hk returns to Seoul

Yes, we've returned to the birthplace of this blog -- and of me -- and it's mighty fine, I tell you, mighty fine. My dad's here, picking me up at 6 am from the airport and giving me cash and driving me six hours roundtrip for a medical checkup. My grandmother is here, preparing all sorts of food and asking what I want to see and eat. My great aunt is here, grumbling that I make her life hard, but then right away asking if I want roasted corn tonight or tomorrow, and pushing more food on me. And the memory of those two fine years I spent living in Korea is here, full of so much experience and life and sorrow and joy and friendship and learning. Mighty fine, I tell you, mighty fine.

But while all is mighty fine with me, not ALL is mighty fine. Freakishly, two of my cousins are going under the knife this week -- my younger cousin for the removal of a kidney stone or some such thing tomorrow, and my older cousin for the something else a little more serious later this week. My father, after I hounded him, asked for his test results today at the hospital with me, and though the doctor wasn't alarmed at all, the report cited marked intestinal hyperplasia, which I find through the internet CAN be precancerous. But not necessarily.

I, on the other hand, am healthier than a horse. Despite frequent stomachaches this past month, the GI check (which, by the way, necessitated my first encounter with anesthesia -- awesome stuff! I kid you not -- I felt a burning in my arm and wasn't even aware I fell asleep until I woke up 5 minutes later not having a clue that they'd stuck a long tube down my throat and into my stomach) showed a nice, pink, healthy stomach. Blood tests were normal ("You have a lot of blood," the doctor commented), and in general, I'm in very decent shape. Often the case with hypochondriacs, I think.

It's nearly 2 am, and I came in about half an hour ago from seeing KB, the guy with whom I had a fling two and a half years ago. I hadn't heard from him since last August (and I hadn't written to him either), and I'm happy to report that we had an extremely pleasant four-hour chat over beers and a late night snack, during which we covered what he's doing, what I'm doing, what we both plan to do, our love lives, the meaning of life, regrets, and how I'm going to visit him in South America next fall. I think we were both genuinely happy to see each other, and pleased to find each other doing so well. Reference was made to our fling (by him), which we both think of in very pleasant terms. It's funny to me that we can be so pleased by each other's company after having this ... affair, for lack of better word. I think there's a bit of sexual tension still there, but he's got a girl on his mind and another one just recently in his bed, and hk don't play that. I did, however, task him with finding me a foreign service officer husband. And I am rather flattered that he responded with alacrity to my message and asked me to call again if I had time later this week. Aw, KB! You're a sweet lad.

More research on hyperplasia tomorrow, when I've got more of my faculties.

Last days

I should really only count yesterday as my last day, as I did absolutely nothing today except watch TV, empty out my fridge (into my stomach, suckas!), and pack. I really did intend to go hiking or just go out, but it was pouring for a couple hours, and looking as if it were threatening to pour for the rest of the day, so... yeah. TV. Sloth. Luggage.

Yesterday I pretty much did nothing at work -- a couple hours of checking some corrections, two hours or so of cleaning out my desk and desktop, a "review" which consisted of two partners coming into my office and saying "Well, we don't give offers from specific offices and we only give them at the end of the summer, but everyone's been very impressed by you." Blabbity blah blah blah. I told them they needed mechanical pencils. And that I enjoyed working there. Thus -- hug hug, kiss kiss, buh-bye.

The threat of work hung over me the whole day like the clouds today, as my officemate had left the country to go see a concert in Korea, and the senior associate said I might have to do some work until late that night. But he ended up doing everything himself, as it would take more time for him to explain how to do something to me than doing it himself. He was mightily stressed and showed it, although not towards me. No, he took it out on the IT person on the phone after his email went on the fritz -- "Do you have an answer to my question or not? I need you to fix it, and I have no time! I have no time!" -- and then when someone came around to his office to see to the problem: "Just fix it! Just fix it! You don't understand how busy we are! Just fix it!"

Fortunately, the IT guy had a cool, measured response, which I think took the wind out of the associate's sails: "Look, you don't just go to a doctor and tell him to fix the problem. The doctor needs to diagnose the problem first."

That is actually the first time I have heard anyone at either firm yell at someone else.

Anyway, the associate said, "Go, enjoy your last night in HK," and so I went, after bidding folks goodbye. As Harry, the friend of a friend of a friend, had taken me around Macau last weekend so generously, I bought him dinner at a yummy Taiwanese food place. He showed me the HK Walk of Fame, which included a statue of Bruce Lee...

...and then we went to a Russian bar and ventured into the "Ice Bar," a little room akin to a freezer, lined with vodka bottles and equipped with fur coats on the outside. Hong Kong, remember, doesn't get colder than the 60s in the winter, remember, so I suppose it's a bit of an exotic thing to do. Well, I enjoyed my shot of Grey Goose.

I'm a little bit sad to be leaving HK, but not too much. It's more the sadness that comes from the end of an experience. HK is a rather soul-less place for an expat like me, who isn't Chinese and doesn't speak Cantonese. It was nice to be given such a sweet apartment, and to buy ultra cheap goods here and there. And the food was pretty good -- I discovered the utter awesomeness of Shanghainese cuisine with someone from Shanghai, and that can't be discounted. But there's a lot of stress here, and my stomach has never quite been 100 percent these past four weeks. And though it was great to have a few days of utter relaxation, I missed friends and family.

My flight is an overnight one, but fairly short -- I leave at 12:30 am, and arrive in Seoul at 5 am. And then the week with the fam commences, which will be really, really lovely. I've got half a dozen types of snacks for my grandmothers, a Buddhist charm for my father, and Crimson Law caps for my cousins. And speaking of my father, he wrote today, finally, and he's fine. No report of anything bad from the tests. You know, I actually got on my knees and prayed last night about that, I was so worried. Thank the sweet lord.

So long, Hong Kong! It's been fun and TV-filled and stressful and stomach-achey! See ya around!

Early night

I got out at 7:30 tonight, because even though senior associate wanted to talk about some assignments for tomorrow, he said, "Ah, go and enjoy your next to last night in HK." This is the least he could do, since earlier in the day, he and Sunshine asked me my assignment load for tomorrow, because Sunshine is leaving at 2 pm to go to Korea -- for a concert of all things -- and he's leaving at midnight to do the same. Thus, if anything comes up on the deal they're working on, I'm to "cover" for Sunshine. I've been promised that I won't be there past 10 pm, though, because he has to catch his flight. So, lots to look forward to on my last day in HK!

I actually don't care very much, because I wasn't planning on doing much. If I get out early, I'll probably head over to Kowloon and do a little more shopping, because having gotten out early today, I actually went home, changed clothes, and - ta da! - headed out to see some sights. I went to see the Temple Street night market, where I bought marvelously cheap trinkets with delirious abandon. Of course, they were probably crafted by 5-year-olds on the mainland, working by candlelight through the night, but -- oooh, are those Paul Frank knockoff wallets for $2?

I had some pigeon today at a tres tres fancy restaurant that serves South American/Chinese cuisine. (The summer of exotic meats continues -- venison, bison, pigeon, pickled herring...) Not bad, but the chili garlic prawns I got for an entree were better. It was with one of the 2 US law partners, and he was all right. I couldn't quite get into the conversation, for some reason, although he seemed pleasant enough. Everyone in the office has a deadpan, sardonic sense of humor, and a playful relationship with each other, even between junior associates and partners. I like it, but sometimes I feel slow. And not having a hierarchy adhered to on a social level can make things confusing.

It's funny that my last week here is when I get slammed with work, when last week I was twiddling my thumbs. But I like work. I don't like the thumb-twiddling. And it's really in this last week that I've come to feel more at ease with everyone and enjoy being at the office. I'm reminded of visiting my undergrad college back when I was a senior in high school -- it was the last of a three-college visit, and I was so relieved to see people studying, not drinking or partying. I guess I'm just a big ole nerd at heart.

I haven't updated about my weekend yet, and I have to go sleep now, but in lieu of a real weekend update, here are some pics of Macau:

And day number three...

...of getting home past midnight. Tonight, it was work, but in all fairness, it was also an hour of socializing with 1Ls who were somehow visiting the firm, and an hour eating Indian food. I only billed a little more than 9 hours today, even though I was at the office from 10 am to 12:30 am.

Funny that the last week should be the one where I get a lot of work; the other three had several days where I was twiddling my thumbs.

If you're wondering what kind of work I did tonight, it was monkey work: transferring figures from several financial spreadsheets to a document related to an IPO (difficult only in that the info was in a different format in the financials and required hunting around) and going through a couple hundred pages of another 2 offering documents checking the (in the end, very few) edits that had been made by someone else.

