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.