Late last night, as I was returning home from a wonderful meal with my aunt, uncle and three cousins, my ears were greeted with a delightful and familiar noise. My cousin Rita, who is so short she needs to put the car seat all the way to the front, drove me home last night with her usually bubbly candor, and to my delight Jack Johnson’s voice meet me on the road home. Somehow I thought that when I came to Hong Kong, I would just soak up the place like a sponge... I didn't know I would miss familiar sounds or voices. And it is strange, but I didn't want the car ride to end, riding through the windy roads watching the lights of the city and listening to Jack Johnson's scratchy acoustic sound was worlds together in my heart. Delightful. After which I went on a short stroll in the night air, which was balmy yet cool. It's been raining on and off for the last couple days and I'm told this is normal Hong Kong weather. It’s actually been one of the hottest summers in recollection for most native Hong Kong people. The rain is a welcomed treat, although I thought I knew the meaning of a downpour, being from Eugene. However, I've experienced a nuance of the word; it is more like torrential down pour here. In a moment you can get stuck in the rain and even with an umbrella, it is like someone poured a bucket of water on you. I realized this after I was on the bus and at first there were speckles on the window, then streams, then there was just water flowing down like a fountain. When I got back to Uncle Tony's flat, I shuffled off to bed, but I couldn't sleep for a long while due to the periodic flashes of lightning that overthrew my room. A flash would light the sky, then I would count…one...two...and a sound like God clapping his wet hands together unleashed rain and thunder. The thunder was unlike any I've experienced in my life, it was like the entire world was roaring from a deep pitted throat unleashing its wrathful noise. It was a bit scary. Especially when, at one point, there was no time to count to one between the flash and the clap and thunder. It was strange to look out of my window on the 25th floor at night and be surrounded by a grey cloud.
On another note, I've finally accomplished some touristy things. On Saturday, I went to Central Pier and took some pictures. There are many foreigners there, all speaking languages like French, Hindu, Tagalog, etc. I didn't feel as strange taking pictures, but it certainly felt touristy because it was not that crowded and it was pretty pristine. There were lots of cute old Chinese men fishing and sitting around the Pier though, and it was fun to watch them. There was actually a street guy playing a Chinese violin and a mouth harp thingy, and he was playing this song I used to know as a kid called “Red River Valley.” It seemed like such an inappropriate song for Hong Kong, but it was interesting nonetheless. The song is this old west country song. Anyways I took a little video clip of it because it made me laugh.
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