Tomorrow, Tomorrow... you're only a day away!

Dad comes to visit tomorrow. He leaves today in the early afternoon but with the time difference of 12 hours, he doesn't actually arrive in Hong Kong until Friday evening around 10:00pm. I have lots of adventures planned for when he comes and I am going to make a sign for him when he gets here! I am sure we will send an update from Beijing and Shanghai... but for now I need to get back to homework!

Miss you all!

The typhoon continues....

The winds continue to get stronger and stronger. I am supposed to have a test tomorrow but I think classes will most likely be cancelled, making it even harder for me to study. My roommate and I went out tonight to get in the middle of the action... it was absolutely crazy. We went down to the ocean, like smart individuals, but it was really fun. It is absolutely pouring down rain and we came back completely soaked.

You can't really hear anything I am saying but I am sure you all like it better that way! haha You can see just how windy it is though.

Fatma's hair blowing in the wind, those tangles are going to take a few days to get out!

Typhoon Hagupit

So I just got released from class early because Typhoon Hagupit has been raised a level on the Typhoon scale... all I know is that means more wind, and anyone who knows me knows that wind is not my favorite thing :( The sky is looking pretty dark right now and the trees are blowing quite a bit, as well as some whitecaps across the ocean, but nothing too scary yet. It is supposed to get worse tonight so maybe I will get out of taking my midterm tomorrow (cross your fingers). I will keep you all updated on how my first typhoon experience goes!

Also, I just got my Visa taken care of for my trip to Mainland China with dad next Tuesday. It is so much more expensive if you are a US citizen! It costs about double the price for US citizens as it does for Europeans! That is all for now, I need to go get food rations and enough bottled water for a year...just kidding!

Stay classy....

Sarah

Visitors galore!

Well I pretty much feel like the most loved person ever! Dad comes this Friday to visit me for 10 days! He arrives late Friday night and we will be staying in Hong Kong until Tuesday night. I want to take him to the new territories where there are supposed to be some great bike trails! Sunday we are going to church with my host mom and then to her apartment for lunch. It will be cool to see a local apartment, she lives on the 40th floor!

Monday and Tuesday I have class so I will be staying at the hotel with dad and then we will come to campus together in the morning. Both days are pretty lite days for me so we should still have lots of time for sightseeing. Oct. 1, Wednesday, is a holiday so we will be leaving Tuesday night for Beijing!!!! I am going to skip class Thursday and Friday (don't worry I got it approved by my professors). We will be staying at a Marriott in Beijing for 3 nights then we are flying to Shanghai for 2 night. Then it is back to Hong Kong for a night and he leaves! I am sure it is going to go really quick, especially given how much there is to see!

I feel like everyday I have been emailing dad with one more thing I want him to bring for me... sorry dad! The most needed comfort from home is burts bees chapstick, how I thought I would get by with bringing just one is beyond me!

Dad told me he wants to try dog when he comes so it sounds like my days of adventure food have not yet come to an end... shucks! I guess scorpion is really good too (someone told me it tastes like Carmel popcorn... I think I will take their word for it).

Also, two days ago I found out that Alex will be coming to see me in October!!!! He is coming October 15-25 so we will have plenty of time together. Then, mom comes to visit for Thanksgiving and if all goes well Launika and Lisa will be visiting in December! I never thought I would have so many people coming to see me and I feel so blessed to be able to share my experience here with people I care so much about.

This weekend was pretty low key, which is exactly what I needed. It was really hot on Saturday and I went to the beach for a bit, unfortunately as soon as we got there we heard over the loud speaker, "The e coli count far exceeds the legal limit, please refrain from swimming". Talk about disappointment! Instead I ended up baking in the sun for awhile until I couldn't take the heat anymore and headed back to the University. It has been in the upper 80s and lower 90s everyday I have been here so far!

I am still trying to do some last minute planning for dad's visit so I should get back to that for now. Hope things are great in the states!

Balut, Balut (don't read if you have a weak stomach)

I have safely arrived back to the Hong of the Kong after THE most incredible weekend of my entire life. I am sure words, videos and pictures will not be able to justify just how awesome it was but I will try my best regardless.