Interesting takes on firm life and this firm, though. I had lunch with the junior associate I feel most akin to, and got honest answers about what it's like. Then I had an impromptu chat with a more senior associate. And then Sunshine, my office mate, gave her two cents. In brief (and in reductionist descriptives):

- Junior associate: Caucasian woman in her late 20s, worked for the feds for a few years before law school, majored in Chinese and political science. She was pretty open about not having imagined herself in this job when she went to law school. "It's tough," she said, "I'm not going to lie to you." I asked how bad "bad" was, and she said, "Probably staying until 1 or 2 each night for a week or 2 weeks in a row. But it's not the hours. It's the stress. You get so much responsibility, and they forget that you don't really know how to do all the stuff they expect from you." She thought the firm was behind in China, that the HK branch wasn't supported by the mothership, even though it was bringing in a lot of money, and that the partners didn't really take care of the associates. But, she said, "if you know it's for a certain period of time, then it's bearable."

- More senior associate: Jewish man, 30, worked for a Mighty Big Firm in NY before shifting over to this firm, proficient in Japanese. He wanted to let me know that Big Firm life in NY wasn't that bad. "It's not true that you don't ever get real work there. There are more people between you and the partner, yes, that's true. There's a buffer zone, but that's not necessarily a bad thing." He mentioned that the work wasn't interesting or important, and I asked him what he'd ever worked on that was. A pro bono project, he said. And he continued, "I wish I had the courage to quit and spend a year learning Korean or something." But what's to stop you, my friend?

- Sunshine: Chinese American woman, 27, majored in econ, went straight to law school and started out at this firm. She admitted, "I'm the closest to having drunk the Kool-Aid. I like my job. If I didn't like it, I don't know how I could not just quit. It's really stressful, and I don't handle stress well. And when you're single and your family's far away -- that's the hardest part for me." She went on to say that the corporate versus non-corporate choice was at some level already decided, just the way everyone decides to go to law school even though lawyer job satisfaction is among the lowest of all professions. "I really like the traveling," she said. "I think if I had to work all day in the office, every day, the monotony would get to me. But you get to go on a plane and you're supposed to do work, but you sleep and no one can reach you, and then you get to go to your hotel..." She also said that it was self-selective -- people came here because they didn't want to be like everyone else.

I asked someone last night, an associate who's taking a leave of absence after 7 years of working as a lawyer, "Should I come work here?" and she replied, "It depends on what you want." Isn't that always what it comes down to?

I could pay off my loans very, very quickly here -- with a housing allowance and food being very cheap, there's very little I'd spend my money on. I spend money on trips and experiences, and I wouldn't have time to do that if I worked here. And I liked working late tonight, weirdly enough. It felt like crunch time at exams, but with everyone working toward common goals instead of competing with each other. Of course, I've only been working hard for a few days. But the feeling in the office was collegial and friendly, and everyone seems to deal with stress pretty well.

It would be nice to be in Asia again too, and only four hours from Seoul. I continue to be worried about my dad's health (he hasn't answered my queries about his biopsy, and I'm starting to fear the worst). And really, if I don't try to keep up my Korean now, when will I ever?

As I told the junior associate, I see a big Pro/Con poster in my near future. But in my immediate future, I see a nice, firm, fluffy-pillowed bed.

Another late night

Hello. Please note the time stamp of this entry again, please. It's 2:30 am, and I've just gotten in, courtesy of the firm, tired and smelling strongly of smoke.

But not because of the printer's this time. Because most of the U.S. law group was out at a hookah bar for several hours. Following a $700 dinner for 13 at a upscale Northern Chinese restaurant, where we had Peking duck and beggar's chicken and at least 10 other dishes. Following a fairly relaxed afternoon of work after rolling in just after 1 pm.

Yup. Solicitors doin' sheesha! Counselors with the calean! Attorneys smokin' the hubbly-bubbly! Barristers gettin' down with the water pipe! (synonyms courtesy of dictionary.com)

Actually, the mint hookah was pretty refreshing. The funniest thing was this really petite, delicate-looking solicitor trainee from Hong Kong who was puffing away like a pro and who kept saying, "I'm really happy," because when she was getting her LLM at Columbia, she used to spend cold winter days smoking a hookah with friends inside.

Ah, the life.

Tomorrow, I gotta stay in somehow, or wander around by myself. All this socializing is making me pretty grumpy. These are pretty bright, funny people. But I just long for a quiet evening with real friends. And yes, it's a summer event, but the married folks out and about at 2 am kind of amaze me. They work incredibly hard here (harder than New Yorkers), and they spend so much time together, and they still hang out til the wee hours together. Your colleagues become your social group, one of them told me. That's clear enough. It could also be suffocating. Well, one of the drawbacks of working in a small office in a foreign city.

Okay, really must go to bed.

Please note the time of this entry

If you think I've gotten up at 5 am to do -- well, anything, then think again. I've just been through A Night At The Printer's.

Other summers who've come to the HK offices of various firms travel to Singapore, Thailand, the Philippines, China. But I? I got to go to the printer's.

The printer's is a holdover from the era when regulatory agencies like the Securities and Exchange Commission didn't accept electronic filings, and lawyers (and/or paralegals) would go to a place where, at the tail end of a deal, they could sit around proofing documents, having someone enter in the last-minute changes, and finally have that someone print out a hard copy, which would then get rushed down to DC to get filed. This process died out recently -- recently enough that I was able to see BC in Our Nation's Capital occasionally when she was sent by her firm in New York to bring a filing down, oh, back in 1997-8.

Now it's all done electronically, so the "printing" part of the printer's is done and gone with, except for all the printed copies of the document that the lawyers still sit around and edit. I don't know if it was always this way, but it's become a bit of a relaxation center. In this particular printer's, there were:

- snacks by the bucket-load (fruit, candy, chips, instant noodles, Haagen Daaz ice cream bars and cups, gum)
- drinks by the fridge-ful (Perrier, juice, water, soda, wine)
- a massage chair (very nice)
- couches
- magazines
- at least one board game

All this is apparently to keep the lawyers occupied and prevent them from pestering the staff, who are working away at entering the edits. And then there's always the possibility that you might want to celebrate after the deal is turned in. The associate I was with said that it wasn't unusual to pop some champagne after a deal was filed.

Anyway, that was my first experience at the printer's. It wasn't all that bad. I was with a young associate (my age, but a fifth year), and it was quite relaxed. I asked her the same question I asked another associate my age: Had she enjoyed being a lawyer?

"I don't know about being a lawyer," she said, "but in the first three years, it was fun working." She'd been with a lively crew at the London office, and things started being less fun when people began to leave or settle down.

It is fun when you start out working, isn't it? Especially with other people your own age, who've similarly never worked before.

You know what's more fun, though? Sleep. And I'm going to go do that right now. Although Sunshine, my officemate, said I could come in "late" (and defined "late" at 10:30 am), the associate I was with tonight said I should just sleep til I wake up. And that's what I plan to do. Thank goodness for serviced apartments with blackout curtains. Ooh, that reminds me -- I should put out my "Do Not Disturb" sign so the cleaning service doesn't come in and wake me.

Goodness, life can be good sometimes.

Hopefully will be able to catch up on the backlog tomorrow.

So THAT'S how bankers party

Back from a 12-hour journey through the shops of Central, the wilds of public transport, a terrifying lone hike up arhat-guarded steps to a monastery in Sha Tin (which is better known for its racetrack), and a sodden evening with a summer from Mighty Big Firm, his brother (a banker) and his brother's girlfriend (also a banker -- AND ALSO THE LITTLE SIS OF SOMEONE WHO GRADUATED FROM MY UNDERGRAD CLASS AND RES COLLEGE!!!). That last capital-lettered part weirds me out excessively (it was Christin Cane, for those who know her, and yes, I've mispelt her name on purpose, to hide from googlers).

Three glasses of Veuve Cliquot makes hk very happy. And very drunk. And thinking, "hey, that summer from Mighty Big Firm is pretty cute! dude, where'd he go to?"

Acshully, it was a bit of a wierd di7ynamic from the moment -- wiat, even before that, becase I -- well, I haven't written that entry yet,k so you won't know what I'm talking about. Okay, what I means is this: I wasn't sure if the summer was hitting on me or what last night, but I was all, "hey, that's cool if he is," so i left a note with him at his serviced apartment this morning to call if he didn't have plans for tomorrow, and he intsead called tonight to invite me out so i was all, "awwww yeah, still got it," and went to go meet him and his bro and his bro's GF, and it was weird cause his bro and his bro's GF are dating -- DUH! -- so it was like we were on a date, but not really, and i dont' think he's all tha tinterested in the end, but phooey on him, I'm the one who got three free glasses of Veuve Cliquot tonight, and that, my friend, is sweet. SA-WEEET!

omjigod, i need to go to bed and stop writting drunken blog entries. i'm sorry.

More on the day tomorrow. After Macau. At 10 am. With the shingle-ridden friend of a friend of a friend. GOD. What do I get myself into.

Facially not-neutral
(a lawyer joke. and not a good one, either. i'm sorry.)

Just came back from my first facial ever. Wow! Very posh.

