last day

my farewell party consisted of my father (standing), my grandma, and my mum.

what a busy week... totally flew by.

anyway, today is my last full day here in hk and i'm in a bit of a rush. came to the library to jot down some of the info i'd be needing in japan. next i'll probably head out to wan chai to look at some electronic stuff.

i bought, or rather my parents did, a toshiba tecra laptop. we went to a electronics supermall, which is basically two floors of various stores selling pretty much anything you can imagine. the stores are really small though, so it was really crowded. i think probably a fire hazard. anyway, these stores are legit of course, but they only accept cash or ets (just like an atm card in the states). i certainly didn't come prepare with HK$9900, so my parents got it for me instead. i guess i'll reimburse them later. i also bought a 30 GB USB hard drive. might as well, better than getting a floppy drive for the lap top. so all together it was HK$10,650, or roughly $1,350 (yikes!).

on the same day, we went to a street know as "female street." i was looking to get deidra a purse and something chinese, but just came away with a t-shirt saying "i survive hk" with a map of the mtr and one of those chinese looking thing you see women wearing on tv. not a full length dress, but just a chinese looking thing... i don't know what to call it. but god, it was horrible. the weather was freaking humid and i was sweating like a pig. my shirt was soaking in sweat.

i saw a stuffed spiderman doll, one of those with the big heads, and wanted to get it, but where will i put it on the flight back? so i didn't. there were also soccer jerseys but i didn't get them cuz i'm not really going to wear them and they weren't authentic. and i didn't want to spend money anyway. i did barter though which was really cool. there was a chinese looking purse i wanted to get for deidra, but i didn't know if she would like it, so as my sister and i were leaving the stand, the lady said, "okay, sell you HK$70." that was from a sticker price of HK$129.

yesterday, my mum and i went to my sister's house at the university where my brother-in-law works. it was really nice place, three bedrooms with lacquered wood floors and a balcony overlooking clear water bay. and it's university housing so it's not very expensive, by outside standards. (my BIL is a physics professor at the U). anyway, i was there to see if the wifi was working on the laptop. afterwards, we went to have lunch. my sister drove her car, which is kinda scary since one, she's an asian woman and two, it's hk. i hate roundabouts, they are horrible.

my mum and i left after a late lunch and went to the ifc to meet my dad. i was talking pictures of the starbucks and got yelled at by the manager because they have a policy about people taking pictures of their products. fucking bitch, but not that i care since i'm leaving hk in a couple of days anyway. so after that we went home for dinner.

this morning we had an amber alert for rain and thunderstorms. it was kinda nasty since i was wearing sandles when i rushed out to meet up with mum and grands for breakfast. i realized as we were walking out of the restaurant that i forgot my camera back home and i was hoping to take some pictures of the sai ying poon district market for y'all (things i do for you guys) so i went back home in the rain again and grabbed my camera and rushed out to take some pictures of the stalls and such. took some of the fish lady and found out her name is mrs. chan. good to know. last week, she mentioned how she was going to give me some candy when i was leaving hk, and today she kept her promise and gave me some candy. really nice woman.

so now i'm ready to go look around to see if i can get a small mp3 player for cheap. and tonight my parents are taking me and other relatives out for dinner at the same place that i got the roasted goose. yum. i didn't think i'll miss hk when i leave, but i'm kinda sad that i'm leaving. it's been a bitch here the last three/four weeks, but it's really nice though. i'll have to remind myself, never come visit during the summer, it's no fun. too humid and too hot.

well, hopefully, i'll get some internet access in japan. if not, this is the end of the hk line, passengers exit from the left. do-do-do...