HKG, Love.

Music: I Don't Wanna Miss A Thing- Aerosmith
Mood: <3>

This was my second weekend in Hong Kong although I've been abroad for a little over a month. Being Hong Kong again this weekend reaffirmed my love for Hong Kong. There's so much to do that I don't understand why I keep traveling away to other foreign places. I feel like I'm put in a catch-22 situation-- I want to explore more of Asia but at the same time, I want to get to know Hong Kong better.

This Thursday to Wednesday, I'm going to Vietnam and Cambodia. I'm flying out Thursday evening to Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC), going to explore HCMC till Sunday, then I plan to take a bus to Phnom Penh City, Cambodia and then return back to HCMC on Tuesday night, catching a 6am flight back to Hong Kong on Wednesday (where I still plan to make it to my 1pm class). It's going to be an insane trip, and I'm kind of nervous but excited. I have not really planned this trip and what I'm going to do, but I guess I'll find out soon this week.

This past Friday, I went to have dime sume with my grandpa right after my class. I'm so lucky to have my grandparents in Hong Kong. Although I don't really know them that well because of the language barrier, it's nice to escape the bustle of HKUST and traveling by going to eat with my grandparents and chatting about simple things. After dime sume with my grandpa, I met a high school friend who is studying at Hong Kong University. We went to travel agents in Causeway Bay and bought our flights to Seoul, South Korea for November 6 to 10th! One of our student council sponsors/teachers from our high school now teaches at an international school in Seoul, so we decided to visit him and he's letting us crash at his place! I'm really excited about this trip, besides the fact that it cost an arm and a leg.

Let me tell you, I've been spending money like it grows on trees. I don't know why, but I'm flat broke. My number one expense here in Hong Kong has been traveling. I mean, I guess that's the life of a study abroader, but still, I should not be blowing through this much cash. It's ridiculous. So after South Korea, I plan to do Taiwan in late November, like after Thanksgiving, and then after finals, I'd like to travel through Southern China. Still, I feel I've been traveling so much. Studying abroad is so much fun because of the travel. You live a life of such luxury because you keep justifying your expenses by telling yourself you'll never be here again. It's so bad, so I'm trying to cut back on all my other expenses.

I had to buy my ticket in CASH from the travel agent because it would have been pricier if I used my credit card, so I had to basically withdraw all my money from my bank account and still borrow some cash from my friend to cover the costs. But because it was a Friday, the banks were closed by the time I got back to my dorm, so I couldn't deposit any of my traveler's checks. I was flat out BROKE this weekend. I literally had to depend on friends to cover me. I didn't bring an ATM card here or anything, so I had no cash. It was sad. Thank goodness people loaned me money. That's the one thing I dislike here-- CASH is king, and I never usually carry cash. It stinks.

So this weekend, I had a blast. We went karaoke-ing on Friday night. Although they didn't have Bleeding Love (which is now my ring tone, after I discovered that my phone has a recorder!), I had a blast. There were like 15 of us, and it was intense, but so much fun! Saturday, I got up pretty late from staying out late the night before. I got up and had dime sume with a friend and then went back to my room to take a nap, as I was still tired. I then decided to be productive and worked on my supply chain mgnt chapters, as we have a quiz (mid-term) on Thursday. I studied that for a bit, and then surfed OCR for jobs. I've actually got a couple replies from my emails, but honestly, recruiting abraod is pretty difficult. In fact, one company I was interested since freshman year flat out told me that because I was abroad, they wouldn't be able to consider me and that I should think about going full-time with them. I thought to myself, "heck no.." =p I'm actually not too worried about recruiting, even though I should. I really want to do a consulting internship this summer, but it's hard to get in and I haven't even started doing interview prep. UGH! I think I'm slightly resigning to the fact that I might do the PH.D route or go into law. I just don't see myself in a cubicle or doing some type of boring business job. UGH. I'm simply trying not to think of jobs right now. Spending money and traveling is so much easier to think about. Haha. But in all seriousness, given how bad the market is, I'm a bit worried about this all-important junior internship. Hakuna Matata, right?

Maybe I'll Open Currency Exchange Store in HKG!

Today, Sunday, I've been pretty productive as well. I woke up early in the morning and did my Finance homework that isn't due until Friday! I still have to read the chapter for this week, but I'm quite comfortable with the progress I've made. I then grabed dime sume with a friend and then meet up with that friend and her "host family" here at HKUST. That "family" is an admin here at HKUST, and he invited his three "hostees" and 3 of their friends to take a hike through Lamma Island, followed by a seafood dinner. It was so much fun!

Now, I'm back in my dorm, exhausted. Finance and OM are calling my name. =( I've also picked up Hillary Clinton's Living History from the HKUST library, and I'm reading that. It's pretty good so far! Hillary is such an inspirational person to me, and I really am enjoying reading about her.

Karaoke-ing!

Dime Sume is Delicious!

I woke up this morning and saw all these sailboats in the water and thought to myself, "man, I need to meet someone with a boat!"

On the Hike; USC Trojan and UT Longhorn. \m/

Those things in the water are fish-farm buoys

I think this view is the reason why I came to HKG!

A Jumping Picture with the Lanterns at Tsim Sha Tsui

TYPHOON!

Music: Son's Gonna Rise- Citizen Cope
Mood: Enjoying Asia (Typhoon and all)

Wow. Hong Kong has shut down because of Typhoon Hagupit. My China in Film class was canceled, and Typhoon number 8 was raised, meaning winds of 63 km or higher (which is about 40 mph, but in the States, that isn't even a category 1). Almost all the resturants/canteens on campus have shut down and the bread and instant noodle aisles at the school grocery store are empty. I went and bought some instant noodles just in case there is still a number 8 tomorrow and all the resturants are closed. I was actually laughing earlier because this isn't even a Category 1 storm, but the winds are still pretty strong. I went outside to go to dinner, and I struggled to walk against the winds. I was really tempted to do a video blog outside, sort of like the silly Houston reporters whenever they cover tropical storms or hurricanes. The winds are pretty strong, especially since we're right along the coast. The waves have picked up tremendously, and I can hear the wind blowing against the windows. Some of the doors to the buildings have a constant whistling sound as the wind seeps through the cracks of double doors not sealed completely. The numbering system of the storms are 1, 3, 8, 9, 10. The 8 was hoisted around 6pm today. If it is lowered by 6:30am, all classes will resume. If lowered by noon, all classes after 2pm will resume, and if lowered by 4pm, all classes after 6pm will resume. I have class at 9 and at 1:30, so I'm hoping the 8 isn't lowered until after noon, but we'll have to see because I'll still wake up for my 9am auditing class to check if the number 8 typhoon is still hoisted. (which stinks because it means I cannot sleep in!)

View of the Choppy Sea from my Dorm

I'm so glad I got in from Thailand yesterday. If I were flying in today, I bet my flight would have been canceled because of the Typhoon. I've already been delayed a day because of one typhoon in Hong Kong, so fortunately for me, that didn't happen this past weekend. Thailand was amazing, though! I had so much fun seeing the country, feeling helpless from not speaking Thai, and enjoying the sights and sounds. One thing to complain about is how short the trip was. This trip was longer than my trip to the Philippines, but it still wasn't long enough. I flew from HKG to Bangkok (BKK) on Thursday night, landing at 8pm Thai time (well, an hour behind HKG time; the figurative Thai time means nothing is on time and nothing is scheduled as is). After meeting up with two UT students who flew in from Singapore, we all caught a taxi to one of our friend's apartment (she is studying abraod in Thailand). The ride in the taxi was the first time I realized how lucky I was to be able to speak both English and Cantonese in Hong Kong. The cab driver spoke no enlish whatsoever. Thank goodness our friend had given us the address of the apartment in Thai or else we would have never made it. Not speaking Thai was pretty much the storey of my trip. I was so shocked at how much guesturing, pointing, and accepting whatever we received I had to do in Thailand. Here in Hong Kong, everything is great because I can get by in both English and Cantonese. So after getting to the apartment on Thursday night, we decided to experience Thai nightlife, which was a lot of fun excpet for the fact that I couldn't hear anything the next morning. The music they play in the clubs are so loud that my head was ringing. It was quite annoying. On Friday, we woke at 10:30am, met up with 3 other people who are studying abroad with our friend, and caught a taxi across town to the bus station (that took 45 minutes becuase of the perpetual traffic in Bangkok). From there, we took the 12:30 bus to Koh Chang (Elephant Island). The travel book said the ride was 4.5 hours, but it ended up being closer to 5.5 hours. After we got off the bus, we had to take a taxi to the ferry, take the ferry across the island, and then take another taxi to the beach we had in mind. (oh, and these taxis are not regular taxis-- they are truck beds with seats and a cover installed on top-- which is bad if you have hard contacts and dirt flies in your eyes). Ok, so on with the trip, we got to the beach and found these two person beachside bungalows for about 15USD a night (which was like 7.5 USD per person). After that, we went to experience beach night life. The next day, we woke up, grabbed breakfast, and went to ride elephants! We took a trek through the jungle on the elephants, then fed them, and then finally got to bathe them! That's right-- some people swim with dolphins; I swim with elephants. I literally couldn't touch the bottom of the river, so instead, I hung off the elephant and then could jump of their backs into the river.

