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.

There's no place like home

Dorothy was right; there is truly no place like home. I'm loving being back and getting back to work, but all my friends seemed to have dropped off the face of the planet. I was really looking forward to hanging out with everyone when I got home, so get on it guys! (Hint hint)

This summer is pretty much going to be similar to last summer, working and hanging out. I'm even working at the same summer camp, but with an upgrade in position. I went from checkpoint to receptionist like that! *snap* The wonders this does for my career.....But all in all, its great to come back to a job where I was liked so much they were after me to come back! The staff is great, and I have a boss that I actually enjoy working for. If I ever again have a summer where I need a job, I know where I can go. It also feels like a relief to have a job, earning money instead of spending it.

As for my sentimental side, I am missing Hong Kong with all my heart. The first week home was so surreal, and I've noticed some major changes in myself, and some others have pointed out. The things I would say I miss the most are my wonderful friends that I made there, both local and other exchange students and the food! Oh, how I miss the food. Hong Kong food is fantastic, but the food in Thailand is like food sex- its that damn good. And cheap!

I know that I was little out of touch while I was in Thailand, but thats what happens when you have to pay for the internet. Needless to say, my trip was beyond fantastic. I'm in love with Thailand. I got to see my best friend, meet great people, try bizare foods, stay with monks, and be there for the King's Diamond Jubilee. And Thai people are some of the most kind hosiptable people you will ever meet. I never had a bad experience with any of the locals. As for were I went, I spent some time in Bangkok- craziest city ever, then in Hua Hin, where Jason's university is and where the king lives. Then we headed back up through Bangkok to a little town near the Burmense border called Pai. Pai was such a small town, but it was wonderful. Its where I ate the best food of my life and swam in a waterfall. I also meet Israelis, South Africans, Germans, and whole bunch of locals. After Pai we headed back down to Chiang Mai, the 2nd largest city for the week long celebrations of the Diamond Jubilee. The Thai King Bhumibol Adulyadej has been on the throne for 60 years, which makes him the longest reigning monarch in history. He even outdid Queen Victoria! There were yellow shirts, fireworks, portraits of the king, and parades every way you looked. It was truly spectacula. My favorite event was held in Bangkok; only royalty, both Thai and international, was invited to a viewing of the royal barge parade on the river that circles Bangkok. It was also broadcast nationwide on TV. It was one of the most opulant displays of granduer that I have ever seen. Just breathtaking.....All in all, Thailand was incredible. I miss it so much!

So thats my vacation in a nutshell. There are some other great stories, but they would take way too long to type out, and I think that people would run out of paitence. If you are interested in hearing more, or just wanna talk/hang out, you know where to find me. I'll update over the summer, but I can't promise any excitment to compete with my trip abroad- just me working really. Its good to be home!

Thailand!

So Thailand is awesome, not buts about it. I don't have time to go into detail about everything, but here is a short list of all the awesome things I have done in a little under a week:

• ate frog- yum!
  
• fed/petted an elephant
• had ant egg soup- not that tasty
  
• spent a day and night a socialist Buddhist community
• tried fried grasshoppers
• swam in a waterfall
• went on alms rounds
• met the first ordained female monk in the Thai Theravada tradition
• learned some Thai
• got a job offer to work at a animal shelter in Hua Hin

More to come later when I don't have to pay for the internet. I'll be home soon!

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!

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.

My roommate is the best basketball player ever!

Its true folks, my lovely roommate Terence is the next Yao Ming, that is, if she wasn't 4 feet tall. Today was the first game of the inter-hostel competition that they have every semester, called the Presidents Cup. Terence was playing for the Hostel E team, also know as the best hostel ever, and so I went to cheer her and my friend Helen on. Loudly, very loudly so that they would be horribly embarassed. I think that I did a pretty good job. Helen made a couple of great baskets even though she claims to be a horrible player. I should have played, I would of had the game in the bag because I'm head and shoulders above all the girls, and a good deal of the guys. My team won 40-8, and I look at it as a good start to the semester. I bought my roommate a pack of cookies as a celebratory gift.

I also got my first letter from home! (Thanks Ms. Paula!) I am also really looking forward to my care package of jelly beans and hot chocolate from Allison. It makes me feel really good to know that people are thinking of me and reading this. I am always thinking of everyone back in the states, so I have to say that I miss everyone and love everyone very much. As much as I love it here, no one compares to my family, friends, and loved ones.

