Sunday, June 27, 2010

总是带雨伞 - Always Bring an Umbrella

No matter what, if you are in Hong Kong, bring an umbrella with you.

下雨了 - Rain

It's been awhile since my last post. Not too much interesting has happened since then. It has been raining here nonstop since Friday night. I had class like normal all week. I finally bought a cellphone, so I can finally communicate with friends here. I have my first test tomorrow. It's on 5 chapters that we covered in about 2 weeks and a day. They grade impossible hard here. For multiple choice, fill in the blank, etc it's not bad, but for grammar related questions, you can make one mistake and miss about 6 out of 10 points.

So, I've had my blog title for awhile, and I keep getting a lot of questions about it so here's the meaning behind it. I'll quote Kyle/the James family "the shower represents Hong Kong and that because this is such a good opportunity, but also a huge cultural difference you don't won't to put up barriers and not take all of the chances to experience something new. If you did limit yourself, you would metaphorically be wearing a rain coat." Also Mr. Williams was also close with his guess.

Saturday, June 19, 2010

香港花园 - Hong Kong Garden

Yesterday we went to the Hong Kong Garden. We were originally going to go to Victoria Peak, but it took a little too long to get started, and we decided we'd want to spend the entire day up there doing a bunch of cool stuff. The garden is in downtown Hong Kong about 5 minutes away from the Metro station. It had cool stuff like birds, monkeys, and a few frogs and alligators. The walk to the park was pretty miserable because it was all uphill, and it was ridiculously hot. The weather at the start of the day was sunny which was a nice change from the usual overcast. Surprisingly the sun made the weather more pleasant because it didn't seem like I was in a steam room the entire day.

Wednesday, June 16, 2010

端午节 - Dragonboat Festival

Today was the Dragonboat Festival. It comes on the 5th day of the 5th month on the lunar calendar. I'm not exactly sure the purpose, but an ancient poet/scholar was exiled and ended up drowning himself in a river, and the entire holiday is tied around that. We left here at about 9 to go to Hong Kong Island to watch the races. It was about a two and a half hour journey to finally get to our destination which was far away from downtown. By the time we had gotten there, all the races were over, but the bus ride over was really cool, and there was still a lot of stuff to do once we arrived. We were all exhausted by the time we were heading back.

P.S. post here to try and guess what you think my blog title means. If you guess right, I'll bring you a reward when I return. No kyle allowed...

Sunday, June 13, 2010

Nan Lian Garden

Yesterday, we were thinking about going to Victoria's Peak to check it out for the first time, but there was a lot of fog, so we decided to try somewhere else instead. We went to the Nan Lian Garden which is right in the middle of a really urban area. There was a bunch of cool stuff there. They had a couple restaurants, a tea house, and an incredible Buddhist temple. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to take any pictures of the statues because it wasn't allowed.

After we went there, we went to a Pizza Hut in the mall. Pizza Huts here are waayy nicer than they are in the U.S. Later that night, we went to watch the game in the city, and it was a lot of fun. There were tons of British and American fans all going crazy. I go back to school tomorrow, so I've just had a relaxing day all day today.

Thursday, June 10, 2010

学校 - School

So, school started Monday, and I've been busy ever since. We have class from 9:30-12:50 and then 2:30-4:20. I've had to squeeze in a bunch of stuff in between classes like open a bank account, get things signed, etc. The classes are pretty hard and in all Chinese, but I can definitely tell I'm getting better already. The people in my class are from all over the world. There are people from Japan, Korea, Germany, England, and Canada. This weekend we are thinking about going to Victoria's Peak on Saturday, so I'll be sure to take tons of pictures.

Monday, June 7, 2010

勘探 - Exploration

Sorry for going so long since the last post. I've been really busy, and it almost feels like I made the post last night. So since you've heard from me I've done a lot of exploring. Saturday afternoon, we met four of the CUHK IBCE students. They all seem pretty cool after only talking to them for a little while. After that, me and a couple other friends went to the mall in search of SIM cards or a phone. It was pretty tough to understand what they were saying, since it's a little technical. We then finally found out that you need to have a Hong Kong ID card in order to sign up for a contract which we should be getting soon.

Then, me and Diana went exploring, and we decided to get off at the KowLoon Tong exit. As soon as we got off of the train, we saw Festival Walk, so we decided to go in. It was tons of stores, an indoor ice skating rink, and a movie theater. We explored around there for a little while and decided to go back.

Sunday we met at 11 for a tour of the 沙田 Plaza. This is where we were the night before, but after the tour realized we hadn't gotten anywhere close to exploring the entire thing. We went to a "wet" market where they sell things like live fish, pig snouts, chicken feet, and other stuff like that. I bought a ridiculous Chinese shirt that's white, purple, and orangeish-yellow. We got back from that and immediately decided to try and find a night market. We decided on the Temple Street Market which is about 40 minutes entire trip from our dorms. They have knock-off watches for $5 and signs that make no sense like "Don't fart in the bed". On the way back, we made the mistake of walking along side of the market to see several women of the night trying to find some business. After we got back, I instantly passed out.

Friday, June 4, 2010

到香港 - Arriving in Hong Kong

After several hours of travel, we finally arrived in Hong Kong. Our plane leaving Detroit was a little late, so it added to the already too long plane flight. I had decided to sleep as little as possible on the plane to try and avoid the jet lag... Unfortunately, I still woke up at 5:00 a.m. and couldn't go back to sleep.

We didn't have internet at first and that's the reason for delay in communication. While I didn't get to see all of the city on the drive in, the little bit I saw is incredible. The impression I got is a fusion between New York City and Baltimore, in China.

The campus is on a mountain. It is impossible to go anywhere without walking up or down a hill, but everything is within about a 5 minute bus ride. We're headed to the city for the first time tonight. It was really cloudy today, so there wasn't a good opportunity to take pictures, but there's plenty of time. I've got some pictures of my room and the view from my window that'll be up soon. Farewell til next time

Tuesday, June 1, 2010

一路平安 - Bon Voyage

It's finally here. After months of waiting, I am finally headed off to Hong Kong. This time tomorrow I'll be about 7 hours from the city. Being in the first class of IBCE, I really have no idea what to expect. Everything's going to be great. It's just leaving for so long is going to be strange. So much will change in the next coming months. So everyone, I'll be back in 14 months, and I'll see you then.