I had some very positive feelings before I came here, given that I already had an interview waiting for me only a week after I arrived. I got a few more calls about interviews actually and went on the first one a few days before my original first, and the first one I went to, at a company called Eureka, I got a quite good feeling for it, but the other two, including the original was not so good and finally they don't offer much money to be honest. I also got quite a lot of calls for part time jobs but as soon as I mention that I don't have a working permit yet they all say they have to talk to their supervisor about sponsoring and that they will come back to me, which they never do of course.
I have quite a bit to write about the process of getting a job and a working permit and such here but I think I will wait with it until I actually have one. I'm still in contact with Eureka and waiting for a contract with them, but they are sometimes slow to answer and I really don't have much time, this is because, from what I hear, the working permit process can take as long as 6 weeks, which is a long time and I'm not sure I can afford to stay that long. It is not all bad though as I will still have my passport during that time and can actually spend it in China, where I can live of about one fifth of the money I need in Hong Kong.
There are some additional expenses I didn't foresee; there is an institute called HKCAAVQ (Hong Kong Council for Accreditation of Academic and Vocational Qualifications) that will accredit my academic qualification so that they count in Hong Kong, which they don't do right now. This accreditation costs 2160HKD though and will take 15 working days, and it needs some papers that I don't have with me here, my high school grades for one.
Still hope is left and I think in the end I will have a job, it is rather impossible for me to go back to Sweden over Christmas as I had hoped since I probably won't even start working until mid November and not get my first salary until beginning of December. Sorry.
Wednesday, October 8, 2008
Nightlife
Already on the first night I came here I got to experience Hong Kong night life, this was actually the worst night life experience I had though. I met a random stranger from UK and we went out drinking together, soon Ariel joined us and when time drew closer to midnight we decided to try a club. The club we went to is called "Why bar" and can be found in TST pretty close to my hostel actually, we paid our 160HKD each (free for girls though) and went inside to find it... totally empty, there was not a single patron there when we arrived. Later three others came in and the six of us actually managed to have some good time, got a few drinks for free and enjoyed the night until about 2 or 3 in the morning.
Since then I have tried quite a lot of different things; One night I went out alone, since no one at the hostel wanted to go out, and managed to find some foreigners in central that brought me around in Lan Kwai Fong in Central, which is one of the bigger bar scenes in Hong Kong and is where basically all, and only, the foreigners go. Before the end of the night we had explored Wan Chai as well as central and I had seen the sun rise over Victoria harbor. This was so far the most affordable night since we just kept buying beer at Seven-11 for 6HKD a can instead of the 50+HKD in the bars and I took the MTR both there and back again.
Another night I just spent in a bar in TST, this time with more than 3 people, and talked to some old professor and got treated Bacardi 151 (which apparently is 75.5% rum) by my Canadian friend from the hostel.
I made a Greek friend at the hostel too and together we explored a more local scene when we went to an open mike night at a live restaurant, that is a restaurant that has live music by local talents, and got tipped off by that owner, who my Greek friend is out having drinks with tonight, to go to one of two towers in Causeway Bay and explore the karaoke scene; it took a while for us to actually find any lounge karaoke but jumping around on 10 different floors (which is only half of one of the buildings she talked about) we did see a lot of bars (that were basically exactly the same).
Mostly a night out has cost me around 300-400HKD, but like the longest night I only spent about 100HKD (and I still bought one beer in a bar) and another I should have spent way more but my Canadian brother is, or pretends to be, loaded so he bought a lot of drinks for us.
Since then I have tried quite a lot of different things; One night I went out alone, since no one at the hostel wanted to go out, and managed to find some foreigners in central that brought me around in Lan Kwai Fong in Central, which is one of the bigger bar scenes in Hong Kong and is where basically all, and only, the foreigners go. Before the end of the night we had explored Wan Chai as well as central and I had seen the sun rise over Victoria harbor. This was so far the most affordable night since we just kept buying beer at Seven-11 for 6HKD a can instead of the 50+HKD in the bars and I took the MTR both there and back again.
Another night I just spent in a bar in TST, this time with more than 3 people, and talked to some old professor and got treated Bacardi 151 (which apparently is 75.5% rum) by my Canadian friend from the hostel.
