The rest of the weekend!

So Friday morning and afternoon passed pretty uneventfully. I talked to my mom and my dad and a couple people from back home who had just started classes as OSU. In the afternoon, I worked on an assignment and then I met up with Sumana to check out the Taekwando club. We couldn't stay long so we just watched them. There were about 30ish people there and they were doing drills for the first 20 minutes. It seemed pretty intense with some crazy drills. Everyone was sitting in a circle with their legs spread, and touching and then one person would jump up and jump with both legs together over other people's legs in a diagonal, back and forth pattern. After that person had gotten about 3 people away the next person would jump up. Once you got around everyone's legs you had to sit back down really quickly and spread your legs so that the person behind you would be able to jump over your legs. They did this a couple times. I thought it was really cool and it would be cool to become active in an organization like that but I am not sure that I want to go because practices are twice a week for 2.5 hours (Tuesdays and Fridays) and I already know of around 3 or 4 of those days that I won't be around for because of traveling and things like that. So after we stuck around there for a couple minutes, we went to go meet up with Sumana's committee members (for Exchange Activities Board) and I helped them begin to plan and helped them make attempt at mooncake making. Mooncakes are eaten on the Mid Autumn Festival day (which is coming up) and in honor of that the EAB decided to have a Mooncake Making event on tuesday (tomorrow!) which I offered to help with. I guess I can't get away from my event planning-ness. Maybe I should go into that for the rest of my life. Its definitely fun.

Anywho I was with them for about 3-4 hours and then I met up with Ray, who was hanging out with his neighbors. One is Brian from Vancouver and the other was India from...you guessed it...India! They were all hanging out with some of Indi's friends. I walked in and I got the "Are you Indian?" question. Ummm. Yes, I am? Do I look Mexican or Spanish or something? Of course I am! Bahh. Anyway..I can't remember all of their names but they seemed pretty cool. I am sure I'll be seeing them around sometimes. Maybe we'll hang out or something.

I ended up talking to Ray for the rest of the night and he was telling me about his speech competition the next day! He was doing impromptu speaking against other UST students. Definitely brought me back to my Forensics days and I got to thinking about all the amazing times I had with the team and Ben and..everyone. We called it a night and I went back to my room and I talked to my mom for a little bit.

Saturday came around and I met up with Ray for lunch to help him prep for his competition. I gave him random words and I had him try and bring around some meaning from them. He was asking me about how to go about relating it to something important or meaningful and I told him about how in high school, my friend Ravi would have like three introductions that he would go to for extemporaneous/impromptu speaking. One was something relating this when he was younger and then another was a more educational intro etc etc. I gave him tips about relating it to being an exchange student, his potential desire to work here after he graduates among other things. I hope it helped. I left him and went back to my room and then went up later to give him some moral support. He did really well. The word that everyone was given was "Flat." One girl talked about how her parents told her that her face was flat when she was younger but then brought about how she doesn't need to go by that..she can be herself and as long as shes confident in herself then she would be fine. This guy named Jack, who has won in years previous, talked about globalization (I thought he was a cheeseball..and not that great of a speaker...). Ray talked about how the world is flat and everyone is all the same, wants the same things- a marriage, family, happiness, etc. It was pretty good, I thought. I don't know why he was so concerned, he seems like the type that would be good at this type of thing...and low and behold...he was! There were some other people that also spoke but Ray got third, the girl with the flat face got second and the cheeseball got first (Blahhh).

After that, I got some good studying in and then I met up with some people and we threw this girl from New York, Heidi, a birthday party. I hadn't really hung out with alot of the people that are friends with her so it was good to get some variety in. :) People played Flip Cup and Pong and it was pretty funny to see them trying to play pong with a bottlecap and a couple cups on a round table. I guess they had to do whatever they had to do to make it work? It was funny because the Americans were teaching the locals and non-americans how to play and I thought it was an interesting thing to watch..kinda cool, I guess.

Sunday rolled around and I didn't do much of anything but study. After that, around midnight or so, Sumana, Ray and I went down to the beach to watch the waves. We couldn't go on the beach because the waves were too high so we went arond and sat on the rocks by the beach. It was soo peaceful and amazing to watch the waves. I haven't gone down to the beach and what seems like a while so it was definitely needed. I love it.

Today was pretty uneventful, I went to class and was bored to death and came back, had a peanut butter and strawberry jam sandwhich (YUM) and then fell asleep. I have been getting homesick lately. I don't know why. Its really random moments when I feel like I am missing out on life at home. At times, it really feels like I am going to get back to OSU and Pittsburgh and everything is going to be different and I am not gonna get back in the swing of things. People are going to have moved on and have been doing their own thing..which I'll have no idea about. Its an awful feeling and I am trying to get rid of it..but its been a really trying experience trying to forget about things like that. I am sure everything will work out but I have just been realized how difficult of a reverse transition it'll be..especially with trying to find an internship for the summer..and not knowing what to do the internship in. I guess I'll try and take it as it comes.

Not to be a debbie-downer... soo the rest of my day was pretty uneventful. I did finance homework and then met up with Chris (local) and Ray for dinner. Chris wanted to Ray to teach him some Wrestling moves so they did that in the lobby and people kept looking at them funny but I think Chris really enjoyed learning. Chris showed us some Wing Chun moves and how punching is the main mode of power (kicking to a lesser extent and mostly to the knees). It was pretty cool.

Anyway, I think I am gonna go watch a movie now..I'll post again soon.

