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. :)

Sun Nien Fai Lok, Gung Hay Fat Choy!

Happy new year and may you become prosperous!

I did quite a bit of walking, traveling, shopping, and eating this week for Chinese New Year break. But before I start recapping.. here's a little bit of last week.

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Our hall had it's semester dinner last Tuesday. This is where all the 7th floor residents were invited to eat dinner in the common area for a fee of 25HKD/ person. Each floor has its own semester dinner. For our floor, the semester dinner wasn't just dinner, but an initiating of the new Hall Association members for the current and and coming semester. It got pretty sentimental (and awkward). Anyways, for dinner we had different kinds of rice pots (rice with pork, rice with ribs, rice with chicken, rice with chicken feet, rice with duck neck.. i think, rice with beef... and so on. Then we played "lucky draw" and Bingo. Lucky me, i was 30 of 40 to win the lucky draw and Bingo. So i ended up with a much needed pair of fuzzy blue slippers (decorated with colorful hearts) and cookies.

The Common Area

Our rice pots..! basically.. the rice pots are supposed to be so hot that u can crack an egg inside of it and it will cook when mixed with the rice.. and the rice that gets burnt along the inside edges of the pot is one of the best parts of the dish. oh and in the middle are our veggies (spinach i think..)

The Xuemin Hall Association (Old Initiating New). The cutting of the pig (yes there's a pig on the table.. an entire roasted pig) is a common celebratory tradition amongst the Cantonese.

Finally we got to eat.. I think my entire table was made up of exchange students.. with the exception of 3 girls.

However, the party wasn't over after rice pots and "mass games." After dinner.. there was dessert :) or.. a workshop on making "sweet dumpling night snack."

Glutenous rice + water = dough

Rice dough + red bean or black sesame seed filling + boiling water = sweet dumpling snack :)

I ate 10+ of these.

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Moving on to Thursday..
there was an exchange student welcome party at the Polyu Residence Halls (this is where i live).
I'd say of the 200+ exchange students.. at least 85% came. We each got a hong bao (red envelope) with one of the 12 different zodiac symbols. This grouped everyone into 12 different "teams" for "mass games." I got a Dragon (which was pretty crazy since the Dragon is my zodiac symbol). We played a bunch of random games.. which suprisingly.. my team rocked at. For one game.. they would put up the beginning of the challenge on an overhead and each team would have to send up who they though would be the best representative for their team.. and then the actual challenge would be revealed.. and then whoever won the challenge (ie. smallest finger, biggest head, etc (these were the actual challenges..)) gained points for their team. I was sent up for "the most flexible..." and the challenge was "waist" and we had to do limbo. I WON.
Here's an example of another challenge.. that we won as well .. :)
Oh and did i forget to mention that the overall first place winning team was the DRAGON team?! As a prize.. we got chocolate and more cookies :) Afterwords.. just about every one of the exchange students went to Lan Kwai Fong to Party (in front of 7-11...)

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This was longer than i thought it would be. Anyways the following is stuff I did over Chinese New Year Break.
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Saturday
I met up with Richie, a family friend from home (who is studying in Taiwan at the moment) for a lunch buffet with his program friends from Taiwan. They came to Hong Kong for their Chinese New Years break. The Buffet was ridiculous. It was in some fancy hotel and cost about 300HKD per person. We were there from noon to 3pm.

I took pictures of my favorite part... dessert.

Strawberry, chocolate, and vanilla fountains....and Yes, those are sticks, strawberries, melons, and marshmallows for you to use in the fountains. After the ridiculous buffet.. we went shopping around Times Square.

Then we ate more food. I mean.. we ate dinner.

fried noodles

forgot what this was called... some kind of noodle with beef.

and of course.. dessert. THIS WAS SO GOOD. I think it was.. glutinous rice balls, red bean, rice, and some sort of pudding and tapioca, and .. i forget the Chinese name for the thing on the right.

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Sunday
Disney Land, Hong Kong (Chinese New Year Special)
I took the Disney Land Resort train to meet up with my family friend from home and his program friends at Disney Land. It was like your average metro.. only all the windows were in the shape of mickey mouse's head and the handles hanging from the upper railings were mickey mouse shaped as well. it was cute.

Disney Land.. asian-ized.


Tea cups!
mini fantasia hats.. :)
Space Mountain!
Winnie the Pooh ride

Overall.. Disney Land was pretty awesome. I had my doubts at first b/c I had heard the Disney Land in the US and Ocean Park (the other theme park in Hong Kong) were both much better than the Disney Land in HK. However, i think if you really have an appreciation for Disney.. you'll enjoy it.

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Monday
in Macau with Richie + friends.

around 10:30am we took a speedy ferry to Macau (about a 55min ride). and the first thing we did.. was catch a taxi to eat at a famous portugese resturaunt on the far side of Macau. (Macau is pretty small so it didn't take too long. fyi: Macau is a mix of colonial portuguese infrastructures and culture, a mediterranean China coast, and mini Las Vegas)

Chicken. (the best)

Pork.
Salad + Portugese style Fried Rice. The tomatoes were so fresh!

After we were completely stuffed, we went to MGM and Wynn Macau Casino to check out the gambling scene. (This was the 2nd time i got carded.. first time was in Lan Kwai Fong at a Club/bar). At Wynn Macau I played slots with a free 100 credits I got from a woman handing out flyers. I made around 8USD (yayy). and lets just say Richie was down..

Then we went to do some site seeing.

The Ruins of St. Paul
Colonial sideMacau Museum - unfortunately it was closed by the time we got there.

we got this great skyline view though!
Snack shop - common in Hong Kong as well

For dinner we went back to Hong Kong Island. We ate ate Richie's friend's uncle's restaurant.

shrimp wonton and noodle soupniu jing (beef tendon) Mmmmm :)

Before parting ways.. we all stopped to eat some ice cream at Haggen daz :)------------------------------------------------------------------------

Tuesday
Tuesday was the night of the ridiculous fireworks show along the harbor. I joined Richie and his friends at one of his friend's parent's place in Hong Kong for Ox tail dinner and the fireworks show. The view from the top of her building wasn't that great so we just watched it on TV... haha. Maybe next time.. i'll make my way over to the harbor to see the ridiculousness of Hong Kong fireworks. here's some google images of the crazyness.
http://images.google.com/images?q=chinese%20new%20year%20Hong%20Kong%202009%20fireworks&hl=en&um=1&ie=UTF-8&sa=N&tab=wi

After fireworks and dessert.. we went to the American Club in the mountains (by Repulse Bay). The American Club was HUGE. I'll try to add pictures that Richie's friends took when they post them.

We also went to the Peak. The Peak at night was as surreal as it was when I went in the day time.

Wednesday = shopping at IFC mall and saying bye to Richie!

Thursday Night = dinner with 2 of Richie's friends who stayed back and his friend's family. We ate at the most famous rice pot place in Hong Kong (near temple street).

rice pots - fyi the spoon is in a hot cup of tea.. for cleansing..

inside one of the pots :)fried oyster pancake w/ chili sauce :)

Its late.. hope u enjoyed the post! I might add more later.