Another Day of Days

Today was a triumphant and long day.

Triumphant because it was our final presentation day for our semester project, and it was also my final for Cantonese. Which means NO MORE CANTONESE FOR THE REST OF MY LIFE EVER.

It's a good feeling.

And I passed both. Well, I think anyways...

Long because it was just a freaking long day.

Other successes, I really like my group for bioinstrumentation (5 local Hong Konganese kids). We spent the prep time for the presentation and then lunch afterwards hanging out and constantly laughing. They were helping me study for my Cantonese final, which was partially oral, and laughing at my Cantonese skills. Haha, they were actually surprisingly helpful. Every time I heard them or someone nearby speak I word I knew I would say it out loud and they found it hilarious when I would get all the random stuff and say it retardedly. We were then doing tongue twister sentences, like "Peter Piper picked a peck of pickles" and "Moses supposes his toeses are roses but Moses supposes erroneously." It may have been one of the funniest things I have ever heard listening to the five of them all trying to say those. They tried to get me to say some Cantonese ones but I just butchered them so bad it was ridiculous. I love my sarcastic nature around them, because they always think I am serious. Leads to very comical conversations, where they are absolutely confused. They also made good fun of my healthy lunch (they had never seen baby carrots before, what??) and called me a rich vegetarian (because I own a piece of shit car) haha.

I'm Walkin' on Sunshine

I was getting the impression that I would never see sunshine again until I leave Hong Kong.
But this weekend was complete bliss complete with sunshine and warmth.

The rest of the crew is gone, traveling to Bangkok, Thailand. I didn't go on this trip to save some money, decided there were other places I would rather go than Bangkok. I'm not too interested in spending lots of money and 4 days in one city.

Soooo, I get the long weekend to myself. Had it been it's usual dreary self, I may have become a little emo. On the contrary, I have had one of the nicest weekends.

Saturday I decided to meander down to the Ladies Market, just another street market with Hong Kong souvenirs etc. I just wanted to check out what they had a different markets so I can do my souvenir shopping before I come home. No pics, sorry, they get mad at street markets if you take pics of their things.

I did see some really cool things though:
1. Mario (and crew) slippers. Was gunna get some for Joe but the biggest size was even too small for me...
2. The craziest Rubik's Cubes alive. I've seen 2x2, 3x3, 4x4, and 5x5 cubes. I thought the only one I have left to solve was the 5x5. What a joke. They had ones that rotated on a diagonal, and ones that the pieces flipped when you rotated it, and all this crazy stuff. I am going to stock up on them before I leave. They were off the walls.
3. Spongebob night gowns.
4. etc etc

Anyways, it was nice to get out and walk around in the sun and 80 degree weather.

Spent Saturday night watching The Departed. Figured it was appropriate seeing as it was St. Patty's Day. Why I have never seen that movie before is a mystery. Boston + Irish + Mafia + Dropkicks + everyone dies at the end - Boston accents = masterpiece. (notice the minus sign).

Sunday, another fabulous sunny day of 86 degrees, I decided to spend the afternoon down at the Starbucks on Victoria Harbour and do some Cantonese homework. This is a busy touristy area, so I spent most of my time people watching and enjoying the sun (and sweating, but still loving it) than doing my homework, but whatever.

 I realized I don't have any pics of my school yet so I took a few:

Fun Facts about Hong Kong Asians:
1. Their Mickey D's don't have Shamrock Shakes. Shame on them.
2. They think it is funny when white people try to leave Cantonese. The kids in my project group get a kick out of teaching me stuff, and people who would sit at my table at Starbucks and see my homework would start laughing and ask me about it....

As the Days Go By...

So I realized that I only have 6 weekends left to be here.
Where did the time go?
I can't believe that February is finished and we are well into March. Mind boggling.

Not any exciting adventures lately, just the usual.
Classes this week were good. Two of them were labs, which means no real work. :)
Our microfabrication one was coolest. Here a pic of the things we made through silicon micromachining and soft lithography techniques.

(the clear polymer is from a soft lithography technique, the Silicon wafer is from a photolithography technique)

I decided my hair was getting pathetic, so to look for blonde hair bleach. You would think it would be easy in Asia with all their crazy hairdos, but you never see them with straight up bleached hair. Sooo, I had to settle for this men's hair bleach witht eh box covered in chinese characters and an anime picture on the front. I mix up the bleach concoction, and getttttt:

MINT GREEN.
Oh dear.
But I paid for it, so might as well try it.
Thank the dear Lord Jesus, my hair did just get bleached normally, no green hair.
So that was a surprising success.

On a further note, I woke up this more, noticing a very lively Mr. Wong in the fish bowl.
Went for a run, came back, and there was a very non-lively Mr. Wong lying at the bottom of the bowl.

Proof that we cannot all live forever (like I will). Depressing conclusion for the rest of you out there.
Danika and I decided to microfabricate the poor fell a tomb stone. He meant quite a lot to us.
Let us hope he is not like a Voodoo fish for the real Mr. Wong.... o.O

FISHES!!!

So you think to yourself, "I want a specific something. Where to get it?"

In Hong Kong, there is one simple answer for that.

A street market. For that specific item.

