Foggy Weather is Here Again

The weather these past few days has been suspiciously like what I imagine London to be, or at least a Sherlock Holmes novel; wet, dark, cold, and a fog so thick that you can hardly see through. Its the type of weather that makes you want to put on your pajamas, get a mug of hot coco, wrap yourself up in a blanket and watch movies all day. Now, if you substitute the hot coco for coffee, and movies for marking journals, you've got my Sunday. I've really just avoided going outside as much as possible, since the weather has been so miserable and unwelcoming. Serves me right for bragging to everyone else about having warm weather whilst they were stuck in snow. Hopefully the fog and rain and wind will move on this week and we can get the pleasantness back that is spring in Hong Kong. Spring here is the most perfect weather that I have seen, blue skies and warm air before you hit Hong Kong summer, when it gets so hot and humid that you feel like you are melting as soon as you step outside.

Journals can be just as unpredictable as Hong Kong weather, in the sense that you almost never know what you are going to get, even when you think you've got things down. Now, don't get me wrong, I love my students, but sometimes when you have to read the same paragraph 6 times in a row, to try to understand what they are communicating, it can be a bit tedious. On the other hand, they quite often suprise me with how insightful they can be, or unknowingly wise. They find a moral lesson in unsual places, and never cease to entertain me with their ever-changing grammatical collages that they use to convey a complex idea or thought. Seeing what they come up with makes you think twice about how languages can be so descriptive, and at the same time, so restrictive to the thought process. What I take from this is that you never cease to be a student or a teacher, no matter your position in the classroom.

If you want to see some of our student's more creative and artistic work first-hand, one of our classes, Painting and Poetry, now has their own blog where students in the class post their assignments and creative pieces from the class. I will also link the site in my blog log so you can keep up with them if you are so interested. It shows how creative our students can be, and I am very proud of all of them for what they have contributed to the creative universe. Enjoy!

Welcome Back to Hong Kong: The Typhoon Edition

I have returned, yet again, to my beloved city to spend another year of teaching, good food, crazy adventures, and great times with people I care about. As great as this summer was, its beyond nice to finally feel like I am back to my second home. It was last Friday evening that I landed, so this post marks almost exactly a week that I've been back in Hong Kong. The first day back I slept, and slept, and slept. My life was made up of periods of sleeping for 10 hours, and then waking up for 2, (at the most), and then sleeping again.





Heidi convinced me to come out on my second day, on an attempt to normalize myself, and to meet on of her Aussie friends who was visiting. In addition to eating the fabulous egg tarts in Tai Po, (jealous Mom?), and seeing her great folks, we got to catch up on all those moments that we missed; those moments where you wish your friend was right over your shoulder so you can look at them, and make some joke that only the two of you would understand. We had plenty of those moments that day, and plenty more to come soon enough.





A couple of days later, Harina brought dinner over that she and her mother had made for me, which was the sunshine of my day. How often do people cook for you and then bring it to your place? Thanks Harina! We ate delicious Pakistani food and had Heidi and Ben over. I really need to learn how to cook that fried bread and the curry she made for me. I love curry!





The past few days I've mostly spent with Erin, running around our old haunts like Fu Tai, Gold Coast, and the little communities near town center, earning looks from people that seem to shout "What are you doing here? Are you lost?" Which also culminates in a strange look of respect at points when they see that I clearly know where I am going, and that I am not a overwhelmed tourist. Those are some choice ones, where you really feel at home in a strange place, despite not speaking the language and being functionally illiterate.





Right now, at this very second, the big piece of news occupying my life is the status of typhoon Nuri, which just made landfall. All day the Signal 8 flag has been up, and it's expected that the Signal 10 will be hoisted later tonight, which is the highest one, and it means that the typhoon, is going to pass directly over Hong Kong. So far its just been windy and raining, but maintenance has seen fit to protect our windows by doing this. Seriously though, I think that if a typhoon decides to descend on Hong Kong, its going to take a little more then tape to hold together our windows on the 9th floor. I'm looking at it like mother nature decided to put together a show, or sorts, to welcome me back. I don't expect things to really get bad, like Florida in a hurricane, but it will be interesting to see what happens. And I also love big storms like this. My security guards knocked on my door to make sure that I had food to get through the day because they didn't want me leaving the building. To come upstairs, and attempt to communicate through my 5 words of Cantonese, was very sweet of them. I adore all the staff here.




A big CONGRATULATIONS is also due my fantastic older sister Emily, who was just admitted to grad school at Johns Hopkins!!!!! She's worked so hard for this and she really deserved it. I am so proud of you Emmy! She's going to kick quite a lot of academic ass. Seriously folk, she's that awesome, and she is going to do amazing things.

What a welcome back to Hong Kong......

The Postman hates me....

I have no idea what the postman's problem is, but every time I go to that office, he always has something to say to me. This week I mailed home some things for people, including some scarfs, and he had some opinions on that. At first he seemed happy that I was mailing things home to family and friends, but then when he asked me what was in the them, I got a frown and a lecture. I was mailing home a scarf for my mother when this happened:

Postman: "Oh a scarf for Mommy? Very nice......Chinese style?"
Me: "Um, I'm not sure, some are Chinese, some are not."
Postman: (Long pause where I am being judged) "Chinese style better"

Then I got a long drawn-out glare that made me want to run out of the post office in shame. Why, of all people, does the postman feel the need to judge me on what I send back home? Who put him in charge? I'm going to have to find a new post office now, where they don't judge me and glare at me.....

So other than my postal adventures, things are going pretty well here. My friend/former housemate was here for a visit and that was so much fun, even if going to Macau sucked. Its turning to spring here, and I think that I will spend the rest of my day outside reading. Heidi took me to a new yarn store, and I spent some money there, buying lots of yarn. My hostel kids are going to the finals of the inter-hostel debate competition, and I think that I have this job for another year! I'm also putting my summer plans together which should include, (hopefully), some traveling here, a visit with my grandparents in AZ, maybe Bonaroo Music Festival, and of course, working again. That's all the news from the homefront- I'm going to run out and enjoy the sunshine!

February in a flash!

February has gone by so quickly for me, mostly because I have had guests for 3 out of the 4 weeks of this month. Right now my last guest, Jason, is here, and I get to see all the Hong Kong sites for the fourth time. We attempted to go to Macau, and that ended with the conclusion that Macau sucks. My first guests were English teachers from Korea, and former SMCM friends, Lydia and Becca. It was great to have them here because they are both very funny and incredibly good house-guests. Next up was my mother, here for about 9 days. We both strongly enabled each other's knitting habit by going to almost every knitting store in HK and buying tons of yarn! I had to lend her an extra suitcase for how much we spent together. She got to see my HK and meet most of my friends, which meant a lot to me. When people come to visit me, I want to share my HK life with them, because I'm proud of the place that I've made for myself here, and the wonderful people that are a part of it. I was also equally, if not more proud, to show off my mother to the people in my HK life. It was very interesting to see these two parts of my life interact and work out so well. So people, if you decide to come visit me, you will have a great time! I've got to run now and finish some work, but I wanted everyone to know that I'm trying to keep things updated, even though the computer is still broken!

Computer Breakdown

I have some sad news, well sad for me. My barely 7-month old new laptop has decided to break down on me. I think that I might need to get a brand new hard drive! For those of you who have seen me when my computer has broken in the past, its not as bad as it was. I have a nice computer in the office that I can use, so it should be ok until I get the thing fixed. But that means no pictures uploaded for now. Sorry folks! I did learn some interesting things this weekend though:

• I need to work on balancing myself on one arm
• The movie theater in IFC tower serves hot buttered popcorn AND hot caramel corn!
• It can go below 50 degrees in Hong Kong and not having central heat sucks
• HK people have no idea what a "potluck" dinner means

And thats just happened within the past few days! Its been a fun weekend of eating really good food and trying to stay warm. The 50s might not sound cold to most of you, but here, where are the buildings are made of concrete and there is no insulation, its hard to make heat stick anywhere. I'm just grateful that I have a space heater and a lot of quilts. I hope that when my guests show up within the next 2 weeks that things warm up a little bit!