I made a Greek friend at the hostel too and together we explored a more local scene when we went to an open mike night at a live restaurant, that is a restaurant that has live music by local talents, and got tipped off by that owner, who my Greek friend is out having drinks with tonight, to go to one of two towers in Causeway Bay and explore the karaoke scene; it took a while for us to actually find any lounge karaoke but jumping around on 10 different floors (which is only half of one of the buildings she talked about) we did see a lot of bars (that were basically exactly the same).
Mostly a night out has cost me around 300-400HKD, but like the longest night I only spent about 100HKD (and I still bought one beer in a bar) and another I should have spent way more but my Canadian brother is, or pretends to be, loaded so he bought a lot of drinks for us.
Too much
Way too much has happened for me to write about it all, mostly because I've been too lazy to write and I don't have much access to Internet these days so I'm just giving up. I figure I should write some kind of summary though so I decided the divide it into three parts, night life (I have been going out quite a lot and been trying to experience different aspects of Hong Kong night life), EFL (basically about my pursuit of a job here) and others (what I have been doing when I'm not partying and looking for jobs.
Thursday, September 25, 2008
Singapura
I think staying with Deming I seriously hurt his health both physical and financial, from the first night we had dinner with his friend Lynette, who is really cool by the way, and cute too for that matter. Who we also got to see a lot of the rest of the week, and after that we went to an Irish bar, Scruffy Murphy's, on the east coast. It is damn funny how everybody in Singapore knows every single place there by name and semi accurate descriptions; people always asked me where I had been and I never remembered the places, but there wasn't a single person who couldn't get it right on the first try when I said something like "Irish place somewhere on the east coast" or "Some shopping mall close this or that MRT station", truly amazing, I can probably do that in Lund but the size is slightly different.
Turns out that the people I met the most where the ones I had least expected to meet at all, except for Deming of course who I was staying with I mostly saw Yi Ling (one zero in Chinese) who came and met us at the bar that Evening. Yan Wei who I thought I would spend a bit more time with was really busy so I actually didn't meet her until Saturday lunch and later again on my last night in Singapore. Kelly too, who share my birthday, hardly had any time at all but we did go out for dinner, clubbing and finally a lunch too, with Elgin joining everything except clubbing. Kunshan and Glen I didn't see at all, nor did I meet any of the people that were in Lund same time as Yan Wei.
Day by day the story goes:
Turns out that the people I met the most where the ones I had least expected to meet at all, except for Deming of course who I was staying with I mostly saw Yi Ling (one zero in Chinese) who came and met us at the bar that Evening. Yan Wei who I thought I would spend a bit more time with was really busy so I actually didn't meet her until Saturday lunch and later again on my last night in Singapore. Kelly too, who share my birthday, hardly had any time at all but we did go out for dinner, clubbing and finally a lunch too, with Elgin joining everything except clubbing. Kunshan and Glen I didn't see at all, nor did I meet any of the people that were in Lund same time as Yan Wei.
Day by day the story goes:
- A few beers the first night with Deming, Lynette and Yi Ling, then I pretty much crashed at 1am when we got back home.
- Lunch with Yi Ling and a brief visit to IKEA to buy some Elderberry flower juice concentrate for Karen who I met for dinner in the evening. This was after waking up at 6.30am and wondering why the hell I couldn't sleep though, then finally finding that Deming didn't get up until 9.30ish. Meeting Karen was really nice, we had Chinese food at one of the central buildings on Orchard road, and she seems to be doing well with her work here and is as lovely as always.
The hours between lunch and dinner I spent walking in the really nice botanical garden and the national orchid garden. That would have been so much more fun had I not been alone and if I just had had a camera, I actually tried to make Lynette come and join me since she had half a day off, but unfortunately it was the first half of the day so that didn't happen. I ended up making my own way home and after some major confusion at bus stops I finally came back and crashed before the clock struck 10pm. - Again waking up around 5-6am I spent my whole morning at home and had lunch at a local place, but western food it turns out. The evening was my first club night but before that I met up with Yi Ling for some drinks, she had taken the afternoon off and we explored the central happy hours (still rather expensive I might say) and even before dinner I had gotten so tired I could hardly sit straight. Nothing to do but power through though and even though I might not have been the best conversationalist at the Italian dinner with Yi Ling and her friend at least I didn't fall asleep.
