Feb 15 & 16 - Soho, Heifer & New Year's market
Feb 15 – Wandering Soho
Today Sarah & I were going to go to Victoria Park to experience the big New Year’s market, but it was raining, so we decided to just do lunch nearby. We met along the escalator, down lower than I usually venture, but closer to where she lives. We wandered the narrow streets & looked in the many shops selling New Years stuff. We ended up at a little Chinese noodle shop that was more upscale than where I ate on Saturday. We each had some won ton soup, pretty good. After eating we wandered the streets. I remembered a place that Sophia had told me is supposed to have the best egg tarts in town. These are served warm & are like small custard tarts. They are very popular for teatime treats & these were delicious.
We parted ways & I headed to the grocery store in search of minced clams. It is really strange how grocery stores that are in the same chain will have completely different items. Like the Wellcome store on Caine Road doesn’t have minced clams, but the one just a few blocks away on Robinson Road has Snow’s minced & chopped clams & plenty of them. I’ve found this to be true with several items. So I found the clams so we could have clam dip for Friday night treat.
Feb 16 – Heifer presentation, Victoria Park New Year’s market
Today I met Jeanie to do the Heifer International presentation. We met at the bus station in Central, the bottom of the hill. I left early & walked down & was there a good 30 minutes before the appointed time. It was fun to watch the people catching their buses to work. Jeanie arrived & we hopped the bus. We had a good talk, getting to know each other. She’s native HK, but spent 6 months in Australia which is where she learned to speak English so well. Jeanie had been to this school before so I didn’t worry too much about making sure we got off at the right place. I did happen to notice that the stops were showing up on a LED screen at the front to the bus. I happened to glance up & was pretty sure I saw the school name on the screen. I mentioned this, but Jeanie said that we were not there yet. I then mentioned that I thought the school address was #5 & we were at #35 & the numbers were going up. At this point Jeanie decided to ask the driver & sure enough we’d missed the stop. We got off at the next one & caught a taxi back to the school. Guess I’ve gotten pretty good at riding the buses.
They school was on a hill (of course, this is HK, everything is on a hill). We had to climb several sets of stairs to get to it. Several of the teachers & kids were dressed very strangely & we were told that it was twin day. The head master was in a dress with big earrings on. His twin was the art teacher & she was in a matching outfit. It was pretty funny. They seemed to have a good time. Most of the staff sounded like they were Australian or American. It is an international school, so they speak English.
Jeanie did the first presentation, for the older kids. They were very well behaved, but I think her lack of comfort or command of English made it hard for the kids to understand some of what she was saying. She ask me if I would be willing to do the second presentation for the younger kids. I figured what the heck, no time like the present to get started. It was a small group & they also were well behaved. I think it was good that I was a native English speaker, because it was very easy for me to simplify the talk for the little ones. Jeanie talked about the project building a cistern for the village. I doubted the kids would know what that was. I told them it would be a really big water tank. We talked about the animals & what each kind of animal can give to help people who are poor. I tried to get the kids as involved as possible. I think it went pretty well.
Jeanie was thrilled that I did so well & that I enjoyed doing it. She said it has been so hard for them to find anyone to help with this project & they really wanted to have an English speaker to go out to these schools. I guess I have myself a job. We have another presentation in early March. Jeanie said last year the school & Heifer organized a trip to visit the project site & meet the people they’d helped. I told her that if at all possible I’d love to go on a project trip if they do one. How cool would that be?
I met Sarah at Time Square & we had lunch at the City Super international food court. We both chose Thai food. It was great. We headed to Victoria Park along with hundreds of other people. The park is a large open area & it was packed. I mean Chinese Hong Kong packed with people. Check out the photos on my photo blog, you’ll what I mean. People were buying everything & everything was for sale. There were booths set up in about 4 rows. There were a few food booths, but mostly there were flowers & blow up toys for the kids. There was every kind of blow up thing you could think of that related to pigs & New Years & some that you would never in your life think of. I tried to take photos of them just so I’d remember what was there. There were inflatable pigs, of course, it is the year of the pig, but along with the pigs you could buy big inflatable butcher knives. There were huge inflatable lollypops that said “Happy Piggy New Year” on them. Some other strange inflatables were; fire hydrant, fire extinguisher (maybe because this is the year of the fire pig????, who knows), stop sign, road sign, long necked giraffe, gold fish inside of a clear balloon with seaweed painted on it (I bought this one), then the ones you’d expect like Hello Kitty & Mickey Mouse & swords & shields. People were buying stuff like crazy. Besides my gold fish, I also took a plum blossom branch out of a dumpster. This is supposed to bring good luck in love for the New Year, I figured it was worth it. Each plant & flower has some significance for bringing good luck for something. I lost track, but mostly they are yellow or gold colors that are supposed to bring prosperity.
After Sarah & I laughed about how our husbands would be so glad that we did this without them because they would have hated the crowds, we headed home. The park was on the front page of the paper the next day, saying how many people there were. On the way home I stopped on Queen’s Road to return the light bulb I’d gotten earlier that was not the right type, but they would not let me return it for $, just exchange it. It was pretty frustrating. I also bought the real Casino Royale movie for all of $12US, not bad. I fought my way through the grocery store for a few more items for the weekend. It was interesting to see what people buy for the New Year. People were buying loads of fancy boxes of candy & the sales people were wrapping them outside the store. People were buying plants & flowers like crazy. I got some New Year’s cards & red packets. Not sure if I explained the red packets. They are envelopes that you give to service people (in your apartment or at work) & you put money in them. Not much, just like $3 to $5. The bills have to be crispy new bills & they will bring the person good luck in the New Year. People get really excited about the red packets, but you don’t give them out until New Year’s day. It is all very confusing.
