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.

Tonight was the 2009 Hall Festival.. where all the halls put on a variety show and a fashion contest. I was apart of my halls design team...

This was our Hall

Another hall

the stage

short clip of one of the variety show skits... coming soon.

Random highlights

So I've already started getting lazy with the blog. Here's an update of things I can remember.

Last Last Tuesday 2-3.. or maybe it was monday?
I went to club Cliq for salsa night. Cliq is supposed to be the largest club in hong kong. It was quite fun. Although one of the guys who approached me happened to be a dance teacher.. and started teaching me. It was weird. I didn't like it. So other than that, it was fun and it made me miss dancing!

Last Last Thursday? 2-5
I went to a club in LKF with some exchange kids for a local girl's, who i hadn't met yet, birthday party. It was one of the nicer clubs I've been to so far, i think it was called Nine and it was on the 9th floor. It had a cute litte padio with some.. very provacative statues. also, you had to show your ID before u went in (18+) and no bags were allowed in the club area so you had to pay 30HK to check them in. This wasn't so bad b/c we didnt have to pay to get in (Wednesdays and Thursdays are ladies night). For guys it was 160HK. Anyways, even after all this..about an hour later i was asked my ID again after I was already in the club. Apparently.. I look 17. Not only that but it was a struggle to get my purse back because I couldn't remember the telphone number i wrote down.

Last Last Friday. 2-7
I went with some exchange kids to Stanely, only this time it was just a few of us and we just lounged around the bay area all day for some time in the sun while the weather was still cool.


Last Thursday 2-12
I went to Central with some friends of mine to take advantage of ladies night. During ladies night, all "ladies" get in for free and get free drinks. However, I stayed on the street most of the night, chatting with some friends and getting to know some new people from different places around the world. I had a microwaveable snack at 7-11 around 3am. then around 4am we hopped over to a club that was about to close which had a bunch of older westerners inside. An australian guy we met said it was his last night in Hong Kong and he didn't want to end the night just yet. So a local girl took us to a bar in Wan Chai (21+) but she knew a guy.. so we got in. They were having this event where different bands play from 6pm to 6am. So we had till 6 am. The band was from singapore maybe? anyways, they weren't too bad! they played in interesting set of cover songs.. from popular rap songs, twist and shout, some more oldies, and the killers, to a old German hard rock/metal song. At this bar.. we met 2 kids from Germany. I say kids b/c they looked younger than us. But they were really agressive and kind of scary..trying to get us to go to their place, so.. the end result was us running away from them. half of us caught the Metro, which just opened back up around 6am and the other half caught a taxi back. I opted for the Metro (it was cheaper). Oh and something funny. While we were sitting outside of the last bar these 2 prostitutes walked by and complimented my friend and I. It was sweet, funny, and weird all at the same time.

Club 97 and our free cosmos.. Aman (the boy) drank mine for me.

Last bar ( pretty easy to spot out the old westerners..)

and the band

Last Friday Night 2-13
This guy Mike planned a meeting for the Americans so we could figure out what we were going to at our booth and on stage for Culture Night. Cultural Night is where exchange students have the opportunity to group up with other kids from their home country and share food, performances, and information related to their culture with other students. So far there's 7 of us who have decided to make a USA booth. So we made dinner at this guy's apartment. He lives with 2 other guys from his school (Olin College of Engineering). they split the rent so its about 100USD per person per month. but 2 guys share 1 room .. where one of them sleeps on a windowsill. Anyways, dinner was good and talking to some americans was good. After getting some mochi balls (sweet desert with icecream inside.. u can get it at Trader Joes in the US) they guys took us up to the roof of their apartment. It was amazing. and so scary. It was just a small little platform with a tiny 2 foot wall overlooking the entire harbour. I was going to take a picture of the beautiful scene we had in front of us.. but then my camera battery died :(. We ended up staying up there for about an hour then we had to come back down to earth and go our seperate ways.


Here's us, minus one guy in the kitchen cookin and me taking the picture.. and another girl who couldn't make it b/c she stabbed herslef in the eye with mascara... don't worry shes ok now. We had shrimp spaghetti, oranges, pinneapples, and bread topped off with some fine red wine.