Classes have started back up again, and it makes for a nice change. I'm taking 5 classes right now, but since I don't have a job, I feel like I could take more because I will have so much free time. I am really enjoying all my classes so far. Today was my Cultural and Historical Writing class with my one and only American professor. This class is pretty tiny: just myself, one other girl, and 2 boys. Thats it. This is the smallest class that I have ever been in and I know that I can't slack off. Even the professor said so. What made my day though was that they 2 guys in the class were talking about me and the way that they know they were talking about me is that I kept hearing the English word "exchange". I need to learn Cantonese just so I can know what people are saying about me. It didn't seem like anything bad, but I still want to know what was being said. My history class yesterday was pretty entertaining as well. The professor was really excited to talk about the ancient Indus River Valley civilizations. He thinks that Harappa is the greatest place in the world. He said so verbatim. It was really fun to watch and hear him make cheesy jokes. I love professors who make cheesy jokes, they're the best. Tomorrow is my Statistics class (booooooooooooooooooooooo) and also my Film/Cinema Studies class. The Statistics class is the one where the professor talked about me in Cantonese infront of me, so tomorrow should be interesting. I'm also really excited for my film class, because the professor for that is really fun and makes cheesy jokes. They don't compare to St. Mary's professors though!

I think a hike to monkey mountian might be in store for this weekend. I don't know the real name of the place yet, but its a nature park with monkeys, big monkeys that chase people sometimes. Makes for some exciting pictures!

Other good news: Jason told me that he might be spending his spring break with me. I am really excited for that because I really miss my best friend. I am used to seeing him everyday, so his visit is going to be great!

Interesting cultural thing I learned today as well: Here, the guys are the ones who have the sterotype of spinsterhood and cats attached to them. I was sitting outside of my hostel reading with Helen when she told me about it. Mostly the guys will take care of the cats, and a lot of the guys on campus will just hang out with them and talk to them. Helen leaned over to me and whispered "Most of them are lonely because they don't have girlfriends, so they get cats" Interesting cultural flip flop, don't you think?

Last of the New Years Adventures

Look! My life has become a 3-parter! Isn't it exciting? There is just so much to tell yet so little time to type it all. I'm a little hopeful that things will calm down now that New Years is over and classes will be starting back up tomorrow. All the Lingnan students should be coming back tonight or tomorrow. Its a little erie with no one here.

Monday was spent at Agnes' house with another large group of exchange students. I think that there were about 9 of us. We were scheduled to leave at 1pm, but I thought that it was a little later so when Megan called me at 12:45 I was a little surprised. I put on clothes and ran down as quick as I could to meet everyone. So I was a little ticked when I got down to the plaza there was no one there. I was 5 minutes lates, but the group had left without me. Now you have to understand that before we have waited for people who have been 25 minutes late, but they couldn't even wait 5 minutes for me. I was more than a little ticked. Luckily for me, Agnes came back and walked with me down to her neighborhood. She lives in this cute little complex of 3 story apartments aorund little courtyards. Most of her family lives in this neighborhood, so I think that its pretty nice. Her whole family is incredibly nice and really funny. 2 of her uncles spoke great English and were having a great time joking around with us. And at her uncle's house I got to play with their pet Chow Chow, whose name is Bae-bae, which means Teddy Bear in Cantonese. Agnes' cousin was having a great time bringing out all the family pets and passing them around. They had a dog, 2 cats, and a bird. We sat down to a huge meal with dumplings, and all sorts of other food that I can't name. Of course, it was delicious. I took a before and after photo so you can see what we did to this food. Everywhere we go we manage to eat everything, which is a big compliment to the cook. I loved the fried rice cake/pudding thing, espcially the red one. I don't know whats in it, and I don't care. Its just yummy. So after all the exchange students manage to eat everything, we were taken around the complex to all the relative's house. One of Agnes' cousins played a great Mozart peice on the piano for us and then Julie and Sean played Hear'n'Soul for them. As we went from house to house, we got lai see pockets from all the married relatives and Agnes' grandmother. Her grandmother is really cute too, and apparently the best mah jonng player in the family. So of course we brought out the mah jonng sets. We had 3 tables going. This game is really addictive. We played for about 4 hours straight, just sitting in the courtyard with Agnes and her family. None of us are really very good when compared to her family though. I was very glad that we weren't playing for money. We then got another huge spread for dinner. Now I wish I had gotten a picture of that too. I feel like I eat so much more here, but I have to, its soooooooooooooooo good. I'm going to start collecting recipes so I can cook this stuff when I go home. At the end of the meal, Agnes' dad brought out his traditional tea set and made use all some really fancy tea. I've only had it once before with Jason, and its wonderful. I'm not sure what the name is but I think that it tastes a little bit like honeysuckle flowers. Agnes told me that they only have this kind of tea on big family occasions like New Years. And boy was it good. I might have to get some of that tea before I leave. Her family is really nice, as all the families have been. I was sitting next to her grandmother, and she and I just smiled at each other because we couldn't understand each other. At one point she said something to me, but I have no idea what it was. But she looked happy so I'm guessing that it was something good. We were at Agnes' place until about 9pm that night. Agnes and her uncle walked us back to school to make sure that we got home ok, and then we all went to sleep.

