F.A.Q.

In an effort to avoid answering the same mundane questions, I've compiled a list of frequently asked questions regarding our experiences in Hong Kong. Please consult this list prior to conversation with me. If you violate this rule and ask a question contained within the FAQ list, there will be trouble. Actually, I'll most likely just sigh, roll my eyes and answer the question anyways. Now, to the list:

So, how's the weather?:

It sucks. It's raining now...5 minutes ago, it looked great. That's how it is here, you never know when torrential rain will break out. Unless, I actually consulted the weather forcasts, that is. The weather was actually rather decent when we first arrived, but quickly turned bad, then worse. And it's supposed to get even worse this month and in August. September and onward, however, are supposed to be quite nice, cooler temperatures, lower humidity and no rain. And let's not even talk about the horrendous thunder and lightening we are often treated to...conveniently in the middle of the night when trying to sleep.

Isn't it terrible living in Communist China? Aren't people there restricted to one child? Won't you be jailed if people know you're a Christian? Uggh, I'm so worried about you!

Chill out. Yes, Hong Kong is now a part of China, but it is governed far differently. Prior to the handover in 1997, China and the UK signed the Sino-British Joint Declaration which basically states that "In accordance with the "One Country, Two Systems" Principle agreed between the UK and the PRC, the socialism system of PRC shall not be practised in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR), and Hong Kong's previous capitalist system and its way of life shall remain unchanged for a period of 50 years. The Joint Declaration provides that these basic policies shall be stipulated in the Hong Kong Basic Law."

So, there you have it, this is very different from China. There is definate religious freedom. Beth and I attend Evangelical Community Church here. It is very much like churches we have attended in the US, except for the fact that they have no permanent building and meet in a different location each week. Despite the fact that Christianity is definately the minority religion here, I have seen no evidence that there is any less religous freedom here than there is in the US.

Same thing goes for interet censorship. You've probably heard about how Google is agreeing to censor certain topics for Chinese internet users, such as Tianeman square, Taiwanese independence, etc.... That doesn't apply here, we can search for those topics.

Are you working?

No.

That's all you have to say?

Ok, I'll say more. Yes, it has been 4 months since we've arrived and no, I haven't found a job yet. Yes, I've applied for many jobs. In fact, on my favorite job board, jobsdb.com, I've applied for about 400 jobs. I've been on 4 interviews, one of them went very well, and yet I never heard from them again, despite emailing them to see where they were at in the process. 2 of the 4 were last week and they went ok, so we'll see if i hear from them this week.

It seems at least half of the jobs out there require Cantonese language skills, many also requiring Mandarin. I do not possess either. It takes quite a while to become fluent in Cantonese.

Are you okay with not working? How are you feeling about it?

I would definately like to be working. I've spent the last 10 years of my life as a working professional for the same company, not working is new for me. I like knowing I'm accomplishing something useful for a company and bringing in money at the same time. Honestly, sometimes it's very difficult knowing I'm not working and not being successful finding a job, sometimes I'm okay with it. Some days I wake up thinking "I gave up a good job, a house with a yard, a decent sized kitchen with an oven, an oven! a game room with a pool table, a projector with a 72 in screen, just for this!" And then I think "Oh wait, I didn't give up the projector, I brought it with me...I think I'll go play Spiderman 2 on the Game Cube"

It is convenient for me to be at home during the day, I am able to get things done that would either have to be done by Beth or I in the evening or eat up our weekends if both of us were working. I'm able to keep the apartment relatively clean, spend time with the dog, make sure we have food to eat, etc... We're still able to make ends meet on Beth's salary, so the need isn't urgent, but, yes, I would like a job. Bottom line, I don't regret making the decision to move here, even though it has meant be being out of work for a while. I was fully aware that it would be difficult for me to get a job here, it's all part of the risk I was willing to take.

So, wait a second, here....you expect us to feel sorry for you because you don't have to work, aren't financially hurting, get to explore a foreign culture, have an apartment with a great view, can take naps in the middle of the day, can pretty much do whatever you want during the day, as long as you keep the apartment relatively clean and the fridge stocked with food? You pathetic, ungrateful twit!! I'd love to trade places with you!!

Well, when you put it like that, it doesn't sound so bad. I know what your saying, I should be grateful...it's hard to explain. This is stressing me out, I'm going to go eat some oreos and take my 10:30am nap now.

How's Zoe?

She's good! She's her same, hyper-energetic self! Before shipping her over, we heard some horror stories about pets being psychologically traumatized by long flights in a pet carrier stuck in the baggage compartment. Not, our Zoe, though! While I'm sure it wasn't fun for her, she didn't seem to notice once she arrived. Of course, there was that little incident with her alleric reaction to the rabies vaccine they gave her upon arrival, but that cleared up quickly.

Yes, you may have heard us say that Hong Kong isn't very pet friendly and most of the city parks don't allow dogs. It works out alright, though. There is plenty of sidewalks to walk her on, until her or us gets tired. There aren't very many places where we can have her unleashed, but honestly, we rarely let her off the leash back home, either. She isn't exactly trustworthy when it comes to being unleashed in public. She thinks it's a game to run off and not let us catch her.

You live on the 40th floor, right? So, isn't it hugely inconvenient to take her outside to do her business?

They're called puppy pee pads and they work great...usually....if you can get her to, uh, aim properly. And you need to make sure to clean the poo off on a regular basis.

Aren't you worried that the elevator door will open, but no elevator will be there, and you'll step into it and fall to your death? I'm worried about that!!

