The Fast & The Furious: HK Friendships

When I was young and impressionable, a good family friend gave me a very important piece of advice.  He told me “VCarr, if you ever have the choice between a million dollars and making a new friend. Choose the friend…. Every. Single. Time.”  And at the moment, the advice seemed obvious: people over money. Got it.  But as I have gotten older, the simple directive has become words that I live by. I’m not saying I get offered a million dollars on the regular, but I have discovered that there is nothing, absolutely nothing, quite like discovering that the people you just met, have become friends worth treasuring.

Friendship in HK, is a bit like a roller coaster ride. It ramps up very fast. There are very intense fun and crazy times, and before you know it, it’s over: someone has left the city. But I have been blessed enough to have found some truly amazing people to share in this ride that is Hong Kong. And as I see the last couple of twists and turns ahead (including 2 final exams, and only a few days left to par-tay, I mean study). I want to make sure that I share some of their amazing-ness with all of you. In every instance, my faith in humanity has been doubly restored: people are inherently good and I love them.

A friend is chivalrous…. They carry heavy stuff. They make sure you get home ok, even if they have to walk you all the way there themselves.

A friend is committed… They stay out with you until the wee hours and dance with you at even the emptiest of bars…. And they always go with you to the diner after.

A friend is nice…. They take you to buy a cell phone when you first get to Hong Kong! They pick up your tailor made clothing (It fits!).

A friend networks…. They resuscitate your job search for you by giving you the name of someone that they thought you might like to meet.

A friend is smart… They sit with you for 2 hours and spoonfeed you the basics of corporate finance out of the goodness of their heart. (Sometimes daddies do that too! Hi Daddy! Miss you!)

A friend is multilingual… They speak Mandarin or Cantonese on your behalf so that the cab driver takes you where you want to go.

A friend is indulgent… They let you arrange them in funny poses so that your millionth touristy photo is not boring.

A friend helps you achieve your dreams…  They point out the bar. They remind you that you wanted to dance on it before turning 30.  They take pictures of you dancing on the bar. They stand shocked when you fall off of the bar, and they play along when you pop up and say you’re fine. But really good friends, I mean, really really good friends, well, they make you smile and take pictures of your bruises (read: badges of honor) the next day.  And they remind you that it wasn’t just a bar you were dancing on, there was a pole too!

But most importantly, friends can be from anywhere. You can meet them at anytime…. and you are always happy that you did.

If you are looking for particularly good friends may I recommend the ones at McCombs, LBS, & HKUST’s MBA Exchange Program! (They may not be Boothies, but they come pretty close). J  

Confessions of an HK Party Animal

Ah, partying in Hong Kong.  I write those words with a twinkle in my eye, and a longing in my heart.  I will admit it…

Hello. My name is VCarr.  And I am an HK party animal.

Suffice it to say that Hong Kong will bring out the party animal in anyone.  Many of you reading this will say, “but VCarr, you, a party animal? NOooo!” And all I can say is, yes, Yes, YES! While studying here in Hong Kong, I have become well versed in the ways of the crazy expat party animals. And I am going to share those with you now.

Location: LKF

Lan Kwai Fong, better known as LKF, is the Disneyland of partying. Within a three block radius is a land of bars, pubs, and clubs. From beer to jello shots, and martinis, to hefty 7-11 paper bags, everyone finds their drink of choice here. The heart of LKF, D’Aguliar Street, is lined with open terrace bars where people spill out into what looks like one big block party. And party do they! Music floods the streets and fills your soul as you approach this Ex-pat party zone. People of all ages and walks of life will be there, but most locals steer clear of the crazy foreigners and their “I’m on vacation” behavior.

Timing: ‘til sunrise

LKF is 24-7. You can party there “Monday. Tuesday. Wednesday and Thursday. Friday. Saturday. Saturday and Sunday.”  An early night ends at 1am, and a great night has you in the diner eating HK style French toast by 5am.  If you haven’t shut down at least 2 places before you head home, you’ve doing something wrong. The beauty of LKF is that bars are literally next door to each other. So answering the question “where to next?” is easy. Just roll next door.

