Thailand

I just booked a weekend trip to Thailand in October! My friend(s) and I are flying to Bangkok on Thursday after class and coming back on Sunday. I'm so excited - it's my first trip to Southeast Asia, the region I have been dying to go to since forever, and it's less than a month away! I have to start figuring out what we should do and where we should go when we are there. My friend knows someone living in Bangkok too, so we will have an expat American showing us around the city. Cannot wait! Then about a month later I will be going to Cambodia with Mom - that trip is going to be amazing.

How is it that the more trips I book, the more trips I want to plan? Heading back to Expedia now to see what I can scrounge up...

English Language Mentoring

I forgot to mention that I have volunteered at the English Language Center as an English mentor - they wanted native English speakers to meet with groups of City University students each week to just chat in English and help the students to improve their English and feel more comfortable speaking with a native speaker. I met with my group this week and they're really nice - I have a girl from Hong Kong and two guys from mainland China. They were a little intimidated by me at first I think, but I took out my Chinese book and showed them what I was learning - they thought it was hysterical that I was learning such easy stuff, and I think it loosened them up about speaking with me (I told them, "your English is way better than my Chinese!") We are planning on doing different activities over the semester - playing table tennis, going out to lunch, taking a tram up to the Peak, and watching Friends. There's also going to be a BIG Halloween party, which I'm really excited about - I was really sad to be missing Halloween, so I'm glad I'll have an excuse to dress up. It will be fun to help the Chinese students dress up for their first Halloween :) Next week my group decided to play Pictionary. They don't know what they're going up against...

Happy Valley

On Wednesday night my friend Mo and I went to Happy Valley Racecourse to watch the night horse racing. It was so cool! It was the first night of racing for the season, so there were a ton of people there, gambling and having a good time. We gambled a little and took a ton of pictures - I have never seen horse racing at night under lights before, and it's so cool. Anyone who has never gone has to!

You can find pictures from that night here:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2020758&id=1325940161&l=51f4456e27

I also took videos of the races, which you can watch here:

http://www.facebook.com/video/?id=1325940161#/video/video.php?v=1134361922336
http://www.facebook.com/video/?id=1325940161#/video/video.php?v=1134363002363

Typhoon Kappu

Hi everyone,

Right now I'm sitting inside listening to the storm outside - Typhoon Kappu is supposed to hit HK directly tonight, and right now a level 8 typhoon warning has been hoisted. If it's still up in the morning classes get cancelled - so hopefully the storm lasts til morning!

My classes have been good, although we had class on Saturday this weekend to make up for a break we're having in October (I don't know why). I'm taking four classes this semester:

Chinese
Southeast Asia in the World Political Economy
Money and Banking
International Economic Relations

I really like all of them - Chinese is really fun, and I'm especially excited about the Southeast Asia class because of all the traveling I want to do there. This weekend, other than having classes on Saturday, I went swimming at the pool - everyone who knows me knows that I HATE swimming, but my friend was going and I figured I needed the exercise. After a few pointers I was even doing a passable freestyle. I think I might go back a few times this week - it's the only exercise I can do in this heat that I don't sweat in! This coming weekend I might try to explore the beaches and the harbors here, and maybe go hiking in the mountains (although I think I might just wait til the temperature drops below 90 every day!)

Zai jian! (See you soon!)

I <3 Ladies Market

Everyone,

Jump on a plane right now, fly to Hong Kong, and go straight to the Ladies Market. I am the queen of haggling and flea markets, so I was blown away this afternoon when my roommate and I went to Tung Choi Street to look for some shoes and bags. I got a wicked cute pair of high heeled sandals for $90 HKD (about $12 US), she got a bag, and we both got some tank tops and dresses for going out. I also got a gorgeous oil painting of the Hong Kong skyline - I love it. Probably going to go back tomorrow, because the dress I bought is blue and I realized once I got back that everything I own is blue. It will take some major willpower for me to not buy more! Luckily I'll be here for a few more months, so I have time to frequent my new favorite place in HK :)

First day of classes

Today was my first day of classes at City University. I had Mandarin - this is going to be interesting. I am ok with remembering words and characters, but my pronounciation is a little off. Luckily I have the class every day for two hours, so I'm hoping that means I won't forget anything. After class I went to the mall - the school's MTR stop is located in the biggest mall I've ever seen, although apparently it's pretty dinky by Hong Kong standards. The salespeople in China are a lot more attentive than in the States - every store I had three people following me, holding things up for me, and trying to wait on me hand and foot. In one shoe store, the saleswoman asked me if I was a student, and we ended up chatting for 10 minutes. People here are really friendly to foreigners, much more so than in China. In China they stare at you, but its more like you're an animal in a zoo than an interesting person.

Tomorrow I have International Economic Relations in the morning and then Mandarin in the afternoon. After that my roommate and I are going to the Ladies Street Market to buy shoes - I hope I find something cute and cheap :)

Back from Mainland China

Hello everyone!

It's been over two weeks since my last post, and I've been wicked busy traveling around mainland China. It was a really amazing experience, but I am so glad to be back! Going two weeks without access to Facebook or my blog (because the Chinese government has blocked them - apparently my blog is subversive!) was really tough, so its nice to be back in contact with everyone. I took a ton of pictures, which you can see at these links:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2019313&id=1325940161&l=1688ebe8c6

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2019363&id=1325940161&l=1627a2d229

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2019364&id=1325940161&l=a6860a5ef1

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2019374&id=1325940161&l=d7c7b6220f

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2019375&id=1325940161&l=ddf1e9b540

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2019376&id=1325940161&l=ead4aa04f8

These pictures will show you everything I did. I did way too much to recap here - seeing the terracotta soldiers, riding a bicycle on an ancient city wall, playing with kids in a village, haggling for silk and pearls in the markets, seeing the Forbidden City and Tiananmen Square, climbing the Great Wall, and clubbing in Shanghai. These are all the pictures I had on my camera, but my friends have pictures too that I will load later. Enjoy! It's good to be back :)