Another week of classes

So another week of classes has gone by for me, with everything going well. The classes here a little bit easier for me though. Its mainly because everything is taught in English, and for myself, a native speaker, I have a "home-team" advantage. The readings are pretty light and the lectures are really clear. I think that the best lecturer I have is Prof. Sundram for Indian History. He is so excited about everything that he reminds me of my beagle Tucker- always bouncy and ready to go. My other favorite class is Cultural and Historical Writing, mainly because its so small and the subject matter is really interesting. In our tutorial, only half of the class showed up, which means me and one of the guys. And this was the day that we were suppose to have a "class discussion"- that was fun. It turned into just me debating with the professor because the other guy didn't really understand the reading. As much fun as it was, I hope that all the other tutorials for that class will be like that. Its small enough, but I don't want to be the dominate force. Most of the kids here don't talk in class. No one wants to disagree with the professors or try to start a debate. They like having exchange students in classes because they liven things up a little. So this week of classes ended well.

Friday night was the Chinese Latern Festival, which has been described to me as Chinese Valentines Day. Jess and Karen took us to the Tuen Mun Town Park for the celebrations. It wasn't as big as Chinese New Year, but it was still fun. The park is very beautiful with rolling hills and artifical waterfalls. In the waterfalls they had placed all these beautiful laterns of fish, birds, and some bigger ones of people. The biggest ones were of the 4 great beauties of Chinese history. There were also a lot of performances by different troupes. We managed to sit down and watch some Chinese Opera, and then some acrobats, and finally a magic show. The power started to fizzle during the magic show, and by the end of it, the power went off, so everyone headed home. I was hoping to find laterns that we could buy, but no such luck. I t wasn't as exciting as I hoped it to be.

Saturday I went with Megan and her roommate Jess to what I have dubbed "Monkey Mountain" in Sha Tin. Its about an hour trip from school, up in the hills. There are a bunch of nature/hiking trails right on the Kowloon Resvior where wild monkeys roam. And its not like that you might see a monkey in a tree if your lucky. These monkeys are just hanging out in the road, on the fence, swimming in the resvoir, and having a good time. They're a little on the smaller side when it comes to monkeys, and the only noise I heard them make was a kind of huffing noise. They had very wise-looking faces. I took tons of pictures so you can see for yourself. We walked up one hill and they started following us and then lined up on either side of the street. It almost looked like a monkey-style ambush. There was also some monkeys that you could tell have been hurt by people carelessly driving down the road. It made me a little sad to see how dependent the monkeys have become on the humans for food. There were candy wrappers all up and down the road even though they have huge signs that say "DON'T FEED THE MONKEYS!" We went up the side of one mountain, and then down a more offbeat path. Jess started freaking out because we went near some flies. Her big fear is bugs, so she made us turn back. So we walked up another dirt path that was really beautiful. We were right in the middle of a bamboo forest with all these streams running through. There were some monkeys sitting on rocks on the side of the path and they just ignored us as we walked by. I was no less than 5 inches away from a monkey. It was really thrilling. We spent about 4 hours just walking around the park and watching monkeys.

Jess took us home to her apartment in Mongkok so we could have dinner with her parents and meet her family. Her parents were very sweet, and funny. Her dad is a retired doctor and her mother is a nurse. They made a great meal for us, and I told Jess' mom that I would never go home if I could eat her food everyday. Her parents also took us to the local park to play badmintion and learn some tai chi. Oh boy are her parents good! Megan and I were running around the court, sweaty and panting trying to keep up, and they didn't even break a sweat. It was really fun though. Jess' dad is really funny. He also taught us the first 4 steps of the 28 step tai chi. We've been invited to come back every weekend so that we can keep Jess active, or so they said. Jess is skinny and active, I don't see why she needs our help.

Sunday I spent sleeping in, lounging around, and doing my homework for the week. I did one weeks worth of homework for 5 classes in one day- thats how easy things are here. Prof. Starr had another gathering that evening as well. It was much smaller than the last one, only about 15 people. I met some more mainland students, and the English tutors. Our university was on TV for a little bit, so we all watched that together. Mrs. Starr made some Valentines Day cookies for us as well. It was a nice quiet night compared to all the craziness that has been going on. I didn't take as many pictures as I hoped to. This week of classes should be interesting, since it is the first time that I will actually have real work to do.