Saturday (Valentines day!) 2-14

I had my first ballroom lesson. A couple I met back in the states from China told me about some Lithuanian teachers they had in Hong Kong, so I contacted them and attended one of their group lessons. It was great to dance again! I was even sore afterwords.. which I guess is a good thing. It wasn't too pricey either.. about 15 USD per person after the cost was split between 5 girls at the lesson. Although, I definitely wouldnt mind if it was cheaper... The teachers were nice. and the guy teacher was completely different than what I expected. He was a giant. The studio wasn't too bad either. Although it took me a while to find it on a tiny busy street on Hong Kong Island.

Afterwords, I met up with my friend Brigitte and some of her local friends and we shopped and ate sushi in the Causeway Bay area. Being Valentines day, I noticed several things.
1. they have people standing around with free hug signs! this reminded me of home.
2. there were tons of people selling flowers.. and girls you could take pictures with..(see picture below)
3. the subway even had little love messages on the little screen where they tell u what stop is next. (hearts and all)
4. a bazillion couples.
5. Valentines day sales!
6. not so happy couples.
7. lots of guys with bouquets of flowers in the morning and lots of girls with bouquets at night.
8. bouquets of flowers with stuffed animals inside...hahha
9. this one couple we saw at the end of the night were standing on a busy street fighting. the girl was crying and yelling at the boy to "just leave" and to "leave her alone" and the boy just kind of stood there.. looking down .. probably trying to consol her ? it was kinda sad and funny. dunno what happened.

anyways.. Happy belated Valentines day!

Flower girls

Valentines day photo set up in the mall. each side had different valentines day inspired seats for you to take pictures in

We were going to go take some pictures in those Japanese photo booths.. but there were so many couples there.. and a really long line.. so we left :/

Valentines Day Dinner (hot pot + sushi)

btw thats sea urchin (the orange stuff on that wooden board sticking out of the bowl).

Our hot pot had soy insed of water! that was a first for me.

Recently...
I've been attending a yoga class thats on the 2nd floor of my dorm. It happens mon, wed, and fri at 8:30pm and the best thing is its FREE.

In order to save some money, I've been trying to buy only 1 meal a day and make the rest myself. I cooked my first meal. (instant noodles with an egg and some vegetables.. it wasn't as good as I had hoped it would be..and the egg tasted funny.)

I discovered these little shops where little boxes are rented out to different people to sell their stuff.

A girl in my class was sporting this necklace.. and kindly let me take a picture of it. Cute rite?

I discovered 3 person rooms in my Residence Halls. They're the same size as the regular rooms... just with 3 beds 3 desks and a larger fridge... also its a lot cheaper. (ridiculous..no?)

I discovered WiFi in a booth.

Oh i almost forgot. Last Last wednesday.. a couple of the halls had a valentines day event where girls were paired with guys and did different activities and games together. It was ok. Only that I didn't know any other exchange students doing it.. and the ones that did.. were in a different group so .. yeah. Here's some pictures.

Romantic decorations + a screen you can't see with pictures of people making out..that was really awkward.

Sweets. (chocolate, cotton candy, tang yuan, fruit juice, mini doughnuts, and some others)

Cute little swing for picture taking.

Game. (who can drink water faster?.. with someone on their back..)

Game 2. (how fast can u take clothes pins off someone and put them on someone else.. blind folded. below is a demo. when we did it.. there was a line of like 8 of us.. and i was blind folded)
Game 3. probably my favorite. Eating contest with a banana, an apple, and noodles. Only they can't use their hands and are being fed by girls who are blindfolded. poor guys.

I had a hard time sleeping last night (i took a long nap during the day yesterday) and I noticed this funny smell. This morning I walked to the community kitchen to make my breakfast (oats) and the smell was all through the halls. Then I realized what it was.. polution.

