Portugal+Hong Kong+Las Vegas=Macao!

So last Saturday marked Part 2 of my class excursions around Hong Kong. This time we went to Macao, the Las Vegas of the East. For everyone who doesn't know, Macao was a Portuguese colony for 442 years until Portugal handed it back to China in 1999. It was the first and last European colony in Asia. Macao is an hour away from Hong Kong by high speed ferry. The ferries are actually really nice with economy and first class tickets and really comfortable seats. I slept during the first ride, missing most of the ride to Macao, because we had to leave at 8:00 am, a ludicrous time for anyone to even contemplate being awake. I was, however, conscious for the last 10 minutes of the trip and was able to see the skyline of Macao filled with large signs and casino buildings.

After we docked, we had to make the dreaded trek to the customs office. At first, a few of us tried to go into the Hong Kong residents line thinking, "Oh, I'm a student and I'm here for a year. I'm about to extend my visa and TECHNICALLY I'm a non-permanent resident of Hong Kong. Perhaps this is the line for me." It turns out we were wrong and stood in a 30 minute line for nothing. We then switched to an equally long line for visitors. In all, it took an hour for my little group to get through customs. This doesn't include the other 80 people in our tour group. We didn't end up leaving the immigration building until 12:30. Think about it, I was doing nothing but traveling or standing in lines from 8:00 am to 12:30 pm, a full 4.5 hours. After we were all rounded up, we went to a casino to have a buffet dinner filled with Western and Chinese food. 很好吃！(This means "how delicious"). We gorged ourselves and then took a chartered bus ride to Macao Tower, which is basically a large observation tower with restaurants and shops. However, this observation tower is special because it has the highest commercial bungee in the WORLD!!!! I didn't do it that day because I wasn't feeling well and it cost a lot of money, but I am planning on going in January. I figure it's the appropriate next step up after my cliff diving experience. I'm so stoked for this.

After the tower, we went to the more historical, Portuguese side of town and saw St. Dominic Catholic church and the ruins of St. Paul, both beautiful examples of 16th century Portuguese architecture. In front of St. Paul, we saw an impromptu Lion dance which was completely random, but really awesome. Walking down the streets was also fun because of all the Portuguese style bakeries and restaurants, all of which were giving out free samples of their food. The best place to go for this is the Rua do Regedor which is known for its eateries. All of this was outside and the temperature was somewhere around 100 F so we decided to cool off and look at the insides of casinos. No worries everyone, we weren't allowed to gamble. Turns out casinos aren't that interesting if you don't bet money, so we decided to head back to Hong Kong early. This meant more ferry rides and more immigration offices. All in all, a good day.

Even more exciting was my visit to Chinese University's vice chancellor's house for a barbecue. One of my classmates had gone to a presentation where the vice chancellor was speaking. He proceeded to send him an email and secured an invitation to a "presentation" for himself and four classmates. He decided to invite me as one of the four. We got all dressed up in business casual attire and headed out. When we arrived, we found out that the presentation was for Chinese students who were studying at Oxford for university. We also learned that it wasn't actually a presentation. It was a casual backyard barbecue that he was hosting for the Oxford students. So basically we got a chance to eat really good food and chit chat with the vice chancellor and a host of other interesting people. Later in the evening, he insisted that all of the groups sing a song. Some of the Oxford kids were in an a cappela group, so they had an awesome performance. This was followed by my group singing the University of South Carolina Alma Mater (yes, I know all of the words). I then was pulled up to sing a song in Chinese with the vice chancellor. Afterwards, he invited us to come back for the Mid Autumn festival and Chinese New Year. Now I know, an email goes a long way to making good connections.

Our group with the Vice Chancellor

I'm On Top of the World!

So last Saturday started the first part of a series of outings that my summer class has organized for the students. The first field trip was go to The Peak on Hong Kong Island. For those of you who are not aware, The Peak is a tourist attraction that sits on a large mountain on the island and overlooks the city, Victoria Harbour, and the Kowloon side of the harbour (or harbor, I'm starting to mix up British and American spelling). Anyways, it's probably the largest tourist attraction in Hong Kong. When I first heard about it, I though it was going to be kinda lame. After all, there is only so much you can do at the top of a mountain. Maybe look out at the city for a few minutes, snap a couple of pictures of the scenery, and then go home. In addition to that, our smaller IBCE group was planning on going, but decided that the fare to get to the island and the ticket to get to the top of The Peak was too expensive. All in all, I thought it was going to be a wonderful Saturday wasted, especially since I had to go as a part of a large tour group and wear a group shirt (not cool). However, it turned out to be an awesome day, and I recommend The Peak to anyone visiting Hong Kong.

