Thanks!

Oh my goodness! What a whirlwind 4 months. How fast and slow time can fly! I cannot believe that I am back home, writing all of these posts. I am in Pittsburgh for a short while before I go back to Columbus to start my next quarter.

I have had the most amazing experience ever and I hope that this blog was able to give you some idea as to how I enjoyed or didn’t enjoy my adventures. There were definitely some ups and downs and some homesickness but that is all part of the experience! I am fairly sure that this is my last post on this blog unless I find something truly noteworthy about my transition back into OSU/American life.

I am truly blessed to have had the opportunity to adventure around Hong Kong and Asia. I met and traveled with some of the most amazing people ever. I have learned so much just by being around amazing people and experiencing so much.

I know that this transition back into life at OSU and in America is going to be a little difficult for me but I know that I have the support of my friends and family and I can’t wait to see some pretty special people. I imagine that I will not feel as though people here will understand exactly what and how I feel about my experiences in Asia but I know that I will always have the people that I met there and some of my fellow buckeyes to understand that. Hopefully, one day I will be able to help others to understand just how wonderful it is to live and study and travel around such an amazing place like Asia. Maybe then I can explain just how wonderful I feel to have had the opportunity to do so.

Special Thanks to the Fisher College of Business at The Ohio State University and Hong Kong University of Science and Technology for allowing me to exchange, all of the friends that I met in Asia for making this experience so wonderful and my loving family and friends in the US for all of their support over the last 4 months to 12 months that I have been involved with this entire study abroad experience. This experience would have been nothing without you and I couldn’t have done all of this without your help!

Thanks for following me through this experience and if you ever have any questions, feel free to let me know! :)

The Last Day and a Half in Hong Kong

Once I landed in HK, I went took a bus to Tung Chung MTR station, the MTR to Lai King, then transferred to the Tsuen Wan line towards Central to go to Prince Edward and then transferred lines to go to Choi Hung.

I got back, dropped my stuff off, showered and then headed back out towards Admiralty Station to meet Evan and Sumana. After meeting up with them, we waited until my brother got to the station and then headed up to Victoria’s Peak to look over the amazing skyline one last time.

Sumana and I had wanted to go up to the Peak at night for over two months. So to be able to do so on my last night in HK.. I couldn’t have asked for much more.

My brother joined us and took a bunch of probably spectacular pictures up at the top of the Peak. We would have stayed up at the top for way longer but we were all freezing so we had to leave a little earlier than we had wanted.

We took the minibus down to Central and then took the train over to Mong Kok where my brother and I proceeded to shop a little bit. I didn’t get everything that I needed to get so we cut out early to meet up with Sumana and Evan at the infamous, amazing desert place, Hui Lau Shan. The three of them got something to eat and then we went back to campus so that we could all start packing to get ready for the next day.

I stayed up pretty late to pack and do laundry and then got up fairly early to get ready. I finished my laundry, folded it up, closed my bank account, got my ID card deactivated, and then ran over to the souvenir shop to get a couple of UST tshirts. After that, I went into town and met up with Elizabeth and her great uncle and Aunt. We went into the ladies market where we bargained some and she helped me pick out some different gift items and wall hangings for my room. After I decided that I didn’t have any money left, we went over to TST and sat at the harbor and talked about a lot of stuff including how she decided to stay in Beijing for a full year and how I felt about going back home. After a good hour and a half of talking and freezing on the waterfront, we met up with her family again and bid farewell to each other. I am sure happy that we got to meet up while she was in HK.

I went back to Campus and started to pack. Sumana came to visit and sit with me while I packed and my brother came in and shortly after Suki and Koko (locals) came to sit with me while I packed. After short time, Ray came to say goodbye and after walking down to the waterfront one last time, I checked out of my room, said “see you later” to Sumana and then got into a cab to get to the airport. I might have had some tears while going back to the airport. I checked into my flight and found out that my bags were overweight so after some fandangling..I got my bags to be just right and went through the Hong Kong Resident’s side of immigration one last time. I got onto my flight and after a quick phone call to my parents to let them know that I was leaving HK, the plane departed and I fell asleep almost immediately. I definitely planned on staying up for the first 8 hours of my flight but that definitely did not work out so well for me.