Deming joined us there and after that we went from bar to bar, meeting up with random people, friends of Yi Ling mostly, and had quite a lot of red bull vodkas. By around 1am we found our way to a club called The Butter Factory (for butter cookies I guess) where eventually Lynette joined us too. Still being tired when we got there I wasn't much fun I guess, but by the time they closed at 3am I had somehow turned around and gotten really energetic, so we headed out for the main clubbing attraction that Singapore offers (or so they say), Zouk, a clubbing venue that offers the most expensive drinks from multiple bars and several dance floors, we only had water and that was free.
We pretty much stayed at a dance floor for about half an hour until they closed it down and we had to move on to the next one, ending up at a pretty boring techno floor at 4.30 or 5am where I managed to drop my shades and dance them to pieces, which Lynette found rather fun and Yi Ling sorry, she actually offered to buy new ones, I think Deming didn't even notice it.
Eventually we gave up though and went for some after party food where I accidentally ate a piece of minced prawn that nearly had me throw up, I really don't take prawn. Yi Ling and her friend Marcus pretty much fell asleep on the way back but Deming and I stayed up a bit longer when we came back. Clubbing in Singapore is fun, but really expensive, entrance fees to places is around 20-40 S$, which is basically 100-200kr, and drinks are worse than in Sweden, Deming is really happy to buy jugs of drinks though, sharing on a few people, which is fun but it's probably not too good for his wallet.
to be continued...
Flying, flying and flying continued
Time flies and I've been pretty busy, but let's continue with what happened with the plug in my ear; I was trying really hard to get it out but my fingers are a bit too big to put inside my ear, I was actually worried I would have to sit with it still there throughout the whole flight, but finally I asked a stewardess for something to pick it with and she gave me a rather big pincer, it probably would have been easier had she helped me too since I couldn't see anything but she really didn't seem to want to do that for some reason, so I spent about 15 minutes in the lavatory and finally to my happiness I got it out.
The rest of the flight was rather uneventful, except that I was pumped with adrenalin from the battle with the earplug so I couldn't relax and fall asleep in the next 30 or so minutes. I did finally fall asleep though and the rest was just normal sleeping/watching movie to kill time. At Hong Kong international I exchanged my last 100kr bill to a 100HKD bill and 1.8 or so HKD in coins (which is a horrible exchange rate), so that I could call Joyce from a phone booth.
3rd flight was as boring as the other two with the addition that I couldn't sleep anymore, I watched Find Bill which was pretty good but it was damned boring anyway. And then finally we are back to where we started and Deming meeting me at the airport with uncanny timing.
Once arrived he took me to a local small restaurant and forced me to eat cuttlefish, it was alright but I'm still not giving up my seafood ban! Finally finally finally I arrived at my end destination; Deming's home, and once he went back to work I could take my shower and rest up for the evening fun times!
The rest of the flight was rather uneventful, except that I was pumped with adrenalin from the battle with the earplug so I couldn't relax and fall asleep in the next 30 or so minutes. I did finally fall asleep though and the rest was just normal sleeping/watching movie to kill time. At Hong Kong international I exchanged my last 100kr bill to a 100HKD bill and 1.8 or so HKD in coins (which is a horrible exchange rate), so that I could call Joyce from a phone booth.
3rd flight was as boring as the other two with the addition that I couldn't sleep anymore, I watched Find Bill which was pretty good but it was damned boring anyway. And then finally we are back to where we started and Deming meeting me at the airport with uncanny timing.
Once arrived he took me to a local small restaurant and forced me to eat cuttlefish, it was alright but I'm still not giving up my seafood ban! Finally finally finally I arrived at my end destination; Deming's home, and once he went back to work I could take my shower and rest up for the evening fun times!
Thursday, September 18, 2008
Flying, flying and flying
24 hours later I landed in Singapore and with some marvelous Singaporean efficiency my friend Deming, who I'm staying with, arrived just about 5 minutes before I go out through the customs checkpoint.
The journey began in Bjärred at 5.40am CET when I had already been up pretty much all night, only excepting about 40 minutes when MaoSai had me realize I couldn't leave without staying in the bed with him for at least a while. Mom drove me to Copenhagen airport well on time - being well on time is pretty unusual to me and this is a going theme for this whole journey with early boardings and all flights arriving earlier than expected - and by 7.20 I had found my gate, at the furthest depth of Kastrup airport and after getting ripped at a money exchange booth (only getting about 186SGD for 1000SEK, which is an exchange rate of 5.4 instead of the going 4.7), and was boarded a short while later.
