- I've started volunteering at the Man Hong Kong International Literary Festival, editing some things and what not. Today, Dan and I met up with Suzie, one of my HKU writer friends here, and went to a lecture hosted by the Literary Festival and the Australian Consulate entitled "The Literature of Displacement". It was pretty interesting, but I was really hoping for more discussion on the topic of displacement/sense of home (created or otherwise). However, it was a quite enjoyable event and there was great free wine and cheese. Including wasabi cheese from Australia. So delicious. Dan and I definitely looked like poor college students, crowding around the cheese plate. Tomorrow, I'm planning on attending the Man Asian Literary Prize Shortlist event at the "members only" China Club. Should be exciting and very fancy. I feel like I should wear a tie. More on the festival: http://www.festival.org.hk/2008/index.php
- Okay. Hong Kong loves Halloween. We tried to go to Lan Kwai Fong for the festivities, but it was a little like New Year's Eve, Times Square in NYC. Streets were blocked off, police were everywhere, and very drunk people in strange costumes were everywhere (but of course, there was the standard costume of devil horns/bunny ears in very fancy black dresses). We ultimately went back to the Soho area, at this African drum bar down Peel Street. Apparently all the performers at Hong Kong Disneyland were there, so you can imagine the costumes. Also, what surprised me was how many children were out late at night! Some at 2AM!
- My dear fellow Fulbrighter, Alley, turned 24 on the 1st. A bunch of the Fulbrighters went out to Mong Kok for Korean BBQ buffet. It was my first time at a Korean restaurant and it was an amazing experience. So basically there are lots of raw meat and other foods and you cook it yourself on a heat plate that's in your table. Apparently I am NOT good at this since most of the food I put on the plate burned to a crisp and refused to be turned over (the salmon, in particular, turned into a moving black blob). Plus, I definitely ate some raw meat. But it was a really fun and actually pretty delicious! I think I will get better at this. They also had this delicious Chinese dessert that I love: sweet black rice with mango.
- Dan arrived in Hong Kong on the 2nd, after many days of traveling. And it's pretty shocking... he never really had jet lag! And to think I wasted an entire week when I first arrived being jet lagged, sick, and pretty much confused. But Dan actually slept through the night and we got up the next day and I showed him around Hong Kong Park and the Hong Kong Zoological and Botanical Gardens. We saw some amazing carnivorous plants and some talking parrots and a missing jaguar and had some very expensive tea at the teahouse connected to the Museum of Teaware. That night, Dan went across Victoria Harbor on the Star Ferry for the first time. It's really refreshing to be the "tour guide"... maybe I don't really know Hong Kong at all, but I'm figuring it out, slowly... On Tuesday, we went to Lamma Island. It was a gorgeous day -- blue sky and everything. Swimming on the beach in November! The island is a bit like paradise... it's made up of many small villages and temples, and is very influenced by seafood culture. There were banana and pomegranate trees everywhere. Also, tons of stray cats and wild dogs (we found a cat in an herb garden and I wanted to take it home). We wandered around, swam at Hung Shing Ye beach, and ended up on the rocks by the shore, where a little girl jumped precariously from rock to rock.
- The November Poetry Outloud reading was this past Wednesday and it was so lovely. Guest poet Cai Tianxin, from mainland China, read his work ("A Fish Poem" is great). It was wonderful to hear everyone read and to be surrounded by such a vibrant and supportive writing community. I had to read off my lab top... it tested by waiter skills.
- On Thursday night, I went with Dan, Alley, Jonah and some of his friends, to see this new Japanese movie called "Dai-Nipponjin", directed by Hitoshi Matsumoto. It was the strangest movie I've seen in a really long time. But it was so hilarious. It's basically a fake documentary about Dai Sato, a middle-aged loser who leads a poor and boring life, but still tries to continue a family tradition - crime-fighting, superhero style. Yes, he is a superhero and transforms into this very large, very funny superhero who fights giant monsters for a living. Trust me. It's amazing.
- Some good news about senior project! Two pieces from my thesis will be in the next issue of Bombay Gin, a literary journal based out of Naropa University.
- On Thursday night, I went with Dan, Alley, Jonah and some of his friends, to see this new Japanese movie called "Dai-Nipponjin", directed by Hitoshi Matsumoto. It was the strangest movie I've seen in a really long time. But it was so hilarious. It's basically a fake documentary about Dai Sato, a middle-aged loser who leads a poor and boring life, but still tries to continue a family tradition - crime-fighting, superhero style. Yes, he is a superhero and transforms into this very large, very funny superhero who fights giant monsters for a living. Trust me. It's amazing.
- Some good news about senior project! Two pieces from my thesis will be in the next issue of Bombay Gin, a literary journal based out of Naropa University.
2 comments:
I promise: more korean food is in your future. It's generally amazing: most bbq places use nicer grills than the one we went to last week, and there are lots of other types of korean food that are also flat-out amazing. Soon.
November really has been a busy month! But it all sounds so lovely. Oh, and great job at your reading! I wish I could have stayed to hear Cai. See you tonight!
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