If you did not know already, I am going to be spending the next nine days in Hong Kong, giving Jeanni a well deserved break from me.
I keep meeting interesting people on my flights and this one was no exception. On the bus to the plane, there was a girl that caught my eye and when she picked up her phone she spoke perfect English, leaving me wondering what her story was. I get on the plane and see this girl unpack a ton of books and take off a layer of pants right in the aisle before taking a seat in my row. In my mind, I was debating whether or not to start a conversation, but that decision was taken from me when I dropped my lens while attempting to take a picture of the luggage handlers and the girl picked it up. I know my equipment pretty well, so when I heard the thud of the lens I knew it was fine. Humorously, she was visibly more concerned than I was about the lens. And that is how I started talking to Celine and discovered that she was a foreign student studying at Fudan too, living just across the street from me in the foreign student dormitories. Her friendliness and past got me curious about her, but it was her eccentric personality and belief that she was being stalked by the Chinese government that really captured my attention. Before we parted ways, we exchanged phone numbers and emails. I wonder how this is going to play out.
Unfortunately the pleasantness of the day ended on the plane ride. Upon arriving at the airport and meeting my aunt, any notion I had of controlling my own fate in Hong Kong ended. The mothering began when she grabbed my arm to cross the street and it only got worse as the night wore on. At the bus stop she was explaining to me for twenty minutes which bus to take to get to her house because just telling me “take the A11 bus” was not self explanatory enough. While at the supermarket, I was asked a million times if I wanted something. Every item I looked was met with a thousand “do you want that?” questions and when I answered no each and every time, I was lectured about how I needed to speak up if I wanted anything. I got so fed up that I made my way to the alcohol section for the rest of the supermarket trip, which effectively ended the questions. The treatment continued when we arrived at the apartment and my aunt was showing me how to hang up my towels in the bathroom. My desire to have lunch with my godmother alone was quickly squashed when my aunt decided that I was not capable of getting to my godmother’s office by myself. Not sure where my aunt got the notion that I was still five years old, but it needs to stop because I am already hating my first few hours in Hong Kong. Hopefully, she will let up with the mothering in the coming days.
I already miss my life back in Shanghai.
-muffinman
