The Last Lecture...

I guess my blog isn't really a lecture, I am not very insightful and instead think I can woo my family and friends with corny jokes and stories. I am however reading the Last Lecture, and I can't put it down... you should read it! This will most likely be my final blog because I have a mere 18 days until I leave to go home and will be traveling for the majority of that time. My classes have wrapped up for the most part and I only have a final report left to write. This Saturday I am planning on going to Guilin in the South part of China for 4 or 5 nights with a few others that are done early.

After that trip I am off to Kunming in Yunnan (the southwest part of China). I am so unbelievably excited about this trip. We will be hiking and staying in guesthouses as we make our way along the edge of the Himalaya mountains! The views are supposed to be out of this world and I am excited to see what China has to offer in the nature department since I have only seen the big cities.

As part of my last lecture, I have decided to include "What I've done"... an ongoing list of what I consider to be extraordinary things I have done in my life so here it goes:

I snorkeled off of St. John’s Bay in the Virgin Islands
I witnessed a geyser erupting in Reykjavik, Iceland
I ran with the bulls in Pamplona, Spain
I zipped through the mountains by zip line in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico
I went to a church service at Notre Dame in Paris, France
I have seen the Mona Lisa at the Louvre in Paris, France
I lived with a French family in Nantes, France
I sang karaoke with Chinese locals in Shenzhen, China
I drank a beer in the Oktoberfest beer gardens in Munich, Germany
I walked across Charles Bridge in Prague, Czech Republic
I bungee jumped at the tallest bungee in the world in Macau
I walked on the Great Wall of China
I meandered in the Forbidden City in Beijing, China
I marveled at the unbelievable history in the Coliseum in Rome, Italy
I watched the Bastille Day fireworks in Biarritz, France
I drank beer at a bar in Brussels, Belgium with the Guiness World Record for most beers
I went to the European Union headquarters in Brussels, Belgium
I ate Sheppard’s Pie, drank Guiness and talked with locals at a pub in Dublin, Ireland
I walked the gardens at Versailles
I went live on Fox Business channel to talk about my Palestra.net internship
I rode an elephant in Hua Hin, Thailand
I scuba dived off the coast of Balicasag
I ate Balut, a Filipino delicacy, in Cebu
I ate Italian Gelato in Saint Marco’s Square Venice, Italy
I laid out at a topless at the Mediterranean Sea in Nice, France
I saw my first castle in Nantes, France
I went punting in Cambridge, England
I marveled at the Sistine Chapel in the Vatican while in Rome, Italy
I saw the Swiss Alps in Zurich, Switzerland
I smoked hash with my parents in an Amsterdam Coffee shop
I went to the Grand Palace in Bangkok, Thailand
I nearly froze to death in an Ice bar in Rome, Italy
I relaxed at the Blue Lagoon natural Jacuzzi in Iceland
I ate a Belgian waffle in Belgium
I surfed in the Atlantic Ocean in Biarritz, France
I saw Vincent Van Gogh’s work in Amsterdam
I went to Anne Frank’s house in Amsterdam
I experienced the Hafbrauhaus in Munich, Germany
I withstood a Typhoon in Hong Kong
I gambled in Macau
I observed the breathtaking view of Hong Kong from Victoria’s Peak
I went trekking in the Philippines (Caving, hiking up a waterfall, jumping off a cliff)
I shot an AK 47 in Vietnam
I crawled through the Cu Chi trails that changed the history of the Vietnam War
I took a shot of “Snake Win” which had an entire snake and crow in it

There you have it! I am sure I will keep an ongoing list and I'm certain I will continue to add to the list.

My visit with mom was great! Unfortunately my final projects were coming to an end while she was here so I had to be at the University more than I would have hoped, but it worked out ok. She has most of the pictures but I will do what I can with what pictures I have so here you are....

