Day 2- Meeting the CNETs, Riding the MTR, etc.

I got to meet most of the other CNETs today. There are close to sixty of us. Twenty are from the US, two from Canada, and I think all the rest are from the UK. I met people from Philly, Boston, New York, Seattle, Detroit, places in England, Vancouver, Dallas, Houston, Milwaukee, and more! But let's not talk about that. Let's talk about something much, much more important.

Air conditioning.

That's right. It gets its own paragraph. Everywhere in Hong Kong is air conditioned. This is great, considering it's always around 88 degrees with humidity over 85%. My hotel room is air conditioned. I've been told my apartment will be air conditioned. Subway stops are air conditioned. I'm not ready to give all of the credit to communism, but I think it definitely plays a large part.

The other big thing today was opening our bank accounts and getting our Hong Kong ID cards. The latter was a complete nightmare. We waited in various lines for a total of roughly two hours to fill out about 6 minutes worth of paper work. To make matters worse, the Chinese Government now has a photo of me and my fingerprints. In case they're reading this blog, my name is Justin Steinberg.

Our PM staff left us on our own to find our way back from the Immigration Office. About six of us were together, and even though we didn't have to make any turns after getting off the MTR, we had no idea which way to go. Eventually, I got us headed in the right direction. For anyone who has ever travelled with me, this is not a good thing. I should not be the one figuring out the right way to go. I told everyone to mark their calendars, because this will not happen again.

One final note: As I begin to get busier, these daily recaps will start to go away. I plan on shifting more towards commentary as my trip continues. Questions? Comments? Let me know!

Byeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee