Of Buns and Floating Children

Steaming white buns stamped with red.  Crowds spilling all over the small island.  Children in intricate costumes "floating" down the main street in the parade.  The pounding of drums.  Lion dancers.  Lots and lots of lion dancers.

Yes, this post is a little late.  Cheung Chau's Bun Festival was back in the beginning of May.  But I had such a good time there that I didn't want to leave it without a post.  So here it is!

It was a public holiday, so I didn't have to work the Monday of the Bun Festival.  I ignored the advice of countless people and decided to make the journey to Cheung Chau.  I heard that it would be a nightmare of sweaty crowds and unending ferry queues.  While it was crowded (I heard around 20,000 people descended on the island), it wasn't quite that bad.  Maybe the slight rain kept the crowds at a fairly manageable size.  Either way, I was happy.  I waited for less than an hour to board the ferry on both ends, and I even had a good view of the parade (although maybe it was just good luck; I'll get into that later).  

I met up with my sister and three friends at the ferry piers in Central in the morning.  The parade was supposed to start in the afternoon, and we wanted to catch lunch as well as grab a good spot well before it started.  We were lucky enough to get seats on the ferry ride over; some people had to stand the whole way.

Goodbye, Hong Kong Island!

When we arrived at Cheung Chau, the crowds were out in force.  We were all starving at that point so tried find a nice place to eat.  I had looked up a restaurant on the internet, but it appeared to be closed.  Another one nearby looked nice, but it was full.  We were tired of fighting the crowds and getting a little "hranky" (you know, hungry and cranky?) at that point.  Thankfully, I remembered that a friend suggested going to a restaurant on the back of the island.  The others didn't have faith in me when I had them walk across the beach and down some people-less paths, but finally we made it to the restaurant!  They forgave me then, because it was so nice.  The tables were outside, overlooking a windsurfing beach.  It was quiet and beautiful, a great place to chill and talk.

Much happier now.

After eating, we plunged back into the crowds to stake a spot for the parade.  We still had an hour before the parade was supposed to start, but we heard it was hard to find good places.  We went to the main square, but it was already filling up.  We were standing behind row upon row of people and couldn't see very well.  We squeezed around a corner onto another street.  It wasn't quite as crowded there, and I noticed that people were setting out chairs.  We figured that they must know something.  I saw a space in front of a shop that looked like a good place to stand, so I saved it while the others look for another place.  In fact, the shopkeeper next door even told Y that she should go watch the parade by the tree; it was a better place.  Of course, we had just been there and knew it was super crowded, so I think she was just trying to get rid of us.  

Now this is where my foreignness helped us out!  While I was saving our spot, several older people set up chairs in front of me, but they didn't say anything.  I suspect that they didn't speak English so they didn't know how to shoo me away.  Several groups of Cantonese people tried to get past them to stand  by me, but the old people waved them away.  Score!  Finally the others came back; no better spots had been found.  It really was perfect.  Since the old people were sitting down, no one was in our way.  We also had an awning over our heads, so when it started raining, we didn't get too wet. The only thing we were missing was a chair!

Eating a potato spiral

People chilling, waiting for the parade to start.

After waiting for an hour or so, the parade started.  I have to say, although this was the floating children's parade, the majority of the parade was people in t-shirts.  They'd have a couple lion dancers and drummers, and then a long crowd of people in matching t-shirts.  It was also amusing to me that a lot of the people in the parade were very casual.  I mean like smoking, texting, drinking beer, casual.  I don't think I've ever seen parade participants texting as they walked down the street before.  A bit amusing.

These guys were more serious

I like the action.  Note the beer can on the left.

It seemed that we had stumbled into the local viewing section of the parade, since the people around us kept waving to those in the parade, laughing together, changing seats to sit with someone else.  It was a nice experience.  We also noticed that the parade groups would often pause a little to our left and do a special trick or blow a kiss or something to the people sitting a shop or two down from us.  We were wondering who was sitting there.  Finally Y heard some people talking about it; all the kung fu sifus (masters) were sitting next to us!  

Of course, we were looking forward to the floating children (yes, not the people in t-shirts).  Although they were few and far between, it was very fun to see them!  Their costumes were great.  Some were historical and some had to do with current events (even poking fun at current events).  