P.S. I think we are going to get our Beijing tickets tomorrow! I AM SUPER EXCITED! :D

"I saw the word 'Taxi' and I thought it said 'Taco'": Our Journey to find Mexican Food

So after my relatively stressful day of attempting to find a place to go, breaking my fast and trying to keep up in my classes, Thursday came around and Sumana, Evan and I decided that we were going to adventure on over into town and wander around in hopes of finding an Indian store and a Mexican restaurant.

After class, we gathered decided to eat lunch and rather than eating the normal cafe sandwich or some sort of thai/chinese/japanese rice dish we decided that we were going to attempt to concoct something that tasted indian! Admittedly, it was more rice but this time it tasted even better! First we went to one of the canteens, and Sumana and I attempted to ask for steamed rice. We should have known better to ask a local student how to pronounce it in Cantonese but, of course, we didn't think that far ahead. We were definitely struggling so this man that was behind us in line tried to help us. He mistook what we wanted and told the lady that we wanted fried rice and when she said they didn't have any at LG1 we were very confused. We told the man that we wanted steamed, white rice and he gave us a funny look that seemed to say, "Really?! You only want white rice? You are crazy" but went on to tell the lady anyway. She asked us how many we wanted and we said 5 and the guy behind us did a double take and sputtered a little and said "You want 5?! Wh-" He thought better of asking us and Sumana and I just burst out laughing. Clearly this is not a typical request that people make.

Anyway, we got our 5 boxes of rice and headed back to Sumana's room to prepare our lunch. Sumana's mom had given her this tomato paste that you just add to already cooked rice so we told Evan to come over and the three of us had some really, really tasty tomato-indian-like deliciousness. We talked for a while and then headed out to grab the minibus to take us to the MTR station. We didn't really have any idea where we wanted to go and didn't take any addresses of the Indian stores or anything. We vaguely remembered where it was so got off at the Tsim Sha Tsui exit and walked out of the Exit that heads toward our favorite juice stand. We started walking in a direction that I thought I remembered seeing on the google maps but had to turn around and walk down the other way. No problems, after finding "1/F , A1 Friends House" we had finally found the Maharaja Indian Emporium!

Let me just tell you that this Indian store was unlike any other that I have ever been in. The entry was a bunch of random sacks, there were boxes all over the place, nothing was organized at all. The aisles were TEENY. There were boxes that were blocking the products and the people that ran the store's desks were a complete MESS. I wish I had taken a picture of the store because a picture wold be worth so much more than I could ever explain. We were browsing the sections and we found random types of instant noodles. They had spicy vegetable (pretty standard), Manchurian (not what I expected..and then Pani puri Cup noodles (WHAT?!). For those of you that may not know, Pani puri is a type of indian snack where you have a puffed, lightly fried dough and you put spiced water (at the very least, most people put different types of cutney's and little pieces of potato etc). I definitely did not expect to see that in noodle form so I decided to buy one of each kind. We got up to the counter and the man would not let us by the pani puri one because it was expired...just our luck. Anyway, just as we were leaving, we saw a man in the other room that was buckling up his belt and adjusting his pant and kind of gave us this deer-caught-in-headlights look. Probably not going to go to that Indian store again....

So we left that shady area and decided to hop back on the MTR and head to a random a MTR station that we hadn't really explored. We ended up at Admiralty (right near Central) and got off and wandered around there where we were able to see the Bank of China building turn from day to night. It was pretty cool. Evan was really excited because the Bank of China building is his favorite building in Hong Kong and we were pretty close to it so he went crazy with his fancy-schmancy camera, as I am sure someone else I know will do when he gets to Hong Kong. :) Anyway, we walked along the roads and ended up towards the IFC building (also really cool) and we went into the Mandarin Oriental Hotel. It was funny because you could see all of these older adults, in their fancy clothes and then here we are, a bunch of early 20somethings in our flip-flops and tshirts (Evan with his camera around his neck), waltzing in and wandering around the lobby. We ended up sitting on the sofas and admiring the artwork. After a while, we asked the concierge about Mexican food (after all, that was one of our main purpose' s in adventuring). He gave us these relatively expensive locations that we were not planning on going to (probably because he was under the assumption that we were staying at the hotel and therefore would pay astronomical prices for our food...haha..righttt). Anyway, we did not remember the address of the restaurant that we wanted to go to, El Taco Loco, but we improvised. I kind of new the general area (near the mid-level escalators) so all we had to do was make our way over there. We walked through the Lan Kwai Fong area (Bar District) to get to the Soho area and Hollywood Road, where the escalators start. I hadn't ever been to the LKF area so it was kinda neat to see all the lights and the different types of Bars (THERE ARE SO MANY) and all the crazy dressed up people. Anyway, we maneuvered our way over to the escalators and I, purely by chance, spotted the words "El Taco" on the side of a building a little ways up the escaltors. SUCCESS!

We ate our glorious mexican food (not the best I have ever had but I can't ask for much seeing as I am on the other side of the world). It was a pretty small place, with only about 7 tables. You ordered at the counter first and if you were dining in, they would come serve it to you. After dinner we didn't want to head us just then so we decided to continue our adventure up the escalators, all the way to the very top. Let me just tell you that we were probably going up escalators for about another 15-20 minutes. They were never-ending! It was so definitely a hyserical experience with a stop at the local Park n' Shop (grocery store) where we saw ice cream tubs that were about 3 inches tall and about 2 inches in diameter. Smallest tubs ever! Obviously we took some pictures and then headed back up the escalators. Once we got to the top, we discovered.....nothing. There was nothing up there! We saw a sign that said that there was this pretty cool cathedral where you could take pictures so we trekked over there but we never found it. We ended up walking down this steep hill, around all of these crazy curves for another 15-20 minutes just get back down to the LKF area. We walked around there and then decided to head back to the MTR station to get back to campus because we had already been out for about 7 hours! We got back to the station and then back to campus around 11:30. It was definitely one of the best nights so far. I am sure that we will do it again soon.