An associate at Magic Circle Firm had some coupons for a complimentary treatment of a facial or a massage, and though I do love massages, I picked the facial, as I've never had one. So I scheduled myself for this morning at 10 am (partly to get myself out of the apartment, so as not to repeat the sloth of last weekend), and found the place pretty easily, and entered the world of poshiness.

I was offered some tea, led upstairs and shown the facilities, and given a locker and a robe to change into. I was then ushered into a dimly lit room with a towel- and blanket-covered table, asked to lie down, and covered completely -- swaddled, almost -- except for my face, which was: washed, given some sort of treatment involving a mask and steam, washed again, given the "extraction" treatment (a fancy word for "picking out blackheads with some sort of tool), washed again, covered completely with a heavy, mud-textured "hydration" mask, and delicately moisturized. Oh, and in the middle somewhere, I received a neck and shoulder massage, a scalp massage, and a face massage. All for free (equivalent value: US$50)! Oh, plus the $15 extra I paid for shaping my eyebrows.

All through this, my eyes were covered with some sort of moistened pads, and soft new age music with birds chirping played in the background. It was cool and dark. Quite interesting to experience everything through sounds and textures rather than sight.

For those of you who've had facials or have ever visited a spa, none of this will seem particularly noteworthy, but for me, it was a new experience. I enjoyed it, but also felt very conscious of lying there as someone ministered to me. I couldn't quite relax. And I'm not convinced that my skin looks any better (though my eyebrows look sharp). But it was still very, very nice. Who knows - I might go back next weekend!

Much better

Instead of drinking and making raucous fun like last night, which put me in a foul mood, I went with Magic Circle folks (them that could make it, anyway, which were very few) to do a little painting tonight.

Attorneys making like artists!

After the initial shyness and anxiety over picking the right size canvas and the approximate picture I wanted to create, I had a pretty good time. The end result wasn't quite pretty, but I liked it.

I started with a sponge for the greenery at the bottom, but loved the effect, so kept it unfinished-looking. Unfortunately, that precluded a nice background to set off the structural look of the greenery. I painted the sky about four times, not satisfied with the texture, color or look the first three times. The fourth was the result of needing to scrape off the layers of paint from the first three times; I accidentally found out that scraping the paint created an unexpectedly textured finish too. And then I just globbed on the big flowery red things.

When they packed up my painting, I realized that I really liked the small square that was showing much better than the entire painting. I asked if they could cut it for me, but no dice... I don't know what I'm going to do when I leave HK next weekend.


The elegant woman from Shanghai (with the LLM from the UK and the millionaire French boyfriend) painted the best picture, but then again, she has done this twice before.

I barely did any work today, and surfed the web all day long, which never makes me feel really good -- I'd rather do a nice, solid 5-7 hours of work and go home feeling like I've accomplished something. Unfortunately, the norm is more like 10 billable hours per day, I think...

I really don't know how I feel about coming here after law school (if I get an offer). I do like living abroad a great deal, and since they pay for accommodations for the first three years, I could quickly pay off my loans and save up a little. I'd be close to my dad and grandmothers. I could work on my Korean language skills. I could learn more about Asia. But HK is pretty soul-less -- it's all about finance and making money. (Someone told me today that Macau, where only a few hundred thousand people live, compared to the over 6 million in Hong Kong, had many more tourist attractions. I'm going this weekend.) And I can tell that it's a grueling, extremely stressful job. Sigh.

The way it rolls out in my mind at this, about 2/3 of the way through the summer, is threefold. I talked to my parents about this at the HK airport before they left, and this is how I presented it:

Option A: work like a dog for a couple years at some firm, pay off loans, save some money, leave the law within 3 years. Unclear which city or which firm.

Option B: get a job in the government, hopefully the EEOC, and have more interesting work I believe in, at one third the wages and one third the time, for a number of years.

Option C: don't work in law at all.

My mom voted for option B, which is definitely reasonable. My dad voted for option D -- find a job that melds my interests (history, for one) and the training that's taken $100K and three years to acquire.

Interesting.

You know, I saw a Discovery channel show on New York yesterday, and felt a pang of homesickness and longing. It's so perverse that I should miss a place I wasn't enthused about when I was there.

Grouch

Yesterday I had $7 noodles and beef brisket at a greasy hole in the wall where I had to share a table with strangers, there were no napkins to be had, and I was crammed up against the window.

Today I had a $50 lunch of seared corvina with a saffron sauce and a French cheesecake with mangos and ice cream at the Four Seasons, where the waitstaff brought a low table for my handbag (for my handbag!), which was never so honored in its life, where my napkin was replaced with a flourish before dessert, and which featured a view of the sparkling harbor.

So which do you think I enjoyed better?

Well, actually, I liked both. The Four Seasons had impeccable service (I was gently admonished for not saying earlier that I wanted another cushion for my back) and a beautiful view, but the food was mediocre (either that or I have a very unsophisticated palate that can't appreciate it). Plus, I was in fine form today, and it nettled me to be reading yet another menu on which half the entries were incomprehensible. "Dacquoise"? What is that? And is anyone but a French foodie or a French person going to know?

I liked the food at the hole in the wall better, and there was a fine sense of local eatery about the place, but my skin crawled a bit when I accidentally leaned against the wall.

And therein lies the dilemma. I like the low-brow, but I want it to be as clean and shiny and pretty as the high-brow.

I had a sort of grouchy day without really realizing it. Work actually was interesting (I was researching some political and economic conditions of a country for an offering). It was the interacting with people I had problems with, and by problems, I don't really mean problems, but more the realization that I have been socializing too much and need to set my butt at home or wander alone for a couple days to recharge. (It's an introvert thing.)

I really felt this when I went to a Mighty Big Firm dinner at some new chi chi Thai place, and for whatever reason, this guy was annoying me with all his talk of the shitloads of money he couldn't even spend all of when he was an editor at one of the law journals at Crimson. This spurred me to rail about the unnecessary excesses and horrific waste at Crimson and at law firms, which led to declarations that I'd rather have no free lunches and have less work as an associate, because the firms, they wine and dine you, and then they chew you up and spit you out. And this, to a summer coordinator! And I only had one glass of champagne (Veuve Cliquot, by the way)!

I don't know, I was in a mood. I should have left a lot earlier. I ended up being the only woman left with seven male associates/parter, and then I couldn't take it a moment longer and bolted. One of the criticisms that a previous Mighty Big Firm-Hong Kong summer associate had with the office was the gender imbalance -- only 2 women out of 19 lawyers, and Mighty Big Firm didn't seem in any hurry to try to balance that. It really makes a huge difference.

Ugh, I'm just in an icky mood.

But before I go, 2 funny coincidences: first, at lunch, I discovered that an associate at Magic Circle firm graduated from an L.A. high school the same year I did, and knew one of the girls I worked with on the high school paper! And second, at dinner, I found out that one of the associates at Mighty Big Firm, who'd gone to Crimson, lived in the same dorm room I had my first year -- a year before I got there! Cool, eh?

Waking from sloth (sort of)

Last weekend was a wash (albeit a needed and welcome one) because I was so tired and still sort of ill from whatever microbes decided to attack my stomach the first week. But yesterday, when I spent 12 hours watching TV? Hm, not really justified. (But oh, SO good: Lost marathon, Supernatural, Numbers, I Know What You Did Last Summer, Discovery channel -- what's not to love?)

So this morning, I gathered up my nerve and called the trainee solicitor I'd met on Friday during lunch:

"Hi, Trainee Solicitor?"

"Er, yes," a croaky voice replied.

"It's hk, from the office."

"Ah, yes." Pause. "What can I do for you?"

Thinking, oh dear, that's not good, I said, "Well, I am going to Lantau today, and was wondering if you wanted to come."

"Oh... Oh! I'm so sorry, but ... I think I had too much to drink last night..."

"Ah, well, no problem. You go back to bed, and I'll see you on Monday."

"I'm sorry."

"Really, it's okay. Thanks."

Oof. How embarrassing.

He DID offer, on Friday, to take me around HK. But I was kind of relieved he couldn't.

So I watched a little more TV (CSI -- so good) and ate some more food (hm, not so good -- I see how people get very big very fast doing this sort of thing), and got my stuff together, and left the apartment for the first time since Friday at 2 pm.

I wasn't sure where I wanted to go, so I wandered down from my apartment, which is in the mid-level part of town (town being built up on the slopes of mountains), through some little streets and alleyways. It always amazes me how cities have such old and new things, right next to each other. For example, a tiny dry cleaners with the doors open and four men playing mahjong together, next to a sleek, air-conditioned hair salon of chic young women maintaining their chicness.


I'm not sure if you can see the cat in this picture. I saw it sitting and staring out from an alleyway. I had been coming down a steep hill where there were two elderly people separately selling clothes and other recycled objects on the street. They'd both fallen asleep sitting down, the old man while holding a cigarette, which fell from his fingers and rolled away downhill. That's how I noticed that he was sleeping.