In case you were wondering, they aren't really floating (darn it).  It looked like they were standing on a pole which also ran up their pant-leg and attached to a harness/belt around their waist.  Or something like that.  Anyway, up close you can see that they're standing, but from far off they did look like they were floating above the crowd!

They were all really cute.  Miss Brazil was definitely the most confident floating child.  She was waving and blowing kisses like nobody's business.  Then they had a mini bun-scrambler climbing his mini bun-mountain (the main activity of the festival is bun-scrambling).  So cute!  The little girl in blue and pink looked kind of scared but resolute.  And then Mr. Ga Ga in a suit.  I had asked my friend what his sign said, since he looked like one of the satyrical ones.  She said "ga1 ga3" but didn't know how to translate it. I was very happy because I knew the answer!  We had just learned the phrase "ga1 ga3" (yes, it sounds like a baby noise) in Canto class, so I knew it meant "increase price."  There's nothing like real-life application to make your learning stick.

After the parade, we ducked into a small dessert shop to relax and restore our energy.  After all, we had been standing for around three hours!  I felt better with some sugar in my system, so we went to find the bun towers.

Now the biggest event of the festival is not actually the parade but the bun-scrambling.  They have these huge towers totally covered with lucky buns!  They have a competition where men (do women do this too?  I've only seen men do it) scale the towers and see who can collect the most buns.  It sounds really exciting.  Unfortunately, the competition starts at midnight.  After a full morning and afternoon, I was definitely too tired to stay for the scrambling.  Next year I hope to go at 8 or 9 at night just to see the event.

At least I got a picture with a tower

Before we left, we tried to get more buns.  I looked for a sesame bun in vain (sesame is my favorite flavor).  I had a communication problem earlier when trying to buy some buns, so my hot "sesame" buns turned out to be cold lotus buns.  Well you can't win them all, but at least I persevere!  The others lined up to buy more buns (custard, I think).  While I was waiting for them, a lion dance started right next to me!  I've never been quite this close to the lion before.

The lion snatching up the lettuce

It was a good end to a nice (but tiring day).  We tramped back to the ferry (queuing for an hour) and wearily made our way home.  I can't wait for next year!

This little guy did make it home with me.  Now I'll have a lucky bun all year!

More and More

I've been learning jyut6 lai4 jyut6, more and more, recently.  It's kind of exciting to catch more, understand more, interact more.  Of course my level is still really low, but I'm climbing the hill.

Recently I've learned some really good phrases that help me express myself more, like "at the same time," "before", and "you've got to be kidding me." Then I've learned a lot of new vocab for things I see on a regular basis.  Just this week I finally decided to look up "tunnel" as I was riding through the Aberdeen Tunnel (Heung1 Gong2 Zai2 seoi6 dou6).  Then later that week I was telling someone that living in Ap Lei Chau was a little troublesome because of the tunnel.  So I got to use it right away!

As I said before, sometimes looking up words aren't so straightforward.  Just like English, often several words will come up, and I don't always know which one to use.  I looked up "must" today, but there are SO many entries, so I couldn't even hazard a guess on that one.  Same story for "only/just."

Last night I watched Young and Dangerous 4 (Gu2 Waak6 Zai2 Sei3).  I used subtitles, but it was cool to hear some words that I've recently learned in class or on my own.  When I learn a word, I think I need a human element to cement it into my mind.  Although it's better when I use it in person, like in conversation, movies also help.  And on a side note, Ekin Cheng looked really cool the whole movie, but he kind of ruined it with the last fight he got in, flailing around, throwing up his arms, grabbing at his opponent.  Not. Very. Cool.

Today I got a lot of practice in, some successful and some not quite so much, but it's all practice.  I was helping my mom, since they're moving to a new flat.  It's only a few blocks away, so we were carting stuff back and forth in suitcases.  I tried to strike up conversations with people in the lift.  I'm not sure how to say "moving" so I was trying to say that my parents are going to live here, but I didn't always get the message across.  After getting off the lift, one man pointed at us and said something to the security guard about "airport."  I don't think he got what I was trying to say and was extrapolating from our suitcases.

