospitals.
10) Do you like it? - I got this question from everyone from my parents to the checkout person at J Crew (saying 'I live overseas' is a great line to get them to stop asking if you want a store credit card). The answer is, slowly but surely. I'm not going to lie, it was very hard at first to get a handle of understanding I lived here. After a couple of weeks I got that feeling you have when you're on vacation and you are ready to go home, but of course I wasn't going home this time. There are things here I've grown to love while there are still things here I quite haven't. Coming back here after Christmas though really sealed it for me. When we landed and got off the plane, I truly felt as though I was back home and not landing in a foreign county, something I didn't think I would feel for awhile. I am happy to be back home and continue on this journey to learning more about this city.
I hope you enjoyed this long post! If you have any more questions, do not hesitate to ask me here or on Facebook. We know many of our family and friends are curious about life here and it makes some people more comfortable to know more.
Happy New Year!
Monday, December 31, 2012
Monday, December 24, 2012
Home for the holidays
Happy holidays everyone!
Ryan and I have been back in the states for almost 2 weeks now and have been enjoying every minute of it. There were many things we were looking forward to coming back to and some things that surprised us we were missing that we didn't even realize! Here's a recap of the top 5 things that made our trip back enjoyable:
1) Being able to drive- I didn't realize how much I missed being able to hop in the car and quickly run an errand. To do something similar in Hong Kong may take an hour up to a full afternoon! Sadly though, we weren't driving around the beloved red Jeep as it was sold right before we left so another family could give it more attention than we would. Ryan already knows exactly what Jeep he will buy when we return!
2) The food- now this is more me than Ryan as I am not quite used to the food yet in Hong Kong. I had my list of places I needed to stop at and it's almost done. Some highlights were:
-Taco Bell (guilty pleasure!)
-Panera
-Olive Garden
-Noodles and Company for Mac and cheese
-Culvers for cheese curds
-Soblemans for a burger and bloody mary
-Chipotle
-The Shanti for a Gunderburger (Ryan's one request and yes, he finished it all!)
3) Not feeling like a foreigner- now don't get me wrong, I enjoy living in Hong Kong very much but some times it is nice to just go out, now exactly where you're going, know how to order at restaurants, be able to speak the language and all the other customs that go with any country. It's a comfort that those who have traveled to other countries understand and look forward to when returning home. It's something I have found can be learned in other countries but it is never truly the same as going back to your home country. A great quote I saw that helps me get through frustrating times of not knowing what I'm doing in Hong Kong is "Another country's culture is not a failed attempt at yours."
4) Our hobbies- Now, you may ask, "But you can't do your hobbies in Hong Kong?" which is not necessarily true. We just can't do all of them or to the same degree. Take me for instance. I love to shop and browse around stores or malls when I am bored. In Hong Kong, the shopping is either very cheap in markets or very expensive in malls. My rule is that the store has a line to get in or security guard, I probably can't afford anything in it. My first stop back home was Target, and I have returned several times since! I miss affordable shopping for things in my type of style, all under the same roof. For Ryan, his hobby he was able to enjoy back home was target shooting. Since guns are illegal in China, we spent some time trying to hit the bullseye.
5) Being with family and friends- I can just hear my mom saying, "Awww." The main purpose of our trip of course was to come back and spend time with everyone for the holidays. Fortunately for us, it worked out perfect to spend time in Milwaukee to see all of our friends here and then travel home to Iowa to see family. We had an amazing time with everyone and are very blessed that we had this opportunity so soon into our move overseas to come back. We know there were many people we would have loved to see that we weren't able to but we we thankful for those that we were able to spend some time with. The holidays can easily turn into a stressful time trying to cram as much family time in as possible and as our first married Christmas, we knew there would be even more family time to be had. Luckily this was not the case and we were able to have as relaxing of Christmas as possible as we steadily made it around to each family.
We head back to Hong Kong tomorrow to spend New Year's Eve there before Ryan has to return to work. We enjoyed every minute of our time in the states and look forward to our next trip back. Thank you again to everyone who made it such a memorable time for us!
Ryan and I have been back in the states for almost 2 weeks now and have been enjoying every minute of it. There were many things we were looking forward to coming back to and some things that surprised us we were missing that we didn't even realize! Here's a recap of the top 5 things that made our trip back enjoyable:
1) Being able to drive- I didn't realize how much I missed being able to hop in the car and quickly run an errand. To do something similar in Hong Kong may take an hour up to a full afternoon! Sadly though, we weren't driving around the beloved red Jeep as it was sold right before we left so another family could give it more attention than we would. Ryan already knows exactly what Jeep he will buy when we return!