The wealth distribution here is quite immense, and I saw that during my stroll down the mountain, and at the terminus of my stroll, which was basically my office building (also where the subway is located). Hong Kong's downtown is connected by a walkway above street level -- you can traverse several long blocks above the traffic. I thought this was pretty cool when I first got here. During the week, it's full of businesspeople and tourists rushing around. Today, I learned that the walkways are used by a different set of people on Sundays:

According to my Lonely Planet, these women (and a few men) are amahs: either a live-in maid who cooks, cleans, minds the kids, and/or feeds the dog, or someone who comes in once or twice a weeks. In the old days, amahs were usually Chinese spinsters, but now all the work is done by foreigners, mostly from the Philippines, Thailand, Indonesia, Nepal, and Sri Lanka. These are the folks who fuel a good portion of the national economies of these countries by sending money back to their families. They're on 2-year renewable Foreign Domestic Helper work visas.

Lonely Planet reports that Filipinos are by far the largest group, and on Sundays (usually their one day off), Filipino amahs take over the pavements and public square of downtown HK -- thousands come to share food, gossip, play cards, read the Bible, and to do one another's hair and nails. I'd add -- and to nap. The women covered the walkways and the sidewalks with cardboard boxes, took off their shoes, and seemed to be having a good time hanging out and relaxing.

I can't imagine this being okay in any western country, can you? (I mean, the gathering of "the help" in downtown public places on the weekends, not the phenomenon of imported domestic help. I think we prefer things to be more segregated in the U.S.) Lonely Planet points out that a contract to work in HK is an escape from the dust and poverty of the provincial Philippines, which is no doubt true. Very interesting. I've heard several people at the firm talk about their "maids," "help," or "nannies." One lawyer at Mighty Big Firm said she couldn't imagine going back to the U.S. to live, in part because of the cost and quality of child care facilities. No day care for her kid -- rather, an amah. And at lunch last weekend, another lawyer said she couldn't imagine living without her current help, who comes in 3 times a week. Interesting, eh?


Anyway, I walked around marveling at this phenomenon for half an hour or so, and then finally got on my way to see the biggest seated outdoor Buddha in Asia, on Lantau Island.

When I got out of the subway, I decided to take a cab, because it was very windy and stormy-like outside, and I didn't feel like waiting for the bus. But there were several people ahead of me, and no taxis, so I hit up the Chinese couple ahead of me for a shared ride. They turned out to be from Beijing, living in Tokyo these past 13 years because they're in the shipping industry, and just in Hong Kong for the weekend. The husband, whose English was slightly better, said of Hong Kong: "So-so." His assessment of Japan: "Bad." China? "The best."

The cab ride was longer than I thought -- about 20 minutes (but still only $18 or so), and we passed by a prison with a great view of the ocean, as well as a couple stray dogs and two cows/water buffaloes.

The couple and I stuck to each other as we climbed the 260 steps to see the largest seated Buddha in Asia. Indeed, it was a very large Buddha:

The second photo here are some bodhisattvas/handmaiden-types, set around the lower level of the structure.
The third photo (the one that's remarkably clear) is how it's supposed, to look, by the way, without the heavy fog. It's from a sign.

After wandering about for an hour or so in weather that kept threatening to thunder and storm violently, the couple and I went back in a cab to the subway station, where we parted ways -- they continued on to more sightseeing, and I had a pizza dinner (I know, very sad) in a cafe near the station. It so happened that the cafe didn't have a bathroom, and the nearest one was in the mall connected to the station. This is how I ended up doing as much shopping as sightseeing today.

I think the Js, my fashion consultants in NYC, would be proud of me -- I bought about $60 of work clothes from Esprit, but because it was an outlet, and they were having outrageous sales, that $60 bought three buttondown shirts and a slouchy cardigan. Dang, those sales are for SERIOUS. As I couldn't try on the shirts (you can't try on tops here, just like in Korea), I surreptitiously walked around the store and tried them on over my tank top, trying to avoid sales clerks and see if these shirts fit me at the same time. It was kinda funny, and somehow, very hk (but how else can you figure out if something fits?). But ultimately very rewarding. And since HK really is made of up 1 part sights to see and about 12 parts shopping and eating (even the nice Beijing couple hadn't seen much, just eaten a lot of good food), I think I had a fairly HK kind of day.

After my lovely lovely purchases, I got on the subway, where I saw this public service announcement:

We should have PSAs like this in the States.

I thought about stopping in Kowloon and walking along the harbor, but decided that it was nearly 9 pm and time to head home. I took the escalators up to the apartment, and took this shot on the way. You can see the covered escalators to the right.

Lead or follow?

Just to clarify: Mighty Big Firm = New York office. Magic Circle = the UK firm whose HK branch I'm at now.

A good dim sum lunch with 10 members of the firm, including a very nice British partner who has a really gentle demeanor to him. But drives a Ferrarri to work. Also met two "trainee solicitors" -- 2 nice Hong Kong-born gentlemen who are nearing the end of their 2-year training stints (which they began after 2 years of law school). Then they become solicitors for real. I managed to finagle an invitation to show me the city out of one of them. Heh heh. I love it when my machinations work out.

I'm up late again, despite having told myself this morning that I'd go home as soon as I could and go to bed, having slept only 4.5 hours last night. But somehow, the document I was editing and formatting took forever, and then it was 8 pm, and I still had to pick my fall term classes online, and then a couple members of the U.S. team were sitting around in the conference room drinking (the Friday night firm "bar"), and I didn't want to be anti-social as I usually am, and then Sunshine suggested dinner, and now it's 12:30 am.

Good dinner, but heavy (northern Chinese this time). I really should have gotten a gym membership here. But when would I have ever gone?

I got an earful from the partner I've been sort of working with, about the firm, and how it wsa different from the New York offices, because you got a lot more responsibility early on, and how it's the Wild West out here because the market's still really young and flexible, whereas NY is saturated, yada yada. I asked the associate sitting there how she felt about the responsibility, asking playfully, "Do you cry every day in your office?"

"No, not every day," she said with a smile.

The partner, as many people are wont to do, "honestly" described the firm in the most flattering of ways, while ostensibly being forthright: "At the end of the day, it depends on what you want. What kind of person you are. Are you the kind of person who learns from being told exactly what to do at every step of the way, or are you the type who learns from just being thrown in? Do you want some second year associate telling you to stay all night to check every little thing, knowing he's going to yell at you in the morning? Our first year associates know more than New York associates in their fourth and fifth years.

"At the end of the day, I think a lot of us are out here because we didn't want to be like everyone else," he continued. "We would love to have you if you want to come. But you have to figure out if it's the right place for you."

While he was talking, I thought how funny it was that I did like being told exactly what to do, at every step of the way, but how attractive the Wild West frontier sounded. And how funny it was that he didn't want to be like everyone else. I just feel like I'm not like other people. Not exactly a volitional thing.

The partner and the associate sitting there both agreed that you get better training in New York, but the partner again pointed out that it depended on how you learn. And you know, I think I probably learn better by jumping in and just doing something -- but AFTER I've observed and talked about how to do something with a mentor, and practiced it 'n shit.

The "lots of responsibility early on" schtick reminded me of what Sunshine said last week: "You know, this job is kind of like law school 1L year. You have to do more work than you think is possible, and then you get more work. And at some point, it kind of breaks you. But then after that, you can handle anything. And nothing fazes you. You can handle it."

On the one hand, I want to be assertive and learn a lot, but on the other hand, it sounds so very hard. Of course no one wants to think of themselves as a conformist. But if you really are a follower rather than a leader, is there any shame in just admitting that to yourself?

Man, I'm tired. Anon, hk, to bed!

Comedy of errors

So Coldplay was awesome, and I am a spoiled brat, and today was a comedia of errors, and this is how it happened:

First, let me note that it's 2:30 am, and unlike the kids over at Mighty Big Firm's Hong Kong office, tomorrow is not my last day here. Ouch. But I had to fill you in.

This morning, I took a change of clothes with me to work, thinking, "Oh, what IF a ticket frees up for the concert? I don't want to be caught off guard. So -- hell, I'll just bring a change of clothes. Just in case."

Sunshine, my officemate, said early in the day, "Hey, there's a good chance that Other Associate won't be able to make it."

I replied appropriately, "Oh, that would be sad for her, to miss Coldplay. But," I said after a beat, "it might be happy for someone else." Wink wink!

Later in the afternoon, though, Other Associate discovered that she'd be making it in back from Bangkok in time for the concert after all. So I was glad for her, and sad for me.

Soon after, yet another associate walked in and said, "Hey, I might be going tonight. My friends have an extra ticket. But I'm not sure I'll go."

Sunshine said, "They can take hk if you don't go! She wants to go."

That associate turned and said with a smile, "But then she'd have to hang out with my friends, and they're... you know."

I smiled back, because it was an absurd suggestion anyway. But I appreciated Sunshine's effort.

