Only Freaks Eat Fish Eyes

Ancient Chinese Proverb: Not Everything That Looks Like A Doughnut Is, In Fact, A Doughnut.

Contrary to the picture I have painted thus far in this blog, I actually am working here in Hong Kong. Most recently, I have helped backstage with the upcoming kids' production of the musical version of "101 Dalmatians," facilitated auditions for "The Jungle Book" and "Alice in Wonderland" (I'll be working on Jungle Book later on), completely rewrote the script of the "Oops, I Killed A Penguin" show and just today started rewriting the Shakespeare show.

In other office news, Wendi--remember? my very American roommate?--has decided to break the contract and go back to the States. So in addition to all the script work and kid corralling, we're also searching vehemently for a replacement.

But on to other, perhaps less boring topics. I managed to find an allegedly Methodist church (they didn't have the fire on the cross, so I can't be sure they're legit) and while nothing absolutely blasphemous happened, I was a little disconcerted at the fact that everyone in charge (pastor, musicians, readers...) were all Western and most people in the congregation were Chinese. Just seemed a little colonial to me. This may be the first time I won't go back to a church because it was "too colonial." I did, however, make a new little friend--Lindie from South Africa, with whom I went out for tea following the service (you know, just to really establish those British ties).

In the afternoon, I worked on my haggling skills in the Wan Chai market: ask how much, offer half of whatever they said and work up to what you're willing to pay.

A very typical trip through a Hong Kong market: You stroll along and the vendors yell out "missy!" (to me) or "boss!" (to men). You stop at a certain booth, do the haggling bit and decide to move on. No, no no...the vendor quite literally grabs you, pulls you back and offers you a lower price. Lather, rinse, repeat...

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Side note: at this particular market, I saw a tail for sale. Since it was detached from its beast of origin, I can only guess that it was a cow or donkey tail. Someone, please, tell me why it would be beneficial to buy a cow tail and what one could potentially do with such a purchase.

Sunday night, I went out for my first real sushi experience under the able guidance of Joan. Joan works in HR for Dramatic English. She's Canadian-born Chinese, speaks both English and Cantonese fluently, and having lived in HK for 2 years, it is a delight to go around town with her. I learned that I love sushi, especially the raw salmon and eel (sorry, mom).

I also had Monday off (hey, I worked Saturday) I went down to Stanley Village on the south side of Hong Kong Island. Kind of a quiet place where all the hoity-toity expats lie around. However, they do have Murray House, the oldest surviving colonial building. Here's a picture of it:

This was the site of the formal surrender of British troops to the Japanese in 1941. (sorry, dad). But the insane story about it is that until 1982, this building was located in Central--on the complete opposite side of the island. They took it apart, brick by brick (4,000 of them) and put it all in storage. In 1998, they reassembled it here in Stanley. The best part is that when they put it all back together, they messed up somewhere and ended up with six extra columns. So, like anyone would, they just stood them up between the building and the bay. Here is a picture of some columns:

Oh yeah, they were filming an epic motion picture at this site. You can tell it's epic by the camera on the tripod and the guy in the pink shirt.

I met some hip Hong Kongers in Stanley who took my picture (again, to appease the maternal parental unit who likes the pictures "with me in them"). We crawled through the rocky shoreline:

And yes, of course I knew he was behind me:
A typical Hong Kong broom (for my dad, who relishes the ordinary, for it is the essence of life):