Small but Efficient

There have been some requests for a recent pic with my new haircut. So here's a self portrait I took last night in my new apartment.

I can see how blogging can become an obsession. As I was making my way to the immigration office today, I kept thinking about what I would write about in my next blog entry. After some thought, I came up with the theme of this blog: Small But Efficient.

That phrase sums up a great deal about HK. The geography and government of HK is small relative to many major cities in the world. Yet they are really efficient here. Case in point, for various reasons my working visa wasn't started on until 3 days after my arrival. A day after submitting my paperwork, Immigration called me to clarify a few pieces of info. A week later (Wednesday of last week) I was told that it was ready. I can only imagine how long it takes to process a work visa in the US! Today I went to pickup my work visa and it took less than 10 minutes to submit my letter, pay for my visa and be on my merry way.

I’m pretty sure there are many other nations that are small and efficient too. Japan and some European ones come to mind. But last week I met a German MBA student who said he’s been to many nations in Europe and Asia, but he believes the Hong Kong government is the most efficient one he’s seen.

The government isn’t the only thing that’s smaller here. Another example are the food portions. Between the warmer weather, smaller food portions and enormous amount of walking my shrinking waistline and weight are definitely benefiting. I'm back to my weight from before my knee injury this year. HK itself takes up a fair amount of geography, but most people prefer to live and work in a small area on Hong Kong island and Kowloon. As a result the apartments are small and e$pen$ive.

This is a picture of my small but efficient service apartment. Service apartments are designed specifically for people in town temporarily. It's basically a fully furnished apartment with water, cable, phone and maid service included. My apartment is tiny, but it's pretty neat. I've never had a glass door that leads to my bathroom! The LCD tv, desk, fridge, microwave and stove altogether take up less space then my home office in SF did. I could see how life can get a little claustrophobic, but for now I'm cool.