Daily Life

1 January 2000 Today there was a farewell party for me at Caritas Magdalene School for the deaf in Wanchai. It was a really moving occasion for me as the students and teachers said goodbye after my 12 years there. Each of the classes gave me a small gift selected and bought by the students. One of them was a "robot clock," a small digital alarm clock. Several of the older teachers commented to me that they could never give a clock to a Chinese person because the Cantonese word for clock "jung" also sounds like the word for "finish", and so to give a clock implies that you want a person to be finished with, to die. I assured them that I had no such fears and greatly welcomed the students' thoughtfulness! Return to Top of Page

6 January 2000 The Asian economic slump has hit the American fast food chains particularly hard. Wendy's just closed their doors this week, following the lead of Jack-in-the-Box and Burger King. They just couldn't seem to compete enough with McDonald's (which has 144 outlets in Hong Kong). And while talking about McD's, they just started a promotion called the Big Mac Chant. You have to say the traditional "Two all-beef patties, special sauce, lettuce, cheese, pickles, onions on a sesame seed bun" in five seconds. If you do, then you win a Plush Magnet (whatever that is!) and are eligible "to enter Happy McChanters (whatever that is!). Return to Top of Page

3 January 2000 Many of the churches in Hong Kong don't look a lot like traditional churches. The reason is the price of land here. Real estate is so expensive that several-acre church properties are unheard of. Instead, churches are built vertically, part of a 6- or 7-storey building which includes offices, school rooms for religious education, meeting rooms, and a residence for the priest. These churches tend to have other tall buildings immediately on either side of them unless the church property is lucky enough to border on a small government park or other open area. This is a picture of St. Benedict Church in Shatin, one of the newer churches in HK. Return to Top of Page

1 January 2000 New Year's in Hong Kong! Click here!

Click here to return to the Top of the Page
Click here to return to Life in Hong Kong
Click here to return to Charlie Dittmeier's Home Page