Living a life lost in translation

So this month I learned that I had overstayed my visa. This sounds like a serious offense but I promise that it's really not a big deal. So I booked a ticket to Hong Kong to renew my visa. I knew it would be a challenge to go to a big city in a foreign country ALONE, so I took my time in researching where I would stay, what I would do, and how I would get around.

Well, I might as well have gone on a whim because everything that I planned was thrown right out the window. I managed to make small mistakes like losing my printout of my ticket, but I bounced back from those fairly well. What I couldn't overcome was that fact that, little to my knowledge (or my travel agent's knowledge), there was a huge expo going on in Hong Kong this week. So that nice hotel I picked out? It didn't have any rooms. All the other hotels in Hong Kong? Charging a monstrous amount of money because they could get away with it. I managed to find a "deal" of only $100 American which ended up being a tiny room barely bigger than my bed.

Renewing my visa went... fairly well. I don't know, I'm taking it well, but potentially it's not that great. Basically, I went to all this trouble to get various documents together, even figured out the subway system in HK, only to get to the visa office and have the lady tell me, "You know the visa you got in the U.S. is a multiple entry?" In other words, I didn't have to come to this office. The only thing I HAD to do was leave Taiwan for a day because I had broken a rule. I could have effing gone to the Phillipines people! Oye. Wouldn't I give for a sunny beach.

ANYWAYS, after all of these problems a few more-- I decided to cut my losses and leave Hong Kong earlier than planned. It's funny how once I decided this things started going my way. I can boldly say that I didn't particularly have a good time in Hong Kong, but at least I learned a few things. I'm back in Taiwan now, and that's really all that matters.