Around 4:30, I surfed around the net, thinking that maybe I'd just buy a ticket myself -- I didn't want to go home tonight and stew in my resentment about not being treated to the concert, when I really did want to hear the band. I found an exchange site for expats where someone was selling his ticket for about $60, and I considered calling.

"But wait," I thought to myself. "Maybe I'll check with Mighty Big Firm folks again, one more time. Just in case."

So I emailed the married guy: "Last ditch effort -- anyone not going to the concert?"

No response.

So I emailed J, another summer there, the same message.

Within 10 minutes, she wrote back, "hk, OH NO! Mighty Big Firm had a rush of interest today, so they bought more tickets! If only you'd written earlier! There's a slight chance one of the paralegals might not go, though -- give me your number and I'll call you if that happens."

I wrote back: "Are you serious?!!? I thought I whined enough yesterday to make clear that I did want to go... damn!"

Then I was pissed. Married guy had promised to keep my back and get a ticket if anyone ended up not going -- what went wrong? Shit! Now that I had come THIS close to going, I REALLY wanted to go. And Mighty Big Firm had chartered a bus, with drinks, and everything, to take us there!

I called J, and whined, "Oh no! What happened? Married Guy was supposed to look out for me!"

J said, "Yeah, I had no idea you were so into Coldplay! Well, this paralegal MIGHT not go... But do you want me to ask for you?"

Putting pride away completely, I said, "Would you really?"

"Sure -- look, just hang on, okay?"

Five minutes later: "Okay, I talked to a LOT of people, and... it's fine if you come."

"REALLY?"

"Yes, really." There was laughter in the background. "I'm with a bunch of people," she explained.

"Oh my god, J, you are so amazing. Thank you!"

"So, you should buy your ticket yourself, and Mighty Big Firm will reimburse you."

"Okaaaay... well, what's the URL?"

"It's hktickets dot com... oh, and it's thanks to Al that you can do this."

"I'll be sure to give him a big wet kiss when I see him."

"Um, I'm not sure his wife would enjoy that. But okay, see you soon!"

The next two hours were a blur of trying to get work done, trying to buy my ticket, and trying to reach J again to see what kind of ticket (they were selling for USD$100 or USD$60) I should get. Sunshine, who was trying to get something finished so SHE could go to the concert, said rather pointedly at one point, "hk! Focus here!"

"I am focused," I said. "I'm focused on getting a ticket to this concert." I told her that Mighty Big Firm had gotten my back. She was all, "oh, good. Now do what I tell you." (Well, not really. But she does have a sharp, almost mean streak when it comes to work.)

Because I was leaving to meet the Mighty Big Firm people at 6:30, Sunshine ended up doing something she'd given me herself, and I ended up turning down an assignment (which was, to be fair, not really work-related -- it was proofing an article an associate had written for a legal rag). I bolted over to Mighty Big Firm's offices and arrived covered in a sheen of sweat.

At Mighty Big Firm, I thanked J, and asked her, "Hey, I didn't know what price ticket to buy, so I just bought the more expensive one --"

"What?" She stared at me.

"I bought my ticket online just like you said."

"I said Al had bought your ticket for you."

"What? But -- but you gave me a URL!"

"Yeah, and afterwards I said you have Al to thank for your ticket. He was buying it as we were talking. It's easier for him to get reimbursed, after all."

Blood rushed to my cheeks. "Are you serious? Because I heard you say I should buy the ticket and get reimbursed."

"Yeah, and AFTERWARDS, I said Al was buying it for you, and you said you'd give him a smooch, remember? Look, you can ask the people who were in the room with me. That's what I said."

"Crap." Yes, I'd just bought a ticket to a concert I already had a ticket for.

On the bus, I sort of reconciled myself to the idea that I might be out $100, but that it was worth it. But I went to the ticket counter with Al, and told my story, and was told with a truly apologetic expression that there was no mechanism for refunds in the system. But that I was more than welcome to stand nearby and sell my ticket to someone else.

Authorized scalping! I had a vision of myself going down the line of people for the ticket counter and whispering, "You wanna ticket? I gotta ticket. Ticket, ticket here." Fortunately, while that would have been very funny, there was a woman with a clipboard helping to manage the line, and she found me a buyer.

Authorized scalping! Gotta love it! I thanked her, and she said, "It's my pleasure."

The buyer turned out to be an overweight American man, who borrowed money from his Australian female friend to pay me the cash $100 I'd asked for (face value, minus the service charge I paid for online purchase). I thanked him for his business, got a smile and a "enjoy the show!" from his friend, and briskly walked away.

When I joined the group, Al greeted me: "I just talked to Social Partner! He said the firm would take care of it! I was going to find you to tell you!"

"Oh, I just sold it!"

"Oh really?" he laughed.

So I sat in my seat next to the wife of a senior associate, and with everyone else in the arena, waited. Around 8:30, my buyer arrived, since the ticket had been for the seat next to mine, and proceeded to tell me that his backpack with his camera had been stolen while he was buying his ticket from me.

"Oh, shit!" I commiserated. He had a very good attitude about it though -- "Yeah, it had all my pictures from the last four weeks. But at least I have all my video footage at home."

So we were chatting about this, when suddenly Social Partner appears in the aisle and gestures for me to come out. "Who, me?" I pantomimed. "Yes, YOU," he gestured back.

I slid out of the row, and asked what was going on. "Come with me," he barked, and we started walked away.

When we reached the other group of Mighty Big Firm folks (tickets had been bought in two batches, thus two groups of seats), summer associate J explained, "He's saving you from being hit on by old white guys!"

"What?!?!" I said, confused.

"Well, I was talking to someone in your row, and he said some old white dude was chatting you up, so I came back here and told Social Partner that you were being hit on by some creepy old guy, and he said something like, 'This is the kind of thing that makes summer associates not want to come back!' and went to go save you!"

"But --" I sputtered, "that's the guy I scalped my ticket to! He was my buyer!"

Despite my efforts to explain, Married Guy ended up taking my seat, and I sat with the two other summers. Well, "sat," as in "sat for 1 minute when the lights went down, then rushed down to the edge of the balcony like everyone else, to stand for the duration of the concert." And what a concert it was. I didn't recognize some songs that were from their third album, but the ones I did recognize almost invariably pulled a distinct memory from me. I'd listened to both Coldplay albums incessantly three and a half years ago, when I'd broken up with my then-boyfriend. I was in Seoul, and on doctor's orders to get at least an hour's worth of walking or other exercise in every day, for my back. So I would get home from work and walk around Olympic Park, looking for pheasants and rabbits and listening to Coldplay over and over and over, until it was associated firmly with loneliness and heartbreak.

I hadn't listened to some of those songs they played tonight since that period of my life, but enough time has passed that the memories are washed with pleasant nostalgia for Korea, and my time there, and who I was then.

So the show was good, even though the arena organizers were so anal about fire codes that they had Chris Martin read an announcement during the show to please move back into our seats. He read it with feeling, but later said, "You know, it's hard enough -- you're trying to be a rock star, but then you have to read out a public service announcement." The crowd ate it up. It also ate up the yellow balloons that fell out of the ceiling when the band played Yellow, and it also ate it up when Martin switched some lyrics to Hong Kong-specific references. Cute.

Also cute: Martin. Not in a drop-dead sexy way, but in a jump-around-skinny-manic-boisterous way. A real showman. Dude was working so hard and sweating so much, he ripped his shirt at the shoulder halfway through the show.

After the show, we had a hard time finding the bus, requiring traversing the long arena hall twice. Then we went to Wan Chai for dinner -- if by "dinner," you mean a drawn out meal at 11:30 pm at a bar with ladies' pole dancing on Wednesdays, thumping club music, and Jenga on the low tables with white cushions surrounding them.

Actually, the Jenga was pretty cool. Each table got into it. Nice, friendly folks, no doubt.

And if the club was a bit skeeze, it matched my feelings upon meeting the wife of a very senior associate -- the wife was a slender, long-haired, delicately shod and clearly less well educated Thai woman easily 15 years younger than the American associate. Sunshine, my officemate, had said today about Wan Chai that she felt it was a part of Hong Kong for white men -- older white men and young Thai or Filipina women. Well, it ain't just Wan Chai, honey.

I have to say, it surprised me to see the pairing. I saw a lot of those types of couples in Seoul, where an American serviceman was married to a younger, hotter woman from the Philippines, or SE Asia. Somehow, I didn't think highly educated lawyers would find that an ultimately satisfying relationship. Dumb, hk. Very dumb.

Anyway, I got all that I wanted -- a free ticket to the show (thanks to super summer associate J), the smoothing out of all kinks (authorized scalping -- whoo!), a free meal, a free cab ride home, and exposure to another firm. And the chance to hang out again with the Mighty Big Firm summers, whom I'll miss. (It's a bit lonely being the only summer at UK firm.)

