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!

Back to reality..

Dad's flight took off about 10 minutes ago to go back to good ol' Dayton, Ohio. For me that means the days of soft beds, gourmet meals and some serious father-daughter bonding are replaced with a bed as hard as a rock, campus food and bonding with my marketing books that I have failed to open the past 9 days!

We had so much fun and I can't wait to tell you all about it! We have no classes tomorrow so I plan on catching up on some homework and writing a really long blog about everything we endured!

A little foreshadowing....

-In Beijing seriously dad and I got asked to take our picture at LEAST 50 times...no joke (when we were at the Great Wall of China a lady literally handed over her one-year-old child to me and snapped a photo before I even knew what was going on)... more details to come

- Dad wiped out on the airport escalator when he turned around for me to take a picture of him and didn't realize he was at the end...

-We gambled in Macau at the MGM grand and failed miserably... aka we only spent like 8 USD on the slot machines

- I taught dad the ropes of the "knock-off" markets and we got pulled into 5 or 6 really sketchy back roads in Shanghai

- People thought we were husband and wife a few times...ok EW (no offense dad but I am 31 years younger than you)

- We had an official stalker case in Beijing where we met these two students that were so helpful and nice... then when they called the hotel later and talked to dad they asked for our flight number to shanghai and wanted to try to come with us!!!!!!!!!!!

Just a few of the good times together but I will get up some pictures and videos soon!

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