I slept for about 7/10 hours of my first flight, landed in Vancouver, and then slept for the next 3/4.5 hours of my next flight to JFK. After reaching JFK, I proceeded to stay up all day and evening all the way. I think I was able to limit my jetlag that way and am so happy for that.

When I landed in Pittsburgh, I couldn’t help but feel mixed emotions. I was happy that I was home but I felt so incredibly out of place. It was an extremely odd feeling and I wasn’t expecting it in the slightest. I am used to feeling completely elated about being home but for some reason I didn’t feel as excited.

I got home and found that my mom had put our Christmas tree up for me and soon after getting home, one of my best friends came to visit and started to be my chauffeur for the day. I can honestly tell you that I felt really weird wandering around a snow covered city as opposed to a palm tree covered area. I missed Asia and Hong Kong and I saw some random reminders of the area that reminded me that I missed what I had only 30 hours earlier.

Kuala Lumpur and Singapore with the Family

I woke up around 5:20 am and got ready to go. I woke up my roommate right before I was about to leave so that I could say goodbye because she was leaving to go to Korea that night and I didn’t know if I would be in HK or not.

I arrived at the airport at around 7am, checked in at both Malaysia Airlines and Cathay Pacific and was told at both that my odds weren’t good but that I would be told at around 8:05. I grabbed a bagel and hung out around the staff registration counter, waiting to hear anything. 8:15 came and went and I still did not have word on my chances. At the last second they called all standby passengers to Kuala Lumpur and I got on the flight!

I got to KL at around 12:30 and came outside to arrivals. I was fully prepared to take my own taxi to the hotel and meet my family there but when I exited arrivals, I saw my dad waiting for me! He looked excited to see me and I, of course, was happy to see him as well.

We waited for my mom and then we waited for my brother, who was arriving at a completely separate terminal on Air Asia. After he arrived, we got into a taxi and went to check into our hotel. We arrived at The Legend Hotel and put our stuff in storage and headed out to the Batu Caves. It was raining earlier in the day but when we got to the caves it was completely dry. We climbed all 272 steps to the top. There were monkeys everywhere! They were occupied by a barrel of oranges left out for them. My brother told me that he saw one shoot past in front of my dad as my dad was concentrating on climbing the steps. Pretty funny. We got to the top and walked in and were astonished by the vastness of the caves themselves.

The Batu Caves are essentially a Hindu temple. It was pretty neat to see a temple inside the cave and we stayed for a good time marveling at marvelous cave.

After awhile, we climbed back down, had some fresh coconut and then headed back to the hotel so that we could move our stuff into our room and then head out to the bus station to pick up tickets to Singapore for the following day. We took the train to the station, asked each bus company which buses they had, settled on one and bought a ticket for 39 Ringet per person (12ish a person).

We made our way from the bus station to the city center where we marveled at the Patronus Towers. I’ll have pictures up in Picasa but these towers are connected by a skywalk that you can go up to for free if you have a reservation. We were in KL during a public holiday so unfortunately we could not go up to the top. It was beautiful though. The towers almost didn’t look real because of the way it was lit up. It was pretty gorgeous.

After wandering around the city a little, we went back to a mall next to our hotel and we had dinner together. We went back to our hotel and went to sleep because we had to get up early to get over to the bus station to catch our bus to Singapore.
We got to the bus station around 8:35 am for our 9am bus and bought some snacks for the bus ride. We meandered over to Platform 20, found our bus, and got ready for the 5 hour bus ride.

The bus left about 45 minutes late and all of us fell asleep almost immediately. I woke up a couple times to take pictures of the scenery but it was mostly banana trees and green grass so after some time I just went back to sleep again.

After awhile, we exited the vehicle and made our way through Malaysian immigration and back to the bus where we were told we had to wait for a different bus because that was the bus had clearance to go into Singapore as opposed to our bus. We got on the new bus, and were driven to Singaporean immigration. We went through immigration, went back on the bus and were driven into town where we were dropped off around 5 blocks away from our hotel.

We checked into our hotel and then went into the city to walk around. We walked from one station, across a bridge to Merlion Park aand One Fullerton where we saw the Merlion with the skyline in the background. After sitting for some time, we left and went over to Little India where we walked around and had dinner.

There was such a difference between Little India and the rest of Singapore. My brother told me that Little India is considered the dirtiest part of Singapore (environment wise). Which is really just sad.

