The only thing Scary around here....

Today is Halloween and I must say that the Asians get pretty into it! Sometimes I feel like they get more into it than they do in the states! Our hall is completely covered in black paper and all of the light is shut off with random spiders and skeletons hanging everywhere. They also get scared really easy. I was talking to one of the girls in my class from the Mainland and asked if she was going out for Halloween and she said no because she gets frightened by all of the masks too easily.... I must admit I had to hold back my laughter!

Unfortunately for me, I think the only thing scary around here is how bad my English is getting! I hang out with Europeans and locals all of the time and I live with a girl from Germany, so most of the time I try to use fairly simple terminology to articulate what I am trying to say. However, when I speak to other Americans I STILL feel like my language skills are mediocre at best. Maybe I should read a Thesaurus or something!

Tonight for Halloween I am going to LKF, the main bar district! I am told that it gets really crazy for Halloween and that it will be so busy we won't be able to move on the streets... sounds like my kind of party. I am going as an Asian as my costume... when in Hong Kong do as the Asians do right? I am wearing a ton of Hello kitty gear (hair clips, big fluffy slippers, a book bag, t-shirt), a random watch like all of the locals wear, pigtails, and of course I will be throwing up the peace sign in all of the pictures tonight! It should be pretty good! Maybe I should wear a camera around my neck too!

Happy Halloweenie everyone!!!!!!

Hong Kong, Thailand and Macau... Meet Bake!

Alex, who's other aliases include: Bake, Spud, Baker and The Baconator, left yesterday morning to return home. I would say about now Alex is somewhere over Alaska on his journey back to Ohio (yes, Ohio not Michigan)! He starts his new job in Columbus on Monday and is so excited to get started although I wasn't thrilled to say goodbye to him today... I went back to the hotel room, packed up, headed back to the University and have been sulking in my room ever since haha. I took a lot of pictures but Alex has some really good ones of us that I will have to post later!



This is right before we left for Thailand, Alex is eating a hot dog on a stick from 7 Eleven (it turns out that it takes MUCH longer to get to the Hong Kong airport from the University than I anticipated... we almost missed our flight because of my poor judgement, OOPS!) When we got to the gate they were calling last call for all passengers... it was a close one and needless to say I needed that free drink on the flight!

Arriving at the Bangkok Airport! We arrived a little after midnight and headed straight back to our hotel because we had a really big day ahead of us... pay attention to all of the times that Alex is carrying my bag in addition to his own, Thanks Alex :)Everyone is SO SHORT in Asia...

Having a designated bathroom for elders is fine... but the picture?!?!?!??!After a glorious buffet breakfast at the hotel we headed by Fairy to The Grand Palace in Bangkok, no pictures can possibly capture how beautiful it was.
They make you put on shirts that cover your shoulders and the guys have to wear long pants... hence why I am wearing a man's shirt!

I hope this is an exaggeration.....
Entering the Grand Palace....
Another view... the architecture is absolutely astoundingPulling up to our resort in Hua Hin, Thailand! You get everywhere by Tuk Tuk! I don't think I will ever be able to quit Marriott, the discounts are too good!
Our view from the Hotel room! Right on the other side of the pool was the Ocean!
Hua Hin by night...we found a great little spot to Play some Pool

Gearing up for our Elephant ride....one of the coolest things I have ever done!

We had such a blast! Potong, our elephant, took us way up in the mountains and we could see Hua Hin in the distance!

Another shot of Bake, Me and Potong! Alex and I had a minor obsession with our elephant friend.

After Potong took us for a stroll Alex fed him some Bananas....

Victoria's Peak by night... we ate dinner at the top and behind Alex was our view from the table!
I am positive this view will never get old! This is the first time I got to see it at night, I had been holding off for when Alex came!