We left early morning on Friday for our adventure to the Philippines. We first went to Manila, had a few hour layover, and then arrived at our final destination in the late afternoon. Everything in the Philippines is ridiculously cheap, and the exchange rate is about 50 pesos to 1 American dollar.

We actually stayed on another island in the Philippines for the first 2 nights, so we had to take a 2 hour fairy ride to get there. We entertained ourselves with the beer that cost about 12 cents a bottle...good ol' San Miguel carried us through. The group for the weekend was: Nikolas from Norway, Ali from the UK, Alejandro from Costa Rica, Lena from Norway, Joe from Texas, Me, Ian our tour guide, Amy from Canada, Lena from Sweden, Kimmie from Denmark and Jess from the UK... quite the diverse bunch

So once we got to the island (which was extremely remote and almost never has tourists) our tour guide for the weekend, Ian, told us to get out of the van. We got out and approached a street vendor that was selling balut, a delicacy in the Philippines. Balut is duck fetus that has nearly reached maturity. It is the most GOD AWFUL THING I HAVE EVER TASTED, and I can't believe I willingly did it. To give you an idea of how far along the duck fetus is, Balut is eaten at day 18 of the development stage and at day 21 the duck begins to develop feathers!

This is what it looks like, seriously I don't think any of you will want to claim me as a friend or family member after this....

Yeah, pretty much the grossest thing in the world (actually according to the Internet it is number 2 on the list of most disgusting things to eat after Snake blood and bile). Needless to say I won't be eating eggs anytime soon! All 10 of the guys and girls that went on the trip tried it and all of us but one guy from the UK were successful. How it works is they crack open the top of the egg and you have to drink the juice out, then they put a little salt and vinegar on it and you crush the egg into your mouth. Here is the video.... (watch at your own risk)

What you can't really see in the video is that there are about 50 locals cheering us on to try it, if it wasn't for the peer pressure there is no way I would have done it (by the way I look relatively normal in this video but this is actually the second time I tried it because the first time I didn't keep it down). These were our accommodations for the 2 nights during the adventure tour, much better than I thought they would be!Our tour started out by our group walking through a local village, many of the kids in the village had never seen a tourist before, everywhere we went we had a huge following. In the village we met some local farmers, saw rice fields and tried cacao (fresh chocolate from the trees). Aren't these boys the most adorable kids in the world? This picture was taken the first night when we arrived in the village. I was getting into the van and looked behind me and these three musketeers were standing at the edge of the van watching me so contently!
This is one of the rice fields we visited.

After meeting the "village people" (get it, like the singing group haha) we continued trekking for about an hour through the woods. We stopped along the way to overlook a cliff and decided to go for a swim so we all made the 60 foot plunge into the water! We finally made it to our spot for the next few hours. It was a really cool river so we camped out there and just enjoyed the sunshine, lunch and swimming. We then repelled into the water. We had to use the roots of the trees on the side of a cliff to climb to the top (almost like rock climbing). Once we got to the top they strapped us on and we repelled ourselves into the water, using our hand to control the speed at which we fell.
You can see how intense the hiking was, and we were not hooked up to any rope! Thank goodness we had good traction on our shoes!

After the repelling, we headed for our cave tour. He told us not to bring our cameras because they "might" get a little wet so I was not able to take any pictures with my camera. A few of the others had underwater cameras though, so once I get the pictures from them I will post them.

We hiked up to the cave and when we got to the entrance I could not believe what I was seeing, we had to single-file crawl down about 30 feet by rope. The cave was only discovered 2 years ago so it as very clean and had beautiful formations since it had not been disrupted by humans. Now, I have been in a cave before, but usually it is well lit and there are walkways...NO... this was absurd (the only way to describe it).

The only thing lighting our path was the little light on our helmets. As far as the "might" get a wet thing goes, we had to SWIM IN CAVE WATER UP TO OUR NECKS! It was absolutely amazing though, and although I was a little scared at first, by the end of the 2 hour trip I was one with the cave. When we got to the halfway point there were TONS of bats! You had to move your head really slowly and could not make sudden movements because they are blind and if you moved quickly they would hit you (at one point 2 bats flew by about 2 inches in front of my face).

