Korea and Birthday in Hong Kong

Music: You Belong to Me- Taylor Swift

Mood: enjoying myself

Sorry I've been MIA. I haven't updated my blog since before the election. Between now and then, Barack Obama has been selected president, I turned twenty this past Saturday (20, gross, I feel so weird NOT being a teenager any more), and I traveled to South Korea (last weekend).

Despite all this traveling and studying abroad, I am ready to be back. The thing is, I don't get back until Jan 6th! I'm craving healthy food, a good gym, and to drive. My friend, Mark W, who studied abroad in Hong Kong last fall, flew over to HKG on Saturday to visit friends and interview for jobs. I saw him briefly on Sunday, and he brought me American contrabands!!!! It was one of the best Birthday/Christmas/care packages I have ever received. Diet Dr. Pepper, Honey Bunches of Oats, and Chewy Granola bars. It was amazing! Two DDPs exploded in his luggage though, so I only have 10. But wow, what a sacrifice! So BIG shout out to Mark W! THANKS! Today, for breakfast, I had great American cereal, and with my lunch and in my finance class, I sipped on a DDP! What a great day!.

OMG! It feels soo good to have these comforts! Thanks Mark W!!

I also got my haircut today. I was supposed to go to Shenzhen on Sunday to get my custom suits from the tailor and to get my hair cut and highlighted. That didn't happen. Email me if you want to know the long story of why not, but my hair was getting OUT OF CONTROL, so I ended up going to the on campus hair cut place and just getting it cut. I'm not sure what it looks like. I don't really like it, but it does the job. Next time I go to Shenzhen, I'd like to get it cut (or at least trimmed) and also highlighted, but for now, it's shorter, so I look more presentable. (I'd gone from mid-August to mid-November, 3 months without cutting it... CRAZY). So no cool photos of my cool hair or anything.. I know, right? Sad face to the max.

Oh, I'm also super excited about all the souvenirs I've gotten for friends and for myself! I know I'm totally going to miss the Hong Kong skyline when I go back, so I got this AMAZING painting on the black canvas of the Hong Kong skyline! It set me back about 23 USD (180 HKD) but it's totally worth it. It's about the size of a foosball table, and I'm going to get it framed when I go back and hang it in my room. I'm SUPER EXCITED about it. Haha. (sorry, that was random.)

Oh ok, so confession, I was meaning to write 2 blogs on two different occasions (one after my Korea trip and one before my birthday), but I never had time or took the effort to sit still. Confession is that I've gotten so ADD here. Since classes are boring, I find myself daydreaming and when I'm reading my books in the library for class, I get antsy and can't sit still. It's so bad. Freaking UST classes, they're so useless! haha. But before my birthday, I was feeling sort of sad and homesick. I'm feeling great now, but usually around November, there are so many birthdays among a lot of my friends, so we usually have joint get-to-gethers/parties. This time around, I was hearing about all the fun events they were planning and felt sad that I wasn't there. =( But my birthday ended up being pretty fun! Friday was a quite night (which I was fine with. We went to walk around Temple street where I bought my painting and had street vendor chicken + rice... the soy sauce at this place was in a Gatorade bottle with a squeeze top.. seriously?! haha.). Saturday, I went to the beach with a couple of friends. I've been meaning to go the Beaches in HKG since I've been here but by the time I realized I hadn't gone to one, it was too cold. Well, this saturday, we had a High of 85 F, so it was PERFECT beach weather. We took the MTR to central, and then took bus 6 to Repulse Bay. It was soo beautiful, and we got to watch the sun set. Then, after grabbing sushi at the Taste grocery store (equivalent of central mkt or whole foods), we headed back to campus, crashed a BBQ of some friends (roasted some fishballs and marshmallows) and then headed out for a fun night on the town!

notice the soy sauce in the gatorade bottle..

Me enjoying the hong kong snacks!

At Repluse Bay!

Watching the sun-set on Saturday!

Dancing the night away!

Birthday Dinner with my grandparents and Uncle, Aunt, and Cousin on Sunday

I went to Seoul, Korea last weekend and it was also a lot of fun. I LOVE Korean food. It's soo flavorful and I can handle the spicy food there (it's different, I don't know why). And I love how every comes with side dishes, which are free. It was cool seeing the Palaces, the Korean Folk village, and EATING! Haha. I wish I had time to see the war museum, but that wasn't possible because it was closed on Mondays and that's when we tried to go. I also did the very korean thing of hiking up mountains! Seoul reminded me a lot of Houston with Autumn colors. The city is pretty flat and the suburbs go on for miles. The skyline is not distinct at all thought (unlike Houston's, which I love, but not as much as HKG's skyline, duh!). The subway was definitely not as efficient as hong kong's. It took like an hour or 1.5 hours to get anywhere! Other than that, it was a very beautiful city. The thing is there, a lot of the historical buildings were destroyed by the Japanese during several different invasions, so a lot of the historical palaces were rebuilt and the city is pretty new.