After wandering around Little India for some time, we made our way back to One Fullerton so that my brother could get some really awesome pictures with his fancy camera. We headed back to the hotel and went to sleep early so that we could get to the airport bright and early.

We ended up not getting on the first flight back to Hong Kong but easily made the second one. What was interesting was that Cathay Pacific had 4 people working one flight and about 8 people working the later flight. It definitely didn’t follow queuing theory and I was pretty excited that I actually applied something that I had learned.

The End of Finals!

After my finance final, I was so ecstatic about being done that I had a quick meal at the Chinese restaurant with Sungwon, Andrew, Chris, Sharon, Koko, and Evan before we all parted ways. We talked about our finals, and random little things. After dinner, we got some ice cream and Evan and I went into town. Chris came with us because he was worried that we wouldn’t find what we were looking for.

I tried to convince him not to come with because had an exam the next day but he was determined to help out and took us straight to the place. Once we got there, he made sure to translate exactly what I wanted to the lady. It was a lot of give and take and some hilarious exchanged but in the end everyone was in agreement and everyone was having a good time.

We told Chris that he should get going and that we would wander around a little before heading back. Evan and I looked around that area and then we went over to the Ladies market to pick up a couple things before we headed back. After bargaining for a little, Evan and I were exhausted and went back to campus.

I talked to my family and decided that I would try and get a flight to Kuala Lumpur the following morning. The flight supposedly looked pretty bad but I knew that I had to try for a flight (standby) on one of the days so I decided to try for the entire weekend.

I ordered a taxi for 6:20 and then went to sleep around 2am.

The Family Comes to Hong Kong!!

After a day of studying, I met up with my family at their hotel in Yau Ma Tei. They were staying at the City View hotel. From the lobby it looked like a pretty spectacular place! We walked around for a little while in the city and ended up eating at Burger King and then I took them into Mong Kok to do a little shopping. My brother had never been there so I am glad that I was able to find something new for him to do.

I did a little bit of shopping and my family tried to gauge prices. After an hour or two with them, we decided on a time and place to meet the next day and then split ways. They went back to their hotel and I went back to campus.
The next day (Sunday the 12th), I met them at 9am at the Tsim Sha Tsui MTR station so that we could head on our way down to grab a Ferry over to Macau. We made our way down to the Ferry, bought our tickets cleared immigration and then got on the boat at around 10am.

We got into a taxi as soon as we cleared immigration in Macau and headed for the Macau Tower. We entered the tower, registered ourselves (my brother and I) for the Bungy Jump and then quickly gave our stuff to our parents so that we could head upstairs to get ready. We went all the way up to the 64th floor and registered our names upstairs where they gave us a Macau Bungy tshirt and asked us to change into it. We put our stuff in a locker and then went out to get harnessed. After they put on our gear we went to the holding area and watched a guy in front of us jump off the building. I can honestly tell you that I was not afraid. I was simply really, really, really excited. I feel like that could be an issue if I am not afraid of jumping off a building.

While we were waiting, people would walk by us and would be excited for us and tell us how afraid they would be to do this and would give us a thumbs up. It was like we were famous. It was pretty funny. I was called in first and they had me sit on a metal table and hooked me up to the bungy cables. And led me over the edge where we took some pictures. They counted down from 5 and then I just sort of…jump/fell off the building. It was the most spectacular feeling. I didn’t scream or anything I just sort of… went and had the biggest smile on my face. I was so excited. After falling about 233 meters, the rubber bands pulled me back up and I pulled the rope that was attached to my feet so that I could switch to a sitting position and I was lowered down to the ground

I absolutely highly recommend anyone to go bungy jumping. It is one of the most spectacular feelings in the entire world. I can’t wait to do it again.

As they were unhooking me, I asked the ground staff how many times they had been bungy jumping and the one guy said that he had gone over 900 times! HOLY SMOKES. Amazing. I ran over to my parents and gave them a hug and then we waited for my brother to jump. He screamed on the way down (for kicks and giggles)and after he was unharnessed, I ran over to give him a high five and we took a picture together. We went back upstairs to look at the pictures and the video and all, took pictures all over the tower, and were asked by several people to take pictures with them. So funny. :)

After we got our stuff, we went down to the lower observation deck where we stood on a glass floor. My brother couldn’t even stand on it because he was more afraid of it. It was pretty funny..he could sky dive and bungy jump but he can’t stand on a glass floor 61 stories high. Haha. But really though, it was scary.