The next day, we woke up and bummed on the beach. Totally not my idea, and I was a bit annoyed with that, but that's what the rest of the group wanted to do. I wanted to go snorkling, but the rest of the group didn't wake up in time because they stayed out the previous night. That's one thing that annoys me with traveling in groups. Some people stay out till pretty late a night so they don't wake up until around noon the next day, wasting half the day sleeping. So yes, on sunday, we really just relaxed on the beach. While I'm not complaining, I'll say that this beach in Thailand (Kae Mai?) was not as gorgous as the beaches in the Philippines. Of course it had rained a bit, but the water was not as clear as in the Philippines. Oh well, I got to read a lot of the kite runner (which I finally finished on the flight back from BKK to HKG!) On Sunday afternoon, after relaxing on the beach, we jouryned back to BKK (again, taxi-ferry-taxi-bus-taxi and made it back to the apartment by midnight, after leaving Koh Chang at 3:30pm). The next day (Monday), I woke up early and walked with my friend to her class, from there, I walked to the Grand Palace (which is where the king of thailand used to life and were the emerald buddha is-- Wat Phra Kaeo. After exploring that for about 1.5 hours, I hurried to Wat Pho, where the world's largest reclining buddha is located. I took a few more photos and then caught a taxi to the BKK airport for my 1:20pm flight back to Hong Kong.

The trip to Thailand was too short. Thailand is such a big country, that I could have done so much more. My friend has been studying abraod in Thailand for about a month, and she hasn't left Thailand yet because she's been going on different treks around Thailand. This made me realize that I haven't really gotten to experience Hong Kong that much. I still haven't kayaked in the ocean, mountain biked in the new territories, treked through Lan Tau Island, karaeoked in Wan Chai, gone to the Jade market, played at the Science Muesum, and SO MUCH MORE. I'm so glad that I'm staying in Hong Kong this weekend. The next weekend, we're trying to plan a trip to Cambodia/Vietnam or Singapore/Malaysia, but honestly, I wouldn't mind staying in Hong Kong and experiencing the city. (Plus, it's so much cheaper!) So really quickly-- I'm getting tired from Blogging. Things I learned in Thailand--

• barely anyone speaks English
• you can get a meal from a street vender for about 1.50 USD
• learn to accept that you'll have to point randomly at the menu and accept what you get
• Thai spicy is so spicy that I had to get something else to eat
• none of the bathrooms had toilet paper (or soap)
• mosquito repellant is your friend
• Some words in Thai are similar to Cantonese (ie. the word for chicken is gai, and i think the number 4 is the same.)
• Bargining is good-- I got 3 carvings for 350 baht (10.5 USD) when he originally wanted 540 baht (17 USD). I also got super cute carved and hand-painted elephants for 100 baht (about 3.25 USD) when she originally wanted 200 baht (6.40 USD).
  

So I posted my photos on Facebook, but I'll upload some photos here too. and Speaking of Facebook, looking at photos of all the activities and events my friends have been doing has made me miss them a lot, but at the same time, truly appreciate my abroad experience. Not to sound obnoxious or flippant, but while my friends were going to football games, volleyball games, house parties, recruiting events, etc. I've been to the Philippines, Thailand, and I'm freaking studying abroad in Hong Kong. I'm sitting in my dorm room (with a gorgous view of the sea). I'm experiencing my very first Typhoon number 8. I've gotten to practice my cantonese (and I feel like I actually fit in here in the sense that I'm Chinese and the first instinct is for people to speak in Cantonese with me, which is refreshing). I know I complained about the food here, but I've learned to accept the food and I've actually started to order food I like. I eat with chopsticks everyday and love it. I'm truly living the good life. =)

(oh, but I lost my 2gb USB drive at the computer barns, and it hasn't turned up yet. I'm sick and constantly coughing, and I'm scared about my mid-terms and classes because I haven't had a single grade in any of my classes yet)

(and double oh, I've been so out of touch with recruiting. My roommate is doing full-time recruiting and asked me a question about his resume. This made me look at my resume and actually open OCR for the first time since like late August. I found nothing on OCR that I was looking for. I'm interested in consulting, so instead, I opened up my handy excel document with all the emails of the recruiting contacts I've made over the years, and I sent out a couple emails to companies I was interested in. We'll see how that goes.)

OK. If you've made it this far in my blog, you deserve some pictures now. Haha.

The Seaside Bungalow!

OMG! Elephant!

Ridding an Elephant was like Fulfilling a Life-long Desire

Outside one of the Buildings in the Grand Palace

So Beautiful

With the Reclining Buddah in Wat Pho

Wat Pho

Ok. Wow. This post took longer than I thought. It's 12:40am now. Good night loyal readers. Comments would be appreciated!!

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.

Photo Gallery:

The Chief Executive of Hong Kong is in the beige suit

I <3 Grammar, too!

This Sing at the MTR makes me so happy!