Then when I was going home later, I was standing at the stop, waiting for the minibus.  The lady in front of me was watching something on her phone, and I recognized the song that was playing.  It was Dream High, a Korean drama.  I commented that I watched that drama before, and so we started talking.  She asked me if I was watching Sing1 Sing1 (My Lover From the Stars, or something like that) the new Korean drama that is tearing through the city.  I told her no.  Before I was studying Korean so I watched Korean shows, but now I'm studying Cantonese so I watch Cantonese movies.  We went on to have a good conversation.  She said a lot of things that I didn't understand, but I was able to respond and make comments, and we were still able to talk until the bus showed up.   It was quite nice!

I think that's one advantage of being a foreigner: small talk.  Hong Kong people don't seem to be much for small talk, which is quite different from where I grew up.  Of course, I like talking to strangers, and I try to do it even more now because I want to practice.  If I were a local, or even a waa4 kiu4 (overseas-born Chinese), I don't think they'd be so accepting of my small talk (or so I've been told).  But since I'm a foreigner, and a fairly non-threatening one at that, I think people are more open.  Either way, it works for me!

Ups and Downs

My Cantonese progress, like most things in life, is full of ups and downs.

Some days I feel eager to talk with my security guards or convenience store clerks or anyone who will listen.  Other days, words whizz past me, slipping through my fingers as I desperately try to catch at least one of them.  Some weeks I study at home, watch Canto video clips on Youtube, try to practice with coworkers and friends, and write down questions to ask my teacher.  Other weeks, my brain feels like a cold turnip cake, tired, squishy, and useless.  I usually do nothing then.

Today was a good day, as you might have guessed.  Usually if it's a bad day I can't muster up enough enthusiasm to create a post; if I'm feeling good I'll want to keep going, whether that be studying, watching a Canto video or writing a blog post.

This evening I took the ding1 ding1 (tram/trolley) down to Central for a language exchange meet-up.  I've been going to for several months, and they're pretty fun. They run about two hours.  I practice with one partner at first, and we switch after an hour.  For a half an hour we practice English and for the other half an hour, Cantonese.  After it's over, there's an optional dinner at a nearby restaurant.

Tonight was a good night.  My partners spoke slowly (in general) and were pretty good about explaining new words to me.  I learned a lot of good ones, like yao5 si4, sometimes.  So useful, la!  Then at dinner I was able to talk with more people, having actual conversations!  Of course I made so many mistakes, but the communication was fun, so that's key.

It's funny how much of a difference the other person makes.  On the listening end, I feel defeated if I can't catch anything they're saying.  I swear some people are practicing to be auctioneers.  I've been told by a lot of people that Americans speak more quickly than other English-speakers.  That may be true, but if that's the case I think Hong Kongers are the Americans of Asia.  Wah, they speak so quickly!  I think some people just aren't able to speak slowly.  Even after I ask them to slow down, they'll just repeat what they said at the same speed!  Aiya!

And then there's the vocabulary side.  If we're speaking about some topics, I know a lot of words.  Despite my mistakes, the communication is fun and natural.  I can even throw in some slang words or phrases I've learned.  But then other times we'll be talking about something, and I feel like I don't understand every other word and have to keep looking them up.  And then I don't know how to express myself, so it's a cycle.  A slow and frustrating cycle.

Even week to week my mood can vary.  On good weeks, when I watch videos or read blog posts by other language learners, I feel inspired.  It makes me want to keep going and gives me new study ideas.  On bad weeks, I feel like a failure.  Why am I not putting in as much study time as they are?  Why am I not seeing as much success even though I've been studying longer?  Why don't I know how to say "short"?

I've come to accept the ups and downs; they're part of life.  I think I've settled on a fairly good system of relaxed learning.  Some weeks I work hard and other weeks I slack off, but it evens out in the end.  Maybe I won't learn as quickly as some others, but I can still enjoy the process as well as keep up other activities outside of language learning.  I'll just learn yut1 bou6 yut1 bou6, step by step.

I'll get there some day.

