Reflections on My Final Night in Hong Kong

I’m sitting in my empty apartment on my last night in Hong Kong. And while I’m definitely sad to be leaving this incredible city, I am so excited for what awaits down in Singapore. I fly at 1:20pm tomorrow afternoon, and I feel ready. I have no regrets about my past three years out here, and I also don’t think my Hong Kong story is quite over yet. I’ve mentioned before that I’ll be coming back for work fairly often, and it’s especially nice that there are relatively cheap flights offered by three budget airlines between the two cities. I am continuing to pay rent in my apartment till at least March, because I definitely plan to come back for the Rugby Sevens and Hong Kong International Film Festival, and I know it would feel wrong to stay anywhere else. I’m also coming back on January 11^th, for an indeterminate period of time. You see, my company booked my ticket down to Singapore and offered to add on a return trip to Hong Kong any date I would like. So I figured January 11^th is far enough away that I’ll have started to make Singapore my new home, but still close enough to ease the pain of having to leave. I might stay a week, I might stay a month, but I know I’ll be back in Hong Kong very soon!

These past weeks have been a madcap, nonstop, quintessentially Hong Kongian romp, and I’m actually quite excited for a good rest my first few weeks in Singapore! My first “going away” party was two weekends ago in Macau. Last year, Rich and I had gone to Macau for the Grand Prix, which we didn’t realize overlapped with a party organized by the local Alliance Française celebrating the release of the Beaujolais nouveau. My friends Adrien and Eloise invited Rich and I to join them for the fête, and we were both blown away by it. In fact, it even trumped the car races for me as the weekend’s most memorable event.

With Christina and Gauthier in front of the Ruins of Saint Paul's

So when I realized this year’s party would be only a couple of weeks before my departure from Hong Kong, I decided it would be a perfect going away party. My friends Christina (a fellow VSB '09 alum working in Hong Kong) and Gauthier joined me for the day, touring around Old Macau and seeing all the sights. Then we headed to the party, where Adrien, Eloise, Bernadett, Sonia and her boyfriend Motez met up with us.

The party is set in an old Portuguese courtyard, with a moss-covered tree, yellow colonial architecture and a jazz band providing live tunes. The Beaujolais bottles are there for you to take, and a buffet is set up so you can munch and sip at the same time. For those of you who are unfamiliar with Beaujolais nouveau, it’s basically the first wine released of a particular year’s harvest, so it’s the world’s first taste of what to expect from the year’s grapes. The first bottles are officially released worldwide on the third Thursday of November, and although its rarely spectacular, it makes for a fun event that offers a glimpse of the rewards to come with the release of the season's later wines.

As last year, it was a phenomenal event, and I will make every effort to be in Hong Kong next November for my third round!

VSB '09 Alumni!

My final Wednesday was a bit of a going away event in itself. Anyone who’s read this blog knows that Wednesday is hands down my favorite night of the week, owing to the horse races in Happy Valley and the subsequent partying that ensues in Wan Chai after the last race has been run. Needless to say, Wednesday night will perhaps be the thing I miss most about Hong Kong—Thursday morning might be the only thing I will not miss one bit!—so it was important to enjoy my last one to the fullest.

The next day was Thanksgiving, and although it’s always a little strange to be so far away from home on that day, I still have now enjoyed three Hong Kong Thanksgivings. My friend Eleni is a journalist for Bloomberg, and as such, she is a member of the Foreign Correspondent’s Club, a very cool private social club housed in a historic colonial building in Central. I’ve been with her quite a few times for lunch or drinks, but when she realized the club was putting together a special Thanksgiving menu, she got a group of about eight people together and we had ourselves a memorable night.

Thanksgiving Dinner at the FCC

Friday night a big group of us went out in anticipation of my twenty-sixth birthday at midnight. Lan Kwai Fong was at its best, and such a great group of friends turned out that it really reinforced for me how the people I’ve met have truly made my whole experience out here simply phenomenal.

On Saturday, Bernadett planned an afternoon in Chai Wan, a neighborhood I’d curiously left unexplored. It’s the last stop on the Island Line of Hong Kong’s subway system, and it’s an industrial zone that’s just emerging as Hong Kong’s newest art gallery district. The surreal thing about it, though, is that the galleries are tucked away in very industrial areas. We had lunch and explored a couple of the galleries, and had a nice meander along the colorful waterfront.

First time in Chai Wan!

Me and Bernadett in one of the galleries

I had booked dinner that night at the American Restraurant—my favorite spot for Peking duck. I made the reservation for ten people, but in the end about fifteen showed up, so we had to add a second table! But it was a great last dinner at a restaurant that has been host to some of my favorite meals of the last three years. And I couldn’t have asked for a better group to celebrate with.

My friend Alison snapped this candid photo at the American Restaurant

Early this morning my relocation company, called Santa Fe, showed up at our flat and began packing up all my things. They were unbelievably efficient and professional, and I was simply in awe watching them work. In the end, all of my belongings were put into twenty-nine boxes, and they will be shipped to Singapore and stored for me until I find my new apartment.
  

