09.01.10: The alarm went off at 4am.

Beau asked me if I was going to wake up and I said no. Another alarm went off at 5 and I hit snooze. It went off again at 5:10 and I got out of bed. I took a shower while Beau slept. I finished the shower and got dressed. I woke up Beau. I straightened my hair and Beau packed his clothes. I was finished so I sat on the bed. It was 5:30 and I was angry because Beau was not ready. “Let’s go,” I said. “We are very late.”
Beau packed one more pair of shoes and one more jacket. I was angry because he had two pairs of shoes and three jackets. “I only have one pair of shoes and one jacket,” I said. “You should not have more clothes than your girlfriend.” Beau smiled at me and I stared at the clock.


We held hands in the taxi and I looked out the window. The taxi driver drove very fast. Sometimes I felt scared and sometimes Beau got angry. The taxi driver took the wrong exit. He backed up all the way to the highway. Other cars were coming toward us very quickly.
The taxi driver asked us which terminal we had to go to. I said I didn’t know because I the itinerary was in my suitcase. My suitcase was in the trunk. We drove past Terminal 1, but we didn’t see a sign for the airline so we drove to Terminal 2. We saw the sign for our airline and I told him to stop. The fare was ¥177. I gave him ¥180. He moved very slowly because he didn’t want to give me the change. I waited in the taxi until he gave me the change.
I gave my passport to the man at the desk. Beau squatted on the floor. He took everything out of his bag. He could not find his passport. We looked for his passport but it was not anywhere. We called our roommate and asked him to look for the passport. He found it in the living room. There was no time for Beau to get his passport. “Now you have three jackets and no passport,” I said. “Don’t,” said Beau. I thought about going to Hong Kong without Beau and I started to cry. Beau gave me a hug. He said he would come later. I knew he would try but I knew he would not be able to come.
I took a taxi to the hostel. I opened the door to peek inside. An old woman waved to me. She sat down behind the desk and told me to wait. She prayed out loud in Cantonese. I could not understand her. When she stopped I told her about my reservation, but she told me to wait. She pulled some beads out of her purse and she prayed out loud in Cantonese again. When she was done she found my reservation in a notebook. Someone had written “Mr. Bo” and had drawn a long line next to his name.
There were two small beds, a small TV, and a small table inside the room. I put my suitcase on one bed and put my documents into my purse. The visa office opens at 2:00. I went to the visa office at 1:45. When I got there, there was a very long line of people. I got in line behind an old woman. An ugly old Western man walked by with a beautiful young Chinese woman. I wondered why that beautiful woman wanted to be with that old man. If I were her, I would not want to be with that kind of old man. I put on my headphones and listened to some music.
A young Chinese woman asked the old Chinese woman in front of me if she could speak Chinese. “Can you speak Chinese?” she said in English. “Yes,” said the old woman in Chinese. They spoke for a long time. She asked the old woman about her documents. The young woman had a green form. I looked at my documents and I did not have a green form. When they finished talking, I asked her where she got that green form. “Up there,” she said, and pointed to the front of the line. The line in front of me was very long. I looked behind me. The line behind me was very long, too. The young woman gave me her form and she got a new one at the front of the line. “Thank you,” I said. “Do you want to stand in line here?” She said no.
I filled out my green form in line by writing on my laptop. The line started to move. It was moving quickly. When I got to the front of the line, the ugly old Western man came pushing past everyone. He asked the guard at the door a question. He sounded like a confused old American man. I was surprised because I had thought he was European. He pushed his way back to the end of the line.
I took off my rings to go through the metal detector. The guard told me to put them back on. A woman tried to move in front of me and the guard told her to stop. I went through the metal detector and it beeped. I looked at the guard and he told me to keep going. I got on the elevator with some other people that had been near me in the line. A young man was looking in the mirror in the elevator and combing his hair with his fingers.
The visa office was very large. There were many rows of seats facing the clerks’ counters. I sat in the chair and waited for my number to show up on the screen. When my number showed up I walked very quickly to the right desk. I gave the clerk all my papers. Then the old woman came up to the desk and was angry because they hadn’t called her number. I was embarrassed because she had been ahead of me in the line. The clerk was annoyed and told her she had waited for five minutes but she didn’t come. She told her to wait. I said sorry to the old woman and she sat down. The clerk told me to get a photocopy of my work permit. “Both sides,” she said. I saw the old woman and told her to go to the clerk. I got a photocopy of my work permit, both sides. I gave them to the clerk. She told me to come back at 3:00 the next day. I saw the young Chinese woman who gave me her form. She was the beautiful young Chinese woman with the ugly old Western man. “Thank you for your help,” I told her. “No problem,” she said, but she did not look at me.
I went to the coffee shop that Beau likes. I got online to do some work but I read and blogged instead. After a few hours Stan came to meet me. We walked around and I talked to him about my job. Stan took me to a laksa noodle restaurant. We ordered noodles and talked. Stan was in a good mood and happy to talk. We walked around for a long time after that and talked. It was good to be with Stan and be in Hong Kong.