Travel-wise, I leave for Taipei, Taiwan this Thursday (Nov 20th). I'm really excited about Taiwan. I'm going with a good group of people, and there should be a lot to do in Taiwan. I really want to hike the huge mountain in southern Taiwan but I won't have time.. I know 4 days is not enough!

Since there is NO unity or logical flow to this post, I'll keep the trend and transition to talk about recruiting. Recruiting abroad stinks. I can access OCR and send out emails, but there's not like just good ole' face time with recruiters, chatting with them and getting to know them. I had communicating electronically with them. A bank I'm recruiting with is having a phone info session this week at 1pm, EST, which is 2am my time, so I emailed them saying, "please send me the information, because I will not be able to phone in at 2am, esp. with class in the morning." I'm not even very interested in working for a bank, but I just want to have some offers. I know I'll get AN internship, but I really want to get one in strategic consulting. I haven't prepared at all for the all-important case interview or anything, but whatever. Hopefully things will work out. I have to get my foot in the door somehow. I just hope studying abroad doesn't set me back.

Ok. I think that covers all the bases since my last post. Time to add pictures to the blog! =)

Oh wait, one last thing. I'm really sad that I'm missing Thanksgiving this year. Thankgsgiving time is my favourite holiday of the year. I love to eat, and love the thanksgiving meal set. ESP green bean casserole and all the different pies (pecan, apple, cherry, and pumpkin). It's going to be weird not being home for that, or for black friday the day after thanksgiving. I love thanksgiving more than christmas because it's such a simple holiday, food and family. No rush to buy gifts or feel the urge to fall into the consumerism trap (though Black Friday is fun). But I still do love christmas music and trees. In fact, the stores here already have the x-mas decorations up! Hehe. Green bean casserole, you will be missed this year. =(

At a Korean Temple! This is one of my fav pictures of this trip!

Korean fall colors!

At a Korean Palace (this one is Beokjeonggung Palace)

Election Day 2008

Music: Wait- Get Set Go
Mood: Satisfied

I apologize for not updating like I promised. -___-

First of all, welcome new readers. I know the bloggers in Austin made classroom announcements in BA101, so I might have new readers. A quick intro: I'm a BHP, Plan II, Finance major from Missouri City, TX, and I am currently studying abroad in Hong Kong.

This semester, I've been pretty bad about keeping up with people back home because I've just been so occupied with things going on here. Typing up emails and blog posts just takes so long, and it is difficult to coordinate skype calls, so I apologize for those people who have not received their postcards or who have not heard responses from me via facebook or email.

So first things first, the "big news" that I had from last post was that I am seriously considering Teach for America. I talked with my parents about becoming a teacher in passing one time but didn't really think anything of it. Then, while abroad, I've traveled to so many different places and seen so many things. I've come to realize that I'm not EXTREMELY interested in finance, though my major is corporate finance. I mean, y'all know that situation about how I really want to do something that helps others instead of work for a corporation in a cubicle. That's why I really want to strategic consulting and eventually work for a nonprofit doing work that champions the rights of the poor-- specifically, providing education and access to health care to prevent deaths from preventable diseases. Ideally, I would love to start my own philanthropic foundation like Bill Gates, but then that requires a pocketbook the size of Bill's. Thus, I deduced the only way I can achieve my goals is either [1] work in corporate america, make a lot of money, and then form the charity, [2] work in strategic consulting and move into the pro bono cases of the firm and then slowly transition to a non-profit consulting firm, [3] start off working in non-profit and then climb my way up to becoming the CEO of a non-profit, [4] go into law and represent the disenfranchised or go into politics after law, [5] anything else? This Teach For America (TFA) experience would strengthen me as a person and allow me to grow. I know it's an extremely hard 2 years, frustrating at times and rewarding other times, but I think it'll be worth it. And, I'm already young for my age, so two years after graduation, I'll still be relatively young. From that, I could either go into law or go full-time into whatever job I sign with. So yea, TFA was the big announcement. I think I'll apply next Fall.