While we were wondering around the observation area, we saw a big group of people standing near one area of the glass window. We saw/heard them take in a big collective breath and then make this scream like gasp together as the next person went bungy jumping. It was pretty hysterical.

We went back downstairs and then made our way to the Wynn Casino. We played penny slots and then headed back to the Ferry Terminal so that we could get back to Hong Kong and I could get some work done.

We got back into Hong Kong, I bid them farewell and made my way back to campus where I met some friends for dinner and then started to do some work for my exams.

Finals!

I feel like I was in a hole for about 2.5 weeks. Besides when my family visited, I was pretty much holed up and studying from the 5th until the 19th. I had finals on the 10th, 11th, 15th and 19th. My first was psychology. And I read the book, took notes and studied. I did pretty okay on that exam. My second exam was Operations Management. It was not a very good exam…difficult and all. The exam was actually not well written at all. I was pretty surprised that the instructor didn’t proofread or have someone else proofread his exam paper. I felt as though I spent a significant amount of time just trying to decipher the questions as opposed to thinking of the correct answer. The average was pretty low and I beat the average so that was good. I didn’t do as well as I would have liked but I ended up with an okay grade.

After my first two finals, I started studying for my next two exams because my family was going to visit. It was pretty hectic and I don’t think I studied and understood as much as I would have liked but I ended up doing okay. My globalization studies exam was a little bit ridiculous and I wasn’t too pleased with it. I felt as though the professor was simply trying to test the most obscure parts of the course and not the overall theme. Overall, I didn’t like that class and the final simply confirmed that fact.

My finance final was absolutely evil, as I expected but I was too ecstatic to be done with my UST classes to care so much. I cannot wait to get back to OSU. Its going to be amazing. Overall, I was not happy with my classes at UST. I felt as though it was less about learning and understanding and more about how to get the grade. My finance class was ridiculous and the professor did not make up her own slides but simply used publisher’s slides and was not available for questions. My globalization professor did not know what she was talking about and essentially ran out of the classroom as soon as class was over. She did not answer questions and every time you asked questions she was more and more condescending. The only class that I really did enjoy was my Personality Psychology class because the professor was absolutely amazing. You could just tell that she was really into what she was talking about and really, really wanted to make sure that she got the importance of psychology across to her students. She drove home the point that she was always available for questions and comments and that is definitely something that I really appreciate.

Happy Valley Horse Races!

I forgot to mention about my trip to the races! Ben, Sumana, Evan, Jane (UCLA) went down to Happy Valley (near Causeway Bay) and watched the horse races. I had never been to a horse race before so this was definitely an experience. Ben, Jane and Evan all bet on horses while Sumana and I watched. I bet on a horse in my head and it almost won but at the last second it got beat out.

The races were definitely an experience..we saw some people that were really, really into it. They took out their newspapers to check out the odds and were distraught when they didn’t win. It was a spectacular night and a very, very cool experience.

After a little while, Ben, Evan, Sumana and I went out to eat and then we made our way back to Campus.

One of the Most Spectacular Days…ever.

After some back and forth coordination events, all of us Buckeyes in Hong Kong left UST on the Friday before finals at around 12pm to head into town to visit Debbi at Mast Industries/Limited Brands!

We got to the office about 30 minutes early so the gang decided to grab a bite to eat in the nearby mall (malls are always nearby). We returned to the office post brunch, signed in and waited for Debbi to come out and lead us in.
We entered the back office and absolutely astonished to see the behind the scenes activity of Limited Brands (i.e. Victoria’s Secret, Chicos, Lane Bryant, Pac Sun, etc etc). We went into Debbi’s office and she gave us the overall run down of what she does, answered our questions, and then showed us around the office. We saw all of the sections of VS, and then headed to different floors so she could show us all of the other divisions. She walked us around into the design office and told us about the multitude of components in bras. And the fact that each bra is engineered and reengineered to do exactly what its supposed to do. Who knew that it was such an art?

After about an hour or so, we went downstairs to meet Bob, Dennis (an OSU grad), and a man from A&L Logistics (a third party logistics firm) so that we could continue our adventure to the Port. He took us by van to the Port where we went on a tour of the port. Halfway through the tour, we were able to get out of the tour bus to take pictures and take in the scenery. We got back on the bus and the guide answered our questions and then we proceeded to go into the warehousing area where we met another OSU grad (they are everywhere!) and she showed us around the warehouse and explained exactly what was going on.