No joke. That's how it works in Hong Kong. The number of markets they have is off the walls.

Proof: The Night Market, The Lady's Market, The Jade Market, The Flower Market, The Electronics Market...anddd the Gold Fish Market.

So Danika and I said to ourselves today, "I want a fish. Where do I get it?"

So where do you think we meandered off to today? The Goldfish Market of course!!
And it was pretty baller.

(one of the 20+ stalls selling fish)

(these ones were also really cool)

(You can buy tinsy turtles here for like $2!! That size is illegal in the US)

(regular market one street over from the Goldfish Market)

(best selection of kids clothes ever)

(who needs directions anyways...)

(OUR BABIES!!!)

Our fish are so cool!! They are completely see-thru so you can see all their tiny bones. Except for a colorful  neon stripe down their backs. We named them things to do with our adventures here in Hong Kong.
Yellow = Dumpling
Orange 1 = Cebu (from the city in the Philippines)
Orange 2 = MJ (because there are about 15 people here we call MJ)
Pink = Victoria (from Victoria Harbour where I run every morning)
Purple = Taro (like the purple root that they eat like it's their job)
Green = Mr. Wong (that crazy awesome lunatic...)

Let's hope they don't die too soon.
On the other hand, this conversation did go down between us and a saleslady:
"How long will these fish live without a filter?"
"2 months"
"Perfect"
What?? We can't bring them home with us....

Finally get them in their bowl, and none have died yet! Success! We got a random asian to read us the instructions :)

(look at their see-thru bodies!!)

(neon!)

They are so awesome....

Hold Yerrrr Horses

I went to my first ever horse races today in Hong Kong. Hong Kong has 2 tracks, and I guess horse racing is a pretty big deal, so I figured it would be a cool thing to go see.

And it actually was really cool! Danika and Tristan were very tactical about their betting. I was just rooting for the prettiest horses (I don't bet). There were some pretty fine looking steeds. I decided that if I ever got rich and bought a horse, I would get an all white one and sew on one straight antler so it looked like a unicorn.

(right outside the racecourse)

 

(here they come!!!)

(Victorrrr)

(she's a nutcase :P)

Malaysian Night

Things are moving along since coming back to the real world and classes and stufffff.

The student halls had Malaysian Night tonight. Just means free food and entertainment, so Danika and I went down to check it out.

I've gotta give PolyU students credit. They may have no lives outside of school, but they do one hell of a job with their extracurriculars.

(real Malaysian stuff...and Mancala!!!)

(this was artwork on the ground made from colored rice. Insane.)

(lots and lots of food. Some delicious. Some not so much. But all of it was much better than Chinese food.)

(haha they had a bunch of face cutout things everywhere)

I think I may want to go to Malaysia for my Easter Break. The last trip I will be making in Asia, possibly for the rest of my life. We shall see.

Bantayan Island: Part 5 (Tuesday)

Going Home Day today…. L

Back to the real world. What a shame.

Got up at 6am and sat at HR drinking some delicious lemon tea while thinking about how I DON'T WANT TO EVER LEAVE. EVER.

We had our farewell coffee with Van and Larry (I am going to miss both coffee and our buds) up on Van’s terrace, and got the bike over to the ferry. Back again on the 1.5 hour ferry and 4 hour bus to Cebu. We got here early so I could look for cheap baby guitars (Cebu’s known for their cheap/good guitars) and we wanted massages (also cheap here). I couldn’t find a guitar that sounded good at the mall, but me and Tristan looked outside and found a Thai massage place for only $6/hour. Holy crap, what?? Yeah. Thai massages hurt like woah but they also did Sweidsh massages which are better so we got ourselves an hour of those. She was still pretty harsh but it felt good, I needed all those knots out of my back. This was my first massage too. It was sooooo amazingggggg. Ahhhhhh.

I got a DDs at the mall (which advertised Hazelnut but didn’t actually have any…) and the large was NOT a real large. Get with it Philippines. Gosh. 

(NOT a large)

But we grabbed a taxi to go see Magellan’s Cross and then take us to the airport. The cab driver was so nice. He waited for us while we went to the cross; he talked the whole time with us about movies, music, traveling, etc; he even took me to the best place to get guitars, and so guess what I got!! It’s pretty simple, but it was the best sounding mini guitar in the store. Only $20, made by the guy at the store. Now I get to play the guitar again and I get a cool trinket from the Philippines that is actually useful.

(My baby guitar!!)

At the airport, we got another DDs, the last one for another 2 months (God bless our souls), and I had to spend my last few pisos because it was too small to exchange, so I got a shot glass, which I had wanted anyways.

And now back to Asians, and classes, and work, and terrible food, and ughhhh.

L

Oh well, it was an amazing, fantastic, unreal experience I will never forget. I am such a lucky person that I was given the chance to go. 

Fun Facts Learned from this Journey:

1. You can learn the most interesting facts by people who have traveled the world; if you ever want to travel somewhere, talk to them, they know better than any internet site.

2. You ever want a no-hassle no-haggle deal in the Philippines, you have to know people. For instance, our boat to the Virgin Islands. Set price with no add-ons because it we became friends with the Captain’s brother.

3. Filipinos like their DDs for the donuts, NOT the coffee. They are all backwards...