Happy Year of the Rat! (Kung Hay Fat Choi!)

Adventures in Knitting and Hot Yoga (Not at the Same Time)

The excitement has begun to build this week to the start of teaching again on Monday. Preparing for the semester to begin, while finding more things to do has kept me fairly busy this past week. Sunday was spent in Central at the bookstore and taking a yoga class. Now I have to thank Vira for introducing me to the "hot yoga" concept; its basically yoga done in a large sauna, and it feels great! You get really sweaty and stinky, but it makes you more flexible than usual, and its relaxing for the muscles. The class was really good, and so was the instructor, so I might go back and sign up for 3 month-unlimited class deal. I have to think about it for a while longer. Rose and I then went to the best bookstore in HK, after a nice long shower. Borders has nothing when compared to PageOne! I found a great new journal and a new historical biography to read. Just some more things to keep me busy.

The next day I helped my friend Greg move from his apartment in Wong Tai Sin to Tin Shui Wai, the next town over from Tuen Mun, my town. I think that I threw my shoulders out of whack because the next day, my back ached in muscles that I didn't know I had! That's what I get for doing intense yoga and moving boxes within 2 days! We also met up that evening with friends I haven't seen in about a year, Jessica and Kenny. They are a very happy couple that could be possibly moving to Shanghai soon, because Kenny is a commercial pilot. Maybe I can finally get some cheaper airfare now that I know some one in the industry. We spent a pleasant evening walking around Yuen Long and having desert. I got the most delicious mango cheesecake! All in all, a very pleasant weekend. This week, classes have started back up again, so I should have something more interesting to report by the end.

Holy Crap Fire! AGAIN!

So remember that time I told you that there was a forest fire on the hills in Tuen Mun? Guess what? It happened again!!! This time it was a much larger fire, but also further away from the school. It was also in the middle of the afternoon, so my pictures turned out much better than before. In one of them, you can kind of see the helicopter that is dropping water on it. That's what winter is like here, dry, with a lot of chances of forest fires! A lot of the parkland is being burnt up, which will increase the chances of mudslides come monsoon season. So I thought that I should post some pictures of it, so everyone can see how not close I came to a firey death...again.

Holidays in Hong Kong

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year everyone!!!

The holidays here haven't been too different from what they are back home, the only major difference is that I got to celebrate mine 12 hours earlier than most of you! Haha! The first Christmas away from home was a little difficult, and much money was spent on phone calls back home. It was hard not spending it with my family, but I had a surrogate family of other expatriate friends to spend it with. My friend Greg threw a little get-together at his apartment in Wong Tai Sin where we spent the evening talking, singing, and nibbling on whatever Western Christmas delights we could get our hands on. I was very impressed that Greg managed to bake cookies in his tiny toaster oven! In a tribute to almost every childhood Christmas experience, I listened to Nat King Cole's renditions of Christmas carols for a week. I even managed to find 4-foot tall trees in Central, but these trees were priced at about 5 times the US price, and it would have taken me an hour to get it back to my apartment. Not worth it, but maybe for next year.

New Years Eve was spent in Mongkok with my former roommate Terence and a group of local friends. Again, we spent the night eating, playing games, and attempting to teach me some more Cantonese, which didn't work out, to the amusement of everyone. For this holiday, as it seems for every holiday here, there were fireworks in Victoria Harbour. This year was different because instead of being shot off from a barge, the IFC Tower became one giant firecracker! (Look for videos one YouTube, its quite spectacular) My favorite part of the evening had to be when they showed the Dick Clark-esque countdown with Chinese celebrities, and the post-fireworks song was not Auld Lange Syne, as we all expect, but instead, "Happy Together" Apparently Hong Kong can see itself loving nobody but me for all it's life ;)

These past few days, all that I've managed to do is sleep in and just generally "veg out". Boy does it feel good! I've 2 more weeks until the semester starts, so I plan on catching up on a lot of sleep and relaxation. I'm also going to do some travelling and hopefully get into some adventures so I have something to write about. My knitting has been getting interested, but I know that few of you, aside from my mother, want to read about that on the internet ;) So far the most exciting thing her is getting locked out of my room, yet again, and getting that point across to security. There is also a cat on campus that likes to follow me around because I pet/feed him, but I can't bring him inside. I would love to, because you can tell that he used to be someone's pet, but the hostel association frowns on pets, which I think is lame. Maybe I could get a fish or something...

So anyway, I wish everyone a safe, happy, and healthy New Year!!! 2008 is going to be a wonderful year, I can feel it!

October!

Wow! These past 2 months have gone by so fast for me. I thought that I had updated more recently, until I got a few "hints" that people are desiring more info from me. (I get it Jen, OK?!) It's been crazy here, and I've got a lot to share with you lovely people.

First of all, my older sister Emily got married in October, so I flew back for the event. I'm so happy to have a new sibling in my family! Now two of my older siblings are married, so I guess it'll be my turn soon...;) I loved being home and seeing all of my family that came from far and wide, some of which I haven't seen in years! My grandparents Darkow and my Uncle Bill were staying at my mom's place, so out little house was fairly packed with people and puppies! It was also wonderful to snuggle up with my dogs once again- sometimes I go through puppy-withdrawl here, but I'm working on convincing the hostel association to let me have a dog, wish me luck! From my Dad's side, there was my Auntie Ninou, my grandma Memee, my cousin Chris, and my Titi Jo. We all managed to sit down for dinner the night before the wedding and I got a few great candid pictures. (I can be quite sneaky with a camera when I have to be) While I sitting there at dinner, I realized how much I love all of my family, and how nice it is for us to all get together after so much time and distance. These people are really wonderful! In this picture, there is my older brother Greg, the Marine, his wife Heather, and my auntie Ninou. I still remember going to her house as a kid and I thought that she was the coolest person ever because she had a SuperNintendo and a dog! That was pretty exciting for a 6 year old. Emily, Greg, and I spent a lot of time at her place before we moved to Baltimore. This dinner was a lot of fun because we all just got to sit and giggle for awhile. I really treasure moments like these. The next day was the big event itself...

Emily's wedding was quite lovely- I've never seen my sister happier or looking more beautiful. She had her wedding, and the reception, at the Cloisters, the same place where Will Smith got married. It's a restored cloister that was shipped over from France and rebuilt in Baltimore. It's really quite darling, though I thought that the two statues of armor were a little much, but that doesn't matter. My cousin Hannah was a bridesmaid, I was the maid-of-honor, while Chris's two god-daughters were junior bridesmaids, Shelby and Madison. Those girls are incredibly sweet and well-behaved, and they looked so darling. Emily wore a stunning off-white princess gown, with the rest of us in midnight navy. My mother and grandmother made the veil, which has become a bit of a tradition in our family. Well, I guess that you can see the rest of the details from the pictures. My brother Greg wore his dress uniform to walk my sister down the aisle, and he looked mighty impressive. I've posted all of my wedding photos online for you, but I've put one of my favorites here. This was actually taken by my cousin Chris, and I love it because we all look so happy together, even if we all look a little goofy. The ceremony was small and intimate; I think about 100 guests. The reception was slightly larger, but just as intimate. The caterer, whoever it was, was delicious. I didn't manage to get some wedding cake, but it looked tasty! Emmy and Chris had their first dance to "Wicked Game" by Chris Isaacs , and I cried like a baby when I gave my toast. My cousin David got the garter, while the best man Stan caught the bouquet for one of the junior bridesmaids, who wanted nothing more than to catch it. I thought that was a really sweet gesture on his part. This is pretty much the quickest explanation of wedding ever, but what is important is not the details of it, but how happy my sister and her new husband are. Even though the trip was long, I'm glad I flew the 18 hours for it. One of my favorite nights ever!