I can’t believe that we were given the opportunity for these site visits. I can’t express my gratitude to Debbi for organizing all of this. These visits truly made this study abroad experience come full circle and really drive home the exact reason why I went to experience a whole new culture, area, life.

After we finished up, we went out for drinks with Bob and Dennis in Soho. We sat around talking about corporate culture, Hong Kong life, our study abroad experiences, UST and so much more. It was definitely one of the best conversations I had had in a long time. I learned so much just by listening. It was also nice to spend some time with my Evan, Lilian, Diana and Kyle. I didn’t spend a whole lot of time with most of them this semester so it was nice to do so before we all headed back.

We shot the breeze for a good while and then Debbi came by and we started talking to her about the Port visit and of what a great time we had. We thanked her profusely and continued to talk about Limited Brands, interviewing, internships and of the private investigating that companies do before they hire their employees.
After some time we decided to go down a little ways in Soho and eat at El Taco Loco. We talked about everything under the sun from how Debbi and Bob met to where she worked in between working at Limited Brands to how Dennis got started at Limited Brands, etc. They asked about what I liked to do and what I wanted to do with my life. After a good conversation with Bob, he asked if I had ever thought about going into teaching.. and I told them that I have considered it and I hope to get into teaching after I experience the world and feel as though I actually have some valuable experiences to share.

Dinner came and went and we moved our conversation to another bar and sat outside. Diana, Lily and I talked to Debbi while Evan, Dennis and Bob talked elsewhere. We talked to Debbi about a whole lot and she shared that after briefly talking with each us at the OSU-Michigan game, she had felt like we were special and that she wanted to share with us an experience that we would value so much. She said that she felt as though we would all succeed in life. We talked about how to go about marketing ourselves in interviews and to make sure that we remain as we are and make sure that we always remain humble and introspective about life and how we can better ourselves.

Debbi is such a great inspiration and such a wonderful lady! Even though she remains in such a high position, she remains down to earth and a wonderful leader. I can only hope that I can be half as great of a leader. We were walking around the office and while talking to Dennis, I just got a feeling about just how well loved she is at that company. Truly fantastic.

Special thanks to Debbi and Bob on bringing this experience full circle.

Shenzhen!

The week following our wonderful climb to Lantau Peak, Evan and I decided to use my last Chinese visa entry to do a little shopping (on Black Friday) in Shenzhen, China. We left for the border around 11 am. We took the minibus to Choi Hung and then transferred at Kowllon Tong to take the East Rail line up to Lok Fu, where we crossed the border into Shenzhen. The main reason why we wanted to go into China was to do a little shopping for friends and family members. I was primarily looking to get souvenir type things that people would like but when we walked into the commercial center right on the other side of the border, we were bombarded by fake name brand purses, watches, clothes, handbags etc. We could not find any good souvenir gifts. It was simply a building full of fake goods and massage parlours. It was a little ridiculous.

After searching and searching, Evan and I gave up in the building and attempted to seek out another place to buy gifts in the city. We took the train further into the city but to our dismay, we found nothing of what we were looking for. We turned around and came back to our starting point and eventually decided to get a massage and some fake movies.

We each picked up a drink from the 7-Eleven (Minute Maid Grape Juice…specially made for the Asian Market is DELICIOUS!) and were quickly approached by a man asking if we wanted any DVD movies so seeing as we had nothing else to do, we decided to entertain ourselves and go look at movies. They led us back into a backroom, near the jewelry section, had us sit down and brought over an photo album full of dvd covers. They mostly had newer releases and also had a lot of tv series. I was really tempted to buy the Friends DVDs but I decided against it and instead, got about 16 movies (most of which I had never seen before). Evan picked out a couple movies and a couple tv shows and after writing all of the names down, the man went to get a HUGE suitcase full of fake DVDs. It was a very elaborate system. I was expecting to simply be handed a DVD without a case but each of the DVDs were places in a flattened box of the “actual” DVD cover and most of them were then placed into a plastic case. Like I said, very elaborate.

We paid for our movies and then headed back through immigration and back to campus where we met Sumana for dinner. Overall, it was a fun day in a place that I probably don’t need to go to ever again. 