In other news, Today/Tomorrow is election day! It's crazy that this is my first presidential election, and I voted from abroad. I was worried that Fort Bend County wouldn't receive my ballot because of mailing issues, but I emailed FB county and they confirmed they received my ballot, so I'm glad that worked out. In terms of the foreign opinion of the election, I've gotten a huge amount of input and perspective from other people. As you can tell from the news reports, most other people in the world don't support McCain. The sentiment is that Obama would better represent America and begin to heal the broken ties and the bad reputation that America has received. At the same time, talking from my grandparents, they cannot believe that a Black person would even be on the ballot in the States. My grandparents are very old fashioned and think differently, but when they hear that Obama has been in the lead, they are in disbelief and don't think America will choose him. Talking with my roommate, I asked him during the primary between Obama and Hillary, who he supported. He said he favored Obama because he didn't trust a powerful woman as president. Others I've spoken with, like from Germany or The Netherlands, support Obama as well because they feel he is more in tune with world policy rather than the previous notion that America is King.

However, on a side note, American's still think they're kings. I mean, I'm not bashing or stereotyping Americans, but when I've traveled abroad to other countries and seen other tourists, you can spot the American tourists from a mile away-- they are "usually" (but not always) the loud, rude, obnoxious ones. In crowded areas where the people harass you for things, they are usually the ones that either [1] mock the language, [2] yell at the people to stop harassing you, [3] make a big scene. In my opinion, these people are doing their jobs, and the American travelers are just being rude and unaccepting to the other people. It's a sad but true reality that because of these interactions with American, others still view Americans in such a bad light. Will a presidential election change that? Who knows? What I do know, is that tomorrow morning, after my auditing class, we will know who our next president will be. I'm interested to see what else will be on the news after the election. The media has had a fanfare with this election because of the historical impact of this election-- a black guy and a woman.

I know that tomorrow, I'll wake up at like 8:20 for my 9am class. Watch CNN downstairs in the lobby for a bit, and then take my computer to class and watch the returns come in on CNN or MSNBC. (Personally, I'm starting to like MSNBC a lot more. CNN's interface is hard to use and their news is boring... haha). By my audit class ends tomorrow at 11am, I think we'll know who is president. In the meanwhile, I'm still reading Hillary Clinton's autobiography entitled "Living History." I'm on pg. 630 of 800. Hopefully I finish soon!

Also, I'm going to Korea this coming weekend. Specifically, Seoul, Korea, and I am excited like none other! Me and my high school friend, Cynthia (who goes to Berkley but is studying abroad at Hong Kong Univ.) are flying to Seoul and staying with a high school teacher who moved to Korea to teach at an international school. He's going to take us around the city and allow us to stay with him! How cool is that?! I plan to see rural Korea, get some good Korean BBQ, see some temples/palaces, go to the korean war museum, and overall soak in the coolness of the city. It'll be about upper 50s for the high and in the 40s for the lows. Because of this, I had my tailor in Shenzhen make me a D&G copy wool peacoat!

Hopefully, it'll be cold enough for me to make use of it! Haha. I went to Shenzhen this Sunday to have a suit made for me. I also had him make me a shirt and monogram it (on the left tail of the shirt, so it's not visible). I went back today (Tuesday afternoon) to have him give me a second fitting for the jacket. While there, I realized I need a pea coat and that it'd be cool to have for Korea, so I went ahead and ordered it. It'll be ready by Thursday, and he said he'll be able to ship it via DHL to me so I can have it for my Thursday trip. Though I'm not having a 2nd fitting for this peacoat, I think I should be okay because pea coats are supposed to be bigger and fuller. The prices for this tailor are pretty reasonable. A wool suit with silk lining cost me 750 RMB and a dress shirt cost me 100 RMB. The peacoat with top quality wool (it was sooooo soft) with silk lining cost me 800 RMB. (1 USD = 6.83 RMB, so I paid about 110 USD for the suit, 15 USD for the shirt, and 117 for the peacoat (shipping included). I got a black suit made and a white shirt. When I go back to pick up my suit next week, I think I'm going to get a grey suit and a blue suit a well, as well as maybe 5 or 6 shirts. I just can't get over the fact that these are custom suits, so they are PERFECT for my build. I am so lucky that I got a multiple entry Chinese visa. Most other students here only got double entry, but because I got multi-entry, I can go to China as many times as I want. This means many trips to Shenzhen to go shopping, which is nice because I can use these suits for the business world (or professional world!). Yaya! So excited. In addition to that, Shenzhen has so much counterfeit stuff. I'm not condoning piracy or copyright infringement, but in Shenzhen, the reality is that you can find ANYTHING. They have fake Ralph Lauren, Lacoste, Burberry, etc. They even have copy-iPods! They also have every movie imaginable. They have all the seasons of every TV show you could imagine, from a popular show like the Office, to like BBC history shows! They have movies like crazy too, esp movies that aren't even out yet. We were joking with the guy and asked him when he would have the new Bond movie, and he said come back next year and he'll have it. How whack is that? There are copy Ray-Bans and Oakley sunglasses and copy Omegas, Tissots, etc. Everything. They are obviously FAKE, but still. They're there. It's unbelievable.