The next day, less than 24 hours after the wedding, I had fly back to Hong Kong. Some of us have jobs, you know......That was not a fun trip, I was tired, emotional, and hungry. Not to mention that American flight attendents are quite nasty! The next couple of days were pretty rough, jet-lag wise. I didn't really get over it in my short time home, and I felt like my soul was in Chicago, and my aura was somewhere over the Pacific. It took about a week of waking up at 5am and going to bed at 8pm to get over it. Yet again, it was totally worth it. October was also about getting to really know my students and feeling comfortable with them. They are really a great group of kids, even if some of the girls talk a bit too much in class. I helped them prepare for a inter-class debate, which we one. I was so proud of them and I felt like such a mother-hen. From grading their journals and watching them in class, I can see them grow academically and as people. They don't seem to be as shy around me as before, which makes working with them much easier. October was also the month that I threw an "American" party for my hostel. That mostly consisted of playing charades and making some good homecooking for a huge group of students. They went through the food in about 10 minutes flat! It was a great compliment, and thanks to my mom for supplying the recipies. October went by fairly fast, and it seems like November is going to be the same way!

One Month In

One month gone......it seems like its gone by so fast for me. It has been such a whirlwind of catching up with friends, eating good food, learning my new place, and re-aquainting myself with Hong Kong. I'm sorry that I haven't been better at keeping in touch and everything update, but I really have been that busy, but I'm sitting down and doing things properly now. So what has one month brought me?

• The joys of having my own apartment




• A new appriciation for how hard teachers work




• Suprising emergence of cooking skills




• The desire to remain here for a significant amount of time

Having my own apartment has been the nicest thing about coming back here. I've had my own room at points, but never my own entire home! It might be tiny, but I love it. The apartment the university gave is on the 9th floor of one of the student hostels, with an amazing view of parts of Tuen Mun, Fu Tai, and the mountains. The day I moved in was hazy with pollution, heat, and an insane level of humidity, so much that it looks cloudy, but no folks, that's a sky of hot ickiness. Thank god for working AC. A living room, kitchen, bathroom, and bedroom make up the apartment. It sounds lovely, but you have to keep in mind some space has to be sacrificed in room size, when you have 7milion people living on 25% of the land in Hong Kong. For example, my kitchen is so small that I have to close the door in order to open most of the cabinets and the fridge. My bottom counters are only about 3 feet tall, so that means I either squat to cook, or sit on my very short stool. The living room is spacious, filled with free furniture, and I'm not one to turn down free furnishings. (My couch holds the honor of being the most comfortable couch out of all the tutors) From the living room, there is a short hallway for the bathroom and bedroom. On a good day, with a little bit of optimism, the bathtub is about 4 feet long and 2 feet wide. The interesting thing about the tub is that when you step into it, its actually a few inches higher than the rest of the bathroom floor- I think that it has something to do with drainage. I also get my own personal hot water heater, which for some reason was put inside the shower. This translates into showering sideways most of the time. There was also a two-week long epic battle between myself and the hot water heater; it didn't want to give me hot water for longer than 3 minutes, but I was bound and determined to figure it out, and I feel that I have. Some time it blasts me with a sudden jet of ice-cold water, but most of the kinks have been figured out. Next to the bathroom, there is my bedroom, about 10 feet by 10 feet, so maybe a little bit bigger than the dorm rooms at St. Mary's. What is really nice about the bedroom is that there is a queen-size bed in it, while the rest of the tutors have twin beds. (Suckers! ahahaha) For as tiny as it is, my apartment feels rather spacious. And I have lovely wood floors. The laundry room is conviently right across the hall, as is Paula, one of the other English tutors. It turns out that I'm not the tutor for this hall, Hall B, but the tutor for Hall C, but when they were contructing the building, the contractors neglected to build a tutor apartment. It makes is a little more difficult to meet my students and plan hostel activities, but I think that matters will be much easier after this week, and the Becca-Bash my hostel is throwing me.

As lovely as the apartment is, what I love most about it is that it is my first home, all to myself. I don't have to share with siblings, or roommates, (though I love all of those mentioned), which feels incredibly liberating. I can walk in my front door and know that I'll have my own space that is just mine. This might sound a little selfish of me, but I've been sharing almost everything since I was small, and I know I'm not the best roommate- just ask Greg about sharing a room back in Towson, or any of my college roommates about my cleaning habits- (or lack thereof......) Maybe this is just the way that everyone might feel this way about having their first place, or its just me- I don't know, but it's all mine and I love it!

The excitment of having my own apartment faded as the first day of classes. As it got closer, so did my feelings of panic and fear that I would be a terrible tutor. The constant thought that went through my head that week was "What am I doing here? I have no teaching experience. Just because I'm a native speaker doesn't give me expertise!" The first time I met the professor I was working with was one of the most tense lunchs ever.......at least for me.........he seemed fairly relaxed. Now that we are three weeks into the term, I'm still having my doubts, but I feel a bit more secure in my position. Watching the professors lecture in class, and outside of class, I realize why they say teaching is one of the hardest jobs on the planet. In truth, sitting through my first department meeting is what really made me appriciate all the work St. Mary's professors put in. I just have question- Are they all that boring?! I was close to taking my pen and jamming it into my hand in order to make the meeting even slightly more interesting. Thank goddness we only had to go to the first one. But seriously folks, teachers work haaaaaaaaaaaard! I had no idea how time-consuming it was- one of the several reasons I've been terrible at keeping everything updated. I kneel before you-I'm not worthy, I'm not worthy!

The other area of my that I've been pleasently suprised in is how well I've been able to cook an take care of myself (Thanks Mom) I love being able to cook everything for myself and planning all my meals. The most fun part about this is going to the wet market daily to buy ingredients and talk to the vegetable ladies. The wet market is a place about a 10 minute walk from the university that is reminescent of a farmers market in the States, but everything is much more fresh. So fresh, you could take home a live chicken, kill it, pluck it, and eat it if you wanted to. I don't know about you, but I don't like my meat that fresh. The ladies that work there have gotten to know my face fairly well, and we have a good time teaching each other to count in our respective languages. I can count to 3 in Cantonese now. I love be able to be creative with my food! Just tonight, I made myself some chicken stir-fried with green beans in a black garlic sauce- very tasty! Some American dishes are going over very well here too, especially mashed potatoes and chili. Its seems to be a hit whenever I make it. I've already made it for my old roommates birthday, and I've been requested to cook for another hostel party later this week.

The other thing that I find myself thinking on quite often is how comfortable I could be in spending a couple more years of my life here. My students are just wonderful, and it helps to know that English teachers here live fairly comfortably. Its not something that is definite in my mind, but I wouldn't be too upset if that's how things worked out. I love being independent and Hong Kong has the perfect environment for me to be fairly independent. Now don't get me wrong, I love living at home, but its high time that I go out into the world, on my own, as scary as that can be. When I come home, that might be a little bit more difficult than I want it to be, one of the many reasons why Hong Kong is more appealing to me. Well, it remains to be seen yet- it really depends on how the rest of this year and this job go. I'm loving Hong Kong at the moment, and I don't think that's ever going to change!

I miss all of you dearly, and I'm encouraging everyone to come and visit, if you can! Please keep me updated with news from home.

New Territories Living

Heeeeeeeeeeeeeeere's Becca! I'm back in Hong Kong and loving the life here. It's taking me forever and day to get over my jetlag, but I couldn't be happier to be back. My first week and a half here have been pretty tame, filled with re-adjustments and acclimating to the oppressive humidity of a tropical summer. (Who doesn't love going outside and instantaneously feel like their face is melting off?) What I've enjoyed most of all is catching up with my old local friends, some which never thought that we would see each other again.

My first night here I was taken out to the trendy area affectionaly know as TST, because foreigners like myself seem physically incapable of pronoucing it There I was pleasently suprised by Greg, a former exchange student, who is also here teaching English at a primary school. He had just arrived a few days before myself, and neither one of us had any idea that the other was here. We might do some traveling together, perhaps to Korea to visit our mutal friend, Sunny.

