Sea Side Resort

Thanks!

2009-12-26T07:51:00.001+08:00

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

2009-12-26T07:47:00.000+08:00

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

2009-12-26T06:50:00.003+08:00

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!

2009-12-26T04:56:00.001+08:00

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!!

2009-12-26T04:54:00.002+08:00

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!

2009-12-26T04:53:00.000+08:00

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!

2009-12-26T04:52:00.001+08:00

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.

2009-12-26T03:13:00.000+08:00

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!

2009-12-26T00:34:00.001+08:00

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!

2009-12-26T00:33:00.000+08:00

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!

2009-12-26T00:30:00.002+08:00

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

2009-12-26T00:29:00.000+08:00

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

2009-12-04T00:44:00.004+08:00

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!

Kanchanaburi- Elephants and Tigers and Waterfalls, Oh my Part 2

2009-11-26T17:34:00.001+08:00

We woke up kind of late on Saturday. We hadn't slept much Thursday night so I think everyone was just exhausted. We woke up around 9:30, got ready and went over to that restaurant to grab a quick bite to eat before we went exploring some more. Everyone got breakfast-type items (I got a banana pancake that was more cake like than anything else). It was still delicious. Tim called up our taxi-driver friend and he came almost immediately to pick us up.

We negotiated a bit more and headed out. Our plans for the day consisted of Tiger Temple and the Erawan Waterfalls. It took some time to get to these places so we decided to play some games while we were waiting. So inbetween taking pictures of the beautiful landscape we played letter games where each person had to go around and say a letter while trying to spell a specific word and if you said a letter that people didn't think spelled a word than they could call your bluff. It was hilarious and we definitely brought out the itouch to look up some words that people were making up. So funny. We got to Tiger temple in about 45 minutes and a couple people had to change into more appropriate clothing. You aren't allowed to wear Red, orange or pink colored clothing. Girls have to have clothes covering everything from below their knees to over their shoulders. Its pretty strict, too. We entered the grounds and made some jokes about the goat that we saw and a little girl's slipper that we found, saying that the Tiger must have gotten her. It was pretty funny.

We didn't know where we were going at all but we found a sign that pointed us to Tiger Canyon so we went over there to check some things out. We got to see the tigers in their post-feeding form and it was really exciting. Everyone formed a line and then when your turn came up, they would take your camera from you and then would guide you to each of the tigers. They would place you behind the tiger and tell you to pet it or put your hand on it and then they would take pictures. It was soo cool. I have never been that close to such a big animal (minus cows and camels in India and minus the elephants from the day before). At one point, I was told to sit behind one of the tigers and NOT touch the tiger at all. Of course, I didn't but I really, really wanted to-just to see what would happen. It was a huge tiger. One other tiger had its paw up in the air and I put my hand on the paw that was on the ground and I kinda pet it and then a couple seconds later the paw that was up in the air definitely almost kicked me. It was pretty funny because I jumped a bit (Read: a lot).

After we left Tiger Canyon, we wondered around the grounds and found some tigers that were awake that we took some pictures with. At one point, Evan was sitting next to one of the tigers and I guess it didn't really like him because it was laying down and then it got up and was trying to turn its head towards him when the volunteers stepped in and got Evan out of there. They definitely kind of pushed him out of there which was really funny.

A Note: A lot of the workers there are Volunteers that applied to be there for a month or more. We got to talking to some of the volunteers and they said that they came here on a visit some time before and then decided that they wanted to apply. After a fairly rigourous process, they brought a set of volunteers from all over the world in to work there for a decent amount of time. The volunteers said it was one of the most rewarding things they have done so far. Definitely cool and if I wasn't afraid of cats I would thing about doing it. I'll stick to volunteering with people, thank you very much. They won't bite my leg off... ;)

So after we took turns taking pictures we decided to hurry up and get to the waterfalls because it would take a good amount of time to get there and they close kind of early. It took around an hour to get there but we played a memory game to keep us occupied. This time it was "If I was going to the Moon, I would bring..." and each person would take a letter of the alphabet, repeat what the last people said and then add a new word...so at the end you have "If I went to the Moon, I would Bring.. an Apple, a Babboon, a Car," etc etc all the way until Z. We had to stop around V to go play in the waterfalls but then as soon as we got back in the taxi we started up again and finished out the game. It was so funny.

We got to Erawan Waterfalls and found out that the upper levels closed at 4 but the lower levels closed at 5 so we pretty much stayed at the lower levels because we didnt have any other options but it was definitley worth the entrance fee. We jumped off rocks into the fresh water pond area and we swam across the pool underneath the waterfall and hung out behind it, took pictures, and then jumped off rocks, again, back into the pool of water. While you were stationary in the water, little fish would come and bite the bottoms of your feet. It was such a strange feeling and none of us really liked it all that much because it was tickling us but it was definitely really cool. We took some sweet pictures and then headed out, at around 5, to change and get back inour taxi so that we could catch the bus back to Bangkok.

Playing in a waterfall was definitely one of the most exciting things that I have ever done...ever. I am so grateful that we decided to do that.

We got back to the hostel, picked up our bags and then sped off to the bus station to make sure that we didn't miss the last bus. We made it in plenty of time and decided to wait one bus so that we could eat dinner. We ate really quickly at a place called the Charming Kitchen (pretty delicious) and then headed onto the bus (which I almost missed because I wanted to get street ice cream) and then we were on our way to Bangkok!

Kanchanaburi- Lions and Tigers and Bears , Oh my

2009-11-26T16:47:00.002+08:00

Okay, so maybe not lions and bears..but definitely Elephants, Tigers and Waterfalls!

We arrived in Kanchanaburi on Friday around 1pm. We got off the bus and were immediately bombarded by people asking if we wanted a taxi ride. Now the taxis that you might be actually thinking of are not the types of taxis in Kanchanaburi. In Kanchanaburi, they have trucks that are covered on all sides (except the back). You climb into the back of the truck and hold on to a railing on the ceiling while the the "taxi" is moving. Its pretty fantastic and was definitely a our mode of transportation for the day and a half that we were in Kachanaburi. We negotiated a price to 10 baht per person to take us to the hostel and around the city.

We first went to the Jolly Frog Hostel, which the owner at the Soi 1 Guesthouse recommended. It looked okay but it didn't have enough of the right kind of rooms for us so we went elsewhere. We ended up at a different guesthouse which was actually pretty nice (About 11 USD per night) and we checked in, paid and then decided that we were going to go ride an elephant at that moment.

While we were checking in, Tim decided to negotiate prices with the taxi driver. Each of us paid 200 USD per day for the taxi services. He took us absolutely everywhere during those two days. It was probably a fantastic deal for him and a not so good, but okay deal for us.

We set our stuff down, got back in the Taxi and then drove all the way out to the elephant riding area. It was so far away (probably around 45 minutes) but we definitely had a good time watching the scenery (rolling grasslands with mountain peaks around us!) and playing mind games until we got there.

We finally reached the elephants and I pretty much leaped out of the taxi I was so excited. We went down the hill, negotiated a elephant ride and a rafting adventure down the river for 600 (she wanted 600 baht or 18 USD for each at one point) and headed over to claim our elephants. Evan and I were on one elephant and it was definitely a lot of fun. It was bumpy ride but our guide was the coolest. He would sing Thai songs and talk to our elephant (I forgot the elephant's name). He sat towards the top of the elephant's head and would kinda guide him but putting slight pressure on the back of its ears. It was really nifty and I definitely have pictures, if you want to go look. The path took us down towards the water, where our lovely elephant tried to spray us with water. :) We took some pictures and then made our way up a hill towards another grassy area. Evan and I almost ran into some trees but after about 20-25 minutes on the elephant, we were taken back to the starting point, were given life jackets and then headed down to our bamboo raft.

We got on the raft, sat down and left the dock. There was a small tug boat that pulled us up the river and partially filled our bamboo raft up with water. It was tons of fun. I put my foot in the water on the side of the raft but after seeing baby alligator/crocodile (I am not sure which one) on the the shore, I decided that I probably shouldn't risk my foot being ripped off. After a certain point, the tug boat left us and our raft driver paddled us down the river. We got to see the beautiful sun setting on the river. When we passed the area where we saw the baby alligator/crocodile it was no longer there and we definitely did not put any more limbs into the water. Haha.

The raft trip was so fun and we got back to the dock in no time. We got off the boat and headed back up the hill. I talked to the lady that ran the establishment and I asked her if the elephants pick people up. She either didn't understand me or something because she said that they don't do that at this location. Tough luck. Oh well, I got to ride an elephant and feel its back and thats definitely an experience in itself.

We got back in our taxi and headed back into town and had a contest over who could take the best sunset picture. I personally liked mine but I think Ray might have had the overall best picture. Though, the boys cheated because they all have "sunset mode" on their cameras. Cheap, I tell you. Cheap.

y the time we got back to the hostel, it was dark. We quickly recouped and then went to go find somewhere to eat dinner. We found a restaurant that was pretty close to our hostel called the Tai Thai. We were all starving so we ate there and then wandered around that part of the city for some time. After a little while, Ray, Tim, Steve and Justin decided that they wanted to get massages so they left and Evan, Lisa and I went back to the hostel to hang out. We hung out for a little while and then decided to go swimming in the hostel pool. The rest of our group joined us and after a while (around 10) we were kicked out and headed to shower and get ready to walk around again.

We walked around the area again and found a little restaurant/bar thing that had a fooseball table so obviously we ended up hanging out there for awhile. The guys ate again (after about 4 hours since the last meal) but this time had spring rolls and pizza. Crazy people, I tell you. :) Ray even fell asleep at the table! It was so funny and we definitely have pictures.

We went back to the hostel and Evan and I went to the cyber cafe to book the next two nights in Bangkok. We found a hostel called Lub D. We booked it and then looked at the pictures. It looked pretty cool but the last place that looked okay (Soi 1) online ended up not being the best place to stay.

After paying for the rooms at Lub D, we went back to our hostel and pretty much immediately went to sleep. So tired. Such a fantastic, but long, day.

Journey to Thailand!

2009-11-26T15:24:00.002+08:00

Wow, I am FINALLY getting to writing about Thailand. I can't believe its been a week and a half since I got back. I am sorry it has taken me so long (if you have been checking), I unfortunately had some papers that took priority over this blog. Now that those are all finished, we are good to go! On to my Thai adventure! :)

We met up with each other in the lobby of my hall (Hall VII) at 7pm. I hadn't met a bunch of the people that were going on this trip and I barely knew one of the other ones so it was nice to get to meet more exchange students and go on a fabulous adventure with them. I met Lisa (Chinese, raised in Canada and goes to school at NYU), Steve (Vietnamese but now lives goes to UC), and Justin (UPenn)for the first time. They seemed pretty cool. I caught up with Tim (Georgia) and he asked me if I had everything planned out for this trip. He asked me what we were doing and after I told him a couple of the ideas that came up online he said "well do you mind going to the beach and all? Watersports? Not like all museums, right?" and in my head I was thinking "is that really your perception of me?" but I disregarded it and moved on, got in the taxi and headed off to the airport.

It took about 45-50 minutes to get to the airport because its on a completely different Island, on the complete other side of the city. I had never been to the Hong Kong Aiport, other than when I landed (and I definitely wasn't paying attention to anything beyond "Gotta find my buddy" to notice how beautiful it is). We checked into our flight (Emirates!) and headed off through passport control and eventually to the gate!