This past weekend was Halloween weekend. I ended out going out and dressing as the Joker. We went to Lan Kwai Fong, which is the 6th street equivalent with the mind-set of going to dance and have a good time. Instead, there were SOOO many people that they had us snaking back and forth for like 2 hours before we could go to the bars. It was literally a parade of people in costume. What we didn't realize was that the ENTIRE purpose of halloween in Hong Kong was the parade. People just take pictures of other people. In fact, there are people perched up on the higher buildings and in the elevated walkways taking pictures of others. It's crazy. So after weaving through the "parade" for about 1.5 hours, we got sick of that and wanted to actually do stuff. It ws about 2:30, and the night was still young (in Hong Kong time), so we went to a karaoke place and karaoked until about 6am and caught the subway back to UST. It was insane because we saw the sun rise. How sick is that? I mean, I'm not into sleeping that late, but wow! I was hungry too, so we waited for the McDonalds to open at 7am and had an sasuage-egg mcmuffin with hash browns and then I went to bed around 7:30am. Needless to say, I did not wake up until about 4pm. Haha. Hey, it happens.

Wow. This post is turning out to be longer than I thought it would be! I'll try to wrap it up. In finance, I had quite a scare when I found out I got a 59 out of 100 on the first mid-term. It turns out the TA mixed up people student ID numbers and I really got an A. In operations mgnt, however, I absolutely hate the teaching style and cannot stand the quizzes. I got the class avg (a 17 out of 25) on the 1st quiz and we just had our 2nd quiz today. Not sure how I did on that, but if i end up getting a B in this class, I will be furious. It's so easy, and I'm one of the people who knows the subject the best. In fact, all the other exchange people call me for help because they know I'm the one who pays attention and studies, but still, I end up with about the same grade as them. It's ridiculous. In my Chinese lit class, I got a 25 out of 25 on my first essay! Haha. Love it! I haven't gotten my Chinese film essay back nor have i heard back about my audit mid-term, so we shall see how things go.

Tonight, I just booked my ticket to Taipei, Taiwan for Nov 20 to the 24th, and I'm about to book my ticket to Shanghai for Nov 27 to Dec 2! I'm super excited! My pocketbook is almost empty, but it's being replaced with suits, pictures, and memories to last a lifetime! (See the pictures below)

Oh, and because this is supposed to be a career services oriented blog, I'll talk briefly about recruiting. I went to one recruiting talk for a small consulting firm here in HKG that is big in Europe and has some operations in the States. I got the HKG partner's contact information but she has yet to respond to my email about an internship. OCR opened up on Nov 3 for spring recruiting, so went on that last night and dropped my resume for several positions. I know that the strategic consulting firms don't use OCR, so I have to watch out for when interviews and resume drops are for those companies on the company website. Hopefully I get an internship I want this year. I mean, after interning for an auto company in Detroit my freshman year, and a hedge fund in operations in Dallas this past summer, I really want to work somewhere where I could see myself going full time (that is, if I don't do TFA or Law school). Oh, and I got an interview for SCIO-- Student Consulting International Organization. They're the Panama Brigades equivalent for this year, and they're doing a project in India to "turn a Maharaja house into an eco friendly lodge." I really hope I get selected for this project. If I do, I'll work on the consulting project for all of spring semester and then in May, after finals, I'll go to India for three weeks and actually implement the project. How cool would that be? I mean, it's doing the non-profit work that I love, it involves traveling, and it's during the summer! So this summer, hopefully I can go to India with SCIO and then work afterwards!

Ok, I really need to get to bed. I've been sooo sleep deprived this past week (the halloween festivities have throw my sleep schedule all off) so I need to get to bed.

Enjoy the pictures below (esp. if you've made it this far in the post!)