The Peak Tower

The Peak Tram with Hong Kong in the backgroud. This is what I saw on the trip up and down



Cost ceased to be an issue because it turns out that the cost of these trips were included in the fee for my summer classes. So in a way, I was obliged to go. The day before the trip, we had this huge group meeting to talk about how the field trips were organized and what we should expect. If I haven't mentioned it already, my summer classes are no longer limited to the 20 people in my IBCE group from USC. Now, we are in classes with other students from various countries (mostly Japan, but some are from the UK or other countries in Europe). The larger group was split into 23 smaller sections, each with 5-7 students in it. Of course, they ended up splitting people up so that we can get to know everyone. But it was OK because I ended up being with some of my USC friends as well as several really cool Japanese students. Our group leader was also great. She is local graduate student who made a cute panda out of paper and placed it on a stick so that we could find her throughout the day. Just another example of how cuteness is a strong part of modern Hong Kong culture. The day of the trip, I had to be up and at the train station by 8:00 am. A ridiculous time for anyone to be ready to go anywhere. We took the MTR to TST and walked around, looking at the skyline of Hong Kong before boarding a ferry to get to the island. Afterwards, we took a bus to the bottom of the mountain on which The Peak is located. By this time, we were all dying and fighting off dehydration with gallons of water that we brought with us. The temperature must have been around 35 degrees Celsius (or 95 degrees Fahrenheit). Luckily, we got to stand in a covered platform to wait to go up the mountain. To get to The Peak, you have to take a tram that sort of looks like one of the San Francisco trolleys. The incline that the trolley has to take to get up the mountain is so steep that deep grooves have to be placed in the floor for those people who have to stand up in the car. Even then, it looked like some people were going to fall. Luckily for me, I've adopted the local mentality towards lining (or queueing) up, which is basically ignoring the concept altogether, so I got a seat. I didn't realize just how far up The Peak was. My ears ended up popping on our way up the mountain.

Once we reached the top, I was surprised by what I saw. I was expecting an observatory deck so that we could look out at the city below, but it was much more than that. I should have expected the many restaurants, ranging from Burger King to a really nice, upscale restaurant at the top of the tower. I should have expected the many, many gift shops and other stores like jewelry stores or nice clothing stores. This is, after all, Hong Kong. Life doesn't get much more capitalist than it does here. I would say the materialism in Hong Kong beats out anything that I've ever seen in the United States. There are stores absolutely EVERYWHERE. But that is a rant for a different day.

We stopped to eat at a restaurant as soon as we got up the mountain because we all were starving. We then went on the first part of the tour which was......Madame Tussauds wax museum. I had never been to a wax museum before and my first impression was, "wow, this is really creepy. It looks like they can just come alive and kill me." This was quickly followed by the question, "Who decides that their life's work is to make wax statues of famous people?" After deciding that Madame Tussauds was probably crazy, I started to enjoy myself and take picture with the rich and famous, both dead and alive. I got my picture with Princess Dianna and the rest of the royal family. I was also able to take a snap shot of me with President Obama. My friends and I had fun as Madonna's background dancers, and I played a round of golf with Tiger Woods right after beating Yao Ming in basketball. It was an exciting tour to say the least. All I have to say about wax museums is that you have to go with friends who have a good sense of humour and can take creative pictures, because that's really all you can do. Here's some pictures of my adventure in wax.

David Beckham!

We're Obama's real daughters

I'm a part of the royal family too!

Backup dancers!

The Top of The Peak

Afterwards, we went up to the top of the building to look out at the city from the observatory deck. It was a spectacular view of Hong Kong. I'm really starting to enjoy myself in this city and have become accustomed to living here. Taking pictures of the skyline only took about 15 minutes, and afterwards my group decided to head back to campus. I was ready to crash in my bed because I was tired and sun drunk, but my day wasn't over yet. I had set up a meeting to meet a contact I have in the Hong Kong City ballet. I had been trying to meet him for weeks now, and he inviting a friend and I to have dinner with him later that night. We went, and with was really cool talking to him. He is even trying to get us two tickets to see their production of Swan Lake. I'm super excited have and excuse to dress up and do something cultural. Besides, I love ballet and have never had a chance to see Swan Lake before. I hope it all works out.