2) The food- now this is more me than Ryan as I am not quite used to the food yet in Hong Kong. I had my list of places I needed to stop at and it's almost done. Some highlights were:
-Taco Bell (guilty pleasure!)
-Panera
-Olive Garden
-Noodles and Company for Mac and cheese
-Culvers for cheese curds
-Soblemans for a burger and bloody mary
-Chipotle
-The Shanti for a Gunderburger (Ryan's one request and yes, he finished it all!)
3) Not feeling like a foreigner- now don't get me wrong, I enjoy living in Hong Kong very much but some times it is nice to just go out, now exactly where you're going, know how to order at restaurants, be able to speak the language and all the other customs that go with any country. It's a comfort that those who have traveled to other countries understand and look forward to when returning home. It's something I have found can be learned in other countries but it is never truly the same as going back to your home country. A great quote I saw that helps me get through frustrating times of not knowing what I'm doing in Hong Kong is "Another country's culture is not a failed attempt at yours."
4) Our hobbies- Now, you may ask, "But you can't do your hobbies in Hong Kong?" which is not necessarily true. We just can't do all of them or to the same degree. Take me for instance. I love to shop and browse around stores or malls when I am bored. In Hong Kong, the shopping is either very cheap in markets or very expensive in malls. My rule is that the store has a line to get in or security guard, I probably can't afford anything in it. My first stop back home was Target, and I have returned several times since! I miss affordable shopping for things in my type of style, all under the same roof. For Ryan, his hobby he was able to enjoy back home was target shooting. Since guns are illegal in China, we spent some time trying to hit the bullseye.
5) Being with family and friends- I can just hear my mom saying, "Awww." The main purpose of our trip of course was to come back and spend time with everyone for the holidays. Fortunately for us, it worked out perfect to spend time in Milwaukee to see all of our friends here and then travel home to Iowa to see family. We had an amazing time with everyone and are very blessed that we had this opportunity so soon into our move overseas to come back. We know there were many people we would have loved to see that we weren't able to but we we thankful for those that we were able to spend some time with. The holidays can easily turn into a stressful time trying to cram as much family time in as possible and as our first married Christmas, we knew there would be even more family time to be had. Luckily this was not the case and we were able to have as relaxing of Christmas as possible as we steadily made it around to each family.
We head back to Hong Kong tomorrow to spend New Year's Eve there before Ryan has to return to work. We enjoyed every minute of our time in the states and look forward to our next trip back. Thank you again to everyone who made it such a memorable time for us!
Monday, December 10, 2012
Singapore Trip
Hello all again!
Well, Ryan and I have just returned from our first weekend getaway and we had a great time. One of Ryan's friends lives in Singapore and invited us down to attend ZoukOut with him. For those who don't know what ZoukOut is (don't worry, I didn't know either at first) it is a dance music festival held on a local beach in Singapore. Think of it as Summerfest, but in sand, in a hotter climate, with more people and it goes till sunrise.
Ryan and I flew to Singapore Thursday night, enjoying our first international trip in the business class section. Who knew you could enjoy an airplane ride so much?
During the day on Friday Ryan and I went to check out the Singapore Zoo. I had read online it was a must-see and that there was a panda attraction currently going on. One of my bucket list items while over here was to see pandas, so I was very excited. The zoo was the best we had ever seen. Every time we came around a corner we were amazed by the next animal we saw. The habitats were large and well kept for the animals. The one scary thing to me was that there wasn't a lot of barriers between the visitors and the animals. At one point there were orangutans sitting in trees directly above us! Unfortunately we didn't have a lot of time to look around but we did manage to check out the whole park, plus the pandas! The pandas are currently on loan from China, so it is a special exhibit you have to reserve a time slot for. It was defiantly worth the wait, though Ryan thinks he will be able to get me much closer to some pandas elsewhere.
Saturday we headed to a hawker stand for some local Singapore food and looked around the city. A hawker stand is basically an outdoor food court for street food vendors.
We then walked around Maria Bay where there is a floating soccer field, dance club and Louis Vuitton store along with the Marina Bay Sands Hotel. Ryan stayed there on his previous trip. The top portion of the hotel is an infinity pool on the 57th floor!