It was absolutely packed flight and I loved everything about the Emirates plane. They have TVs on the back of every seat with about a bazillion movie, tv, and game options. Their staff was very friendly and SO MULTICULTURAL! It was a bit unreal. At one point the first officer came on the PA system and said that on our flight (going from HK to Dubai via Bangkok), they had German, Spanish, Italian, Thai, Urdu, Arabic, Hindi, English, Cantonese, Mandarin and Dutch language speakers in order to cater to everyone on board! Absolutely unreal. I don't think I have ever been on a flight where they have attempted to cater to so many people. I bet people appreciate that so much, I know that I do!

I, of course, was planning on doing homework on the flight but as usual, it just didn't happen. Instead, Evan and I synced our tvs so that we were watching a movie together! It was so fun and we got the timing almost perfect. The movie, entitled "Julia and Julia" was an okay movie until the very end. I don't really recommend it.

We arrived in Bangkok after a short 2 hours and 40 minutes and a lot of people got off the plane. The boys decided that they wanted to go into the duty free shop and instead of waiting, Lisa and I decided to go through immigration and to the baggage claim so that she could get her bag. I was went up to the immigration counter and said "Sawadee" which is how you say "hello" in Thai and the man said hello and then he proceeded to say that I was beautiful. I said "thanks?" and then has asked me "did you come with anyone else?" Even if I hadn't come with anyone else, I think I would have said that I had anyway. I couldn't tell if this was normal immigration nonsense but I know for a fact that the "you're beautiful" comment was definitely not immigration appropriate. EIther way....

It was probably not a good idea to leave the guys behind. I only say that because we went through security and then down to baggage claim, immediately picked up her bag and then waited for the guys to get here. We didn't see them so we decided to go to the other immigration check point to see if they had gone out that way. We spent about an hour looking for one another and in the end, the guys were sitting in the arrivals hall. We finally gathered together and then found a taxi and then went to the hostel. We got into two taxis and we told our taxi driver to follow the other taxi. We kept asking about why the meter wasn't running and the driver kept saying "same meter as other taxi. Same meter as other taxi."

Now I was really, really hesitant about just going with the flow with a taxi without the meter running but at that point there wasn't really much that we could do. I have heard so many horror stories about how people have gotten into taxis and then the driver says one price, takes the people somewhere and then demands a different price. When the people don't agree, the driver threatens to call the Police (which tourists never want to deal with while in a foreign country. Who knows what rights you do or don't have). That didn't happen to us, though. And we paid the driver the same amount that our other taxi had to pay. Awesome.

We went into hostel "Soi 1 Guesthouse" and it was definitely more than a little bit sketchy. We had the entire 8-person room to ourselves though which was definitely a plus but we did get complaints that we were loud at around 4 in the morning. After we checked in, we left again to go explore the area around. The guys wanted to go to get some sort of street food or atleast walk around for a while. It was around 2 in the morning and the city was definitely still awake. There were food stalls open, tiny retaurant type things that were open and soo many people out on the streets. The traffic was still bad and there were people that were selling all sorts of different things like clothes and shoes and so much more, right on the side of the street. It was so fun to see. We walked around until around 4 and then headed back to the hostel where we talked and around 6, we went to sleep.

My alarm went off at 8 and I hit snooze and I got up to go get ready for our day. We were planning on catching a bus to Pattaya so that the guys could get in their watersports and we could maybe go to the Beach, ride some elephants etc. We all got ready and headed downstairs to check out where we met the owner of the hostel. We were asking him about how to get to the bus terminal so that we could go to Pattaya and he said "why do you want to go there?" He proceeded to tell us that Pattaya is the sleaze capital of the world. Full of prostitutes, strip clubs, dirty beaches, and old men. He told us that this wasn't the best place to see the amazing beaches of Thailand that we had heard rave reviews about or anything. He recommended that we go to Kanchanaburi, Thailand where we could go to see Tigers and Elephants and waterfalls etc. He seemed to convince Ray and the other guys enough so we decided to go there instead.

We went outside and hailed a couple taxis and tried to talk to the drivers. I think the owner of the guesthouse thought that we were having trouble and he came outside to talk to the drivers (he knew Thai) and he told the driver where to go and after the drivers asked where we were going the taxi drivers tried to get us to take their taxi all the way to Kanchanaburi (2.5 hours away). I pretty much thought that was a scam so we said no and we started to go on our way to the station. The driver tried to talk me into it all the way to the station but I kept saying no (especially because we had no way of communicating with our friends in the other taxi). We got to the station and looked around and Justin, Lisa and I waited around for the rest of our group to get there. It took them a while but they finally made it.

While we were waiting a lady came up to us and asked us where we were going. We were a little confused about why she was asking but we told her and she was like okay, I can take you to the bus. We told her we had to wait. Once our group got there, she led us over to the AC Bus and told us that it would take us to Kanchanaburi. The guys stocked up on some Dunkin Donuts and we got on the bus, paid for our ticket (84 Baht= 2.5 USD) and everyone (minus me) pretty much passed out from lack of sleep from the previous night.

I attempted to stay up 1)to guard our bags and 2) to see the scenery between Bangkok and Kanchanaburi! I made it about an hour and a half and then passed out for a while. It wasn't a sound sleep by any means because the bus would stop at random points to let people on or off and I would wake up abruptly to make sure that our stuff was safe and sound.

After about 3 hours, we made it to Kanchanaburi and we had to get everyone up and off the bus.

I'll end this one here and move on to adventures in Kanchanaburi!

Ahh

2009-11-22T21:25:00.005+08:00

I have a lot to post about Thailand but I am currently trying to catch up in my classes so I don't feel completely useless during lecture. I will try and post as soon as I can (hopefully before Thanksgiving). Though, who knows if anyone is actually sad that I haven't updated. Haha.

Hope your November is going well. I can't believe its the last full week of November!

30 days until I am back in the US/Pittsburgh.
39 days until I am back in Columbus.

Wow, Wow, Wow. Time is flying.

I'll post soon. In the meantime, check out the pictures at http://picasaweb.google.com/nhathi.13

Have a great day!

P.S. Happy Birthday, Christina! I hope you have the greatest day ever! Wish I could be there to celebrate with you!

Up till now

2009-11-12T11:15:00.002+08:00

Hello Everyone! So I have completely waited a week to write this post even though I have had plenty to write. I don't have too much time right now because I am in between classes and packing and doing homework and all before I leave for Thailand!!!

Update on Classes: I still dislike them (hate might be appropriate, although passionate..I really really am not liking them right now). I don't know what it is but I just miss my OSU classes a lot these days. Maybe its the teaching style, maybe its the fact that I know that if I was at OSU right now I would be doing a lot better in my classes. I hope, if I happen to do poorly (Read: I don not achieve what the standards I set for myself) that, if a company sees this that the recruiter won't assume that I slacked off while studying abroad because thats surely not whats going on (or is it? hmm. I should figure that out).

Halloween: Halloweeen weekend was nuts here!
Thursday: Sumana's hall was turned into a haunted dorm type thing with each floor having creepiness as you come out of the elevator and then their laundry room/common room was turned into a haunted house! I typically hate those types of things but I definitely had a blast (made possible by the fact that Evan had a foam stick of sorts and would wack everything he possibly could before entering an area...hilarious!) And I also got to hang out with Evan's roommate from Kenya and met his friends from Sweden, India and Tanzania. They were really cool though the guy from Sweden was kind of a jerk. But oh well, ya can't win 'em all.

Friday: Evan and I went down to the Temple Street Market (close to the Jordan MTR Station) and we looked around. We both were trying to find some good souvenirs for our friends (Read: BARGAINING) but we didn't find all that much and people didn't seem too interested in bargaining. Probably because we both were starting really low to guage what we could get stuff at. I wasn't feeling so hot that weekend but on Saturday, we decided to call it a night at around 10:45 and head back.

Saturday: I was feeling kind of sick and I slept a lot on Saturday but in the evening, I decided that its only halloween once and what are the odds that I will be in Hong Kong on Halloween again. So I got myself out of my room, got ready and Sumana, Ben and I went over to LKF to see what the big deal was. It was PACKED. We exited the station and there were thousands upon thousands of people smashed into this little area. There were police all around and we were "herded, like cattle" in this long, elaborate maze type of thing into LKF area. I guess, in recent years, people have died from being trampled on just because there are so many people in the area. It was really crazy though because we were taken away from Lan Kwai Fong and then back and then up the hill a little and then away again and then up a hill and then back and we were finally in LKF. There were cameras EVERYWHERE. It was paparazzi times a million. I couldn't tell if these were actual photographers from newspapers and the like or just a bunch of people lined up at random points to attack unsuspecting people dressed up in costume. Nuts. We didn't spend a whole lot of time in LKF people watching like we wanted to. But there were just too many people to just hang out in. We made our way back down to the station and headed to TST to get FRESH JUICE (YUMM) and then went back to campus.

Since Halloween, nothing too special has been going on. I was sick for most of the week with a cold and kind of a fever (not really though) and then on Thursday I went to go talk with my psychology professor to talk about the class and see exactly how she got into psych. I was really interested in that because Psych, generally, isn't that common in Asia (its a growing field) and she entered about 15-20 years ago. Definitely interesting to talk to her. She told me that since she came from a poor family the fact that she got into a University made her parents extremely honored so they didn't quite know what she was studying there. She had some people ask her the age old, "What are you going to do with a Psychology degree" but for the most part she didn't have too much trouble because her parents didn't quite get it. I talked with her about my plans about I/O Psychology and we talked about bi-culturalism (she was really interested in my life history), arranged marriages, etc and then talked about how the whole PhD thing is kind of limiting in a way. She advised me to maybe get my Masters in I/O and then do a PhD on the side later. I definitely came out of that meeting a little confused about what I should be doing with my life. I think I will definitely have to address that when I get back to the US and talk, face to face, with a psych advisor.

One day, In Globablization studies, we had a discussion about western marketing and how it was spreading and..well, mainly about Globalization and Cultures. I am just gonna share a couple snippets of what some locals said.
1. People talked about how McDonalds is HUGE and goes absolutely everywhere but they try and adapt to what the local culture would like
2. Maybe the fact that McDonald's goes into places is a kind of good thing because it helps the local population adapt to what is "polite behavior" as in queuing in lines in stores, restaurant places, ticketing, etc.
3. This one guy talked about how US movies are soo incredibly widespread. He talked about how in the 90s- hollywood went on a "saving the world" spree. He added, that this might be because the US wants to be seen as #1.
4. Hollywood special effects are unparalleled (?).
5. English is the most widespread language. May be helping the decline and extinction of other languages.

I think thats all I have written down from that class. There were a couple more things that were interesting but I think I just got too caught up in the discussion.

This past saturday, the 7th!: I went with my friend Chris to go look at T-shirts to maybe have printed for Buckeyemela/Srujan (April 9-10, MARK YOUR CALENDARS). The quality looked good and everything seemed really clean and all. It looks like I would probably be able to get the shirts for close to 4 USD per shirt but I think the shipping might be too astronomical to make this feasible...