I'll post about the next couple days in a different post..haha. This one is getting kinda crazy.

I guess I'll be in Hong Kong...

So after a bunch of scrambling and completely hectic and stressful attempts at planning trips it looks like, as of right now, that I will be here, in Hong Kong for the long weekend. I am a little bummed about it because I really wanted to utilize this long weekend to travel but it doesn't look likely with prices being shot through the roof. I am a little upset but I think it'll be okay. I mean, really though, I am in Hong Kong! How is that not awesome?
I think it just feels weird because a lot of people I know are traveling...like a lot of people. And I haven't even made one trip yet? Its a little frustrating but I think I am definitely, for sure, no doubts about it going to Beijing to visit Elizabeth October 22-27 no matter how expensive it is. Maybe I'll try and get a standby ticket or do something cool like take a night train from Beijing to Shanghai and spend the day in Shanghai and then fly back to Hong Kong. Who knows. All I know is that I want to do something exciting. But I guess this entire four months in a completely new environment, studying new things, meeting new people, learning about a new culture should be exciting enough and yet, its not.

Anyway, that has really been the last few days. I am still fasting and I'm still alive so no worries there. I think I might end up breaking my fast today. Its alot harder here, for some reason-probably because I am not with anyone else that is also fasting or anyone else that understands Navratri or wants to go to a Garba with me or celebrate how Gujaratis celebrate or really understand my desire to do this. I have always had someone around that gets it and sometimes is also fasting. Normally its my mom, in Pittsburgh, along with my friend Neha that understands why I fast and when I am in Columbus, its my friend Sonya (and my brother my first year) that truly understands and fasts with me. I guess I have kind of already been able to reflect on why I have been fasting. I think, especially here, I have truly come to realize how much my wants are satisfied in an instant. At home, it is so easy to say I want to eat X, Y or Z and I can satisfy that craving whenever I want, for the most part. But here, I can't do that as easily- I can't say I randomly want a bowl of soup (not that I really like soup) because the soup they have here has either fish broth or chicken broth. I can't say that I want any type of variety in my diet because that is just not possible here, especially not on campus, whereas; I have been able to find variety in Columbus and most definitely, at home, in Pittsburgh.

Don't get me wrong, people. I love it here. And it is such a fabulous place and some of the fried rice is really good but I think I would love it, just a little bit more, if I had my own kitchen- but I guess that is why this is an adventure, right?

Where should we go? And We literally missed the Boat....

Okay, since I last posted, I have been trying to find cheap flights to somewhere (anywhere) during the long weekend that we have coming up. Ray and I were looking and he found potentially a flight to vietnam for 1400 HKD. Not a bad deal considering that everywhere else that we have looked has been substantially more expensive and kind of out of reach, in some cases.

We found a site but they didn't have the flight information or anything so we tried calling her and the lady wasn't very nice saying that we needed to fill out this form, online, and then they would give us information and the like. I guess she could not hear Ray at one point and started telling him that this is a waste of time and that she couldn't hear him and that there is no point to trying to talk right now because she can't hear anything. It was kinda rude but really funny at the same time. I am sure many of the people int he world would call this a lack of common courtesy or customer service but I just think it was hilarious.

Anyway, that was possibly the best deal that we found so I really hope that it works out. Otherwise, there is this other group that is going into Mainland China to do some hiking, etc but that trip is way more expensive that I can realistically look into right now, not to mention the gear that I would have to come up with. I don't think I am quite prepared to go on a major hiking, etc adventure right now, unfortunately.
So that was more or less what I was doing Thursday and Friday. I was also looking into flights to go visit my friend Elizabeth (American Univ) in Beijing during the last weekend in October. I am looking into Shanghai Airlines but I tried to call them to find out prices and the like and I couldn't get through for some reason. I'll try again today and tomorrow, for sure.

On Friday night, Evan, Kyle and I were supposed to go on a dinner cruise thing with some fellow OSU students that had come to Hong Kong for approximately 10 days. We were running slightly late because we were wating for buses and trains and left slightly too late to get there at the 7:15 meeting time. We got out of the train at around 7:30 and the new plan was for us to take a taxi to Hong Kong Pier. Well, we got out of the train station and hailed a taxi, only to realize that none of the taxi drivers new what we were saying so we kept having to get out. We saw a man dressed in a suit and automatically assumed that he spoke English, so we asked him if he could write out the characters on Kyle's iPhone. He fandangled his way through the iPhone apps and wrote out the characters and then offered to help talk to the taxi driver. Awesome. We got to the pier around 7:50 and we immediately called the woman from OSU to help us find the boat. She tried to give us directions but I am not sure she, herself, knew where she was so we were left to ourselves to find it. We ran up and down the pier and finally at 8:02 we called and asked if the boat had left. The woman laughed a little and said yes and told us to have a nice night. Not quite the response we were expecting but oh well. I wish she had given the phone over to one of the OSU grad students that are also studying in Hong Kong so that maybe they would have been able to give us a little bit more insight as to where the boat was. Oh well. Kyle, Evan and I watched the light show (absolutely gorgeous) and then went to dinner at Shakey's Pizza, where I had eaten my first full day in Hong Kong, Evan and I high-tailed it back to UST, met up with Sumana and watched "The Gods Must Be Crazy" thinking that it would extremely, extremely funny (or so said the cover). It really wasn't that funny but we had a good time anyway.

