Update #2: The Hong Kong Experience continues.
The following is a selection from my personal diary. I’ll spare you the 6 pages that this condensed from!

Day 8 02-Mar-07
Today was a good day. We were in OT (Operating theatre) all day and it was fantastic. Firstly, I watched a laparoscopic cholesytectomy, which was good as I’d never seen one before and they’re quite common operations, even in NZ! Then I got to assist with a bilateral varicose vein stripping. This involves taking the veins out by winding them around a pair of forceps. And to make matters worse, the patient was quite obese, so I had to watch these veins being wound out whilst holding back layers of fat. I did get to practice some suturing from all the places where the veins had been stripped though, so that was really good.

In the afternoon session I was doing more retracting as we removed a large mass from someone’s right buttock. This was all right except that we perofrated the mass and all this grey gunk came out. I have never been so glad to be re-breathing my own breath and not the smell of the gunk! Finally we repaired an inguinal hernia which again was interesting and revealed a certain lack of anatomical knowledge about the inguinal region from all 3 junior participants in the theatre.

This leads me on to an interesting point about medicine in HK. It is the Residents (registrars) who do all the operating. It is very rare to see a consultant surgeon in theatre, only in very difficult or private cases. This is because the consultants are busy doing admin and writing papers/organising conferences etc. How they keep their hand in the theatre, I don’t know. Maybe after all those years of experience holds them in good practice.

Day 9
A late night discussion with Lauren about walled city's had stimulated my interest in one that had been converted into a park in Kowloon. Some walled city’s were old barracks or forts first built by the Chinese along their peninsulas to defend their ports. Others were previous independent city states that were not under the Qing dynasty when they ceded the New Territories to the British for 99yrs, so some debate remained over who actually was in control. The one in Kowloon was the former, and during the long time of disagreement, the area built up into a bit of a ghetto for thieves, Triads and many poor people. So as soon as the British Govt got their hands on it in 1984, they knocked it down, restored the historical bits and turned it into a park.

I quite enjoyed the park- and took so many photos! And another thing that was interesting, there were a couple of ‘memorial rocks’ to Christian missionaries who helped lead Triad members etc out of drug addictions. What’s so interesting is that the sign says straight out “freed them of their drug addictions through the power of Jesus Christ.” I doubt I’d see that in NZ.

I then visited the Yuen Po St Bird Market and Flower Market. It was full of some of the most beautiful small birds in cages, bird accessories (cages, feed etc) and large bags of live feed- i.e. cicadas. Kinda grossly fascinating. The flower market was, well a large street full of flower shops. Impressive, but not really my thing.

Alexis (a girl from the Pfister’s church who’d offered to show me around) and I went to the HK museums of History and Science. The Hong Kong Story was an interesting display tracing the geography and natural sciences of HK, then progressing to the cultural aspects. The science museum was ok, although not as enjoyable as the history museum-probably as we couldn’t work out some of the puzzles! Despite all the fun things at the museums, the highlight of the afternoon was teaching each other our native languages. A most useful exercise!

Following the museums, I went to one-eighty, the young professionals service at Kristy’s church. I actually quite enjoyed it. It was a normal church service, but I actually learnt something amongst all the noise and really felt God there, which surprised me. I was so surprised by the number of Canadian Chinese there. It seems like a lot of the people my age were returning to HK after their parents left in the 80’s. It was really interesting to hear their stories, and how they each felt called back, and what they felt God had in store for them- a lot of them had China on their hearts. There were also heaps of friendly people there like Bosco, Mark, Derek, and Joe to name a few. I caught the train back to Shatin with another girl, CK, who I’d met at one-eighty. I think the lesson of the day was that although traveling by yourself is good, sharing it with others is better.

Day 10
Sunday saw me go to the Pfister’s Cantonese-speaking church. I went to the English speaking youth service, but as a treat we joined the main congregation for communion, the Lord’s prayer and benediction- all in Cantonese. It was funny that without understanding a word (apart from “sit down”) I could understand what was going it. It was actually a rather surreal experience. I also visited a campus church that the Pfister’s support before Aunty Mirasay took me to this amazing Thai restaurant in the more amazing Festival walk mall.

Week 2
Monday found me having a study day in the morning, and teaching the Pfisters the ways of the Mac at night. I do quite like being “bilingual” in terms of Windows/Mac, and it was nice to be useful.