Monday: Sumana and I went into town to get some errands done. We went into Chungking Mansions, where they have a LOT of foreign currency exchanges (the best rates I have seen so far for both Buying and Selling USD) and a lot of little Indian stalls and such. We definitely didn't stay very long because we kept being stared at. It wasn't the little old ladies that were staring either, it was creepy men that would just stop talking and stuff and leer. It was really gross and we got out of there as fast as we could (I only wanted a Samosa and I didn't get that because we felt so uncomfortable). We talked about that on the way home and we couldn't come up with a really strong reason why this was happening (or if this was in our head) but the consensus was that if we were by ourselves we would not have felt safe and that in itself indicates that maybe it was not in our heads.

Tuesday: STEELERS BEAT THE BRONCOS! WOOOHOO! Now we just have to take out the Bengals and win atleast one agains the Ravens. :) GO STEELERS. I really miss football Sundays.

Either way...this week has gone SUPER fast. I am going to THAILAND tomorrow and I am really excited (mostly about riding an elephant) and I absolutely cannot wait to get there. Its going to be awesome. :)

I'll be back on Monday and from then on I will be in Hong Kong, exploring on the weekends and catching up/learning everything/getting ready for finals on the weekdays.

Have a fabulous weekend. Take Care. Miss you all!

Shanghai!

2009-11-04T16:11:00.003+08:00

We arrived in Shanghai early in the morning, around 7:45 am. By the time we got a bearings straight and dropped off our luggage in the left luggage area at the Station, it was around 8:30. We decided that we would go to the Yu Yuan gardens first because it was a little bit out of the way and so we had to make our way over there. We took bus number 930 out to the Old City area and after asking around we found the entrance to the park. It was approximately 40 Yuan a piece but definitely worth it.

There were a bunch of little shops and stalls that we walked past and we made sure to look at the variety of different souvenirs and products that they were selling. It was similar to Hong Kong and the Silk Market but still cool.

We went into the park and we were just in awe of the beautiful scenery and ponds all around. I have pictures up on picasa but it was definitely a really cool place to visit in the area. The architecture was magnificent and it was carried out through all of the buildings in the area.

We walked out of the park area and down the street where all of these boutiques were you could see this older architecture all the way down the street but when you looked into the distance you could see the difference between this type of architecture and the newer buildings being put up in the distance. It was definitely really interesting.

Another interesting part of our adventure was when Sumana and I went into a shop inside the park itself to look at souvenirs or potential gifts for people. We saw these sandalwood fans that were pretty cool and they wanted to charge us a really high price. We said that we didn't want it because it was too much and they asked us if we wanted a receipt. If we did not want a receipt than they could bargain with us. Really interesting. We said that we didn't want a receipt to see how low they would go and when we still wanted to leave the ladies kind of followed us out and kept asking for "our price" to see if we could make a deal. Definitely really interesting and totally under the table.

We walked around some more, got some Dairy Queen (!!!) and then went in search of the bus to take us back to the city. We found the same bus and went back to People's Square to get back to the City.

The bus driver told us when to get off and we started roaming the area and took some pictures with the "people" in the square (statues) and then headed off down Nanjing Road toward the Bund. Nanjing Road reminded me of Las Ramblas, in Barcelona, without the bird sellers and the statue people. There were restaurants and stores all the way down the walking street. We headed past the end of the the walking street towards the Bund. We got to where the Bund was supposed to be and we found out that it was closed because it is under renovation for the Asia Expo that will be held in Shanghai in 2010. I was a little disappointed but we continued on our way to see the city from the other side of the river.

We got off at Pudong Avenue and attempted to find the view. It was definitely not there. We asked some local people where the "view" was and they were very confused. They tried to explain to us where we should go but we definitely did not understand. A crowd of like 6 people or so came out to all make an attempt to explain it to us and when we did not understand they explained that they would go and get someone that spoke "our language." They went to get him, asked us to follow, and when the man came outside he explained that we were at the wrong place (and we knew that). And then pointed us in the right direction. We headed off in that way. We met a Czech couple (maybe) along the way and we asked them if we were heading in the right direction (they had a map). We walked with them for quite a ways and found out that they were traveling around china for a good month or two. Fantastic! I wish I had that kind of time to just travel the world. I hope one day, I will. We left them and continued on our way. We weren't sure exactly where we were going but we asked a information desk person who spoke to us in Mandarin and then called his English speaking friend on the phone who told us that the view from this side of the river wasn't that spectacular but told us how to get there anyway.

We walked through a park that had the countdown to the Asia Expo running and walked toward the Oriental TV tower. It was gorgeous and a really cool building. It was also really expensive and we were low on cash so we stuck to walking around some more.

After we got our fair share of the area we headed back to the train station, picked up our luggage and then headed to Longyang Road to take the Maglev train over to the airport so we could catch our flight back to Shenzhen.

We arrived at the station, bought our ticket for the Maglev and went up to the platform. I am pretty upset that my camera ran out of batteries because I did not get a chance to take a picture of the train. It ran at 301 kilometers per hour (slow for the Maglev...we missed the fast train by like 10 minutes. That train runs at 431 kmph). We reached the aiport in about 9 or 10 minutes (19 miles away).

We checked our luggage in and then headed over to the gate. We left on time, got to Shenzhen, met a nice Pakistani man on the way to the MTR station who told us a story about how he invested in a fake company in China and how, when in business, we should always visit a site before we invest in it. Good to know. Slightly random for this story of my day but thats okay.

We went through the entire immigration process and arrived back at UST by midnight. Definitely a fun-filled trip and one of the best trips I have ever made.

Thanks to Elizabeth, Ben, Vinny, all of the local and random people along they way and especially Sumana for making this trip one to remember!

Summer Palace and on our Way to Shanghai!

2009-10-31T18:45:00.003+08:00

Monday morning we said a sleepy goodbye to Ben and Vinny when they left at 6am and then went back to sleep. We had planned on getting up around 7 or so so that we could pack up, eat and then head out to the Summer Palace which is about 45 minutes to an hour away. We got up around 7:30 and started to pack up and get ready and we ended up leaving the hostel after breakfast around 10 o clock.

We took the subway, switched lines twice and we got to the station. We asked around and found out that we needed to take Bus No. 930 which would take us all the way to the gates of Summer Palace. The bus was only one yuan. Fantastic! We made it there alright, bought our tickets with our student IDs and then made our way into the park area.

My first thought was "This is absolutely gorgeous!" It was nothing like the rest of Beijing. It was absolutely clear skies (probably because it rained the night before) and there was a beautiful lake surrounding the area. (See Picasa Pictures). You would look one way and see an amazing bridge that connected the side we were on to an island in the middle of the lake and then you would look to the other side and see a light house type building set in the mountains. It was magnificent.

We walked along side the lake towards the main area where the temple was located. We found some other sites along the way and we were able to weave our way through the many crowds to see inside the old areas. The architecture looked midly like that of the forbidden city but the paintings on the pillars were more unique and colorful than that of the forbidden city or anything else that I had seen in Beijing.

We walked around and got to people watch for a little while. There were people selling corn at every stop and people that were playing with their kids who were also running around with each other. I took a picture of this little boy who seemed to be pulling along his little sister in every which way that he wanted to go and I saw another another little kid that was pushing his sibling (I don't remember if it was a sister or a brother) in a stroller and it reminded me of pictures that I have seen of my brother and I. Definitely made me wish that he could have been there with me (even though I think he has already been to the Summer Palace). Maybe it was more that I wish that I had a close friend or family member or someone from home that would be able to take in these amazing views and would completely understand what I have been seeing through these adventures. I digress...

We walked around Summer Palace and we bought a map of the area (that you could essential frame because its so pretty) and we discovered that the Summer Palace is absolutely HUGE. You could definitely not see it in the amount of time that we allotted for it. However, we made the best of it and took some pictures and then headed back towards the entrance to get back to the station.

Once we got back to the entrance we realized that we didn't quite know which way to go to catch the bus back to the station. We assumed that we would have to get on the bus on the opposite side of the road from where we got off so we headed in that direction. Wrong. We ended up asking a mechanic of some sort and he pointed us in a different direction. The two of us set off in that direction and found ourselves at the wrong bus stop. After using our lovely phrase book we went off down the street and got to the correct bus stop that was actually in a little alleyway. Who knew.

Anyway, we asked the bus driver whether the bus went to the right station but he said a different station. A station is a station so we got on the bus and we got off where the driver told us to. We didn't see the station anywhere so we chose a person off the street showed him the map of the subway station and gestured to figure out where the nearest station was. He tried to explain in Mandarin, realized that we had no clue what he was talking about and then decided to have us follow him because he was heading in that direction. Really nice of him. He spoke to Sumana in Mandarin and asked her where we were going to which she interpreted to be where are we from (Everyone is shocked when they see us) and she said India as a normal reply and he got really confused/excited/shocked. After a little while he showed us on our subway map about how to get to the airport. Hilarious.

We got to the station, thanked him profusely and then headed on our way to the Silk Market to argue with some of the shop keepers about the shoes that Sumana had bought (which had started to wear out the first day she wore them) and to try and get some name drawings redone or fixed. We had to argue for a good while to get people to fix things (with Sumana also demanding that her shoes be changed and standing at the shop and warding off customers..good work!) and in the end we got everything fixed up. She had to be stern with them because they tried to make it out to be like she was dumb and didn't know what she was talking about when she said that she got them from a specific store. Ha. We knew. She even talked to the girl that we bought them from who definitely recognized Sumana.

We bought a couple of trinkety things and then headed back to the hostel to get our bag and check Shanghai stuff, eat dinner and set out on our way to the train station!

After lugging our suitcase to the train station, we quickly found our platform and queued up to be let inside. We found out compartment and our beds and put everything away before settling in for the night. There was a little baby in our compartment that was definitely really cute and he would play hide and seek with his blanket and would roll around and kind of play with Sumana. It was cute.

The train left promptly at 9:40 and Sumana and I fell asleep, quickly, around 10:30ish. Soon it was morning and we were in Shanghai!

The Great Wall of China (or The Great China Wall as my mom likes to call it) and Where History Was Made a Little More Than a Year Ago.

2009-10-29T19:02:00.005+08:00

When we got back to the Hostel on Saturday night we met up with Ben and Vinny who told us that they had booked the Great Wall trip, through the hostel, for Mutianyu. I was a little bit upset by this because Mutianyu is still pretty touristy. I wanted to go on the 10K trek on TGW that was between Simatai and Jinshanling which is supposed to be the less restored part of TGW. I accepted the adventure though I assumed that the two guys would want to go on a hike instead of the touristy part. But I think they also figured that they would want to go see the rest of Beijing when they got back and hoped that they wouldn’t be too tired.

Anyway, we were supposed to be up by 7 am and in the café area but we didn’t get up until around then so we hurried to get ready and then made our way to the café and had breakfast (which came with our ticket) and then hurried to get into the van to take the four of us, two other ladies and a Italian man to the wall.

While we were driving up to get to Mutianyu (about 2 hours), I kept thinking about what this trip means to me and exactly why I was so excited to do this whereas the other three weren’t AS off the wall. A bunch of people tend to think that I am not adventurous that I am a homebody that I don’t want to go out and see things and explore- see knew places. But I haven’t been asked the “where do you want to go, Neesha” type of question. I have wanted to see The Great Wall of China forever. I learned about it so many years ago and since then I have wanted to go. I have wanted to go since before my brother decided to take his Asian adventure-round-the-world trip and have been looking at pictures of The Great Wall of China for years now. I had wanted to go for so long and finally the day came when I was able to and it was so incredibly surreal. I know that I went to a more touristy part of the wall which was not quite what I wanted to do but it was definitely worth the experience.

