Little Diner

My days lately have been pretty full of classes, and preparing classes. But, it is really nice to have a set time for work and a set time for play. After work, the day sort of slips off your shoulders and lands back on the next day. Its actually been sort of a stressful week, mostly because there are lots of classes to teach and little monsters to attempt to control. My favorite part of my work day, besides the cute little monsters, is eating lunch. Anna EE, took me down to this little Diner very close to our work building. It is a very narrow, long room, when you first enter there is what looks like a kitchen on the right and the cash register on the left. The seats are brown, and there are drawers on the sides of the tabels which are full of utensils and napkins. In Hong Kong, many people eat lunch alone on their work break, and there isn't much room, so you usually sit across and next to people you don't know. It took me some time getting used to this concept. But, really after a while it doesn't seem strange, or like someone is in your space. Today I went down to the diner on my own, and although I couldn't read the menue I knew what I wanted. Some wonton mein and some dong lei cha, Wonton and egg noodles, and cold milk tea. It was a very scrumptious meal, and it felt good to be able to order my food, although that's about all know how to order. Sitting there in the little diner, I didn't feel lonely or out of place, but like for a while at least, I was part of the fabric of Hong Kong. Everything here seems to move like water down a stream. The constant flow of people who weave in and out of each other's way, and dodge buses, trams, carts and street cleaners, the constant flow of feet beating down the pavement and the incessant humm of voices pulsing through the dewy air. It is a wonder we don't all go crazy for some silence, but as i said before, I think there is a different kind of silence here if you can come by it. The closest I've found to silence was when it rained one night. I was in my room and happened to hear something soft beating the window. I looked and there was rain falling down, it was making little craters on the pavement below. The air felt a bit cooler and the water seemed to drown out everything else.