Tuesday joined the hepatobillary team for a ?Ca gallbladder laparoscopic removal. It was a really sad, but interesting case as when they put the camera in, they just found a mass of adhesions and metastasis all over the peritoneum, liver and omentum. I wouldn’t be surprised it there was some on the bowel as well. After lunch, I got to stitch the wounds of the porta-cath removals at Nethersole Hospital. Then I got a 30 minute experience of the Hong Kong highways as we went to see a patient with a ?mycotic aneurysm at another hospital. As Dr Lam said, they are the only mobile vascular team in HK,

Wednesday I spent again with the hepatobillary team. They were doing a liver resection for a man with a hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). This is rare (<1% of all cancers) in NZ, but is quite common in HK as it is the end-stage of liver cirrhosis. During the 6 hour surgery to remove 1.2kg of tumour (yes, 1.2kg!) I got asked all about Hep B in NZ. Of which I know… not a lot. So I went and looked it up afterwards (Robinson et al 2005, NZMJ for those interested). Prayer again was good on Wednesday night, although I stayed up late finishing the book “Finding God” that Irene lent me. It was really good. All about finding God, and learning about Him in your problems, not expecting Him just to make your life better. Ok, so although there is more to it than that, I found it very encouraging.

However, this left me very tired on Thursday, and although disappointed that our major case (an AAA repair) had self-discharged, I was also very glad and went back to bed. I was only going to do an hour’s powernap, but ended up sleeping the entire afternoon! Didn’t really feel like doing anything, but as Lauren had been working on his paper for his conference in Washington next week, I at least felt obligated to work my way through some of mine. This was quite successful.

Friday came and went- Qin Chiu, another intern on our team who's from Beijing and a fellow non-cantonese speaker, and I went and saw some gastroscopies (cameras down the throat). It was amazing, as they do them so quickly here, and for the lowest of suspicions, with minimal anesthetic. The surgeon did 3 in about 30mins, in which time a NZ gastroscopy would do 1.

That night I went to see the Avenue of the Stars- a Chinese theatre style walk along the Kowloon waterfront. It was alright, but as it was dedicated to HK film stars, I can’t claim I knew many names beyond Jackie Chan and Bruce Lee. I then hung around for the “Symphony of lights” a light show off the top of the buildings around the harbour. It was like fireworks- probably only a oncer, but I’m glad I can say I saw it. I was surprised when people clapped though- it wasn’t that great!

I then caught the Star Ferry over Victoria Harbour to Central and met Kristy for a late tea. We went out to a Shanghai restaurant, taking the world’s longest escalator (no really, this is no exaggeration) up the hill. After tea Kristy showed around Soho and Lan Kwai Fong- some of the trendier areas in HK. I never fully appreciated why they called Shatin the countryside until I went round here. It really was an urban jungle. I felt like such a country boy staring at all the people and lights. We then caught the tram down to Causeway Bay where more people were just milling around, and shopping. Again there were so many people and this was at 11pm at night!

Saturday was spent at Lantau Island with Aunty Mirasay’s friends David and Lyn, and Sophy. David and Lyn are American Missionaries here in Hong Kong who speak cantonese and Sophy is one of Lauren’s graduate students. Lantau is where the airport is, but is most famous for the Tian Tan Buddha- the world’s largest bronze outdoor seated Buddha (202ton!). Sophy, David and I took the Ngong Ping 360 gondola to Ngong Ping where the Buddha and associated temple was.

The ride was fantastic, even though it was a cloudy day. It takes about 20mins and follows a walking trail up to the top so we could see all the people walking. We stopped a couple of occasions, once suspended several hundred metres over nothing but water. It was really cool. At the top is a “Disneyland-esque” village selling food, souvenirs and of course the ubiquitous starbucks and 7/11. A bit further on sat the Buddha who dominated the landscape and at 34m and 202 tons. It was very impressive, although kind of sad as the place was,mainly tourists and a few worshippers. I would hate to be disrupted by people laughing and taking photos whilst I was trying to worship. It was also an educational experience as Sophy is doing a PhD in Chinese religions and David has lived in HK for 27years or so. So they were comparing the Temple of Heaven in Beijing to this and what everything meant with regards to Buddhist tradition. I also learnt about the Trappist monks who raise cows for the glory of God (something to be thankful that I’m not doing I guess!). We also visited the last remaining tea plantation in HK- literally a small cluster of bushes at the end of a path. None the less, I can say I have done it!