We got to Mutianyu around 10am and my first thought was “Oh my gods there are so many tourists! I am going to hate this. This is not what I expected at all!” We had the option of hiking up the mountain (takes about 30 minutes to climb the steps or we could take the ski-lift up where we can see the view and the wall and it would only take around 5 minutes. We decided to take the ski lift because we were only really given about 3 hours on the wall and we wanted to make the most of it. We got on the ski lift (my first time EVER) and we headed up the mountain and it was so amazing. The view was absolutely gorgeous. All of the leaves were changing colors and the mountains in the background and you could see little villages set into the Mountains. Even though it was foggy/polluted, It was still so incredibly picturesque and wonderful.

When we got up to the top of the ski lift we had two options. We could either go to the right and go to the not so touristy part or we could go to the left and go to the more touristy part. We obviously sdecided to go to the right first and boy was that an adventure. It was characterized by EXTREMELY steep, uneven steps. It essentially went straight up and was very tiring. It just kept going and going and going. I felt really proud of myself when we got to the very top (where we were told we were not allowed to go further) and looked back and saw TGW stretching out for so long. Of course, we went further past the “no admittance sign” and onto the ruins of the wall. There were shrubs that had grown over on it and it was a winding path that ended at beat up ruins of a lookout tower. We climbed that and were in absolute awe of the scenery with the leaves changing and the remnants of The Great Wall stretching down the side of the mountain and up another mountain, deep deep into the mountains. It was beautiful to see and I cannot even imagine how it was built. I bet many of the people that built TGW probably had some sort of fear of heights and many more died trying to build it through all of the seasons. It was amazing.

We went back down the steps portion and we passed the ski lift and went up the other way. Ben and Vinny went scurrying off while Sumana probably went just as far as they did but took more time to enjoy the scenery and really take in the entire view. I really liked the more touristy part of the wall because there were trees that were growing on the side of the wall and the colors were changing and looked absolutely magnificent.

While we were walking we took the liberty of talking to some other people and Sumana started talking to this one fellow, in broken mandarin. He and his friend asked us if we were from India and because we didn’t want to go into all of the crazy details about our family and the moving processes we just said yes. We then met the cutest baby that was with his father or grandfather or uncle or someone and we ogled at it for awhile and then kept walking and then took some jumping pictures and after while we decided that we were going to get late so we started heading back when we met that same baby and its father/uncle somebody and I asked if I could hold the baby. I have a picture somewhere in my picasa but it was the cutest baby ever. The father/uncle/grandfather person let me hold it and I took a picture with both of them. 

We continued on our way and I saw a STEELERS FAN! He was wearing the hat and a sweatshirt and I yelled “Go Steelers” and he said the same back! I started walking back but then doubled back and asked to take a picture with him. I got a picture and then we started talking about where we are from (His wife is from Upper St. Clair) and then he asked what I was doing here and all that jazz. It was cool. Steelers Fans are EVERYWHERE. I love the City of Pittsburgh.

Anyway we went back down to the ski lift are and instead of taking the ski lift we decided to take a Toboggan down. It was so fun-speeding down the side of a mountain, through the woods with all of the leaves changing colors. It was definitely really touristy but soo much fun.

We got to the bottom of the hill and haggled with the shop/booth keepers and got some souvenirs and then met up with the rest of our group at a Chinese Restaurant which also came with our ticket to TGW. We were skeptical about some of the dishes but determined that there were 4/7 of them for herbivores and then we chowed down. It was pretty delicious-one of the best meals that I have had since arriving in East Asia. We had a tomato and green pepper dish and then some braised potato (YUM) and then some stir fried green beans (YUM) and some other stuff. We got to talk to the other people on our tour at that point. And I used my limited Spanish with the Italian man because he said that he could understand a little bit. At first I was pretty rusty with it and I couldn’t speak as quickly as I would have liked but by the end of the meal I was spouting off sentences and explaining why I was only in Florence, Italy for 4 hours when I went to Italy a couple years ago. He complimented me on my Spanish and my pronunciation, though I don’t feel that it was deserved. But I thanked him and we all went on our way back to Beijing.
We got back to Beijing and the four of us kind of relaxed for a few minutes. Ben and Vinny left to go to the Pearl Market and then we showered and ate dinner in the café and headed off to meet Elizabeth in the Olympic Village.

I was so excited to go to the Olympic Village. I absolutely loved the Beijing Olympics (minus the Chinese women gymnasts winning because they were definitely all 12-13 years old). I loved the Water Cube and the Birds Nest and I could not WAIT to get there.
We met up with Elizabeth and walked around the Olympic village and it was absolutely gorgeous! You could see the Bird’s nest with all of its colorful glory and the absolutely magnificent Water Cube. We, of course, attempted some jumping pictures but kind of failed and it was really windy and cold and it started to rain so we didn’t stay there for too long. I can’t believe I went to the Olympic Village where the most amazing, epic opening ceremonies was held, Michael Phelps won 8 Gold Medals and Usain Bolt broke the world record for the 100 meter dash with his ridiculously fast legs.

I was a little bit upset because I had heard that they completely shut down the Water Cube. I wish they could find someway to keep these facilities open and running because I feel like they could be very useful and helpful. They have the Bird's Nest open for tours during the day time.

Overall the day was pretty amazing and I absolutely loved every minute of it. After the Olympic Village, Elizabeth and I parted ways for another 8 or 9 months until we see each other again. I can’t express how excited I was to see her. It was so wonderful to see a familiar face and after so many conversations about the A-factor (Asian –Factor) that we had in high school- who knew that we would end up meeting up in Asia! We have been friends for over 15 years and it was wonderful being able to adventure around Beijing with her. She said she is going to try and visit Hong Kong towards the end of the semester and I really hope that happens. I would love to show her around here.

Thanks for everything, Elizabeth! 15 years and going strong!

A Day in Beijing with Elizabeth!

2009-10-29T15:55:00.002+08:00

So I woke up around 7:45 to a line to get into the bathroom/shower. Ben and Vinny had arrived the day before and were planning on leaving early on Monday morning so they had limited time in Beijing to do everything that they wanted to do. Sumana let Vinny get into the shower before her and then she went in because she was already late in trying to catch a train to visit her Uncle about 2 and a half hours outside of Beijing.

I finally got into the shower around 8:15 (even though that was when I was supposed to leave) and then speedily made my way over to the train station to meet up with Elizabeth in the Forbidden City. I walked down the street towards the train station and there were so many people in the area! There was a market that happens every Saturday morning there. Fruits, Vegetables, Clothing..you name it, they probably have it. I snapped some pictures as I was zig-zagging through people so that I would get to Elizabeth before she started to worry too much.

I got out at the Tiananmen East Exit, went down the underpass and over to the entrance to the Imperial Palace (Forbidden City). First thing I noticed was that there were SO MANY PEOPLE. SO many. It was 9am and there were a couple thousand people right at the entrance. It was crazy. I didn’t know how I was going to go about finding Elizabeth but I figured I would just head over towards the gigantic picture of Chairman Mao and hope that she would be somewhere over there like we had planned. I crossed over the bridge and she was standing in the doorway! Thank goodness for that. Apparently she went around in circles through the Entrance and Exit to make sure that she didn’t miss me somewhere in between there. We walked through the entrance and there were so many tours that were going though. Mostly older people, all wearing the same type and color of hat and following a flag to make sure that they all stayed together.

We bought our ticket with our Student Discounts started our journey through the Forbidden City. It is HUGE. There is no possible way to get through the entire thing in one day. There’s probably, also, no possible way to FIND all the parts of the Imperial Palace. There are tons of little nooks and crannies and corridors all over the place. After walking through the imperial palace, ogling at the thousands upon thousands of people there and looking at the little rooms that housed the emperor’s everyday needs (a room to sit in before important meetings, a different room to change in before important meetings, etc) we made our way back out of the Imperial Palace and attempted to find the No. 5 bus to get to Jingshan Park.

We found the bus stop and the bus came within a few short minutes. It was a really interesting experience because everyone runs over to the entrance, pays the driver and then squishes as many people into the bus as possible. Elizabeth asked me if this was like India and I told her that in India, they fit as many people as they possibly can into the buses but that there aren’t really doors on the bus so people end up on the bus but hanging kind of outside. The Brightside about being squished on the bus is definitely not even having the opportunity to fall over when the bus breaks.

We got to Jingshan park and paid the couple kuai (another word for Yuan) entrance fee and made our way to the lookout points. The first thing that I noticed when I walked into the park was the cleaner air that I was breathing in. People aren’t allowed to smoke in the Park and the trees make breathing a much more pleasant experience. We walked around the park for a little, made our way to the different pagodas and saw the Forbidden City from the top. It was MASSIVE. You couldn’t exactly see all of it because of the pollution but you could definitely tell that it was a really, big area. It was interesting to look out on the forbidden city and not be able to see very much and then look out on the city on the other side of the pagoda and be able to see much more clearly. I am not exactly sure why that would be but it definitely caused us both to wonder. After munching on some bread and some shelf milk that Elizabeth brought, we headed back on the No 5 bus and were even more squished than before and made our way to the Subway line to head on over to the Lama Temple (a Tibetan Buddhist temple).

The subway system is pretty extensive and covers a lot of Beijing. Each trip is only 2 Yuan no matter how many transfers you make or how long it takes you. Definitely the easiest and cheapest way to get around Beijing (though I like Buses better because you can see more of the city (when you aren’t being squished in the middle of the train)). Trains are also very packed and people will run between transfer points to make sure that they are at the front of the line so that if there are open seats on the train that they can race one another to sit there. It was pretty intense.

We got to the Lama temple and paid our Student fee and then went inside through the park and over to the beginning of the temple. This temple was set up like Forbidden City where you enter through one part and go through it and then follow into the next part and keep going to the next one. The architecture was very similar. The Buddhas would start relatively small and by the last part of the temple the Buddha was 26 meters tall! 8 meters below ground and 18 meters above ground! It was massive and very beautiful. I snapped a picture and then got yelled at but it was worth it. We walked around the area a little more and it was so quiet and serene. Very peaceful and even though it was in the middle of the city, it felt as though we were farther removed from the sights and sounds and smells of Beijing.

The temple was about to close so we made our way towards the exit and over a street or two because I told Elizabeth that I wanted to walk through a hutong to see how a lot of people live in Beijing. We walked through what Elizabeth said was a fairly nice Hutong. There were several cars parked outside of their community homes. And we walked further inside and people were playing cards and smoking (the norm) and little kids were playing with their toys. We walked through some winding paths and some people had their doors open so we peeked inside and we could see people cooking on this small little stove that was in the entryway and they had a tiny table on the side that they placed their cut vegetables on. We came outside of there before it got dark and headed across the street into a different hutong where we were about to talk more about her sister and med school and my brother and his job and we reminisced about high school Spanish class and everything.

We started to walk back towards the way we came and part of the alleyway was more polluted than when we came in. It looked like it was stagnant in the air and not dissipating. We covered our mouths and noses and kinda jogged through it and then went around the corner a different way to get out so that we wouldn’t go further into the polluted air.

We made our way back to the subway station and went over to the Temple of Heaven park with the help of Elizabeth’s Lonely Planet China book. We got to the park and walked through the pitch blackness and stumbled upon people practicing their singing in the park and a whole lot more people watching someone else sing and some people dance. People seemed to really enjoy themselves. We went further on into the park and found another rather large group of people that were doing the same thing. We went further yet, almost to the actual temple itself and we saw some people playing Chinese hackey sack. We sat near them and people watched for awhile and they were actually pretty good. They were all older people and were spinning and twirling while they were kicking their feet up in the air. It was pretty nifty.

