yea they did a........pretty.......good...... job

since lanznar hasnt hooked up the slingbox yet (hustle up, a-hole!), i've been downloading episodes of svu to pass the early hours. my clock is still fucked and for some reason going to sleep at 4 last night didn't mean sleeping past 9. shitter. anyway this bit torrent shit is serious. i ended up downloading the following:

• michael jackson thriller 25th edition
• jennifer hudson (is that weird? i felt bad after her family got totally fucked)
• coast 2 coast mixtape number 54 hosted by slim of 112
• batman - the dark knight (still havent seen it)
• plump dj's - shifting gears (per rec from my new hk friend)
• john legend - evolver
• mia - kala

i'm open to any and all suggestions. i have this flight to tokyo coming up and i don't think batman will cover me the entire way.

this afternoon i walked around the ifc mall a little bit and found a balcony that gave a pretty good view of kowloon.....



by pretty good, i actually mean terrible. this photo doesn't give justice to the other side. not even close, actually. it's been really foggy here. the humidity is super high but it hasn't really rained much. it rained a little bit last night but that's about it. this pic wont even compare to the ones i take from the peak. i really need to get up there. the view is really sweet.

this picture did nothing to satisfy my hunger so i crossed the road and found a fast food type chinese restaurant. part of the menu was in english and part wasn't. i ordered a soya sauce chicken and rice (hot sauce/white sauce please) and this is what i got......



actually it didn't look too bad. and for HK$31, it's a bargain. i think that's around 4 bucks. what meal can you get in ny for $4. that's right, bitches. anyway it was neither delicious nor delightful. sandy's brownies dominate this meal 11 out of 10 times. is that even possible? i've had quite the adventure trying to order food here. i need some more time with locals. the best meal i've had was with maxx (whatup gina!). it was a bowl of noodles with shrimp dumplings and it was HK$16. That's something like $2. it was filling, delicious, and delightful. that's right. all three.

not much else today. i made some friends first at the bape store then at the ice cream store. apparently everything is cheaper here since it all comes from here so we'll see what kind of shit i can get into. and i still can't believe the drama this season on svu. whoa.

it's unofficial

i put down a deposit on a place today and i'm pretty excited about it. it's the one that pa-mela showed me yesterday. apparently you can negotiate with these people a bit. i told the pa-mela's boss that my budget was HK$1,000 less than he had quoted and he just accepted it. i didn't even realize it was a negotiable point. who would have thought. i guess he (the boss, mr kai) was psyched i was agreeing to 3 months. so the deal is i'll have a sweet room from nov 1 - dec 15 and then a super sweet room from dec 15 - jan 31. good shit. here's a link of the google map. the super sweet room has a couch in it so if you come to visit, you'll have a legit free place to stay. shibuya!

speaking of shibuya, i just booked a ticket to be in tokyo from this sunday (2 nov) thru weds (5 nov). this fallacy of cheap flights within southeast asia is bullshit. there are cheap flights to bangkok ~US$78 each way. that's a good price. but a flight to tokyo isn't even close to that. hopefully my last boss is reading this and wants to contribute to this effort. we'll see how those negotiations go. anyway, if you find yourself in tokyo over those days let me know and we'll kick it. i'll be doing some work, but hopefully will find some time to hit the omotesando pretty hard.

being that i have my apartment all set up, i figured what better time than to see who i know in hong kong. i did a quick gmail search and came up with something absurd. here's where the story begins....

turns out i bought this ridiculously awesome watch about a year and a half ago......


the wheel on the right side broke on me and i wrote an email to the company - know1edge - asking what to do. after a few emails back and forth, a girl named annie provided amazing custserve and essentially paid for everything to get fedex'd back to her (in what turns out to be hong kong), repair the watch, and fedex it back to me. i was really impressed. anyway, i found our conversations from mid '07 and decided to e-mail her to see if she's even in hong kong and if she had any tips or tricks or pretty much any info for me. what did i have to lose? here's the e-mail i sent her.....
------------------------

from danny kirschenbaum to annie@know1edge.com date Wed, Oct 29, 2008 at 12:26 PM subject Re: broken watch :(

Hi Annie,

My name is Danny and as you can see below, we had e-mailed last year about a watch that you had repaired for me. Do you remember? As it turns out, I have come to Hong Kong to learn Chinese and see the city for the next few months. I'm wondering if there is a know1edge shop I can check out. Also, are there other similar stores or just generally awesome things you can recommend?

I know this is a bit random, but I figured I'd give it a shot. Thanks for your help, I really appreciate it!

Take care,

Danny
------------------------


ok so it's pretty straightforward. i didn't really know what to expect, if anything at all. i mean it's a fuckin ridiculous e-mail to send someone. our relationship was based solely on a few e-mails between us strictly to figure out how to have my watch repaired (which, by the way i had purchased from a canadian website, c-apsule.com). fine, who cares. here's her response......


