Well, technically, I have been back since Saturday but today is the first chance I have had to actually blog about my return to the states.
In my last week there I actually started to build relationships with some of the other people who work at the Hong Kong office so on Wednesday a group of us went and played basketball. I am not very good at basketball though I do get a little better if I play somewhat frequently. You might think, considering I live in front of a park with a basketball court, that I would play fairly frequently but you would be wrong for thinking that. Instead I almost never play. I warned the guys that I wasn't very good but they said not to worry about it. I didn't lie - I wasn't any good - however, fortunately, most of them aren't very good at basketball either so I didn't really feel outclassed by anyone on the court. There was a large guy named Vijay who really used his size and strength to his advantage down low and really pushed me around whenever I jumped for a rebound but other than him I didn't really feel like anyone was doing anything "better" than me. We played games to 21 and the games all took over 30 minutes. It wasn't pretty. In the final game my foot got tangled up with this large Dutch guys foot and I tore my big toenail up pretty badly and sprained the top of my foot. It hurt like hell.
I figured my one advantage in basketball in Hong Kong would be the fact that I am 6' tall and most of the people there aren't. However, it seems the banks only import tall people and so along with Vijay there were some other people who were substantially taller than me in the game. The Dutch guy was easilly 4" taller than me and there is a tall Brit who was probably 6" taller than me. I actually managed to block one jump shot by the Dutch guy but beyond that my highlights were very rare.
On Thursday the tall Birtish guy, Joh, and two other guys (Barrie and Mike - another Brit) and I went out after work back to Lang Kwai Fong to have a couple beers. As the night progressed Mike and Barrie eventually went home until finally, around 2 or 3 am it was just Jon and I so we headed to Ebeneezer's Kabab stand and had a very late dinner before parting ways. Over the course of the night Jon and Mike both talked to me briefly about staying on in HK. I told them the bank wouldn't be able to pay me enough and they both laughed and told me I'd be surprised. While the bank may be able to pay enough I just don't think there would be enough incentive for me to uproot my family and move to Hong Kong. First, and foremost, Lisa already has a very good job which would be hard to replace there. Sure she could get another sales job but she always wanted to work in the Pharmaceutical industry and she probably wouldn't be able to do that in HK. Secondly, it is really hot there and Lisa would be miserable in the heat. Thirdly, Shannon is in her second year of school and is pretty much friends with everyone. While she could make new friends if we moved I would prefer if she didn't have to move around like I did growing up. If I went to Hong Kong we would undoubtedly move back from HK well before she was done with school. Furthermore, flying home to visit friends and family would be a pain - that is one long flight. And finally, I doubt the bank would be willing to buy our house at market value right now and I don't think we could afford to move unless they did.
If we were not American, but rather British or Canadian the thought of taking a Job in Hong Kong would have a bit more allure. They don't have to pay taxes in their home country will living abroad while US citizens do. Effectively these guys get a pretty nice pay raise just from moving and not paying out the 30-40% in taxes. They do have to pay apx 10% in HK tax but that is even offset some because they don't have to pay tax on any money that goes towards rent or mortgage. Considering how high rent is there I imagine that is a pretty nice savings.
Friday was my last day and I only worked about 7 hours before heading back to my hotel to finish packing and preparing for the flight home. On Saturday I woke up, checked out, and headed to the airport where I figured I would have plenty of time to get a bite to eat before I departed. I was wrong. It took a long time just to travel through the airport. Security was actually pretty fast but the airport is really large and there are a ton of places to stop and shop on your way through - it is almost like a mall in and of itself. I stopped and exchanged my Honkies for USD and then stopped in an electronics store and considered buying a playstation portable. I decided against it and instead bought some chocolate and headed for my gate. My flight departed at 12:30pm on Saturday. After a 14 hour flight I arrived in Chicago at 1:30pm on Saturday. Crazy eh? Once in Chicago I had a 5 hour layover. Fun!
In Hong Kong service in a restaurant is vastly different from that in the US. I could go into any dive in HK and get pretty darn good service. At the Chicago airport I went to Chili's for lunch and had pretty crappy, pretty typical, American service. I went to Chili's because they were showing college football on the TV. When the game ended Tennis came on. I asked the waiter if he could try to get football on the TV and he said "Talk to the bartender" so I asked him "can you just pass my request on to the bartender?" and he said "I'm busy" and walked away. Nice. At about the same time some loud drunk guy yelled out of the bar at his buddy calling him a fatass. Another quick bit of culture shock when I returned. In Hong Kong people rarely talked and nobody ever yelled. I don't mind the yelling or noise here but it definitely jumps out at you when you've been living in virtual silence for five weeks.
I finally arrived in Charleston around 8pm I think. The girls were all at the gate waiting for me and it was great to see them. We then loaded up the car and headed home. Once home I handed out all of the presents I bought the three of them and gave everyone a bunch of extra hugs before we finally headed to bed. I woke up at a pretty normal hour on Sun and had breakfast, played with the girls, watched some football, then went grocery shopping, and then came home and at about 8pm felt exhausted so I went to bed so I could wake up at 5:30am to start off my work week back in Huntington. So far this week I have been falling asleep really early every night - last night was just after 9. I have to be at work by 6am so I can overlap with some of the HK people while I work in the morning. I figure I will get used to this new schedule shortly and then stop going to bed so early (but not too late).
So that's it. I'm home. Hong Kong was fun but a lot of hard work (60+ hours every week) and I am glad I had the opportunity to go. However, I am glad to be home even though I'm still working 60 hour weeks. Hopefully that won't be taking place for too long. I put up a couple extra photos in the end of the Hong Kong Week 5 album from my trip home.