What is an octopus card

I know one of my big questions when I was moving was "what is an octopus card?"

An octopus card is your ticket around the city.

Public transportation wise you can use it for pretty much anything besides taxis. It is a small card, not unlike a credit card, that you add money to.

This money will pay for your fairs on trams, trains, buses, ferries, MTR, and minibuses.

At least for MTR fair it also costs a couple HKD less to pay with octopus card rather than single ticket journey cards.

BUT THAT'S NOT ALL

It is true that for the most part I use my octopus card to pay for my transportation, but you can also use it in some shops (most notably 7/11 and grocery stores).

Octopus card is super useful and I have it with me all the time.

It will cost you HKD150 to start with, but that includes HKD100 already added on your account. You can get back the HKD50 deposit if you return the card when you are done in Hong Kong.

Overall? octopus cards are super useful and should be one of the first things you get when you arrive in Hong Kong.

Do you have questions about life in Hong Kong? Post a comment and I'll do my best to answer your question

A typical day

As I am living and working in hong kong you may be wondering "what does a day in the life look like, how is it different from the USA?"

My day starts off waking up when it is about dinner time where I am from. I eat oatmeal if I wake up on time or I might go down to the Mariner's Club restaurant for breakfast (usually fried noodles, toast, yogurt, and some fruit).

Then as I leave I have a couple of options. The first and my preferred is to take the star ferry first thing. This option takes a little longer but is much cheaper and I get to have a nice walk outside before going to the office.

My second option is to take the MTR (subway) Tsuen Wan line two stops in to Central Hong Kong. This way is faster by about 15 minutes and requires less walking, but usually its very crowded when Im going to work and its about HKD7 more expensive.

When I get to the office I usually start by checking my email and seeing if I have anything on my desk to take care of first thing, I might interview a client or prepare a statement, more likely I will look for files or input data. I also am also working on project and event managment for our fundraisers and our upcoming brand refresh.

My favorite thing to do after work is on Tuesdays and Thursdays, when I travel to Causeway Bay to play rugby with Happy Valley. It is by luck (and providence of Catherine's good connections) that I found such a wonderful team to play with and improve my game.

Afterwords I might go get food at a local place nearby and then I take the MTR home (island line to tsuen wan line) and then I finally collapse on my bed.

Do you have any questions about what its like in Hong Kong? Post a comment and I'll do my best

HDH

I recognize that I have not yet explained what I will be doing in Hong Kong. Once I receive my visa (which is sitting at immigrations) I will begin interning with the anglican cathedral, more specifically with helpers for domestic helpers. You may wonder what HDH does and what I will be doing there. HDH does lovely work in advocacy for the population of foreign domestic workers in Hong Kong. In large part these women migrated from the philipines and indonesia to work in peoples houses doing things like cleaning, childcare, and elder care. For numerous reasons these women are often abused by their employers, when this happens we provide a variety of services including but not limited to education of legal rights, support on criminal and civil court cases, and liaising with relevant government agencies.

I haven't officially started but I did attend a planning meeting where i was incredibly impressed with the employee and volunteer passion, drive, and welcoming nature. These women and men are wonderfully dedicated to seeking justice and rights for women who do not have many fighting for them.  I am honored to join them.

More to come as I meet more of the staff, the women we serve, and explore my role within the work.

on jet lag and a new city

Hellooooooo friends!

Right now i am experiencing jet lag in the incredible city that is hong kong. Although I have begun to sleep for longer I have still been unable to sleep past a certain point in the night. Oh well. 12 hour time difference and all.

You may be wondering to yourself (Self,) what has Adrienne been up to since she got in around 8 pm thursday local time? Well in large part I have been eating excellent food and doing my best not to get lost.

You may be surprised to learn that I've only gotten lost once, and that was in an attempt to kill time.

I have been able to find my way around in large part because of the guidance of my roommate, Caitlin. Caitlin is an ordinand from the UK who is staying in Hong Kong for four weeks. What I especially love about her (besides her willingness to adventure and love of comics) is that she's actually been to Hong Kong before and lived here for a year so she already knows some stuff on survival and can navigate with relative ease.

I was lucky enough on one of my first days to go for a run down the Tsim Sha Tsui promenade for an amazing view of the city and the sunrise (sometimes jet lag is a good thing)

I also am happy that my older brother, Justin, still lives in the city and is willing to show us around. We went to a beautiful rooftop restaurant with a view of the city on the 30th floor.

I am so blessed to have been welcomed to the city not only from the incomperable Catherine and Steven, but also from the cathedral community. We were asked to stand in front of the congragation and were almost immediately invited out by members of the congregation near our age (in a similar thread: I love dim sum and dumplings)

More to come as we continue to explore the city today!

Mission orientation

Hello friends! It is long past time for an update so greetings to you again on the day after my birthday

I write to you today from the holy cross monastery in poughkeepsie (pronounced po-kip-see isnt english weird?) where i and several others are staying for mission orientation. Basically for the most part we've been sitting around in a blue room learning how to not embarrass ourselves abroad and how to best take care of ourselves. We've done bible study and meals with some (really cool and excellent) monks. One of them (Br Will) even let me borrow his book on knitting socks! What a good bean!

the part is sometimes boring (informative and useful too but you try sitting around in one room all day) BUT this place is beautiful. we've been doing so much besides just learning how to represent the church

There are about 20 of us here and most of us are ages 21-30 (there is one lovely woman named karen is older than the YASCers who is going to Tanzania), all remarkably easy to get along with. and guys this place is beautiful. wildly wonderfully beautiful. seriously i could make a blog post just about how pretty this place is but I wont. and the food is great. their cook was trained at the culinary institute of america how cool is that? anyway here are some pictures

But what have we been doing? (besides learning)

PUZZLES

SKIPPING ROCKS ON THE HUDSON RIVER

WE MET THE PRESIDING BISHOP IN MANHATTAN (if you all are nice i'll tell you about how i accidentally asked him the funniest question ever [or so the camera guys think]) (he's a really cool guy I tell ya what)

INTERFAITH DAY (we went around to different worship spaces and asked questions and explored)

In order- we started the day with something semi familiar at the episcopal church of the heavenly rest, then a synagogue for the religious comedy act of rabbi watkovski, then the Armenian orthodox cathedral St Vartan [this was so cool, I didnt know anything at all about them and I'm a religion major! So cool!!] then finally Hanadi spoke to us about her faith in the overflow prayer space in a local mosque. She was honest and eloquent and open about her faith in a way that I hope I may someday be. It was crazy inspiring to see all the people who give their hearts so fully and openly to their faith.

we're also getting followed around sometimes by guys with cameras but its surprisingly not the scary as long as you ignore them and make funny faces when you remember they're there.

anyway, next time I'll maybe talk about where i'll be going, what i'll be doing, and where this blog might go next

As a reminder, I am still raising money! I prefer you send checks to the diocese of VA at
The Diocese of Virginia
110 W Franklin Street
Richmond, VA 23220
Checks Payable: The Diocese of Virginia
Memo Line: Adrienne Davis – YASC

or go to gofundme.com/adrienneYASC

just remember that they take a cut of the money for themselves (still a good option though!)

Welcome!

Hello World! Thank you for taking the time to visit my blog! There's not much up yet, but for now I would like to direct you to my "pages" link where you can find my Bio, and How You Can Help. Hope to tell you some news soon!