More Rain, Surprise Surprise

All right, today was Monday, but it hardly felt like it.  True, we did have a test in the morning (2 tests to be exact), but we still got out of morning class a good hour and a half earlier than usual.  There's not really much to say about the test because it was just a test like any other language test.  There was a written component (70 minutes) and a listening component (40 minutes).  After that we were free to leave until our individually-scheduled oral tests, and mine wasn't until 2:30pm.

I went back to the dorm to check my email, read my web-comics, and yes, check facebook.  I hung around for maybe 45 minutes before packing up my stuff and going to Ben Frank's for lunch.  Since it was so much earlier than usual, the whole place was packed...not to mention that yesterday a large new shipment of Americans came in, making me realize, with horror, how clueless we must have looked the first few days.  I feel like I've gotten rather savvy with how things work on campus, and I'm pretty familiar with the flow of things around Hong Kong.  However, there are some strange things to get used to and these new people have not gotten used to them yet.  There were a whole bunch of them in the student canteen trying to make sense out of what is, admittedly, a rather confusing place to eat.  I'm not harboring any resentment because, hey, we've all been there and done that.  I just quickly ordered something--anything--from the menu so I could grab a seat, eat, and go.  Unfortunately, I had ordered "Beef Brisket in Spicy Soy Sauce with Rice."  It didn't taste bad or anything, but that was the single most disgusting-looking meal I can ever recall eating.  In a way, I regret not taking a picture so I could share the feeling, but I also think it might have been merciful to spare everyone from the horror.  It didn't taste disgusting, but I'm not ordering it again.

Once I finished eating, I went to Hang Seng Bank to run a couple of errands--one I've been meaning to do for a while, and one I've just recently felt the need to complete.  My recent need was just a run to the ATM machine to withdraw more cash.  This is, however, much more complicated a process than usual for me because the ATM machine does not display any words in English, or in Mandarin for that matter.  That's right, the ATM machine uses Cantonese and I don't.  Last time, a lady at the bank showed me what buttons to press to withdraw cash, but (1) I like to actually know what I'm doing, and (2) I also wanted to check my cash balance.  Therefore, I asked a bank teller to please show me slowly so I could write down the process.  He told me there was actually no need because if you push the right sequence of buttons, the ATM will display words in English.  Hallelujah! Why didn't someone tell me this before?  At any rate, that made my life a whole lot easier.  I checked my balance, and reassured myself that I hadn't spent that much money.  I always feel like I'm spending more because the exchange rate is 7.78 HK dollars to 1 US dollar.  Anyway, I was perfectly fine in that aspect, and I was able to withdraw the money I needed.

My second errand at Hang Seng Bank was to apply for a student credit card.  The application is free, and you actually need a Hang Seng credit card to put money on your CU Link Card, which is the only way to pay for doing your laundry and the preferred way to pay for printing things at the computer lab.  So I applied for the student credit card and found out they had some special promotion going where, if you applied for a credit card, you got a free gift.  This is what they gave me.  Yes, that is a tiny mug with a removable lid that looks like a chicken.  When I opened it up, I about laughed my head off, but I had actually been thinking that a mug would be nice to have.  So, yeah, I haven't named it yet (for some reason it looks like it's begging for a name), so if you think of something good, just leave it in a comment on the blog post.

On my way out, I ran into a group of about 4 guys (some of the new Americans) and we got talking a little bit.  As soon as they found out I'd been here for almost a month, the questions started pouring in:  What's the difference between the red bus and the green bus?  What's an octopus card?  How do you open a bank account?  Why do people glare at me when I walk up to the bus stop?  That was my favorite one because I know the exact reason.  You see, I'd caught a glimpse of these same guys earlier that day waiting at a bus stop.  They walked right up to the bus as it pulled up and got on.  Nothing wrong there, right?  That's OK because it doesn't look like there's a line, but if there are other people remotely near the bus stop it's best to assume they're in line.  Even if they're all spread out, walking back and forth and talking on the cell phone, if they were there first, stand farther away from the bus stop than they do.  If you "cut the line," no one will say anything, but you will get glared at.  However, exceptions are made to the rule if the person cutting is either pregnant, old, or handicapped.

Anyway, I was glad to be of help to my fellow Americans, and I think they appreciated the advice.  I caught the bus after waiting my turn in "line," and got to my oral exam 30 minutes early.  That's all right, though, because it allowed me to finish a little earlier.  Han Laoshi told me I spoke very well and I felt like the oral exam was pretty easy.  I'm not too worried about that part.

Once I finished that, I was done with my obligations for the day, which was nice, but the rain was terrible.  Keep in mind that it never stopped raining yesterday.  In fact, it went on all night and was still raining this morning.  It rained all morning, through lunchtime, and all afternoon.  Just for the record, it is still raining.  I checked accuweather.com, and the forecast says it's supposed to rain heavily with high winds nonstop until next Sunday when there will be only scattered thunderstorms.  So much for keeping dry.  The good news is that the temperature is much cooler than usual (or maybe this is usual?), and the scenery is awesome.  I mean, check out the mist around those mountains.  This was the view from the left-side of my dorm's balcony:

.

And this was the view from the right-side of the balcony:

Maybe it's just me, but it's on days like these that I feel like I'm in Tolkien's Middle-Earth stuck in Mirkwood...or perhaps the Misty Mountains?  Admittedly, I'd love to see an Asian Gollum.  OK, enough about the weather.

I caught the bus to the Park 'n' Shop and bought some breakfast food since I ran out after this morning.  I got more fuji apples, which are so fresh and delicious (and cheap) over here, and I decided to experiment with trading in my usual granola bar for a SoyJoy.  So what is a SoyJoy?  See for yourself:  soyjoy.com  They actually looked pretty delicious, and they come in interesting flavors.  Out of all the flavors, I bought one blueberry, one apricot, one strawberry, and one mocha orange.  I also decided to purchase some teabags of my favorite Cantonese tea:  Pu Erh.  It's a very strong black tea with a rich earthy flavor.  My chicken mug held just the right amount for my afternoon tea, which I enjoyed while I finally finished "Love in the Time of Cholera."  It was an excellent book, though the very last paragraphs of the ending, I felt, were uncharacteristically cliche for Marquez.  Still, overall, a job well done.  Tomorrow, I'm planning to go back to the library so I can figure out what convoluted process they use for checking out books.  If I'm lucky, I'll be able to find either "Chronicle of a Death Foretold" or "Memories of my Melancholy Whores."  After checking out the syllabus for this week, I get the feeling I'll have more than my usual amount of time for reading.