um, jeez

I kinda just realized it's december. Why was I deceived? Well, Thanksgiving this year really didn't feel like Thanksgiving. I mean, there were pies (which were delicious, so kudos to Diana and Sarah for that), but somehow the holiday turned into an American Cultural Event, for which small gatherings were held throughout that week (none on thursday). My sense of holiday date was thrown off (Thursdayness is quite important to the holiday), and so despite making hand turkeys and telling students about what my family (usually) does each year, it had a kind of surreal non-holiday feel to it. So now it's december, and I can't help but feel like a month is missing in there somewhere. I've made the transition from "I've been here almost three months" to people telling me "Oh! So you've been here almost half a year!" without knowing it. In the meantime, a lot happened, don't get me wrong, but somehow I've been thrown off a bit as far as the passage of time goes.

Summary:
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I went to Singapore for a holiday weekend, and it was really great. I asked for advice from Steph and Vicki about where to go and what to do, and they gave me lists of what to eat. It was the most successful travel strategy EVER. I tried more new foods in three days than I have since... oh... maybe going to Mexico City this past summer. Subsequent discussions with a native Singaporean have indeed confirmed that eating my way through hawker centers was definitely the way to go. Also, I got to see Tori, who I met last year during AAMP training, and that was really great. We met up with her parents for dinner, which by the most ridiculously favorable coincidence happened to be a really nice Teowchow-style six-course meal with their business partners. The food was unbelievable, and I only embarrassed myself a few times trying to eat it (but at least I now know how to eat crab). I regret that I did not have business cards with me to distribute, as that seems to be the polite thing to do. Also, their dinner conversation was 98% in Mandarin and 2% in "So, Sam, what work are you doing in Hong Kong?"

Singapore was quite interesting--it has historical parallels to HK, it has a lot of Chinese people living there who associate their identities with the PRC at all (and in fact both places have some scorn for mainlanders). Other things were interesting, like the four major languages (English, Mandarin, Bahasa Malaysia, Hindi) that were irregularly dispersed through the city, depending on the predominant ethnicity in the neighborhood -- i.e. some subway stations had signage in Malay while others did not, based on who the "target users" were. There were many anti-crime ads, and one of the subway lines played a video over and over again about some passengers who thwart an attempted bombing of their train by being vigilant about a young man with a suspicious bag. And, the young man in the video was Chinese, not visibly Islamic, which was kind of a thoughtful touch.

Overall: visit was delicious. I enjoyed traveling alone for the most part, but also it was great seeing a friend from college somewhat unexpectedly. Oh, and I have a SIM card for Singapore now with like US$5 in stored value.
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Monica came out to visit! Her semester in Japan ended early, so she and Lauren (from CMC) were in HK for a few days. I guess I needed an excuse to get back into the city again; I definitely went to some new places. It also turns out that Tammy, an acquaintance from college, has been studying at CUHK this whole semester and we had no idea. So I got to see her, meet some of her study abroad friends, etc.

Monica, Lauren, and I also went to Macau. It was really dirty the day we were there, although friends here say it can be quite nice. It had a much more European feel to it than here or anywhere else I've been (outside of Europe), but it was like just Chinese enough to clearly not be "just like" Europe. Also, I noticed a lot of motor scooters, public smoking, and spitting in the street, all three of which are either strongly discouraged (the first) or outright banned (the other two) in HK. It makes a difference, for sure. Food was also pretty good.
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I think I'm starting to get a handle on how I should be using my year here. Yes, I know it's half over, thanks, but a lot of the frustration I'd been feeling before was, essentially, unnecessary, caused by expectations that were for lack of a better word flawed. I think I have a better idea of how I can turn this job and this year from a sort of vacation from career-track/grad school decisions into something more positive. I know it's not enough to answer adults' questions about what I'm doing with, "I'm living in Hong Kong," and leaving it at that. It's going to require a little more discipline than maybe I've shown so far, but in the end, I can't stall adulthood, real jobs, adult friendships forever, and so I may as well get used to it.
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I owe a *lot* of people emails or snail mail (if you're special/you give me your address). I can't get a do-over on being four months late, but hopefully it'll be water under the bridge.