Walking home from class

Oct 6, 2007
Home from the YWCA

I’ve been taking some classes at the YWCA. It is about 20 minutes from our apartment, so very convenient. I’ve taken a 4 week Mandarin class, it’s really hard. It was recommend by many people to take Mandarin instead of Cantonese (which they speak in HK) because Mandarin is easier & if you leave HK nobody speaks Cantonese & most people in HK know some Mandarin. Mandarin only has 4 tones (the same word with a different emphasis – like high to low, low to high, even, high-low-high). Cantonese has 8 intonations. To tell you the truth I can’t tell the difference which makes it pretty hard to learn it.

I’m also taking some cooking classes. I took a 3 session Yogic cooking class (no we did not cook while standing on our heads). It was pretty interesting as the teacher was very knowledgeable about the health benefits of different foods & spices. Of course the best part was that we got to eat everything she cooked!! It was really tasty. There was only one other woman who took all 3 classes with me, so it was very intimate and informal. The other student is from Japan, so she had lots of good things to offer as well.

This week I’m taking Basics of Chinese cooking and Thai Cooking. I also took an investing class that was informative. I don’t think it’ll make us millionaires, but it made things more understandable for me.

These classes are great ways to meet people, so instead of being bored with nothing to do, I now am almost too busy. Be careful what you wish for! It’s better than being bored & depressed.

What I really wanted to talk about was my walk home from the Y today. Next to the Y there is a large (by HK standards) grocery store. To be large & be in the building it’s in, it covers 2 floors. Soooo you wonder, how do you get the shopping cart from one floor to the next!!! A shopping cart escalator! .
I thought it was the greatest thing. Luckily I had my camera with me. They even have someone at the top to get the cart off for you, not that it is so difficult to do. I just thought this was so great
After the grocery store I walk through HK botanical & zoological garden. I get to see some amazing orchids and birds and monkeys. .The bird with the fancy feathered head makes the most unpleasant screeching sound. You would never guess it comes from such a beautiful creature The flamingos were being very noisy today also. There must be about 30 flamingos, so it was loud. There were also some cranes, but they were quiet.

After the aviary section you go through a tunnel under the road & come to the mammal section. There are many varieties of monkeys, some orangatanges (sp?), lemurs, turtles (I know they aren’t mammals, but they are there), and some other things. It makes for an entertaining walk home.

Oh yeah, another interesting item. This is a highly technological society here, so it always amazes me to see how inovative the street sweepers are here. There are lots of them & they do an amazing job of keeping this city very clean. Here is an example of what I mean. This is a dust pan make out of part of a large metal container. You see these all over. They brooms are all made from palm leaves.