Week 1 in Hong Kong

I arrived last week with mixed feelings for these next few months. Again I'd uprooted from home and had moved to a new city and a new project. This time for at least 3 months, possibly more. I had been thinking of resigning from my job for a while, and had come close to doing it for a variety of reasons. I wasn't sure how I would feel again about moving away from my friends and my family - and going to a place where I didn't know anyone. I wasn't sure either whether I was ready for another 6 months of long work hours and stress. To be honest I'd been getting bored of my job for a while. But that's the negative me talking though.

On arriving though I'm feeling much better about being here. I've spent my 1 week in a hotel and when I come back from Boston I will be moving into a serviced apartment on Hong Kong Island. Thank Goodness - I hate hotels.

An aside: Hotels to me are lonely places where I come back to after a long day at work, all the employees are over the top nice (I know they have to be, but its artificial), and I'm left sitting on my hotel bed, watching TV in a language I don't understand (or watching CNN/BBC *yawn*), thinking that I should do work, but not wanting to.

I have met the people I am working with, and I'm looking forward to working with and getting to know them. To be honest, Hong Kong is a place where your work is a big part of your life - but I think I'm ready to take that on. The work ethic in HK is quite strong - the 10 hour day is the norm up here - no one really leaves the office until at least 6.30 or 7.

Friday night seems to be the night where everyone goes out - but unless you are with a bunch of expats - native HK'ers aren't really big 'bar' people. But there seems to be a good variety of restaurants and cafe's in HK - so hopefully with a bit more time I'll meet some people to go to dinner with etc.

Speaking of expats - they are everywhere! Even half the Asians that I work are from Oz. I sit next to a guy who went to Epping boys! And the other half lived in either London or Vancouver. (well I've met 1 who studied in Van and 1 who studied in London - but those are pretty high odds for the first week.)

As far as the weather goes, its hot and windy in HK at the moment. You don't really want to go outside, but when you spend everyday going from home to bus to work to bus to home. You really need to go outside for a walk to get some sun. I haven't found a nice 'clear my head' walk yet, its a big change from working next to Sydney harbour and the Domain.

Its always interesting to see how the other side lives - and it gives you a chance to look at your own priorities and reassess whether they are in the right order. Hopefully I'll do some of that here.

I'm writing this in the business class lounge at HK airport :) Again, I probably could have written this in my hotel suite - but I'm just not in the right frame of mind when I'm in a hotel. I'm waiting to catch a plane to LA, then onto Boston for my company conference. And I'm quite looking forward to coming back to HK to begin my work here.