First day of work! We went to the breakfast buffet at our hotel which has an unreal breadth of selection for food items. All aboard the school bus aka hotel to TST shuttle for our first day. We set up our monitors, phones, etc. all pretty smoothly. Our office is on the 12th floor and has great views of the skyline. I left work pretty early after we were set up to look at apartments. I saw 5 within 200m of Gough Street, the area I really liked we had seen the day before. It was very efficient! I picked the one I liked best and went back the next day to sign and put down a deposit. I learned, after the fact, that there is a super hip GF bakery right around the block– no wonder I liked the area so much! I enjoyed some GF keto vegan cake with flowers on it. I also stopped at a big grocery store in the IFC to get GF soy sauce. I took the ferry back during a beautiful sunset. We spent extra time in the boat since the dock was full or something but I did not mind!! The Star Ferry is really efficient and enjoyable, great views of the harbor! I will likely try to take the ferry to work on a regular basis.

We got lunch out most days of the week, from more Taiwanese beef noodles, to Chipotle-esque Cali Mex, to a Japanese place Osaka with Gary and Vivek, to a Korean place in our office building itself, to a sweetgreen like Youni. Yum! It’s been hard to get back to work after our long/big lunches, but it’s a fun way to explore the area. I had two days to get up to speed in the new office, in between brainstorming meetings for our social budget and company activities, and then was staffed on our first HK office project. We also checked out the Patio Bar at our hotel which was actually quite nice with live music and a nice view.

On Friday, we explored the TST area and went in to this new Donki everything store. We also caught happy hour at Assembly, and then went to “Pong” and “The Ring” which were bars that have officiated beer pong, slap cup, and other games. We then wanted to come back and get food court food at the hotel which is actually delicious, but it was close to 10 so they would be closed. We were still in TST so we went to the Chungking mansions instead, famous for Indian, African, and Middle Eastern food. We (Angela, Daniel, Jeni, Calvin) ate at the Delhi club and it was actually delicious.

General learnings/thoughts: heat/humidity is OK, but stop in stores and malls to cool down along the way. People walk SLOWLY– I find I am weaving through people on sidewalks and on the subway. The MTR (subway) is incredibly efficient and easy to navigate– no food and drink allowed so it is clean, and there are well-signed exits so you can go outside exactly where you want to be– you can walk for 12 minutes in one entry and out another exit within the same station! Bottled water is better than tap, but we have boiled water in our hotel rooms and refilled it into bottles for future use. Weather changes quick — fog rolls in or it heavily rains and then quickly clears up. Being in a serviced apartment is nice, but I don’t need someone coming with fresh towels every day! Managing the thermostat in my room is tough– it’s either an ice box or everything is warm and damp! Cash is used a LOT- I never carry cash in the US ,but here it’s essential for many small purchases.