I'm finally here... whew...

At Lisa & Daniel's place in SF. My first thought when I entered: where's the remote for the air con? And then I realized there isn't one. Feels weird not to have air-conditioning again. It also feels weird to just be here in the Bay Area again. The air is so nice and fresh and cool, the sky is bright, everything looks familiar... and yet it feels, once again, like I'm a little out of place. This summer was too long and I spent way too much of it in the working world. Now I'm not sure I dare to seek again the freedom I loved experiencing and pursuing at Stanford, the newfound freedom God's brought me into over the past 3 years, if it's only going to be taken away again next July/August when I start work again. I wish I didn't have to take time to get used to this place all over again. The sad thing is, a part of me knows that whatever differences between Stanford and Singapore that I get used to now, I'll have to unlearn all over again in a short 9-10 months time.

It was quite a journey getting here. Jirong waited with me and all my luggage on a crowded street in Hong Kong for the bus. Took the bus to the HK airport and boarded a 11+hour flight. Slept about 2 hours on the plane, read about 80 pages of this Isaac Asimov book my dad lent me and watched 3 full movies. Got out of my seat once in the whole 11+ hours. In the process of this flight, the stewardess was giving out immigration forms and she rather insistently convinced me that I needed the green one (i.e. for visa-waiver countries like Singapore) and not the white one. When I gave her a puzzled look and said I have a student visa and I've never filled in the green one before, she said "well in that case I could just take the [green] form back" without offering a white one to me. Silly me let her half-guilt-trip-half-convince me into taking the green one, only to find out at immigration that I was right all along. Then, in order to get from the airport to Daniel's place, I had to take a BART train 1 stop north to San Bruno, then take another BART train 1 stop in the opposite direction (south) to Millbrae, to finally switch directions again and catch the northbound Caltrain to San Francisco, because although the Caltrain links up with the airport BART line at Millbrae, it only does so on weekends, and weekdays after 7pm, so when it's not then there's no direct connection between the airport and the Caltrain. :/ Why couldn't they just connect the Caltrain to the airport BART at San Bruno instead?? I also had to wait for the Caltrain for about 25 minutes. And this whole complicated train journey that would've only taken me 10-15 minutes to drive but took me almost 2 whole hours cost me US$8.25. REALLY makes me miss the efficient and cheap transportation networks in Singapore and HK already.

But I bet my mood'll pick up after I get some rest. And I'm sure I'll feel better once I get my car back. :D

My spoof of David Letterman: Top 10 Thoughts about HK on my first day here

Warning: Not funny like David Letterman's List

10. This hostel we're staying at (Dragon Hostel) is awesome. Friendly helpful staff, good wireless internet in the common area, clean room, good location, good air-conditioning in the room, tv, free local calls... and the best part: I prayed for a room with a window (not all the rooms in hostels have windows), and not only did we get a room with a window, but the 2 of us are staying in a room meant for 3. Bunk bed and a single bed. =) Not bad at all for a budget hostel. I am very blessed.

9. There's DBS here?!

8. If you look Chinese and can speak a little Cantonese, all you have to do is to say the minimum, point a little and pretend to understand the other person while reading his/her hand gestures to blend in. He/she won't even know you're not catching a word they're saying. At least, when buying street-side food. I'm sure my failure at comprehension will become much more apparent with longer conversations.

7. Toyota sells an amazing number of commercial vehicles. Almost all the taxis here are Toyotas. Same goes with their budget public transport buses (the small ones).

6. There are few other things that will make you feel more local than jaywalking with the locals.

5. Where there are tourists and internet access, there will be Facebook.

4. Elevated pedestrian walkways above roads are a genius invention.

3. Roaming around by myself is pretty fun. Also, I have a very bad memory when it comes to remembering how many right angled turns I've made.

2. I am completely hopeless at reading menus in 繁体字 (the unsimplified form of Chinese). I guess that should be no surprise since I'm already really slow at reading the simplified form, but it's really quite demoralizing to walk up to a street side drinks stall when I'm thirsty and want to order something, but not be able to read the menu and not know how to even ask about the menu (given that I probably look pretty local... besides the camera hanging around my neck).

1. In Hong Kong, there's ALWAYS a chance that you'll feel a few drops of water from the sky, even when the sky is bright and completely cloudless - if you stand in the wrong place under a building. It's rather disturbing really.


But again, I reiterate the first point on top. I am very blessed. I think these few days are going to be great.

Forrest is on the internet!

My car's on google maps!


View Larger Map

It's the white station wagon in the middle. And the building to the right of the picture was my dorm in Sophomore (2nd) year. :)