In Macau with the ruins of St. Paul Cathedral

Enjoying the sunset behind Victoria Peak and the IFC2

Waiting for the MTR on our way into the city

I had to take a picture with this cute Snow White

Riding the MTR back at 6am. eek but I'm still smiling!

Registration...

Music: One Last Breath- Creed
Mood: FUSTRATED

I'm classified as a senior..... and I still can't get the classes I want. I registered today at 11am (Oct 29th) and I'm still on the wait list for two of my classes. What the HECK?

In other news, I have an auditing midterm on Friday and an OM test on Tuesday. I went to Macau last weekend, and I'm thinking of going to Shenzhen this weekend. I'll post something more coherent this coming Friday after my midterm because it looks like I won't be doing anything for Halloween, except studying, Blogging, and worrying about registration.

I just keep telling myself: C'ste la vie

Oh, and I have a profound career annoucement, but I'll talk about it when I'm less fustrated about registration. Good night.

Things You Learn

Music: Don’t Blink- Kenny Chesney
Mood: Post-midterm Relief

Today is my Grandma’s birthday! And yesterday, we went to dinner to celebrate!

There’s that old (and annoying) cliché—“You learn a new thing every day.”—Yesterday, I learned a lot, but not from school. (Well, I learned about different models of line waiting in OM, analysis on Zhang Yimou’s Red Sorghum, and some Chinese prose of the Late Ming Dynsaty). But besides that, I learned a lot about Chinese culture.

I had made this picture for my grandma to give to her along with flowers. Since my grandma doesn’t know how to speak or read English, I found on Google-images pictures of Happy Birthday written in Chinese. I superimposed that image along with the numbers 2008 from the “Bejing 2008” logo and put it in a picture frame. See below—

Notice the Black Letters (..eek!)

So, when I went to develop the photo and then showed it to my cousin, she was like.. that’s,… interesting, and she wouldn’t tell me why. I kept annoying her and asking her what was going on, and she said that the font was black, which, when written on things like gifts, etc. symbolizes death, which I totally hadn’t realized. She explained that on gifts, font colors are usually red or gold (gold being better!). I totally didn’t realize this mistake at all, but it was too late. I couldn’t do anything because I already created the image and developed it. My cousin reassured me that it was okay because the background wasn’t pure white (it was a tan-ish background with black font, so it’s a little better. See above). I still gave the picture and flowers to my grandma, and she still liked it. So, I was relieved.

During this whole gift preparation (all of yesterday and Wednesday), I learned so much more of things we take for granted in the US.

1. Photolabs at all the pharmacies and Kodak express machine—I guess this is something we really don’t realize but selling drugs and photos in the same store is a weird combination. Here, the photo stores are separate from pharmacies. So on Wednesday, when I went to the mall to buy a picture frame, I also wanted to develop the picture I made. I scoured the places and couldn’t find a photolab open (because I went right after my finance midterm and all the places were closed). So on Thursday, on my way to dinner, I thought I could just go to the photolab near the MTR stop because all the MTR stores have these shops called Fotomax. They, however, don’t have Kodak express machines. I thought I’d be able to go up and find one to develop the photo. However, the only instant developing they have is for 4x6 photos and I needed a 5x7 photo. It was so frustrating because the Kodak machine in the States can develop anything instantly! So I just went ahead and developed the 4x6 one and put it awkwardly into the large 5x7 frame. I got luck though, because at the MTR stop near my grandparents, I went to the Fotomax over there and they weren’t that busy, so they were able to develop the picture for me in 5x7 in 30 minutes. It was still frustrating. So moral of the story, don’t take for granted Kodak machines at every CVS!
2. Florists at the grocery stores—I had no idea where I was going to get flowers, so I had my cousin help me. We went to this first florist near the MTR stop by my grandparent’s house, and they were too busy making arrangements for a wedding, so we couldn’t get a bouquet made from them. We walked around for a bit and couldn’t find a florist, and this lady overheard us complaining and she pointed us to two different florists (both which were closed). Then, we decided to give up and just go to the restaurant, and if we stumbled along a florist on the way, we would get a bouquet. Luckily, right near the restaurant, we foCund a florist, and they arranged the bouquet while we ate and then my cousin and I pretended to go to the bathroom and went to fetch the bouquet to give to my grandma. In the States, this would have never been an issue. I would have driven to the HEB, Kroger, Whole Foods, Randalls, or whatever and simply bought a bouquet! How simple! Haha.
3. Country Music—this is unrelated to anything involved in getting the gift for my grandma, but I miss country music and miss staying current with the latest country hits. I swear, when I go back to the States in the spring, I’m going to be 6 months behind in pop-culture.