Pictures + Some Cultural Differences

PICTURES
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Macau

Cheung Chau Island

(Brigette and I with a HK classmate and her local HK friends)

(Giant Fish Ball)

(Famous Fish Ball Noodles)

Kowloon Park

CULTURAL DIFFERENCES
.. just some things I've noticed.. and in no particular order

1. it's fairly clean compared to most other cities I've been to. there seems to be a lot of public service workers who clean the streets throughout the day.
2. not a lot of vegetarian options. (my roommate is a vegetarian.. and she's been finding it quite difficult to find good/healthy food options)
3. Common signs around the city "no spitting" "no hawking" "keep quite"
4. Couples around here like to wear matching shoes or jackets.. etc.
5. In the polytechnic classes majority of the students (if not all of them) are unresponsive when teachers ask the class a question.
6. Many of the students at PolyU talk during class. (I've seen several times a girl talking on her cell phone during class)
7. In my classes, all but 1 of the teachers does nothing active about the chattering and unresponsiveness of the students.
8. It's usually only the exchange students who seem to be more responsive and take the class more seriously.
9. No lying down in a park.
10. actually.. you can't lie down anywhere. but you can sleep if you are sitting. (for instance.. some friends and I were at the star walk and we were lying down on some benches when some one of authority came over and said "no sleeping." We sat back up .. looked around.. and on 3 or 4 other benches there were people sitting, slouched over and sleeping. I've seen people on park benches passed out in a sitting position as well. So sitting and sleeping is OK.. but lying down is NOT OK. Also, another exchange student was at a park lying in the grass when a park ranger told her lying down wasn't allowed in the park. Kind of ridiculous.. no?
10. for the most part people in Hong Kong are friendly and helpful
11. So far HK seems pretty safe. Except this one time I went into the Chungking mansions at Tsim Sha Tsui... and all the exits in the back were to sketchy little alleyways.
12. there are a lot of foreigners here
13. Not everyone here speaks English. however, chances are if you start talking in English about someone in front you..thinking they don't understand.. they probably do.
14. I'm learning about non-verbal communication, attitude, and how to write a resume in my "image styling and Fashion dressing" course. (ok that wasn't a culture difference.. it's just a complaint about one of my classes).
15. Getting a Chinese Visa is more expensive if and only if you are a US citizen. ($130 USD for single, double, or multiple entry) Also, the people who work at the visa office aren't very nice. However, if you are asian.. you are more likely to get a multiple entry visa. I went today and none of my caucasian friends got the multiple entry they applied for. (I got it.. but I decided I didn't want to pay $130 for a visa to china.. so I took my application back)
16. In the Ladies Market at Mong Kok.. once youve seen the shoes being sold under one shoe tent.. you've seen pretty much all the shoes they will have in the other shoe tents. (this goes for almost all the product categories (accesories, hoisery, bags, apparel, etc)
17. At the market.. the price they tell you is at least double. To bargain.. just walk away or.. if they ask you how much you want it for (which they almost always do) you tell them half the original price.. and see how low they'll drop it for u. Make sure you want it.. or else they'll pester you for not buying it and and yell at you for wasting their time (this happened to me.. it's not good being indecisive at the street markets).
18. public restrooms can be pretty gross.
19. Always carry around a packet of tissues with you. (some bathrooms don't have toilet paper. Some restaurants don't have napkins. Sometimes you have to clean the utensils they give you.. it's expected.)

There is more.. but I've got to go meet a friend for a "chocolate making workshop" on the 9th floor Hall. :)

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UPDATE
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Some pictures from the Chocolate Making Workshop
1. Smooth Chocolate
-start with dark chocolate and milk chocolate chunks.
-melt them in a pot
-add cream, milk, and butter
-refrigerate for an hour
-eat (tastes better than it looks !)

2. Chocolate Mousse + Custard

-cocoa powder
-milk and cream
-mix till thick and creamy
-add to Custard (mixed powder + cream)


Oh and I also got a much needed hair cut the other day.
$168 HKD + the words "simple" and "just a trim" got me this:


I was really scared of getting one of those asian mullet hair cuts (i've had it done to me before!) or the "mushroom cut." You could say.. I'm pretty happy with the results! .. pretty much exactly what I asked for. :)