I don't have any pictures from our trip to the Peninsula Hotel in Kowloon Bay (I know Alex does though). It is one of the best places in Hong Kong to get a drink because of its amazing view of the city. We went there for a drink before dinner and I asked a gentleman to take our picture. After he did he asked if he could treat us to dinner at the Peninsula! It was one of the nicest gestures EVER. When we got to the table there was a bottle of Wine waiting for us and he took care of the whole dinner.... not a bad deal at all!

When we first arrived in Macau (carrying my bag yet again). Macau is the Las Vegas of the East and conveniently only a 30 minute Fairy ride from Hong Kong!

The view down from Macau Tower... the glass didn't seem NEARLY thick enough to be doing this!
Alex and I decided to Bungy Jump off the World's Highest Bungy Platform at 233 Meters! (You can see all of the Casinos below). Right about now is when I was screaming at the top of my lungs... it was the biggest rush I have ever had!
After fearing for our lives through the Bungy Jump we went to the Venetian Hotel and Casino. We gambled a whopping 40 Hong Kong Dollars (5 USD) and called it a day.

ALEX COMES TOMORROW

That's all I got to say 'bout that!

Mmm Mmm Good

There is some campus food that is not that bad, let me rephrase... there is some campus food that is edible, but today was just not a good day of searching for a prospective meal.

Usually, I eat at the Coffee shop which has some pretty good international choices and has been my savior here. They have Panini's to BLTs and salmon salads to Spaghetti. The problem today arose while trying to be a good student! I dismissed going with my friends to get dinner at the Coffee Shop. When they came back to the library about an hour later, I was ready for food but they informed me that it was (dun dun dun) closed for the evening!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I love good Chinese food, but just like any campus dinning hall, the quality is not good. There are so many great eating places at Hung Hau which is just a 5 or 10 minute bus ride away from the university and it is great to go there for Sushi, Thai or Dim Sum (a local favorite). Tonight I wanted to get some work done and didn't want to leave campus so I decided to explore my dining hall options.

A few days ago I went to the dining hall and had the poorest excuse for Sweet and Sour pork ever. Every little piece of chicken I had, had a bone in it! There wasn't even any real meat, just fat, bone and a little dark meat. I just finished the rice that accompanied it and contemplated getting a McFlurry at McDonalds just to lift my spirits haha.

Tonight I gave the dining hall another shot. I looked at the options and one was Pig Knuckle.... what is a pig knuckle anyway? Is it literally a knuckle like on their foot?!?!? Then there was Pig Neck, Duck feet and a few other selections...call me crazy but nothing really tickled my fancy. I also have a personal issue with one of the men that serves the soup at the dining hall. He has a really big mole on his face (which is fine) but he literally has 2 or 3 inch hairs growing out of the mole!!!!! He is always working there when I go too, and although I try not to think about it, I get really grossed out.

So after meandering around for a good 15 minutes contemplating my options, I settled on going to Park n' Shop, the campus grocery store and getting Campbell's Vegetable Soup..... was it ever Mmm Mmm Good!

Father-Daughter Bondage...

Due to popular demand here is the latest from dad's trip, I will try to tell the story mostly through pictures or else this blog would last forever...... I enjoyed dad's trip immensely and everything worked out pretty much according to plan. He arrived late on Friday night and unlike me, adjusted to the time change rather quickly (he still had to drag me out of bed to start the mornings, even though I am the one that has been on this time change for over a month)! When we first arrived, we went to get some late night food at a little restaurant, dad's first Chinese meal (notice the TINY chair he is sitting on).

While in Hong Kong we stayed at the Courtyard Marriott thanks to my discount. Having a good night's sleep for over a week straight in a comfy bed was incredible! We were right near all of the action in Hong Kong which made it really easy to see most of the main attractions in a short amount of time.

Saturday morning we started out by going to Lantau Island, home of the largest outdoor Buddha in the world. We took a cable car to get there and it was a beautiful trip up the mountains.

Here's the Buddha in the far distance.

That's more like it........