Tomorrow is part two of the field trips and we are all going to Macau, the Las Vegas of Asia. No worries though, we are not allowed to gamble on this trip although it is legal. We are going to see the remnants of the Portuguese colonization and to eat what I suspect will be amazing Portuguese food and pastries. I'm very excited.

Two Weeks of Everything

So I know that I was complaining last week about being completely bored and having nothing to do in Hong Kong. Well that boredom is now over and will not return for quite a while. These past two weeks have been crazy, busy, and interesting. And is seems like the next three weeks will be much of the same.

Last week, Hong Kong had its annual book fair in a large convention center on the main island.  If you know me well, then you know that I love to read, so when I heard that Hong Kong had a large book fair I jumped at the opportunity to go. Previously, I had only been to book fairs that were sponsored by elementary, middle, and high schools, so I had no idea what to expect. I expected something large and a crowd. It was, after all, being held in a convention center. However, I did not expect it to take up almost the entire building  (which seems larger to me than any other convention center I've seen to date). There were people for miles and vendors took up almost every inch of space (although now that I think about it, that pretty much describes all of Hong Kong). For some, it may have appeared to be chaotic, uncomfortable, and frustrating. For me, it was pure bliss. I can't think of many things that can top a huge room full of books. Of course, this being Hong Kong and everything, most of the books were in Chinese. They did, however, have an entire section dedicated to book in English. This was where I hung out for about three hours. There was fiction, non-fiction, bestsellers, niche books, how-to books, tour books, anything you could imagine. I personally could have spent a fortune, but feared incurring the wrath of my parents, so I reigned myself in and limited my purchases to one book. A cookbook filled with quick recipes. Excellent for any college student attempting to cook for themselves for the first time. I haven't tried any of the recipes yet, but I'll write when I do. Of course, I couldn't keep myself from good reading for long, so I did go to the book store today to buy two new books for my literary pleasure, The Shack and Dreams of Joy. These should last me about a week. Maybe I should invest in a Kindle or something.

Book Fair!!!

This Monday a couple of friends and I decided to check out the museums in Hong Kong. We only had a chance to go to a small part of the science museum, but what I saw was pretty impressive and really interesting. There is currently a special exhibit about Albert Einstein, his life and works. I understood the biographical part of the exhibit, much of which I did not know before. For example, I did not know that he married his cousin. Unfortunately, when the exhibit attempted to explain the theory of relativity I was completely lost. All I could figure out was that it had something about time bending space or something like that. I suppose this is why I hated physics and decided to not be a scientist. The rest of the museum was just as fun and entertaining, and a lot more easy to understand. For me, the best part is a tie between the hall of mirrors and this 3D interactive game where I got to destroy blocks with a ball. Think of it as a 3D interactive Brick game. Unfortunately, but the time I finished the game the museum was about to close. I only got to explore 3/4 of the ground floor. There are still 3 floors to go. Luckily, I got a year pass so that I can visit any Hong Kong museum I like. This includes the science, space, art, and history museum. I'm going to be so smart when I get back to the States.

The group at the museum

Last, but certainly not least, this Tuesday we went to Sai Kong, a part of Hong Kong known for its beautiful beaches. The day was perfectly warm with clear skies and puffy white clouds. Getting there took forever because it is a relatively remote part of the New Territories. We had to take two buses, a taxi, and then walk for 45 minutes before arriving at the designated beach. It was completely worth it though. The water was a perfect Caribbean blue and warm. The harbor was surrounded by verdant mountains. It looked like a post card. However, we decided that the beach wasn't enough for us. We needed something more adventurous, more daring. Something like....cliff diving. That's right everyone, I went cliff diving off of a 25 ft. high wall of rocks into a deep pool of water. It took us another 15 minutes to walk from the beach to the pools of water and waterfalls where we could dive. Let me tell you, it was not easy to get to the ledge to jump. We had to scramble across rocks that were inclined and burning hot from the sun. My legs are still burning from scaling the boulders. But the fact that I can say I jumped makes it worth it. The jump itself, however, was terrible. I've never experienced the force of water impact before, and now I understand why people would hurt themselves from jumping off of bridges. The 25 foot jump hurt, especially since I landed on the back of my thighs. They still sting. I'm not going to dive again any time soon. After the jump, we returned to the beach for a while before heading back to the main town. Getting a taxi to take us back was an interesting adventure. We actually had no idea how to get a taxi back until we asked one of the locals at the beach. We asked our friend, who's parents are Chinese so she speaks Mandarin, to ask the local how to get a taxi. We were nervous at first because we didn't know if he understood Mandarin or just spoke Cantonese. She struggled a little to get him to understand. Eventually he got what we were asking and then promptly and very clearly replied "Do you speak English?" I have to admit, it was kind of embarrassing. But we did return to the town and our dorm so everything worked out fine.