That was my last family dinner and I'm a little sad that its over. It was really nice to be in a family environment with home-cooked food. It was a really nice change of pace, and I really felt like I was meeting more people this way, and having more of the experiences I wanted to have. Shirley told me that I could always come back to her house on the weekends and I am sure that I will take her up on that offer. I don't want to spend all my time with the exchange students. I really enjoyed spending time with the locals and I have been making friends with them too. My roommate Terrance really wants to take me out and show me a good time, so there is that to look forward to. Helen is another local girl that I have made friends with and she is super sweet. We are planning on going shopping together sometime this week. And I have also found another girl who loves Bollywood films as much as I do, so we are going to watch them together.


After New Years, my week has slowed down a little. I have mostly spent my time exploring Tuen Mun and the area around school. I took some photos around Lingnan so everyone can get a glimpse of what it looks like. This campus is really beautiful and expansive for such the small space that they have. Our gym was built with money donated by Jackie Chan and is named after him. I got a great picture of one of the cats we have running around sleeping in a basket of a bicycle. We also went to an art exhibit at the University of Hong Kong on the snuff bottles of the later dynasties of China. I couldn't take any pictures though. There was also a really cool modern art disply that you had to lay down on the floor for, and it was incredible. We had to hike up this huge hill in Central and by the time we reached the top we were all sweating and panting. It was an amazing view though. Megan hiked all the way up in heels. What a trooper! Other than that I have managed to get some homework done, finished knitting my roommate a scarf, lost my phone, and then got my phone back.

Oh, I almost forgot the Dragon and Lion Dances! Just for New Years they have these part-dance, part-martial arts teams who are usually hired by businesses and large corporations to come and perform. It is suppose to show the wealth of the business and also bring good luck in the coming year. The lions consist of 2-men teams, with a strong powerful guy in the back, and a tiny energetic guy in the front. The jump from pole to pole with the front guy being lifted up on the other guys shoulder, or just in the air. Its really incredible to see. The dragon consists of a huge line of guys as the body and they chase around a ball that is suppose to be symbolic of lettuce. (Because dragons like lettuce? I have no idea) We got to see 2 teams in one day, it was fantastic. After the show, the lions and drummers go to each store, and "eat" the lettuce that is hanging from the ceiling. They run around the store, and then spit out the lettuce while keeping the lai see packet inside. I think that it is suppose to spread good luck around the business for the coming year or something like that. One of the guys we knew from Lingnan was a part of one of the teams so we got to take a photo with him. And when we left we all waved a big goodbye to him. He is going to look like a big man now to all of his friends because a crowd of Western girls waved to him ;)


That is everything up to date now. Classes resume tomorrow and my roommate comes back. Currently I'm watching Dr. Zhivago in Cantonese with English subtitles, which throws things off a little. They call it "Till the End of the Time: Dr. Zhivago" Weird.

Updated List of Places I've Been:

• Mongkok
• Temple Street Night Market
• Tin Shui Wai
• Harbor City
• Tsim Sha Tsui
• Heng Fa Chuen
• Lantau Island
• Sham Shui Po
• Central
• Wan Chai
• Hong Kong Uni.
• Kowloon

Oh, and answers to Wende's questions:

There are mailboxes in the hostels, so thats where I get me letters as soon as people send them to me.

I have to get my packages from the Wong Building which is right around the corner

My MSN screen name is badpixy@hotmail.com, for all those who don't have it, and my AIM screen name is badpixy798.

