17th January, 2006: HK Trip

This winter I went back HK. It was a really fun trip. I got to see all the things that I've dreamed of over the year. Such as seeing my old friends, eating all the great food, traveling with family... I let my apartment on 25th Dec. This time I went to Chicago by train. It wasn't that bad considering going there without operating my aged car. Plus, it solved the parking problem too. However, there's always a drawback. I had to wait at the Chicago Union station for about 6 hours before getting on another train to my aunt's town. That 6 hours wasn't easy to get thru. Why? Remember what day that was? X'mas day!!! Surely, no stores were open specially for me...haha not really. I had a typical american BBQ pork sandwich. I spent my X'mas day in my aunt's home. I took off and flew home the day after. Like last year, because of my asian face. Everyone spoke Korean to me and treated me like a Korea. The flight journey didn't take as long as I originally thought of, thanks to the improved passenger seat features. I had the priviledge to enjoy the entertainment that a first class passenger could enjoy. I watched several (5) on-demand movies. Also, I listened to Craig David's latest album. It really shortened the flight quite a bit. Or I should say it made my journey enjoyable. It didn't take long or me to pass the HK custom. Perhaps I didn't look suspicious. My mom and dad were waiting for me at the exit. I was glad to see them once again. On the other hand, my sister arrived 20 mins later. But she didn't come out...we all thought that she was fainting and couldn't walk on her own. We worried so much that we almost seeked help from the airport staff. She came out 20 mins later. She looked alright. We went home and slept.

The first day I arrived, I planned to go to the TTshop that I found online. I did! I went there right after drinking tea with mom and dad. I bought a pair of TT shoes, glue and half a dozen of balls. I love my shoes. I planned the trip for my friend who’s flying from Korea the day after. It was really great to see a good friend of mine coming to HK to visit. I wish that this world could be smaller. Then I could see my friends more often. I got up early and prepare what I had to do on that day. I went to the airport and picked up my friends in the afternoon. My friend looked exactly the same. No change at all, she still had pimples on her face. I met my friend’s friend (co-worker) there too. She had been to HK 3 years ago. I really didn’t know where to show them in HK. I took them to Central to see some of the world famous skyscrapers. They weren’t too impressed. But they found interesting with the remaining X’mas decorations. In the Santa’s Town, they took tons of pictures with the Xmas tree. We went to the Landmark and some plazas nearby. My friend’s friend went in those luxury brand stores (LV, Gucci…). Finally, I took them to the IFC mall. It was not the biggest mall in town, but most of the name brand stores were there. They went in several of the stores. They seemed to enjoy themselves. That was my first time to go shopping with ladies except my mom in HK. We had our dinner in Spaghetti House. We had a big meal there before going up to the peak.. We went to bus station to take the roofless bus. That was the first double deck bus they’ve ever taken. They took plenty of pictures. When we arrived the peak tram station, we took the tram to go up to the peak. It’s been a while since I was there. It didn’t change that much. My friend enjoyed the view from the peak so much. They took a few pictures and quietly look down to the city. I don’t know what’s going thru her mind. One thing I knew was she loved it. I took them back to the hotel afterwards.