In sum: no ticket, then ticket, then two tickets, then one ticket again, then an unnecessary rescue. Sweaty Chris Martin, yellow balloons = good, super summer associate J = eternal gratitude, and as always -- How is it that am I such a lucky, lucky bastard?
----------------
Caught thoughts

- Had excellent Shanghai cuisine today for lunch -- truly delectable! The second really outstanding meal so far (the first being that Indian restaurant last weekend). Steak and fancy chocolate is good and all, but I just love the spicy ethnic food.

- A friend of a friend of super summer associate J's is going on a weekend trip and invited me... it sounds legit and fun.

- I must go to bed. It's 3:30 and I must get up and go to work in 5 hours! Argh.

- MUST pick classes tomorrow! Shit.

hk does the high life in HK

It's true, I've been getting tastes of the high life throughout the summer, what with the lunches at schmancy restaurants that require jackets, the tickets to plays, and flying around the globe willy-nilly, but tonight I went to a "romantic clifftop dinner" at The A*merican Club on the south side of the island.

Before you get too excited about my romantic prospects, it was a firm event, and the romantic clifftop dinner was attended by 7 associates, one partner, and me. So -- no romance. But wasn't there? The south side of Hong Kong is vastly underdeveloped compared to the ridiculously high-rise north side, and just driving there through winding mountain roads made me feel like I was going to a different country. Two associates and I went in the partner's Land Rover, sitting high and in air conditioned comfort.

The partner was the member of the club, of course. (Apparently, the firm pays for membership for each senior partner at a club of their choice.) There was a table for 9 set up outside on the terrace, just beyond the swimming pool. It really was on top of a cliff, and throughout the evening, a rust-red moon moved surprisingly rapidly up the sky, turning deep orange and managing to shine through the pollution and haze to light up the sea.

As the extremely polished but extremely nice associate from China (grew up in Shanghai, got her LLM in the U.K., worked there for three years at a shipping law firm, moved to Shanghai, and then to HK) said, "If you weren't in love before, this view would make you fall in love." (Of course, when you've got a millionaire French boyfriend, it lends itself to a warm view of the world.)

There was a menu on the table, but we'd pre-ordered our meals and the menus merely reminded us what the choices had been. They also had the partner's name and the firm name printed on them. I secreted a copy away in my bag, to remember the night I spent eating creamed avocado and celeriac pyramid (sided by fresh mozzarella and baby spring greens) and grilled US rib-eye (accompanied by sauteed baby potatoes and baby spring vegetables), and drinking endless glasses of Perrier, champagne, and wine. Crazy.

It was quite warm on the terrace overlooking the sea, but not as humid as the north side of the island, and the men made it to dessert without begging to go inside. At that time, I was ready to go in as well -- the humidity was uncomfortable, affecting my enjoyment of the meal. So we went inside to a club room (one of a large complex, of course), and shared five dishes of "An Indulgent Combination for Two" -- warm chocolate decadent with raspberries and chambord coulis, and brandied appled tart with calvados glaze and haagen-daz.

Anyone can go into a nice restaurant if they can pay the price -- I went to an extremely scenic restaurant today in Kowloon (a ferry ride away from my office) with Mighty Big Firm people, where the view was stunning: panoramic of the north side of Hong Kong Island, and stretching out to the west to Lantau Island. (The food was surprisingly mediocre (and in some cases downright bad) for such a chi-chi restaurant, but the view was fantastic. But I digress.) But that wasn't the same thing as going to this club tonight -- it was missing the exclusivity factor.
It was quite an experience, being on that terrace overlooking the water, in a private club in the dark hills of the south side of Hong Kong.

Actually, if the partner's house hadn't been in the midst of remodeling, we'd never have gone; the event was supposed to be a BBQ at his house. Instead, I got a glimpse of the high life. But here's the thing: as we walked in, Sunshine spread her arms and joked, "This too could all be yours, hk!" But (as I pointed out) none of the junior associates had been there before. It's a high life, alright, and not one that many are willing to climb to. I'm glad to have gotten the glimpse.

And now, I have to go to bed, because it's past midnight. But one thing more -- Coldplay is playing HK tomorrow night, and Mighty Big Firm is sending its summers to the concert. Despite my best polite whining, I did not get either firm to shell out for a ticket. I could probably buy one myself, but (1) I'd be sitting by myself, and (2) it's not just going to the concert, it's going on someone else's dime. I'd feel taken if I paid for a ticket, even though I like Coldplay, and even though some of those who are going didn't even know who they were before last week. Damn. I guess I'm not as free of the sense entitlement as I thought I was.

A night out

It's midnight, and I've just came back from being out with a mishmash of summer associates here in Hong Kong. Three are from Mighty Big Firm's office here, one from "Deb"-utante Firm, and one from Mo'Fo Firm (that last one isn't really far from the actual name of the firm, if you can belief it). I'd met the three from Mighty Big Firm in New York, and I was pleased to see them again. I like all of them, particularly the married guy, who refreshingly admitted, "I didn't go to law school because I love the law. I went to make money. I was in private equity before, and law seemed like it was more stable, but good money." Right on! (Although the lifestyle still sucks.)

It was nice time: although those three are leaving this coming weekend, the guy from Mo'Fo Firm seemed cool. The one from Deb, however, was the classic lawyer nightmare -- aggressive without substance or kindness. Seriously. I mentioned how I wanted non-lawyers to take part in the lunch program, and he exclaimed in disbelief, "Are you serious? They're not the ones bringing in the money. Why should the firm pay for them to go to lunch?" I explained that I thought they'd know more about the firm than a first year who'd been with the firm for 9 months, and anyway, first years don't actually make the firm money anyway. "I don't know -- I don't think that's true," he challenged. Fortunately, everyone else around the table disagreed with him. Honestly, though. What an ass. I suspect it's mostly immaturity, but this job is not likely to improve those aspects of the little bugger.

We went to a very fancy bar with a large birdcage on the patio, whose website made me nervous about the appropriateness of my work clothes, but it was early enough that it didn't matter. Two non-lawyers were with us -- they must have been bored out of their minds. I guess when you get a bunch of people in the same profession together, they naturally talk about their profession, but still. Around 10 pm, the non-lawyers departed along with the Mo'Fo guy, and the rest of us went to a local dumpling place, which was surprisingly not that good. At least to my taste. I don't know. For all the vaunted cuisine of HK, I've only really enjoyed one place -- the Indian restaurant I went to on Saturday.

The three Mighty Big Firm summers and I all agreed that the New York office was a little chilly, and that the smaller size of the HK office was a big plus. They're getting more pampered than I am -- they get a per diem and their laundry is covered, for example. But I like to think I'm getting a good foreign office experience, complete with foreign firm... anyway, my apartment is apparently much nicer than theirs. So there.

I got to have this night out with summers from across the city thanks to the generosity of a partner who gave me some work today. Today was actually very busy for me -- I started working at 10 am, stopped at around 7, and billed more than 7.5 hours. The work was semi-interesting research and some drafting (again with the find-and-replace, but slightly more difficult), and there's a deal getting filed tonight that I thought I might have to stay for, but the partner said, "We won't even find out what's going on until 8:30 tonight. Nah, go out and enjoy Hong Kong." Yippee!

I asked one summer, who's spent time in HK before, what I should see, and she replied, "Well, there's not that much sightseeing to do here." I think that's probably true. There are temples here and there, and Victoria Peak, and apparently decent hiking (which it's too hot to do), but other than that, I guess people just shop and eat.

Eh. I don't know. I don't care for shopping, and the eating's good in other places around the world. It's a little weird to be in a place with so little to do. (Last year I had a string of visitors, and a roommate, and the sublime beauty of Alaska to explore. It seems so far away and long ago now.) Undoubtedly I'm missing a whole other side to HK that I, as a foreigner, would have a hard time accessing -- the same summer said that the Hong Kong natives are pretty insular, and so the expat community is also.

One of the non-lawyers tonight, though, lives in HK, and said he'd be up for some weekend traveling. So I may get in some sights after all!

Okay, I must to bed. Work tomorrow and all.

Feets

I had a tasty lunch at an American restaurant today (dark wood, ads for cigarettes and alcohol), and a tasty Chinese dinner at Heaven and Earth, and then I had a foot massage.

This is all courtesy of my officemate, Sunshine, whose cheerful efficiency has shaped my experience so far most pleasantly. I just have to sit there in the office, and she will chirp, "Do you have lunch plans?" "Do you want to have dinner?" "Do you want to go to Disneyworld?" and these things magically take place without me having to lift a finger. It's quite nice, and a far cry from my officemate at Mighty Big Firm in NYC, who was perfectly pleasant, but never even went out to lunch with me once. (To be fair, I don't think he went out on any summer lunches; he was that busy.)

So at dinner tonight, she asked what I wanted to eat while in HK, and I said, "At places where I can have the Hong Kong experience. Where not just expats go."

