"Americans very nice people, British always complaing!"

Hi everybody! (Hi Dr. Nick!) I'm back from Hong Kong. Its 5:42 in the morning right now and I can't sleep. I was up until about 12:30 so there is no reason for me to be up, except that my body probably thinks its 12:43 pm. So what better to do at a ridiculous hour in the morning than update here?

Last Sunday I landed in Hong Kong for a conference. The airport was fine, but there was a distinct smell. I later defined this smell as a mix of bleach and chinese food. This is what 97% of Hong Kong smells like. My co-worker and I hop on the conference bus that takes us to our hotel. We turn the corner and they say this is it! I look around. Its dirty, there are topless men everywhere, and there is an entire duck hanging from the window across the street. I'm not in Kansas anymore, Toto. So we get out, head up and check in. I go up to my room which is fine, two twin beds, a tv, a mini fridge with diet coke (this was the only place I could locate diet coke during my day because there were no vending machines at the convention center. I nearly went into caffeine withdrawal...T you would have DIED!), and a killer view of the harbor. We are one building away from the water. So my boss calls us and we decide to head out to investigate the city and find some authentic food. We head across the street to "Treasure Land". We soon realized that this was not a place westerns go. This is place that hard working parents take their families out for a nice dinner. Except this nice dinner is on par with the Sunset Diner. Every waitress in the restaurant hung out at our table. Just hung out. They all knew about three words of english, so there was a lot of pointing, and then there was a lot of watching. I told my boss I felt like I was in the Chinese restaurant in a Christmas Story and someone was going to come out and sing Fa Ra Ra Ra Ra to me. He didn't get it...british...

At this point my appreciation for HK is very low. Monday the conference starts and we all head back to the hotel to change for a night of parties paid for by tax payers around the world. This would have been fine except we got an email from the head of the conference saying I don't mean to alarm you but there is a stage 8 (out of 10) typhoon headed this way scheduled to hit tonight, so hunker down in your hotels and don't leave. Remember that one building between my hotel and the harbor? I was really hoping that was a strong one. So everyone that was staying at our hotel heads up to the top floor bar and watches the storm clouds come in. It ended up missing the south of the island (or whatever part we were on...north? don't really know), so it was a glorified thunderstorm, but the wind was RIPPING! And there was crazy lightening and thunder.

Tuesday came and brought more rain. So did Wednesday. But by the time Thursday came, it was 90 degrees and super sunny. Over the course of the week, we discovered, through parties and exploring, that there are a few areas you need to go. Central - where all the good restaurants and hotels are; Soho/Lan Kwai Fong - where all the fun bars are; and a few beaches/markets. The hotels and rooftop bars in central were amazing! I have a ton of pictures which I will get up this week. At night they do a light show where all the buildings light up in different patterns. It was really cool. On Tuesday we went to a dive bar in Lan Kwai Fong where one company was having a small party. It was a replacement party to what was supposed to be a dinner cruise, but since the typhoon came it kind of grounded everyone. My boss suggests we go and just chill for some free food and booze. Awesome. We get there and everyone immediately starts talking to us and the hired photographers come over and start snapping. I thought, wow this company is really attentive. Then I look back and see that the bar is about 20 feet deep, and the company is really attentive because we are all smushed on top of each other. We start to head back to where the food is and some randoms start talking to me and my boss and again the photographer comes over. After conversation with the drunkest man at the party, my boss grabs my arm and pulls me into another convo with less drunk people and the photogs follow. At this point I'm started to get really weirded out. I don't think I'm ugly, but I know what I'm not. And I am not the girl the gets followed around a party by photographers. At all. I look around and then realize what's going on. I am the ONLY GIRL at the party standing up. There are three other women who have found the only booth in the place in the back corner and are hiding there. At this point I look at my boss and say, we gotta go. He agrees and we rally the troops to head to the sickest bar ever 40 floors up. Lots of girls and boys. Very nice.

The rest of the conference went well. Friday and Saturday we had off, so Friday we headed to the beach and Stanley Market escorted by a lovely Chinese woman who my co-worker had met during the week. This was awesome because she spoke to the cabbies, and then translated for us. One of them told her how much he loved Americans, and could tell that's what we were as soon as we stepped in the cab. He told us how Americans are very nice people, "everything is one is one and two is two. They don't complain. British is why why why why why why? British people always complaining! Why? Because I say now get out my cab HAHAHA!" It was hysterical. Saturday we went to Kawloon, another part of Hong Kong off the island, and toured around there, got shouted at by people selling watches and purses, etc. Then I went to the peak which is the highest point in Hong Kong. Amazing views. Its just so funny to see a skyline like New York's, and then just to the left of a massive skyscraper is a mountain that is completely green and hasn't been touched.

In the end, I really liked Hong Kong, but think it will be some time before I head back that way.