Live. Life. Love. Longhorn.: Trips, Trips, Trips

Music: Put Your Hands Up For Detroit- Fredde Le Grande
Mood:Globe-trotting, almost

First things first, I feel so out of touch with the rest of the world.
While I've been abroad:

McCain chose Palin as his running mate and Obama chose Biden
There have been numerous hurricanes that have threatened the States
UT has won it's first two football games
The Houston Astros are on FIRE! (535 winning pct, and 5 games back from the National League Wild Card)
Apple released new versions of the iPods. I really want an iTouch, though 120gb for the classic iPod is sick! (Hint Hint: I'm celebrating a birthday and x-mas abroad, but I do come back in January!)

Any other important develops in Texas, the US, or at UT that I should know about? Please leave comments to keep me updated!

This is my 3rd week in Hong Kong, and I'm still loving it. I was feeling a bit homesick last Friday night, so on Saturday, I went to my grandparent's place, had lunch with them (dime sume), and then spent most of the day with them. I don't know if it was homesickness or just the desire to get away from everything. I can't believe this is only my 3rd week here. I have so many more months here, but I know it'll go fast. The only thing that's in the way are the classes. My grades still transfer (which STINKS) but the classes honestly don't seem that hard. It's just annoying though because the professors don't really teach. They lecture straight out of the book, and then the quizzes/tests are going to be multiple choice, testing how much you've memorized the book. In auditing, I have a group presentation too (for 10 minutes). And it's reallllllly basic. Nothing like a McCombs presentation. The powerpoint is choppy and the professor said he doesn't really care. He said he just wants to see good presentation skills, which I'm not really worried about. For Finance, I HATE online homework. It reminds me of high school physics or calculus at UT where you have to enter the numbers in. The annoying thing is that the system isn't that flexible, so it doesn't take rounding errors and even one of the questions I did today had the wrong answer. It's so fustrating.

For the most part though, my classes just require reading the book. I'm going to start doing the excercise problems in the back of the book to to prepare me for the mid-terms and finals because that's all my grade comes from--- 2 tests. So I'm sort of nervous about that. My favorite class here is my Chinese Literature Class. Since there are only 6 to 8 people in the class, we really get to discuss the literature. It's interesting to see the viewpoints of my classmates, many of who were raised in Hong Kong or China.

In terms of traveling, I'm going to Manila, Philippines this weekend (Friday, Sept 12 to Monday, Sept 15)! I'm really excited about that because I've never been. We haven't really planned anything out. 11 of us booked a hostel, and we plan to joing tours over there. I know I want to visit Taygaytay Lake (where the world's smallest volcano is). I also want to do a city history tour of like churchs and Intramuros (the spanish walled fortress).

The following weekend (Thursday, Sept 18 to Monday, Sept 22), I'm going to Bangkok, Thailand, despite the demonstrations I've heard about on the news. I'm joining two UT study abroaders who are flying there from Singapore, and we're all going to meet up a friend who is studying abroad in Thailand. We're going to explore Bangkok on Thursday and Friday, and then going to Hua Hin (a beach resort, for the weekend) and then explore Bangkok again that Monday before I leave. My two friends from Singapore are on break so they are staying till later.

I'm obviously skipping classes (shhh.. don't tell anyone!). I'm skipping Friday classes (Auditing and Chinese Lit) both Fridays. This coming Monday, we have off, so it's not that big of a deal. It's the mid-autum festival where you eat moon cakes! I'll be skipping the Monday after that for Bangkok, though, but it's only Finance, so I'm not worried. After all this traveling, I have to settle down and study. I need to study and read before the mid-terms in October, so I figured I'd get my traveling in now and then study and then travel again after mid-terms.

Ok. I'm extremely tired. I have to get up early to do a BC interview for returning members. I've got class at 1:30, so I'm going back to bed to take a nap and then going to the gym before classes. We'll see how things go!

Oh, and I got to hear the Chief Executive of Hong Kong-- Donald Tsang-- speak at our school. His goal was to get ideas and suggestions from the HKUST students before writing his policy address, which he'll give in October.

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