Classes/teaching starts within the next couple of days- hopefully by then I'll be over my jet-lag and in a more rested state of mind. I have to admit that I am slightly terrified of changing from student to teacher in a couple of months, with no teaching experience myself. I'm working with a nice British professor and his English 108 classes. I also have library hours where I lead discussion groups and have drop-in time to help students with their English skills. Right now, I'm fairly exhuasted, so I'm going to get some shut-eye. I miss all of you!

HK, Round 2!

Hello Everyone!

This is just a brief note to let everyone know that I landed in Hong Kong safe and sound. I've been using these couple of free days to try to get my sleep schedule adjusted, but so far I'm failing. As soon as I become more coherent, I'll have a nice long post with pictures of my lovely apartment and all my new contact information. I'm not homesick yet, but I wish that all of you wonderful people could come and visit, because I think that everyone would love Hong Kong. More to come latter!

Love,
Becca

Back at good old SMCM

Hey folks!

I'm back at SMCM, starting my senior year! Yay! Right now I'm in my third week of school, and its going great! I'm taking a little more of a workload than usual, but I would like to gradutate in the spring, so thats just how its going to be. This summer was great, but I didn't do much. Waking up at 7am, working all day, and entertaining my highly energetic dogs took a lot out of me. I had some great times, like the O.A.R concert with Devi and my girls. I got to babysit my wonderful nephews and spend some time with them. Its insane how big they have gotten! After work got out, I spent a week in WA visiting my mom's side of the family for my grandparents 50th and Darkow family reunion. Most of these folks I haven't seen in 5+ years! It was great to reconnect with all of them and to be surrounded by family. Mom and I went vintage clothes shopping with my cousin Andrea, where I found this great antique dress! My sister and her boyfriend managed to get off work and come, which made things even better. Grandma Darkow taught me how to work in color with yarn, and I found some great yarn in my old home town. It was such a nice visit out there. Some days I really miss living out there, surrounded by family on both sides, but then I have to think about all the wonderful family and friends that I have, and that I would have never met if we hadn't moved to MD.

So right now this is the courses I'm taking:

• RELG 381: Religious Topics- Passage to India
• SOAN 490: Senior Seminar
• ANTH 281: Archeaology and Pre-History
• PHIL 304: Values Inquiry
• ANTH 243: Biological Anthropology
• POSC 1OO: Intro to Politics

I know that it seems like a lot to do, but I want everyone to keep in mind that my seminar class only meets 7 times, so that cuts down on a lot of what I have to do. As long as I graduate in May, its all worth it. Oh, and a little FYI- I'm starting a new blog just for my knitting stuff. So if you have any cool knitting/yarn related links or anything that feel would be appropriate, just pass it my way. I'll set up a link for it on this page as soon as I have it set up.

Long time, no post part 2!

So that last weekend I posted was pretty exciting, no? Thats one of the reasons I really like being here, something exciting is always happening. If I was back at St. Mary's, my weekends would most likely consist of work, homework, and sleeping in. While I'm here I feel that I need to get out and do everything possible that there is for me to do. I still have a pretty lengthy list of things I need to do/see here. Terrence promised me that the week after next, we'll go the Chinese Opera. The Hong Kong Ballet Company is also doing a production of Sleeping Beauty, which I also really want to see. I love the ballet! I think that Karen and I will go for our birthdays next month. Its crazy, we have 5 birthdays in a row among the exchange students! May is going to be a fun month for me.

Back to where I left off in the last post:

After the street performers and photo-taking sessions with random strangers, another week of classes was pretty mundane for me. My history professor almost exploded with rage as people kept coming into class later and later. Sunny was sitting next to me laughing as he raged, and I was looking at her like she had gone crazy. The last thing you want to do is laugh at an angry person. But he did agree to take us out for Indian food at the end of the semester. That week classes seemed to be getting more relaxed and fun. Its the beginning of the end for this semester, so things are starting to wind down more. I've actually got some papers to write and some other work to do. The final exam schedule has come out, and I only have 3 exams. If there are no rainstorm/typhoon delays, I should be finished by the 19th of May. To be safe though, Professor Starr recommends that we don't leave until the 24th, which is what I plan on doing. The I'll go to Thailand and have adventures with Jason there, and get a good massage. I haven't decided wether or not to take my computer with me, so you might have to wait a long time to get the adventures from there.

That week we also got a visit from a diplomat from the mainland, Professor Cheng Si-wei, the Vice-Chairman of the Congress of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress of the Mainland. (What a tittle!) He came here to tour all the universities and give speechs and what not. Some of the exchange students were invited as Student Ambassadors to meet him and have a dialouge session with him. So I had to get dressed up in my suit and I was given a free Lingnan pin for this event. Exciting! I like the pin, it looks like the logo of the school, but its in gold and about the size a penny. It makes for a nice keepsake, and its even better that it was a gift. In this dialouge session, we were given the opportunity to ask the professor anything we wanted, and we could ask in any language, because he knew about 6. I was really excited about this, and I was the first person to ask him a question, which was, "If you were the president of the USA, what would be one thing that you change about US economic policy and why?" I thought that it was a good question, until he, who had been speaking perfect English up to this point, pretende that he couldn't understand a word I was saying, and all he would say was "I can't answer this now. Come to my lecture and it will all be explained" Talk about the big brush-off! When Megan asked her question about the greatest challenge facing our generation, he said it was studying. I feel like he brushed off all the exchange students questions, but gave five minute answers to everyone else. He's one slippery Chinese diplomat. We did get to take a group photo with him, that was later published in several newspapers. I'm in the back row, in dark mauve. The professor is the center older Chinese man with the black hair. Next to him are the President and Dean of Lingnan. I have photocopies of articles, 2 from Chinese newspapers, and one in English. I hope that there is still a chance to find the originals. I went to his lecture the next week, but he still didn't really answer our questions. It was basically how the American economy is going wrong, mainly in textiles, and how the Chinese economy is taking over. And it wasn't that good either. I was a little disappointed by him, but it was also really cool to meet such a high Chinese offical. He seemed really excited to see the exchange students.

The we have the super-awesome weekend known as Rugby Sevens weekend. Every year Hong Kong holds an internation rugby tournament, which lasts for 3 days. On Friday, university students could get in free as long as you showed your ID. We were lucky; tickets can start at $600HK and go as high as $2000 US! And thats for one day! Americans are really out of touch when it comes to popular sports. Everybody else really likes soccer and rugby. We got to the stadium around 3ish and it was the largest group of Europeans that I have ever seen in my life. It was like a mass exodus of white people. There were people in costume, and everyone was so proud of their country and screaming at each other. It was so different from all the sporting events I've gone to. I love European enthusiasm. We managed to find seats for all 10 of us, and it became pretty aparent that we were the only Americans in the stadium. It was really interesting to see the politics behind some of the stuff, like when the Taiwan team came out on the field, the announcer called it them Chinese Taipei, (capital of Taiwan) and thats how they were listed on the scoreboard. They were set against the Chinese team too. Each game only lasted about 30 minutes. As far as I understand, rugby sevens is played with seven players on each team, and you can run with the ball, but you can only pass it backwards. Some times you do this weird huddle thing, and tackling is always permitted. It looked like a lot of fun. And the boys were cute! I suddenly remembered my weakness for professional rugby players. The highlight of the evening had to be the USA-Canada game. For about half an hour, we turned from normal students into screaming ravenous USA fans. The enthusiasm from the Europeans was infectous. We had one of the Canadian girls with us, and we started screaming at each other. Then one of the Scottish guys who were next to us came over and said " Wait till Scotland comes out on the pitch, we'll sort all of you out" The USA lost by a point. And then we and the Canadians were all friends again.