After the cave we continued up hill to the most intense part of the trail which was all up-hill. We came to this waterfall and literally climbed up and through the waterfall to continue on the trail!

Finally we reached the end of the trail and the views were breathtaking. We could see where we had been hiking earlier in the day and truly appreciated what we had accomplished. Later that night I got a much needed massage (by a 60 year old man). It cost me 3 American dollars for an hour full body massage... not too shabby!

The next day we started our early and headed to yet another island. We first went to Chocolate hills for a brief visit and view of the scenery. The hills are famous for their unique shape. There are about 2000 that all have the same general shape that was formed by the way the ocean currents pushed through.
Of course I couldn't resist sticking my head in this for picture (the little one is Joe)

We got to see a Tarsier which is local to the Philippines and is pretty much the cutest thing I have ever seen. They hop around and bounce almost like a Kangaroo.

Next stop was the Beach! It was the most beautiful beach I have ever seen and I got to go SCUBA DIVING. I absolutely loved it (it was really really cheap too, 40 USD for an intro dive, gear and all day snorkeling and diving on the water). I definitely want to get my Scuba license and might do it while I am over here because it is much cheaper than in the US. While diving I saw lots of the fish from Finding Nemo, and saw a HUGE school of fish (each fish was about a foot long and there were probably 500). I didn't see anything too scary, which is good! I was hoping I wouldn't see a shark, and I didn't :) Scuba diving was hands down the most thrilling experience in my life. It really is like another world down there and there is so much beauty! My favorite part was when we were down by the coral and I could look out and see the drop off! The depth was endless!

The water was very salty and so you were much more buoyant in the water, it made snorkeling a lot of fun! We were all so exhausted after the day at the beach! We went back, cleaned up and had an outstanding dinner right on the ocean (literally we sat about 15 feet from the waterline). We had fresh seafood and not only did we have a beautiful view of the ocean, but it was a full moon so the sky was so bright you could still see how blue the water was!
It doesn't get much more fresh than this!

I think I will stop it there because this was the longest blog ever. There are so many other things I want to tell you all, but I guess some things will just have to wait until I get back. Once I get some of the cave pictures I will post them! That's all for now!

Down with Malaria!

So I spend a LOT of time in the library, not only is it a much better study environment than the dorms, but when I sit at the desk, this is my view! I am just amazed by the beauty of this place everyday.I leave for the Philippines tomorrow morning and I am really excited. I worked hard today to get caught up all of my class reading and I am good to go. I will be leaving at the crack of dawn tomorrow and returning Tuesday morning at 7:15am...aka no sleep for me Monday night, which is fine by me! I will first go to Manilla and then we take another plane to Cebu. We will probably spend the first day (tomorrow) at the beach and relaxing. Then on Saturday morning we head out to Trek around the wilderness for a few days... our time will be spent snorkeling, kayaking, hiking and staying in local housing in the wilderness. I am excited but I had to go get Malaria pills today at the doctors office just to be safe since i will not be at the normal tourist destinations. It is kind of a pain, I have to take a pill everyday for the next 5 weeks but I think the benefits outweigh the costs of not getting and potentially getting malaria huh?
If you look closely you can see how much our airfare was from Manilla to Cebu (I think we paid 2 Filipino dollars each way... the conversion is about 50 Filipino dollars for each American dollar). Granted we had to pay taxes for the airfare but it still ended up being next to nothing!

Tuesday night was Fatma's birthday and we started out by going to The Peninsula which is one of the best restaurants and hotels in Hong Kong. We went to Felix, the hotel bar on the 28th floor of the hotel. It overlooked the harbor and we had some absolutely breathtaking views of the city. It was Fatma, a few of her German friends, one french girl and me. I picked up a few more German words along the trip and even learned how to sing happy birthday in German.