 The Beach!!!!

 Me Jumping!!!

The Group!!!!



Tomorrow, the entire group is going on a school excursion to The Peak in Hong Kong so I will have tons of new things to write about in the upcoming week.



Three Weeks of Close to Nothing

So, it's been about three weeks, but I'm back. To be perfectly honest, nothing interesting happened in those first two weeks which is why there haven't been any new posts. Now I actually have enough stuff to talk about.

First off, I would like to talk about how my life and sanity has been saved by finding........an international grocery store. This may sound like a small matter to most people, but in a country where noodles in soup seems to be a staple of life, a grocery store with western food that I recognize and trust is a big thing. It's at the grocery store, Taste, that I found Post Raisin Bran and Terra chips. It's at Taste where I found Oscar Meyer turkey bacon and Swiss cheese. ( Although any form of cheese is super expensive here. Asians don't really eat cheese, or most dairy products for that matter, making it more than twice as expensive as it would be in the US. Imagine paying $20 for a small hunk of Swiss cheese. It's ridiculous. This is why I settled for the less expensive Munster for my sandwiches.) I can now make all the western food I could ever want in my dorm's kitchen (although we don't have an oven, so maybe not all the food I want.)

The next exciting thing that happened was this Monday when my church friends decided to invite me to go bike riding with them. Apparently there is a place two metro stops away from me where people can rent bikes and go riding on a specified bike/running path that runs along the Shing Mun River in Shatin. The views were gorgeous and the company was great. I ended up sweating quite a bit during the 20km (12 mile) trip. I definitely plan to go again.

Part of the river view from the bike trail. There are tons of mountains in the area



Tuesday was a dull day until 9:00 when one of the batch one students of the IBCE program (I'm in batch two, the two batches overlap during the summer) told us about this half-price sushi deal at this nice place called Sushi One. The restaurant obviously gets all of their fish fresh daily, so to avoid having to throw out the fish that wasn't used that day, they make all of their sushi and sashimi half price from 10:00pm to midnight provided that each person spends $80 HKD. By the way, that's really easy to do with sushi even if it isn't full price. They had some of the best salmon sashimi I have ever tasted. It was amazing. I highly recommend it for anyone who is in Hong Kong and craving sushi.

That's really been all that's happened in the past few weeks. Other than that I've just been going to class and doing homework. This week I had to give an 8 minute speech about myself in Chinese. I made it to 7.5 minutes which is a great accomplishment in my mind. This was without reading from a script, just a notecard with my outline in English. I consider this a great milestone in my Mandarin-speaking education.

I was going to go to Shenzhen, China again today, but two days ago I got bitten by some small creature (I think it was a spider) and now my left foot is swollen like a balloon and I can't comfortably wear shoes. Does anyone have a good cure for this?

Over the River, On the Subway, to Mainland China I Go!

So yesterday marked one month since I moved to Hong Kong. My classmates and I celebrated by going out to Lan Kwai Fong (LKF), a road in Hong Kong island that is famous for its nightlife. Now, the interesting thing about LKF is that not only is it filled with clubs, but the people there make any excuse to throw a huge party in the area. We went on June 30, which was a Thursday. That night was crazy because not only is Thursday traditionally ladies night in the area but, June 30th is when the Canadians in the area throw a celebration for Canada Day (the celebration is punnily called Canada D'eh). The entire street was decorated in Canadian flags and booths on the side of the street offered cowboy hats with the Canadian flag on it or flag tattoos for answering Canadian trivia. I can only imagine the celebrations LKF will have for the Fourth of July. Alas, I have school on Tuesday so I can't stay up late. Oh well, we are planning on cooking burgers and hotdogs, and acting as annoyingly American as possible.