We started to get cold and we had to meet up with Sumana in Tiananmen Plaza so we made our way towards the exit of the park and we saw a whole lot of people standing and chanting and clapping so we went over there and we started doing it with them even though we couldn’t understand exactly what they were saying. Everything was being said in a rhythm and it was fun. People would walk past and they would do it with the crowd as they were going to their next destination and so we figured it must be something pretty well known. As we were leaving another couple was about to leave and Elizabeth asked them, in her awesome Mandarin skills, what this was. And the man said it was a kind of exercise that people did and to get more blood to their hands and keep warm. He also said that you could pat other parts of your body like your knees or your thighs or something to do the same thing. It was pretty interesting.

We walked outside of the park and low and behold we saw a group of people sitting there and watching two women doing ballroom. After a couple seconds the song ended and everyone paired up and they all started doing ballroom right there! It must have been a class of some sort but it was cool because everyone was doing the same moves at the same time.
As we were leaving, Elizabeth and I talked about how we would never see this type of thing in the US. People don’t generally meet in the park for random group activities like that. We talked about how there is less privacy here, in China, but there is more community involvement and community activities. We talked about how cool it was that older people would go to the park on their own to enjoy the company of other people around their age and have fun whether that’s singing and dancing or playing hackeysack, going for a walk, dancing on the plaza outside of the park. It was so cool to see all of that and I definitely felt like it was an honor to be experience this type of thing. I took some pictures of people dancing and singing and the Chinese people that were sitting there just smiled at me and nodded in approval. It was really nice.

We made our way back to Tiananmen took some pictures of the Forbidden City at night and listened to Sumana’s account of her day that included an unregistered taxi, a really nice driver, her train ticket getting stuck underneath the train 10 minutes before it was supposed to depart, really broken mandarin and a meeting with the Chinese and Indian National table Tennis teams.

Sumana and I headed back to the hostel and stopped to get McDonalds (GROSS) where we ordered corn (yummm) and fries (yuck) and then headed back to get ready for The Great Wall the following day. :D

Trying to find the Airport and Arriving in Beijing...

2009-10-29T15:40:00.003+08:00

I left campus around 1:30 on Thursday. Sumana was taking care of the cash flow because I couldn't get yuan in time and she can get yuan for no fees through her bank. So that was fantastic of her. I am gonna owe her so much money but I'll just pay in Hong Kong dollars, i guess. It'll be interesting to see exactly how much this trip costs me. Ah well. What can you do. Its an adventure and sometimes you just have to let caution go to the wind. (whoa. did I just say that?).

Anyway, I met her at the MTR station and it was funny because I had an actual something to tell her but as soon as I saw her I was like WOOHOO! We both did this hop, skip and a jump because we were so excited. Anyway we made our way up to the border and as we were went farther and farther up into the New Territories the surroundings felt less and less like Hong Kong and more and more like India. Not to the same extent, I don't think but much, much closer. We got to the border and ended up crossing and we were slightly violated by PRC people (When you cross the border you have to fill out a health declaration form and before they let you into China, they point this temperature gun to your head to make sure that you are not running a fever. It was pretty funny but definitely not expected at all..I felt a little violated but I guess thats part of the experience!

Anyway, we crossed the border and we started looking for the Bus to the airport because we knew it would take between an hour to two hours to get there and we didn't want to miss our flight. Boy was this a difficult task! First of all, we crossed the border and it seemed like almost immediately noone spoke English anymore. I am glad I brought Vijay's Mandarin phrasebook because it definitely helped us at that point. We asked people how to get to "feiji chang" which is the word for airport and people would start rambling off in Mandarin and we were just like, "umm, okay. Xie Xie" And then kind of head off in the direction that their quick hands were pointing. We walked up and down the bus terminal, first meeting this one creepy kind of guy when he came up to us while we were trying to match chinese characters on the wall and we figured we might as well ask him how to get there and he pulled out his phone started typing numbers on to it and then showed us "40 for one, 80 for two" and we thought he meant by bus but we were really, really skeptical. So we started walking with him a little bit and then he calls over this teenage boy and he offers to take our bags, obviously we said No and then we followed VERY slowly behind him and then we saw him gesture to his friends like with his thumbs up and nodding and all and we decided to get outside of that situation really fast. We just were like, "uhh, no thank you" and walked in the other direction. After asking a bunch of people, we ended up finding the bus (which was in some alleyway) and then left for the airport.

The first difference I noticed was the fact that no one was speaking any English. The second thing that I noticed was that there were soo many cars on the road! I don't know why I noticed that so well but I most definitely did and it kind of freaked me out (I can only imagine what its going to be like when I get back to the States). Anyway, we made our way to the airport and checked in and I took pictures of planes for my brother and then we boarded the flight (20 minutes late). We left at around an hour after we were supposed to leave and got to Beijing on time- don't ask me how that works. I don't have any idea. We got off the plane and got our baggage and tried to follow the directions to get to the Happy Dragon Hostel.

People didn't want to speak English but we managed to use our phrasebook and Sumana's background in Mandarin to figure out that we needed to take Bus 2 and where we were supposed to stand. We got on the right bus and then tried to figure out when we were supposed to get off. It was about 11pm so we were a little nervous as to how we were getting there. We tried to listen to the half Mandarin/half English announcements but the speaker wasn't working so we could not understand anything. An older gentleman that was sitting next to us asked us if we needed help and we asked if we could take the train to Dongsi Station from Dongzhimen Station (where we were going to get off). He proceeded to tell us that the trains stop running at 11 and that we would have to take a taxi. He started to ask where we were going and the address and all. We were very skeptical to tell him because we had heard horror stories but he saw the paper that we had in our hands and so he asked for it. He looked at it for a long while and Sumana and I were very much like.. "uhh, whats going on...we probably shouldn't have done that" but he seemed nice and then we were hopping that he would not get off the bus at the same time that we did but he, of course, did but then walked the other direction after saying bye. Nice man.

Anyways, we are standing outside at this bus station and this man is nearby and he looks kinda drunk and hes smoking a ciggarette and then there was this other more legit looking guy who asked if we needed help. We said we did and once again he asked us where we were going (I HATE THAT QUESTION) but we showed him because we really had no other choice. We hailed a taxi (on the first try..woohoo!) and tried showing the taxi driver the address of the hostel (in Chinese) and he would not accept it and said no. And then started driving away. The second taxi that we asked wouldn't do it either and then we asked the man to help us and he tried talking to the driver but the driver decided to start driving away as the man was talking (definitely not very nice).

Anyway, I guess the man was worried about us a little bit so he let us share a taxi because he was going in a similar direction. He took the paper from us and then explained to the driver what exactly we were looking for. Then he asked us where we were from and told us that he lives in New Jersey and was here for a conference. He got off at his hotel and then told the taxi driver to clear the tab for us so we would start from wherever he got off (Such a nice gesture!). We thanked him profusely and then we made it to the hostel without incident. Awesome old-man-taxi driver. :)

We were received by the Hostel's staff that came out to greet us and took our bags inside and then we went to check in. We were trying to check in and the man essentially said "Did you get my email this morning?" Our response.."No......" to which he replied "Oh, well our guests from today decided that they wanted to extend their stay today and so we don't have any place for you tonight. I can drive you to our sister hostel and you can stay there and then I can pick you up in the morning" We were frustrated with that but we kind of just accepted it (and had no other options and just laughed at the luck that we were having all day). We were weary of him too, especially because he decided to drive in the narrowest, smallest, darkest alleys that he could find; but we ended up getting to the sister hostel and checked into a room that had one other girl staying in it. We woke her up by turning on the light and told us about her stay here and asked us small little questions and then went back to sleep. We weren't quite sleepy so I told Sumana about how Ben was reading reviews of this place a couple days before and it said something about how they had overbooked the hostel and sent the people to stay elsewhere where they had awful beds. Our beds were pretty comfortable. We wanted to get up early to go explore but we decided that we would try and get a full nights sleep because thats probably going to be a little difficult int he coming days. We woke up at like 9:15 were ready by 10:30 and checked out whereby we had to wait for a good 30 minutes for the guy to be called to pick us up. We checked into our actual hostel but were told that our room wasn't ready so we put our luggage in storage (after locking it..thanks to my mom who packed my luggage lock in my suitcase before I came to Hong Kong!) and then set out on our way..

We eventually found the subway station and then made our way to the Silk Market. We roamed around there for quite a while and looked for walking shoes for Sumana so that we could go to TGW on Sunday. We found some and then we bargained with the lady for a bit and I ended up with a pair of fake Puma shoes as well. My only frivolous purchase of the day..though I could use another pair of shoes so I guess its not totally frivolous. We walked around and tried to find a wallet for Sumana and found a stall that we liked. She found a wallet that she liked except it said that it was made out of genuine leather. She asked the guy if it was real leather and he said "yes yes, real leather" and then took a lighter to the material to show us. Then shes told him, "Oh, well then I don't want it" and he asked why and she said it was for religious reasons and then he said, "Oh yes, yes. Its not real leather! I just tell everyone its real leather.Seee!.." and then he proceeded to show us the plastic layering on the inside. Hilarious. We wandered around some more and got slightly manhandled and pulled into stalls and then went upstairs to the clothing section where I bargained with a guy from 400 ish for a sweater down to 65. I went from 50 to 65 and didn't budge until he came down all the way. He was fun and nice too. Its a cute sweater and I am really excited about it. Then we went to what we really wanted (what I really wanted/needed) a winter coat! We found a stall that seemed to have pretty nice ones and we tried on coat after coat and finally found one that I liked and asked how much it was and she started at $1700 yuan!!!!! Of course I am not paying that. I told her I wanted 150 but then upped it to 200 and then stayed there until she came all the way down to what I wanted. Its 30 USD but I really like the coat and am completely happy with the purchase. We left there to go up to the fourth floor (THERE ARE SO MANY STALLS) to find little trinkets. There was this stand when you got out of the elevator that sold scrolls with people's names on them. The artist would look up your name in a chinese-english dictionary and then would spell it out. It was really cool.

I think we are going to go back on Monday. so that we pick touristy things up and then don't need to worry about it later. :) I think I also want to buy a wristlet for formal occassions..I think I can get it for around 30 yuan (5ish USD).

After we finished shopping we made our way to the train station and met a nice old man that helped us to get to the Lama temple where we were supposed to meet my friend Elizabeth for dinner. He kept wishing us a pleasant evening. He was nice. We were already running late and then we got to the station and didn't quite know how to get there and the maps in the subway station weren't helping because they were all written in Chinese. We asked someone (who apparently was not a local) and he asked someone else and then he explained it to us. We were able to find it (after walking down some ways) and crossed the street (which was an adventure in itself) and then walked down a kind of dark alleywayish. We weren't quite sure how far to go but I saw Elizabeth and after watching out for cars went and gave her the hugest hug ever. We went inside and sat at this really nice vegetarian restaurant and we had a buffet dinner which was scrumptious and talked about everything under the sun.. about her family, my family, her adventures, and her language immersion program and just about everything else that you could imagine.