The view from our seats at the bar... BEA-utiful
I know that not everyone is looking at the camera but this is the group of ladies that went out for Fatma's birthday (Anna, Fatma, Isabel, me and Kerry)
Amy, my Canadian iceskating friend, keeps everything and I mean EVERYTHING in her purse. I always give her such a hard time and thought I would share this with you all: yes a half-eaten apple pulled out of her purse. She always has the following in her purse: food, gum, Gumby (she takes him with her all over the world), BEER (at least 1 but sometimes two cans), a bottled water, an extra tank top and who knows what else. I have caught her saying "Ey?" a couples time but she has quickly corrected herself haha.

Scheisse... learning more than just Mandarin

My German roomate Fatma has been teaching me a few German words, and of course one of the top priorities was a cuss word or two. My new favorite word to say is Scheisse, or shit, which any other Austin Powers lover would know! I love when Fatma say cool because it comes across like "Kewl"! I also always make a point to say Gesundheit when she sneezes, and she has allergies so I get to practice often :) She watches a lot of mediocre American movies with German translations like Wag the Dog which I have never seen but never thought I would want to see either.

Tonight at midnight it is Fatma's 24th birthday so we are going to the Peninsula which is a really great hotel with a gorgeous view of the harbor. It is a VERY expensive bar and we are told it costs like 25 American dollars for a drink! I think we are planning to go there and take some pictures of the view, contemplate the possibility of getting and drink, and then head to some of the other bars. It is definitely a big tourist spot so it will be very "Kewl" to see.

Well I am off for a night out with the ladies! Hope all is well in Ohio, and elsewhere (that means you Alex...living in that state up north that I refuse to mention).

The big jump off the boat!

When we took the boat trip to the island, we all jumped off the top of the boat! It was really fun but I was a bit nervous as you can see in this video (the boat was so slippery I was afraid of wiping out before I was ready). It was so much fun!

We were having a blast with Amy's waterproof camera as you can see....

For the sake of my family who is wondering if I am actually doing anything academic throughout the trip here you go, see I DO study!

Wasabi... only for the strong

Tonight I went to Mong Kok with a few friends which is famous for its ladies market (similar to China town in NYC). It was a great time and we ate Sushi for dinner, this awesome Japanese restaurant has half priced drinks and Sushi after 10:00pm. Joe and I had a contest to see who could handle to biggest piece of wasabi and I think I won... the best part is that he is Asian (i beat him at his own game).

Here are a few more pictures from the boat trip that my friend Jona gave me...
This was our beloved boat for the day (and no one got thrown overboard)

Here's a group shot of all the ladies (apparently I was the only one the sun was targeting because I am the only one with my shirt on)

Anchors away....

Friday afternoon I went to the mall with a few friends since I only had one class in the morning. The malls here are much more extravagant than those in the US which was surprising to me. I assumed Hong Kong would have more street markets than malls, but that's not the case. Take a look at these awesome "jumbotron" screens they have in the malls!

Transportation is so inexpensive here too. We take a mini bus to the main locations and from there we can catch the MTR (metro). It is very easy to navigate and most transportation around the city only cost about 20 to 22HK round trip (about 3 USD).
I saw this random "do not enter" section that was roped off so of course I had to step in. Just a little bit of me bein' me! (You should have seen all the looks I got when i did this from the locals... luckily something from the ceiling didn't come down and knock me on the head).

This weekend was an absolute blast and I am seeing more and more everyday just how blessed I am to enjoy this great experience! Friday night I went with a really big group of exchange students to downtown Hong Kong for a night out. Given the different locations and backgrounds of the exchange students, it is amazing to me that we all mesh so well!

Saturday we got up extremely early, especially given the previous night where we didn't get home until about 4! A group of 32 international students rented a boat for the day, and we couldn't have asked for a more beautiful day (unfortunately for me the beautiful weather resulted in a horrible sunburn... it still looks like I am wearing a swim suit).

We left from downtown Hong Kong and got to enjoy the beautiful views of Victoria Harbor and then headed out to an island. The island was beautiful and it looked like something right out of the show Lost. We anchored maybe 50 meters from the shore and jumped off the top of the boat! We all swam to shore and enjoyed the beautiful views and great company! After about 2 hours on shore we all made our way back to the boat for lunch. After lunch most of us took a much needed nap on the top of the boat which is probably how I got such a horrible burn!