Now I suppose you're wondering how I went to LKF on a Thurday when I have class on Friday. The answer to that is that Friday was a public holiday in Hong Kong celebrating the anniversary of the British returning Hong Kong to China. Nothing much exciting happened that day.......except that I went to CHINA!!! That's right, I crossed the border into mainland China. One of my classmates, Sheimaliz, and I had been planning on going to Shenzhen, the Chinese city directly across the border from Hong Kong, and so we talked about it with our afternoon teacher, who is from Shenzhen. She kindly offered to take us there and to help us get through customs. We met her at the train station at 10am and set off on the 30 minute MTR journey. Getting through customs wasn't difficult, especially since we had visas for Hong Kong and mainland China. It was a relief once we got across the border, though, because I was finally able to read signs and understand people (to an extent). Signs in Hong Kong are written in traditional characters, which I cannot read, and people speak Cantonese, which I cannot understand. But in China people use simplified characters and speak Mandarin, both of which I am learning. So, going to Shenzhen made for great Chinese practice.

Our first stop was to our teacher's house to meet her family and eat lunch. She had graciously offered to have us over and called her mom ahead of time to tell her that we were coming. The homemade Chinese food was amazing. We had the most tender beef I have ever tasted, amazing tofu, and a whole fish with its head (our teacher told us that this is how fish is usually prepared because it shows that it is fresh). For dessert, we had melon and lychee (a fruit that reminds me of mamones). During lunch, we talked to her mother and little sister in Mandarin because neither of them spoke English. I must say that for only taking one year of Chinese, I was able to carry on a decent conversation. After lunch, we watched some of the weather report so that our teacher could see if we picked up any vocabulary from the weather chapter we had just finished in class. We also were able to look at her father's artwork. He is a traditional watercolor artist, and the beautiful paintings filled their house.

After leaving our teachers house, Sheimaliz and I went to find a street market called Dong Men. It was a shopping paradise where I could use my Mandarin skills to haggle for almost anything. The street was filled with clothes, jewelry, shoes, cosmetics, hats, electronics, anything you could want, and all for extremely cheap. Well, the "prices" weren't cheap, but the real point of going to one of these markets is to haggle,  and if you know how to bargain, you can get almost any price you want to. I've learned that the secret to haggling in China is to lower the price at least 70% at first, and to be able to walk away if they give you a price that you think is too high. They will almost always run after you and give you the price you want. of course it was even more fun for me since I was able to bargain entirely in Chinese!!!! Points for Chelsea! I ended up getting two dresses that fit me except for the fact that they are much too short because I am much taller than curvier than the average Chinese woman. However, I also found leggings to put underneath the dresses, so I'll look decent.

Afterwards, we walked around the ritzy part of town and then tried to find the tourist spots so that we could take some pictures. We didn't find any tourist spots, but guess what we did find.....WALMART!!!!! That's right, we found a Chinese Walmart. Of course we had to go in. I ended up buying a few DVDs. After that, all we had time to do was get dinner before we returned to Hong Kong and to the dorm. We were planning on a nice hot pot dinner where you cook your own food in a broth, but we didn't have enough time, so we ate Subway. By the way, Subway is not a good food chain to open in China because they don't like to eat cold, uncooked food.....unless it's sushi.

We ended up getting back to the dorm around 10:30 after having to get through customs by ourselves which still wasn't all that hard. Saturday and Sunday were fairly unexciting, especially since I have come down with a case of laryngitis and cannot speak. However, tomorrow is the Fourth of July and I am very exciting to celebrate.

Me in front of the Shenzhen Walmart

Picture Time!!!

These will all be on Facebook with many more pictures, but I figured I should post some on the blog too.

Dragon Boat Races in Sha Tin

The Skyline of Hong Kong at night



Temple Street Market



Buddhas in the Temple of 10,000 Buddhas



Pagoda in the main square of the Temple of 10,000 Buddhas



Bruce Lee Statue on the Walk of Stars with the city in the background



Inside of a Buddhist Temple in Central

Getting Around Hong Kong......Sort Of

I'm back!!!! And I have eaten ate Ruby Tuesdays. And yes, the salad was amazing, but I have decided that it will be more economical to actually go to the grocery store and buy food to cook for myself. Wish me luck because I don't think I have ever cooked anything more complicated than pasta and quesadillas. This week, I will attempt to make vegetable stir-fry with fried tofu. It's not that hard, but it is a start.