The temple I mentioned earlier was the Po Lin temple. Although the smell of incense got to us all after a while, I was very impressed with the statues and the architecture. I also saw the classiest public toilet in the world. I took photos and I wasn’t the only one! We caught the ferry from Mui Wo back to Central. Aunty Mirasay shouted Sophy and I tea at “Beirut”- a Lebanese restaurant in Lan Kwai Fong. It was a delicious selection of hummus, pita and chicken bits- all topped off with French fries!? Odd but ok.

I then went along to One-eighty, and then to the Fringe Club (a bar) for one of Kristy’s friend’s birthday with most of the one-eighty crowd following that. It was good, but I had had a long day, and felt quite tired. I crashed at Kristy’s place and after getting home at 2:30 I was not surprised to wake up at 11 O’clock.

After a lazy Sunday, I met Cath and Esther’s friend Shu Shan (from their Korean Uni days) down in Shatin. We went to this Yuanese restaurant, which is the area where Shu Shan is originally from. We had a soup with black skinned chicken (!?), and also had sautéed frogs legs. Both were quite nice. After wards, Shu Shan helped me by a pair of sunglasses as one of the legs had broke on mine.

Week 3
Monday was work again. Not a lot of patient contact today, but good academic teaching. I got to see the first plaque excision angioplasty using the silverhawk system at PWH. It was neat talking with the reps and asking them heaps of questions. Journal club was also interesting today with discussions on a rubbish meta-analysis on colonic stenting and a paper on medical vs surgical management of GORD.

Sophy came round for tea and it was just what I needed. Between her and Aunt Mirasay there were laughs a plenty and we watched some of the silliest stuff on YouTube like the Indian 12 days of Christmas. She also showed us some of her friend’s work and some of the stuff she was trying

Tuesday was also really quiet. We had some surgeons come down from Beijing who were sitting their FRCS membership exams in HK follow us around, so Dr Lam gave us a tutorial on aneurysms. I followed that up with some pancreatitis study and some Cantonese. I then felt sick of study and left to wander around City One. Lynne was saying that it was about 50 towers with 28-33 floors each and 2-8 flats on each floor. That means that potentially there are 10,000 + people living in less than a square km. The idea fascinates me. I also went for a poke around the shopping center there, although quite rough and old really. Had a very used feel about the place.

Thus ends today- bring on tomorrow!

Labels: Elective

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The unthinkable
So I've been thinking... being around all the cheap electronics in Hong Kong I could maybe get a new laptop. And have looked at the new macs, (which are really hard to find here), and I'm so so about them. I mean, I'm not sure I gain a lot- OK, apart from a web cam, a whole lot more power and RAM, a DVDRW (over-rated, but has its uses. Not to mention a full Mac, as mine's been beaten up a bit- can't load any new updates, the airport card freezes everytime I turn it on etc etc.

But how do you windows users find working with XP or even vista? I like the system enough (i.e. don't want to curse it everytime I use it), and having the odd game would be nice.

So I'm asking you the reader: has windows improved enough that I should consider going back to PCs?

Your opinion will be appreciated.

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Elective: The beginning
Hmm, I was only meant to write a short thing for this, but I have been keeping a journal on my iBook, and rather than cut and paste maybe I’ll just chuck it all up and you can read it at your leisure (or not, I'm sure you have better things to do). Be warned- it works out at about 4 and a half pages! Maybe I should write a book on it when I’m done.

Day 1
There is probably one word, nay one prefix to describe the prelude to this trip- dis- as in disorganized. Packing was completed a couple of hours prior to leaving, I still didn’t have my Hong Kong student visa, my Cantonese was minimal at best and I had no idea where I was going, except that Kristy wouldn’t be there till Sunday. Not to mention, I had probably failed a long case that afternoon.

Undeterred, with a lot of help (and nagging), I waved goodbye to my family, hopped on the plane to Auckland and off I went. Hanging around Auckland airport wasn’t that much fun, and I was glad to hit the plane. Singapore airport was long, so it was good to have a look around, especially the gardens before hopping on the last plane to HK. Pity that by the time I’d worked out the ins and outs of the Singapore Airlines remote controls, it was time to disembark.