I have a cell phone, but don't call it unless you really want to because it will cost a fortune. IM me and I'll give it to you just because I don't want my phone number on the internet.

I miss everyone so much and I'm sending you all big hugs!

More New Year's Adventures

So in my last post, I left off on what happened Saturday. That Saturday, the last day of the year of the Rooster, Zuza, another exchange student from Canada and I arranged to have dinner at Cherry's house. Cherry is one of the international buddies who lives on the floor below me. Her apartment, or flat as the call them here, (I love the traces of British influence left like that), is in Tin Shui Wai which is about a half hour trip from school. I meet Cherry at around 3ish and we rode the metro and then the Light Rail to her house. Dinner wasn't until 7:30pm, so I had plenty of time to kill with Cherry. She took me around her area, showed me this beautiful park, and then we were accosted by some guys who wanted us to join there cult. She also showed me every shopping center in the area. The main hobby here is shopping but I can't imagine just spending all my free time like that. And I thought Americans were consumers! There were 5 malls for an area the size of my hometown. It just blew my mind. We did a lot of walking that day too. After walking all around Tin Shui Wai, we arranged to meet up with Zuza. Of course it was her first time on the Light Rail, so it goes without saying she got off at the wrong stop. Thank god I got this phone, otherwise we would never of found her. Cherry and I had to jump back on the tram and ride 2 more stops and then I had to stick my head out the doors and yell "Zuza! Get on the train!" We then took a half hour train ride back in a circle to get back to where we needed to be. We made to Cherry's house on time though. She lives in a apartment building on the 12th floor and she has a great view too. Its amazing because people back home would pay a premium for this kind of view, but everyone here has a great one, no matter where you go. We had dinner with her mother, father, and her brother Pelky. Pelky spoke some English, but Cherry had to translate everything that her parents said. I took a picture of the food just to show how much was made for us. During the New Year, it is good luck to have even number of dishes, so her mother made 8. The chicken was all together, even with the head, because the whole chicken together is a wish/luck for the whole family to stay together forever. And let me say this, Cherry's mother is one damn fine cook. I feel like I gained weight just from that one meal. I tried 2 different kinds of fish, sea cucumber, (I think), and lotus root. I really liked one of the types of fish she made, baked all light and fluffy. I know I've said this before, but I will say it again- I love love love the food here! After dinner Cherry showed us around her home and we took pictures with her family. She explained all the alters in her house, (for ancestor worship), and we spent a little time with her family. Around 9ish we left her house to head over to the Yuen Long New Year's Fair. There are 20 fairs like this in all of Hong Kong, just for the New Year and these things are crazy. It is some of the biggest crowds that I have ever seen in my whole life. It was so packed that we couldn't even see over the crowd to the seller booths. There was also a band on one of the patios of an apartment building overlooking the market. Vira- you'll get a kick out of this- they played "Wig in a Box" from Hedwig! It was wonderful. I waved at them and the lead singer blew me a kiss. Cherry also was translating what people around us were saying. Mostly it consisted of comments like "I've never seen any westerners come here before" It made me feel cool, just a little bit. I also bought some snapdragons for my room. They were this beautiful shade of deep purple that I have never seen before. Sadly enough, they have died by now and I forgot to take a picture. Oh well, next time. We spent about 4 hours in the Fair before Zuza and I decided to call it a night. By the time I got back to my room, I had done so much walking that day that I wore holes in the pair of socks that I was wearing. (Send socks!)

Sunday, the first day of the Year of the Dog, was the day of the big parade. It gave me a chance to indulge my secret love of parades. (But don't tell anyone) And I also love marching bands and there were a couple of them in this parade. They have it every year just for the New Year. Cathay Pacific Airlines sponsered it this year. A large group of exchange students, myself included decided to head on down to Central to line up and see it. The parade started around 8:30pm and lasted until 10ish. There was every kind of performing group in this parade. My favorite was the Korean drummers with the twirling ribbon hats. They had to drum while spinning their heads to keep the ribbon flowing. And they also had Japanese laturn acrobats. These guys were carrying huge towers of giant candle lit laturns and when they would stop, they would balance them on their forehead, hips, shoulder, etc. It was amazing. This was one of the coolest parades that I have ever seen. And then the American representation came through and it was the Steelers cheerleaders. Could we not think of anything better to represent us? I hung my head in shame for that. I think that I really want to visit Korea now. I've added it to the list of places I want to go in my lifetime. It was really a fantastic parade. They really go all out for New Years here.

