Tempest7: Blogger

Christmas in Hong Kong 2007

First off Merry Christmas! Joyeux Noël! クリスマスおめでとう!聖誕快樂! That's my semi-international opening to this entry. Most people that I've met in Hong Kong say it in English, but I've also heard the rest. A testament to how international this city is.

I spent Christmas with my new Aussie friend Daniel. He hasn't been in HK that long, and I know how difficult moving to a new place is when you don't really know anyone. The difficulty this holiday is deciding what to do. I don't want to spend a lot of money, but staying at home feels extra lonely during Christmas. When I heard about Tiffany's brother feeling sad one year away from home for his first time at Christmas, I totally understand that feeling. There is something missing when you're not with your family at Christmas time. Of course the culture here in Hong Kong is different. There's not much of a difference between Christmas and New Years. Most of the people don't even know the meaning of Christmas.

The cost of going out to events increases dramatically Christmas Eve, I had a headache trying to decide on which one to go to. With the average cost around $350 HKD a party. The typical party being an all you can drink alcohol party.

Daniel met up with an "uncle" and then opted to go out with me to Wan Chai to find a party to go to. We were just going to go out together, two boys, out looking for some fun. We ended up finding a place where it was just more boys looking for action. The ratio was pretty bad, but I ran into a few girls that I know, and I came in contact with a girl I possibly met about a year ago in another club.

Christmas eve being somewhat of a write-off, Christmas day, or night actually, we met up to go sing Karaoke at the Neway CEO in Causeway Bay. We grossly underestimated the people that were going to show up, and we fill one room and had to switch to another, much larger one.

Even though the Nintendo Wii has been out for some time, I never really had a chance to play with it until I went to Karaoke. All those stories you read about where people throw the controllers breaking TVs and people throwing out their arms pretty much all came true in front of my eyes. Kanae managed to break something throwing the controller while playing Wii Tennis and I almost threw out my shoulder playing Wii baseball.

It was a good night, everyone was pretty social, and only one person threw up. I brought out my friends to socialize with Priscilla's friends, and I think they all had a good time. I managed to strengthen my friendship with Kanae, but she's leaving in the New Year. We took a lot of pictures that night, so even for those with spotty memory, there's a good record of that night's events.

Labels: Friends, Hong Kong, Karaoke

posted by Tempest7 @ 23:59