Thanksgiving!

I originally wasn’t planning on doing a whole lot for Thanksgiving because I had a whole lot of work to do in terms of papers and studying but in the end, Sumana told me that she and Eddric were going out to a vegetarian restaurant for dinner in Causeway Bay so I decided that I wanted to spend the holiday with friends instead of with my books (always a good choice). We went to a restaurant (the name escapes me right now) but ordered a multitude of different dishes including vegetables, a spaghetti-esque dish, potatoes, and lotus paste dumplings (Yummm).

I had asked for water but they didn’t have any so they gave me chilled coconut water…in a coconut. I was so ecstatic. It was absolutely delicious and I could totally go for another one right about now…but I am in the US while I am writing this and that’s just not possible anymore.

After dinner, Sumana, Eddric and I walked around the mall a little bit and then headed back to Choi Hung, parted ways and Sumana and I headed back to campus.

I spent a little more than I was expecting but it was totally worth it. A bunch of other people went to a restaurant called Fat Angelos in SOHO to have a full blown Thanksgiving Dinner. Since I don’t eat meat I decided I wouldn’t go there but I heard that it was quite delicious.

Even though its Christmas time as I am writing this, I hope that everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday full of family, friends and thanks.

Lantau Part II and OSU-Michigan Game!

The next weekend, Ben, Evan and I decided to hightail it on over to Lantau Island because we wanted to ride the cable car, Ben wanted to see the Big Buddha and the two of us wanted to hike a little bit. We met up around 11 am and headed out. Evan was wearing a sweater and a tie and Ben and I were wearing jeans and a jacket..this is much more useful information when you consider that despite the fact that we told Evan that we were going hiking, he didn’t remember or something and thus became the first person to climb Lantau Peak in a tie! Haha. Anywho, we met up and hopped on the MTR, switched lines a couple times and ended up at Tung Chung so that we could take the Ngong Ping Cable Car up to the Big Buddha. We underestimated just how long it would to get up to the Buddha and got stuck in the cable car line for about 30-35 minutes. The cable car took about 20 minutes to get from Tung Chung to the top and the ride was well worth it. I got to snap a bunch of pictures of the airport for my brother, see the wonderful mountains of Lantau and look out on the sea. We got to Ngong Ping Village, checked out the Buddha, snapped a couple pictures and then headed over to the Wisdom Path. The Wisdom Path is where there are Chinese proverbs engraved on half tree trunks. Its pretty cool but I wished I could read Chinese so that I would know what exactly they said. Maybe I could get my buddy to translate my pictures. Who knows.

Anyway, after we walked around that area Ben and I started to hike up a trail that was nearby to the Wisdom Path. Little did we know that this was less of a hike and more of a climb. This path was simply a series of very uneven, rocky steps. We climbed and climbed and I got more and more tired. We took frequent breaks and I felt a little bad because I am clearly not in very good shape and so I was going slower than I think Ben would have gone had he been with someone else. I think he nearly sprinted up a bunch of steps and then would wait a minute or two until I got closer and then he would start running up the next section of steps. A little ridiculous, if you ask me..run-climbing a mountain. I don’t know how he did it. It was a pretty difficult climb up to Lantau Peak (934 meters) and a lot of what was keeping me going was the fact that I wanted to be able to say “yeah, I climbed a mountain. ” Probably seems a bit silly but that’s definitely how I felt. I wanted to be able to have a story when I got back about how I climbed my first mountain in Hong Kong. And I can tell you one thing, its not going to be my last. I felt so incredibly accomplished when I got to the top and sat with Ben, overlooking the beauty of the island, the sea and feeling like I was on top of the world. I could have spent so long up there but we got there a little late in the day and we wanted to make sure that we got back down before it got too dark. Right as Ben and I were about to leave our rocky perch at the top, we saw Evan coming up the path in his sweater and tie. We had left him behind a little before because he told us to keep going up the hill. We both were pretty excited that he made it to the top and it was pretty hysterical. Climbing to that peak was such an amazing experience and I definitely want to make sure that I climb some more mountains. I think I may have found a new hobby? I am glad that I got to spend the day with the Ben and Evan. They are so fun and funny and made the day so much more fun.