Sunday I spent with Shirley and her family on Hong Kong Island. Going to Shirley's apartment is about an hour trip from school in Heun Fa Chuen. She met me at the metro stop, and then we walked over to her apartment. Talk about swanky! Shirley lives in the beautiful 8-building complex right on the water. There is a resort-style pool and very nice facilities. It has doormen and a spa inside. I have never been in a apartment building that fancy. I might have to live with Shirley, and she invited me to come on weekends when I don't have anything else to do. Its a shame because I really could get used to living like that. She lives on the 6th of her building and it is a beautiful apartment. Everyone here has a great view no matter where you live. I met her mother, father, and younger sister Vicki. The first thing Shirley's mom did was cook something for me. That keeps happening to every house that I go to, they first cook for the guests before anything. I had a sweet red rice pudding/cake thing with a fried egg. I need to get some recipies before I leave so I can make this food when I get home. We had sometime to kill, so they decided to teach me how to play Mah Jonng, which I'm not very good at. Its incredibly addicting though. I won $2HK, which is less than a penny for me. After a couple of rounds, we took a bus to get to Shirley's uncles apartment for dinner and fireworks. We took a public bus there, and we just kept going up and up into the mountains of Hong Kong Island until we reached the top. This was the area where real houses are, not apartments, but they cost about 9 million HK to live there. When we showed up at Shirley's uncle's place, there were about 20 of her relatives there and they were pretty happy to see me! All the married couples gave me lai see money too. We played Uno witht the kids and some of her younger cousins taught me how to play Big 2, which is a pretty fun game. Her cousins were really cute and friendly to me. I managed to beat them a couple of times before dinner. They put out a huge meal for dinner. There were two large crockpots filled with all sorts of meat and seafood arranged. The other pot was all vegetarian. The food was piled about 6 inches high! Then they brought out several more dishes and everyone chowed down. I had some chicked and vegetables, and something that I thought was pork. I tired abalone, but I don't like it that much. I had about 3 plates of food, it was that good. When I asked Shirley's aunt what dish I was eating she told me that I was eating clams and started serving more onto my plate. I was so full of food that I had to stop her. They kept trying to fill me up with food, but I just couldn't eat anymore! We returned to our card games until it was time for the fireworks. It was rumored that the Hong Kong government spent about 2 million dollars on the fireworks and after seeing them I wouldn't be surprised if they had spent more. This was simply the biggest longest fireworks show that I have ever seen. I think that I got some really fantastic photos so you'll have to check them out and let me know what you think. It lasted for about 20 minutes, which I think is a little long for fireworks. When it was over, the smoke from the fireworks was so intense we had a hard time seeing the Kwoloon side of Hong Kong. After that, it was family portrait time. I stood off to the side at first, but then the family pulled me in and told me to consider myself as part of the family. That really meant a lot to me and I almost teared up when they said that. I got a nice picture with Shirley, her sister, and her mother. It was such a nice gesture of them to include me. I was really flattered. New Year here has been incredibly wonderful to me.

Happy Lunar New Year Everyone!

I know that I haven't updated in a couple of days, and I feel a little bad about that. When I called my mom today she said that people have been asking her why I haven't, and its simply because I've been so busy that I haven't had the time to sit down and organize all my thoughts. I've managed to upload the pictures I've taken, and I am also working on organizing them. Life is fast-paced here and if you slow down for one second, you will be left behind. I will try to be a little bit better about updating from now on. Sorry everyone!

It is now the year of the dog, (which is good for Bertie and Tucker), and it looks like it is going to be a pretty good year. First of all, let me start of by saying that Chinese New Year is now my new favorite holiday. You get a week off from school/work to celebrate, spend tons of time with family, and eat tons of good food. All the married couples and older people also give young single people lai see, which is the red paper pocket with money inside. There is also a parade, and the fireworks that the Hong Kong government spent 2 million dollars on. I also went to a few local students homes for dinner, and that was also a wonderful experience.