Now he's got it!
No alcohol....or meat!
Dad's first look at Chinese laundry... I think I've seen enough Chinese laundry to last me awhile!
We took a fairy to the Kowloon side across Victoria Harbor to see the light show! I don't think I will ever get tired of looking at this!

Dad got a chance to meet all of my friends while he was here and of course they loved him. Even now that he is gone they keep talking about how cool of dad he is...

Here he is seen learning the Soulja boy... how many dads would do this?!?!?!

On Sunday we started out really early at Victoria Peak before meeting my host mom at church. We did a three mile hike around the top with some beautiful views of the city!
What can I say, keeping up with dad is exhausting...

I officially broke dad into the craziness of the market shopping in Mong Kok!
Our last night in Hong Kong we went to Macau, it is only about an hour fairy ride from Hong Kong. It is awesome, even though dad and I lost money on the slot machines! They have a lot of the same casinos as Vegas including the Wynn, Venetian and MGM Grand.

That pretty much does it for Hong Kong, we left for Beijing on Tuesday late afternoon. I know the picture below is blurry, but as you can see dad is right near the end of the track and about 5 seconds after this picture was taken, he completely wiped out and took his bags and entire body down with him. It was HILARIOUS and everyone turned to look and laugh! Thank goodness he didn't get injured, a broken ankle would have put a serious damper on the trip!
The Marriott in Hong Kong was AMAZING, and opened just 3 days before the Olympics so it was brand new. Check out this sweet pool!

IF this isn't an imitation Starbucks, I don't know what is!!!

Here we are in Tianamen square, one of the famous sites of Beijing. You could tell the city had really been built up for the Olympics, everything was very clean and new. Behind us is the entrance to The Forbidden City.

We were there during a major Chinese Holiday and the place was busy, as you can see. I thought I might lose an arm in the hustle and bustle of trying to get across to the Forbidden City, don't worry all limbs are in tact.

Inside the Forbidden City, the architecture was really cool!

The flowers were gorgeous (this was in Tianamen Square)

The bird's nest, Olympic park was beautiful at night!

We walked down the night food market and saw a little bit of everything! I stayed away from eating crazy foods this time because we had just eaten a really nice dinner.... the locust was the worst!
I take that back, the stomach was the worst......
The Great Wall of China sure was Great, no disappointments there! We hiked pretty far up and you definitely get a work out. It was a great day for it, a bit hazy in the distance but wonderful!

Let's play a game called spot the American... ready go! (Clue: look for the one a head taller than everyone else)

After the Great Wall, we went to the Ming Tombs. There are 13 in total, each honoring a different Emperor during the reign of the Ming Dynasty. We saw one of the Tombs, they are all so extravagant and take up acres of land each. When this emperor died, all of his mistresses killed themselves to be buried next to him, wow how times have changed. We had a great tour guide named April who took us and two other travelers around, she was local so she had lots of information on customs and history.

Our final day in Beijing we went to the Beijing zoo and had a chance to see PANDAS! It was an absolutely beautiful day to be outside and I hadn't been to the zoo in ages so it was great. I also had the first meal since coming here that I literally just could not get down because it was so bad! Dad took over on the meal like a true garbage disposal should :)
We absolutely loved Shanghai! I did some serious damage in the market and bought about every knock off designer product they offered.... it was great! Here is dad finally getting used to using chop sticks (being a lefty, it was hard to help him out because everything is backwards).

That night we took a river cruise, I must say that the Shanghai skyline rivals Hong Kong's, I loved it.
My favorite knock-off purchase, coming in at a whopping 17 USD... not too shabby!
Trying to imitate the statue and failing miserably!
Everyone, meet Chinese toilets (thank goodness they aren't like this in Hong Kong).
I think it is a LITTLE top heavy!

Here is a tribute to some of the fans we had along the way, wanting pictures with us foreigners. Trust me this is just a few, there is no exaggeration when I say we took at least 50 pictures with random people!