After a dip in the pool and a quick nap, we headed to ZoukOut. We
hung out in Universal Studios for dinner and drinks, saw some great
fireworks at their nightly show and then headed to the beach.
We had a great time at ZoukOut, though it did get a little hot and crowded for my taste. Defiantly hard to push through crowds with a broken arm but I didn't want to miss out. We stayed till early morning (5 a.m.) but didn't manage to see the sunrise. We had a great time on our first weekend trip and looking forward to more to come!
PS- Had another doctor appointment today and was told my arm is healing well but I still need 3 more weeks in the brace. Thank you for all the well wishes and thoughts for my recovery. Guess no sledding for me on all that new snow we see has hit the Midwest!
Well, Ryan and I have just returned from our first weekend getaway and we had a great time. One of Ryan's friends lives in Singapore and invited us down to attend ZoukOut with him. For those who don't know what ZoukOut is (don't worry, I didn't know either at first) it is a dance music festival held on a local beach in Singapore. Think of it as Summerfest, but in sand, in a hotter climate, with more people and it goes till sunrise.
Ryan and I flew to Singapore Thursday night, enjoying our first international trip in the business class section. Who knew you could enjoy an airplane ride so much?
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| Ready for take-off |
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| White tiger |
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| White Tiger, sponsored by Tiger beer...very appropriate |
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| Parks here rent out motorized scooters for anybody...facilitating laziness one theme park at a time |
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| We love any scooter sign...and I loved the fact they banned them in areas and made people actually walk |
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| Driving in the outback |
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| Ryan thought it was appropriate I pose next to the falling person sign |
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| Red panda |
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| Panda #1 being lazy while eating himself out of the bamboo that is covering him |
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| Panda #2 being even more lazy eating the bush while face down on the ground...too much work to hold your head up |
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| Chimpanzee habitat |
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| Always use the buddy system when entering a rhino habitat |
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| Lion den |
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| Giraffes |
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| The aftermath of lunch |
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| Marina Bay |
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| Each one of those white balls has wishes for the new year written on them by visitors. |
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| Fireworks and 'crane dance' at Universal Studios |
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| Knife Party DJ set |
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| Calvin Harris |
PS- Had another doctor appointment today and was told my arm is healing well but I still need 3 more weeks in the brace. Thank you for all the well wishes and thoughts for my recovery. Guess no sledding for me on all that new snow we see has hit the Midwest!
Tuesday, December 4, 2012
Hospital Experience
So as many of you have seen on Facebook, I took a tumble late last week and cracked my radial head (a bone in the elbow). It has recently been unseasonably rainy and I slipped in the lobby in the lobby of our apartment building. Friday night I made it through a dinner (with Ryan cutting my food).
On Saturday Ryan and I took a trip to one of the local hospitals to get me checked out. We were immediately impressed with the efficiency of the ER department. We were in and out of meeting the doctor within 30 minutes, had x-rays taken and back down to the ER within another 30 minutes and out of the door with a diagnosis, medications and a fashionable sling in another 15 minutes. Not only were they fast, but it was also a very nice facility. The radiology department reminded us of the inside of a space ship and the techs even had coordinating scrubs with the decor.
Monday I was impressed again with the hospital when I was able to schedule an appointment with an orthopedic surgeon the day of. The surgeon ordered a protective elbow brace so that my arm didn't move around too much in busy crowds and with traveling, causing the fracture to deepen. I was taken back to the orthotist's office as he made my custom brace in 30 minutes.
The whole experience with the hospital system here was great. I was treated efficiently, thoroughly and by great staff members. It may not be exactly how the same diagnosis would have been treated in the states but at least I received treatment. I'm on the road to recovery now and looking forward to being back in the states in a few weeks!
On Saturday Ryan and I took a trip to one of the local hospitals to get me checked out. We were immediately impressed with the efficiency of the ER department. We were in and out of meeting the doctor within 30 minutes, had x-rays taken and back down to the ER within another 30 minutes and out of the door with a diagnosis, medications and a fashionable sling in another 15 minutes. Not only were they fast, but it was also a very nice facility. The radiology department reminded us of the inside of a space ship and the techs even had coordinating scrubs with the decor.
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| The radiology department |
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| Got to take my x-ray home! |
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| My lovely elbow brace |
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