After making some suggestions, she suggested, "You could also get a foot massage. That's a Hong Kong experience." So after dinner, we went to some random place on the 19th floor of some building near Lan Kwai Fong, and I had my feet massaged.

It kind of hurt.

And unlike getting a body massage or shoulder massage, it didn't leave me limp with relaxation. In fact, it was a bit stressful during the massage, because there was a lot of shiatsu-like pressing and kneading verging on the painful, such that I would think, "Ow. That's uncomfortable. I hope he's not going to do that for very long. Oh good, he's moved on. But -- ow. Again."

Sunshine's calluses were commented on, and though I didn't get the same commentary, my foot reflexologist (a.k.a. foot masseur) carefully looked at the dry skin on my toes with what seemed to me a rather judgmental air.

Apparently, some people here get a foot massage every week -- which, for about $25 per 50 minutes, isn't all that expensive, I suppose. But I shan't be one of them; once was enough. I enjoyed the five minutes shoulder pounding much more -- although as someone who gives massages to friends, I think I could have done just as well.

A little background on Sunshine: 27 years old, a second-year associate, an econ major in college, Ivy education both college and law school. She seems chipper and precise and logical and nice, the type to instantly act on an idea or task without dithering.

Last week, she mentioned at lunch that her old officemate had emailed her. He'd left the firm to get a master's degree or an LLM in human rights. Sunshine said to the other associate she'd invited, "Yeah, he said that he remembered having conversations with you and me, but he couldn't remember the work at all." They laughed. "Well, he never really fit in."

Curiosity piqued, I asked, "How did he not fit in?"

She and the other associate took a moment to answer. Finally, Sunshine said, "He ... was more into having social relationships. He didn't care about the work, which is fine, you don't have to care, but he didn't care to an extent where it affected other people."

Huh.
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So yesterday, I was a complete sloth. But it was so in order.

On Saturday, after bidding the parents goodbye, I fortunately had a firm event to attend (fortunate as it kept my mind occupied) -- a cooking class at an Indian restaurant. It wasn't so much a class as a demonstration, and a lecture on Indian cuisine and the science of cooking by the chef. Pretty damn cool. And the food -- wow. I've never had Indian food like that. Some of it was Bengali in origin, and apparently the Bengalis are the food snobs of India. The taste of each spice came through in a heady explosion of flavor: a deceptively mild curry that, after a moment turned into a burst of spicy heat that quickly faded into a gentle, pleasant aftertaste. (I know that sounds like a tripe written for a food mag or something, but it's true!) Dang, it was good stuff.

After the cooking class, I went with Sunshine and Slim, another associate who's my age, to Causeway Bay to shop. I wasn't really in the mood to shop, but figured I should go with someone who knew where to go.

I had a good time with Sunshine and Slim -- they were easy to talk to, and down to earth. Where Sunshine is fresh-faced and chipper and playful, Slim is elegant in form and blunt in speech. Both are highly intelligent, bilingual, hardworking, uncomplaining, petite, deceptively young-looking Asian American women. Being around them made me realize how often I rely on one or more of those characteristics back in the States. Here, I'm not the small, cute person in the room; nor the most articulate; nor the most fluent in English (that's what I was in Korea); nor the most hardworking. It's a bit terrifying, being stripped of all your usual crutches.

Shopping was fine, but having gotten up at 5 am to go to the airport with the folks, I pooped out around 5 pm. I shared a taxi home with Slim, who has been a lawyer for 7 years now, and is going on a 6-month sabbatical starting next month. After six months, she'll have the option to come back. Or not. As she wishes.

I asked Slim, "Have you enjoyed being a lawyer?" She took several moments before she responded. "Hard to say," she finally answered, carefully. "I don't have anything to compare it to, so I can't say, Oh, Slim, you should have been doing this instead. The hours are pretty shitty sometimes. They're not banker's hours, but they can suck. But it's a LOT of money. And you get used to what you can do with that money. On vacations, you don't have to worry whether you can afford this or that. You don't have to think about that stuff."

She thought some more. "Sometimes the people can suck. Your clients might be a pain. But I have to say, this firm, the people are really, really nice."

At that point, I had to get out of the cab. But I thought her answer was very interesting. And honest.

After getting inside, I wrote up the previous entry, and basically went to bed. And then on Sunday, I had my day of sloth: 15 hours of TV, food and lounging around. I got a slight headache, I watched so much TV. But man, it felt so good.

The only picture in 10 years capturing both parents in the same place, smiling

Absence
So my parents are gone, and I am left with a host of reasons to be sad.

First, of course, is the inevitable emptiness after people have filled your home and made it other than silent and solitary. I don't mean to imply that I don't like my serviced apartment at all -- it's very nice to have the quiet and peace and TV and air conditioning and daily linen service. But it's nicer to share it with someone, and even more with two someones who know you well and have to love you and make all sort of allowances for you and leave your fridge stocked to the gills (including a dish of peeled fruit) and a pot of stew on the stove to boot.

So there's that -- and the service is so good here that even though it's Saturday, and there's normally no service today, I came back at 5:30 pm to find that the extra bed had been taken away, and the table moved back to its usual position, and the bathroom tidied, and the linens restocked and the bed made over with what look like fresh sheets. It's so good, the service, that there was little sign that my parents had been here, save the stocked fridge and the lonely wire hanger on the table in the bedroom.

Then there's the fact that I really liked hanging out with my parents. My dad is reliably fun to be with (at least, in the past four years or so), and my mom seemed happier than I'd seen her in a really long time -- I think being with my dad made her so. They went around on their adventures (which my mom planned out in advance, using the internet) during the day, and came home with food and stories in the evenings, and we generally had a good time. I only had one moment of irritation with them, and that was yesterday, when they weren't where I thought they'd be when I came out of the office early-ish to meet them. (I got outsizably angry, I think, because I should really have gone to the weekly summer drinkfest, but cut out early to meet my parents; hanging around the lobby of my building for 15 minutes didn't make me feel very good about skipping out early.) But most of the time, I delighted in being with them. I wish they could have stayed longer.

Then there's all the attendant feelings and complications that come with the visitors being my parents and them having the relationship that they have. I mean, before the end of March, I hadn't seen them physically in the same location for years. And now they're hopping around on vacation together? And having a good time of it, from all signs and accounts? It's unnerving. I'm too old and cynical to believe that they'll get back together, but I admit that having them together here, and getting along, was a balm to my soul. I felt happy around them, happy that they were having a good time, happy that they were here together, in part taking care of me (I've been sort of sick since Wednesday) and in part gallivanting around.

I have lots of complicated feelings about my mother, as you might know. I was grateful to her for getting my dad to buy me lots of food and preparing it, and in general taking care of me; I got annoyed with her when she wanted to buy $60 worth of souvenirs and sort of expected me to pay for it. Which I didn't mind doing, but $60? It's a lot of money! And then I felt awful for making her feel bad, to the point where she said in a really piteous tone, "But I didn't buy anything for myself in Hong Kong!" Which is totally true, and I feel horrible just thinking of how I sort of forced her to say that to defend her purchases. It is also totally true that I rarely buy anything for myself on trips because I figure the trip is my souvenir. But that's a pretty hard standard to live up to, and I know that.

That's my mom, with whom I did have a fun time, despite the complex feelings I hold. My dad -- that's a simpler case. I just love the guy. He's fun! And funny! And unruffled! He asks cab drivers why all the cabs in Hong Kong are Toyotas! He contemplates maps and says slowly, "This map lies!"! He stays up watching bad TV! And so when my mom said the doctors took a biopsy of part of his stomach -- well, I still feel very close to tears even at the thought of him even possibly being sick.

Explanation: My mom was in Korea for a medical checkup before coming out here with my dad, and it turns out that my dad got checked out also, with some possibly alarming results. During a check of his stomach, the doctors took a sample, for what sounds like a biopsy. Of course, my dad pooh-poohed the idea that it was anything serious -- even cancer, he said breezily, if they catch it early enough, is managable. But my mom was scared by it, and I am uncomfortably unsettled by the news as well. In part it was my mom's delivery: "I think they knew what it was, but they didn't tell us." The tests come back in two weeks; I'll be in Seoul in three.

I know that being anxious won't do anything -- it'll just upset MY already rebellious stomach even more. But -- my parents will be 60 next fall. They were mistaken for "elderly" (65 and over) once on this trip, which they laughed about, tickled about getting a discount. But, you know, no one lives forever. Even when you want them to.

Argh. Now I'm full-on teary and depressed. I'm sure it's in part due to me only getting 6 hours of sleep last night -- I got up at 5 am to go to the airport with the folks. I've got lots more to tell you, but it'll have to wait til tomorrow, when I'm planning to recuperate for once and for all from this stomach bug by lounging around, writing, and running a few errands. Right now, I'm going to soothe my feverish brain into a zen-ish state by watching Matrix 2 on the telly.

