I love this city. Hong Kong is vibrant, and alive, crushed with so many people it quite literally astounds the mind. I think what I like most is the dirtiness of this city. New buildings and shopping centers can be found almost everywhere you turn, but they are matched with more than the same amount of quite simply shabby, dirt crusted old buildings. And I dont say that in a negative way. This gives a kind of history to the place, it makes one aware of older times, of times before the current day, it seems to help stretch Hong Kong into a deserving continuum of past with present. The dirtiness is hard to explain unless it is seen, so for those who are only floating on my words, let me try to explain that it isnt an 'unclean' kind of dirty, it is an old faded paint with a history kind of dirty, and thats one of the things I really love about this city. But its more than that, something about this city really pulls me. I think I'll live here someday even though its so small.Today, I didn't do much, I woke up early and met my college friend Polly to eat lunch with her during her lunchbrake. It was awkward. If somehow me and her were exlovers it would have been about the same sort of awkwardness, but oddly we are simply college friends. However for some unknown reason she has grown so cold recently. We met, sat down, and ate lunch. She exchanged hardly any words with me, beyond "I gotta go now" before leaving. Its not like I didnt try to talk to her, but anything I said was only followed by head nodding. I remember once talking to Polly about how hating someone was really showing a lot of love towards someone (the intensity of the emotion and all), and she had agreed. I had said that it would be truly evil to just not have any emotion towards them, she had also agreed. So I guess thats what shes doing, just being cold and cool for whatever personal reasons I am not aware of. She misunderstood me though, I didnt mean I would find it evil, I think I ment it would be evil for the heart of the person doing it. I dont feel upset or angry at her, just a bit confused and sorry for her. I hope whatever she is going through isnt too bad. Yesterday after hanging out with Tom for hours, I actually met Candace (American friend from college, I thought I wouldnt be able to get a hold of her but finally did yesterday), and that is how friends should meet. It was warm, friendly, and although quite brief, for sure the highlight of this trip. Too bad we didnt have time to do a bit of exploring Hong Kong together.
I wish I could put my thoughts and impressions in a bottle and cast them out to my readers. I guess that sort of thing will be closer when I get a high-res video camera or some sort of thing, but it wont be ever quite possible I guess. In any case, Hong Kong is alive at this moment, the noise, the smells, the thick hot humid summer air mixed in with the spirit of the city.