At around 8 or so we decided that we needed to get back to the silk market before it closed to pick up the watercolors and we were going to run late. We got to the silk market around 8:50 and the downstairs was closed so we ran upstairs and outside and around and crossed the street and Elizbeth used her mad, amazing Mandarin skills to get us past the guard in order to pick up our things.

We went back to the station and we tried to figure out our plans to buy Sumana's ticket to go see her Uncle in the morning and then after writing down some quick translations and deciding that she (Elizabeth) and I were going to meet up below Mao's picture at 8:45 the next morning, we called it a night and headed back to the hostel to admire our purchases and to write this extremely long post!

On to Saturday...

Beijing, Here I come!

2009-10-22T12:23:00.002+08:00

Midterms are finally over and I am leaving for Beijing in a few short minutes!

Quick Update:

I went to the Temple and to the Beach on Saturday (both amazing...I'll tell you about it soon)
Finance and I will never get along.
I can almost say that I miss accounting...almost.
Psychology is by far my favorite class at UST.
I AM SO EXCITED FOR BEIJING!

Have a good weekend and I can't wait to tell you all about my adventures!

-Neesha

Midterms Midterms Midterms

2009-10-16T13:15:00.002+08:00

I am currently half way through my midterms. My globalization studies professor stressed the fact that we needed the book for the class and then we took the midterm and there were absolutely no questions from the book on the test. I was pretty upset. Anyway- hopefully my finance midterm (on Monday) goes well. I heard that last year, the raw average was around a 60something. Gotta beat the curve!

I envy all of these people that are taking their classes pass/fail. Booo. Oh well, I guess. Two midterms next week and then I will be in Beijing!

Nothing exciting has really been going on. There seems to be a routine going on here. As soon as midterms are over, I think I am going to try and explore more and take advantage of the weekday afternoons. Sumana and I were trying to find a place to volunteer but noone really wants people that are here for such a short period of time. It's pretty sad. Tomorrow people are going to go to the Beach so I think I am going to try and get a bunch of studying done today so that tomorrow I can go to the beach for a little while and then head off to the temple to observe Diwali.

Some other Indian kids, here, want to go check out the temple tomorrow so I am pretty excited about that.

Anyway- I should probably go study now. Its going to be a long day/night.

Happy Diwali and Saalmubarak (Happy New Year!) !

Pictures

2009-10-12T14:35:00.002+08:00

If you want to see pictures of all my adventures thus far.. you can find the link on the left hand side under the "about Me" section.

I figured I would just post them all there because I seem to have lengthy posts already and pictures would make them much, much longer.

Great win by the Buckeyes AND the Steelers AND the Penguins this weekend! Super excited for all of my teams.

Back to studying now.

Have a good start to the week!

Life since Mid Autumn Festival

2009-10-11T23:40:00.003+08:00

Nothing exciting has been going on. There has been a lot of studying and less exploring. I have midterms and they are eating up all my funness. I really wish I was taking my classes Pass/Fail. I would be able to experience so much more but OSU doesn't work like that so oh well.

I am currently at one midterm down and three to go. My next one is on Tuesday.

Yesterday, Saturday, a couple of us went in search of a Sichuan restuarant so that we could try that style of chinese food-spicy! Unfortunately, we made our way all the way down to LKF on a Saturday morning when it is absolutely dead to find that the restaurant, Mum Chau's, is only open for lunch Monday through Friday. So sad. Oh well, we decide to go back to El Taco Loco instead. I got a burrito...it was halfway decent.

My globalization studies midterm is on Tuesday and then I am going to start studying for Finance almost immediately because I want to do something fun this weekend- especially because its Diwali! I definitely want to adventure to the temple and see if anything is going on. My goal is also to make it to the beach or go hiking this weekend. We'll see what happens.

Anyway.. I should get going... Gotta wake up early! Goodnight all!

I miss you!

Mid Autumn Festival

2009-10-11T23:03:00.003+08:00

So I have successfully put off writing this post for a while now. And since I haven't been studying for the past hour and don't anticipate studying for the rest of the night, it seems like the perfect time to write this out. :)

Last weekend, Saturday, Sumana, Sungwon, Andrew and I went to our local friend, Yannie's house for dinner. She invited us Friday night and it sounded like a pretty spectacular idea. After our 10,000 Buddha adventure we quickly made our way back to UST and changed out our batteries for our cameras and went back to the MTR station to make our way to Tsuen Wan. We transferred onto the red line, at Prince Edward, heading to Tsuen Wan and met Yannie at that stop. Its so fun to go on a different line of the MTR. You get to see so many different things and Saturday we went on two different lines - I love exploring! Anywho, we made our way to her building and we got to her apartment building where we proceeded to climb up to the 29th floor! Oh my goodness! Her parents were so welcoming and it was so nice to be an a home-like atmosphere for a change. Her flat was a 2 bedroom. It was a really nice building and my battery was dead for the first half of the evening otherwise I would have taken pictures of her family/our dinner table full of people from diverse backgrounds!

Yannie 's mom made vegetarian food especially because Sumana and I were coming to her home- so nice of her! We started off eating/drinking a bowl of vegetable soup and then as soon as the bowl was cleaned out we started with the main courses. She made a mushroom dish, a noodle with beancurd dish, and a preserved egg dish along with a couple meat dishes for the meatitarians. Oh and Rice. How could I forget the Rice of all things?! It was a really interesting experience to eat with her family! They were so hospitable and asked us all about our homes and our majors and what we liked to do. We had a rerun of America's Got Talent on in the background which kind of made me giggle a little bit. We talked about Korean movies for a little while and then after we finished eating we broke out some traditional fruit.

They served starfruit and persimmon. I had never tried a persimmon but boy was it delicious. From the outside, a persimmon looks like of like and unripe tomato. It was so sweet and delicious. I highly recommend it. After the fruit, Yannie's family brought out the mooncakes. They had one traditional mooncake which everyone shared (I wasn't a fan) and various types of snowy mooncakes. Snowy mooncakes are the ones that are frozen/served cold and have a variety of different flavors (like delicious mango) and traditional mooncakes have egg yolk in the middle (not my cup of tea). Yannie's dad was telling the four of us, while Yannie and her mom were in the kitchen area, that he likes traditional mooncakes more than snowy ones because it reminds him of when he was younger and his family was struggling more and they would gather at Mid Autumn Festival time and share mooncakes and enjoy each other's company. It was so sweet. ;)

After we finished, Yannie took us to the harbour area/park area near her home. She surprised us with paper lanterns that we could play with ourselves! We lit the bottom of the candles and stuck them into the inside of the lantern and then pulled up the paper part and Ta-Dah!- a wonderful lantern. We got to the park and we weren't even in the main section and everyone had their lanterns out, little kids had glow sticks attached to them in all sorts of paterns (a bunch of little kiddies had glow stick wings) and people were just having a good time. We took our laterns and walked toward the park area and when we got there we saw a lot of people sitting in circles with their friends and/or their family and they were playing with candles and talking and laughing and playing games. It looked like everyone was having a really great time- that life was just so simple and fun and that they should enjoy it when they can. We kept walking and saw all sorts of different types of lanterns. I saw a bunny rabbit lantern, a hot air balloon umbrella, an airplane lantern (which made me think of my brother), and many others. I have some pretty good pictures that you should look up on facebook/picasa that will give you more of an idea about how everything was laid out.
We walked all the way to the Tsuen Wan MTR station where they had a huge dragon blow up and the start of an even longer walkway with flag lanterns lighting the pathway. We took pictures in front of it and then kept on our way.

Sumana and I sat on a bench after the others left for a little while. We just took in the entire scene and just tried to soak it all in. It looked like so much fun. A big street party where everyone stays out really late with friends and family and plays with candles, lanterns, plays gamed, (apparently a lot of the people around my age go to the beach and hang lanterns and drink and all). The Chinese actually arrange it so that the day AFTER the Mid Autumn Festival is a holiday because they know that everyone will be out super late, spending time with family. Sounds like a pretty smart idea to me!

I know that the "place to be" on Mid Autumn Festival is Victoria Park/Causaway Bay because their decorations are amazing but I am actually really, really happy that I ended up with Yannie. I got to see the not so touristy part of the Mid Autumn Festival (there were no internationals at this park) and I am so thankful to her for inviting us in to her home!

Overall- it was a pretty exciting, fun filled day!

Temple of 10,000 Buddhas and Tai Po Market

2009-10-07T15:41:00.006+08:00

Wow, oh wow. There is so much that I have to say about this past weekend. Let me first say that I am absolutely so happy that I ended up staying in Hong Kong this weekend. I am so happy that I got to explore more of Hong Kong and be around some really fun people.

So Friday was pretty uneventful but on Saturday, Ben, Sumana, Evan and I left around 9:30 to head to the Temple of 10,000 Buddha Monastery. We didn't know where we were supposed to go besides knowing which MTR stop that we had to get off at to walk on over to the temple. After reading the MTR map, we got on the train and got off at our transfer point. None of us had ever been on this specific sector of the rail line so we had no idea how it worked. We ended up thinking that we were at the wrong spot but managed to find our way to the above ground line. I was so excited that this rail line was above ground because we were able to take in the scenery of the New Territories area. New Territories (where the temple is) is a section of Hong Kong that seems to have fewer people and is not as intimidating (if that is the right word) in terms of city life. The Racecourse and the Chinese University of Hong Kong is located in New Territories. This is also the rail line that we would take to go to the Hong Kong-China Border.

There are a good number of people that are around but its more nature like and it is more residential. Anyway, we got out at Sha Tin MTR stop and attempted to find out way to the temple. We walked through a mall area, decided that we were at the wrong exit to get to the temple and then turned around and found a map. We followed the not so very helpful map and ended up at the Temple about 10-15 minutes later- Or so we thought. We saw stereotypical chinese style architecture and assumed that we were at the right place. We also saw escalators and decided that this must be a new addition to the temple (so that people would not have to climb the 400+steps to the top). We climbed the steps, taking pictures along the way, and walked around what we thought was the beginning of the temple. There were a lot of people with flowers and gifts that they were placing near their family's pictures (that were placed on these locker-type cubby wholes. We didn't think we were at the completely wrong place and just assumed that we had a long way to go to get to the temple. We got up around 200 something steps (after about 5 escalators) and then had nowhere else to go and realized that we were in more of a mausoleum than a temple. People were givinag us funny looks and some scowls and so we headed back down the side of the mountain and tried to find the right place to go.

We backtracked and still didn't find any signs that indicated where we should go so we went down this random alleyway that we thought might reach the right area and it turned out to be correct! We followed this dirt path through a residential area and past a small temple and then made or way up some crumbling steps. We were a little concerned that the signs were misleading because the "entrance" didn't seem very official but we walked up around 394 steps and reached the first level of the temple. It was amazing. Absolutely gorgeous. There were statues a long the area and then in the main temple, there were cubby holes maybe 4 inches by 4 inches that housed tiny Buddha statues-each statue doing a different hand motion. It was amazing. The ceiling was probably 40 feet high and these small Buddha statues covered the walls from end to end. After spending some time in there we climbed some more steps to the next level walked around there and then climbed the last steps to the very top where there was a very large white statue with a waterfall in the background. It was very picturesque. We sat there for awhile contemplating how we would climb up the rocky precipice to take pictures but in the end we decided against it.