After the game, we stopped for some dinner in Wan Chai, and just observed the mass crazyness all around us. It was like it was St. Patty's Day, Christmas, and Halloween. All the people who were in the stadium had apparently all come down to Wan Chai, which is about a 3 square block area. I saw two guys dressed up in full bear suits, heads and all walking down the street with beers. Well, there goes my childhood. My personal favorite was the group of about 6 middle-aged British guys dressed up as the Queen, with sashes, wigs, maskes, and crowns. I wanted to get a picture with them, but they moved pretty quickly before we could catch up with them. I did manage to get one with some guy who thought he was a superhero or something like that. It was awesome to see all these people from 18-70 out having a great time. They had to shut down a few of the streets because of the massive crowd. While we were walking down the street, I saw some guy very calmly walk out of the bar, and lie down in the street, like he was going to take a nap or something. I didn't understand that. Some woman who was walking by us as we were sitting on a patio stopped, and framed us with her fingers like she was taking a picture, which was just a little bit weirder than the guy napping in the road. Everyone was also really friendly and suprised to find Americans in Hong Kong, especially at a rugby tournament. I felt like we were the only Americans in all of Hong Kong that night. I also noticed something else about the British people that I meet. They have some innate desire to visit all the former British colonies when they travel. Almost every one that I have talked to plans on visiting, or has visited India, Austrialia, New Zealand, and of course Hong Kong. Only we are left out, and I wonder why that is. I'm doing my best to convince them to come to the USA. It was such a fun night.

Saturday I had plans with Sunny to go to Cheung Chau island, but we bother overslept. Instead a group of us went to the beach, which is just a 20 minute bus ride away. The beach is also free, but the water doesn't look that clean. I went in for a little while, and nothing weird happened to me. Its so nice to be able to go to the beach in early April though. I checked the weather that day, and back home it was in the 40s and raining. Anyone jealous yet? I also managed to get some work done, and my laundry too.

Sunday Sunny and I ventured out to Cheung Chau island. Sunny is one of the exchange students here from Korea. She has been at Lingnan since the start of fall semester, and I adore her. We have a history class together, and she is so much fun. Cheung Chau takes about an hour to get to by ferry, and I would say that its easily twice the size of Lamma Island. It has a much bigger fishing village too. Even a McDonalds. We didn't really come to the island with a plan, but more to just walk around and enjoy the beautiful day. There are no cars on the island, and it seems like everyone owns a bicycle. The first thing we walked to was one of the temples where an impromptu Cantonese Opera performance had begun. We watched it for a while and then went and explored the temple, which was tiny compared to the ones that I have seen so far. It was very quite inside the temple, but once we went back out, it was buzzing with noise. We tried to find the pirate cave that I had been told about, but no such luck. We spent most of our time walking around the island people watching. We found a playground on top of a hill and I decided to let my inner child out. Sunny got a great picture of me on a little bouncy ducky thing, and I have never been so happy in my life to see swings! I know that I don't look happy in this picture, but I was having a great time. The thing dipped forward really deeply, and I was scared that I was going to fall off or something like that. Sunny caught that moment perfectly on film, don't you think? Even though we didn't really do a lot of touristy things, I had a great time just walking around and really seeing Cheung Chau. Comparatively, to the rest of Hong Kong, its rather relaxed and slow-paced. My kind of town! If I have time, I think that I will try to get back there and manage to explore the whole island. It wasn't small enough to do in one day.

Thats it for now with my adventure updates! Things have been a little tame recently with the semester winding down, and finals approaching rapidly. I still plan on spending almost a month with Jason in Thailand and beyond. My roommate Terrence insisted I come back to Hong Kong for a couple of days before my plane leaves and spend it with her and her family. She and I are going to stay with her grandfather, Guon Guon, at his apartment, with her parents and grandmother, Ma ma, down the block. Her Ma ma knows how to knit, so hopefully I will pick up a few tricks, and learn how to cook proper Cantonese food. Maybe even learn some more Cantonese- I'm pretty much going to have to, Terrence is the only one in her family who speaks English. I also want to cook for them, something easy, but very American. Any suggestions? So those are my plans for after finals and everything.

Long time, no post

So once again its been forever since I've updated. I've had tons of adventures, so this is going to be a pretty lengthy one, maybe even a two-parter! (Ooooooooooo) I'm still doing wonderful and everything- its just that when you get back into the swing of real life, or as real as it can be for 4 months, you get incredibly occupied with other things. And I've never been too good at this whole keeping in touch thing. I feel like a jerk sometimes, but I'm working on it.

So when I last updated, I left you all at the end of my Lamma Island trip with Megan and my usual Sunday at Prof. Starr's house. That following week of classes was more exciting then the usual week. On Monday afternoon, the Office of International Programmes (Thats how they spell it- leftover British influence) threw a Welcome Reception for the exchange students, international buddies, and students from Lingnan who had gone abroad in the previous semester. It was a nice little teatime affair, complete with tea and little sandwiches with the crusts cut off. We spent time just hanging around talking with the different students and professors and took a nice little group photo. This one feature yours truly, one of the Korean exchange girls- Sunny, and two local students. The trick is to learn how to tell Koreans apart from the Chinese students. (I can do it) Prof. Starr encouraged us to promote Lingnan to our fellow students when we got back home and that was pretty much it. Just a nice little meet and greet. But I also love the fact that they have tea time here. I wish that we had tea time back home.

Tuesday night was also a lot of fun. I was recruited by my hall committee to play basketball in another inter-hostel game. No one seemed to care that I haven't played basketball in years, or that I was exceptionally horrible at it. After about 20 minutes on the court, I was bright pink from head to toe and had made no major contribution to my team. We really didn't have much of a strategy, and no one told me where to go. I spent most of the game standing there wide open, and none of the other girls passed to me. Not that I would have been able to make it in the net anyway. They seemed excited just to have me play. Needless to say, we suffered a crushing defeat. It was still pretty fun, and it made me realize how horrible at sports I am, well at least basketball. I did pretty well at badmintion when I played with Jon earlier that day.

Later that week, I had my first exam of the semester, which I am proud to say that I got a perfect on, the only perfect in the class. So it was a pretty exciting school week for me, well maybe not exciting, but more out of the usual routine of just class, work, and spending time with my friends. Friday night was St. Patty's day, and what I have dubbed the "Dim Sum Crew", (myself, Megan, Jess, and Karen), decided to go out for Irish food, with Megan's Irish pride ablaze. That was a great night.

We headed on down to TST, better known as Tsim Sha Tsui, to a pub/restaurant named Delaneys for dinner. When we walked in, we immediatly ran into other exchange students- small world! This place was great, it was filled with Europeans and the tables looked like they had come from the Medieval ages. All the waiters were very Irish, and from the looks of it, all a little tipsy. They had a DJ playing all these old Irish folk songs and a fiddler too. I knew that it was going to be a great evening. We managed to snag a corner table next to this very sweet British couple, and talked with them for a while. They had been traveling the world for 2 months and were trying to decided between Hong Kong and Thailand in which to settle down. They also taught us some Irish folk songs. I was super-excited because I got an Irish breakfast which had all the food I was longing for, sunny-side up eggs, toast, potatoes, etc. It was so good!! It was probably the best breakfast I've had, and I think that its mostly due to how bad I wanted it. Other exchange students showed up, and we finally had this huge group of people that just took over one side of Delaneys. It was fantastic. Everyone was just really friendly and fun, and I met some cool people. Like Zac the barrister from England who kept calling me a nutter. I learned some European slang, and taught some American slang too. When we went outside, they had shut down the street traffic to accomidate everyone who had come down to that area to celebrate. It was the largest group of white people in Hong Kong that I have seen in one place here. Just crazy. One of my favorite nights here so far. We also played some trivia games in the restaurant and everyone won a Guinness hat. Who knows what I am going to do with it though. It worked for some silly pictures.