After looking at where I left off, I should talk about the dinner I had the night I went to Victoria Harbor. Megan and I went out with her rommate Jess, Karen, and Phoebe. Phoebe is leaving for the states soon, so she wanted to take a lot of pictures of Hong Kong to show to prove where she lives. We decided that we had to be real touristy that night and go see the ligh show in the harbor. Every night at 8pm, along the famous Hong Kong skyline, there is a light and laser show put on by all the big companies who own the buildings. I got some great shots of the skyline and with us girls infront of it. The show lasted about 20 minutes, and it was pretty cool. It was a little bit like watching electronic fireworks. The I.M. Pei building always looks fascinating to me. (Its the triangular building with white lights) Its holds one of the biggest banks in all of Hong Kong. So after the light show, we made our way over to the shopping center where we took some other really cute photos with the New Years decorations. Jess and Karen took us to a Shanghainese restaurant called the Jade Crystal Garden. To date, it is the best meal I have had here. I can't even think about it without getting hungry. Soup dumplings are now my favorite food. I can't wait to go back there! I tried this peanut noodle dish that was so spicy I started crying. Megan told me that I was still pink in the face about an hour after dinner. After dinner we walked around Harbor City for awhile, mostly window shopping (Because none of us can afford Louis Vuitton). It was a good night.

Friday morning was my breakfast with the president of Lingnan, and my last class of the week. I was a little embarassed because breakfast was scheduled for 8-9am, and I had to leave halfway through for my 8:30am class. The president of Lingnan is quite famous in Hong Kong as an economist. All the students I have talked to have nothing but nice things to say about him. He is retiring next year though. The president is a very funny and knowledgable man. I hope that I will get another chance to have a full meal with him. So because of my early breakfast with the president, I had to go to my Methodologies in Cultural Research all decked out in my suit and heels. And I thought I got weird looks for just being an American. Now I was a dressed up American at 8:30 in the morning. The good news is that people at least sat next to me in this class. I just hate having class that early. My professor has a weird accent too, and I have yet to place it. Would it be wrong to ask him where he is from? Once class was let out, I just had to go back to my room and catch a quick nap. Terrance had a afternoon class, and as soon as she got done with class she took me out to Mongkok where she lives. I was introduced to her mother, who runs a booth in the ladies market, and the neighborhood that she lives in. Terrance and I then went and got a light dinner at a spicy noodle place. Apparently I hadn't learned my lesson with spicy foods, because I thought it would be a good idea to have more. In this restaurant, there are 4 levels of spiciness that you can order and I was brave enough to try level 2. I immediatly started crying, turning pink, and my nose was running. Terrance got a good laugh out of it as I was coughing for 5 minutes straight. I took the soup home with me but I have yet been brave enough to try it again. After our short dinner, Terrance took me to the Flower Market in Mongkok, which I have been dying to go to. You could smell the flowers from 3 blocks away. I love being in the flower markets, being surrounded by fresh flowers everywhere. Terrance also took me to one of the New Year Fair's that has a huge market for students. A lot of university students get booths and sell fun products, like the pillow set that looks like mah jhong tiles that Terrance is selling. I found some yarn and knitting needles there that I really love. We walked around the market and then Terrance showed me home. Sadly, she had to go back to work until 3am that morning.

I just have to take a second and talk about how wonderful my roommate is. Terrance has been so kind and welcoming to me. She hasn't been around as much as she would have liked to be, and she told me how bad she felt about that. I was really flattered that she has already taken me to meet her mother. Terrance also was telling me how much she wants to take me around and show me all her favorite spots in Hong Kong. I'm knitting her a scarf right now to show her how fabulous she is. I think that living with her is going to work out wonderfully.

As of right now, it is about 3am. I want to continue on and talk about my New Year's experiences, but I need to get some sleep. I don't have any plans for tomorrow, so I might have a little more time to update again. Something will popup though, I know it.

Sushi fun and more classes!

Last night was another milestone in my food experineces in Hong Kong. Shirley took me out for sushi and I had salmon sushi and a cucumber salad with these bright orange fish eggs. I really like the salad thing we got. I took pictures of what we ate just so I can prove what I ate. Then we had this amazing fruit dessert with all kinds of fruit. All I could identify was coconut, banana, papaya, watermelon, and lychee. Other than that I have no idea what I ate, but it was good. I find that if I don't let people tell me what I eat, I enjoy things more. I can't even begin to describe how good the food is here. Its just fantastic and insanly cheap.