Thankfully, I was let in to HK with a visitor’s visa without too much hassle from the custom’s officer. However, I did miss the bus that would have taken me straight to the Tong’s place. So, after calling Kristy’s dad, Kelly, I intrepidly hopped on the bus to Tseun Wan Mass Transport Rail (MTR) station. No, I thought it was coming up soon, so I got ready for the female electronic voice to announce it. But it called for ‘Kai Foo MTR’ instead- so I kept on sitting- right to the end of the line. It took about 20mins walking with 2 heavy bags and 2 trialed phone calls to Kelly before I got back to the right MTR. Following another 15mins wandering we ran into each other, of whom I was very glad to see. He recognized me from across the street, although I’d like to think I was doing my best “Lost and tired tourist” impression.

Once I arrived at the Tong’s place, I met Kristy’s mum, Irene, and a family friend Floyd. The Tong’s flat is in a resort- no literally. The place has 8 towers, each with 70-odd floors and 5-6 apartments on each. Outside is a sea view, tennis courts, a swimming pool, 3 playgrounds, a huge open area and a putting green! Being on the 58th floor looking out to sea shows a lot of the harbour entrance way and is full of boats and planes- everything makes Wellington look so small. And I still can’t get over the fact that places of this size exist all over HK!

Day 2
The next day I went to Sham Shui Po with Kelly and his friend Victor from Christchurch. Sham Shui Po, or SSP as it’s known to the locals, is this market of cheap and second-hand electronics mixed with antiques, trinkets, and white elephant stores. There are stores there completely based on selling batteries, second hand power tools or even phone covers! Who’d have thought that would exist in NZ! There were so many people around, and everyone seemed to be there to make money or to save it. I picked up a cheap 2nd battery for my phone and a cheap sim card.

We also went to the golden computer centre, where you could quite literally get (nearly) anything computer related second hand or brand new. Things like 1.8Hz dual-core laptops for under HK$10,000 (NZ$2000) or 2Gb flash drives for HK$180 (NZ$30). The disadvantage was that the stores themselves lacked any sort of character, and where lacking in any sort of staff facilities or décor, but that’s how you keep your overheads down. One also wonders what kind of guarantee you’ll get, although all the competition involves service and price. Apparently, that’s how its done here- people will follow the dollar for the brand, rather than the name of the store.

As Kelly wanted to get a hair cut, he suggested Victor and I both get one too. We went to this very trendy place in Prince Edward. As we walked to the hairdressers, we passed this street full of aquarium and fish for sale. It was crazy- a street dedicated to keeping fish! Then I got a haircut HK style with a wash before and after- now that was different, and very practical too. Don’t think the cut is too different, but it definitely had an HK twist.

OK, so, Kristy comes back tonight, and I’m going into Wan Chai to get my visa, then up to the medical school after that. But before that- church at the vine and yum char to follow- looks like an exciting day ahead.

Day 3
The Vine (Kristy and Victor’s church) was pretty good, and I got to meet a lot of people there. What really surprised me was the amount of offerings- >$1 million over the January period, although normally it’s only around the $half million mark. And this from a church of 6-700 people! Kelly was saying his church took in more- but goodness me- I don’t think there would be many churches in NZ that could claim that kind of money!

After church, the Tong’s invited their friend Jeremy and myself, out to Yum Cha. My first Cantonese yum cha in Canton (area)! I managed to eat everything including finishing a small dish of chilli sauce that everyone was sure would be too hot for me. Jeremy was an interesting character- he is a middle-aged gentleman who works for one of the big banks in HK and manages multiples of billion dollars in finance. His family is back in Singapore. His attitude to a lot of things such as money and problem solving is totally different to mine, and he made me think about a lot of things- like what I do with my money, and how different approaches may make or lose money. I’ve never been exposed to that kind of thinking before.

Afterwards, the Tongs took me to Causeway Bay, which is a big shopping area, and left me to it. And although I was unprepared- like no map, phrase book or backpack I got around OK. Managed to snap up a few things in the Chinese new year sales, but generally just spent time looking around. One thing that fascinated me was the number of Filipino maids/servants who gathered en masse around the Central City. Apparently 200,000 of them just sitting in the street, footpath, walkways- they were everywhere. I’ve never seen anything like it. They also have talent quests and open air shows which I quite enjoyed watching- none the least because I could stand 4-5 rows deep and still see over the average Filipino woman who is only ~5ft and mumble.