Music: Tonight’s Gonna Be a good night

LKF music might be stuck on repeat (and stuck in ‘09), but that doesn’t stop a party animal from dancing it up.  Here is a short list of all the songs one must hear AND DANCE TO in order for it to be a “good night”…

Empire State of Mind, Alicia Keys & Jay-Z

You Know You Want Me, Pitbull

I Gotta Felling, Black Eyed Peas (HK MBA Exchange Anthem)

Single Ladies, Beyonce (my personal favorite)

Bad Romance, Lady Ga Ga

Poker Face, Lady Ga Ga

If you didn’t hear ALL those songs when you were out, then you weren’t partying HK-style.

Dancing: You gotta!

I believe there are two types of people in HK, and in the world: those that dance and those that won’t. I try to be the former. And for those of you that “don’t know how,” here’s a little secret… none of us know how. But an HK party animal knows that dancing is just waaay more fun! “So just dance. It will be ok… ”

One does not Equal One

This lesson usually takes trial and error to discover, but let me spare you the pain with this piece of advice: there is no such thing as “just one drink” in HK.  One drink will always lead to more, and more… so beforewarned.

Friends by day; Party People by night

No one likes to party alone.  And in HK you are never alone.  It is a prerequisite that you have some sort of “crew” when partying here. And an MBA exchange provides an instant crew of friends and rebel rousers.  The beauty of HK partying is that it can accommodate a small twosome or a large lumbering group. The more the merrier, I say. And LKF’s small size means if you need to split up you can always meet up later.

Within one’s crew of friends there are some key party animal players needed for a fun night out:

• The Camera Snapper: usually there is more than one of these documenting the evening from first drink to last call. Their camera-ing ability tends to decline over the evening moving from smiling group shots to blurry photos of unsuspecting rear ends and the like. A necessary evil for how else would we relive the night on facebook? (Thank you photographers!)
• The Baller: usually the friend of a friend of a friend who likes to buy everyone shots. (And they usually know a lot about the HK “bottles and models” scene). We like them!
• The Hook-up: there is always someone who knows someone who can get you in somewhere. An important skill when you want to hit a club and avoid the annoyingness that is rude bouncers and long lines.
• The Girl/Guy that gets all the Guys/Girls: you always find this friend off dancing with some new person. You just hope you can find her/him at the end of the night. (wink wink, nudge nudge).
• The Never-go-outer: there is always one of them: the friend that only makes an appearance once in a blue moon.  And we are always glad they came.
•  The Last Man/Woman Standing: the friend that won’t be out partied by anyone and will stay out until the break of dawn or the music gets bad, which ever comes first.

There might be variety in types of party animals, but they all abide by one golden rule: a place doesn’t make the party, you do! So bring the party wherever you go!

Secrets secrets are no fun… but gossip is!

As previously stated, LKF is small. And people run into each other over and over. So when party animals have a love connection, however fleeting, they know that unless that special someone is getting on a plane the next morning, they will be seen again. And friends will always make sure to point out the suspect in question when spotted in LKF. Why? Because everyone’s a chatty cathy when it comes to affairs of the heart… especially party animals.

So, my friends, there you have it: all that I have learned and observed. I hope these words were encouraging, so that you, too can party like a rockstar in Hong Kong or where ever you are! 

Shopping Hong Kong Style

Instead of doing homework, I’ve decided to write another blog.  Yep, that’s right, Hong Kong Carr doesn’t doooo homework. (Well, I really should because there is a final in two weeks and I need to pass it and I have no idea what I am doing…. Oh, wait that was Chicago Carr talking. Hold on…. SMACK…. I took care of her).

Today’s Topics is shopping one of the things Hong Kong is known for.

Malls & Malls & Malls & Malls

There are Malls everywhere here.  In fact I am capitalizing the word “Mall” because I feel like here Malls are really proper nouns. And they are EVERYWHERE! Not just little Malls, I’m talking big ass Malls that you would find in the suburbs of America squeezed into every space imaginable. There are mini-Malls in every subway station. There are gigantic Malls on top of subway stations. What do they put in these Malls? Everything! Hundreds of stores sell everything. Not American everything. I’m talking Hong Kong everything, which literally means every major brand, label, style, gadget, whatever, on earth is available in some Mall. And the Mall, is probably right around the corner from where you are standing. For my PhD friends, an interesting study would be to determine how far away a person is from a Mall at any given moment in Hong Kong. My guess… well, actually Hong Kong is probably just one big outdoor Mall.