With Saturday, came Navratri and the start of my 8 day fast. I wasn't sure if I was going to fast while here, in Hong Kong since I feel like I haven't been eating all that healthy in the first place but I decided that I would go ahead and do it anyway. I stocked up on Fruit after I woke up and sat with Sumana while she ate her lunch, after which; I went back to my room to get some work done (as if that ever actually happens). I sat around, maybe read about 5 pages in my psych book and then called my mom at around 5:45 because I knew she would be at work by then. I talked to her for awhile and then called my grandfather, who is in India and then met up with Sumana to go up to the cafe to get a dose of potato before we headed out for the night. We met up with Ray, Sungwon Jenny (Penn), Jenny (somewhere in California), Jane (somewhere in California) and Kelvin (Not really sure) in the atrium and went into town where we met Yannie (local), Chris (local) and Janice (local). While they went to go grab something to eat, Sumana and I went on an adventure to find a bank that she could use her Bank of America atm card at.

We finally found it and then headed back to the MTR station. We had about 15 minutes to spare so Sumana and I went to a juice stand that we knew of to get freshly squeezed juice. Absolutely amazing. I think that is what I will miss most about Hong Kong- the juice. Its only 12 HKD for about 10 oz worth of amazing juice. This time, I got pineapple juice and my goodness was it to die for. I really wish they had fresh juice stands in the US (that didn't charge an arm and a leg).

After getting Juice we met up with the rest of the group and they all went to get drinks (I still had my delicious juice) from the 7-11 and then we made our way to the water front and started a game of Kings. The area that we were at closed around 11 so we went and found a different spot and continued the game. At around 11:30, Sumana, Yannie and I decided to head out so that we could grab the MTR. After we reached Choi Hung station we we went outside to get the minibus to get back to campus and the line was sooo long! Sumana and I repeatedly thought about getting a taxi and once we decided to these two UST people from behind us wanted to share a taxi. I tried to hail a taxi but the two taxis that I saw were empty were not for hire and did not see me. We ended up waiting long enough that the minibus showed up and then as soon as I was about to get on the bus I saw an empty taxi for hire. Just my luck. Haha. Sumana and I got on the bus and one of the guys from behind us did. One didn't. Just his luck.

Anyway, its Sunday now and day 2 of my 8 day fast. I am doing pretty well (second day is normally the hardest for me) and I am about to sit down and start my finance homework and studying. My first midterm is a 2 weeks from tomorrow. Initial freak-out begins.

Have a good night and hope all is well!

TYPHOONS! and Why don't I have travel plans yet?!

So I haven't posted since Sunday or so and not much has really happened since then except a typhoon and some random attempts and confusion at making travel plans (oh, and some studying as well).

On Monday, the typhoon signal was raised to level 3, which means stronger than normal winds. Monday evening, the signal was raised to level 8 which essentially means that the entire city just kinda stops. The school kept us posted on level changes and what would be affected (pretty much everything). Once the level was raised to 8 the dining halls closed, the administrative offices closed, classes were canceled and you were supposed to stay inside. A level 8 Typhoon is essentially a tropical storm or a pretty severe thunderstorm Of course we have had these storms in the US but they don't cancel classes because of a tropical storm, thats for sure. Here, everything closes.

Of course, Evan and Ray and I went outside to see what the winds were like. We made sure that it wasnt so severe that debris was flying everywhere, and then we went outside (right in front of our hall) and just watched and felt the wind. It was pretty strong and soo much fun. I loved it.

On Tuesday, even though the winds had died down pretty substantially, classes and administrative offices resumed opening hours starting at 2 pm..which means.. NO CLASSES FOR ME! I think its absolutely hysterical that classes were canceled for the potential for high winds and rain especially when everything had calmed down but I guess it makes a lot of sense for locals because many of them live off campus and would not want to make the commute.

It rained for a good portion of the day. Sumana, Vikas and several other vegetarians and I were supposed to meet a local, Perry, in town to eat at a vegetarian restaurant that was in a garden but we got washed out because it was raining pretty badly.

Nothing too eventful has been going on otherwise. I am trying to figure out where I am traveling and when. I think I will be going to Beijing at the end of October to visit my friend Elizabeth who is studying at Peking University for the year and I might try and somehow add Shanghai into that trip so that I don't make double trips and get the most out of it. Otherwise, a group of us was planing on going to Vietnam at the end of this month but I guess plans have changed and that group is going to Thailand next weekend and Shanghai for our 4 days weekend. I definitely don't want to go up to Shanghai for that weekend, especially because it is National Day and EVERYONE is traveling into the big cities. Another group is going elsewhere in China and I am really at a loss as to what to do. I feel like I need to start planning trips or I am going to be left in the dust, what with everyone traveling all the time. People are going to the Phillipines and Vietnam and Beijing among many other places even this weekend and I don't even have one trip planned. Ridiculous.

I better get on that. I think thats what I will be doing tonight, along with my Operations Management Homework (and maybe a swim. haha).

Have a good night/day! Miss you all!

Do you think that Alumni care about Football?

After arriving back to campus pretty late last night, I was pretty not happy about getting up at 7am to get to Wan Chai to watch the OSU-USC game. I was really excited for the game, not the time. Diana and I met up at one of the dorms to grab a taxi to a bar in Wan Chai area, where the Alumni had decided that we were going to watch the game. Kyle and Evan (fellow OSU students), decided that they were going to take the MTR to get there so it was just Diana and I making our way over there. Even though, they left before us we still made it to Nana Banana before them.

