Over the past ten months that I have been keeping this blog, I have written a lot about my various roommates. First there was Jurre, from the Netherlands, who was my first real friend out here. A few days after meeting him, we both met Julian, from Germany, and the three of us got along great. Our three bedroom, one bathroom apartment in Wan Chai is small by American standards, but it's a veritable palace in this part of Hong Kong, especially for the price we each pay. We rent from a local company called Top Action, and they have a bunch of apartments of varying quality scattered all over Wan Chai and Causeway Bay.
Way back when... the first day at the races with Julian and Jurre
After Jurre finished his internship and moved back to Europe, Guillaume moved into his old room. He stayed on for over five months, but he had to return to college in Switzerland. When he left, Alex moved in. A week or so later, Julian returned home as well, opening a spot for Solène, from France. Now, Solène's time in Hong Kong has come to an end, too.
With Alex and Solène during the Mid-Autumn Festival
But empty rooms don’t last long in this town…
Last Friday night I had no plans to speak of. I was a bit tired and just looking forward to a quiet night in the apartment. But, as often happens in Hong Kong, my plans were thwarted and suddenly there was something I had to do: play the roommate game!
See, Solène, my French roommate who had become very good friends with both Alex and me, suddenly had to leave Hong Kong. She only moved in about two months ago, at the end of August. We got along great, but one night while she and I were having dinner at a Japanese sushi restaurant near the apartment, her cell phone rang. Her eyes lit up, and she anxiously answered, knowing full well what the reason of the call would be, even though she had kept it a secret from her friends. She recently interviewed for her dream job, and during that phone call, she discovered that the company had decided to hire her.
On November 1st, she flies to Bangladesh for a two year ‘expat assignment’ working for a major textile company—a career she is very interested in pursuing! She flew back to France last week for training before the big move.
Ordinarily, the landlords will handle vacancies like this by themselves. You see, I pay for my own individual room, meaning that when someone moves out of the apartment, Top Action is responsible for finding a replacement—not me and whoever else stays on. If we wanted to, we could have somebody all ready to move in and put them in touch with the landlords. But I consider myself pretty easygoing and wasn’t too concerned about who would move in, especially since it’s always worked out fine in the past. Besides Guillaume, whom Julian and I found ourselves, all my other roommates have found the place through Top Action. But Alex was a bit more apprehensive about letting a random person move in. He really wanted to meet him or her beforehand.
After discussing with the landlords, they said they would bring by four or five people, let us meet them and chat with them, and then let us choose who we most wanted to live with. Since I wasn’t home when three of the four potential candidates came around to view the apartment, I made plans to meet two of them in Lan Kwai Fong that evening, and it felt like I was conducting interviews for Blue Key all over again! I really got along with the first candidate. And after meeting the second, I realized how hard the decision was going to be. At one point I jokingly texted Alex that both of them were keepers, and one should take the bedroom and the other should stay on the couch.
Last Friday night I had no plans to speak of. I was a bit tired and just looking forward to a quiet night in the apartment. But, as often happens in Hong Kong, my plans were thwarted and suddenly there was something I had to do: play the roommate game!
See, Solène, my French roommate who had become very good friends with both Alex and me, suddenly had to leave Hong Kong. She only moved in about two months ago, at the end of August. We got along great, but one night while she and I were having dinner at a Japanese sushi restaurant near the apartment, her cell phone rang. Her eyes lit up, and she anxiously answered, knowing full well what the reason of the call would be, even though she had kept it a secret from her friends. She recently interviewed for her dream job, and during that phone call, she discovered that the company had decided to hire her.
On November 1st, she flies to Bangladesh for a two year ‘expat assignment’ working for a major textile company—a career she is very interested in pursuing! She flew back to France last week for training before the big move.
Ordinarily, the landlords will handle vacancies like this by themselves. You see, I pay for my own individual room, meaning that when someone moves out of the apartment, Top Action is responsible for finding a replacement—not me and whoever else stays on. If we wanted to, we could have somebody all ready to move in and put them in touch with the landlords. But I consider myself pretty easygoing and wasn’t too concerned about who would move in, especially since it’s always worked out fine in the past. Besides Guillaume, whom Julian and I found ourselves, all my other roommates have found the place through Top Action. But Alex was a bit more apprehensive about letting a random person move in. He really wanted to meet him or her beforehand.
After discussing with the landlords, they said they would bring by four or five people, let us meet them and chat with them, and then let us choose who we most wanted to live with. Since I wasn’t home when three of the four potential candidates came around to view the apartment, I made plans to meet two of them in Lan Kwai Fong that evening, and it felt like I was conducting interviews for Blue Key all over again! I really got along with the first candidate. And after meeting the second, I realized how hard the decision was going to be. At one point I jokingly texted Alex that both of them were keepers, and one should take the bedroom and the other should stay on the couch.
The next morning, we found out that one potential roomie had viewed another apartment in Tin Hau that was both cheaper and larger than ours, and she had opted to go for it. Our decision was made for us, and honestly, I was very relieved by this development. Iris, the one who found another apartment, said she wants to keep in touch and meet all of our friends, so it’s not the last we’ll be seeing of her.
Sitting at an outside table on the balcony of Tony Roma's, an American rib restaurant right by the apartment, I made the official phone call to invite our new roomie to move in.
Meet Valentine: our Swiss roommate from Geneva. She is twenty-five years old and looking to work for a hedge fund out here, so for the first time since Jurre left I’m again living with someone else who works in the world of finance. She also has several cousins (five, to be exact) who already live here in Hong Kong, and her brother works in Kuala Lumpur.
As the one year mark creeps closer and closer, playing the roommate game gave me a chance to look back on the five previous roommates I’ve lived with over the past eleven months and remember all the good times. First moving in with Jurre and Julian last December and discovering Hong Kong together; then meeting Guillaume in March and getting friendly with a vast circle of his French amis; and of course getting to know the newbies, Alex and Solène over the past two months.
Me and Guillaume
I look forward to keeping in touch with them all, and now building a friendship with Valentine. With less than a month remaining until I go home for six weeks, I'm sure these last days will be fun-filled and memorable. Halloween is just around the corner, and I'll probably have some sort of celebration marking one full year of living overseas in early November. And as I've said all along, I just can't believe how fast the time has flown!
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