...: quick update

It's been a while.

I'm really tired and sleepy (I've had a lot of work to do these past couple days) but I'm feeling compelled to update before I go to bed.

So here goes the past 2 weeks...

last last weekend I went hiking with some friends on Saturday and Sunday. Saturdays hike was to four waterfalls. One of which was closed due to landslides.. but we went to it anyway and made it out alive just fine. The hike was amazing as was the weather. We even climbed one of the waterfalls. I had my converses on (I didn't bring any shoes other than my converses and sandals) so I took them off and climbed up this steep cliff with my socks.. it was great, except that I ruined my socks. Here's some pictures:

We first encountered this tiny almost deserted town before reaching the trail. Note the cute little paper cutout fans hanging on lines streaming down the roof of the buildings.

Water fall #1 - you can't see it too clearly, but its a tiny little one that falls into a small pond

traveling to the 2nd waterfall

Waterfall #2

Aman and I climbing!

This is the view we had after we climbed to the top.. that's Brigitte and Jourdan (from Ohio) down there :)

we also discovered another waterfall above

Waterfall #3

The hike to waterfall # 4 was pretty intense and steep with a bazillion steps. See if you can spot my two friends below..

Waterfall #4

The very next day Brigitte, Aman, and I decided to attend a huge exchange group hike to the Dragons Back, despite being sore and tired from the previous day. We woke up early and met up with 15 other exchange students and took a subway and a bus to our hiking destination. Although the weather wasn't as nice as the previous day, the cloud cover provided a perfect cool temperature for intense hiking. It also kept me from getting tan and having to wear loads of sunblock.. :)

Soon after this was taken I tripped and fell and scraped up my knees. :(

The hike was organized by a guy from Canada who very thoughtfully planned out a way for us to end up at the beach. By the time we got to the beach and had some little snacks from the local beach shops... my body was aching terribly.

There were several surfers out at the beach and a lot of foreigners.

cute surf art I found next to one of the food shops

Last Wednesday Jourdan and I visited sham shui po to check out the fabric tents and look for yarn for our knitwear projects. The tents were really dingy but they had so many fabrics.. it was awesome. Also, if you can... just imagine several old men to the right playing ma jiang.. I ran out of memory to take a picture of them :/.

Oh and before I forget.. when we were in Sham Shui Po... we wondered around and saw a whole nother side to Hong Kong. For instance, we saw a several "fresh" markets. One in particular I can clearly recall. There was this one seafood stand that had small live turtles and other sea creatures you could buy. They also had some fish, which i suspect were extremely fresh b/c they had 2 on the table sliced vertically along the spine so that half of the fish was lying on one side and the other with the head next to it.. and you could see that the heart was still beating. It was kind of sad.. however a friend told me fish don't have a pre-frontal lobe.. or cortex or something.. so they don't actually know they're alive in the first place. We also got lost at one point and a really nice girl who just got out of school helped us back to the MTR station.

So this past weekend I went out to Wanchai and had a really great night out with some exchange kids for someones birthday. They checked ID's again.. and this time two people looked for a long time at mine and 2 friends' id. it was weird. On Saturday Brigitte and I went to the american guys' apartment for Hot Pot with them and their HK "buddies". Their buddies were from Mainland China and full time students at PolyU. It was great to talk with them and ask them questions about China.

Here's a pic of the hot pot we had.. after finished all the food.. i didnt remember to take a picture till after we ate everything.. haha. Also, the guy who bought the food for the hot pot got some crazy things for us to eat.. like frog. It was my second time eating frog.. for some reason it was a lot chewier this time around.

Then we went up to the roof of their building. This time I was able to get some picture. Only it was very foggy that night. Here's everyone.. minus me taking the picture :) Beautiful isnt it?

You can see our school from their roof. Its the big short fat building and the three smaller ones next to it...

You can also see one of the four funeral parlors surrounding our school from their roof. Someone was cremated that night... when the smoke turns black is when its actually happening. I'm probably going to have a lot of badluck from taking this picture...

Here's a random photo of some Philippino dance group putting on a show for a bunch of other philippinos on their day off (sunday). This is just something I saw right when I came out of the Central MTR stop... that and i also saw a woman giving another woman a pedicure.. they were sitting to the bottom right of me when i took this picture.