I got up so super early to meet my friends. Before I left home, my mom asked them to ‘drink tea’ with them. I discussed that with my friends and they agreed to do so. We all had a great time together but my sister…she was not allowed to eat anything. We went to Stanley for the Stanley Market. We kind of walked around and they only found one store that they were interested in. They spent quite some money over there. After that, we went to Mong Kok. My friend is a Levi’s Freak. So as soon as she saw the store, she went straight to the lady’s section. She bought a pair of jeans after trying them on. It costed some money for that…Then I started to realize how different she was. We quickly walk thru the Ladies’ Market. The end of the day I took them to the Langham Place. I thought it would be a shopping mall that would impress them. They were shopping at the basement and lower levels. They spent almost 2 hours in a department store (Seibu). They bought so many things in that place. They couldn’t carry them all without my help. Okay, 2 hours later I finally showed them the beautifully decorated part of this mall. Yup, it was an eye-opener. It was a stunning sight for them. Unfortunately, we had to go and catch the laser show on the Victoria Harbour. We got back to the hotel on time thanks to my brilliant time management skill. They had time to settle down for about 15 mins before going to see the laser show. But instead they laid down on their beds. I totally understood why they wanted to take res. I was a little tired after all. My friend originally wanted to go to a nice restaurant/pub where we could see the night view of the Victoria Harbour. We were searching for places to go to. We eventually went to one of the most expensive places around there, the Peninsula Hotel’s top floor. However, we were not alone. There were too many people eating there. So we wander around in the hotel, we decided to just eat on the first floor. I really thought that wasn’t a bad idea, I figured the live band there was better than the one on the top floor. Plus, I knew that my friend loves jazz. We sat down in this classy place. The first thing that I could think of was getting a menu and order food asap…I was hungry. You know what I didn’t expect? The entire setting in this hotel as well as the food was my birthday present. My friend said I could order whatever I want there. “Thanks again if you are reading this. Probably you won’t…” Every single part of this hotel was gorgeously decorated, that included my friend. That’s my second time to see her wearing a black long night dress. The first time was four years ago back then during our community college sophomore year. She was wearing a black dress that caught everybody’s eyes including me. We didn’t know each other. And we didn’t meet or take any pictures. She didn’t even know I was there. I t was a coincidence to officially meet her at the University of Illinois welcoming day for the new students. I don’t think we would be good friends if we were not taking so many classes together. Funny thing was, we didn’t arrange the class schedule together. I was even randomly selected into a project group with her in one of our classes. Speaking about impossibility…nothing is impossible, I believe. Well…that was a little story of how we met three years ago. It was always been little wish for her visiting HK. That was the right time to visit while I was coming home be with my family. Okay, enough for that, let’s get back to my birthday dinner. My friends were enjoying the music so much. They occasionally sing along with the music. I was right once about the music. We even meet some of the vocals while they were taking a break. I still don’t know why one of the vocals always looked over to our table/our direction…I told my friend to request a song that we liked. It was Eric Clapton’s ‘Wonderful Tonight’. They performed it really good, pretty much like the original. We left the hotel after the band finished their performance. It was late, 12am. We took a cab back to their hotel and went home after saying goodbye. As soon as I got home, I saw my pingpong order from Japan sitting on the table. Oh yes baby…you were finally here. I couldn’t wait to customize the gripping area of the blade. I spent another 30 mins doing that. I was so tired and I went straight to bed.

The third day was the last day for them to be in HK before going back to Korea in the afternoon. On that day, I got up early again. I went to their hotel to have a nice breakfast buffet. It was nice that they had all the selections of food from Chinese to Western style. After filling up our stomachs, we took the ferry to cross the harbour. It didn’t really take long like when I was a kid. Anyway, they got a chance to look at the skyscrapers on both sides of the harbour in the daytime. We then took another historic transportation “the tram” to the Pacific Place Mall. My friend’s friend was tired. We rested in Starbucks and had some cold treats. Guess what, they were really fond of shopping. They went straight into Seibu. They did their last round of shopping in there. I didn’t mind standing there and doing nothing as long as they were there in the store not getting lost. I received a phone call from my family asking me if I want to join them for a Chinese movie with Jackie Cheung starring. I didn’t mind, though I had no idea what kind of movie it was. That would give me something to do with my family. As soon as my friends were done, I checked my watch. We were a little behind our schedule on our way back to the hotel. On our way to the MTR station, my friend was intrigued by the shoes in a shoes store. I remember I said the last round of shopping not long ago. Let me take that back…they spent another 30 mins in that tiny store. Now I really know why HK was named as the “Shopping Paradise”. I guess I’ve lived there too long. And I don’t ever shop that much in a few days. I think HK should try to keep the prices like that at all time. Or nobody would come to HK to shop just like my friends did. I hope the sales tax policy that HK will adopt will not indirectly affect the tourists’ mind that much like in the US when they shop. My friends each grabbed 2 pairs of shoes before getting back to the hotel. They wanted to stay for at least one more day just for shopping. In my opinion, they did come to HK at the right time. Everything was on sale with great discounts. We were really late. They only had less than 90 mins before flying. We went to the airport by a cab. It took 40 mins to get there. Good thing was, they would not be late for the flight. I said see you and they left. I called my dad to see what he’s up to and what we’ll be doing for the New Year’s Eve. He said we could eat at somewhere in Causeway Bay since he’d be meeting my sister there. I took an airport shuttle bus back to the HK side to start my real first day trip in HK. First I met up with my sister. I ate at a simple but authentic Chinese-Shanghi restaurant. I finished the entire set meal in a couple minutes without leaving any food on the plates. I even had room for dessert. That showed that how hungry I was. It was also because the food was great. We met our dad there. We walked around in IKEA before we go to the special laser+firework show along the harbour. There were so many people on the street. Police was regulating the flow of the pedestrians. We had to circled around the block to get to where we had to go. During that time, we heard the pre-recorded announcement made by the Police. I didn’t recall what exactly it was announcing. The only thing that I recalled was the cantonized mandarin version of announcement. It was said so terribly that we all couldn’t stop laughing on the way to the Convention Center in Wan Chai. That was not the greatest firework, but at least that’s something that was worth remembering. After seeing the show, we walked back to Causeway Bay for more food. It was so crowded that most of the restaurants had people lining up outside. We gave up and I had a couple cup noodles at home. We watched the new year countdown in front of TV.

