HK Alphabet :: B

B. Oh, B. I have put you off. But there are just so dang many B words that fill our son's mouth, our home, and thus our experience of this city. Bus. Balloon. Bird. Bubbles. Ball. I'm not sure if Hong Kong actually has more balls in it than any other place we've lived, or if it's just that we see every single one. But whatever: this city is filled with balls. Soccer balls. Basketballs. Tennis balls. In parks, hanging in sport shops, dribbled down the street. Same thing goes for birds, though I can safely say that song birds, at least, are indeed part of this city's cultural fabric.

 And where would be without Beach? It's the one place in this uber-urban life where we can revel in the natural world. Finn could play in the sand for hours, and since he doesn't get to dig in the dirt in a backyard, we let him. It soothes our parental anxieties for him to get sand in his hair and under his nails, to know that he doesn't mind the grit.

The newest B word: Boots. Once cold weather hit, boots came out of closets all over this city, and just like the balls, we see every pair. Finn lusted until he finally got his own.

We haven't even touched on the Big Buddha, or Boats. Boats, my goodness ... and not just the ferries, cruise ships, cargo ships and sail boats we see (and ride) all the time, but the remote control boats on a little pond at our park. We visit often, hoping some old man is there, cruising his speed boat round and round the pond. Boats and birds, it seems, are two things Finn has in common with old men in Hong Kong. Nor have we adequately expressed our son's love for buses, especially the "tall" buses. We ride them every day, and he's now big enough that he can sit in his own seat, and he loves to flag them down, whether we want one or not.