Carpetbaggers and Chinese locusts

I had lunch with an old college friend who moved to Hong Kong in the past year.  A young Chinese transplant like myself, she grew up in New York and works in media.  A very headstrong girl.  Though it can get annoying at times, I am nonetheless interested to see the world from her perspectives.

She is a go-getter and made it a goal to find a boy marry him and have a kid all in the span of one year. She achieved it, along with a few of my other friends.  She recommended that Atlantic Monthly article "Marry him!" in 2008 that argued for settling.

When the conversation went to a more practical point, I said that I got what I needed from Hong Kong, that being citizenship and a house.  To any financier, that would be practical and correct.  My girlfriend cringed however and said that I sounded like a carpetbagger, or exactly like those Chinese locusts.

Do I? Isn't all that true in what I said?  Everyone's in some place for something right?  Like people move to the States to get a green card and make money, people move to New York to make it, etc, etc.  Of course, I won't bring up that I learned a lot and matured through the experience, but aren't we all enslaved in some way in society and striving for that next goal?  Am I too jaded or is she too idealistic?

In the evening time, despite the rain, I went to visit a local care group, or Bible Study group in Hong Kong.  The couple's home was in Tin Hau and a very good part of it.  I arrived all wet from walking uphill in the rain and they were surprised to see me.  The woman told me that their yearly sessions were already over but invited me in for tea and gave me an umbrella afterwards.  Their big house had five cats roaming about and gave me an instant feeling of home.  If I were living like them, of course I'd like Hong Kong!  The older guy told me that he was born in Shanghai but grew up in Hong Kong and his son having gone to Deerfield Academy, a premier boarding school in the US, now studies at Yale and is a swimmer there.  They are in fact leaving for San Francisco to meet up with him this holiday season.  An ideal life in Hong Kong indeed.

The back and forth

I escaped the smog in Shanghai, having experienced a terrible day last Friday in a mostly dreamlike cloud atmosphere, except your throat and your eyes tell you that it is not really that great for you.  Back in Hong Kong.  I am happy that there is a deadline to it all.  I can be here, enjoy the air, enjoy the food, but next Friday I will be off again.  I still have the same feeling toward my crush, but I am so happy that I can be leaving it all.  I do not want my emotion and actions be restricted by the environment.  I know I would not have the will power to fight it, so escaping makes it all so much easier, like a permanent vacation.

So many things going on around us in the macro economic environment, and I have lost on the Rmb appreciation in addition to the scary property price appreciation.  I want to capture it.  I would very much like to buy that apartment, even if it means stretching it a bit.  A million USD.  That's how much a half decent two bedroom apartment would cost. I am scrambling to gather the 300k down payment.  I want a base there.  It gives me purpose.  I am doing something... rather than being trapped by a job, by people, by place.
Ten days...

Grandma and girlfriends

Two separate topics:

First, my grandmother passed away today. She was 88 or so.  I think the end of a life can involve quite a lot of suffering, and you can slowly wither away.  I hope she went smoothly and is now without suffering.

Girlfriends.  One of the local girls was quite aggressive in meeting my guy friends and we all went out for corporate lunch today.  I do feel threatened around these younger girls, though she may be a friend. Especially in China when I feel like they know they have more power and can be using it.