In other news, I’m done with midterms for now! (My next one is Halloween.. yes, I have an exam on October 31st from 6 to 8pm. Seriously?!?! What was this professor thinking?) These midterms/essays were worth about 40% of my grade. How scary or ridiculous is that?! For finance, we have just exam, the final, and a few homework grades. Besides school, UT Alumni in Hong Kong have a mixer tomorrow from 7 to 10, so I’m going to try to go to that. I’d be cool to network with the alumni and see how they got their jobs in Hong Kong. I’m trying to look for an internship in Hong Kong, but I’m assuming that’s going to be pretty difficult because (1) the market is horrible right now and (2) the pay is so much less than in the States. My roommate is currently going through recruiting and it’s such a pain. They don’t have something like OCR where they can just drop their resume to a posting. Instead, they apply to each company online at each company’s website, writing the silly essays and things for each company. Imagine that!?! He had a “group” interview today where he and a group of like 6 people all work together on a case and present it in front of the interviewers. How ridiculous is that!? I’m so glad I don’t have to do that (unless I start looking for an internship here).

I don’t even know what to do about my internship search. I’m hoping to go for strategic consulting, but I don’t know how to get that started because I feel all the recruiting events like mixers and such are in the fall, so I won’t know anyone there in the spring when it comes time for me to recruit. Ekk. What am I to do? I’m also considering law school, so I need to really reflect on that because then I might just do a May-mester abroad with the Plan II program in Rome and then take the rest of the summer to study for my LSAT and maybe work for some senator or congressman. I really need to figure out if I’m hardcore law or not. I mean, I’m not too thrilled about business though. Nothing has excited me yet. I either need to find that excitement soon in a future internship or I’m going to get bored and go Law (or business PHD is still an option, but I’d rather just become a lecturer after I retire and do research).

And who needs to work? Why can’t we just travel all the time? (Answer: because you need money to travel!)

The Texas vs OkState game is this Saturday. I won’t be able to see the game, but we better win. Seriously! I don’t think we can lose to OkState, no way… and I’m hoping Ohio State beats Penn State this weekend too! Hook ‘em Horns!

Oh, and the HKUST + CitiBank International Case Competition is this week. Too bad UT wasn’t invited this year (ask me why in an email), but a team from Tammassat University in Bangkok, Thailand is here. It turns out that one of the university friends of Tracey, a UT BHPer studying abroad in Bangkok, who I met while in Bangkok is actually in Hong Kong competing. Their team didn’t make it to finals, but I ran into her on campus. We’re totally going out tonight! I’m pretty excited! Random, but cool! Haha.

Ok, I’m going to watch some of the office right now. I keep saying this, but I don’t know what I’m going to do once I run out of Season 3. I need season 4 (and then season 5 is right now!). On Saturday, I’m planning on getting my hair cut. I want an Asian haircut, and I think I’m going to get red highlights this time as well! =) So excited. Then I’m going to go shopping for real. I haven’t bought anything here yet, so we’re going shopping on Saturday.

Here are some photos from the dinner. Look at the pretty bouquet of flowers! =)

Grandma and her presents!

With my Grandparents on my Grandma's birthday

I saw this ad on the MTR. I don't understand why the sheep is pooping and there's a poop symbol in the speech bubble of the other sheep. I haven't taken marketing yet, but I don't know if Poop-sheep is an effective tool, regardless of the culture...

Mid-terms and Test Galore

Music: Detroit by Black Gold
Mood: Bored of Studying

The music I'm currently listening to was the free iTunes download last week, and it's actually very good. With those free downloads, they're either hit or miss, and this week, I really like it.

This past week went by pretty quickly; I spent most of the week in the library, studying for my finance test that's I have this Wednesday. Yes, I'm sort of a nerd (albeit a frustrated nerd) because I locked myself in the library everyday after getting out of class working on the practice problems for finance. It was actually very aggravating because I'm a finance major but this class here at UST is my first finance class. It's a corporate finance class (and it's not the most exciting). I mean, I understand how to use my financial calculator and calculate the NPV, future cash flows, etc. but some times, the problems are pretty ridiculous. However, it isn't as if I don't like challenges or like to think, rather, the teaching style here just doesn't suit the way I learn. Unlike my BHP classes or the classes at McCombs in general, the teachers (lecturers) here are very impersonal and don't really make an effort to help you out. Furthermore, the TAs here are not very helpful. It's pretty much learn it yourself and figure it out-- which is very annoying. I mean, I would work with other students to figure out what I don't understand, but most of the other study abraoders don't care or don't understand it because their grades don't transfer. So I'm stuck in a predicament and I am forced to study harder. What else can I do?

