Monday, August 25, 2008

I'M HERE!!!!!

I've been here for 2 day's it's amazing in every way...



My flight was only delayed by one day. I caught a flight out of L.A. on Friday and arrived here on Saturday night at 6:30. the Plane didn't pull up to a real gate so we waited a half hour for buses and then it took an hour to clear customs so it was 2 hours to get off the plane. It took one more hour to get to my home in North Point... It is amazing here. I live in a fairly large flat... Yes flat it's British English here... we have a view of Victoria Harbor which is Beautiful... boats big and small pass by all day long... you can see Kowloon and the mountain's behind...



I spent Sunday hanging out with my host family. I have Two younger brother's Adrien(10) and Adriel(4), they are fun to be around. Adrien is a Board Game nut... In the two day's since I have arrived we have played set, monopoly, and Scrabble (yes mom Scrabble, and I lost to Adrien). My host mother and father both speak English very well and are very nice people. There are Two maids from the Philippines. They both speak English very well. It is strange having maids... I don't think I'll get used to it.



The fast pass for the subway(MTR) is called a mini Octopus card... it's a RFID card that you can place against the turnstile to get through. You charge it with money, and you can use it to pay for thing's at stores too like 7/11 there is a 7/11 on every corner it is crazy...



I also got an international calling card because the one i bought in the US didn't work. The card i bought however is an Actual Sim card with the money on it... the minutes are also much much cheaper buying it here... it's 25 cents a minute to call the us but that's in Hong Kong Dollars. the conversion is 8 hk to 1$ you do the math...



Today was the first day of Cantonese lessons, we also met our "first friend" in my case Terry who showed me around hong Kong... We went all over. we looked around Wan Chai. where the Cantonese lessons where and where my school is going to be. the Cantonese lesson today was boring counting mostly from 1 to 100.. hopefully it will get better....



The food here is amazing... I had curried duck for lunch! and all sort's of good food for ever meal really.



I am looking to buy a camera soon so i can post photos... I'll get one soon.. Cameras are about 2000hk$ or 250$ us for a good one. Laptops run around 600 US dollars... After school starts i will see if i want to buy one of those...



I hope you are all well I will write more later...



Much love



Patrick

3 comments:

MWR said...

Patrick - wonderful to hear about your journey and first days in HK. Sounds like all is going well. Are there any obvious signs of the typhoon? Any good stories? When's the next one coming? (BTW - Bleat just pointed out that typhoon is a good Scrabble word...)

Get that camera fast, buddy!

Ciao for now.

OH...one more thing...I signed up via blogspot so I can post stuff. Your blog is excellent! Thanks for keeping it up.

Marcia

BDog said...

Hey Patrick,
I'm glad you finally arrived-- in one piece and without too many mishaps. Sounds like you're loving it already... good. You'll be happy to know that we did return your mother to Seattle in one piece and not broken.

Carry on with the adventures and work on that Scrabble game!

Bleat

MWR said...

Home again, home again, jiggidy jig! It is cold (58 degrees F) and rainy here in Seattle. Just got back from a FABLOUS weekend in Chicago! And, yes...I am in one piece, no broken parts this time.

Annie and Georgie are well. Georgie bolted out of the house as soon as I opened the door. Annie is still waking up, and has moved only a few feet since I arrived.

Glad to be home, and happy to be going back to work, but loved the weekend - and wish it could have continued forever.

Already planning the next get together, October 17th - Rufus in Hammond, IL. Don't ask....

More later!

Ciao,
MWR