On the New Year day, I think I spent the whole day at home and went out for dinner at IFC.

The 2^nd of Jan, we went to movies early in the morning. The movie title was “Perhaps Love”. It was a love story that happens during an opera shooting.

The 3^rd of Jan, we went to the Disneyland in Hong Kong. That was the only sunny day in that week, at least we believed. We got up early and we took the MTR to the Sunny Bay station where the Disney station was. And there we took the Disney train to the Disney. The Disneyland station was nicely built. We took pictures everywhere from the station to the entrance of Disney. We spent the entire day in there. It was not big at all. We had chance to see and play everything. The firework show at night was the period of our Disney journey.

The 4^th & 5^th of Jan, those were my pingpong days. I got the chance to try out the gear that I had.

The 6^th of Jan, I don’t quite remember what I did. Probably I went to drink tea with my family. Oh..ya..Then we went to the Time Square to check out some of the latest appliances. Mom also looked at some clothes that suit me. She bought me 2 pieces of clothes by Polo Jeans Company. I was delighted. The 7^th of Jan, I went out and met my old classmates at night. It was fun. I didn’t see them for a long long time.

The 8^th of Jan, I had lunch with my dad and I went to the pingpong store alone to get a new rubber.

The 9^th of Jan, we drank tea. And in the afternoon, I went to CUHK to play pinpong. I had fun there, thought I was beaten. At night after playing, we had our (dad & me) birthday celebration at Spaghetti House. The food was nice. That was a nice fairwell dinner for me too. The last day morning, we celebrated again with a birthday cake. Then we went to the airport and said goodbye to my sister. On the same day different time at night, I left as well.

I arrived at Chicago without any trouble. I spent 2 days at my aunt’s home mostly sleeping….

Two days later, I took the train to come back to my university town. It snowed quite a bit in Southern Illinois. As soon as I arrived at my apartment, I found that terrible things happened…I spent 6 hours to clean up everything. I forgot everything after playing pingpong. I am planning to get an acoustic guitar. I can’t live without a guitar and a computer. Those would be the things that I need. I killed my time by typing this to my palm and looking at the music store catalog. This was a great day I thin, I typed up this journal with jazz music on the background. I had a glass of tea and couple slices of banana nut bread. I had an Italian dinner. I’ll move to another apartment on the next building which is one floor below my friend. I like that apartment better. The kitchen is not right next to the entrance anymore. The fridge is more like in the 20^th century. The arrangement is better too. I hope I’ll have a good start in this semester after all these things happened. And find a stable and yet good job soon.