We climbed back down the 500 steps and found, walked back into the mall and found a restaurant called Spaghetti 360 where we had lunch. Yumm. We decided that we didn' want to end out adventure just yet so we went further north to the Tai Po Market.
Now, as a vegetarian I wouldn't really, really recommend this market to you. The entire first floor is fish and poultry. Not a place for me. It was kind of humorous because we got to the building that it was housed in and not knowing what to expect, the four of us just walked in and within two seconds we walked back outside again to get some fresh air. Yuck. It was a very awful, fishy smell but Evan really wanted to go into the building so we went. We walked around and saw the fish and saw a lot of locals bargaining and picking their fish. Next, Evan wanted to go into the poultry section. I was definitely a little hesitant but I decided that it would be a good experience, especially because there is a disctinct possibility that I would never set foot in that building ever again or any other like it (well-maybe not...because I have been to the fisherman's Warf in San Francisco and that was kinda cool) but really...I had to go. So we walked through the carnivore section of the building and I am not going to lie, I was pretty grossed out. After awhile I just couldn't take it anymore and kept my eyes forward and walked straight out of that section. We went upstairs and we found the Herbivore section- Fruits and Vegetables Market- Now that's my kind of place. They had some really cool, cheap flower market and fruits and veggies (including cheap star fruit, passion fruit, and pineapple!)
Evan got flowers for his mom (his parents are visiting) and after careful deliberation and consultation with our local friends, Sumana and I decided to get a fruit basket for this local and her family who invited us over for dinner in honor of the Mid-Autumn Festival. This fruit basket turned out to be pretty big but they wrapped it very nicely for us. It turned out to be pretty expensive and we really could have haggled with them about the price but we were running late and didn't really think about bargaining (hindsight says we really, really should have bargained because it was a little too pricey- 12ish USD for the each of us. Oh well, it was a big basket and totally worth it. After we got the basket, we lugged it back to UST so we could change our camera batteries and get ready. :)

My next post will be about the dinner and the lantern festival! Get Excited!

Give me a couple days

2009-10-06T01:49:00.002+08:00

Hello
I have a lot to write about this past weekend and the Mid Autumn Festival but I am currently studying for a midterm that I have on Wednesday so I probably won't post anything about this past weekend until Wednesday Afternoon.

Sorrry!
Miss you all!
Keep me in your thoughts as I begin my first and only midterms of this semester!
With Hugs,
Neesha

Happy Chinese National Day!

2009-10-02T01:11:00.003+08:00

Hello everyone!
I just wanted to update you on the ongoings of this past week. On Tuesday, I helped the newly founded Exchange Activities Committee with their first ever event. Sumana asked me to help them out because they felt as though they would not be able to reach the masses when they attempted to everyone make mooncakes. Wait, let me explain what a mooncake is. A mooncake is a staple dessert of Hong Kong (and China?) that is eaten around the time of the Mid-Autumn Festival (which is on Saturday). A mooncake has a very thin layer of sweetened dough on the outside and a type of filling on the inside. The filling, on the inside, can vary a lot in the types of flavours...they have lotus, blueberry with jasmine, red bean, mung (some type of sweet lentil, I believe), green tea, coffee..I think you could put just about any flavour you want. Traditionally, Mooncakes have a egg yolk filling but now the filling types have changed a lot. A friend of mine, Ben (from Minnesota), tried a traditional mooncake and absolutely hated it. I can imagine why, an egg yolk filling would be just awful. Actually, Haagen Das is here and they make ice cream mooncakes specifically for this region of the world but I hear they are really expensive. Even normal Mooncakes are served cold, but not frozen.

Anyway, sorry for my random tangent about mooncakes. So this event was called "Mooncake Making Maddness" or something along the lines of that. The committee planned it out so that everyone would arrive and would sit at tables, at which the ingredients to make the mooncakes would be, and then as the committee members demonstrated how to make the mooncakes, the tables would do it as well. There were about 90-100 people there and I think everyone had a pretty good time attempting to make it. After they finished the preliminary steps (including stuffing the dough and filling into a mold and squeezing out a mooncake, the mooncakes had to be placed in a fridgerator for an hour. While they were cooling off, everyone had some dinner and the UST band society played. They played a couple english songs (and weren't really that great) and then everyone just mingled. We pulled the mooncakes out early because the fridge wasn't working so well and people ended up not really liking the mooncakes, though that might have been because we forgot to tell them to make the outside layer of dough really thin. woops. Oh well.

Anyway, I can't tell you how awesome it was to be a part of that event. I know I wasn't really a part of the planning process or anything like that but just to feel like you helped accomplish something at this school for students to enjoy is just always a really great feeling. I feel totally worthless here. Semesters are really killing me. I feel like I have too much time on my hands and yet, not enough time. I am sooo used to always being on my toes and always knowing when things are due and not having much time, in between, to prepare for assignments and all..but here, its just awful. I am not really a partof any organizations, I don't have meetings that I have to attend or extra lessons or anything. I have no sense of urgency in anything that I do. I hate it. I need my days to be somewhat planned. I need a routine and busyness in my life. I need my meetings and work and organizations and other meetings and random lunches with people. I can't wait to get back to OSU, in that respect. Its going to be awesome.

So Wednesday was pretty uneventful except for the fact that Sumana and I and Ben for most of the time watched Lagaan! We rented it from the UST library (its really cool that they have it) and we watched it. I have been wanting to watch this movie for sooo long. I don't have my copy of that movie anymore because I let one my high school teacher's borrow it and I never got it back, despite the teacher saying that he/she would mail it to me and what not. Thoroughly depressing. Anyway, we watched the entire movie and I realized 1. just how long that movie is (225 minutes!!!!) 2. Just how long the cricket part of it is and 3. How not so flattering they make the women look. Not pleased, in the slightest. But its a really fantastic movie and I love it a lot and its totally worth the 3 hours and 45 minutes even just for the incredible music. Some of my favorite bollywood music of all time. :)

Anyway We didn't have class today because its CHINESE NATIONAL DAY! 60th anniversary of the People's Republic of China. I am not exactly sure how I am supposed to feel about it being the 60th anniversary of a ruling communist party but people seem excited, so I am excited, I guess. We went to Tsim Sha Tsui to watch the fireworks and boy were there SOOOOOO many people there! It was nuts. I'll post pictures on Picasa. The fireworks were awesome and some of the biggest I have ever seen. Everyone was oooing and ahhing at the same time. It was soo funny. :) In the US, people would not have been as vocal in their ooooohing and ahhhhing. It would not be as communal at all. It would probably be more sarcastic than anything else. Anyway, afterwards, we went to grab something to eat and it took absolutely forever for us to get served. Oh well. Sumana and I got a mango shake to split and boy, oh boy, was it AWFUL. It tasted like medicine. I don't know what they think of when they think Mango but it surely was not that. We got back a little bit ago and now I am getting sleepy.

This weekend we decided not to go to Shenzhen and Guangzhou because there might, potentially be an even better China trip that some peoople are doing later and I didn't want to potentially miss out on that by going to Shenzhen now. I only have two China entries and I am certainly not paying another 150 US for another two. Thats absurd. Its very annoying because essentially all other nationalities can just go up to the border and get a visa then and it would cost about 40 US but US passport holders have to go, IN ADVANCE, to the embassy and pay 150 US to get a DOUBLE ENTRY visa. Not even multi entry. Its pretty frustrating but I shouldn't complain because US passport holders don't need a visa for a lot of other countries so I guess it evens out with China or something? I don't know. I know the US Consulates are very hard on other people that want to go to the US to visit or whatever so maybe the Chinese government is trying to get back at US Citizens. Who knows. Their way of distributing multi entry visas is ridiculous as well. My fellow Buckeyes, Diana and Evan, were able to get multi entries but when Kyle and I tried, the lady told me that, because we had never been to China before we could only have a double entry. Though, I don't think that Diana has been to China before. It doesn't make sense to me but thats neither here nor there. Back to the topic at hand, it looks like Ben, Sumana and I and probably some other random people will be going around Hong Kong this weekend! I am super pumped.

Anyway, I am super tired so I will talk to you soon! Comment or Email or something! I would love to hear from you! :)

Neesha

The rest of the weekend!

2009-09-28T21:20:00.004+08:00

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

2009-09-28T00:07:00.004+08:00

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...

2009-09-23T18:12:00.003+08:00

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....

2009-09-20T14:30:00.006+08:00

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?!

2009-09-17T14:46:00.004+08:00

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?

2009-09-13T19:38:00.003+08:00

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?

2009-09-13T18:55:00.003+08:00

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

2009-09-12T00:07:00.006+08:00

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!

2009-09-10T00:08:00.002+08:00

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!

2009-09-09T13:58:00.002+08:00

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

2009-09-06T23:48:00.004+08:00

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

2009-09-04T23:59:00.002+08:00

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

2009-09-03T20:46:00.003+08:00

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

2009-09-02T18:13:00.002+08:00

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

2009-09-01T22:11:00.003+08:00

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!

2009-09-01T00:33:00.002+08:00

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!

Sunday

2009-08-31T23:28:00.003+08:00

Wow, oh wow. Sunday was maybe my most favorite day in Hong Kong so far. I woke up a little early to make sure that I got time to go through some emails (and facebook) and catch up but then I called up Sumana and Andrew and Sung to see if they wanted to come to a day in Hong Kong that my buddy, Sharon and her friends, Chris and Michelle had come up with. The three of them decided that they would join us in the Atrium (which I have yet to post a picture of) at 11:50 where we were going to meet Chris to take the minibus and MTR to meet up with Sharon and Michelle. At around 11:15, I remember that I told Ray the day before that I would call him if I was heading into town with my buddies. He sleepily agrees to come with us.

We probably finally left for the minibus and then MTR station at around 12:20 after everything was said and done. There was alot of plan shuffling but we got every straightened out and we headed out for a day in the City. We went down Sheung Wan and walked around the city where we got to see the awesome Tram (which Hong Kong peoples used before the MTR was built. It cost 2 HKD to go from one end of the line to the other..cheappp!) and we found a local HK restaurant where Sumana and I decided that we can't see food go to waste anymore so we should start splitting meals (more practical and cost efficient!). So Sumana and I had fried rice (what else) and it was actually pretty good. I am getting pretty good at using chopsticks and I was told that I have good "posture" when I hold them...as opposed to some of the people here who cross their chopsticks when holding them (to me, it looks cooler to cross them but whatever).

We had some great conversations about alot of things. On the MTR, I started to learn more about South Korea from Sung and he was telling me that maybe 600,000 people may still have their families split but the border between North and South Korea but for the most part families are in either one side or the other side. While at dinner, there was definitely a lot of cross culture talking. People were asking about Hinduism (there is a Hindu temple in Hong Kong!) and about India and such. And we were all discussing the various dialects and languages in China and who speaks what. It was really cool.

After a long chat during we started walking around the city (which locals call Central) and we went into these older streets where there were some awesome stalls selling all sorts of things. I can definitely see myself getting some sort of dragon to take back to the US with me. The way they are so intricately carved is just phenomenal.

The streets, in some parts, were very, very steep and very narrow. I think Andrew almost fell up and down steps more than a few times. It was just one of the coolest things to see highrises in the mountains. Its an indescribable view. I don't know that I have very good pictures of that but I will try and post some, for sure.

Anywho, Chris was a very good "tour guide" and he explained the significance of alot of things around Hong Kong. We got to see the awesome HSBC building, which is kind of built like legos...and Chris was saying that they built it as such so that if they every felt the need to more that headquarters/building (maybe in times of political instability?) that they would be able to do so by unlegofying the building. Yes, I did make up that word.

