The MTR!

Okay!
I've been here for over two months now, but it's still as hectic as ever. I would, however, like to take a break from playing with my Tai Chi-fan and preparing for my oral assessment in Mandarin and write a little about my experiences with the MTR.

The MTR (Mass transit railway) is the subway/train thingie that goes across Hong Kong. I get on this baby every morning around 7 am to get to school, and first, I'd like to talk about the MTR personas that I as a foreigner have perceived.
Firstly, you have the hand bag lady. This is the woman who does whatever possible to get a seat. She's usually a middle-aged woman wearing her bag on her belly for quicker seating. If you want a seat on one of the crowded lines, your best chance to get one is to stand in the middle of the seating area between the rows of seats, and the hand bag lady will most definitely push her way here as soon as she gets on. She'll spend her time greedily eyeing the people sitting, searching for signs that they're getting off soon. If someone gets up, you can usually spot a couple of hand bag ladies heading towards the free seat. The fastest person will sit down, while the others will stop and stare at the person sitting. Beware of these!
Secondly, there's the delivery people. Hong Kong is a busy, vibrant place, and a great deal of delivery people travel on the MTR every day to get to their locations. All though they don't usually make a fuss out of themselves, they're still very visible due to their delivery bags/boxes/things.
Thirdly, we have the school kids (aka me). These are pretty much different in their behaviour and such, but are still one big fuzzy group because they're all wearing uniforms. Some of them chat with their friends, some are busy studying for a test or quiz, some students have managed to snag a seat and are sleeping (I'm this kind of student), while others are standing quietly somewhere.

Getting on the MTR has various degrees of difficulty. If your timing is good, you'll be able to get in without much problems. If you're travelling during rush hours, you'll be pushed in. Usually, the hand bag ladies will cut in front of you while you're left thinking "WHAT THE HELL, BITCH, I'M IN A HURRY TOO!". This also happens on queues for the escalators.

Moving onto escalators, they're awesome here in Hong Kong. In less touristy places (which is almost everywhere I go), you will see that everybody will be standing on the right side of the elevator. The left side is for busy people who want to walk. There are posters all over the MTR discouraging walking in escalators, but heck, people never look at those posters anyway. I mean, who spends 30 seconds washing their hands just because the random poster in the bathroom said so?

That's all for now, better continue studying Chinese...
HMM