So, being that I missed my original flight on Friday morning, which I thought was at 6pm and was in fact at 9am, I was forced to risk the standby option and chance getting on the 11pm flight. Luck was on my side as I got my boarding pass at 10:45, and was in the air towards Vancouver at 11. A short flight to Vancouver and a 1 hour layover put me back in the air for a grueling 11 hour flight amongst a mainly Chinese crowd. I've never been in a room (let alone a plane) with so many screaming infants in my life. For a country with a 1 child maximum, there certaintly were a plethora of young families, bringing mountains of luggage, babies, and old people. Before I even boarded the flight at JFK I knew I was already immersed in a new and strange culture; a communal culture. Babies were passed around amongst familu and strangers as if everyone on the flight knew everyone else. They say it takes a village, and the village was on that flight. What American mother would hand over her crying new born to a strange old woman no matter how exhausted she was? Thus far, and I don't mean to make any generalizations, but the Chinese don't seem to have the same fear of each other that Americans are bred to have. That being said, I felt virtually invisible, isolated, and lonely.
Once I finally made it to Hong Kong (thusly HK) I made my way to HK station (as per my contact Fiona's instructions) and of course managed to find the only cabbie on the whole string of islands that didn't speak English. I called Fiona, (luckily my phone now has an international plan, but don't call me, I'm only using it for work) and had her give her address in Cantonese to the cabbie.
I arrived at the apartment on Conduit Drive, paid the cabbie, was greeted by the building guard, and buzzed into the eleventh penthouse that my new friend and co-worker Fiona lived. This must have been the nicest flat I've ever been in, and I've been in a few. Massive living room with a view, kitchen, laundry, dining room, study/spare room with exercise equipment, three beds...swanky digs to say the least.
Anyways, I had breakfast with Fiona's mom dad and boyfriend Andrew. Fiona's family seemed to be of a typical HK dynamic, Asian Mother (Chinese I believe, she spoke Cantonese), British Ex-Pat Dad, American College, and Australian boyfriend.
Around 10, Fiona, Andrew and I made our way to a back alley coffee shop at the bottom of the main island. In fact, most the places in HK are located in back alleys since the city is an island and space is limited, so buildings are built high and very close together.
So the first shoot of the day was to be at this coffee shop because they happened to carry the cheese products that my company markets, and the company has a good repoire with the owner.
oh man i'm beat...i'll finish this in the morning.
I arrived at the apartment on Conduit Drive, paid the cabbie, was greeted by the building guard, and buzzed into the eleventh penthouse that my new friend and co-worker Fiona lived. This must have been the nicest flat I've ever been in, and I've been in a few. Massive living room with a view, kitchen, laundry, dining room, study/spare room with exercise equipment, three beds...swanky digs to say the least.
Anyways, I had breakfast with Fiona's mom dad and boyfriend Andrew. Fiona's family seemed to be of a typical HK dynamic, Asian Mother (Chinese I believe, she spoke Cantonese), British Ex-Pat Dad, American College, and Australian boyfriend.
Around 10, Fiona, Andrew and I made our way to a back alley coffee shop at the bottom of the main island. In fact, most the places in HK are located in back alleys since the city is an island and space is limited, so buildings are built high and very close together.
So the first shoot of the day was to be at this coffee shop because they happened to carry the cheese products that my company markets, and the company has a good repoire with the owner.
oh man i'm beat...i'll finish this in the morning.
