It has been quite a while. To be more specific.... one year. As most of you know our Brazil adventure ended quite abrupt. Nevertheless, we managed to find an exciting spot again. Hong Kong it is for the next three years!!!
Three weeks back we arrived in this lively city. Ronald started working almost immediately. With a little one on your side your pace has to be slower. Even with this given, we already arranged: 1) a bank account, 2) our Hong Kong ID, 3) a signed contract for our apartment and 4) a nanny. Wow, we were astonished! This proofs that things are organized much more efficiently than in Brazil. In Brazil this whole process took us almost 5 months!
Another thing we noticed is that in Brazil everybody will provide his or her seat to people with disabilities, elderly or pregnant women while in Hong Kong people will almost run over them to catch a free seat. Even when you exit the train people simply don't wait for you to get out. "Catch that seat" is the only thing they can think of. On the other side it is also strange to see that local people are very service minded. At every entrance of the train there are officials pointing at the door, helping and guarding safety. Also in shops and restaurants there is always an overload of employees (this is one of the few things where Hong Kong resembles Sao Paulo :). We know were they can make any efficiency cuts :)
Besides the cultural characteristics the weather is also something we need to get used to. Yes, even though we have lived in Brazil! Hong Kong is getting hot and humid, actually at this time of the year it is very hot and very humid. The temperature climbs up until 30-33 degrees and the humidity exceeds the 90%. Especially for Ronald this means he needs to be aware. He couldn't prevent a humiliating situation when his colleagues invited him to have lunch at a restaurant with an outside terrace. Ronald had missed the sun for the last half year so he was very happy to catch some. Happy until he noticed that he was sweating all over. He had to jump into an air-conditioned toilet to take of his already wet shirt, dry himself and his shirt. When arriving at his desk he was very happy no colleagues were around. How the hell are all these people doing it, not soaking in their shirts? He didn't find out yet.
Will give you a new update soon!