Today Sarah & I were going to go to Victoria Park to experience the big New Year’s market, but it was raining, so we decided to just do lunch nearby. We met along the escalator, down lower than I usually venture, but closer to where she lives. We wandered the narrow streets & looked in the many shops selling New Years stuff. We ended up at a little Chinese noodle shop that was more upscale than where I ate on Saturday. We each had some won ton soup, pretty good. After eating we wandered the streets. I remembered a place that Sophia had told me is supposed to have the best egg tarts in town. These are served warm & are like small custard tarts. They are very popular for teatime treats & these were delicious.
We parted ways & I headed to the grocery store in search of minced clams. It is really strange how grocery stores that are in the same chain will have completely different items. Like the Wellcome store on Caine Road doesn’t have minced clams, but the one just a few blocks away on Robinson Road has Snow’s minced & chopped clams & plenty of them. I’ve found this to be true with several items. So I found the clams so we could have clam dip for Friday night treat.
Feb 16 – Heifer presentation, Victoria Park New Year’s market
Today I met Jeanie to do the Heifer International presentation. We met at the bus station in Central, the bottom of the hill. I left early & walked down & was there a good 30 minutes before the appointed time. It was fun to watch the people catching their buses to work. Jeanie arrived & we hopped the bus. We had a good talk, getting to know each other. She’s native HK, but spent 6 months in Australia which is where she learned to speak English so well. Jeanie had been to this school before so I didn’t worry too much about making sure we got off at the right place. I did happen to notice that the stops were showing up on a LED screen at the front to the bus. I happened to glance up & was pretty sure I saw the school name on the screen. I mentioned this, but Jeanie said that we were not there yet. I then mentioned that I thought the school address was #5 & we were at #35 & the numbers were going up. At this point Jeanie decided to ask the driver & sure enough we’d missed the stop. We got off at the next one & caught a taxi back to the school. Guess I’ve gotten pretty good at riding the buses.
They school was on a hill (of course, this is HK, everything is on a hill). We had to climb several sets of stairs to get to it. Several of the teachers & kids were dressed very strangely & we were told that it was twin day. The head master was in a dress with big earrings on. His twin was the art teacher & she was in a matching outfit. It was pretty funny. They seemed to have a good time. Most of the staff sounded like they were Australian or American. It is an international school, so they speak English.
Jeanie did the first presentation, for the older kids. They were very well behaved, but I think her lack of comfort or command of English made it hard for the kids to understand some of what she was saying. She ask me if I would be willing to do the second presentation for the younger kids. I figured what the heck, no time like the present to get started. It was a small group & they also were well behaved. I think it was good that I was a native English speaker, because it was very easy for me to simplify the talk for the little ones. Jeanie talked about the project building a cistern for the village. I doubted the kids would know what that was. I told them it would be a really big water tank. We talked about the animals & what each kind of animal can give to help people who are poor. I tried to get the kids as involved as possible. I think it went pretty well.
Jeanie was thrilled that I did so well & that I enjoyed doing it. She said it has been so hard for them to find anyone to help with this project & they really wanted to have an English speaker to go out to these schools. I guess I have myself a job. We have another presentation in early March. Jeanie said last year the school & Heifer organized a trip to visit the project site & meet the people they’d helped. I told her that if at all possible I’d love to go on a project trip if they do one. How cool would that be?
I met Sarah at Time Square & we had lunch at the City Super international food court. We both chose Thai food. It was great. We headed to Victoria Park along with hundreds of other people. The park is a large open area & it was packed. I mean Chinese Hong Kong packed with people. Check out the photos on my photo blog, you’ll what I mean. People were buying everything & everything was for sale. There were booths set up in about 4 rows. There were a few food booths, but mostly there were flowers & blow up toys for the kids. There was every kind of blow up thing you could think of that related to pigs & New Years & some that you would never in your life think of. I tried to take photos of them just so I’d remember what was there. There were inflatable pigs, of course, it is the year of the pig, but along with the pigs you could buy big inflatable butcher knives. There were huge inflatable lollypops that said “Happy Piggy New Year” on them. Some other strange inflatables were; fire hydrant, fire extinguisher (maybe because this is the year of the fire pig????, who knows), stop sign, road sign, long necked giraffe, gold fish inside of a clear balloon with seaweed painted on it (I bought this one), then the ones you’d expect like Hello Kitty & Mickey Mouse & swords & shields. People were buying stuff like crazy. Besides my gold fish, I also took a plum blossom branch out of a dumpster. This is supposed to bring good luck in love for the New Year, I figured it was worth it. Each plant & flower has some significance for bringing good luck for something. I lost track, but mostly they are yellow or gold colors that are supposed to bring prosperity.After Sarah & I laughed about how our husbands would be so glad that we did this without them because they would have hated the crowds, we headed home. The park was on the front page of the paper the next day, saying how many people there were. On the way home I stopped on Queen’s Road to return the light bulb I’d gotten earlier that was not the right type, but they would not let me return it for $, just exchange it. It was pretty frustrating. I also bought the real Casino Royale movie for all of $12US, not bad. I fought my way through the grocery store for a few more items for the weekend. It was interesting to see what people buy for the New Year. People were buying loads of fancy boxes of candy & the sales people were wrapping them outside the store. People were buying plants & flowers like crazy. I got some New Year’s cards & red packets. Not sure if I explained the red packets. They are envelopes that you give to service people (in your apartment or at work) & you put money in them. Not much, just like $3 to $5. The bills have to be crispy new bills & they will bring the person good luck in the New Year. People get really excited about the red packets, but you don’t give them out until New Year’s day. It is all very confusing.
posted by Becky Hubbell @ 10:20 AM
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