Fake'n'Cake

A bit belated, but much deserved, I wanted to thank everyone who extended their happy birthday wishes to me a few weeks back. Thanks for the phone calls (especially grandma!), facebook gifts (?!), and emails, it was so nice to hear from everyone when staying so far away... Special props to Bainbridge for their phone marathon, it was nice to talk to everyone all at once... made me invision a big happy family back at home.

As for what took place here, after tutoring all day I stumbled into our apt around 9pm, upon which I immediately heard the kitchen door slam shut and a jubilant, grinning Misha run out saying "Hello!" (silence, eyes cast towards suspicious kitchen door window) ... "What?" Turns out Rich was making me a cake. While this sounds totally normal- birthday comes, roommates back a double-deckered, 1/2 brownie 1/2 yellow cake, you know, the usual- the key detail here is we dont have an oven. Nor a microwave. Nor funfetti frosting. We've got 2 gas burners, a sink, and a big window. While I pondered over the mechanics of Rich's considerate caking endeavor, Misha distracted me with the large newspaper figurine hovering in the corner of our apartment. "Lady said to water it 2 times a week." Low and behold the newspaper figurine was actually a large, bonsai-ed, flowering plant that was just sprouting its first bright magenta bud. Piled below the bonsaid beauty were more newspaper gifties, including 2 art books, yoga pants (compliments of Mrs. Highland's speedy transglobal carepackaging skills), 10 boxes of our beloved Annie's Mac and Cheese (see aforementioned parenthetical), and a nice bottle of Remy Martin VSOP. To top everything off, after a delicious Italian feast from the local Poppy's, Rich presented his culinary masterpiece:

festival holiday pictures

With the Chinese New Year only a few days behind us, remains of the festivities are still abound. Throughout the city brightly colored decorations still hang, and will probably continue to do so for weeks to come - much like a Christmas tree still out at Easter. One common site, very popular among the natives, are prefab kodak moments; mostly found in malls, these elaborate tableaux provide the perfect backdrop on which to capture a festive moment. In our travels this past weekend, we were lucky enough to find this lovely Hello Kitty Wedding themed scene. We just so happened to have the camera and I managed to snap this lovely shot of Mel. And...here is a close up.
Yep. That's our Mel - really soaking in the holiday cheer. I took a few other shots, but THIS one really captures the feeling of the moment, and the true inner beauty of the Hello Kitty line of products. Well, that's all for now - more on the new year in tomorrow's post. Just wait till you hear about the fireworks!

On western bread...

Behold, the western bread section at the grocer.

A few weeks back someone asked for a little more information about the aforementioned "WESTERN BREAD". Basically, here is how it works. Anything here, which is not a bun or a dumpling is at risk of being labeled 'western bread'. This applies not only to individual starch based items like doughnuts, muffins, actual bread, cookies, crackers, and croissants; but to more complex food items as well, like sandwiches, and pizzas. Hope that helps. I guess, in a way this is equivilent to us calling any food from China, be it dim sum, or Peking duck, "CHINESE FOOD".

The Garden of Eden...

As promised here is the post about the local garden of Eden. A few days ago while on our way out though the apartment lobby one of the guards (all of which are very friendly) stopped us and began to wave his arms and speak broken English excitedly. You should note that the guard that stopped had up until this point been the least interactive and certainly the most subdued of the motley security staff, so his actions came as a double surprise. He escorted us back into the elevator, and pushed the "P" button. The "P" floor had been a bit of a mystery. It's one floor up form the lobby, just below the real first floor. I assumed it stood for parking, but we were yet to see anyone exit on this floor, let alone a way for vehicles to get in or out of the building. As the doors opened we were bathed in daylight, the guard opened a glass door and led us out onto a little patio. While we were only a single story above the street, there was a quiet energy about the place. It was a sort of roof top garden, with a playground for kids and a lot for nice places to read. The buildings tower up all around the small platform, shading it from the sun, almost enormous metal trees. The true beauty of this veritable garden of Eden was yet to be revealed however. As i turned a the corner, the meaning of the guards gestures became clear. He had been miming hitting a ball with a paddle, for standing before me was a table tennis (ping pong) table, just sitting there waiting to be used. No longer would I have to trek to the park and pay for a single hour of ping pong fun, I could play all day long. It was a great moment.
Since then we have been playing everyday. It's a lot of fun, though we have to be careful not to hit the ball off the roof, or into a pricker bush. This is definitely the best New Years gift I could have received.

Death Wish

Just another little Hong Kong oddity. Mel took this picture a few weeks ago, but I think it's worth posting. It seems as though that here in HK you can have your propane delivered to your home - not so strange in itself, but think for a moment about the person who has to drive a truck loaded with highly flammable compressed liquid - get into an accident and you wind up as a special effect for Jerry Brockheimer. It seems as though, the propane delivery company ran out of trucks, because we saw this parked on the sidewalk:


Yeah, that's 6 tanks on one bike. INSANE. Not only must that thing be impossible to balance, but it had a fixed gear. Whoever volunteered for this job is just asking for a closed casket. Nick - if you're reading this, I hope you're impressed. Mel and I agreed this makes you ammo case look like a wicker basket. No offense.

More backlog.

Just another cool picture taken while on the bus.

Alive!

Hello again! Long time no poste. It's been more than a couple of weeks since we've updated the blog, and we're now prepared to make up for it. Well, not exactly now. It's 2:36am, and we've just finished yet another episode of LOST ... OH did I forget to mention, Rich downloaded the first and second season and we're 16 hours in. I won't deny it, it's a pretty good show, and nothing is better than watching all of it back to back. No more pesky cliff hangers. Anyway, I've been saying over and over again to Mel that I'd update the blog, so as tired as I am, here is your update. It's only two days till Chinese New Year so we're going to have plenty of time to fill you in on everything that's happened. Here is a preview of posts to come:

1. Mel is now the proud owner of a small flowering tree.
2. I found Nirvana - It's between the 1st and 2nd floor in our apartment building.
3. Wii. That's all I'll say.
4. Inflatable Hammer - another one liner.
5. Richard is now our official "Svab (Shwab) Tamer" / "In House Baker"

That's the best I can do at a LOST type cliff hanger.