In other news, I did get to go to the temple of 10,000 Buddhas which was amazing. There were literally 10,000 Buddhas, but most of them were really small. However, the quarter-mile stair walk up to and down from the temple were lined with life-size images of different Buddhas. And because some of my friends are getting mad at me for not putting up pictures, I'll try to see if I can post them in this entry.

Friday was probably the most exciting part of this week. The day started off with my morning Chinese class which included a test (yuck) that I did pretty well in (hurray!). After finishing and getting out of class early, some friends and I decided to have a day out on the town. The first stop was to get Indian food in an area of Hong Kong called Tsim Sha Tsui, which is right across the harbor from the central part of the city. The restaurant was in this covered market center that was completely occupied by Africans and Indians selling food and other goods. The food was delicious, especially the samosas. I did see some good bollywood movies, but when I asked the stall owner about them, he said that they didn't have English subtitles. Better luck next time.

We then headed over to the Walk of Stars, which is basically a Chinese version of Hollywood's Walk of Fame. It was cool though because I managed to find the Jackie Chan and Bruce Lee stars. There was even a Bruce Lee statue. The Cat Street antique market was next, where the goods may or may not have been actual antiques. Everything was interesting though over priced for the quality and very little bargaining was possible. If I had enough time, I could have found some pretty interesting pieces that were actual antiques, so I highly recommend Cat Street if you just want to do a little market shopping.

Church today was great, although it was an adventure to try to find it since the woman who took me there the first time decided to attend her church today. The hour long MTR ride was fine, it was the mini bus that was the problem. In order to get to Hong Kong Adventist College, it's necessary to take a mini bus that has a route, but, to my recent knowledge, no set bus stops. Added on to this, I didn't quite remember how far I had to take the bus to get to the church. By the time I got anywhere close to the college, I was the only one on the bus. The bus passed the entrance to the college, but I didn't say anything because I was lead to believe that there was a bus stop shortly after the church road. No such thing. I must have rode the bus for another mile before the bus drive stopped and basically told me to get off. So I walked until I found another bus stop, but no bus came. So I learned a new and valuable skill, how to hail a taxi. Granted, this was a half hour after church started, but I got a taxi and that's the point. While in the taxi with a driver who couldn't speak English, I practiced another life skill, the art of gesturing. With these two skills, I was able to make it to church. After church was even better because I participated in a Bible study and met about 30 college students who either attended the school, or commuted to the church. This means that I have 30 new friends! After Bible study, we went to a church member's house and had haystacks, the Adventist staple mean which is basically a taco salad. This was a great week over all, and I'm finally able to recognize where I am in Hong Kong.

While I was at church, some friends went across the border to Shen Zhen in mainland China and returned with stories of cheap bags and other goods. And I thought that things couldn't get any cheaper than they were in Hong Kong. I'm super excited to make a trip of my own. I'll keep you guys updated about that, and maybe post more often.

Birthday Week!

So, this past Wednesday was my 19th birthday and I celebrated it Hong Kong style! Of course, Hong Kong style really means that I went to class and did homework for most of the daylight hours. At night, however, my classmates and I went back to Mr. Wong's to eat and I celebrated my birthday there. I'm not sure if I was embarrassed or pleased that everyone on the street looked when 30+ people sang "Happy Birthday" to me at the top of their lungs.

Afterwards, I went with a smaller group of friends to this night market on Temple Street. It sells everything from travel Chinese tea sets, to fake designer purses, to leather bound notebooks. It was fantastic, and I got myself a nice Chinese fan to combat the humid and hot weather. Getting this fan was even more fantastic because I was able to bargain for it in Chinese and I got it for half of the original price! I definitely recommend a trip to Temple Street if anyone is ever in Hong Kong.

