Hello Hong Kong!

My first and lasting impression of Hong Kong is that it is a very dense city, in every possible way. The buildings, which are almost all several stories, are packed together like books on a bookshelf, bounded only by the mountains on either side of the harbor. People are everywhere, filling up every piece of the sidewalk so that if I try to avoid pushing my way through I end up standing in the same place for minutes. All of the trams and buses are double decker, and people always seem to be spilling out of the windows. Walking down a market street is like moving through an obstacle course with five hundred other people. Green jungle foliage takes up every ounce of space that isn't concrete and spills into the city at every boundary point. Even the air is dense, like trying to breathe steam.

Not that I'm complaining. I think I left the southern hemisphere just before winter really got going so I'm actually enjoying the slight sunburn yesterday left on my shoulders. Tomorrow I am going to an island to do absolutely nothing besides read and swim (although now that I've said that it will probably rain) before spending Monday through Thursday doing interviews at the Chinese University in Hong Kong. I can't speak a word of Chinese. I've tried, and I can't even repeat what people tell me to say. Luckily this is an incredibly English-friendly city and it hasn't been a problem.

My favorite thing about Hong Kong so far is the subway system. It puts every single one I've ever ridden in the US to shame. It's clean, efficient, and easy to maneuver in the same way that our airports are. The faux marble terminals are always playing elevator music, and the cars themselves are immaculate and excellent at pointing out the current station and on which side the doors with open. And it's impossibly inexpensive, like everything else here.

My second favorite thing about Hong Kong is breakfast. I've made a game out of it. There are these little "cake shops" all over the place, but what they really sell is bread. A whole wall is usually covered with shelves of freshly baked things that look like dinner rolls. But one should not be fooled by the innocent dinner roll facade, for inside these buns can be anything from lemon icing to dried salmon flakes to a hot dog. So for breakfast I wander down the street until I find one of these shops, and my only condition is that the signs cannot be in English. I choose the two most innocent-looking rolls I can find, and then go to this little bench I've found and cautiously eat them, first being surprised by what I find inside and then trying to figure out what the hell it is. Then I go into another shop, where the signs are in English and read the signs until I've figured out what I think I've eaten (and buy a small cookie or something to avoid being rude). So far the best surprise is what I am fairly sure was red bean paste. I've also taken to going to the fruit stands and buying anything that looks like a porcupine (because a lot of the fruit here looks a little bit like a porcupine) and then coming back to the hostel and dissecting it until I've decided it is in fact edible, then I eat it. I've fallen in love with dragon fruit.