Lastly, and I can tell you about this now, I had a virtual make over. New website, new soon to be business cards... So I figured I'll let you have a look. The new site is at the same location www.MichaelHighland.com , it's conceptual... let me know if it makes any sense. And, as I'm not going to the printer until Wednesday, here's a proof of my soon to be card. Mom, let me know if I spelled anything wrong. That goes for the website too.

front:back:
Yeah. Freelance Badass. You read it right. That's the card I'm giving to Bill Clinton/Paul Simon/Kareem Abdul Jabbar when I meet him at TED. Go team.

Zombies, Chanting and Absinthe

So, this weekend was pretty fun. Seeing as how I'm pretty tuckered out, I'm going to keep this as terse as possible.

1) Mel was bitten on the leg by a Zombie. Luckily it looks as though she probably won't scar. Thank goodness.


2) We took part in a "Kirtan", a sort chanting ritual which the Yoga folks here host every now and then. It was neat, for one hour we sat with our eyes closed, sang, and clapped our way closer to enlightenment. I was partially in charge of video taping the event so I had a little trouble fully getting my Kirtan on (as they say), but overall it was a worthwhile experience. The best part was that we saw our Yoga teacher Franck - who turned out to be a student of our friend Tanya (who's also working at MERECL) - such a small Yoga world.


3) We went out Saturday night and got reacquainted with the night scene here. Again our yoga connections came in handy as we wound up at a bar/club owned by a guy who's married to a yoga teacher, who is friends with a different yoga teacher, who turned out to be our yoga teacher's teacher. Anyway, this place is the only establishment with a license to sell Absinthe. Mel and I split a glass, and, for two people who don't like licorice, we got most of the way through it. I drank most of it but didn't hallucinate. Our friends said you have to have at least 3 - I however decided I wasn't going to shell out for another two rounds of liquid licorice. Ah well, at least I did cut my ear off and give it to Mel... Get it? Like Van Gogh? Nevermind...


4) Found out two great things today: Firstly, Pizza Hut totally delivers to our door - we had a thin crust with Pepperoni, not the best pizza in the world, but a step up from the stuff at the grocery store that's all labeled "WESTERN BREAD" (I'm like, this isn't bread! It's a muffin). Secondly, the store literally two doors down which I thought sold movies is actually a video rental place (Shwing!) - I opened an account and we watched Gladiator tonight. It was better than I remembered. I'm so glad we live on Wang On Road.

Ok that's it, Wang On Garth!

-Misha

For a good time call...

Our US phone line is finally up and running. We're using this service called vonage, basically when you call us it forwards the call though the Internet to our little vonage box, which then sends the call to our phone which then rings. By "rings", I mean plays the theme to Final Fantasy VII at 120dB. I'll try to put a recording up on here, it's pretty amazing. Marvin actually called last night not knowing we were in Hong Kong, he was pleasantly surprised. If you'd like to be pleasantly surprised, try calling (609) 945-1722. But remember! we're 13 hours ahead of east coast time - so the best time to call us is at our night time, which is probably your morning. Anyway- figure it out -- and drop us a line. I have to warn you though, despite having what must be one of the largest antennae arrays in the cordless phone industry the reception can be unfortunately a bit spotty.

cheers,
Mish

Popular show, 'negative stereotypes'!

Things this week are going fine so far, I'm helping to film a bunch of super healthy yoga teachers talk about what they would do if they knew they had a year left to live (the irony). I spent the day at home with mel watching a documentary called "THE POWER OF MYTH", it's basically Joseph Cambell getting interviewed for 6 hours straight. It's pretty interesting, places myth and storytelling at the heart of higher human experience / enlightenment as the heroes journey, etc etc. We stopped after 3 hours, all the talk about the hero's journey made me want to play video games (as most things do).

So I guess this post isn't so much about Hong Kong...Franky just informed me a few minutes ago that my roommates and friends: Nick, David, and Alex made it on to the cover of the Daily Pennsylvanian (Penn's Newspaper) along with the rest of our living room. Here's the picture:
Seeing the living room with those guys in it makes me miss home even more. It's funny, and sort of sad, knowing that life is continuing as usual back in the apartment where I was living just a month ago. Everything looks the same, the street sign, orange couch, the fake eames chair, the naked photos of that girl whose name I'm not going to put here, nick's crazy converse. Even though I'm having a great time here, there is a part of me that would have really liked to spend this last term with everyone back at Penn. I really do miss everyone a lot, I know mel does too. She's actually been mulling over the idea of going back early for a job she really wants. I guess we'll see what happens...However, for me, having sent my visa application in yesterday - I can't help but feel like I've really committed to staying for the next 6 months. I don't think all the cool stuff that's happening here for me (making video games, eating lots of rice, and taking table tennis lessons) could ever replace everyone and everything back home. So don't worry I'm not here to stay. It's funny, when I'm at home I'm pretty cynical about America, and everything it stands for. But over here, my perspective is different, I think my table tennis coach Eric put it the best when he said: "America? It's Great!". Simple as that.

So if you're reading this, you're great too, and I miss you. I guess the moral of the story is that no matter where you go in life, chances are you'll probably be a little sad that your not somewhere else entirely.

goodnight
-Mish

ps: I edited one of the photos in the previous post, so scroll down and check it out.