When the taxi pulled up to Nana Banana, we could see an OSU flag hanging outside of the bar. It was so exciting. For some reason, I just felt so incredibly comforted by the fact that there was an OSU flag outside a window. Definitely a new feeling for me, since I have arrived in this hustling and bustling city.

We went inside and we were greeted by an O-H and I just felt the energy and the excitement and even though it was 8am, I was ready for this game. The game was pretty awesome in terms of most of the opportunities that OSU created..not so much the closure (or lack there of) that we had. Everyone was hyped up-there were probably close to 25 people watching the game, screaming in Canto and in English and "awwing" at the amazing view of 106,033 people in The Shoe, all dressed in Scarlet. I can't tell you how much I felt like being in that stadium right in that moment, when the entire stadium was pumped up and dancing around and screaming and having a great time. I have never been to an OSU game and it looks like I am not going to get to go to a night game during my college career seeing that OSU has had two in the last two years. I bet that also would have been an experience I would never forget.. I wish I could have teleported to OSU for one night and then teleported back to Hong Kong to finish out the rest of my awesome experience. But I felt like that during the Steelers game as well and I am sure I am going to feel like that atleast a couple more times in the next 3ish months.

Anywho, we lost and then Kyle, Evan, Diana and I came back to UST where I proceeded to take a nap and then come online. Now here we are. Back to the daily grind tomorrow...oh boy.

Is this Asia or Europe?

Yesterday, Richard, Anders, Phillip, and Alexander (all from various parts of Sweden), Vinny and Ben (Minnesota), Carmen (Australia) and Sumana and I went to Macau to satisy what many people say a necessity if you are studying/living in Hong Kong.

Macau is a former Portuguese colony that is now a SAR (Special Administrative Region), like Hong Kong, of China. That means that they are more autonomous is economic matters and do have a chief executive and their own currency etc etc but are covered by China in terms of dimplomatic and security concerns. Which also means that with a few exceptions both Hong Kong and Macau have separate laws about just about everything (separate from mainland China).

Let me try and describe Macau to you. On the one hand you have this beautiful old-school European/Portuguese architecture and on the other hand you have Chinese and Cantonese characters lined up on the buildings (including the Casinos) and Asian people walking the streets speaking to each other in a combination of Portuguese and what I think was Cantonese. It was pretty awesome and yet confusing but such a beautiful place.

Anywho, we left our dorm about 8:40 and I realized that I forgot my Passport so I went back to my room and when I got there, I realized that I didn't have my key. The others went on to have breakfast and I met them up in the atrium where we met another pretty big group of exchange students heading off to Macau as well. We left UST and took the MTR to the China Ferry Terminal where we boarded a ferry to get to Macau. The ferry ride was kinda turbulent because the waters still hadn't calmed down from the typhoon but we made it to Macau and really didn't have too much of a plan.

As soon as we got out of immigration and into arrivals, we were pounced on by a tour guide that wanted 150 for all 9 of us to travel around for a good 4-5 hours. We got him down to 100 HKD per person to take us to lunch and then for a 4 hour tour type thing but some of the Swedes didn't want a tour so we ended up hoping on a bus and taking it to a market area where we were able to grab a lunch and then walk around. We ended up at the Ruinas de Sau Paulo and took some time to admire the view and the area. It was definitely really pretty. I could have stayed in that area for much longer just admiring the scenery and, of course, people watching. I'll post pictures up soon, I'm sure.

After wandering that area, we walked ourselves over to the Casinos (Macau is known as the Vegas of Asia) and we went into the Wynn and played. I played 10 cent slots and ended up winning 35 Hong Kong Dollars. And then I stopped. Haha.

We left the Casino to get dinner, which lasted about an hour and a half and then we went over to the MGM Grand overlooking Macau Tower and the water to watch some fireworks. After the fireworks we made our way back to the Macau Ferry terminal and came back to Hong Kong. A pretty good day.

Typhoons, Steelers Game and Cards

Thursday afternoon and evening the area of Hong Kong was under a a Level 3 Typhoon Warning. Essentially that means that it was really windy, probably going to rain and the waves would be really choppy. Obviously, that means that a bunch of exchange students should go down towards the water to watch the waves. Sumana, Ben and I went down to sit on a ledge, near the boat ramp that overlooks the sea and the rocks. When we first got there we were walking by the stone ledge when a wave hit against the side and splashed over onto the concrete that we were standing on. It caught us by surprise but was definitely really cool. We got up onto the ledge and the waves were a little choppy but the water level was a good 7 feet below us and the waves weren't too violent so we decided that it would be safe enough to sit and watch. It was really windy but really awesome to see the waves in that type of weather. I definitely have never been on the shore that close to any type of stormy weather or typhoon like winds so personally, I thought it was absolutely amazing.

I was talking to a couple other international students and exchange students today and I think you would be surprised by the number of people that were actually wishing the typhoon would hit so that they could experience what it would be like because many of us have never been any type of situation like that. I am not going to lie, a little part of me wanted the typhoon to come a little bit closer to Hong Kong.