My flight is booked, a hotel room has been reserved for my first week, and then I’ll be moving into a serviced apartment until the end of the year… and by January 1^st, I plan to ring in the new year in my new apartment with all of the things I’ve managed to collect over the past three years! The twenty-six year old who’s leaving Hong Kong tomorrow is a different person than the twenty-two year old who arrived back in 2009, and I’m so grateful for all that has happened to me out here! Thanks for everything Hong Kong. I promise you, you haven’t seen the last of me yet!

Parisi... Paul Parisi – 007

Three Years Ago Today…

On November 9^th, 2011, I wrote on this blog, “I expect this coming year will fly by just as quickly, and before I know it, I’ll be posting another blog entry on Halloween 2012 and my third anniversary.” Well here I am, one year later, and it seems my prediction was scarily accurate, with another whirlwind of a year under my belt, marking three full years of expat life! Three years ago today, I landed in Hong Kong for the first time. Now, in three short weeks, I will be leaving to start the next chapter of my Asian adventure in Singapore.

I always get a little bit nostalgic in the early part of November, as this date approaches. I usually go back and re-read my earliest blog entries and reminisce about all the great people who came into my life because of my decision to move out here. I’ll look back at old photos on Facebook and remember all the good times—late nights, weekend trips, new foods and hearty laughter. It was doubly nostalgic this year, then, with my imminent departure. But remembering how many good things have happened to me over the past three years also makes it easier to make the move to Singapore, for if the people and experiences awaiting me down there are even half as incredible as those up here, I’ll be in for a treat.

This past year, the one that I predicted would “fly by just as quickly” as the one before, did indeed just whiz by. And it took with it some of the best friends I’ve ever had. In fact, over the past twelve months, more than fifteen of my good friends have all moved on in life. Even just yesterday, Rich, my roommate and pal over the past eighteen months, made his own departure from Hong Kong. He's headed back to the U.K. now to figure out the next stage of his life. In some way, things like that make the timing of my own move a bit easier.

In Rich's old room, we now have Sarah, an energetic Scottish girl from Edinburgh. She's only been in the apartment for a short amount of time, but I already feel like we've become good friends. She has a great passion for Hong Kong, and I know having her around will ensure that my last weeks are fun and memorable.

My fourteenth roommate, Sarah!

So, with Rich leaving and Sarah arriving, you can imagine life has been super busy since I came back from the States. And lots has happened back home, too. First there was the devastation brought by Hurricane Sandy, which destroyed many beautiful towns in the area where I grew up. Luckily, my family weathered the storm safely, and with only minimal damage to our home and property. I just spoke to my dad this morning, and he told me that power has finally been reconnected today, twelve days after Sandy made landfall in New Jersey. It was difficult to be so far away during the catastrophe, but thank God Facebook and e-mail kept me in touch with my loved ones throughout.

There was also, of course, the presidential election, which I monitored closely from Hong Kong. I sent in my absentee ballot weeks ago, taking my right to vote seriously, and I even attended a CNN-sponsored “Election Watch” organized by Hong Kong’s American Chamber of Commerce. With the time difference, the first East Coast polls begin closing around 8am Wednesday morning, Hong Kong time. So I took off from work to experience American democracy in action.

And I think I mentioned in my last post that I had to bolt down to Singapore for two days to meet up with Alan and Dimitri, my company's president and tech wizard, to be present for the setting up of our new office in the Central Business District. I finally got to fly Singapore Airlines and was lucky enough to stay on the club floor of Singapore's Mandarin Oriental, so you can bet I wholly enjoyed my two quick days.

Atop the Marina Bay Sands with Alan, his girlfriend Jackie, Dimitri and David, who helped us find our office space

I got back just in time for Halloween! Normally, the Saturday closest to Halloween becomes the de facto night for costumed revelry. But as you know, Wednesday is Hong Kong’s favorite party night, and since Halloween itself fell on a Wednesday this year, there were two occasions to dress up. Having literally just come back from the two day jaunt down to Singapore the night before, I had put very little time or effort into planning a proper costume for Saturday.

Gauthier and I ran all over Causeway Bay and Wan Chai around 6pm that night hoping we'd get lucky at a costume shop, but the Halloween gods were not on our side. We decided to go as nerds, buying some cheap, thick glasses and bow ties we stumbled across and sporting dorky t-shirts from the bottom of our drawers. Though Gauthier definitely looked more like a hipster than a nerd, and my costume was pretty lame, it was still a fun night. Andrea was back in town from Shanghai, and he, Bernadett and Gauthier’s roommate Hugo (a pirate) all joined in for the once-a-year Halloween mayhem in Lan Kwai Fong.

Saturday night in Lan Kwai Fong

On Wednesday, after watching Night of the Living Dead, I donned Rich’s Egyptian costume from Saturday and went as a pharaoh for Halloween 2012.  Rich and I headed to Wan Chai for Ladies Night, meeting up with the usual suspects for a great Wednesday. I love Halloween, and the whole season that goes along with it, and I’m glad I got to enjoy one more in Hong Kong before experiencing the Singaporean version in 2013.

Halloween in Wan Chai

So another year has flown by, and I'm once again grateful for all the people who've made this journey so incredible—from my bosses in New York, who trusted me enough to send me out here, to Kevin, who's been a friend and mentor from day one, to everybody else who's been a part of my Hong Kong story! Thanks for the memories... And here's to many more to come!