Susan Blumberg-Kason

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When we were free

July 14, 2019 By Susan Blumberg-Kason Leave a Comment

There’s so much to think about these days when it comes to Hong Kong and being young and free. These words have literal and figurative meanings, and with everything that’s going on there now, I can’t help but remember days when we thought we had it all figured out. And in many ways, we had. It’s just that things didn’t go as planned.

I’m so grateful for the photos I kept from my first year there, 1990-91. They capture that year beautifully.

Universities were a different place in Hong Kong back then.

Temples, holidays, museums, neon signs, and film sets are uniquely Hong Kong. And, of course, there are friends.

The winters in Hong Kong used to feel cool. And holiday decorations were simpler and not so ostentatious.

Some Japanese friends from my Mandarin classes. We would eat lunch together after class many days a week.

I volunteered at a Vietnamese refugee camp back then, when Hong Kong was trying to resettle over 50,000 Vietnamese refugees. Few places wanted to take that on.

My roommates are the best thing that resulted from that year, hands down. We’re still very close.

Saying good-bye to Hong Kong in 1991. I didn’t know when I would be back. But I figured it would happen at some point.

We were all so much more hopeful back then. Or maybe just incredibly naive.

Filed Under: Featured Tagged With: Asian Food and Drinks, China, Hong Kong, My Family's Travels, old hong kong, vintage hong kong

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