So after studying all week long, I decided to play mafia with friends on Thursday night, which was fun, but I didn't end up going to bed until 2:30 or 3am, which was bad. I mean, mafia is a really fun game and we've been playing it for a while now because everyone we introduced it to loves it, but on Friday, I went to the 2pm accounting instead of the 9am accounting because I was so tired. And if you know me, I'm a morning person! I hate getting up around 11 or 12 and having that feeling like you wasted half the day. I don't know what it is. I like getting up by 9 every day-- in fact, here, my roommate gets up at 8am every day, so I try to get up by 8 or 8:30 everyday and be productive. I mean, it's actually working out! So on the weekends, I usually find myself sleeping at 2 or 3am and then waking up at 11 or 12. Friday was no different, me and some dutch people (they go to school in The Netherlands, which is the same as Holland?, and some are from Germany... I don't know.. my European geography/history is not good at all, even though I took western civ. late and early. hah.) So we went to this korean place for dinner, which was really good, and then afterwards, we went back to the university and just sat at the levy along the beach until about 2 or 3am chatting about our countries, etc. It was really relaxing-- except for the fact that I got eaten alive by the mosquitoes. I was wearing pants, but that didn't stop the mosquitoes-- I currently have like 5 bites on my feet, including one on my big toe and one on my pinky toe. How annoying right? And then, of course, that gives me the excuse not to work out because my foot is too itchy. haha. Yea, i've been pretty lazy lately. I skipped the gym Friday through Sunday (gasp!), and all I've been doing is eating and studying (and eating...) so yea! not good.

Saturday, I got up around 11:30 and grabbed dim sum with some people at noon. We ate A LOT (like A LOT) and didn't get done till 1:30. After that, I ran straight to the library to start the studies! This week, I have a paper due in my Chinse Film class on Tuesday, a mid-term exam on Wednesday in finance, and another paper due on Thursday in Chinese Lit. (And then I have a final on Friday, the 31st, halloween weekend.. which STINKS!). So, all day Saturday, I spent writing this chinese film paper-- I haven't proofread it yet but it should be okay. Then, Saturday evening, we went to Jordan (near Mong Kong at in Kowloon) and saw the Flower Market, Bird Market, and Goldfish Market-- Literally, there were shops and shops selling those respective items... it was crazy but really cool to see! The baby turtles were about 10 hkd each (or 1.30 USD). There were also gold fish for like 800 HKD (more than 100 USD), it was so cool! We didn't ask them how much the birds were, but we assume they weren't too expensive. After walking around for the evening, we tried to find a place to eat but couldn't decide what to eat. That's one problem here in Hong Kong. Since places are zoned by district, you either come across a whole area with a lot of food or areas with no food, so we found ourselves walking for a while before we found a place we felt like eating at. I had some chinese noodles and pork and a red bean ice drink (my new favourite!) I don't really like bubble milk tea because the tapioca is too chewy. Red bean ice drink is so tasty!

Also, I've been trying to find a good place to go shopping. I still haven't found a good place that sells guy clothes. All the little markets sell knock-off products with labels, etc. and I feel the malls are too expensive, so I haven't gone shopping shopping yet. I'm hoping to do so this coming weekend after the first round of my mid-terms is over. I think I just need to go to a mall near one of the MTR shops and look around. The thing is, I want to avoid any clothes was their logos on the front. I prefer clothes that doesn't show the label and looks good for what it is. The only shirt I've gotten while here in HKG was a I <3 style="text-align: center;">Look at the heart-shaped firework!

Collage from my Vietnam/Cambodia trip (click to enlarge!)

Pictures from the Flower, Bird, and Goldfish Market

Even in Hong Kong...

...OU Still Sucks.

Music: Texas Fight Song and The Eyes of Texas- Longhorn Band
Mood: Elated

I am still in disbelief that I was able to see the Red River Rivalry (UT-OU game) this weekend at a sports bar in Hong Kong. Kick-off was at 11am CST, which is 12am GMT +8 (Hong Kong time). We watched the game from 12am to 4am, and I didn't go to bed until about 5am Sunday morning. It was an intense game, and I'm so glad I was able to see it.

That game was my first football game this year. Sad, I know! But whatelse can I do? No channels play american football because nobody here watches it. So anyways, we caught the game, and it was AMAZING. Nothing short of spectacular.