The next day, I met up with Zac to show him around Hong Kong. He had only been there for 3 days and had seen nothing! (Well, nothing by my standards) I took him around TST and then to Sha Tin. We had a nice day, and it was really interesting meeting fellow travelers. I've noticed that the people who are traveling around here, wether it be other exchange students or what, feel this instant commraderie with each other. Like we're all part of the same club and we have to stick together. Its fun that way because you meet some interesting people, and hopefully do some networking. I meet some one from the mainland who really wants me to come to his town, which is outside of Chengdu, after I graduate and teach English. Or the Irish boys we met on the subway who made us sing Danny Boy with them. Just pure sillyness sometimes, but its really fun. I hope that I keep meeting people like this as I go on traveling. You never know who you might meet.

That week was another ordinary week of classes, nothing too exciting. There was no meeting at Prof. Starr's house that Sunday. Classes are still going fairly well. The work has picked up a little bit, but still not up to the level of what I am used to. All I really have left is the rest of lectures and a couple of papers, until finals time comes around. Most of my finals will be done the first week of May, except for my statistics one which my professor still doesn't know the date for. I figured that it would be statistics that gives me a hard time, considering that I have a burning hatered of the subject, and it seems to be the subject that gives me the hardest time. I hate statistics so much, and I feel like its almost pointless, even though I know its not. Its just the way I relate to math, like oil and water that want to beat each other up.

That weekend Megan and I had tickets to the Hong Kong Dance Company's performance of a modern peice called "Hands in Hands" It was very interesting to say the least. From what I understand, it was about a deaf girl who joins a dance company, but then everyone hates her, and she prays and these Thai gods come out and dance around. I think that there is something that I just wasn't getting, but I enjoyed it none the less. The dancers where incredibly talented and I really wasn't expecting the children's choir to pop out at the end and sing a song about the world being beautiful. I was also sitting next to an old man who was clearly a very proud grandfather. When the children came onstage, he kept smiling, laughing, and tapping me on the shoulder to point out one of the kids to me. It was really amusing, and he was so proud. After the show, Megan and I tried to take pictures of us all dressed up on a stairway near a beautiful chandiler, but they wouldn't let us. The conversation went as follows:

Usher: Are you trying to take a picture on the stairs?
Me: Yes, its very beautiful and I would like to show people from home
Usher: Well, you can't take pictures on the stairs
Me: Why not? It will only take a minute
Usher: Its too dangerous.
Me: Dangerous how?
Usher: You could fall down the stairs
Me: Oh it will be ok. I'll hold on to the handrail
Usher: Well, you just can't do it. I'm sorry
Me: Ok then. Thanks

So no pictures of the interior of the Hong Kong Cultural Center folks! I guess that it was to dangerous after all. Sometimes I feel like I'm just being messed around with by the people here, just because they can. Oh well, what can you do? We decided to take a stroll on the Avenue of Stars and people watch before we went home. It was a nice warm night, and a surprising large crowd of people are out at 11:30pm on the boardwalk. We saw several groups of breakdancers, and there were small crowds everywhere standing around local musicans, singing and having a great time. My favorite was the woman from the mainland singing ethnic minority songs and dancing. Her songs were mostly Mongolian and Tibetan. While we were watching this performer, a little old man came up and tapped me on the shoulder to ask me where I was from. He explained to us that he was from Hong Kong, and he had a friend with him from the mainland who had never met white people/Americans before. He wanted us to take a picture with his friend and his family. So Megan and I were like- why not? This family ate us up. We took almost every combination of photos possible. Me with the guy, Megan with the guy, me holding a Chinese baby, and my favorite, one with the guy with his arm around me and me looking incredibly startled. I wonder what this family is going to think once they get home and look at these pictures. They also kept telling me how tall and pretty I was, because before them, I never knew that Chinese people consider me tall! It was just so disarming, but the family was really sweet.

END OF PART ONE

So I know that its been over 2 weeks since I last updated. What can I say besides that I'm sorry and a horrible person. I'm starting to get really bad at this whole keeping in touch issue. Somewhere I have weeks old letters that I have been meaning to mail. I'll get to it people, I promise. And the same goes with the pictures, but that one isn't my fault. I can upload about 3 at time before it poops out on me, so there is really nothing that I can do about that. I have some great ones coming! I bet everyone did get a kick out of the monkey story though!

The next weekend after that, I just took off from adventures and got caught up with my homework and such. Prof. Starr wasn't around, since he had to fly back to Florida for the week, so there was no gathering at their house either, which meant no free brownies. I made sure to practice my tai chi and work on some knitting. That week I also had a test in Indian History, which I got an A on by the way, and had to lead a tutorial. Exciting stuff, I know. I was also recruited to take pictures for Lingnan University publications, the kind of stuff they use to promote their university and programs. We had to pose in all sorts of cheesy situations, like pretending to be in lecture, or "hanging out" with a professor. They are going to email me the pictures, so it should be interesting to see what they do with them. Friday the 10th, what I call the Dim Sum Crew- myself, Megan, and her roommate Jess, went out to the Hard Rock Cafe for dinner. (Karen is in the crew too, but she couldn't make it that night) It was so nice to have a proper hamburger, but it made me realize how badly Americans eat. We just have to have everything dripping in grease and fat-its really gross when you think about it. Jess took us shopping the upscale mall, and once again, I didn't even feel rich enough to be walking around there. One day I'll be able to buy something from Louis Vuitton, but it was not that day. A girl can dream though.

Saturday the 11th, Megan and I went to Lamma Island, a tiny 3-mile long island that is about a 30 minute ferry ride from Victoria Harbor. It was a pretty rocky ride over, and the view wasn't that great because of all the pollution haze and the humidity. It was nice to be on a boat though- I love being at/on the ocean. We pulled into the harbor at this very picturesque fishing village (The pictures are currently uploading now), with all sorts of fishing boats in dock. The village was about a 5 minute walk from the ferry dock, and then it was all these cute little restaurants and boutiqes. Rumor is that Lamma Island is one of the big expat hangouts and living spaces. I see why, its beautiful, quiet, and probably very cheap to live there. There was one main path that leads from one village to the other, on the otherside of the island, about a 3 mile walk. Everything here is listed by kilometer, so I'm trying my best to guess distances. After walking through the village and down the path a little, we came to a small beach with a few people on it. I had to go wading and go barefoot in the sand, there was just no way aroud it. The waters wasn't as cold as I expected it to be. There were also some gorgous rock formations, and I spent some time there reading and just soaking things in. Come summer that beach will be packed. The next part of our hike took us up and down, and up again through the hills that dominate most of the islands. A lot of the uphill walks were 45 degress, which is pretty intense. On top one of the hills was a pogoda with a lookout, so we took some pictures there. The weather was just beautiful, in the upper 70s with some humidity, but the higher you go, the less it matters. The sky just wasn't blue, which makes me sad for my pictures, but it was still a lovely day in general. After the secenic vista-stop, it was more up and down to the other side of the island, where we discoverd the Kamakazie Grottos, small gardens, and the outskirts of the other village. The other village consisted of another harbor and one street along side it that was mainly seafood restaurants. They had giant tanks along one wall where you could pick your dinner, and they had some seafood that I never knew exsisted! There was a giant bright blue shrimp looking thing that must have been 4 feet long if you were to lay it out, and it looked to be 2 feet in diameter. I tried to take a picture, but some one ran over to me and started yelling at me in Chinese. Sorry folks. Megan and I wound up playing/reading in the park until the ferry arrived at 7:30. The ferry ride back was beautiful, since it was dark, and we could see the gradual approach of the Hong Kong skyline. It was just lovely.

Sunday was of course spent sleeping in, lounging around, and doing homework, like every Sunday should be. We also went to Prof. Starr's again, and I got to take home some brownies for my roommate. And that was that week for me.