I stayed up late that night to greet Kristy home from New York. It was good to see her. Sounds like she had an awesome time in NY- it’s hard to believe that I’m going there in a few months.

Day 4

Up early on Monday to catch the 962B bus into town with Kelly. He was going to work and I was going to sort out my student visa (disorganised remember?!). The immigration tower is in a place called Wan Chai, which is in Central Hong Kong- straight out of the station! I got to Immigration tower by 8:20 and I was already in the 2nd line of people (about #30 in line). Thankfully, they let a whole lot of us up at once as everyone goes to 6 different floors to do their immigration business. After a 40-minute wait and several variations on my name (Brendan John, John Ng etc), I was now able to “study” at the Chinese University of Hong Kong.

From the immigration tower, I slowly made my way north to Prince of Wales Hospital (PWH). They were nice, although the hospital seems very old- almost has a Kenepuru feel about the place. I went to journal club, which was interesting for 2 reasons. Firstly, I met my team, who presented 2 recent papers on surgical matters in near-perfect English, with several members asking very intelligent sounding questions. The second was as soon as they stopped the “teaching”, they all burst into Cantonese, even for the administrative part of the meeting. It was very weird. Kristy was saying it’s because they don’t know how to have a conversation in English- a bit like us with our formal pronunciation of foreign words… but they’re fluent at it. The rest of the day was spent looking at infection control videos- the woman in charge was amazed that I’d nearly watched them all (like she suggested I should), and said that most students give up after an hour or so. Interestingly PWH was one of the first places in HK to have a case of SARS so the specter still remains strong.

It took me 2 hours to get home that night. 45 minutes on the train, 15 minutes on the bus and 1 hour wandering around Tseun Wan train station trying to find the right mini-bus stop! Later that night Kristy and I stayed up and watched the Oscars- well until the news update told us who won halfway through, so we went to bed.

Day 5Shifting to Shatin (trans: Sandy field)

As the hospital is a long way from the Tong’s place, Irene had arranged for me to stay with one of her bible study friends- (Associate Professor) Lauren and Aunty Marisay Pfister who live in the neighbouring suburb of Fotan. So I packed up all my stuff at the Tong’s place (resolving to send some back home prior to leaving HK) and feeling rather pack-mule like, walked down to the bus stop. 1 hour later of a bus, two trains, and a taxi we ascended this steep hill to where they lived. Apparently, it’s the country side- but countryside in HK means that you can see hills in the skyline- there are still multiple high-rises, motorways, overbridges and lots of Cantonese people.

The Pfisters themselves are very nice. Lauren (male) is an American of Swiss heritage who is AP of religious studies specializing in Taoist and Rue (sp?) religions. He is a man of incredible knowledge and ideas that I would never imagine in 1000 years and is also fluent in Cantonese, Mandarin, and possibly German. His wife, (Aunty) Marisay is also an American of Filipino heritage. She is also an ex-nurse. They have two grown-up children who live back in the States, and a spare room. They also have a veritable library of many subjects, including religion, German, travel, and fiction which takes up 2 rooms (wall to wall plus some!) and the corridor. They also have this fantastic living room decorated with treasures from all over the world. I must take a picture if I remember.

Oh, and I also did some medicine today- as the HK health system works in clusters, the doctor I’m attached to, Dr Sophie Hon, was going out to the Alice Hui Nin Nethersole Hospital ((sp?) a district hospital which was probably the equivalent of Hastings hospital, but the size of Wellington) to put in a couple of port-caths. I got to scrub in, and help with one- even got to put in a stitch, all be it rather badly.

Day 6First full day.

Today I think I struggled for the first time with being alone in a strange place. Only speaking the second language didn’t help and I think the full effects of jet lag hit me. I also feel really nervous, almost like a 4th year because I’m now a stranger in a strange environment, even though I know most medical people speak reasonable English. Either way, it resulted with me falling asleep in the medical library in between ward rounds and Outpatients. Everything from ordering food at the staff canteen, telling the minbus driver where I want to go or trying to listen to patients is a struggle. This is definitely an attachment for seeing procedures I think! (NB: “Tung” = pain)

Going to outpatients was cool. I saw a lot of vascular stuff, which is a real gap in my knowledge. My consultant who I think is a Professor is really young- maybe mid to late 30’s. Apparently, it’s possible in Hong Kong if you’re willing to work for it. He was also trained in Australia so his English is pretty good. My team has been laughing at me, as HK is mainly good for liver stuff, yet I’m doing vascular which they all went overseas for. I am allowed to float between teams though, which is good.