I even applied sunscreen numerous times throughout the day but apparently the SPF was no match for the intensity of the sun! This was only a few hours into the trip but I already had to put on my shirt because I was turning weird colors. This is Alexandra one of my friends from Denmark, she works for Disney and dresses up like Annie Oakley (for those of you who aren't familiar with Annie Oakley she grew up about a mile or two from my house).


This golf course looks so sweet! I dedicate this to Alex Baker... the boyfriend back home (yes, I have indeed crossed over to the dark side, just kidding). He is coming to visit in November and is a big golfer, I have never been golfing so how cool would it be to go in Hong Kong at one of these awesome courses?
The cuisine is pretty strange here... take a look at the seaweed potato chips! So far I have been adjusting just fine though, I eat just about anything. Soup is really weird here though.... it is pretty much just watered down broth with a leaf or two floating in it haha! Every meal is an adventure!

One thing I have noticed....

Since I have been in Hong Kong, I have come to realize that I am essentially the biggest people watcher in the world. I bask in the glory of being the first to observe an interesting character and strive to discretely take pictures whenever possible.

Case in point:

I mean how can you look at this and not crack up? The best part is you can completely make up a story to go with the situation! Did he do this to himself so that he didn't get sunburned? Was this a practical joke? I guess I will never know, but he stayed like this throughout our entire 4 hour trip to the beach!!

Something else I have realized thus far is that Asians are really cautious about everything they do. This can be sensed in everyday conversations with locals but I think was most evident when one of my friends went to the store to buy sunblock for the beach and could only find SPF 130! haha Who knew there was such a thing?

So far my classes are going great and I absolutely love my professors. I am taking 3 Marketing classes and a Human Resources class so the material is all very interesting to me. My professors are from all over the world (Argentina, Australia, Canada and Belgium)! Most of my classes have a large portion of the grade coming from projects and my promotions class seems particularly interesting. We are given the choice of 2 french movie and have to analyze the Hong Kong market and decide how to introduce our particular movie to the Hong Kong Market. This includes creating an entire marketing and media plan of action, covering the costs involved with our strategy, creating promotions and using video clips from the movie to create our own trailer that we think would appeal to the target market and get them to see the movie. It should be really cool and although it is going to be time consuming, I can not wait to get it started! (In this class I am one of the only exchange students and after class I had 4 local students ask me if I would join their group...maybe it is so I can proofread the final report :( or maybe they think I will be an invaluable contributor to the project :)
A few blogs ago I talked about a picture I bought when I was at Stanley market... I think I even mentioned how the lady wrapped it so nice for me to take home and how it would be a suprise again in December when I open it up for the first time in 4 months. Well, we all know that didn't happen! Shortly after getting it home I decided I really wanted to see it again (kinda like wanting to peek at your presents at Christmas time). So I opened it and took a picture of it so I would NOT be tempted to open it again... here it is!

Tomorrow it is Friday already and I will have survived the first week of classes! Tomorrow night is a really big party in downtown Hong Kong that I will be going to and Saturday a group of 32 of us have rented a giant boat for the day! It is only 35 dollars per person and that includes 8 hours on the water and meals (everything is so cheap here)!!!

The following weekend I am going to the Philippines! I am leaving Friday morning and staying until Monday night. We are going to Cebu and have a personal tour guide for two days that will be taking us hiking, kayaking, biking and other adventures. It is going to be an action-packed weekend and I am sure I will get some beautiful pictures!

That is all for now but check back soon for updates from my weekend! Oh, also I have been trying to stay connected to the US so I have made it a habit to go to the library everyday to read the American newspapers! Today I spent WAY too much time watching clips from the Democratic and Republican National Conventions.... I feel slightly more connected now!

I leave you with a picture of two of the girls that I have become really good friends with and they both live on my floor. Sofia is in the middle and she is from Pamplona, Spain. She is always a big ball of energy and eager to practice her English, although it is already really good. Jona is to my far left in the picture and she is a Gator from Florida (it's ok to boo here). Regardless, she is really cool and was actually born in Albania and lived there until she was 8!