No, I'm not worried about that. For one, I'm not usually in the habit of closing my eyes and entering an elevator. Call me crazy, but that's just me. Secondly, our elevator, like many has a mirrored backing, to which I have grown accustomed. If the elevator doors opened and I did not see my reflection, I would immediately know something is amiss, and most likely not step into an empty eleavator shaft.

So, quit your worrying, mother.

I bet your eating Chinese food all the time, huh?

You're kidding me, right? What you call Chinese food is so radically different from "real" Chinese food, it's not even funny. It's probably the most successful joke Chinese immigrants to the US ever played on their new country: "Hey, when they ask us to make food from our home country, let's not make the real stuff, let's instead cook for them fried meats, without the skin, and bones and baste it in sweet sauces, they'll hate it! Hahahahahahahaha!!" Well, it turns out we love the stuff and it is not to be found in Hong Kong, with the exception of some mediocre attempts.

Authentic Chinese food is more like: chicken feet, fatty meat with skin and bones still attached, cooked in strange sauces, soups made with stuff you'd see on Fear Factor, shark fin's soup, bird's nest soup (yes, this means actual bird's nest)...no sweet and sour or General Tso's chicken, I bet there wasn't even such a person as General Tso.

However, if we do want to experience good, authentic, Asian meals, we do have the option of Thai food. Thai food here is quite good and is very close to Thai food in Thailand, which we have had.

How are you able to manage without knowing Chinese??

The official languages of Hong Kong are Cantonese and English. So, pretty much all signs, menus, etc. are written in both Chinese and English. Plus, knowing english is necessary for most jobs, so most people we come into contact know, at least some, english. Granted, sometimes theire level of english skills is very low, but we usually manage to figure things out.

The limited english skills sometimes results in some interesting and humorous situations. It's common to see people on the streets with shirts on that have english writing on them. Sometimes the shirts say some rather provocative and inappropriate things. You might be thinking "well maybe they just have different standards there" well, that may be it, but often just from looking at the person, you get the feeling that they just have no idea what their shirt says. Take the grandmother wearing the shirt with the Playboy bunny character on it...I really don't think she knows what that represents, she probably just thinks it's a cute bunny. Or the old man wearing a shirt that says "Stupid" I'm thinking that was an accident.

Does Beth like her job? Doesn't she hate the long hours? How does she communicate with her co-workers?

Hmm...why don't I let Beth answer that:

"I do enjoy my job. Yes, we took a leap moving to Hong Kong for me to begin working for an entirely new employer with a new group of people I'd never met before. But despite all the risks my intution turned out to be accurate and the role I have at Citigroup is very, very similar to the role I had at Russell which made it quite easy to settle into.

Additional to that, you'd be surprised how diverse the office is. I will admit that I myself pictured an office where the majority of the staff we're middle age local folks who were more accustomed to conversing in Cantonese than English. This is not the reality of the office environment. Soon after moving to Hong Kong I quickly realized there is a dramatic difference between those in the business world and those who well, have lower paying jobs. Here at work, EVERYONE speaks English. Not to mention I work with an Australian, a New Zealander, an American, and a Canadian.

A few are a bit rusty with English and have heavy accents and writing English is a challenge for many. But the majority of my co-workers were educated in the US, Canada, London, Australia, etc.. You'll find most in the business world have spent 5-10 years living abroad and this makes them very different from what we Hong Konger's call the "local locals."

Many people here do work horrible hours. Horrendous hours. I have several co-workers who are known to not leave the office until 10pm 3 or 4 days out of the week. The general rule here is: "If it's Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday or Friday and you're awake--you should be at work." However, the locals (meaning those who've lived in HK more than a year) do not see this scenario as being a slave to the employer as folks would in the US. The ultra dedicated people I work with stay late because they want to (not just because it's the cultural norm)... These are people who forgo vacation time because working gives them satisfaction more so than other liesurely activities. (seriously, I have 2 co-workers that gave up vacay time last year) and I can only chalk that up to cultural upbringing and influence.

I however, do as all ex-pats do here. I've managed to forge a different routine for myself and I tend to leave around 6:30. Yes, this is late in comparison to my early departure days at Russell where no one batted an eye if you wanted to leave between 4 and 4:30 and putting in OT was working til 6. However, keep in mind that in the US I called my boss with a head's up if I couldn't make it in by 8:15, where as here I can show up between 9 and 9:15 and still get in before my co-workers (though I often keep to my old habits and show up in the 8 o'clock hour.

Additionally, one hour lunches are not had here. If I wanna shop or have a glass or two of wine over lunch, I can. Ninety minute, even two-hour lunches are very common here. On average I work about 45 hours a week, maybe every other week I work 50. Saturday's are not work days. Yes, some companies do count Saturday morning as part of the work week, but my employer is not one of them. So, yea, the hours are a bit long and I do suffer from time to time when I wanna leave the office and it's 6:45 and everyone else is typing away. They notice, but I leave anyway and this seems to be the routine of every expat I know...

I think Nick has covered everything else so I will leave it at that."

So, to sum it up here: the weather sucks, you don't have a job, your dog poops in your apartment, the food sucks, the locals unknowingly wear obscene t-shirts...you basically hate it right?! Ha ha! That'll teach you to take risks and leave America!! Score 1, for the good ol' USA!! Don't come back, commie!

Well, that was a little melodramatic. No, we don't hate it here, not at all. Like a lot of things in life, it has it's up and downs. But, we definately don't regret our decision to move here. We are getting exactly what we were looking for: something new
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So, there you have it. If you have any questions not contained in this list, feel free to ask away. But, if it is asked more than once, it will need to be added to the list!