On Wednesday, the Pfisters have a prayer meeting, which I went along to. We talked a bit about Ephesians 2:19- about no longer being foreigners or aliens in a strange land, but being a fellow citizen in the Kingdom of God. Never has that rung so true, than when feeling lost in a strange country! I was very grateful for the message of hope.

Day 7
Today I saw a laparoscopic colectomy (technically very difficult) and resection of a pseudoaneurysm. I’d never heard of either of these 2 procedures so there was some reading to do afterwards. Also, my team went to the Chinese restaurant on the hospital grounds. Yes, there is a Chinese restaurant on hospital grounds- who would have thought? The Cantonese was slightly better today, although it was still frustrating. I feel kinda bad, because I know that talking in a second language is hard, especially when you are tired- which my team is after being on call 2 days ago. It also seems kind of weird to interject with English when the rest of the conversation is in Cantonese. But I do feel lonely with not being able to join in. Who thought that language was such a big deal for making friend? Ahm I'm sure either the language or friends will come. Howeverm I am currently enjoying using my iPod on the minibus just to get some English into me for 15 minutes or so a day to help keep me sane.

Today I realized that I have already been here a week- it feels like a lot longer. It is a very weird but strangely enjoyable feeling.

Labels: Elective

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Elective: The beginning
Hmm, I was only meant to write a short thing for this, but I have been keeping a journal on my iBook, and rather than cut and paste maybe I’ll just chuck it all up and you can read it at your leisure (or not, I'm sure you have better things to do). Be warned- it works out at about 4 and a half pages! Maybe I should write a book on it when I’m done.

Day 1
There is probably one word, nay one prefix to describe the prelude to this trip- dis- as in disorganized. Packing was completed a couple of hours prior to leaving, I still didn’t have my Hong Kong student visa, my Cantonese was minimal at best and I had no idea where I was going, except that Kristy wouldn’t be there till Sunday. Not to mention, I had probably failed a long case that afternoon.

Undeterred, with a lot of help (and nagging), I waved goodbye to my family, hopped on the plane to Auckland and off I went. Hanging around Auckland airport wasn’t that much fun, and I was glad to hit the plane. Singapore airport was long, so it was good to have a look around, especially the gardens before hopping on the last plane to HK. Pity that by the time I’d worked out the ins and outs of the Singapore Airlines remote controls, it was time to disembark.

Thankfully, I was let in to HK with a visitor’s visa without too much hassle from the custom’s officer. However, I did miss the bus that would have taken me straight to the Tong’s place. So, after calling Kristy’s dad, Kelly, I intrepidly hopped on the bus to Tseun Wan Mass Transport Rail (MTR) station. No, I thought it was coming up soon, so I got ready for the female electronic voice to announce it. But it called for ‘Kai Foo MTR’ instead- so I kept on sitting- right to the end of the line. It took about 20mins walking with 2 heavy bags and 2 trialed phone calls to Kelly before I got back to the right MTR. Following another 15mins wandering we ran into each other, of whom I was very glad to see. He recognized me from across the street, although I’d like to think I was doing my best “Lost and tired tourist” impression.

Once I arrived at the Tong’s place, I met Kristy’s mum, Irene, and a family friend Floyd. The Tong’s flat is in a resort- no literally. The place has 8 towers, each with 70-odd floors and 5-6 apartments on each. Outside is a sea view, tennis courts, a swimming pool, 3 playgrounds, a huge open area and a putting green! Being on the 58th floor looking out to sea shows a lot of the harbour entrance way and is full of boats and planes- everything makes Wellington look so small. And I still can’t get over the fact that places of this size exist all over HK!

Day 2
The next day I went to Sham Shui Po with Kelly and his friend Victor from Christchurch. Sham Shui Po, or SSP as it’s known to the locals, is this market of cheap and second-hand electronics mixed with antiques, trinkets, and white elephant stores. There are stores there completely based on selling batteries, second hand power tools or even phone covers! Who’d have thought that would exist in NZ! There were so many people around, and everyone seemed to be there to make money or to save it. I picked up a cheap 2nd battery for my phone and a cheap sim card.

