12hrs and sometimes 13 hours time difference between Hong Kong and New England, USA. This was never easy to deal with but saying goodnight, early in the morning to my friends and family back in Massachusetts became second nature as well as them wishing me a good morning before they went to sleep in the USA.
What was the first thing that I connected with in HK? I would have to say the weather, the air, and the mountains. I felt so connected to Mother Earth and it no longer mattered who I was, where I came from, what I've been through in my lifetime or what nationality I was. My soul felt lighter to me. HK, one of Mother Earth’s rocks, was always smiling at me. I saw flowers that I have never seen before and the ocean water was always available to heal your spirit. I am of course speaking for myself now, the rest I will break down below.
For myself, I enjoyed walking around, the shops, the luxury, the food, and I felt like a 10 year old learning all over again. I never felt lonely when I was by myself. I went to lounges solo, went shopping, and enjoyed restaurants by myself. It felt relaxing and I could slowly feel the USA gray cloud around me go away. I was not worrying about the USA politics, the music, the influencers, or hollywood. I wasn’t worrying about my online presence because it was the perfect time to heal myself and be and feel alive in this beautiful country. I stopped worrying about all the hate in the USA, all the you're not enough for this group of people, or you're not fat enough for the body hoes, or your not black enough or your not white enough. America, is all about that question? Are you enough and most of the time the answer is no and we as people or me as a female rip my life apart, my body apart and my mind apart trying to be enough for social media, for family, for friends, for the boys, for the companies, for the image and so much more. And yes some people are naturally a certain way or naturally have a body type or naturally have a beyond this world personality,I feel like America takes that from most of us Human beings, especially us (me) immigrants that come to America, learning about the American Dream and giving it their all to reach it. Sacrifice their whole life to keep fighting for a better life. Meanwhile, you have people who are born in America, and just do not care and those people are making America worse and not better.
Yes, being in Hong Kong and taking a break from America felt so good. And the question would be how do I feel about living in America now vs being one of those people that leave the US and go live in other countries. Of Course I wanted my friends and family to be there with me and to experience Hong Kong with me but it was nice to be there just me and my husband and our fur babies. All this was before I made friends in Hong Kong and finally gave in to having a live-in maid/ helper/ housekeeper/dog walker.
PEOPLE in HK:
Honestly it was in my second year that I got to learn more about the people, their personalities and the Europeans as well. I would have to say there were highs and lows. High, when I felt like we were going to be friends for a lifetime. Lows, when they made me feel like I was Cardi B, like being myself, a Black Cape Verdean, and raised full on the American culture meant I was a fukking animal. Imagine how that made me feel so I turned around and gave them a piece of the animal nature in me, Leo. You know that saying there should be only one asshole in the room, went out the door and that’s when I learned that people from America to Hong Kong to Europe are in fact all assholes. People in general are mean, evil, and as selfish as it comes. And because of the first Paragraph above, I said how much I was looking forward to Hong Kong and how much of a break it was from all the gray clouds of the USA, It made me so mad and so sad.
A good example would be one person was allowed to drink, have fun, be silly and swear their ass off and be mean with the jokes and that was OK but as soon as I did the same thing all of the sudden they had a big problem with that. And the reason I was so mad was because that I had already gone through a lot of gray clouds in American and I was looking forward to it Hong Kong as a haven safe place for me to enter and feel good, so when someone took away that heaven from me in Hong Kong I completely lost it and went Cardi B on all of them bitches. If you see pictures of me with red hair in Hong Kong now you know why I went red and after I got rid of the friends I needed to get rid of or they got rid of me I kept my hair red because I wanted it to represent Hong Kong and my love for Hong Kong. Like Biggie Smalls said, I went from negative to positive and it’s still all good. I myself as well wanted it to turn something so negative and so painful into something beautiful. I kept my hair red to show my love and appreciation for Hong Kong and the Asian culture of Hong Kong.
ASIAN BOYS in HK:
Two years in Hong Kong and not one single Asian guy looked at me, talked to me or tried to get with me and as a female I was very upset by this. I remember other cultures saying who cares Asian guys don't like you, you wouldn’t want to date them anyways. they’re too close minded but for someone like myself who loves unity and world unification and who loves everyone that was pretty sad for me. It’s not like I was in America walking the streets of New York City and seeing all nationalities. HK was mainly Asians and you’re telling me not one of you finds me attractive or is brave enough to talk to me so this was very sad for me even if I am a married woman.
BLACK PEOPLE in HK:
So can you imagine how excited I was when I saw a black person in Hong Kong? I remember going up to them or feeling like a kid in a candy store like Hi, how are you? All I wanted to do was make a black friend and these Black people were not like the Black people in America. But like in America I’m pretty used to being shitted on by a black person that again doesn't think that I fit there good enough checkbox. I always get that you’re pretty so I can be your friend or you’re too skinny so I don’t wanna be your friend or you are like skinned so I don’t want to be your friend look and Vibes from most of these people. I got a lot of the I’m clearly too American to be good enough for them because most of them look at American Black people as we are the animals and the hood rats. So it was very very difficult making a black friend and I was finally so happy when I made not one for two black friends and they were males. One of the black male was the first person I met there when we got to Hong Kong and when we were at a restaurant and I got so excited to see another black person around. Him and his now fiancé are still friends of Jamie and I. The second black person would hang out with me, go to lounges, and invite me to his friends gatherings and this was truly appreciated by me and I felt good like a piece of America was with me or a piece of my Cape Verdean culture was with me. It was only during the second year of Hong Kong or I should say a few months before I left Hong Kong that I finally made black friends and to me this was a huge accomplishment for myself and I’m so happy to report that I am still friends with these females.
