China Entry the Seventh: Bo, Janette and the Goose Foot

So, napped and showered and dressed in our finest wrinkle free travel dresses, Lisa and I head to Bo and Janette's wedding banquet to meet up with Ho. At least the rain has paused.

Our first stop before catching the bus to Victoria Peak is the ferry station. We are baffled, BAFFLED, as we walk through. Thousands of Phillipina women are in the ferry station ... just ... um ... sitting there, playing cards, talking. What is this? There are THOUSANDS of them. We're confused. It's later explained that Hong Kong has a high population of Phillipina women, and that most of them work as live-in maids so they only get the day off on Sunday. The rest of the week their job is to live where they work. So on Sunday, they all get together at the ferry station and hang out. The reason it's the ferry station probably has to do with some older rule about where they were allowed to be and not be, but I don't even understand that.

Also, while waiting for the bus, we learn about the Royal Bank of Scotland building. At least I think that's what building it is. It's architecturally amazing and we can't stop looking at it. Then, people we apparently met but whose names I can't remember, explain to us that the building was constructed so that it could be easily de-constructed and moved out of Hong Kong and back to Britain if things got politically shaky in Hong Kong. Things are thought of in this part of the world that would never otherwise cross my mind.

We finally arrive at Bo & Janette's reception. The hall is lovely, decorated in red roses, white candles and beautiful salon photos of the happy couple. There's cake as a first course! I love this country! There is also red wine, which makes this girl happy. Lisa and I, the only white folk around, are seated at a table with a bunch of Kellogg graduates. Fortunately, they're all willing to help us at every step of the banquet, and one of them has brought his parents who are the sweetest, most helpful people ever introduced to the earth. So sweet, in fact, that the mother at one point actually makes this darling, darling revelation:

"In America, the toilets are so big! Just so big!"

She's so cute. I want to bundle her up.

I head into the banquet convinced that I'm going to at least try to eat every delicacy that's put down in front of me. This theory held up well through the roast suckling pick, good fortune chicken, shrimp balls, grouper. The first challenge was the shark fin soup. I actually like the savory taste of shark fin soup, but it also contains, you know, boiled down shark fin, which in case you've never had it, has the texture of ... mucus maybe? It does not feel fantastic on your tongue, but I work with it.

But, but, but...then...

A plate is put in front of me. On the plate is a squishy piece of sea slug and an entire roasted goose's foot, with the webbing still on it. My face reveals my horror before I can make a valid attempt at hiding it. Paul and Larry both simultaneously say, "Don't even eat it. We're not going to, and we grew up here!" But the parents at the table are looking at me, and I don't want to seem rude. With the help of some large gulps of wine, I make it through the sea slug, which can best be described as "mushy". Think overcooked eggplant but with meat grease.

Then, I bring the goose foot to my mouth and gingerly take a bite. Webbing and duck meta tarsal come off in my moouth and I simply cannot take another bite. Larry and Paul are laughing as their goose feet sit untouched on their plates. The parents are calling me very brave. I am throwing up a little bit in my mouth, but there is wine. The lesson learned is when the locals in your own age demographic tell you they're not even going to eat it, you probably shouldn't eat it either.

Anyway, the entire banquet is lovely, and Janette looks stunning in all four of her outfits and I hope that she and Bo have a long and very, very happy marriage. Thank you for letting me be a part of it!



We're leaving Hong Kong in the morning for Kunming City. Lisa and I made a list of our favorite things about Hong Kong on the way home on the MTR tonight:

• Amazing skyline views
• Food
• Unbelievably good public transportation
• Food
• Endlessly entertaining advertising
• Food
• Our hair looks great with this exact level of humidity
• Food

Finally, I just want to say that I can't quite get my mind around this whole Chinese name/English name thing. Firstly, I can't quite handle two names in general because in my mind your name is your name...right? It identifies so much about you. The fact that the British didn't want to learn how to properly pronounce Chinese names, however, led pretty much everybody to have an English name, too. So I've been asking folks how they picked their English names. Here are some sample answers:

"When I was a kid, my sister just gave me five English names and told me to pick one."

"In kindergarten, the teacher just queued us up and assigned English names."

I mean, it just seems so wrong to me. I feel like a name should mean more than that, but maybe that's just very American of me. I'll let it go and assume that if nobody else is complaining, I should shut up.

Goodbye Hong Kong! We'll see you on the return!