We climbed our way back down (which is much worse than going up). I am not exactly a fan of climbing down really steep steps and it takes me a little longer than it should. Its weird, I want to go skydiving but I am afraid of going down steep steps? Hmm. Anyway, we took the bus across Lantau back to the MTR stop and found a mall where were proceeded to eat. I had Indian food…delicious!! And then we walked around the mall for a few (they were outlets, after all) and after deciding that the prices were a little too much for our liking, we headed back to UST…exhausted but happy. So happy.

After a quick nap, I met up with Evan, and Diana at Hall II so that we could hop into a cab and get over to Wan Chai to watch the OSU-Michigan game with a bunch of OSU alumni. We got there and met up with Lilian, another exchange student, and settled in to watch the game with some fantastic people! We met a wonderful couple from Columbus, Debbi and Bob, who are in Hong Kong for about a year while Debbi gets the HK office for Mast Industries/Limited Brands in full transition mode to a new leader. She invited all of us to come into the office for a visit and then offered to get us a tour of the Hong Kong Shipping Port. Amazing!

As usual, OSU dominated Michigan and we took a bunch of pictures and had a wonderful time with the OSU alumni. We got back to campus around 4:30 am and quickly passed out.

Special thanks to Jack and Nana Banana for hosting all of us throughout the season! It really made our HK experience that much better!

Stanley Part II

Wow Wow Wow… I can’t believe that I am on my way home now. I know its been a long time since I have posted on this blog. I have been trying to get into the swing of finals..studying and seeing Hong Kong before I leave for who knows how long. I guess I’ll hit the main points over the last couple weeks, and then talk about my finals experience, my family visiting and my last days in HK.

So about a week after I got back from Thailand, Sumana, Ben, Evan and I went over to Stanley Market again so that we could take a look at trinkets to buy for our friends. We took the MTR to Chai Wan and then took a minibus over to Stanley Market from the MTR stop. It was a pretty crazy ride that wound in and out of the mountains, across the Tai Tam reservoir and over to Stanley New Street where we proceeded to get off the bus and walk on over to the market. We went in and out of each shop and discovered that everything was much more expensive at Stanley than anywhere else. All of us had previously thought that we had seen lower prices at Stanley but we were completely wrong.

It was a really weird experience going from the city out to Stanley because as soon as you get off the minibus you are surrounded by expats from all over the world (mostly the US and Europe). I am sure that has something to do with why the prices are so astronomical in Stanley. We found many shops that would accept US dollars instead of Hong Kong dollars. I would never pay in USD..that just seems like a scam waiting to happen. After looking around for quite a while, we decided that we were getting hungry so we went over to the waterfront and found a multitude of restaurants offering only western food (odd, I think) and so we sat down at a restaurant and ordered (veggie burgers are delicious!) and shared a couple laughs about just how odd Stanley market really is. The people that live there seem to be shielded from the “real hong kong.” They are perfectly content in their belief that Hong Kong is simply the beach going, high priced markets, European version of HK…I have read a number of discussion boards online where they talk about Mong Kok and other ridiculously busy areas as “too crowded” and “to be avoided at all times.” Stanley market, we noticed, had more quality control than any other place that we had seen. There was a little more customer service (at the restaurants) and almost non-existent bargaining. After eating, we wandered around the market some more and ended up with little things like postcards, silk ties (10 HKD!!) and shot glasses (as this was the only place that we had seen fairly decent ones).

We found our way back to the bus depot, hopped on a double decker bus headed back into town and sat in the very front row at the top of the bus. Can I just tell you that double decker buses are the most exciting things since sliced bread? I absolutely loved sitting at the front in the top of the bus just because it looks like you are going to hit people and trees and the bus in front of you! That sounds kind of odd, I think, but its definitely something that I highly recommend if you ever get a chance. We got back to campus by the evening and as far as I can remember, we called it a day.

Bangkok

We got back into Bangkok at around 10:00 local time and we got to our hostel the Lub D. It was an amazing hostel. It was clean and classy and really felt more hotel like than anything else. If you are going to Bangkok I highly recommend it. We checked in and it took us a while to get everything figured out. There were a couple slight mis-communications but we managed okay and got everything all figured out

After we checked in, we went over to Khoi San Road where there is a lot of night life. I pretty much stayed with Lisa the entire time and we walked up and down the road trying different thing. We had a nutella and banana "rotee" which was superb and we also had some pad thai off the street and a passion fruit smoothie. Delicious. All of it. After a little bit of time, we met up with the guys and they got their fill of pad thai and we headed back to the hostel.