In other news, I went to a different church today. Mrs. Chuah decided to take to me to the church at the Adventist University so that I could meet other people my age. It was very enjoyable, although twice as long as it needed to be because everything was first said in Cantonese and then translated into English. I must admit that I never before have had to listen to a translator rather than the main speaker, and it was an interesting experience. It made me pay close attention to the sermon because sometimes the translations did not make sense or did not flow with the last thought. The constant pausing and starting of the speaking did not help either. After five minutes though I got a system down. I first listened to the Cantonese, then the translator's English , then I would quickly translate it in my head to English that I could comprehend. By doing this, I could comprehend the fact that the sermon was about how nothing should stop us from receiving God's love using the story of Jesus visiting Martha and Mary as an illustration. After church, I went to the fellowship hall to eat Sabbath lunch with everyone. There are so many carbs in Chinese cooking. Besides rice we had noodles, and then a seaweed soup with more noodles! Luckily, this was balanced out with VERY small portion sizes. Dessert was ice cream with red beans. It was an odd combination for me because this ice cream was not as sweet as the ice cream in America, and it was eaten with a bean that looks like a kidney bean and tastes only slightly sweeter. I don't know if I'll be having that again anytime soon. Of course, all of the desserts here are much less sweet than any desserts back home. I did have great company though. I sat with several of the Adventist University students and we really enjoyed each others company. They even offered to teach me how to speak Cantonese like a local! I'm very excited to go back next week, especially since they are having a potluck and the youth are going over to another American church member's house after lunch for a social gathering. I think I found my new church home.

So, now that I've lived in Hong Kong for two weeks, I have noticed some things about the city. The first is that this city would literally stop functioning without the ever-constant presence of 7-Eleven. Yes, I'm talking about the convenience store. They are literally everywhere in this city. There are at least two in every subway stop, two outside of every subway stop, and if you go walking and you don't pass one for at least five minutes, then you are probably no longer in Hong Kong. And you can do so many practical things at the 7-Eleven. You can buy a sim card for your phone, reload your sim card, reload your octopus card (your metro card that you can also use to buy things in convenience stores and some other shopping places), and buy food. It's baffling how integral a part 7-Eleven now plays in my daily life, and how often I come in contact with one. And here I was thinking that it was an American thing.

The second thing that I've notice is that the local population of Hong Kong doesn't seem to take gym exercise very seriously, or at least not group classes. The first class I went to was a Zumba class where half of the class were men in extremely small gym shorts. I have never come across this mix of people in a group gym class in my life, and never have I seen men's gym shorts that are so small. But they were out there with no shame, dancing to Lady Gaga. However, most of the people there didn't seem to be trying to get a work out. They were dancing as slow as possible and minimizing all of the moves so that they didn't get to tired. I think I was the only person working hard enough to break a sweat. It was even more frustrating when I missed the kickboxing class by five minutes and got locked out of the class because it was too full. I decided to watch for a few minutes to see if it was worth coming back for. The routine seemed alright, but the way people were doing it made me wish that I could replace someone. I don't think anyone was actually punching or kicking anything. Their movements were closer to gently reaching their arms and legs out. There was even one woman in a jersey knit dress. Dejected, I went running and did circuit weight training instead. Oh well, I'll make it next time.

This week, I've finally opened the Hong Kong travel book that my mom bought me before I left and looked at the places I want to go. I think I might visit the peak, which has really great views, and the Temple of 10,000 Buddhas. Of course at the top of my list of things to do is eat at Ruby Tuesday, I need western food and a salad.

Subways, and Buildings, and Chinese, Oh My!

So my wonderful roommate Sydnie convinced me to start a blog about my adventures in China. I'm not really a diary or blog person, but because she asked nicely (read: threatened me), I decided to go ahead and do one. I was supposed to write during my first week in Hong Kong, but lo and behold, using a Chinese network makes things like BlogSpot appear in Chinese. Luckily I just found out how to change the language to English so we are back on board. Because I missed the first week, I will give everyone a recap on what happened.

Saturday,  June 4

I arrived in Hong Kong sometime around 7:20 am with my flying partner Tyler. Customs was easy and because English is one of the official languages, it was on almost every sign. So far, no luck in practicing what little Chinese I know. The taxi was easy enough to find, though it had to be a green one because that's the color that goes to the New Territories (where my school is). For those of you that don't know, the New Territories are north of the main island of Hong Kong. Actually, I'm about three subway stops away from mainland China!!!

The rest of the day was uneventful, but that night the first group of students in the program took us out to two clubs to go dancing in Central, the main part of the city. The DJ played mostly American music, but it was fun none the less for my first clubbing experience. Besides that, the second club was on the 28th floor of the building, providing excellent views of the skyline.

Sunday

I went to Ikea and bought bedding and other dorm items. Honestly, that was about it. Not the most daring day in the world, but completely necessary. Besides, the Ikea is only 2 metro stops away from the university.