The next day I went back to the coffee shop. My sister called me. She said she was at the hostel with her friend. Beau called me and told me he could not come to Hong Kong. His voice sounded very happy. I told him I was sorry he could not come. He asked me what I was doing. I said, “Reading at the coffee shop.” After thirty minutes he walked in the door. I gave him a hug. “I love you,” I said. “I’m so happy you came.” We had some coffee and walked around. I put on a black t-shirt and some jeans. We went to meet my sister and her friend. “Are you going to wear that?” she said. “Yes,” I said. “No,” she said. “You have to buy some new clothes,” she said. We went shopping and I bought a new shirt and some boots. We had dinner in Kowloon. The new boots hurt my feet.
We went Stan’s friends’ house. We went on the roof and drank wine and talked to some good-looking people. There was a beautiful man with a boyfriend. They had a friend who was very funny. I asked the friend if he had ever heard of a “broner.” Beau shook his head. The friend laughed. “No,” he said. “But the best new word I have learned recently is procrasturbation.” We all laughed. We asked other people if they had procrasturbated and they laughed, too. At midnight the fireworks went off all around the city and the harbor. We all hugged and kissed and drank some more champagne. My sister and her friend were cold and they wanted to leave. I said goodbye to everyone and we went to Lan Kwai Fong.
Lan Kwai Fong was very crowded. There were many police officers and we had to walk in queues. Beau took us to a bar. It was quiet and only a few people were inside. My sister and her friend were tired and they wanted to go home. They hailed a taxi. My sister gave me a hug. The taxi driver drove away. They hailed another taxi and went home. Beau and I walked through Lan Kwai Fong. “Happy new year!” a man said. “Happy new year!” I said. Then he squeezed my ass. “Hey!” I said. “What happened?” Beau said. “He squeezed my ass,” I said. Beau shouted at him. “Let’s go home,” Beau said.
On New Year’s Day we went to Stanley Market with my sister. We wanted to ride on the top of the 260 bus but it was full. We sat on the bottom and my sister stared out the window. She had not been in Hong Kong for ten years. We took my sister to a restaurant by the water. We walked through the market but we did not buy anything. We got back on the 260 bus and we fell asleep. My sister went to the hostel to take a nap. We went to the coffee shop to meet Stan. Stan took us to a Beijing restaurant. We ate dumplings and beef shanks.
We met my sister. Beau took us to a bar. Basil met us at the bar and he talked to my sister. She talked about teaching and Basil listened to her and asked a lot of questions. Stan came to the bar. I wanted Basil to meet Stan. They talked and Basil said some funny things that made everyone laugh. Stan went home. Basil took us to a club. I was very drunk and I danced with my sister. I was embarrassed that Basil could see us. The club closed and Basil took us to a bar. “Do you come here a lot?” we said. “Yes,” he said. “There are a lot of hookers here,” my sister said. We laughed. Basil was embarrassed because he did not mean to make us think he pays for sex. Some people tried to push me and Beau. Beau kissed me and we bumped into the people. They gripped each other’s arms like they were making a magic circle of force. I kissed one man’s hand and they walked away. Basil and my sister did not look happy. I felt embarrassed for making them uncomfortable, but not until the next day. We went back to the hostel.
I woke up at 12. Beau and my sister were already awake. My sister told me to hurry up. I felt sick because I drank too much. We went to Starbucks. My sister went back to Guangzhou. I called Stan and told him to meet us at The Flying Pan. When we got there it was too crowded so we went to another restaurant. The food was not as good as The Flying Pan and it was very expensive. I felt sick so I could not finish my expensive sausage and eggs. Stan had to feed his friends’ fish so we went to their apartment. I fell asleep and Beau and Stan talked. We stayed there for two hours. Beau and I had to go to the airport. We said goodbye to Stan and checked in at the Airport Express station. Beau tried to find a video game in the ifc mall but he could not. We went to the airport and he tried to find the video game at the toy store but they did not have Xbox games. We ate dinner at Popeye’s. Beau gave me pieces of his chicken skin because my chicken fingers were not spicy.
I filled out the health form on the plane. I said I did not have any symptoms of H1N1. I used my phone to find the phone numbers to put on the form. Beau fell asleep. He woke up because the flight attendant hit him with the food cart. “Do you want pork or seafood?” she said. “Seafood,” said Beau. He opened his tray and found a long black hair. He closed the tray and went back to sleep. He woke up and I told him to fill out his health form. He was very tired. His eyes were red and watery. His nose was running. He wrote on the form that he did not have any symptoms of H1N1.
We went to the baggage carousel. I stood by the chute and Beau stood far away. I found one bag. Beau found one bag. But we waited there for a long time because each of us did not know the other one had found a bag. We went outside and caught a taxi. The taxi was very expensive and I forgot to get a receipt. When we went inside, Beau told me to call my sister. I could not find my phone. I emptied my purse onto the bed but my phone was not anywhere. I was angry at myself for losing my phone on the plane, but I decided not to be angry because I had a good time in Hong Kong.

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