Today my classes went well. I was the only exchange student in my Statistics class, and some of the other students didn't seem to be happy to see me. I guess its because they don't want to use English. My professor was messing with me a little too, because everytime he would ask a rhetorical question he would turn and zero in on me. I was given an intense stare down at least 3 times in that class alone today. My other class of the day was Film and Cinema Studies. Its going to be such a fun class. The professor is hilarious! I'm in the class with another exchange student, Jessica, and we were giggling through the whole class today. He asked us to raise our hands if we didn't speak Mandarin and when I did he just laughed at me and said "well, of course you don't" and laughed at me. (They speak Cantonese here, and some students also speak Mandarin, so they have to explain everything in 3 languages sometimes) So that was my embarassing moment for the day. Its was fun though.

Tonight I am going out to dinner with Megan, her roommater Jess, and Karen. I am trying to convince my roommate Terrance to come with us, because I never see her or get to spend time with her. She is a 3rd year student here and she is incredibly busy. Everyone seems to be busy during the New Year. Speaking of, I've been invited to 2 of the International Buddies houses for dinner and Shirley is also going to take me to her relative's house to see the fireworks! There are going to be so many awesome pictures to come, I assure you!

First day of classes

My first day of classes is finally here! I only had one class which was Survey of Indian History. I was the first person there, and there turned out only to be about 10 people in my whole class. At first no one would sit next to me, and it hurt my feelings. Then Sunny, one of the Korean exchange students came in and sat next to me so I wasn't alone. It was a little surreal because I felt like none of the other students would really even look at me. The professor seemed happy to see me though. I guess he must be a little tired of teaching in Cantonese. The class seems to be pretty easy so far. That was my only class of the day so I got to goof off for the rest of the day. Once Megan was done with classes, her roommate Jess took us out downtown so that Megan could do some shopping and we also did some sight-seeing. We went down to Victoria Harbor, where the famous skyline is and watched the light show that they put on every night. We also met up with some of Jess' friends and I have some great pictures of us infront of the skyline. Later after the show, we all went to the Jade Garden restaurant for some Shanghai-style food. It was one of the best meals I've had in my whole life. I really liked the food there. One of the dishes was so spicy that my face stayed pink for about an hour after dinner. I've said it before and I'll say it again, I love love love the food here. I really want to get some good recipies to take with me when I come home.

Today was my second day of class, and once again, I only had one class at 3pm so I definatly slept in. The class I had today was Cultural and Historical Writing. There are only 3 people, including me, in this class. I really hope that the University doesn't cancel it because not only do I need the requirements for my major, the class looks like a lot of fun. All my professor wants to do is watch a bunch of movies and talk about them. Tomorrow is going to be a bit busier because I have two classes, Statistics and Film/Cinema Studies. The classes here are pretty much the same as classes back home with an addition called tutorials. Tutorials are when you meet in small groups during the week to discuss and go over the material of the previous week. They are also manditory. 3 out of my 5 classes have tutorials, and after the Chinese New Year I will be a lot busier. Helen is coming to see me tonight, and then I am going to go pay a visit to Shirley, one of the exchange students who was at St. Mary's last semester. My roommate hasn't been back for about 3 days, but I think that its just because she is really busy with New Years.

Oh and something weird thats been happening- everywhere I go on campus people have been stopping and saying "Hi Becca" to me even though I have no idea who they are and how they know my name. Is there like a secret fan club for me on campus or something? Its both cool and weird at the same time. And since I've put my address up, I am hoping for lots of love to come in the mail. (Hint: I could really kill for hot chocolate and jelly beans) And I will also be sending out lots of love too, as soon as I find the post office.

Mailing address

Alright people here it is, my mailing address for Hong Kong

Room 702B, Hall E
Lingnan University
Tuen Mun
New Territories
Hong Kong

I expect lots of love letters and such. Jelly beans would be nice too ;)

So Much to Share

I'm sorry that I haven't updated in a couple of days, but I've been off having adventures here, some a little more crazier than the others. Would you believe me if I told you that I've already had 3 run-ins with Security/Police? The first night one of the other girls tripped and fell off a curb. She cute her head and the Police wanted to call an ambulance and I spent a good deal of time convincing them not too. She's perfectly fine, with just a little bruising. The next time I had an encounter was when we came back late, and Security followed us back to our hostels. Then the next day I tried to go down the outside stairwell, but apparently you can't do that and no one thought to tell me. So I was locked out, and trying to get back in on every floor. (Keep in mind that I live on the 7th floor, and that the 1st floor is not the ground floor) I got down to the ground floor, and still couldn't get out. Then when I called one of the other girls who lives in my building, she told me that she was at the beach, and that I should just run out the emergency exit. Just as I was about to do that, security slams the door open and starts yelling at me in Chinese, demanding to see my passport and acceptance letter. I was ready to cry because the one guy wouldn't stop yelling at me. Once he said all he wanted to say, the other guard lead me inside and took my name down, so now I'm on a list somewhere.