Asians, Asians, Everywhere

I went out to a Korean restaurant with two associates tonight -- my office mate, a 27-year-old Chinese American woman who grew up in Ohio, and a 34-year-old Korean American man who grew up in Korea, Toronto, Papua New Guinea, and L.A. -- and I had a pretty good time. After the initial sizing up, we fell into relatively comfortable conversation about childhoods, clothing, weird Hong Kong fashions, and movies.

At one point, my officemate asked how Mighty Big Firm, in New York, had been, and I gave my stock answer with a shrug: "You know, just like all the rumors -- hardworking, professional, polite, courteous." I thought about saying they'd been a little chilly, but I wasn't sure if that's what I really thought.

My officemate misheard me and thought I'd said "special" instead of "professional" and "white" instead of "polite." We laughed about it, and then said almost simultaneously, "Well, they are pretty white."

This is one of the things that I'm finding very different about Hong Kong. Of course you are, hk, you must be saying. They don't call it Asia for nothin', hon. But it's a different kind of Asia than the kind I found in Korea, which took me months to get used to and finally love. It's a westernized Asia, where most people speak English, blond Caucasian women don't get a second look, and the insouciance and confidence of the West mingle with the driven but exquisitely polite exterior of the East.

It's odd to work in an office that is so western in style but populated almost entirely by Asian faces. I went to lunch today with my officemate (who's been remarkably good about planning things) and an associate who also works in the capital markets group but not on the U.S. law side. She happens to be from a Hong Kong family but went to boarding school and Oxford in the U.K. Just your average highly educated, multilingual, insanely hardworking and intelligent, delicate lotus blossom of the East. Yeah.

My officemate (who worked for another UK firm her second summer but took a job with this one because this one offered her free housing with the job) told me today that on average she works from 9 am to 9 or 10 pm. A really easy day is when she leaves at 6 pm. A really bad day is when she leaves at 12 or 1 am. A really, really bad day is leaving at 3 am, or working the entire night.

Really bad days can last for weeks.

She said her first year here was a little like the first year of law school -- overwhelming, and inevitably leading to a breaking point, where you don't know how to deal with the amount of work and stress. But after that, she said, you don't get fazed anymore. You know you can handle it.

It's a glamourous life, working on international business deals in this, the cosmopolitan crossroads of the Pacific Rim. But as I told my partner mentor the last day at Mighty Big Firm, it doesn't seem like a good life.

But it is pretty damn glam.
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Notes: I did a little work today: some grunt work and some research that was rather interesting. A good day, all in all. Now, if only I could stop eating my weight in food every meal I have, I'd be perfectly peachy.

Tomorrow the 'rents arrive. It's funny to be able to offer them a bedroom to stay in, with nice sheets and a little apartment attached. May not be able to update for a few days, though -- they're here til Sat. morning.

hk in HK

I woke up at 6, naturally, even though I'd gone to bed around 2, practically tottering from the effects of the Ambien I took. Perhaps it was the light filtering in through the curtains.

I closed the drapes more securely, and went back to sleep.

I headed out around 20 to 9, and was politely instructed by the desk manager/concierge-type person how to get to the Central Escalator. The Escalator is a real marvel. Because many people live on the sides of the (very steep) mountains but work near the shore, and because the roads are so narrow, the government built an 800-meter series of escalators and moving walkways to move people up and down. Finished in 1993, it's the longest escalator in the world, and it moves about 50,000 people each day. The stairs and walkways run down in the mornings and up the rest of the day. It's pretty freakin' awesome. Especially in the sweltering evenings, when it's still 90 degrees out and the thought of walking up what would be half a mile of mountain is enough to give you heat rash. Brilliant idea, HK!

All I did today was training. An introduction to the firm, and then a series of people giving presentations on the finance side of the firm, the IT side, and so on. They're a lot more paranoid here about security. There are files that are low security and files that are high security, and we were shown a video of how a mis-labeled file cost the firm millions of dollars.

Actually, we (me, the only U.S. law intern, and 12 Commonwealth law students) were shown 3 videos about mistakes real lawyers had made at the firm. I mention them because they were so refreshingly honest about dumb mistakes -- and taught such good lessons about the real cost of small, unintentional errors. Errors like forgetting to write down one party on which to run a conflict check (which later revealed that there was a conflict, and thus resulted in the firm having to pull out of a deal that one partner had actively pursued). Or forgetting to save an email that proved the firm had asked a crucial question. Or mislabeling a file as low-security when it should have been high. It's nice to see a firm (or any entity, actually) looking clear-eyed at its mistakes, owning up to them, and using them to improve itself. And kudos to the lawyers who made the mistakes, for being willing to star in vehicles showcasing their own fuck-ups!

I went out with my office-mate and two other U.S. lawyers for lunch. Conversation dragged a bit, but I don't think it was me. Sigh. Sometimes I wonder about law. Are the people who go into it naturally boring? Or does the law make them so? My office mate asked me if I liked law school, and I gave my stock diplomatic answer: "I have mixed feelings about it." She then revealed that she hated it, and that she used that question as a litmus test. Which -- whatev. I despited law school my first year, and still don't like it or the current status of legal education, but I don't care if people like law school. Some people do.

I would have liked to have talked more to the 12 Commonwealth law students, but didn't get much of a chance to in training. I've never been around so many Asians who speak with British accents. It's a bit disconcerting. I've also never been around so many people who have such slammin' language skills. The training was conducted in English, and you know ALL of those trainers and trainees were fluent in other languages -- for most of them, English wasn't their first language. I'm so envious.

After work, I went to the grocery store and wandered around a little. Bought some food at an expensive Japanese shop downtown. Tried to buy an adaptor but didn't have cash (for some reason, I totally forgot that HK runs on 220-volt plugs, not the American 110-volt). Went up the escalator and looked at all the expats sitting and drinking in the cafes and bars all along the escalator route. Hey, I could be one of those expats!

Speaking of expats, I was reminded today that this is an island of several cultures, which are in some ways divided, but in some ways very comfortable with each other. I didn't realize, for example, that there is a large Indian population here -- which explains the good Indian food. Caucasians don't get a second glance here the way they would in other Asian countries; biracial couples don't get a second glance here they way they would in the States (except for in New York, I think). Everyone is far too busy being cool and cosmopolitan... and there are tons and tons of expats, after all. Many of whom have really hot accents. (Oops. Did I write that? That was supposed to be a silent note in my mind. D'oh!)

Had a pretty boring evening for a foreigner -- ate dinner, watched Merchant of Venice on TV. I was channel-surfing when I landed on MoV, and decided to give ole Billy Shakespeare a try (such is my love for Liev). I don't think I read MoV in college, and I had never seen a production of it. And I gotta say -- damn, but that man was good. Portia is wicked awesome! Antonio so wants Bassanio! Shylock is ultra complex! Jessica is such an ungrateful wretch! I think I might love Shakespeare. (Al Pacino, however, never met a piece of scenery he didn't want to chew.)

I finally figured out how to turn on the hot water (you have to manually turn on the gas heat), so I'm looking forward to a warm shower (as opposed to the chilly one I took last night because I couldn't figure out the heat), and then a good 8 hours of blissful, Ambiened sleep.

So endeth the first day of hk in HK.

Feeling chipper at midnight

After countless hours en route, I'm here, in my serviced one-bedroom apartment on the 18th floor, in Hong Kong. It was easier than I thought it would be to get all my stuff onto the tram from the airport, and then into a cab (efficiency, thy name is Hong Kong! Well done, Hong Kong, well done). As the cab pulled out of the shuttle station, I looked out into the night, I couldn't help grinning like a fool. I love traveling. I love new places.

Of course, H.K. (not to be confused with "hk") is not entirely new. I was here once before, for a 24-hour layover with The Ringleted One, coming back from SE Asia. We were so excited about being able to use tap water to brush our teeth and having toilet paper, though, that I don't remember much else. And beyond that, there's a sameness to big, cosmopolitan cities. A certain code of conduct, a certain set of expectations. The differences will be pleasure to explore in the next four weeks.

Just now, Gary Sinese is getting a confession out of a murdering doorman on TV. (CSI: Miami. In English.)

The complimentary plate of fruit includes a mango and dragonfruit.

I'm not tired at all. I'm sure I will be, though, in 7 hours, when I go to work. Apparently, you can walk there from these residences. But as it is 86 degrees out there (at midnight), I'm not sure that'll be such a good idea.

Okay, I must go to sleep. I mean, unpack first, and then go to sleep. It's been far too many days since I got a decent night's rest. But all worth it.

Man, I haven't been this tired in a long time. It really is 5:53 am, and the sun's up, and I continue to be. This might be good, as I might skip the jet lag and go straight into Hong Kong time without a hitch, but I am sooooo tired.

Lovely night last night, with several good friends coming to the village to send me and BC off. I'll tell you more when I'm more coherent...

Finish the rest of packing, a shower, and an hour of sleep are in my immediate future. The car comes at 10:30, and I'm off at 12:53 pm. I'd give you a nice "whee," but too tired...