We also went to the golden computer centre, where you could quite literally get (nearly) anything computer related second hand or brand new. Things like 1.8Hz dual-core laptops for under HK$10,000 (NZ$2000) or 2Gb flash drives for HK$180 (NZ$30). The disadvantage was that the stores themselves lacked any sort of character, and where lacking in any sort of staff facilities or décor, but that’s how you keep your overheads down. One also wonders what kind of guarantee you’ll get, although all the competition involves service and price. Apparently, that’s how its done here- people will follow the dollar for the brand, rather than the name of the store.

As Kelly wanted to get a hair cut, he suggested Victor and I both get one too. We went to this very trendy place in Prince Edward. As we walked to the hairdressers, we passed this street full of aquarium and fish for sale. It was crazy- a street dedicated to keeping fish! Then I got a haircut HK style with a wash before and after- now that was different, and very practical too. Don’t think the cut is too different, but it definitely had an HK twist.

OK, so, Kristy comes back tonight, and I’m going into Wan Chai to get my visa, then up to the medical school after that. But before that- church at the vine and yum char to follow- looks like an exciting day ahead.

Day 3
The Vine (Kristy and Victor’s church) was pretty good, and I got to meet a lot of people there. What really surprised me was the amount of offerings- >$1 million over the January period, although normally it’s only around the $half million mark. And this from a church of 6-700 people! Kelly was saying his church took in more- but goodness me- I don’t think there would be many churches in NZ that could claim that kind of money!

After church, the Tong’s invited their friend Jeremy and myself, out to Yum Cha. My first Cantonese yum cha in Canton (area)! I managed to eat everything including finishing a small dish of chilli sauce that everyone was sure would be too hot for me. Jeremy was an interesting character- he is a middle-aged gentleman who works for one of the big banks in HK and manages multiples of billion dollars in finance. His family is back in Singapore. His attitude to a lot of things such as money and problem solving is totally different to mine, and he made me think about a lot of things- like what I do with my money, and how different approaches may make or lose money. I’ve never been exposed to that kind of thinking before.

Afterwards, the Tongs took me to Causeway Bay, which is a big shopping area, and left me to it. And although I was unprepared- like no map, phrase book or backpack I got around OK. Managed to snap up a few things in the Chinese new year sales, but generally just spent time looking around. One thing that fascinated me was the number of Filipino maids/servants who gathered en masse around the Central City. Apparently 200,000 of them just sitting in the street, footpath, walkways- they were everywhere. I’ve never seen anything like it. They also have talent quests and open air shows which I quite enjoyed watching- none the least because I could stand 4-5 rows deep and still see over the average Filipino woman who is only ~5ft and mumble.

I stayed up late that night to greet Kristy home from New York. It was good to see her. Sounds like she had an awesome time in NY- it’s hard to believe that I’m going there in a few months.

Day 4

Up early on Monday to catch the 962B bus into town with Kelly. He was going to work and I was going to sort out my student visa (disorganised remember?!). The immigration tower is in a place called Wan Chai, which is in Central Hong Kong- straight out of the station! I got to Immigration tower by 8:20 and I was already in the 2nd line of people (about #30 in line). Thankfully, they let a whole lot of us up at once as everyone goes to 6 different floors to do their immigration business. After a 40-minute wait and several variations on my name (Brendan John, John Ng etc), I was now able to “study” at the Chinese University of Hong Kong.

From the immigration tower, I slowly made my way north to Prince of Wales Hospital (PWH). They were nice, although the hospital seems very old- almost has a Kenepuru feel about the place. I went to journal club, which was interesting for 2 reasons. Firstly, I met my team, who presented 2 recent papers on surgical matters in near-perfect English, with several members asking very intelligent sounding questions. The second was as soon as they stopped the “teaching”, they all burst into Cantonese, even for the administrative part of the meeting. It was very weird. Kristy was saying it’s because they don’t know how to have a conversation in English- a bit like us with our formal pronunciation of foreign words… but they’re fluent at it. The rest of the day was spent looking at infection control videos- the woman in charge was amazed that I’d nearly watched them all (like she suggested I should), and said that most students give up after an hour or so. Interestingly PWH was one of the first places in HK to have a case of SARS so the specter still remains strong.

