Weekend~

The weekend did not turn out as exciting as I had expected, but it was nice none the less.

Saturday, after work, I leisurely returned to my apartment, donned my warm fuzzy robe and walked around my apartment for a while listening to music. For those of you who don't know me, one of the things I find most relaxing is having nothing else to do but walk back and forth around my house. I used to do it in my apartment in Long Island before I moved in Manhattan (and walked in circles in Jeff's room). However, my relaxation ended after attending yoga, when I scrambled to get myself together (dressed, fed, and to the port within one hour). Wearing cute, but most painful heels EVER, I ended walking around Hong Kong grimacing in pain. Had I had I done it all over again, I would have opted for the less-cute-but-more-comfortable heels. However, I did learn how cool Hong Kong is as a walking city. First, this is this elevated outdoor walkway that winds throughout the city, connecting all the major building with one covered pathway. Second, HK has the longest outdoor escalator in the world. Underneath a long sheltered staircase, runs an escalator that just keeps going up and up and up. The higher you go, the better part of town you are in. As you ride it, you can see hidden shops and restaurants peaking out in the narrow, winding streets below. The neon signs flashed Chinese characters lighting up the hustle and bustle of the people, carts and cars navigating through the avenues. The sea of activity moving beneath my feet as I floated up served was thrilling reminder that Hong Kong is truly a unique city-a blend of traditional Chinese culture and vintage European influence.
We (my friend Mark-a Russian Jew residing in Shenzhen) made our way to Central and then to the China Club library. We met up with a few other Jews from Shenzhen and walked up the wooden steps to the library were the Hanukah gathering was taking place. The winding staircase was lined with works of art forcing me to realize that Shenzhen truly lacks to culture I was blessed to grow up with-good art is hard find in my contemporary, mainland town. We made it up and the party started. It was your standard mingling, noshing, kibitzing, stuffing left over food in your purse (in this case, yummy packets of gelt) and moving on to dinner. The club did have an excellent view of the city which was well worth the painful climb in my stacked heels. The night ended as we, Mark, Jen and I made our way back to our lovable hometown via bus. The annoying this about this method of re-entry is that you have to get out of the bus, run through the HK customs, get back on the bus and then get off five minutes later to go through the mainland customs. Normally this would not be an issue, but by this point in the evening I could hardly walk (never again-those heels will stay on my shelf for a LONG time). I made my way home and crawled into bed more for my feet's sake than my own exhaustion.

Yesterday was also a great day. I stirred at about 8.45am (late for me) and went to yoga with my boss. I finally bought groceries and met with my new Chinese tutor. Yes, I decided although my Chinese is good, it could be a lot better-so I hired a tutor. She rocks!! She came prepared with a business Chinese book and started kicking my tones in to shape. I have decided to hire 2X a week for 2 hours at a time. With this chick on my team, my Chinese is going to be killer in no time. I then made it to a local wholesale market because in my effort to save money, I have not bought the things I needed (i.e. a jacket and sweaters). Since its the middle of December, I decided now was a pretty good time to buy these things. After walking around the market with nothing more than a zip up hooded, I decided I had to BUY A F-ING JACKET. So I looped again and finally settled on an awesome Miss Sixty bomber jacket-I didn't really know what I wanted, but I finally decided I need a bomber jacket and aviator glasses. The glasses are next, but I have the jacket and it kicks so much ass. I then cabbed it home and put my new prizes on and off in front of the mirror until Aaron came by to drop off my treats from the states (Vogue, W, and coffee). We then met some people for dinner and ice cream (which I didn't eat, of course) and had an evening filled with great conversation and fun company. I made it home around 10.30 and began planning our trip to Thailand.

Not a bad weekend.