Goodbye, D.C.; Hello, Hong Kong

Happy Fourth of July from Hong Kong. After 29 hours (door-to-door) of travel, I have arrived at my little apartment in the mid-levels of Hong Kong. (That's my bedroom at right.) My summer roommate is a manager at the Four Seasons; her staff helped me out at the airport, assisting me in buying a SIM card and a train ticket. My Hong Kong cell is 6214 6693.

My roommate met me at the train station and walked me to the apartment on Peel Street-- it's just a block from the escalator and in the heart of a great restaurant and bar district. (The escalator=the world's longest outdoor escalator which runs from Central Station, up through the Mid-Levels).

The apartment is cute, though super-small. Our bathroom sink is in the shower (see photo); our refridgerator is smaller than the mini-one I had in my college dormroom; and the "stove" is a little countertop 2-burner plug-in. A NYC apartment is going to seem luxurious by comparison. But my bed is comfortable and I slept a good seven hours last night, waking up at 5 a.m. today. I consider sleeping in until 5 a.m. to be a sign of jetlag recovery (as opposed to waking up through the night).

I feel excited to be here, though it's strange to be so far away from all my loved ones. The week or so of farewell events in D.C. helped me mentally prepare for the departure. The reality of "Goodbye" eventually sank in. At the same time, the sad farewells were strange to me. In the E-age, even if you're on the other side of the world, you're still hyper-connected. I'll be keeping up with everyone via Facebook and likely chatting with folks frequently via e-mail, Google talk, Skype, etc. The distance seems imagined in a way. Though the 29 hours of travel made it seem all too real.

Time to get ready for my first day of work at the International Herald Tribune.