CULTURE of HK:
Pro: Beyond beautiful, Chinese Calligraphy,Hong Fu,Temples
Con: Not friendly to the ocean, shark fins, not a clean diet. Racist without them knowing that they are being racist. When being mean, rude, or racist they pretend to act stupid so you feel like oh they don't know better but in reality they are beyond intelligent and know exactly what they are doing and saying. Close minded for the most part.
LUXURY/SHOPPING: 95% was luxury shopping and 5% it was normal people shopping clothing stores like H&M and Zara mainly. I missed the American varieties of stores like HomeGoods, Victoria Secret, TJ Maxx or Home Depot and all of the regular price clothing stores that you would find in America.
The Customer Service and Hong Kong was too much for me. It was like them trying to shove something down your throat even when you bought so many things and you checked out they still would be like buy this and buy that and it was never enough and that experience became overwhelming. I turned mean when I went shopping and I would tell them please get off my back please don’t force it please don’t keep asking me and I found that speaking up did get them off my back and they knew right away that this customer is not one to mess with. I was always kind and friendly like any other girl. I enjoy shopping and when it was time to check out I checked out but I worked hard to be able to do this without them barbering me. I’m so glad American stores don’t have this type of customer service and I think Hong Kong or the Asian culture really needs to calm down when selling things to people because their customer service sucks and they are beyond fake. I bought a new outfit that I’m in love with so at least something good came out of it.
ACTIVE LIFESTYLE in HK:
Imagine if you lived in Hawaii with the mountains, in Miami with the water and in New York City for the city lifestyle and that is what Hong Kong active lifestyle like and there is so many things to do whether you prefer to be up in the mountains or on the water or in the city you will never feel bored. If that’s your cup of tea and all this you can have or do 365 days a year. You have to love Hong Kong, how can you not?
POLITICS in HK:
As the world was keeping up with the politics of Hong Kong and China. Living in Hong Kong as an expat pack was different because I was not a local, I felt like I had no real opinion in politics. And because I am not Asian I feel like staying away from politics was pretty easy to do but being an American of course I’m going to give my two cents. At the end of the day I feel like China should take care of Hong Kong by taking care of the people of Hong Kong first and foremost and I feel like China is looking at Hong Kong like it’s Wall Street or Manhattan therefore it wants to take over for the business part of it but unfortunately what about the lives generations to generations. All I know is I felt pretty lucky being there but also having my US passport which by the way took me over 20 years to get once I immigrated to the USA from Cape Verde Islands at the age of eight. Hong Kong politics makes me feel like thank God for the freedom that they have in other countries. Thank you America for the freedom that you provide to the people even if they don’t appreciate it or fully understand that with power comes responsibility so that leads the question is too much freedom bad because we know that too little freedom is not nice.
COVID/TRAVEL in HK:
The first question that most people ask me is did you get to travel to all the other Asian countries in Europe while you were in Hong Kong? The answer to that is hell no because everything was on shut down but it gives me a wonderful reason to go back other than to hug Hong Kong, so I can travel to all the different Asian countries And I am looking forward to making my way to Australia after I passed Solomon Island. In one year I traveled twice back to the USA to visit my mom, my family and my friends and during my return to Hong Kong I had to quarantine three weeks in a hotel. Honestly it wasn’t so bad and I feel like it makes a crazy story to tell people plus I did it and I can say that I did that. What did I do after I left the quarantine hotel? The first thing I did was go to my favorite sushi restaurant and have sushi. I’ve never been to Japan so Hong Kong has the best sushi in the world and I can’t wait to go back to Hong Kong just so I can have more good sushi.
THE TRAGIC OF AMELIA in HK:
When we arrived in Hong Kong it was my husband and I, our two dogs and our two cats. We have Siberian Huskies, Jazzy is black and white and Jolie is my ginger baby and the youngest. Atlas is our bengal cat and Amelia was our silver bengal cat and she was only three years old. She’s as shy as it comes. We lived on the 11th floor with a big balcony and tragically Amelia fell out of the balcony and died. I still mourn her till this day and I don’t think I’ll ever forgive myself and they say an accident happens but I sure feel like the worst mother in the world and I feel even worse knowing there were two women in the house and my husband and still this happens. I miss her so much. We had our own language for each other. I called her my alarm clock because that girl knows how to wake you up. She was so gentle and so beautiful and like I said if she came out for anyone it was such a big deal because everyone knew how shy she was. Going to HongKong with four babies and coming back to the USA with three fur babies is pretty hard. Moving and changing the atmosphere or location is hard enough so to add losing a cat to a tragic accident is pretty tough. Amelia I miss you so much and I am so sorry that I failed you as your mommy even though I know that you know how much I love you and appreciate the time that we had together in Jesus name I pray amen.
HELPERS:
If you have a great experience I’m happy for you my experience went from OK to pure hell as you can read about it in my other articles. In conclusion, going back to Hong Kong having a helper is the last thing I would want for so many reasons.
FOOD:
My husband is a foodie so lucky for me I get to tag along to all of his favorite Michelin star restaurants which Hong Kong was filled with and all of the local restaurants from the best pizza, to the best pasta, to the best fish dish one could have at a restaurant and Hong Kong provided all of that for us. Honestly I would go back to Hong Kong just to visit some of these restaurants and enjoy the cocktails and the wines and the speakeasy hidden lounges. A huge thank you to the friends that did enjoy this with us. A huge thank you to the friends that took us to a lot of these places and a huge thank you to the people that experience this with us land of course My husband who has spoiled me rotten in the fine dining industry.
Thank you Mr. Solomon and where to next?
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Angelina deJesus Solomon