After about an hour, Ben, Sumana and I called it a night, caught a crab, showed it to a friend of ours and then dispersed to our halls. I went to sleep pretty early so that I could get up and watch the Steelers take on the Titans, early Friday morning. At first, I couldn't get any of the online streams to work and I was watching it on ESPN Gamecast but I was really, really disappointed and frustrated so I tried to stream it one more time and it worked! I mean, it was definitely freezing alot through the game, but it was better than watching the plays on Gamecast. It was an intense game and as usual, the Steelers took it to the last second and then overtime. Definitely a nail-biter to the finish but we pulled out a win and I was thoroughly ecstatic. I don't think I am going to be able to watch any more games in their entirety until December which is really, really depressing for me (which I am sure many of you know). Oh well, I am sure I'll try and catch bits and pieces of games as much as possible.

After the game, I ended up showering and doing homework and then going to an orientation for my Living Learning Community, iVillage. This community is for students interested in learning more about other cultures though meeting people from those areas as well as participating in different activities. Definitely a perfect fit for me. I have met a bunch of people that have gone to International Schools and thus have an IB education. Awesome. Common ground for everyone. We ended up talking about different activities that we all want to do during the year and then dispersed.

Soon after, Richard (Sweden), Vinny, Ben, Sunil (Texas), Sumana and I played a card game called dukhad that one of Sumana's friends from back home taught her and then a couple rounds of Rummy. Definitely good fun and good people.

That brings me to plans for tomorrow. We are going to Macau! I am super excited. Macau is a former Portuguese colony that is now a Chinese SAR region. It takes about 30ish minutes to get to the Ferry terminal and then about an hour to an hour and a half to get to Macau by boat (about 20-30 USD one way). Apparently, we are leaving around 8:45 from campus and staying until after the fireworks (around 9, I would think). So excited. I will make sure to post pictures.

Oh, and then Sunday I will be waking up bright and early to go with some fellow OSU students down to Wan Chai to watch the OSU-USC Game with some OSU Alums. This is going to be a pretty great weekend. :)

Have a good weekend and GO BUCKEYES!

Travel Agencies!

So today, Ben, Ray, Kevin (UC Riverside), Sumana and I went into Mong Kok to find travel agencies so that we could figure out what deals would be good and where would be a good place to go. We went on a hunt to find a travel agency and after wandering around Mong Kok and asking several people we ended up at Bank Centre, where the 3rd, 4th and 5th floors were all travel agencies. We split up and found some package deals (Flight and Hotel) to a bunch of different places including Mainland China, Ho Chi Minh City, Phillipines, Malaysia, Thailand, Korea, Japan...among others.

I think we are deciding between Ho Chi Minh City and Thailand for our first long weekend. It looks like it will be between 1000 and 1700 HKD or 125 to 200 ish USD for a 3 to 4 night stay inclduing airfare. Not bad.

I am super excited and I have no idea where exactly I want to go besides the standard.. Anywhere so long as I can see the world..

More later. Goodnight!

Swimming, Studying and Bargain Shopping!

Sunday passed without any major happenings. I went to the library and got some studying done and ate dinner with Sumana, a Sweed named Richard and a couple guys from Minnesota (Ben and Vinny) and Chris (local). We had dinner and Ben was telling Sumana and I about their Saturday adventures when they went camping on an island with a bunch of other exchange students. It sounded like a really fun time.

After dinner we went swimming at the outdoor pool. It was a full moon and it was such a beautiful night with warm water and the lights from the buildings in the background. So nice. I felt like I was at a resort and not on a college campus but I have gotten that feeling a lot since being here.

Monday began my classes again and I was definitely not ready to go back to the daily grind so after classes I went swimming again and then Sumana, Sungwon (S. Korea) and I went into Mong Kok to get goggles, a beach towel and sunglasses. Bargain shopping is so fun. I really wish we had more bargain markets in the US because I definitely had so much fun negotiating prices with the ladies that worked in each stall.

Sumana bargained for our sunglasses and I bargained for the beach towel and a wallet that I really liked. The lady wanted 150 a piece for our sunglasses and Sumana got her down to 80 for both of ours. A different lady wanted 160 for the wallet and I got her down to 45. She definitely was not happy which I guess is a good thing for me? But I felt a little guilty about it.

We had a fun time in the city and came back to campus and had lunch at the coffee shop with Ray (Penn) and started studying again for classes.

Tuesday and Wednesday haven't been that exciting I have been trying to catch up in my readings and also enjoy myself as well.

Today, Ben, Vinny (Minnesota), Ray, Sumana and I are going into town to see if we can find a travel agent that we can find a deal with so we can travel to maybe Vietnam or Thailand or something. I'll let you know how it goes!

Thanks for keeping up, if you are. I hope all of you are doing well!

Miss you!
Neesha

Stanley Market, Victoria Peak and Mong Kok

So, I have been meaning to write this post for a couple days now. Seeing as I am getting behind, I figured I would go ahead and do so while I am not studying.

On Saturday, I met up with Sharon in the library and we headed to our meeting point with the rest of the business exchange students. There were a ton of people and I got to meet a couple more people through Sharon's friends and she got to meet some more people that I am friend's with. We had a light breakfast (mostly fruit) and then we got on the bus to go to Stanley Market where we would be able to go to the beach and walk around the market. The bus ride was 45 minutes to an hour in a different direction than I have been used to for the week and a half prior to this trip. We went through the mountains and hills and had some of the most amazing views. I think I might have captured a couple okay pictures, which I will post on picasa or facebook or something soon. To get to Stanley market we went winding around these mountains, past Central, past Ocean Park and Disneyland and through these sea-side towns that reminded me of the bus ride from Nice to Monaco where you see nothing but beautiful towns, buildings, winding roads, sea and mountain views.