------------------------

from Annie Lee to danny kirschenbaum date Wed, Oct 29, 2008 at 12:28 PM subject Re: broken watch :(

Hi Danny,

Welcome to Hong Kong! As it turns out, we are the unofficial Mayor & Mayoress of Hong Kong, let me know if you're looking for anything specific.

8FIVE2SHOP: Officially carries the whole line of Know1edge and other brands. Check the map: 8five2.com It's located on Hong Kong Island side in Causeway Bay where there are a lot of other Street fashion shops to check out. Check Superfuture.com

Food for a really local experience:

Tsuih Wah: Chicken Curry (famous with the locals)

Jade Garden: for the best dimsum

Parties & places check: alivenotdead.com

Good luck on your Chinese!

Annie

----------------------------

I'm sorry, what? Let's review that first paragraph........

"As it turns out, we are the unofficial Mayor & Mayoress of Hong Kong, let me know if you're looking for anything specific."

what the fuck is the unofficial mayor & mayoress of hong kong? who had i just e-mailed? i thought you were the girl who was nice enough to help me fix my watch. but holy BALLS you're the unofficial mayoress of hong kong? and who is this mayor you speak of? At this point I wonder if she knows bambi, everyone's favorite mayor of the lower east side. this is one of the few times when i really didn't know what to say to her or how to e-mail her back. i mean how do i respond to the mayoress of hong kong? like with "dear your highness" or something? i did a little bit of research online and found some stuff about her and her husband. turns out they may be local celebrities. i'm not really sure. it seems they are in their own minds, at the very least.

needless to say, i went to the shop and really liked it. there was a dude named brian (who may/may not be her husband/the unofficial mayor of hong kong) but he spoke really good english and was interested in my story and new york. he says he's going to ny on the 8th of november so we covered some basics. they happened to have a really good sale on t's and shorts so i did alright. on my way out he told me to drop by any time so i'll be back to try to enter their unofficial kingdom.

i decided to take the long way back to mike/sara's just to take a look at central. heres the early side of rush hour down by the water....



what happened today? i have no idea. what will come from know1ng the unofficial mayor and mayoress of hong kong? i have even less of an idea. any tips dealing with majesty in general would be fantastic. wantastic.

but you can study mandarin in your country

hot as shit today. went out to look at some apartments in soho and sheung wan in jeans and was forced to come back to put on shorts. it was at least 88 with some serious humidity. i wasn't ready for that. the guy showing me around was a dude named arman - i was expecting the browntown - but he was a short little chinese man. one thing i did notice is that he, like many americans, had his keys hanging down from one of those chains on his belt loop. is there a name for that? i was never into it but i guess it's worldwide. i remember an a-hole teacher name mr pedulla (who brewed his own beer called pedu-brew) who had his keys on his belt loop and he always banged them onto his desk and chalkboard i thought he was such an asshole. arman's keys were banging around and he thought he was offending me so he pulled them off and held them. weird. the apts he showed me were decent, one better than the other, but neither super sweet like i want.

i had to go back to mike and sara's apartment after seeing those apartments cause i was drenched from the fucking heat. i spent a few hours sending emails and bidding on priceline for a flight to tokyo (niiyama here i come!) and finally made an appointment to see another unit in causeway bay near times square. this is where the shit really hit.

i took a bus down there which was surprisingly easy. the public transportation system here makes so much more sense than in ny. you pay for how far you go, even on a bus. the fare shown on the meter actually drops depending on how close you are to the destination. fucking genius. they're also double deckers so there are plenty of seats. real rocket science. so i get off the bus and figure out where i'm going (read: asked someone in the sogo department store to send me in the right direction) and i finally get on my way and i see this....



fuck me. thanks for the reminder! what i would do for a juicy double double - i probably shouldn't say out loud as i don't know what's [il]legal in this country. i salivated for 20 minutes and finally moved on to see this apartment. it was good - no, really good. i think this will be where i live for the next few months. it's on the 15th floor of a building right near an awesome area. it's a little shady, which i'm down with, but it has a queen bed and tv and a bathroom that isn't in the bedroom and has a separate showering area. the woman who showed me the place (pa-mela) not only is the person who shows the rooms, but also cleans them weekly. talk about efficient. there were people in all of the other rooms around, which is promising. there's a nice view of the area through a large window and shelf right in front, which will house my sneakers in as best a way possible given the fact that i'll be in such a small space.

i met up with a friend for a few minutes and got back on the bus. i sat in the last row like a shmuck and took a picture of the bottom deck....



i was already the only white on the bus so who gave a shit if my flash went off. the dude on the left looks psyched to be involved and the sleeper on the right was probably tired from a long day of studying that english. i don't blame her. the sweet spot about my seat was that there wasn't a seat in front of me so i could stretch my long white legs out and make everyone hate me even more. i was pumped to be wearing my new granny sneakers from yesterday. all comments on those will be ignored, you motherfuckers!

