A few night ago Matt and I went to TGI Friday's (yes, there is a TGI Friday's in HK) to celebrate our 9 month anniversary of moving to HK. Actually, before going, we debated whether or not we've been living here long enough to justify a trip to one of the most ridiculous bits of "Americana" found in HK. We decided we had. We were both craving American food too much to resist. It wasn't until after we sat down that we realized we'd been living here for 9 whole months. Wow. Time flies!
So far, so good. This city has treated us well. It hasn't always been a piece of cake [on a complete unrelated side note---some of my Chinese co-workers don't understand much of what I say, so when I speak, I speak very slowly and clearly, using simple English. The other day I tried to explain what it means to say something is a "piece of cake"--it was a disaster. First I tried to explain the word cake, which is impossible to do unless you try to explain other weird words like flour or muffin, or something similar. I think they thought I was an idiot...] living here, but I'm definitely not regretting the move whatsoever.
The only thing that is noticeably missing from our lives are alot of friends. Don't get me wrong, we've met some wonderful people here and are in the process of forging great friendships, but it's a slow process. I'm such a social person that it's been weird for me to not have a full list of girls to go shopping with or hang out with at any given moment. Even friendships with co-workers don't happen quickly. (Part of that is because of the aforementioned language barrier.) Often I just feel like an awkward foreign-exchange student who can't speak the language and doesn't know how to respond to cultural differences, when deep down inside I know I'm a social-caterpillar just waiting to blossom into a butterfly. Honestly, guys, I'm cool! Look at me! Please hang out with me. Errr...Nevermind.
But like I said, we're working on that. I just hope that my new HK friends don't read this and decide that I'm too big of a nerd to hang out with.
Anyway--I didn't mean for this to escalate the way it did. Mostly I just wanted to mention that I went to TGI Friday's and tell you that even though I went there, it doesn't mean I'm one of those silly Americans who craves ridiculous American food like potato chips, macaroni and cheese, nachos, corn dogs, etc. all the time. Those people are just not cool.
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7 comments:
joe and i went to TGI Friday's our last night in India. Believe it or not it was hard to find good indian food in delhi (and by our last night we didn't really want to try). there's nothing like seeing indian waiters almost competing for who wears the most flare.
i actually thought you and matt have been in hong kong longer than 9 months. i thought it was almost 2 years now for some reason. we'll have to seriously try to visit within the next year!
one night in new york john & i went to chili's in times square! (that is the same day we went to TWO movies!! chili's was in between...)
it feels good to finally get that off my chest.
I guess we're only human. (And Americto boot!) We gotta get our mozzeralla sticks where we can.
carolyn and andi-
Thanks for coming out with your confessions. It makes a girl like me feel supported.
Ok, ok, ok....I guess it's my turn to confess. John and I went to Red Lobster in Times Square. There, it's out.
TGI Friday's was our mainstay whenever we'd visit Beijing. I don't think I could've ever gotten tired of it, except for the prices!! :) You think a teacher's salary is bad in the US, try a Chinese one! :)
So did the TGI Friday's in Hong Kong have the fabulous little deep fried mac and cheese bites and deep fried green beans that they recently introduced over here?!?!
I was in a quaint little town in Ireland once... so small I can't remember the name... and I went to McDonald's. We all have our demons... It's okay. :)
Dani-
No little fried delicious beans that I noticed. I'll have to keep an eye out, though.
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