canton-glish

i'm back at the starbucks, it's almost 6pm. my mum and i had just dropped off my sister at the hung hou mtr station and rode back to central. since my sister lives somewhere up in new territory and it's a waste to spend two extra fares to drop off my sister, we trick the mtr into thinking that we only traveled between adjacent stations. this is what we do: we get on at one of the stations on the hong kong side, take the mtr all the way up to the hung hou station (which is about 11 stations and a line transfer away), then see my sister off without exiting the gates, take the mtr back to either central or admiralty and pay the HK$3.80 fare for traveling one station. my sister, unfortunately, has to pay the complete fare (about HK$13.00).


oh, i forgot to mention that there this really awful trend here of "hip" asian men putting up the collars of their polo shirts. it's the most disturbing thing i've seen so far on my trip, and i've seen some pretty nasty things... poor turtle. i took a picture of one of these people at lunch yesterday. since i don't have the picture up yet, just picture some asian guy wearing a florescent pink polo shirt with the collar flipped up. yeah, nasty shit.


it's sunday night, which means that i have only one full weekend left (nice) and 12 full days left in hk. across from the front of the starbucks is a wall with a several large rectangular screens and everyday it loops the same clips from various valentino shows. part of these clips have guys (some that hitler would be pretty proud of, i might add) wearing really short shorts and even worse, strutting in gray briefs. just not the kinda advertisement i would like with my morning tea.

***up on the rectangular screen are the pretty boys in their gray briefs***

i think i've seen more white people this year than i did last year. i don't know why. maybe cuz i didn't really come out to central as much last year. as i was walking back to my parents' flat today for lunch, i saw a family of four white people sitting on the step of a closed shop snacking on some freshly baked bread. for me, it's really strange to see white people west of central. it really is. and it's not like hk is segregated into whites only regions, but just the fact that white people venture into places like sai ying poon surprises me.

this reminds me that the other day, my dad and i saw some white guy on the lift of the building where my parents live. my dad, ever the conversationalist, got him to talk about how he's really into martial arts (in fact, he was coming down from the roof of the building after practicing) and how he originally was from san francisco and has been in hk for a year now. it's was really comical for me. i think i'm a bit skeptical when it comes to white people and marital arts. reminds me of chuck norris.

where can you have three children, one white, one chinese, and one of persian (or indian) decent standing together, playing, poking at the screens promoting valentino but in hk.

i really need to bring a notebook and pen with me because there are many times within the last week and a half that i wanted to write stuff down, but since i don't have the necessary equipment with me, i couldn't. and all my brilliant thoughts and observations are wasted, never to return again.

i've decided as a way to solve my language problem at starbucks, i'm going to use part english and part cantonese when speaking to the people working here. the problem isn't that they can't speak english, but rather, i feel so snobberish when i order from them in english. that way, they can better understand me and i feel better about getting some tea and a lamington.

me: aaah, mgoi bei ngoh yat bui cha and yat gor lamington.
starbucks staff: ben jon cha? (what type of tea?)
me: earl gray, mgoi.

why am i so uncomfortable in my skin here? why? WHY?!! dim gaai? DIM GAAI?!!

on friday, this is what happened on "the happy inn." the girl decides to go on a date with the doctor guy and the guy broke up with his g/f who still has the desire to be an actress. she tells him that she's not the only one who cares for him and that the girl likes him too. he is incredulous about that. the girl tells the doctor guy that she's not really dating him because she wants a relationship with him, but rather, she's trying to make herself feel better because the guy that she likes is dating someone else. the guy sends the actress back to beijing to shoot a movie. the girl and the guy decides to fire the annoying g/f of the third partner.

yes, i'm that bored. :) but i'm looking forward to reading the smiths book. can't wait.