We got off at Stanley Market and immediately tried to find a place to eat Lunch. After a pretty ridiculous search for relatively cheap vegetarian food we ended up at this pseudo Indian restaurant where Sumana and I split some Roti and a psuedo indian spinach dish. It wasn't bad but nothing like India or home but then again I am in China so I probably shouldn't compare things like that.

After lunch Kenbo (Sumana's buddy), Sharon, Sumana and I walked around the markets and found little things that we thought would be good gifts to people back home and potentially cheaper there than in Mong Kok.

An hour and a half later we got back on the bus and headed over to Victoria Peak to see the view of the skyline and spend the rest of our night wandering the city and into Mong Kok.

We got to the peak about 30 minutes of more winding, hilly paths and great views and we went up to the look out point to see the skyline. It was gorgeous. High-rises everywhere and in the middle of the city was the harbour. I don't think I have seen anything like it. I'll post a picture or two here and then you go see the rest on picasa, if you wish.

We took a bunch of pictures and I found my OSU friends and we took an O-H-I-O picture (completely necessary) at the top of the peak. There were definitely a bunch of people standing around us trying to figure out what we were doing.

After Victoria Peak, we headed down to Central on the Peak Tram (Most steep incline/tram ride I have ever taken! I highly recommend it.) and headed towards the MTR station to take a train under the harbour and in to Mong Kok to look around and see the markets (and take some night pictures).

We found a Thai restaurant to eat at (more Rice) and then walked around the markets. After checking everything out, and making a purchase we ended up at Hui Lao Shan, a famous desert restaurant in Hong Kong. They serve all sorts of deserts with really fresh fruit on them. I got mango ice cream with fruit on top. Probably the best desert that I have had while here.

After desert, we walked back to the MTR station and then took the minibus back to campus. Definitely a great day!

Nothing too terribly exciting

I don't have classes on Friday so I have a feeling that I am going to be doing alot of sleeping in. Last night (Thursday night), Sumana (Northeastern), Ben (Minnesota) and I went down to sit on a ledge that over looks this rocky beach area around high tide. I can't even describe to you how amazing it is to even have access to a beach at all let alone on campus. Its just crazy to think that I could be going to school right next to the sea. Amazing.

I ran a couple errands around campus and a couple of us ended up eating at this bistro that had a pretty decent buffet. They western and eastern food. They had a bunch of different types of mousse and chocolate fondue as well. Delicious. It was a little bit pricey but that may have been the first legitimate meal that I have had on campus as of yet. Definitely a nice change.

Anywho, we had a Hall dinner thing today so I got to meet a lot more people from around the hall. Everyone seems really nice, hopefully they continue to be nice over the course of the semester.

In the evening, Sumana and some Singaporeans that we met went to check out Kowloon area. We ended up walking around a mall here and all of the stores were definitely really high end. Not my kind of style, for sure. They had some cool stuff but I feel weird coming all the way here to shop in a mall so I didn't get anything.

Tomorrow the School of Business has set up some sort of program with our assigned buddies. So we are going to Stanley Market/the beach and then we are going to go up to go up to Victoria Peak and then we are free to go whereever we would like. I think a bunch of us were thinking of going to Mong Kok to see if we can buy books from there and then to check out the markets (yay for bargaining!). Hopefully, I get some good night shots from that area and then once I post the pictures, I'll let you all know!

Hope all is well!
Goodnight!

Photos

I figured that it would easier to post pictures on picasa and facebook. You can look at them at either place

The picasa site is...

Neesha's Picasa Site

The same pictures are posted at both sites but there might be a couple extra on picasa.

The campus is really beautiful. I am still finding new, amazing views from campus. I just can't get used to seeing the sea from every where around campus. I am surely going to miss that when I get back to the US.

First two days of Class

So it has been an entertaining first two days of class. The classes here, so far, haven't seemed to crazy for me. Its going to be interesting trying to adjust to a semester instead of a quarter. I keep thinking that I should be done by November but thats not actually true-I won't be done until december something or another. Something I do like about the way they have their finals set up is that I have two reading days before exams start. I guess we kind of have that at Ohio State but its not a specified day its just a regular old Saturday and Sunday. Here, the finals are going to be a week and a half long-definitely not something that I am used to. It looks like I will be taking Introduction to Finance, Introduction to Operations Management, Globalization Studies and maybe Personality Psychology. I decided not to take any other more exciting classes like International Relations in East Asia because it won't help me graduate (I am rethinking my decision to finish all my general requirements in the first two years..oh well, nothing I can do about that right now). I am going to try and audit some classes so that I can expand my East Asian knowledge base. I think I am going to try and go to IR in East Asia or maybe Chinese Heritage or something cool like that.

I think two of my classes are going to have a group project (write a group paper and then make a presentation). Nothing too crazy. Although, in my Intro to Ops Management class, it looks like the final is 70% of my grade. I am definitely not excited about that and it makes me really nervous but I think I am going to try my luck. My other three classes do not have cumulative finals so hopefully that will help me to focus on that final.


Currently, UST has a 3 year track for undergrads to graduate. They are moving to a 4 year track in a few years to coordinate with North America, I believe. Interesting.


My friend Sumana overheard one exchange student talking to her professor in her Financial Markets class about whether or not he believed that she would be okay in the class without too much of a quantitative background. This professor started to go on this spiel about how he hates having exchange students in his class and how he hates Americans/North Americans in his class because our schools are not very good or very well based in a lot of quantitative knowledge..etc etc. This girl turns to him and tells him that she is canadian and he goes to the board and asks her to solve an integral (which apparently wasn't too crazy but was definitely not cake either) and she thought he was joking but he wasn't and he apparently told her not to take the class.
Something about that interaction just rubs me the wrong way. While I don't think that the American education is that great, I also don't think that it is very professional for him to say all of that to student that is attempting to learn something from him. While I don't know that very many exchange students have really come here for a world class education, I do believe that there are people here that really would like to learn and are very, very intelligent. I definitely don't agree with his methods of bashing all exchange students and all North Americans. I'll keep you posted on any anti-western views that I find.

