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!