I have no recollection at all of that flight except that I saw some sandwiches served in the corner of my eye and that the flight was rather empty. At Heathrow I started out with terminal changing then I found a Cathay pacific information booth and managed to get my seat changed to lots of leg space seats on both my next flights (since I actually flew with BA to London they couldn't fix my seats in Copenhagen). About an hour or so left to spend before they even announced the gate for my next flight I tried TGI Fridays (the only place that didn't only have weird breakfast on the menu) and had a quite crappy burger.
Once again I was early to board, and I found that I had gotten a really nice seat with about 2 meters for my legs, that is until I discovered that people queuing for bathroom tended to step on my feet all the time. Finally I was ready to go to sleep, after being up for almost 24 hours, only excepting the 40 minutes before I left home and the hour or so on the flight to London, I was ready to pass out so I got my blanket, pillow and eyeshades and prepared to stick in my new super anti-pressure problem earplugs (for nearly 100kr at the drugstore in Sweden) when suddenly I realized I had pushed the left one a little bit too far into my ear.
to be continued
The journey began in Bjärred at 5.40am CET when I had already been up pretty much all night, only excepting about 40 minutes when MaoSai had me realize I couldn't leave without staying in the bed with him for at least a while. Mom drove me to Copenhagen airport well on time - being well on time is pretty unusual to me and this is a going theme for this whole journey with early boardings and all flights arriving earlier than expected - and by 7.20 I had found my gate, at the furthest depth of Kastrup airport and after getting ripped at a money exchange booth (only getting about 186SGD for 1000SEK, which is an exchange rate of 5.4 instead of the going 4.7), and was boarded a short while later.
I have no recollection at all of that flight except that I saw some sandwiches served in the corner of my eye and that the flight was rather empty. At Heathrow I started out with terminal changing then I found a Cathay pacific information booth and managed to get my seat changed to lots of leg space seats on both my next flights (since I actually flew with BA to London they couldn't fix my seats in Copenhagen). About an hour or so left to spend before they even announced the gate for my next flight I tried TGI Fridays (the only place that didn't only have weird breakfast on the menu) and had a quite crappy burger.
Once again I was early to board, and I found that I had gotten a really nice seat with about 2 meters for my legs, that is until I discovered that people queuing for bathroom tended to step on my feet all the time. Finally I was ready to go to sleep, after being up for almost 24 hours, only excepting the 40 minutes before I left home and the hour or so on the flight to London, I was ready to pass out so I got my blanket, pillow and eyeshades and prepared to stick in my new super anti-pressure problem earplugs (for nearly 100kr at the drugstore in Sweden) when suddenly I realized I had pushed the left one a little bit too far into my ear.
to be continued
Sunday, August 10, 2008
dance floors and how to not pick up girls in Sweden
Naive and ethnocentric as I sometimes can be I didn't realize that this was actually an international phenomenon, or at least it happens in Sweden too; that is the girls being crowded on the dance floor. This takes a slightly different shape though, in China the girls actually stay put, being that there are more girls in the clubs than guys so even the really beautiful ones can't pick and chose, not much at least, or maybe that is what they believe, in any case they stay, here the girls run away as quickly as they can once one guy starts crowding them. Eventually this leads to girls giving up and going home with the most persistent guy, no matter what he is like, and not really mattering what she wants.
This of course leads to the impossibility of doing a original dance floor pick up. Now in China on the other hand this kinda works in a very strange way, I've seen how it doesn't work there too, or actually works, most of the persistent guys got a girl in the end there too but I really can't take it, I did do dance floor pick ups in China though but at least I never had to be persistent, maybe it's just my stunning good looks or another subtle charm that I have, but I learnt, especially in Beijing, how it worked and without crowding anyone I had some nice flirts.
This of course leads to the impossibility of doing a original dance floor pick up. Now in China on the other hand this kinda works in a very strange way, I've seen how it doesn't work there too, or actually works, most of the persistent guys got a girl in the end there too but I really can't take it, I did do dance floor pick ups in China though but at least I never had to be persistent, maybe it's just my stunning good looks or another subtle charm that I have, but I learnt, especially in Beijing, how it worked and without crowding anyone I had some nice flirts.
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