Monkey Assault at 10,000 Buddhas Monastary

Yay for days off! They prove Megan's theory of M=EA, mishap equals excellent adventure. We had Tuesday off this week for Sports Day, so we decided to make a day trip to Sha Tin to the 10,000 Buddhas Monastry up in the hills. Well, everything here is up in the hills, so I guess its a little redundent telling people that places are up in the hills. Its about an hour trip from school via bus, MTR, and the East Rail. Once we got off the East Rail, its about a 10 minute walk to the first part of the complex, Po Fook Hill. At the foot of this hill, there is a little pond filled with koi fish and turtles. There is also a little Thai-Buddhist alter with a statue. There were scarfs tied around the railing, and when I asked Terrence about it, she said that its for making wishes- If anyone has a wish, I can go back for you. There is also another wishing tree that I want to visit soon too. Po Fook Hill is mainly where the Buddhist graves are and one large statue of Buddha. Unfortunatly we didn't know this, so we would up walking all the way to the top. I didn't take any pictures of the gravesites, or anything like that because Terrence had warned me not to. She said that if you take a picture of the dead person's grave, they will follow you around. I just don't want to offend anyone. I did get some nice shots of the view from the top, and looking down at the complex. They had some beautiful waterfalls, so I got some great shots of those. The camera Wende got me takes excellent water pictures-its wonderful. When we got to the top, Megan and I stood around like idiots for a while, wondering where the 10,000 Buddhas were. An older woman, who seemed to pop out of no where told us in very broken English, "No, go down, other side" and tried to shoo us off as best as she could. I guess that she didn't want us up there, or something. So it was back down the hill for us, and then around a government building until we found the very faded sign for the monastary. The path to the entrance looked like a prison. I wondered what kind of monastry we were headed for! It turns out that there is a large amount of preservation work being done to both the sites. The real entrance is much more of what I expected, a small path that winds up the mountain side. The amazing thing about this path is that the whole way up there are these golden statues of what I presume are Chinese gods on both sides. And this was like a half hour walk too. None of the figures were repeated either. It seems that there is a god for everything here. The construction quickly gave way to a beautiful bamboo forests. There were more monkeys here too, jumping around. One of the bamboo shoots crossed above the path, and just as Megan was ducking under it, a monkey crossed over her. It could have sat on her head if it had wanted to. There were also some other monkeys on the path eating a giant fruit that they had taken from a tree. We've been around monkeys before, so I had all my food away and was practicing proper monkey ettiqute when a smaller one starts walking towards me. I thought that he was going to pass me by, so I turned a little to take a picture of one of the statues. Then I felt a tug, and looked down at my leg. The monkey had taken a hold of my pant leg and was tugging at it and squeeking. Now last week one of the exchange girls had gotten bit by a monkey because she refused to give up her sandwhich, and then hit it, (Rather stupid of her, I think), so I was scared. Megan was further up the hill, so I turned my face away and looked in her direction and said, "Megan?" Megan started laughing and pulled out her camera. Just before she could get a picture, the monkey lost interest and walked away. My heart was beating so fast, but I was very happy that I didn't get bitten!

So, once my heart started beating again, we kept going up the hill. I got some great pictures, be sure to check them out. The statues were so cool, and I wish that I knew what their purpose is, or what each one stands for. The temple at the top was a lot smaller than I expected. It consisted of one large building, and a long courtyard with a pogoda at the other end. Along the sides were more figures of Gods under awnings. Inside the main temple is where the 10,000 Buddhas are. The 10,000 Buddhas are various sizes all with a lamp infront of them covering the walls and pillars of the inner temple. It its an amazing site to see. All of them are the same exact pose but with different prayers infront of them. Once I get all the pictures uploaded, you can see for yourself. One of the monks is assigned to count them every night, to make sure that none were stolen. The room is just filled with the golden light from all the lamps, and of course there is the main alter with the three gold Buddhas enclosed. Curiously enough, infront of the center Buddha, there is an enshrined and embalmed body of a priest. I'm not sure why, because the dead are usually cremated in the Buddhist tradition, and never displayed like this. I didn't see any monks though, which disappointed me a little. My favorite thing there, besides the Buddhas was another diety at the end of the courtyard. I'm not sure who it is, but I really liked it because the throne, (I guess that what it is), is all arms and hands reaching out. I like to think that its suppose to represent taking care of everyone and everything in the whole world. I also climbed up inside the pogoda at the end of the courtyard and went all the way to the top. When I came back down, the same monkey that grabbed my pants was sitting on one of the awnings eating something and staring me down. I got a picture of him, and then he threw some of his fruit at me. I guess thats what I get for not giving him food.

Then we walked up to the new upper part of the monastry, which is another walk up a mountain path with more gods on either side of the path. This time, the gods where is full color and more animated then the golden figures. Eventually it all became bodhisvattas statues, which are just beautiful. These were the followers of Buddha and were present at his death. They are believed to be androgenous, and refused to enter Nirvana and instead remained on earth to help/watchover mankind. They look like very comforting people. There were only two other buildings at the upper level, and they both looked like temples going under renovation. I was standing outside one of them, and a worker came up to me gesturing that I take a picture and speaking to me in Chinese. From the gestures I think that it was quitting time and they wanted me to get a picture of the Buddha inside the temple. I did, and then Megan and I headed back down the mountain, since it was almost 6pm. On the walk back down, the monkeys were in the bamboo watching us, but there were no further incidents. Crazy monkeys.

When we stopped for dinner in Mongkok, I had the most wonderful tea, Green Apple Honey. I haven't been able to find it yet, but that is something I am defiantly bringing back with me. The rain started up just as we got back on the bus, so we lucked out. Later that night I also grabbed a late dinner with Shirley and her group at a hot pot place. I tried some really good mushroom-thingys, and took pictures of all the food we had. I spent a good deal of time poking the oysters because I thought that they were more that a little gross-looking. Then we headed back out into the rain. I thought that I was just going to head back home to my hostel but they took my to play mahjohng, and I played until 2:30am. I only one once. For now its back to class and work. I do have some bad news though, it turns out that Jason won't be able to come visit me after all. I'm a little down about it, but I'll see him in May at the very latest. Hopefully new pictures will be up soon!

The Hong Kong Story and Weekly Visit to the Starr's

This weekend was another hot date with my roommate Terrence! She really wanted to do something with me this weekend, so we decided to meet up with her friend Dennis and explore the Hong Kong Heritage Museum. Phase One of the grand plan was to meet Dennis at 10:30am in TST, or Tsim Sha Tsui for those of us who don't live here. Too bad we didn't actually leave the university until 10ish, and then we had to stop at Terrence's apartment to drop some things off. I saw her mother again, and also met her grandmother. I love Terrence's apartment. Its right in the heart of the Ladies Market in Mongkok, and its so nice and cozy. Living right above all the hustle and bustle has to be very exciting. I wouldn't mind living there. Her grandmother is very sweet; the only English word she knows is Hello and she kept saying it to me the whole time I was there. And she was beautiful! I think all the women in Terrence's family, Terrence included, are just gorgeous.

After a brief visit at her home, and getting some money from her mother, we ran to the MTR Station and jumped on the train. We got there at 11:15am, and Dennis was merciless in his teasing of Terrence. I should note here that people in Hong Kong are never on time. It can be a little irritating at points, but like everything else you have to get used to it. Local students will walk into class 10 minutes late and think nothing of it. Some will apologize, but being late isn't really a big deal. The museum was only $5HK to get in, which is less than a US dollar, if you want to compare it. Things here are cheap! We decided to explore the permanent exhibit, the "Hong Kong Story", which is Hong Kong history from Precambrian Times up until the Handover in 1997. It was one of the most well-done musems I have ever been in. There was so much information to cover, but the musem was huge and it presented everything really clearly and thoughtfully. I want to go back again. The pictures from it turned out fabolously. A lot of the musem was really interactive, and built so that you were walking down a street during the Japanese Occupation, or through a Punti hut. Such a great museum- I was like a kid in a candy store, espcially when we got to the section about Chinese Opera. I was so excited that Terrence promised to talk me to Cantonese Opera before I left. Several times, in fact. We must have been in the musem for 3 hours.

