11 Feb The work week ritual
Our first week in Hong Kong has been a positive experience, and hopefully it’s a reflection of good things to come over the remainder of our time here. The location of our internship at a financial firm is quite distant from our hotel room; however luckily for us the metro system is so efficient. It’s been convenient having four other interns at the firm at the same time, as traveling to work and performing day to day tasks alone may have become nerve-racking and overwhelming. Everyone at the office is friendly and ready to help, so far it’s been a very educational experience and a great insight into private sector finance.
Our group has begun to have our little rituals for the day including picking up some BBQ pork buns for breakfast, making our way over to the conveniently placed “Mega Box” shopping mall for lunch and then possibly stopping for more BBQ pork buns after work depending on hunger levels. The metro system on the way back is much more hectic than on the way to work, although it’s still not as bad as I envisioned previous to my arrival.
We finished work at 1pm on New Years Eve and headed home to prepare for the night ahead. To bring in the New Year, we all met up and began drinking in the community lounge. Unfortunately, we were kicked out of the lounge soon after for making too much noise. This was no problem however, as we then migrated to Salman’s room. After some drinking games we began our search for the best view of the fireworks. I was surprised to find that we could openly purchase alcohol in the 7/11s and then drink it in the streets. I’ve never travelled anywhere where this has been acceptable. I’m not sure if this rule was specific to New Years, but it was perfect for a New Years celebration. It’s too bad that it would never fly in Australia because there are already too many incidents involving overly intoxicated Australians causing trouble on a normal weekend. We could potentially wipe out half the Australian population overnight if we start introducing these kinds of laws.
There were a lot of people out celebrating the New Year in Hong Kong, with many merchants out selling celebratory gear. One of them must have seen Nick coming from a mile away as he paid HK$100 for a hat and HK$30 for some glasses. Although he should count himself lucky; if she saw him later in the night singing in the street to Taylor Swift, he may have paid double.
The remainder of the week has been pretty quiet at work. Our boss has been away so we’ve all been left to work on our proposals. We’re all prepped for our first weekend after we’ve been working hard all week. We’re getting ready to head to the OZONE bar tonight which is going to be amazing. I believe we have the same plan as New Years, drink in the hotel and then stumble through the streets to our destination. If New Years is any indication of what’s ahead, I expect some people to be stumbling, some people to be dancing and some people to be singing all the way there. Won’t mention any names, but I suspect the playlist could potentially include some Taylor Swift.
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