My first night in Hong Kong

I finally have internet access in my room now so I can keep up with everything and my interesting adventures, of which I've already had tons. I guess I should start with the plane flight over, which was about 19 hours total traveling time.

Mom and Herman dropped me off at the airport around 4am, and then I took an hour flight to Toronto. When I landed in Toronto I had to go through customs with my luggage. I thought that they were going to pick through my stuff and give me a hard time, but all that is consisted of was "fill out this form, walk over here, carry your bags over here, then get on the plane" I made friends with the woman who drove the airport trolly and she gave me her business card if I ever need a ride again. For such a huge airport, Toronto seemed pretty abandoned. I had a short wait and then I got on my plane to Vancover, which took about 4 hours to do. Vancover was also a huge airport with tons more people. It was about a 20 minute walk from my landing to the gate where my next flight was departing from.

When I got to the terminal, I was definatly the only Westerner there. People were staring at me like I had wandered in somewhere where I didn't belong. It was more than a little surreal. But then there was the 14-hour planes trip, which was a little more surreal. I was still the only Westerner on the plane, and all the movies they showed were dubbed in Catonese with English subtitles. Every hour they would come buy with the duty-free cart and try to cajol people to buy perfume or booze. We also got Cup 'o'Noodles for two of our meals, and of course all the food came with chopsticks. I was hoping to impress all the people on the plane with my super-cool chopstick skills, but I failed miserably when I dropped some of the noodles in my lap. I didn't sleep the whole time on the plane either, because I was told that it makes your jet lag go away quicker if you stay up all night and then just crash the next night. I'm pretty much over my jet lag now.

So fast forward to 14 hours later, when I am ready to kill people in order to get off the plane, and nervous about trying to find the people who are there to pick me up. I was standing in line in the longest customs line and it took about 2 seconds to actually get everything stamped. The offical didn't even check to see if I matched my picture! Christine, (the woman in charge of the International Program), was waiting about 5 feet away with a student named Tim. We picked up a Canadian girl named Sarah and were driven to the University. Hong Kong is so beautiful at night. Its all either mountains, high rises, or the ocean. People here build up, not out.

When we got to the university I was shown to my room by my Hostel Tutor, Garry, who was a little sketchy. I feel the need to stay away from him. He gave me a key to my room, and all I did was unpack. Tim came a knocked on my door to make sure I got in ok, and he tried to help me set up my internet, but we failed miserably. I was introduced to Dwayne, and Seet, and then back on my floor I ran into a girl named Cindy. After I unpacked, I watched a little bit of videos on my computer and crashed around 1am.

As for first impressions, I was perfectly terrified for a while, but the students were really nice and talkative with me. I felt a little bad because I was too tired to carry on conversations with anyone. Everyone is a little shy, but once you get them talking, its all good. My room is on the 7th floor with a great view of the mountain and skyline here in Tun Muen. Its a little bit smaller than the rooms in St. Mary's, but I like how the storage is set up here. My roomate hasn't come back yet, but from the stuff she has on the walls, she looks like a really fun person. My favorite is the poster of some male pop star that is wearing a dress shirt with super furry sleeves. I don't know who he is, but he's wonderful. I had a little trouble with the bathroom door, because they require a numeric code to get in. I felt a little stupid not knowing how to get into the bathroom. It bums me out a little bit that I can't see a lot of start, but the lights at night make up for it. My first night here was allright, the mattress are pretty hard. More crazy adventures to come! I got a cell phone, so if you want to call me you have to do the whole international dialing thing, and then dial 97856910. It will also cost you a bundle, so I expect more love letters than calls, as soon as I figure out what my mailing address is. I am missing everyone terribly, and I will have more pictures up soon.