However, all of today, I was feeling a bit homesick. I know that most of my friends back home went to the game in Dallas, and if I were back in the States, I'd be in Dallas cheering with them. Seeing the game made me miss Texas Football (and TX sports in general, like volleyball too!) I also miss following the BCS games and seeing the other teams get defeated. I miss following MLB baseball in October, esp with the Red Sox in. I'm kind of upset that Chicago got knocked out by the Dodgers.. what the heck?!

But yea, I miss those American comforts a bit, but I really miss my friends. Today, I didn't really do much of anything. I skyped with my parents for a bit, chatted with friends online, and studied. Then I ran a bit to get the homesickness out of me and to stop being so bleh and unproductive. I uploaded like at least 200 pictures on facebook, complete with captions and tags, so it was a lot of facebooking time too.

Ok, I'm not really making sense right now, so I'm going to end here and probably go to bed. I have a 9AM tomorrow and that's it. After that, I'm going to the gym, then eating lunch, and then STUDYING! Woot!

Enjoy the pictures from the UT-OU game in Hong Kong!

Some of the UTers who went abroad to HKUST, celebrating our win!

Horns up!

Oh, and in other news, I voted in my first presidential election!! (though it was via absentee ballot, and I didn't get a cool, 'I voted' sticker)

Live from Vietnam....

...it's Tuesday NIGHT!

Music- Disturbia- Rihanna
Mood: Loving Life

Haha! Sorry, I had to do that. It's currently 10pm in Vietnam (11pm in HKG), and I'm sitting in the lobby of the hotel in Saigon (now known as Ho Chi Minh City). I think I'm paving blogger history as I write this post. I'm the first BBA Blogger who's blogged outside of the country (in HKG) and now while on travels. Haha! As Barney, from How I Met Your Mother would say.... "It's.... wait for it... wait for it.... LEGENDARY!"

Ok, so fact: I have to catch an airport transfer at 3:30 AM to SGN airport for a 6am flight back to Hong Kong. I'll land in Hong Kong around 9:30am, Wednesday morning and then take the subway back to UST, ready to catch my 1:30pm class and then my 4pm class. I'm going to be soooo tired but this trip has been totally worth it. I'll post pictures later, but right now, I'll just blog.

So I leave Hong Kong on Wednesday for Vietnam at 8:40pm, and I've been in Vietnam and Cambodia for 6 nights! This has been the longest trip I've taken. The other trips to the Philippines and Thailand have been Thurs to Monday trips, but this one is Thurs to Wednesday. Crazy, huh?

OK. I'm getting eaten alive right now by mosquitos in this lobby so here's a quick rundown of what I've done this wk.

Thursday- Flew into SGN, landing at 10:10ish.
Friday- Cu Chi Tunnels (where the Viet Cong hid underground as the US attacked them); Vietnamese War Remenats Museum; crazy market; Notre Dame Cathedral
Saturday- 12 hr bus ride to Siem Reap, Cambodia
Sunday- Angkor Thom, Angkor Wat and surrounding temples built between the 11th and the 15th century--- intersting fact- i saw the temple where Tomb Raider was shot
Monday- fishing village boat cruise on the lake near siem reap..... These fisherman make between 100 and 250 USD a YEAR... wow! took 6 hr bus ride to Phnom Penh, Cambodia
Tuesday- visited the Killing Fields outside of Phnom Penh (total killed by the Khmer Rouge, 3 million, in 1976ish, total population at that time was 7 million; Russian Market; Independence Monument; 6 hr bus ride to Saigon, Vientam
Wednesday- flight at 6am back to HKG

Ok. Seriously, these moquitoes are relentless. Gotta go!

wait--- let me write one profound statement:

Traveling Southeast Asia has been one of the most humbling experiences of my life, reaffirming my passion and desire to help others less fortunate than myself. I've seen poverty and destituion. I've seen prostitutes and tuk-tuk drivers. I've seen the clash between preserving culture and accepting the Western ways. I realize the fortune I have been blessed with simply becuase I was born in the United States to a family who could provide for my needs. When I was 6 years old, I didn't have to walk from table to table in the city, selling cigarettes and gum to the wealthy tourists; I did have to bathe in the lake or beg for cashew nuts at the bus stop. I love Southeast Asia. The people are truly genuine and friendly. It's just so sad to see the corruption of the government and the pure disregard for human rights. All in all, however, I believe that my traveling has made me a more concious and mindful world citizen.