We walked some more around the city and took the tram for a little bit so that we could experience a more historic part of Hong Kong culture and then we made our way down to the convention center area and were able to see the Golden Flower (?) which signifies the return to a sovereign HK. It was really pretty, right on the water and you could see Central skyline in the background. After we took pictures there, we went on the Star Ferry and crossed the Harbour to Tsim Sha Tsui to see the "Symphony of Lights" laser show that they have on the highrises of HK. It was probably the coolest thing that I have ever seen. The lights and the skyline and everything combined was unbelievable.

While we were waiting for the show to begin, Ray, Sumana and I were talking with Michelle and Chris and they were telling us how they want to speak American English. I thought this was really interesting because for some reason, I always thought that most people want to speak British English because its more proper or widely understood? Atleast from my experience thus far, with HK locals (which is admittedly, minimal), I am pretty much mistaken.

After the show, we went off through Tsim Sha Tsui and we went to dinner at this Hong Kong style steakhouse where I had eggs and talked talked all about Korean Culture. In South Korea, it is mandatory that all men go to the armed forces for approximately 2 years. From what I gather, they can choose what they would like to be in but then its up to that particular area on whether or not they would like to accept them and if not, then they try something else. Most Koreans go to the army around their first of second year of college unless they are studying to be a Lawyer or Doctor, in which case they wait until after their board exams.

One interesting story that Andrew told us was that the Koreans are required to go through training where they have to be exposed to biological weapons without their gas masks and what not. I guess they are exposed to, I think, tear gas and they are required to endure it for 3 minutes a bunch of times. Craziness. I don't know that I would be able to do that.

After talking for a long time, we headed back to HKUST by MTR and then minibus. It was probably the best of the days in HK so far. Soo much learning and listening and talking.

Good Company, Good Food and Good Conversation. :)

I could really get used to this.

Tai O, Tsim Sha Tsui, Avenue of the Stars!

2009-08-30T01:14:00.009+08:00

Tai O

Tsim Sha Tsui (Below)

Avenue of the Stars, Victoria Harbour

I'll get stuff posted of HKUST otherwise I'll post the link for pictures on facebook. Have a good day!

A Couple Pictures !

2009-08-30T00:56:00.014+08:00

More Pictures from Tai O and Avenue of the Stars in the Next Post!

Lantau and GIGANTIC BUDDHA!

2009-08-29T23:46:00.007+08:00

Oh goodness. Was it HOT. It felt like a 100 degrees out with humidity and all. It was ridiculous. So I woke up super early, at like 6 am or something ridiculous because I couldn't sleep and came out of my room. I walked down the hall and passed the common room and was absolutely in AWE of the view. I'll post it but it was amazing. Then I went down to the lobby to go on the internet. I met this Aussie, Carmen, there and we started walking towards the atrium where we would were supposed to meet up with everyone. We were early so we headed over to the cafeteria type thing (I can't remember which one...maybe LG 7 (Stands for Lower Ground 7)...I'll explain that when I post pictures of campus. They had a more western style breakfast with eggs and toast and some carnivore stuff. I didn't get breakfast but we met a couple of germans there and we had breakfast with them.

We got to the atrium and it was really cool because people were really trying to mingle with one another and get to know each other. Freshman year all over again. It was especially cool, though, because you could hear so many different languages with people talking to other people from their schools and then translating to new people. I met people from Korea, mainland China, Singapore, Germans, Austrians, Americans, Australians, Sweeds, Indians, Finish, Brits, Canadians and Italian people. I think that covers it? haha. It was amazing. A pretty spectacular day of meeting people.

We got on the bus and it felt like FOREVER until we reached Lantau Island. We switched buses like 20 times during the day (exaggeration!) and it took about an hour and a half of winding roads and major hill climbing until we got to the Buddha. It was hilarious because we turned the corner and you could just hear everyone gasp at the giganticness of it. It was beautiful up there. Indescribable. It was serene and quite up there and just beautiful. It was interesting to see peeoples interactions. I was really into looking around and absorbing it all but it seemed like alot of other people weren't as interested in that. They were just talking to each other and not really paying attention to the people walking around the base of the Buddha, praying or anything. Maybe a little bit disrespectful of us but maybe locals are used to it? Maybe people don't realize the importance of the Buddha to a lot of people. Who knows.

Anywho, we went to this monastery to have lunch. VEGETARIAN FOOD!!!! Oh my goodness, I hadn't even been in Hong Kong and I was already missing my ease of access to herbivore food. We had lunch at this monastery and there were 3 other herbivores at my table! Its awesome that I met other people in the same situation. I really thought that I would be the only one causing problems for all of my new friends. Two of the veggie eaters are Indian girls from the US (one that goes to UIUC, Trisha, and one that goes to Northeastern, Sumana) the other girl is also from UIUC and her name is Kaitlyn (that is how I imagine she spells her name). Other people that were at my table include a Brit whose family is Armenian, Erebouni, some other Americans, Rahul (a full time UST student from India) and Amanda( also a full time student, born in the US and raised in HK).

We then got on the bus and went to Tai O, a fishermen's village. Its called the Venice of Hong Kong. Its not as pretty as Venice but I still really cool. We stopped there and we went on this dolphin watching tour thing that was like 20 HKD (a little less than 3 USD) and we actually did see some, though I didn't get a picture of any of them. We explored the village a little and then went back on the boat to go to a little amusement park by the name of Noah's Ark that was kinda funny.

We got to this park and people were falling asleep on the bus and once we got there people were a little reluctant to be outside since it was so hot. I hung out with a cool group of people that included a couple girls from NYU (Ashley and Emmy), a couple Koreans, a German named Steven, Sumana and some local students. One of the best parts of this part of the trip was when we were playing with this skin crayon thing and people were writing each other's names in whatever language they spoke. So I got my name written, on my arms, in Korean and Japanese. Then we wrote things on this chalkboard in different languages (I wrote some stuff in Gujarati and Spanish...) It was surprisingly fun even though I was a little bit put off by the heat.

We got back on the bus and people kept asking me if I was going on tonight and things like that. By this time, I was EXHAUSTED-definitely a combination of jetlag and heat exhaustion and the like. So I told them just that, "I don't know just quite yet. Maybe, but I am not sure because I am really jet-lagged and so we will just have to see if I don't pass out before then" and they kept trying to get me to go and go and go. And finally the kid let go or whatever. What's funny is that, today, I found out that that specific kid, from the states, actually had fell asleep in the AC and didn't go out. Meanwhile, I went exploring with some new friends. How ironic.

Anywho, I met and hung out with my roommate when I got back and then left with Sumana, and two Koreans, Sung and Andrew, to go to Tsim Sha Tsui (TST) to find atms for them, to find adapters, to grab some dinner and see a bit of the city. We went roaming around and found that the area was slightly dodgy but it was a little early to get too dodgy. We were in a group so it was a little better.

We met up with a local UST student, Koko, and we went on this wild goose chase to find an Indian restaurant which was in Chung King Mansions or whatnot. We eventually found it and it was closed so we went to this place called Skushy's Pizza place (definitely not what I anticipated eating on only the second day that I was in HK but whatever).

What was really cool was that Sumana and I found that were not only trying to learn more about Hong Kong culture and Korean culture but that they were also asking about the meanings of different things. For example, Koko asked Sumana and I what the proper etiquette for using a fork and knife (where to place it when you are finished) and we were asked what the meaning of the phrase "We have made a deal with the bank. Skushy won't cash checks and the Bank won't make pizzas" or something like that..some sort of advertisment in the restaurant.

After we finished dinner, we made our way toward the Avenue of the Stars, which has HKs famous stars and their footprints and what not. Its along Victoria Harbour and you can see the Hong Kong skyline and it was BEAUTIFUL. I took a couple pictures but they weren't that great. I am not quite sure about the settings on my camera but hopefully I can figure it out.

We got back super late and I asked Andrew to add money to my air conditioner (its a pre-pay AC..which apparently the rest of the world calls the Air Con..in case you were wondering) and then I went to sleep around 2:30.

Today, Saturday, I got up super late and uploaded pictures and then went with Sumana to get some lunch. She ended up with some sort of fish in her dish so we split mine (it was huge) which had some sort of rice in it with a sort of water soup with veggies..not the most appetizing thing in the world but it worked out. And we wandered around campus which is absolutely gorgeous and then we checked out the grocery store on campus (which I think I will be frequenting) and then played cards with Carmen, Andrew and Sung in my dorm.

We played for awhile and then went to dinner where we met up with this kid named Ray. Whats funny about this meeting is that we were walking for awhile and he had talked to just about everyone else and he got to me and he asked me where I was from and all and I said where I was from and all and had a contemplative look on his face and I asked him if he new my friend, Christina and he was flabergasted. It was really funny because I had heard, from Christina, all about Ray and how I need to meet him and all and he had heard the same so it was funny how we randomly met and were able to have common connection.

Anyway we had dinner for awhile and I met some people from Singapore who were really really nice and then here I am..starting this blog and posting and all!

I am going to go ahead and post a couple pictures on here from the last few days' adventures and then I am going to call it a night!

That was a crazy long post. Props to you if you read it all!

Miss you all!
Neesha

Flight and Dia numero uno!

2009-08-29T23:46:00.000+08:00

So I left Pittsburgh feeling nervous and yet excited for this amazing adventure that I was about to leave for. I couldn't even begin to explain to you how nervous I was about this trip and how much I questioned what I was doing and the timing and all. On the Wednesday, the day I left for JFK and eventually Hong Kong, I felt energized and excited to go.

My parents came to JFK to drop me off and I think that helped alot. I made some phone calls while we were sitting and having lunch but for the most part it was really wonderful to have company while I was sitting in the airport. They helped me with my luggage, which were both over 50 pounds, and that was definitely the best part.

Anywho, the flight over was pretty long but pretty nice. The flight from JFK to HKG is around 15.5 hours. I definitely passed out for the first 8 hours and watched the movie The Soloist and then about 7 episodes of Friends (Season 7). There weren't very many people on the flight so I got to spread out and really take advantage of my non-standby ticket. It went pretty fast, which I did not expect at all.

I got to HK on Thursday evening around 7pm. My first thought when I got into the jetway and then outside of the airport was "Ahhh. Its Hot and Humid!" My Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST, or UST as people here call it) buddy met me outside of arrivals and helped me get a Octopus card (MTR (like metro) and Bus card) HKUST. We went by bus to school which included one transfer and we stopped at a 7-11 on the way so I could get a new sim card (THANKS for the phone, Vijay!) and then continued on to the school! It took like 1.5 hours but not that much money, so definitely worth it. I couldn't really get my bearings when I first got here but I got to my room and pretty much immediately unpacked and quickly went online in the lobby to let my family (and friends!) know that I had arrived safely.

Here are a few pictures from flying over NYC and then the view as we were landing in Hong Kong.

NYC
And..on to HK!

These pictures don't do either place justice but it was absolutely gorgeous.
I'll post about my first full day and our Lantau Island tour soon!

Ni Hao!

2009-08-29T22:31:00.001+08:00

So this blog is, clearly, because I want to be able to let you all know what I am doing here in Hong Kong! I miss you all and I am gonna start posting what I have been up to in the next post! :D

Bear with me because I don't know my way around this whole blogging thing just yet.

Gracias! And on to my adventures!

Neesha