First 10 Days

Hong Kong so far has been an overwhelming experience. Every day I feel a spectrum of emotions, from extreme excitement and anticipation to anxiety and nostalgia. The people, the food, the culture, all of it is new and fantastic. The city is absolutely phenomenal. Skyscrapers pop up everywhere like weeds making Chicago look like an entry level city for beginners. Tight alleyways lined with shacks selling cheap knick knacks side by side with enormous financial institutions lined with stone lions and dragons make the city have a life of its own that I have not seen in many other places. The food is delicious if you can find it in the right places, or unforgiving if you order the wrong foods. The locals are friendly, but crazy when they need to be somewhere. I can talk for hours on everything else, but I wont for now.

The first days here were intense. Out of my element, i was thrown into a group of 200 other exchange students from all over the world. I was finding it hard to communicate effectively with a lot of people, as it seems english is spoken by most but really understood fully by few. My accent and speed makes it hard to have real conversations with anyone other than other English speaking students, but i quickly found a nice group of friends by the 3rd - 4th days.

I went on a Lantau Island tour on my second day, and saw the giant Buddah which was even bigger than the one Michael and I saw in Japan. The pictures really don't do the thing justice.

The statues were beautiful, historical and grandiose. Each one had fascinating detail, and assisted the nearby countryside to make the whole view and experience wonderful. It was a great start to my experience in Hong Kong.

Later that day we drove around in a small bus (literally i could not sit in it without my knees being mushed to oblivion) to a couple of other places, including a wonderful fishing village.

It smelled rancid, but i quickly got used to it and took it all in. There were people selling fungus, dried and pickled fishes, sea cucumbers, and everything else under the sun.


Later we took a picture of the whole exchange program using my camera. here we all are!!!

Later in the week, as i got settled in my classes (which was a horrible experience. they give no priority to exchange students and i spent 2 full days running around demanding classes, which i eventually got), i took the time to adventure around Kowloon, Lantau Isalnd some more, and Hong Kong Island (more specifically the south side). I went into Central a whole ton, and went on the star ferry and saw the skyline, one of the best in the world. I went to the science museum and spent a good 3 hours there with my friends Grace and Nima, and went to Victoria Peak with the exchange program and my friend Victor, my HKUST buddy who will be going to Madison next spring.

The next weekend I spent a great deal of time going downtown and partying until the wee hours of the morning, including going to Shenzhen with Nima, officially allowing me to say I've been to China! It was fun, but unfortuneatly no pictures. I decided not to take my camera, as Shenzhen is notoriously dangerous for foreigners as they will pickpocket you until your pants are gone. In fact, Nima caught a guy's hand in his pocket at one point, but he didn't get anything from him.

 Yesterday I went to Diamond Hill and saw an amazing Nunnery and Park that was just breathtaking.

This weekend i'll be going to Beijing and Shanghai with 5 other people. Im extremely excited, and am already planning next weekend to Singapore, and the weekend after to Macau for a Benny Bennasi pool party from 4pm to 2am. So, So, So excited....



I'll finish this entry with some pics of my school! (Which by the way, is the #1 school in all Asia)