First Stops on my Post-Retirement Trip

I’m a little slow getting started writing about my retirement adventures. I left full-time teaching and research at the university in May of 2008. And since that time I have spent one semester teaching at the Katholieke University in Leuven, Belgium, and most of the rest of the winter in Florida working on an application for a research grant. Then I spent six weeks in Turkey in the summer. So all those stereotypes about sitting in rocking chairs and watching Oprah every day just haven’t happened so far. Well, I take that back. I do occasionally watch Oprah. One of the newly hired colleagues at Indiana University recently asked me why I retired if I was going to just continue working. It’s a good question.  I don’t have an answer for it yet, but perhaps it is because I’ve been working for so long that I’m experiencing the phenomenon that we used to have in an Oldsmobile we once owned. The engine just won’t shut off when the key is disengaged, because there is still fuel left in the cylinders wanting to be burned off.  

Interesting opportunities have come my way because of good friends and wonderful students who have invited me to work with them.  In August my husband and I packed up and took the very long trip  across the U.S. and the Pacific Ocean to Hong Kong. I have a semester-long  visiting position at the City University to teach two courses here.

Most people wait until retirement to embark on international travel, figuring that is when they will have the sufficient time and money. That may be a good idea, but international life is not for sissies so you might want to apply for that passport and try it out when you are a little younger.  You need to be able to adapt to life in new places with languages you may not speak and under conditions very different to those you are used to. I’ve had a lot of training for my post-full-time-work travels, beginning with my first trip abroad to get married to my husband of more than 42 years. We met in the U.S., but he told me then that if I wanted to marry him, I’d have to spend the rest of my life in Turkey. As it turned out, our lives in Turkey were not permanent and we spent most of our careers and raised our children in the Midwest of the U.S.  However, what I learned from those first years in Turkey was that everyone didn’t do things the way we did in America and that other people’s cultures had things to offer that my own did not. There were also a lot of things I didn’t like about the various places I’ve spent time over the years—but this blog is not about that. It is mostly about the present and right now that is the time we are spending in Hong Kong.

Another thing I’ve learned about living in various places is that being comfortable is increasingly important to me. That may have something to do with the condition of my body and the shortness of the time in this world left to me. Last year in Belgium, we were housed in the historic Begijnhof  (in Flemish) (Béguinage in French). Declared a Unesco Heritage site, the Begijnhof was a housing compound  built in the 12^th Century for women who dedicated their lives to serving God while living and making a living on their own without the help of any men.   You can find a number of lovely pictures of these ancient buildings here: http://www.cs.kuleuven.ac.be/~maarten/pics/begijnhofleuven/index.html  And the photo above is of our front door with the bicycle my husband borrowed from our Dutch friends so he could make his way around town like the natives do. 

While living in such a place is certainly an honor and a privilege, we found that actual daily life inside was also something of an historic experience. The spacious quarters had not likely been updated since the 1950s or so and we missed our kitchen and bed on a daily basis.  We decided that on any return trip we might make, we would seek out more modern facilities and test out the bed before occupying the place.

So when we arrived in Hong Kong we hoped that the pictures we had received of the place were a fair representation of the living quarters.  The university had graciously offered us this space as part of the compensation.  We arrived at the “suite” hotel mid-August after the grueling flight from Indianapolis via Atlanta and Shanghai, some 27 hours in all. Looking around the place, we were not pleased, but thought we’d reconsider our assessment after some sleep. Sleep came only in fits and starts and we finally gave up about 3:30 in the morning and rose to make coffee and unpack a few things. Our jet-lagged bodies really wanted lots of sleep, but the board-like mattress on a slab prevented that from happening. Our accommodation must have been designed for someone in a wheel chair as all of the bathroom fixtures were placed closer to the ground than we were used to; the small mirror was tilted downward; and the sink was about the size of the one in our Delta plane on the flight over from the U.S.  Though the bedroom was technically separate from the living space, it had no door and was just around the curved wall from the tiny space housing the living room/kitchen/dining room. A friend here asked if you could sit on the sofa and watch TV while stirring a pot on the stove and that was almost true.  The photos sent to us were accurate, but misleading as the space seemed larger, and what we thought was the bedroom door was actually the door to the bathroom.

I thought we should probably just suck it up and stay there. After all, the university had gone out of its way to arrange the place and we should be appreciative. In Hong Kong most of the population lives in very tiny spaces, so why should I complain? Just recently I read about the tens of thousands of people in Hong Kong who live illegally in makeshift structures built on rooftops around the city.  Most of these folks come from the mainland and have no rights to low-cost public housing until they have lived here for seven years, so the rooftops are one of their limited options in housing. Another is to live in cages on the streets—which are rented and sold to individuals and families who are forced to live like parakeets. My hard bed and  small bathroom sink hardly seems worth mentioning when compared to those living circumstances.

Nonetheless, we were able to get out of the contract and move to a terrific hotel on Victoria harbor in one of their “serviced suites.”  Here I have unspeakable luxury—someone changes my sheets and towels three times a week and also wipes up the floors and does the dusting. There is a great gym for exercising as well as a magnificent pool with view of the harbor. And the best part is the Victoria Harbor itself. I walk there every morning at six a.m. along with the many local people who run, walk, do Tai Chi or go through their morning calisthenics routine. All that happens as the big orange ball that is the sun rises over the water and the day heats up and the humidity rises. At 8 p.m. every evening there is a free light show from many of the very tall buildings surrounding the harbor. All of this is worth the extra money we have to pay for the comfort and full enjoyment of the experience.  Here are some links to daytime and night-time pictures of the view from my window. http://famouswonders.com/victoria-harbor-in-hong-kong/

Well, this overview of my life has rambled on a bit,  so the next entries will focus on specific aspects of the culture here and my observations of life spent here in the coming months.