The Denali Trip

How the time flies.  In just two weeks I'll be moving back to Hong Kong!  I'm pretty excited.  I'm going to spend a week in Arkansas, then go to Istanbul for a few days (extended layover), and then I'll be in the land of milk tea!  Should be fun times, right?  

Now I'm quite busy finishing up work, getting logistics worked out, and trying to fit in some fun stuff.   I figured it would be some kind of crime to leave Alaska without going to Denali, so last week Nathan and I made the trip.  

We left Friday evening and drove to Denali.  It's quite a long drive but the scenery was great and we had some interesting podcasts to listen to (Freakonomics and Hardcore History!).  When we finally made it to the southern part of Denali, we stopped at a scenic lookout and took some pictures of a mountain that could have been in some kind of villain cartoon.  It was really dark and pointy and funny-looking.  Unfortunately, my pictures didn't turn out so well.  When we drove on into the park, we glimpsed Mt. McKinley through the the mountains and clouds.

By the time we got to our campsite at the entrance of the main park, it was after midnight.  We drove around trying to find our name on a campsite but never did.  After twenty minutes of looking we just pulled into an empty one and set up camp.

I'm not much of a camper since I rarely sleep, so I was up at five thirty.  Although the weather report predicted rain, it was a beautiful morning.  When Nathan woke up we boiled some water on a tiny portable stove so we could have oatmeal and tea and coffee.  We had opted to take the eight hour shuttle bus (four hours each way) and we got on the one leaving at eight. 

The scenery was quite wonderful although it was difficult to stay awake since I had barely slept the night before!  We got to see a mama bear and her cubs, a moose, two caribou and some ptarmigans, although the ptarmigans were the only things that were actually close.  Overall, it was a pretty fun trip!  And of course now I can check it off my list.  Check.

On the bus, ready to go!

It may look like just a bunch of blonde rocks but it's actually a mama bear and her babies taking a nap.

Pretty scenery.

Kind of looks like a green screen, dunnit?

A Whittier Fourth

I had Independence Day off this year.  Hooray!  Rebecca and I decided to visit Whittier, a small town on Prince William Sound.  It's pretty close to Anchorage, only about an hour away, but I'd never been there before.

Welcome to Mordor

The fun thing about Whittier is that you have to go through a tunnel which is only open at certain times so you have to watch the schedule or you might have to stay longer than you wanted.  We had decided to have a picnic, but when I woke up the day was gray and rainy.  We went anyway but decided to have our "picnic" in the car parked in front of a waterfall.

My view from the car

After lunch we wandered around a bit.  The water was exceptionally beautiful, an interesting gray color.  We drove around the town, taking maybe ten minutes, and bought some fudge before heading back to the tunnel.

My mom bought me that raincoat

Maybe old mining junk?

On the other side of the tunnel there's a visitor center for glaciers, and we popped in.

I made a friend

Pieces of glacier floating around

Ooh

Glacier!

On the way back to Anchorage, we pulled off at a little lake.  In nicer weather, it would be a great picnic spot as well.  The gorgeous water was only marred by a few seagulls floating on its lightly rippled surface.  Dang seagulls. 

That night I joined my small group for games and a cookout.  Looking back on it, I had a very traditional fourth.  Picnic, games, bbq.  The only things missing was the volleyball/baseball and swimming.  Oh, and the fireworks.  They had a firework ban.  I guess you can't win them all.

Happy Saturday

I didn't really have any plans for today, a Saturday, but plans seemed to find me!  My friend Rebecca texted me in the morning and asked if I'd like to go have a picnic!  Of course I said yes.

Then someone else e-mailed me that they found a place that served chicken feet and egg tarts!  I had just been talking with her about Hong Kong food I like, so it was really sweet of her to let me know.  Since I'm carless at the moment, Rebecca picked me up.  She kindly agreed to take me by the Chinese place to pick up my picnic food.

Thank you, Charlie.

It took me a little while to make a decision, but I finally decided on chicken feet, har gou, sticky rice lotus leaf, and an egg tart.  For good measure I got some bubble tea, but it was just Thai tea.  I talked to the lady at the register a little, but unfortunately she only speaks Mandarin.  :(   As far as the food went, in case the suspense is killing you, it was fair to good.  The chicken feet were great and the sticky rice was good.  The egg tart was decent (a bit too sweet, I think), but the har gou wasn't very good.  It was mashed shrimp instead of whole, and it had this strange taste to it, so I didn't even want to finish it.  Still, overall I was pleased. 