in other news, i got a call from a friend i met when i was out here in july. she didn't really understand why i came all the way to hong kong to learn mandarin. i really am just obsessed with all of the support i've received along the way. i'll show her when i'm talking around the streets with my BALLS t-shirt!

draft beer not soldiers

finally got some sleep last nite. i'd say i probably slept more overnite than i had the entire time i've been here. i was forced to watch espn this morning (to my absolute dismay) but it was worth it to watch the chinese version of game 4 of the world series. my commentary isn't as good as the chinese broadcasters, but i think i have a pretty good idea of how the game went.

i spent most of today in causeway bay just walking around and looking for awesome shit. the proverbial games may now begin as I bought my first pair of sneakers at the new nike sportswear store in times square.



not to be confused with times square in ny; it's an area/mall that has 2 nike stores in it. if you want to know what i'm talking about, check out the new nsw store @ 21 mercer st it has some of the same stuff. i had seen these online but can't remember if they had them in the soho location. fuck it, these are gonna look good with everything. they're grey and have velcro like the aarp recommends and have rubber soles. butterdrums.

i went to look at a studio apartment today near the aforementioned times square. i was greeted by a white guy named david who was somewhat polish and couldn't understand how my family has polish roots but i wasn't fluent in the language. i said i knew the word "shvitz" and he didn't even laugh. i was expecting an asian guy given we're in hong kong and i'm looking at apartments but hey whatever's good. this "studio" was not the advertised 130 sq ft. it was a room the size of a double bed + 9 square feet. the bathroom was also in the room (great feature!) except the shower wasn't separated from the room with the toilet in it. the showerhead was literally above the toilet. i guess the drain on the floor of this room is good for both the shower and any potential toilet floods that may occur. needless to say, i happily passed on this location. i'm going to look at a few more tomorrow. i'm starting to think sharing an apartment with someone else may allow me to have a reasonable amount of space vs just a studio. tomorrow's space sounds promising though so we'll see how it goes.

i've seen all kinds of shirts on guys here since i've arrived. the nite i got here i met a friend for dinner and saw a local guy wearing a shirt that just said BALLS. my friend didn't understand why i thought it was so funny. i said "what if there was a shirt that just said DICKS?" she thought that was funnier. watch out causal 6, for all you know i'm gonna get into the t shirt design business. "draft beer not soldiers" was today's favorite, which ironically was on the same block as the BALLS shirt. maybe that's just sweet t-shirt row over there. now i know where to hang out.

tonight i'm trying to re-visit this bar i went to twice last time i was here. x bar. i think theres a facebook page (http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=565839351&ref=frmf#/group.php?gid=5523625747&ref=mf). make sure you quote "eric" for that special discount.

It takes 7 days to install the cable TV

so i made it after a long journey. got to jfk on thursday morning at 3a only to learn the terminal doesn't open til 4a. i'd recommend not making that mistake. i ended up napping in the area near where the airtrain operates. i wasn't the only one it was pretty weird. nothing like that 3-3:45a naptime with friends. i wasn't really expecting that to happen but hey, thanks super shuttle for letting me have that experience! apparently if the terminal door is open, it's good enough for the driver to make me get out of his van. i guess for $20 door-to-door you can't expect much.

i slept during almost every minute of the flight to sfo (bulkhead, bitches!) not that it would have mattered as i remember neither taking off nor landing. i guess that airtrain nap didn't do much. had a sweet layover in sfo where i saw this in the duty free area....



not sure how that makes sense but we'll run with it. i was also pretty disappointed to learn that the taxi drivers at sfo want $30 round trip to take me to in-n-out which according to some inside sources is no more than a 5 minute drive. perhaps i should return to sanfrancisco and start driving a taxi. seems like a lucrative business.

that being said, ceteris parabis, i got on a 14+ hour flight to hkg sitting next to a slightly overweight asian woman who likes to sleep with her legs wide open. inviting isn't the word i'd use to describe the situation. apparently the movie lineup wasn't designed for me (in order:)

• http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0455805/
• http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0846308/
• http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0811080/

that's right. kit fucking kittredge. classic film. 14 hours on a plane and those are the (only) movies we get. sitting next to an open-legged-sleeping-overweight asian woman. sweet!

needless to say i got to hong kong, found my friends' apt and am doing ok. yesterday's goal was to get my blackberry to work and that was a success thanks to my main man maxx. so bbm me @ 2458748b if you're down and we can chat. email is good too. i got an hk number which is 9736 3152 which per my selection has the same first five digits as my us number. oh yea. it's almost as good as sandy's mobile number having the same last 4 digits as her home number. we know how to live.

now all i have to do is find a place to live for the next three months. i've been e-mailing with dorothy at one of the service apartments in causeway bay and she says she can find me whatever i need. but if i want cable, i need to give her a week's notice. the currency exchange is pretty good so far. dorothy wants $20/month extra for cable which it looks like i can swing.

if you know anyone in hong kong, or you want to, let me know. i have nothing but time on my side and i'm looking to hang out. this is what i'm looking at right now.....