But I have been having some pretty awesome times outside of locking myself out of places. A huge group of Lingnan students took a bunch of us exchange students out to a hot pot dinner which is where you put whatever you want in this boiling water in the middle of the table and everyone eats, a little bit like fondue. We took a lot of pictures, and I made a huge group of friends. I even tried octopus ball stuffed with pork and it was damn good- this coming from the girl who never eats seafood. It was such a fun night.

We've also been taken out in smaller groups by the International Buddies who are Lingnan students who volunteer to look after/help exchange students. Our guides, Sofia and Bobo took us down to the ladies market in Mongkok and Avenue of Stars where the statue of Bruce Lee is. I took plenty of pictures of Bruce Lee too, because, lets just face it, he is the man. Bobo and Sofia, my guides, even helped me to pick out a cheap cell phone. I made my first attempt at bargaining on the street and I did pretty well. Granted that it was just for an alarm clock, but I am still pretty proud of myself.

The other day Megan and I spent all day on Lantau Island, and I am in love with the place. Lantau is the island where the world's largest outdoor bronze Buddha is. And let me tell you, it is freaking huge! First you have to walk up all these steps, because everything in Hong Kong is on the side of a mountain, and then Buddha just towers over you. On the platform there are other smaller statues that are just as beautiful. We picked a beautiful day to go because it was slightly misty, and since its all on the top of a mountain, the clouds come rolling in and its just so lovely, quiet, and still. You get the feeling that you are the only person in the world. The Po Lin Monastary is on the mountain as well, so we headed over there for lunch and also more picture-taking. I acidently walked into a courtyard that I shouldn't of, and some monks looked very surprised to see me. They just smiled and pointed me in the right direction. I also took some pictures of the gold Buddhas inside the temple, and then I saw the sign about no picture-taking. So as of now, I am probably going to Buddha-hell for that one. There were flowers everywhere, and incense burning in big metal containers.

After the monastary, we took a short walk up a side of another mountain to the Wisedom Trail. The Wisedom Trail is sutras carved on giant logs and erected in the symbol for infinity. The logs that they are carved on are so big that I can't even get my arms around one side. We walked around it and up to the very top of the mountian it sits on. The clouds kept rolling in and the path below us was getting hard to see through the clouds. It was just amazing. We managed to spend all day on the island and I took about 135 photos. (All of the good ones are online) Then it was back on one of the craziest bus rides I've ever been on, and another hour back to school.

Yesterday was spent at Ocean Park with Megan, Ashley, Jessica, Christine, and our guides Carol and Pamela. Ocean Park is a combination zoo, aquarium, and amusment park. Its also the place in Hong Kong where the only pandas are. They only have 2 pandas in Ocean Park, and I took lots of photos of them both. They have some crazy rollar coasters there as well. My favorite was the one that drops you from about 10 stories and then bounces you a couple of times. We also saw the dolphin show and the bird show. Ocean Park has a great aquarium, and I got plenty of pictures there too. While we were in the aqaurium a sea turtle sawm up and bit one of the sting rays. Thats one mean sea turtle! We also had to take a tram car across a mountain to get to the other side of the park. It had such a gorgeous veiw. Almost everywhere in Hong Kong has a great view of something whether it be mountians or water or both. Its fabulous. On the other side of the park are the pandas and some other attractions. Once again, we managed to spend all day there. Those are my big adventures so far.

Other places I have been:

• Mongkok
• Ladies Market
• Night Market
• Yuen Long
• Central/ Lan Kwai Fong

All I did today was head into Mongkok to do a little shopping and just to get out. The weather kinda sucks today so I really haven't felt like going out. So thats the updates for all my adventures so far. I have dinner at a professors house tomorrow night and I am going to have breakfast with the President of Lingnan this month as well. Apparently in Hong Kong he is a very famous economist. Not my cup of tea, but I am really interested in meeting him and possibly getting some New Year money out of him. Chinese New Year is going to be crazy! I am going to have so many more pictures to share. I miss everyone but I'm not getting too homesick right now. Hong Kong is just amazing right now.