For lunch, Terrence and I headed back to Mongkok, and Dennis went home to Central. As we were walking to the MTR Station together, we got someone to take a great picture of the 3 of us. Its one of my favorite pictures from the whole trip so far. We said hello to her mother again back in Mongkok and went to a local place for sushi and Japanese noodles. I love salmon sushi- its my favorite. After lunch, Terrence took me to Fa Yuen street, which is another street market where no tourists go. I try to avoid tourists, they make us Westerners look bad- the whole "Ugly American" thing is so true. Its a better market to go to, because there is a greater variety of things, instead of all the knockoffs at the Ladies Market. Its the one place in Hong Kong that I have been able to find yarn and knitting needles. If you walk down the center of the street, you see the main booths, but the more interesting things are between the booths and the actual bulidings. Thats where all the little boutiqes are, and the little curiosities, like an incense shop that I wandered into. It sold items like incense or paper goods for Buddhist worship. Terrence did a little bargaining and I picked up a lovely bracelet for $14HK, which is less than $2US. I helped her pick out a very cute skirt and top. Hong Kongers love to shop! From Fa Yuen street, we headed over to Grand Century Plaza so she could go to a bookstore. In there she got me beginers writing books like they give to kids in kidnergarten, so I can learn to write Chinese. I did a little bit in each book, and I'm afraid that my handwriting is terrible. I can recognize a few characters where ever I go, and thats pretty exciting for me. I'm still pretty illiterate by Chinese standards. She went off to meet her boyfriend and high school classmates for dinner, and I took the bus back to Lingnan. By the time I got home, I was incredibly exhausted. I could feel my leg muscles twitching from the combination of Friday's tai chi chaun class, and the walking I had done. If I keep this up, I'm going to have fantastic legs when I get home! My pants have been getting really loose too. Now I know why all the people here are skinny!

Sunday was another evening at the Starr's. Its really nice to have somewhere to go every Sunday like this. Mrs. Starr and I have the same name, so we always sit next to each other and mess with Prof. Starr when he calls her name. I found a kindred spirit in a girl named Heidi who is from Hong Kong, but was sent to school in Austrialia as a child. We spent an hour talking about the books we've read, and she is going to lend me a couple. The sky was finally clear enough from their balcony to see clear to the airport and to Hong Kong Island at the same time. It was breathtaking.

Tomorrow we have a day off from school for Sports Day. If the weather is nice, I think that I might explore more of Tuen Mun and try to find the temple here. I'm also very excited right now because Jason will be here on Friday! We are going to have so much fun! Crazy adventures are assured to happen. As always, I love and miss everyone very much! Look for new pictures!

For now, there have been no big adventures, except for that of daily life in Hong Kong. I have mastered the transportation system, ordering dim sum, some basic manners, and how to bargin. I've gotten incredibly accustomed to living here by this point, and it really feels like home, instead of some place that I am visiting. I've made tons of friends among local kids, which makes me happy. My classmates have stopped treating me like a non-entity, and realize, "Hey, maybe she can check over my work, and help me out!", which is much better than not being talked to. Even a couple of guys said hi to me today, and that is a sign of real progress. I really want to have the experience of the "real" Hong Kong, and what its like to be a citizen, not a tourist, and so far I feel that I have been sucessful in doing so. Classes are going a lot more smoothly now that I know the routine, and adjusted my clock. My roommate is just as awesome as ever. She and I love to tease each other, and she is taking me out tomorrow to the history musem, and out to lunch. She is going to show me where the locals go and all the little things that tourists never see/do.

I am also taking another class, a Tai Chi Chaun class. Today was the first day for it, and boy was it killer. Mr. Wong, the instructor came up to me when I first entered the room and said "I not teach this class in English. Find a friend to help you" Too bad I didn't know anyone in the class! He made us do all sorts of crazy streches until my muscles started twitching. A girl named Julia befriended me, which was really lucky for me, because I had no idea what he was saying, all I could do was follow the movements. We only learned some basic hand movements though. He also told me that I can't wear jeans. Nevermind the fact that I have another class right before his......Then I had tea with my friend Irene who is also really cute and sweet. She teased me for not calling her the day before and then told me that she missed me. We are going to do something together next week. I also have my first big presentation next week, which I think that is going to be relativly easy, and on Friday Jason comes to visit me! Woooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!!!!!!!! We're going to do a ton of hiking/camping. I am so excited to see this kid, I can describe. The closest that I can get to it is that Jason is the Laurel to my Hardy.

And I promise that I will be better about updating things. At least every couple of days should be good, don't you think?

So here is the run-down on what I've ben doing in this past week and a half since I've last updated. I have completly succeded in completly humilating myself infront of several groups of strangers when going to my Statistics class. I thought that I had woken up about 10 minutes before class started, so I was in a huge rush going out the door. I first went into the right building, but the wrong floor. So I put my hand on the doorknob to open it, then realized it wasn't my classroom. Then I went upstairs to the right classroom and just rushed in because I thought that I was late. When I turned around, I was looking at some strange professor, who was most definatly not my professor. I started to argue with him insisting that my class was in this room, and he must be in the wrong place. Then I caught a glimpse of the clock over his shoulder- I was an hour early. My face turned bright red, and I bolted from the room. Later, Christian, an exchange student, told me that he was sitting in that class when I came in. He also said that it was the funniest thing that he has seen in days.......great.......So when I actually got to class I was a little stressed, and tired from a quick nap. I honestly tried my best to stay awake, but I lost that battle. I must have only snoozed for like 5 minutes, but when I woke up, Dr. Law was starting right at me. Then he said, "its time for a break, some of you look like you need a break. For the second time that day, I turned bright red and wanted to run. But then this professor always gets a huge kick out of picking on me. So as soon as that class was over, I was outta there! You could see the dust cloud from where I ran.

Later that week was the AIESEC Cultural Party, which was a ton of fun, so that made up for my horribly embarassing day. AIESEC is an international organziation of students that promotes peace, understanding, and an end to conflict. You know, peace-loving, tree-hugging hippies- my kind of people. They hosted this cultural party so people from different countries could get together and make friends. Helen was my group leader, which was pretty awesome. I adore Helen- she is one of the funniest locals I know. We were split into smaller groups, and I was the only Westerner in my group. I met some locals, and people from the mainland. One of the guys in my group insisted I call him Tiger- I learned later that all the mainland girls are in love with him, but I just don't see it. We had to run around campus in our groups playing teamwork/mind games. Our group came in second, but it was so much fun that it didn't matter. We had a Pun Choi dinner in the canteen after the games. Pun Choi is a huge bowl of food with all types of meat and vegetables in it that everyone shares. Its got everything in it, from chicken to prawns to lotus. I really like Pu Choi dinner, but its hard to find here. There is also some legend behind it, but no one told me. During dinner we had to sit through some presentations a.ka. shameless promoting of AIESEC. They were entertaining. I also got the whole group to sing Happy Birthday to Christine. It was fantastic. After dinner we played one more game which was like an eating/drinking contest. It was fun, but I made myself a little sick because I had to eat half a can of Pringles in a minute. All in all it was a great time. The AIESEC kids have been wonderful to us.

A couple of nights later, a group of exchangers headed out to a karaoke club. The building we went to, 16 floors tall, had a karaoke club on every floor! Asians really love to sing off-pitch to songs they love. We were invited to a members only club by the manager Tim, who wanted to show us that he could "party" with Americans. He sang a couple of songs with us, and had beers with some of the other exchange girls. He taught me a pretty cool fan trick, which I can still do. But after that, the next time I saw him, he was passed out one of the couches, dead drunk. I asked one of our waitresses what happened, and she told me that Tim likes to show-off to foreigners by getting really drunk every time they come in. Manchi, the waitress begged me to take some pictures of him, and email them to her, and I was more than happy to oblige. Who doesn't get a kick out making fun of their boss? We sang a bunch of great songs too, and the other people in the club loved us. We got cheers and standing ovations every time. I think that the highlight of the evening was when all of us got us for "Ain't No Mountain High Enough", complete with some of the girls acting as background dancers. It was so much fun! I think that I might have to go back there, or to at least another karaoke club. Did I mention that the name of the club is the Joy Luck Club!