She arrived on a Saturday night and we immediately went back to the hotel so she could clean up after hours and hours of traveling! We then went straight to a bar in LKF called The Keg to watch the Ohio State vs. Michigan game. To our dismay, we were the only OSU fans and there were about 15 Michigan Alumni there. We stayed until halftime (which was about 3:30 am in hong kong) and then went back to the hotel. It was the first OSU game I had watched since being in Hong Kong and I've got to say I really miss watching the Bucks play.... I didn't realize it until I watched the Michigan game, but it has definitely been worth missing the games to experience everything over here- without question!

At the Keg....Go Bucks! (I got a peanut thrown at me from one of the Michigan Fans)

Here we are on our way up to Victoria's Peak on the Tram


Breakfast overlooking the wonderful skyline (this is my 7th time to the peak and I will NEVER get tired of it)

It was a gorgeous day.... looking up between the skyscrapers, this one is China Bank

I decided to go for style rather than comfort and boy was that a poor decision. My shoes were so uncomfortable I eventually bought a pair of flip flops on the street just so I could reduce the agony!
Here we are eating Dim Sum at a popular spot in Hong Kong, it was delicious

We went to see the big Buddha and in the midst of buying a fountain coke that mom just "had to have" she left her wallet at the counter. Only in Hong Kong would someone return it and then refuse to take any money as a thank you!

Mom in front of the IFC (international financial center).... the tallest, and my personal favorite, building in HK
After our LONG day of shopping, site seeing and bargaining.... this is how I felt!

In case you can't tell they go all out for the holidays here! This is one of the shopping centers, completely decked out in Christmas gear. Surprising, considering not many people from HK are Christians. One of the girls in my class was telling me how she is not Christian but said, " Oh of course I celebrate Christmas... everyone does in Hong Kong."

Mom and I did a 3 night trip to Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam, which has been one of my favorite destinations thus far. The hardest thing to get used to in Vietnam is the currency... the Vietnamese Dong (it's ok to laugh, dong is a strange name). The exchange rate is approximately 16,000 Vietnamese Dong to 1 US Dollar. When we exchanged money, we got over 3 million dong in return so I can now officially say I was a millionaire!

Here we are relaxing and feeling like queens on our tour of the Mekong Delta. The Mekong Delta travels through 6 countries in Southeast Asia and ends up in Vietnam. We saw the famous floating markets and made a few stops at local markets to see what life on the Delta was like.

The Mekong Delta was pretty poverty stricken.
Below is one of the floating markets. The people live on these boats and just sell everything on deck. At the top of the boats were bamboo polls with the commodities being sold attached to make it easier for the prospective buyers.
Pit stop for some Vietnamese coffee, known to be some of the best in the world.... basically my dream!
We tried "Snake wine"... a local favorite and it wasn't until AFTER we drank it that they showed us these bottles, there is literally an entire snake in the bottle !!!!!!!!!!!!! I almost got sick!
Now let me just tell you that EVERYWHERE you look in Ho Chi Minh (formally known as Saigon) there are motorbikes. There are 9 million people and over 4 million motorbikes, that doesn't even include cars and vans...JUST MOTORBIKES! It seems everywhere you look you are trying to avoid getting run over but it is absolutely hilarious how many people and objects they fit on these things! Take a gander....

We also did a tour of the Cu Chi tunnels about an hour outside the city. The Tunnels were used by the Vietnamese during the Vietnam war to hide and unexpectedly attach the US troops. There are over 250km of underground tunnels. The tunnels even had underground hospitals and kitchens used during the war. It was one of the most remarkable things I have ever seen in my life although the video they showed was very Anti-American. Here I am going down into one of the underground bunkers used to hide from American troops.


This was one of the wide points of the tunnels but most of the time we had to crawl on our hands and knees. Don't be fooled by the flash that makes it look bright because they were PITCH BLACK and you had to feel your way around!
Here is one of the traps used....

Here I am for the first (and last time) shooting an AK47.... my hands were shaking after this, there is something very unnatural about holding a gun for me, for good reason!