I suppose I can also talk about the mall closest to me in Sha Tin (it's a block away from Ikea). It's crazy big. That's pretty much the only way to describe it. Actually, all of the malls here are crazy big. The Sha Tin mall is really three malls in one with skyways connecting them. The entire 1st and 7th floors are dedicated to food and there is a food court besides that. The shopping is great because there is a Zara for all of you out there who appreciate European fashion.  I've personally been coming to appreciate Asian fashion which, to my never ending delight, includes many cute dresses. I could get used to shopping here.

Monday

Today was the Dragon Boat Festival in Hong Kong, which is a holiday that warrants people a day off from school or work to watch crew teams race each other down rivers. It was interesting, though I have yet to learn of the cultural significance of the holiday. A large group of IBCE students went down to the river in Sha Tin to watch some of the race. Unfortunately, another classmate and I got separated from the group, However, we did find this great Thai restaurant in the mall with some of the best curry ever! Definitely worth getting lost for. We then went to get frozen yogurt. Easily one of the yummiest days ever.

Tuesday

Class started today. I have a morning class every day that goes from 9:30am to 12:00pm and on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday there is an afternoon class from 2:30 to 4:15. The classes so far have been nice and I really enjoy them. I know most of the vocabulary right now, but we are mostly working on tones, an essential part of the Chinese language. Afterall, it would be awful to accidently call someone's mother a horse (they're the same sound but different tones).

Wednesday

More class! And some homework. We did get out today though and went to this restaurant owned by a Mr. Wang. It's all you can eat and drink for $40 HKD which is about $5 USD. Some of the other students went bar hopping afterwards, but I went back to the dorm to chill out.

Thursday

I think I went to Mong Kok, a big open air street market, on this day, but I can't really remember. I did go sometime this week though. Oh! but I was also tired of Chinese food so I went to this really nice Italian restaurant and ordered a grilled chicken, vegetables, and mashed potatoes. Finally, a meal that I would eat at home. I'm thinking of making this a weekly thing.

Friday

I can't remember!!! Is it bad that I can't remember? I think I went to Tai Po, another open air market that mostly for food. Then I went to the mall and finally got a phone and a sim card so people can call me. I don't know how I survived that long without a cell phone.

Saturday

This was by far the best day. First, I went to church in Happy Valley, located on the main island of Hong Kong. It's a really nice and kinda ritzy area. The church service was great and everyone was so kind. Afterwards, I went to a church member's house for lunch. She was also hosting a group of five Malaysian nurses who were stopping in Hong Kong for a while before heading off to mainland China for a mission conference. The lunch was delicious and the after lunch nap was even better. When we woke up two hours later, we all decided to take a walk to Central (this is about a two hour walk) where we got to see all of the main buildings. We hardly ever walked on street level, because the skyscrapers in Hong Kong are all connected by walkways in the air. We also visited several parks, all beautiful with their Chinese water features and plants. At the end of the night, went across the bay by ferry to see this laser light show timed to music that the City of Hong Kong puts on every night. What a thing to spend money on! However, it did offer an amazing view of the skyline of Central. After that, we went to this mall that had every designer store you could possibly imagine, with people actually carrying bags from these stores. And not little bags either. They were huge bags, multiple bags that proved that they clearly just spent $1000 USD on clothing. I did get to eat at this great Japanese place in the food court though. Let me tell you, the food courts in Hong Kong malls are so much better than the food courts in American malls. Even though it's all Asian food, the Japanese, Indian, Korean, and Vietnamese places are all really good. Finally, I went back to my dorm and slept very, very well.

Sunday

Today I went to a mall in Mong Kok to go shopping at H&M, one of my favorite stores every. The H&Ms in Asia have so many more things than the ones in America, including really, really cute dresses. And this one was three stories so there were many, many, really, really cute dresses. Two of my classmates went with me and we all decided to eat at the food court there. I decided to try Korean stone pot rice which was basically rice, beef, vegetables, and egg in a really hot stone pot. It was FANTASTIC!!!!! That was basically it for Sunday.

Monday

I went to my morning class and then signed up for a gym membership, which was nearly impossible to do without a Hong Kong based credit card, but I did it. Muhahaha!!!!!!

Tuesday

And now there's today. I went to class and now I'm about to leave for the gym. I'll let you guys know how it is. Hopefully I can take a kickboxing class there so that I can vent some of my adjustment and social frustrations from this move. Oh yeah, and tomorrow's my birthday!!! I'm going to party it up Hong Kong style!