I love hostels. I met some of the coolest people. Lisa and I stayed in a women's only room because there wasn't enough space for all of us to stay together so I got to meet a girl that lives in Minnesota that traveled through northern India and then went down to Australia to work for 5 or 6 months. I met another woman that left her job (as a dance teacher in England) and left with whatever money she had and started traveling. She was in India for about 2 months and then got to Thailand and was about to meet a friend to travel over down into Malaysia. She said that estimated that her money was going to run out in about three weeks and thats when she would head back home to work for 5ish months, save and then leave again. I think that is the absolute coolest thing that anyone could do. I guess I value being able to see different places a lot and having the guts to just save and leave and save and leave would be the ultimate way to live...if I didn't have strings. But alas, I am too much of a chicken to do that.

Anywho- We woke up the next morning, got ready, ate some breakfast and then negotiated a Tuk-Tuk ride to go down to the pier. (We really had to negotiate well because they wanted to charge us a large amount and then they wanted to stop the fashion district on the way..shady business!) We negotiated to 10 baht per Tuk Tuk (Pretty much an auto-rikshaw) and made our way to the pier. The driver took us to the wrong pier but we just walked to the next one (the correct one). We got on the public boat and it took us down the Chao Phraya River. We got to see a bunch of cool temples from the side but eventually we got to our destination: The Grand Palace! We got off the boat and walked through market areas and entered the Grand Palace. Pretty much everyone in the group (minus me) was in violation of the dress code for that area so they had to borrow different articles of clothing (Guys need long pants and girls need to make sure that everything from their knees to over their shoulders is covered).

After we all added our articles of clothing, we entered the Palace. Everything was bright and shiny- gold plated and all. The statues were gorgeous and everything was just magnificent. It was a huge place and certain places were blocked off or were being renovated but overall it was a really cool place to see. Definitely check out pictures if you have time.

We left the Grand Palace and took a 3 baht water taxi over to Wat Arun (Temple of the Dawn). We payed the entrance fee there and climbed the ridiculously steep steps up to the top to check out the view. It was a little creepy coming down because you really have to hold on to the steps behind you or to the railing or something because one misstep and you are tumbling down stone steps. From the top of the temple you could see the Bangkok skyline as well as the Grand Palace and the Chao Phraya River. It was definitely really cool.

We headed back from the Temple of the Dawn and split up. Evan, Lisa and I went over to the Weekend Market and the rest of the guys (Ray, Tim, Justin and Steve) went to a spa to get massages. We ended up at the market around the time when they were starting to close but we still got to see a lot of neat things. They sold more than your stereotypical souvenir things (actually, I don't think I saw ANY souvenir type things). They had all sorts of different stores/stalls. Some with paintings, others with lamps or clothes or kittens. Yes, I said kittens! There were these people on the side of the street that had puppies and kittens in a crate for people to buy. Evan and Lisa played with them for awhile while I looked around for things for friends. I did hold a puppy though (first time ever holding a dog! It was adorable!)

After looking around a bit more, we got back to the hostel and met up with the guys to go out to eat dinner. We ended up at an Indian restaurant where I only got Samosas. I felt a little uneasy because I walked in and heads turned and stayed turned in my direction but thats oh well. We ate and then headed back out to walk around the city for awhile. We went into a 7-11 because people were hungry after a while, and while they were all looking around, Justin, who is on an Indian Dance team at the Univ. of Pennsylvania, wanted me to teach him some Bharatanatayam moves (Indian Classical). I blew him away with my VERY limited knowledge and tried to teach him the steps in the middle of the store. It was really funny. We ended up at a club that was like three clubs in one. Noone drank or anything but we got in for free so we just decided to dance and then leave. I really miss music and dancing. I really am not super picky about the music that is played..(though they did play Jai Ho...which is very much a club song but Justin would randomly pull out Indian steps which I thought was absolutely amazing.)..I just love dancing. It was sooo fun.

We got back pretty late and went to bed almost immediately.We woke up in the morning, checked out and headed on our way to Bangkok Airport to head back to Hong Kong.

Overall it was a super fun trip and I am so glad that I went! I was definitely skeptical but I had a great time!