The View from the Balcony of my Dorm

Yes... This is the Library.. I was studying there this weekend, and I kept looking out the window because it overlooks the sea!

The Sundial at the Front of the School

Week 2: Hong Kong

Music: Baby Doll- Pat Green
Mood: Hungry

A Video Blog! (7:58 minutes)

Week One In Hong Kong

Music: I'm Yours- Jason Mraz
Mood: Exhausted

Ahhhh! I've been so busy that I've barely had time to get my bearings and just settle down. It's been non-stop action. Before classes started, I had tours of Hong Kong from last Tuesday to Saturday. We saw the giant Buddha statue on Lantau Island; we saw a Taoist temple and a Buddist nunery built without any nails; we've enjoyed a night on the town; we gone up to victoria peak to see the beautiful skyline; we've gone on a cruise on victoria harbor; we've enjoyed the specatular light show.

Classes started on Sept. 1. I got all the classes I wanted, but I've been so tired that some of the classes have been putting me to sleep. Let me say this: I'm in classes with classes sizes that i've never seen at McCombs. My finance class is like 150 people and my operations mgnt class is 280. My chinese lit class is like 8 people though. I'm thinking to myself.. what the heck is going on. I've never had a class of 280 nor of 8, so it's like everything here is extreme. Also, I know I've mentioned that I've been worried about my grades transfering back to UT. The grades still transfer, but I'm pretty confident I can do well in the classes. The univ. has a policy that only 15 to 20% of the class can get A's, so That stinks, but I like all my classes so far, so I think I can do well.

Having class everyday of the week is messing with my travel plans (though it's making me just want to go to class and do well in class and not really travel). Planning travel is such a pain. Today, I went to the travel agent to figure out prices and available destinations. I'm sort of not very familiar with Asia at all. I pretty much went in and was like, where can I go for cheap??! I feel like I have no idea what I'm going to do there once I get there. I'm looking to travel Sept 11 to Sept 15 (as sept 15 is a public holiday). I think once I get my first trip in, I'll become better at handling travel agents etc. Tomorrow some friends and I plan to go and book a trip to either the Philippnes or Korea. I'll let y'all know.

So also, I must say that my cantonese has improved (but only a bit). I've become more confident in speaking and can get by talking with the cafeteria workers, etc. One interesting mishap that really stinks is with a taxi driver. We had to take a taxi to Lan Kwai Fong (LKF is like the night life area of Hong Kong, similar to 6th but maybe a bit smaller). Apparently I told the guy to take us to the New Territory to a place with a similar name. So after a 170 HKD taxi ride, we realized we were in the wrong place. We had to find another cabbie and take another 100 HKD cab ride to the correct place. It took like 1.5 hrs and 270 HKD to get us to the right place. What a crazy miscommunication.

Well, tomorrow I have a 10:30 class, and i want to get up earlier to purchase my books and get a clicker for my auditing class. Here are some of the photos I've taken... I've taken over 550 photos since I arrive on Aug 23rd. I've been so exhausted because I havent been getting that much sleep. I've woke up at like 5AM every day freezing because the AC is too cold. I don't know how to set it... it's so fustrating. Oh, and I've come to the conclusion that I will not be able to eat healthy at all this semester. I love asian food, but every day..... I don't know how healthy it is. Many of the pasta and rice dishes are heavy on the sauces.. It's always mystery brown or white sauces. I've been also trying to go to the gym often, but I'm always so drained by the end of the day, and on the days I have gone, I haven't gotten in the whole workout. The gym's AC isn't that strong, so I sweat a lot more, drink a lot more water, and then feel bloated before I can get a whole workout in. (haha. sorry, maybe a bit TMI, but sorry, whatever.) I've used the outdoor track too but it's too hot outside.

Oh, haha, and I think i have a new mosquito bite everyday.. it's so annoying.. mosquito's love me, and whenever I stop to talk to someone, I get bitten. I don't know why. it's so annoying. I got one on my right foot, pinkey toe. haha.

okay, seriously.. off to bed.

Enjoy these photos (click on the photos to enlarge them)!

Greetings from Hong Kong!

Music: One Step at A Time- Jordin Sparks
Mood: Adapting & Excited

So I haven't had internet access in Hong Kong for 6 days, so instead, I was keeping video blogs. Here are blogs from the last 4 days. I promise I will actually write when I get settled in and everything.

August 23, 2008 (running time 1:01)


August, 24, 2008 (2:41)


August 25, 2009 (4:23)


August 26, 2008 (2:45)

Studying *domestically

I got stranded in San Francisco for one night because of Typhoon Nuri. After checking into the hotel, I went exploring the city.

I think I'm going to do more video blogs because they're fun! (and I have a web cam, but that's checked in right now with United, so I just used my camera).