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I can't help it. It's an incredibly strange time realizing I have been {survived} in Hong Kong exactly 1 year. Rather than an organized rundown, all I have is Snapshots of thoughts I deem personally special or pivotal. I still remember the night my husband casually asked me about Hong Kong while eating Mexican in Hell's Kitchen all those months ago, my heart jumping at the chance. Then came the actual season of leaving my favorite city that broke my little heart, yet knowing deeply it was God's plan to go before us, bring us, sustain us, & plant us in Hong Kong. The leap of faith was, as we had hoped, all worth it {even in moments of question, frustration, or loneliness}. I don't pretend to understand everything about this remarkable, fascinating, unlike-any-other-place PLACE, but my experience serves for something, and I'm excited to discover more {& more & more & more!} on the continuing journey.
{MOMENTS OF HILARITY}
-Wishing you could properly communicate with your neighbors/check-out lady/cab driver/doorman instead of using interpretive dance moves paired with the only 3 broken phrases you know how to say {which could be interpreted in Cantonese as something else entirely}. I once told my doorman I wanted 5 chickens, apparently.
-Moving furniture with a van traipsing down a mountain while smooched in between the seat cushions of couch you found from a guy on Asia Expat {HK Craigslist}. Worried you may not survive the ride with your new Canto pal calling you a "gwei-lo" {'white ghost' in Cantonese}
-Laundry day taking the wash & fold...like any other city, right? Except add a touch of 100% humidity in the summer, a sprinkle of creepy alleyways, one big set of old cobbly stairs, 2 consecutive steep hills {10 cats & 15 medicine shops included, no extra cost}
-Wondering what you're consuming/discovering it's the most amazing food on the planet! {In my humble opinion}: dim sum, congee, buns of all kinds, noodles noodles noodles, rice rice rice, hot pot, peking duck, doughy-goodness that is baked goods of all kinds {I prefer over baguette any day, personally!}, dumplings, adobo, chicken feet {OK I didn't love those}...the list of deliciousness is endless!
{MOMENTS OF BEAUTY: Realising a great love for the people & culture of Hong Kong}
Falling on love with a culture I don't even fully comprehend {I never had a heart particularly for Asia in the past} // loving people I don't even know {those I have met: I have yet to meet such truly welcoming, warm, hospitable people...those I have yet to meet: seeing an unknown family interact gives me joy beyond explanation} // Learning so much about a place/area of the world I don't even fully understand {there are such intricacies historically & culturally in SE Asia spanning space & time, I bask in the opportunity to learn more!}. I'm broadly describing these particular cultural observations regarding my sphere of a complex hybrid of born & raised Hong Kongers with international Cantonese/Chinese/Taiwanese/you-name-it folks with international expat community of Australians/Europeans/Americans/you-name-its. It's a remarkable mix, undoubtedly my favorite thing about Hong Kong, the "east meets west" global, gorgeous city. To see people from all these spheres intersecting is something so culturally rich & special that it actually makes me both head-scratchingly dumbfounded at the possibility/heart-explodingly excited at the reality that I get to live here! I look around the tables of dinners & gatherings I've joined & see friends from so many walks with so many wonderfully enlightening perspectives on the vast world we live in. We are united as human beings, not dependant on race, custom, belief, or where we come from.
That leads me to..
{WHERE IS HOME?! Says an American married to a German living in China...}
There are moments where, as an expat, you are both not present in your own home culture, while realizing you also stick out like a sore thumb/don't quite fit in the foreign place you're living in..and that is OK! Realizing my existence in a current place is not dependent upon where I'm from/where I'm are going. My perspective has shifted immensely, and it takes the pressure off those dreaded questions like "where do you see yourself in 5 years?!" The way my beliefs have grown over almost 27 years is quite subjective & thus likely to change based upon my experiences here. Just like 4 years in NYC, it leaves an indelible mark. Here in HK it's been humbling to realize there are people I've met here who have never been to my home country nor really care to visit. Once the jokes wore off "what do you mean you haven't been/don't want to go to the US??" I chuckled at the reminder that the center of earth is not America. :) I LOVE that! Hong Kong is not my home..Germany is not my home..even America, my beloved, my country, is not my home. Heaven is my home & my destination. For me, that just clears up so much extra superfluous pride that often gets in the way of living an open, mold-able, vulnerable life (within reason!). I am the maleable clay & hope to be continually shaped by the people I meet & the places I call temporary home :).
There are a million more moments I could share, but for now:
Hong Kong, thank you for one incredible year.
Jesus, thank you for letting me live every second of it.