Starting Up...

The store is PrizeMart – no, not PriceMart – PrizeMart.  It’s about as big as a big living room – shelves from your nose to the floor, close together.  Hong Kong specializes in these kind of places --- it’s their answer to the Big Box.  Cut up everything into 400 sq. foot spaces and offer three kinds of things.  PrizeMart has candy, oatmeal and clothes soap.  What poor little China person was sitting in their house and thought:  Oh yeah!  MnM’s, Tide and Quaker oats.  That sounds like a winner.  I think I’ll open a shop.

Because Hong Kong is semi anglicized, there are multiple opportunities for English bastardizations.  It gives some comfort that the Chinese are doing this to the King’s English and not to good ol’ American.  My favorite so far is the sign at a local gas station (ensconced in the bottom floor of a high-rise.)  “NO NAKED LIGHTS.”  I’m not sure of the intent.  Apparently, headlight modesty is a big deal here.   I picture two HK citizens discussing at the side of the road.  “Where did you get your skirt for your naked lights?”  “Oh.  You mean the asymmetrical off-the-round blue number with the flounce at the bottom?  I picked it up at Prize-Mart.  You know, the one that sells Tide and Quaker Oats.”

To the left we see the view from our apt window, looking up Hennessey Road.  There are two-decker buses and two-decker ding-dings.  Those, unimaginatively, are trolleys.  They can’t swerve.  I’ve tested this to the chagrin of the driver, who although he can’t swerve, can brake.

Hong Kong bustles and stinks.  I’ve  learned that all Chinese don’t look the same, although apparently we do.  A girl at the office today said, “Hello, Brother Taylor.”  I said, “I’m not Brother Taylor.”  She said, “I can’t recognize you.  You all look alike.”  She probably meant wrinkled and white hair, not Caucasian.

The food is various: familiar and strange.  We have two Mcdonalds, two Starbucks, one Burger King and a KFC within three blocks of us.  We also have a bunch of Chinese restaurants.  You have to be a little careful – we were reading the English translation of a menu on Jaffe Road and it features chicken testicles.  I didn’t know they had any.  It gives a whole new meaning to “huevos.”

We are six blocks from work.  The Church’s area office is on Gloucester Road.  Gloucester is a “status” road.  Porsche, Ferrari, Bentley, VW, Audi, Mitsubishi and Lotus all have showrooms in the three blocks before we get to the office.

This is Mom after walking to the office.  Yes, those are two pairs of glasses, one for dry eyes and one for seeing.  The mask is for protection from the world class pollution and smell of sewage enroute to the office and/or windy air and/or dirty air.  She has a tag on that identifies her as a missionary.  The Hong-Kong-ese don’t think they’re being  proselyted; they think they’re being invaded.

Hong Kong is hotter than Utah.  Today we almost hit 80, although cooler weather in the 60’s is on the way.  As you know, Hong Kong – just like Utah – has four seasons.  Only its seasons are autumn, spring, summer, and hell.  The Chinese apparently dress by the calendar, not by temperature.  It’s December, so they wear jackets in spite of the fact that it’s 80 degrees and I’m wringing wet by the time I get to the office wearing no coat, just a white shirt.  Well, not just a white shirt…

This is another picture from our apt – which is on the 11^th floor of Harmony Mansion.  There is a bakery just by our door that has great chocolate mousses (mousi?, meese?, mousies?)  Most of the Senior Missionaries eat a lot like they did at home.  We ventured out and got barbecued pork and chicken parts.  I forgot – the Chinese consider the chicken bones as part of the entrée, and should be consumed, not discarded.  It’s like eating basket.  I don’t have the art down – I was afraid of winding up with a bone cross wise and coughing like a dismayed Malamute.

Well, we love you.  We’re not smart yet, but we’ll be smarter.  We have enough to do every day, but we’re looking forward to knowing more, being more productive, feeling smarter.  I’ll write more next week.