Speaking of something interesting that a professor had said...I was sitting in my Intro to Finance class and the professor is a local that studied and worked in the US and she asked Evan (OSU), Sunil (Texas) and I where we were from after she asked whether or not anyone has been to California (thats where she worked). Evan and I said that we are from Ohio State and she definitely said something to the extent of "California is a little more interesting than Ohio State" and then moved on with her lecture. We all just paused for a second and then looked at each other and laughed..

I think its going to be a very interesting semester.....

Food

I thought I would give you the 411 on the food situation here. Let me just tell you that it has been an experience so far, trying to find food that I won't get tired of. It is difficult to find vegetarian food here. Which is probably why I am starting to miss the ease of access to veggie food more and more with each passing day. I hope that once I get into a routine, I will find a place where I feel comfortable eating. I really, really hope that that happens. I don't believe that what I will be eating for the next 4 months is going to be very healthy at all. Fried Rice, Fried Noodles over and over and over again. As I told you, Sumana and I have been splitting meals in order to 1) Not waste food and 2) to not waste money. It definitely has been working out but fried rice and veggies and egg in it cannot be a healthy meal. We found this cafe on campus that serves sandwiches and apparently atleast one type of Indian food a day. Its more expensive that your average cantine meal which is around 20 HKD or a little less than 3 USD. I think, I might need to treat myself to that atleast once a week because I am not exactly sure that fried rice is going to sustain me for four months.

I'll give you a run down of the food locations. There is the Cafe which a lot of international students go to. It has all sorts of things like smoothies and muffins and a bunch of different types of sandwiches and fries (which I REFUSE to eat while I am here) and things of that nature. There is LG1 (also called Cantine II) which looks pretty modern and is definitely a nice place to hang out but has just about only meat dishes. During the day, they sell starbucks and serve salads and cakes here too though. And even if you think it doesn't have meat pieces in it, it has fish or chicken broth which is just as bad (I have learned the hard way). Then there is LG5 which has a McDonalds (yuck) and several different lines that serve Thai, Japanese and Chinese style cooking. I have so far been having the Thai style friend rice (with a lot of chili sauce added because otherwise it has no flavor). Its not bad but definitely not something you can eat every day twice or day. Finally LG7 has three set menus that you can pick from. I haven't really eaten there but I do know that in the mornings they serve eggs in a western style. LG7 definitely reminds me of a High School cafeteria the most.

I am really trying to be healthy and I really want to work out while I am here but I am starting to think that unless I find some sort of well balanced nutritionalness its going to be a little more difficult to work out as often as I would like. I definitely feel more tired than I normally do. Hopefully that fixes itself as time goes on.

Monday-Orientation Day!

We had this orientation today. It was the first time that I got to see all of the exchange students in one place. THERE ARE SO MANY PEOPLE! Its unreal. People from all over the world. Every continent (minus Antarctica). It was fantastic. I didn't realize that it was such a large program.

Overall, the orientation was very long but one interesting fact. The University showed us a profile of the Undergrad students and told us that 30% of the UG students don't own their own desk. I don't know why this seems so surprising, because having been to India and seen a little bit of student and family culture there, I should have realized that it would be like that.

They also showed us this video about the MTR and how awesome it is because it has its own song.. Some of you, who may have been to HK recently may appreciate this a little more but its pretty funny..

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=stcomlsP8C0

We got our schedules for our classes and it looks like I am going to need to adjust it a bunch but hopefully it will work out. I am trying not to get too stressed or worried about getting the right classes and making sure that I graduate on time. We'll see. It should all work out.

After orientation, I went to finish all of the errands that got left until today like getting my HKUST student ID card and then paying for my housing and stuff like that. My room is pretty nice. I have an entry door into a common area..and then there are four doors. Going clockwise from the door goes the shower, my room, my suitemates' room and then the toilet. And when you entire my room we have a sink, two mirrors (one over the sink and one full length next to the sink). Two wardrobe type things, two beds (which have REALLY hard mattresses) and two desks. For a small room like this, I have A LOT of storage space. Maybe I wouldn't feel like that if I had all of my stuff though. Who knows.

Anyway, I went to dinner with Carmen (University of New South Wales, Australia), Sumana (Northeastern, Boston), Lillian (OSU student!!!), Ray (Penn, Philly) , Chris (Full time HKUST), and two exhangers that I met in the common room, Ben and Vinny (both from Minnesota). We had a pretty good time comparing our taste in movies and we found that some of the "classics" that people in the US love like Pirates of the Caribbean and Oceans 11 were not liked by Chris and Carmen. There were a bunch of other movies like that but I can't remember off the top of my head. Pretty interesting.

Chris told us, at dinner, that it is possible to rent out a boat of some sort for a day and go out on the water. I think it would be absolutely amazing to see HKUST or the city from the water. AMAZING

If there is a question you want specifically answered you should let me know! Comment or something! About anything... Different words that Aussies say that are different from the US or.. fun things to do around HK (not that I am an expert just yet...)?

Anyway, tomorrow is the first day of classes so I think I am going to get going. Hope everyone is doing well.

Miss you!