There is a Mall for everyone in Hong Kong, but many of the Malls and stores here are for the uber rich (read: not poor starving MBA students. Do MBA students starve…. ? Well, this one does).  Most Malls are filled with every designer brand you can imagine and brands that I’m not wealthy enough to recognize. And I guess people buy this stuff, because they have tons of high-end stores. Hong Kong has the highest concentration of Luis Vuitton stores in the world. Some brands even have outlets within walking distance of each other. Using your wealth to be able to wear one’s exclusivity is incredibly “in” here (?!?).  But the one thing that is not in here… is American sizes.

The land of Big & Tall meets the world of extra-small

Have you ever wondered what they do with all of the extra-small sizes that no one buys in the US?  They don’t just send them to the Salvation Army. They ship them all over to Hong Kong. Clothing is very cool here, but you can be sure, the more that I salivate over some fun new item, the more I am certain that the hundreds stacked before me will only have XS’s. WHY??? Is it because I am fat? Well, apparently that is what the sales people think….but not in a mean way.

My lovely roommate, here to forth known as Roomie, and I spontaneously found ourselves on the hunt for jackets in Causeway Bay—the land of neon lights and malls malls malls.  I have been trying to find a light jacket since I arrived in Hong Kong two months ago.  I desperately want to stop wearing the only jacket that I have: my stupid red raincoat.  It is ruining all of my touristy pictures! There is me in Macau with my stupid red rain coat; there is me on a harbor ferry in my stupid red rain coat; there is me celebrating Chinese new year in my stupid red rain coat.  It’s driving me crazy, but I am a perfectionist and I still haven’t found the perfect jacket yet. 

On this occasion in question, I roped Roomie into making a quick random stop to stores that displayed potential jackets purchases. We first made one stop to buy jeans. (I needed those too). And I was blown away by the fact that I fit my round little self into some very narrow jeans. “I am not fat! I fit Asian clothing. What are all these people complaining about!,” were the thoughts that puffed my chest out with pride. I almost bought the jeans, until I looked down and decided that unlike my other pants these new Asian jeans did not cover my ankles. So I put them back. Defeat number one.

Roomie was nice enough to indulge me on my shopping quest and we meandered our way through the billions of people flooding the streets, until we came upon another store with lots of perfect jacket potential. Roomie got really into the expedition and started trying on jackets too. It should be noted that Roomie is tall, blond and beautiful (and smart)*, and I hold none of this against her. She is the bestest roomie ever. But you can imagine the pair of us, tall blond, and short frizzy brunett, trying on jackets in the middle of the store, chatting about the merits of this one, the price of that one. Roomie and I debated the prospect of a jacket she admired, concluding that since it could be worn two very different ways and it was on sale, then she must get it.

My jacket search was looking hopeful. I stumbled on something that had a lot of perfect potential. Granted it wasn’t my size, but it almost worked. And sometimes when something is on sale, “almost working” equals good enough. The sales woman was very attentive and saw me fidgeting with the jacket.  She came over and styled me properly in the mirror.  She wrapped the belt around my waist and adjusted the big bold collars. “This way. Hmmm, you see. Here. It makes you look…. Fat. But if we do it this way,” she loosens the belt and ties it behind me. “This way is better.” Did she just call me fat? In public? In the most vulnerable of places for a woman? That being in front of a mirror under horrible florescent lighting in the middle of a clothing store… while I am standing next to, for all intents and purposes, Roomie, the image of a perfect Barbie Doll? WHAT did she just say? AGHHHHHH!!! Somebody hold me back. HOLD ME BAAAAAAAaaaaaack…

But I didn’t actually say that.  Instead, I coolly and calmly held it in, both literally and figuratively. I can roll with this, I thought. I know there was just a lack of vocabulary for this sales woman. She wasn’t trying to be mean. I’m not fat. There was just a cultural difference here. Apparently the Chinese are very straight forward. They tell it like it is. I’m down with that. I’m a straight talker. That’s fine. NO PROBLEM.

Suffice it to say. I didn’t buy the jacket.

Defeated… again!

*Roomie, I hope you take no offense to this superficial characterization of you. It’s in the name of literature!

Thanks for the Encouragement!

I just want to do a quick “shout out” to all my fans out there (yes, I’m calling you fans) . You know who you are. You send fan (e)mail and make me feel all special. Thank you for reading. I will try to keep writing. I don’t know if I can top the last post, but I promise to continue my ramblings both the funny and those that lack it.