The little lake we went to was a bit out of the city but worth the drive.  It was beautiful!  There was a cute little sandpiper that kept us entertained while we ate.  Lunch and a show!  A bunch of people showed up and started setting up a party, apparently a German party, so we didn't linger too long over lunch.  There was a trail nearby that looped around the lake so we decided to walk it.

There's not much else to say except that everything was beautiful.  I'll let the pictures speak for themselves.

Lupines!

Up the trail

Wild roses

Reflections

Interesting foliage

After the successful, yet mosquito-ridden, walk, we went back to Anchorage and had some delicious frozen yogurt!  Rebecca was taking me home when I saw something was happening out in front of the Dimond Mall.  A Korean festival of some sorts?  She dropped me off and I went to investigate.  A bunch of churches had set up boothes and had food and such.  They had a stage too, but unfortunately I had missed the performances.  They were playing Korean music on the loudspeakers, and a Vixx song that I just bought came on twice!  I bought some Korean donuts and dukboki.  

I was eating at a table when I heard someone calling my name.  It was my boss's daughter!  I went over and sat with her and her friends while I finished my snack.  The festival was over and people started taking stuff down, so I decided to go in the mall.  I didn't see too much interesting stuff, but I did get a pair of much-needed black flats.  I also saw another friend who works at the mall.  It was slow in her store so we talked for awhile. 

Then I got a text from my life group leader.  My church life group was getting together to hang out.  We went to a high school to play ultimate frisbee and then volleyball.  I'm not good at either one, but it was still fun.  I actually even had a fun time playing volleyball, which is saying something.  

Afterwards we went to someone's house where they grilled some fish (halibut and salmon).  It was SO good.  Probably the best halibut I've ever had (although I haven't had it too many times, still).  They had some fun backyard games to play and we also talked a lot.  I played washer pitching, which I'm also not good at (do you sense a theme here?) but still had a good time.  I did get better towards the end!  

All in all it was a wonderful Saturday.  I didn't get much done in a productive sense, but that's ok.  After all, I have to enjoy my Alaskan summer!

San Fran and Five Iron Frenzy!

Those of you who know me probably know that I love music. More specifically, I'm crazy about Blindside and Five Iron Frenzy.  I got to to a Blindside show a couple years back but Five Iron was still broken up then.  I thought my dream would never come true.  BUT.  Oh yes, there's a but.

They got back together again!  They've been making new music and playing a few shows!  Last weekend they had a show in San Francisco!  I didn't know if I should do it, since it would involve buying an expensive plane ticket, but after talking to my mom and some friends I decided to go for it.  After all, this has been a life long dream.  To make matters even better, one of my good friends from Hong Kong lives there!

I didn't take too many pictures, but I took a couple.

Dim Sum and friends!  Anchorage is sorely lacking in the dim sum department.

Bubble tea!  That's something else Anchorage lacks.

Besides having wonderful dim sum and bubble tea, I also got to eat HK diner food and have...HK style milk tea!  It's SOOOOOO good.  Oh man, I wish there were some in town.  I also got to practice a bit of Canto, which clearly needs a lot of work.  But at least it was fun.

We got to the show right when the doors opened, and there weren't many people there at all!  I was told that San Franciscans tend to plan tons of stuff for one weekend so they can't afford to be early anywhere.  Works for me!  We got a spot on the front row, right in between Reese and Brad!  I literally couldn't have had a better spot.  

They put on SUCH a good show.  They were funny and had a nice rapport.  They joked with the crowd.  They even played pretty much all the songs I wanted them to.  I wondered if they would play "You Probably Shouldn't Move Here" since it's about why you should leave California and move to Colorado (facetiously, of course) but they did!  So happiness. 

This picture cracks me up.

Reese and his dancing.

The wonderful horn section!

I even got a great video, although the sound is crap.  Here it is if you'd like to watch it, but I suggest muting it.  It was of one of my favorites, American Kryptonite.

With that, bye bye!