It took me 2 hours to get home that night. 45 minutes on the train, 15 minutes on the bus and 1 hour wandering around Tseun Wan train station trying to find the right mini-bus stop! Later that night Kristy and I stayed up and watched the Oscars- well until the news update told us who won halfway through, so we went to bed.

Day 5Shifting to Shatin (trans: Sandy field)

As the hospital is a long way from the Tong’s place, Irene had arranged for me to stay with one of her bible study friends- (Associate Professor) Lauren and Aunty Marisay Pfister who live in the neighbouring suburb of Fotan. So I packed up all my stuff at the Tong’s place (resolving to send some back home prior to leaving HK) and feeling rather pack-mule like, walked down to the bus stop. 1 hour later of a bus, two trains, and a taxi we ascended this steep hill to where they lived. Apparently, it’s the country side- but countryside in HK means that you can see hills in the skyline- there are still multiple high-rises, motorways, overbridges and lots of Cantonese people.

The Pfisters themselves are very nice. Lauren (male) is an American of Swiss heritage who is AP of religious studies specializing in Taoist and Rue (sp?) religions. He is a man of incredible knowledge and ideas that I would never imagine in 1000 years and is also fluent in Cantonese, Mandarin, and possibly German. His wife, (Aunty) Marisay is also an American of Filipino heritage. She is also an ex-nurse. They have two grown-up children who live back in the States, and a spare room. They also have a veritable library of many subjects, including religion, German, travel, and fiction which takes up 2 rooms (wall to wall plus some!) and the corridor. They also have this fantastic living room decorated with treasures from all over the world. I must take a picture if I remember.

Oh, and I also did some medicine today- as the HK health system works in clusters, the doctor I’m attached to, Dr Sophie Hon, was going out to the Alice Hui Nin Nethersole Hospital ((sp?) a district hospital which was probably the equivalent of Hastings hospital, but the size of Wellington) to put in a couple of port-caths. I got to scrub in, and help with one- even got to put in a stitch, all be it rather badly.

Day 6First full day.

Today I think I struggled for the first time with being alone in a strange place. Only speaking the second language didn’t help and I think the full effects of jet lag hit me. I also feel really nervous, almost like a 4th year because I’m now a stranger in a strange environment, even though I know most medical people speak reasonable English. Either way, it resulted with me falling asleep in the medical library in between ward rounds and Outpatients. Everything from ordering food at the staff canteen, telling the minbus driver where I want to go or trying to listen to patients is a struggle. This is definitely an attachment for seeing procedures I think! (NB: “Tung” = pain)

Going to outpatients was cool. I saw a lot of vascular stuff, which is a real gap in my knowledge. My consultant who I think is a Professor is really young- maybe mid to late 30’s. Apparently, it’s possible in Hong Kong if you’re willing to work for it. He was also trained in Australia so his English is pretty good. My team has been laughing at me, as HK is mainly good for liver stuff, yet I’m doing vascular which they all went overseas for. I am allowed to float between teams though, which is good.

On Wednesday, the Pfisters have a prayer meeting, which I went along to. We talked a bit about Ephesians 2:19- about no longer being foreigners or aliens in a strange land, but being a fellow citizen in the Kingdom of God. Never has that rung so true, than when feeling lost in a strange country! I was very grateful for the message of hope.

Day 7
Today I saw a laparoscopic colectomy (technically very difficult) and resection of a pseudoaneurysm. I’d never heard of either of these 2 procedures so there was some reading to do afterwards. Also, my team went to the Chinese restaurant on the hospital grounds. Yes, there is a Chinese restaurant on hospital grounds- who would have thought? The Cantonese was slightly better today, although it was still frustrating. I feel kinda bad, because I know that talking in a second language is hard, especially when you are tired- which my team is after being on call 2 days ago. It also seems kind of weird to interject with English when the rest of the conversation is in Cantonese. But I do feel lonely with not being able to join in. Who thought that language was such a big deal for making friend? Ahm I'm sure either the language or friends will come. Howeverm I am currently enjoying using my iPod on the minibus just to get some English into me for 15 minutes or so a day to help keep me sane.

Today I realized that I have already been here a week- it feels like a lot longer. It is a very weird but strangely enjoyable feeling.

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