OK, so joking aside, my last real post was Monday so here I'll try to wrap up some of the stuff that's happened since then. Keep in mind, though, that despite being in Hong Kong, it has still been a week of class.
Let's start with the next logical step from Monday: Tuesday! So Tuesday I was feeling behind because I still hadn't opened a bank account so I decided to remedy the situation during my lunch break. This is the campus branch of Hang Seng Bank, which seems to be the most popular bank here. They have offices all over Hong Kong and Macau, and one in New York. I managed to open an account, but I got the one person in the office who could barely speak any English. She did speak Mandarin, but honestly I don't know many bank-related words. I just know stuff like "money," "accountant," "buy," and "sell." Most of the money stuff I know is more relevant to haggling with street vendors. Anyway, I decided to come back Wednesday and actually do stuff with my account. Thankfully I got a better person that day and was able to deposit most of my money. I did, however, keep some out so that I would have money on hand while I wait for my ATM card (which I ought to be able to pick up in about a week).
All right, random bored-on-the-bus-photo: this is Cameron. He's in both my morning and afternoon classes, which is saying something because the afternoon classes each have only four people. He's a good person to stick around because we're interested in seeing and doing some of the same things while in Hong Kong.
In other words, he's my fellow non-wild-party-goer. I think I caught him a little bit by surprise.
And, just because they're fun to take and to look at, I give you another food picture. This was my Wednesday lunch at the Poolside Cafe, unexpectedly located next to the university swimming pool. Maybe it doesn't look too appetizing, but don't be deceived. This delicious concoction is actually Shrimp Wonton Soup. It's full of shrimp wontons, cabbage, green onions, spices, and yummy broth. Had there been seats indoors, I might have opted for the lemon tea as my drink, but since I had to consume my lunch outdoors on a day where the heat index was 113 degrees Fahrenheit, I opted for my old stand-by, the refreshingly-cold Coca-Cola Light. And, yes, that is a fork. I have no idea where they keep the chopsticks at this joint.
Wednesday, I also managed to snap a picture of my afternoon classroom. Classy, right? Of course, I found out today that we're switching classrooms Monday. I wonder what CS102 looks like? As long as I can still have Xia Laoshi and Yang Laoshi, I will be so happy.
Oh, and y'all are going to get sick and tired of seeing this view. This little spot is right outside the entrance to my dorm, and it's the absolute best place to snap photos of the weather. It's also one of the more scenic areas on campus. This photo shows the clearest weather I have seen since I've been here because you can actually see the tops of the mountains. All you can see is mist after it's been raining. Also, you can actually see the blue in the sky, which is really crazy because it's pretty much always covered with thick clouds.
So here's the loveliest snapshot you'll ever see of my bed. That horrendous green thing covered in white flowers is the blanket I picked up at IKEA on Sunday. Believe it or not, it was the most attractive one they had. Also, eerily, this picture below was the exact sight I came back to after class on Wednesday. Those of you who have lived with me for any length of time can tell that this well-made bed is NOT my handiwork. For an entire hour, I was freaked out by the thought that maybe there were maids coming into the rooms while we were gone, and that they would have free access to all of our stuff. Of course, I was worried for nothing. It turns out that, after I had left for class that morning, David stopped by to ask Nicole something. While he was here, he decided to make my bed with the exact intention of freaking me out. Thankfully, Nicole stopped him from leaving a note saying "Love, Your Secret Admirer." Sadly, I was relieved by all this.
Now here's a gorgeous shot. Do you recognize this spot? I told you it would get really old really fast. Still, when I was coming back to the dorm after dinner on Wednesday, I just noticed how beautiful it was at night. So feast your eyes on a stormy steamy Hong Kong night.
And then it's back to my favorite: food pictures! This was Thursday morning's breakfast at the Benjamin Franklin Coffee Corner, which is actually a full-blown canteen. These little beauties are pan-fried radish cakes. Don't worry, family, they're all veggie no cake so my blood sugar didn't spike one bit. I checked. Surprisingly enough, they kept me full from about 8:30am to 1:30pm. However, they were far from being the most appetizing thing on the menu, which is saying a lot when you consider that one of the better options is Toad-In-The-Hole. Sometimes I think the British have had too strong of an influence here. By the way, the joy-in-a-cup on the right is Milk Tea. I suspect that it too is British in origin, but it is the most delicious drink they sell on campus. Positively divine as long as you make sure to order it cold.
OK, so after breakfast, I caught the bus to the Train Station, which is the closest bus stop to my morning class at Hui Yeung Shing Building. This is really the music school, but the Chinese Language Center managed to get hold of a classroom here. What's cool is that auditions are being held here all summer. Every class so far has had classical background music.
This is our classroom before anyone else arrived. Go figure I'm still almost always the earliest. That's fine with me, though. I can practice writing my vocabulary words on the giant whiteboard (or as the little sign in the corner says: "Do not use permanent markers on wyteboard"). I love China.
Here's a snapshot from lunch today. I thought I'd show y'all the poolside cafe. So far this is the place with the most bang for your buck. Here's a run-down of the currently-known dining establishments. Mind you, the university is undergoing its annual overhaul, which means almost all the dining halls are closed for renovation. However, we've eaten at a few different establishments so far. The worst restaurant is the Benjamin Franklin Coffee Corner, but it serves the best breakfast...well, more like the only breakfast right now. Other than that, you can get french fries, toast, and Vietnamese noodles. One thing I can say about this place is that no matter how detailed the description of the food, you are always led to expect something entirely different from what you get--even though what you get is exactly what was described. There is also this, the Poolside Cafe. It's got a much larger menu and a much larger eating area than Ben Franklin. However, the food here (though it's the cheapest I've seen) is hit or miss. So far, one hit and two misses in my book, but some of the stuff I've seen people eat here has looked really good. I just need to figure out what they're ordering. Also, there is the restaurant at the Train Station, called Maxim. Technically, it's not a part of campus, but it's just as close as Cool Beans back at USC. In other words, it's like a peninsula surrounded on almost all sides by Chinese University. The food there is AMAZING. It's more expensive than the other restaurants, and it's a lot busier depending on when you go. However, "more expensive" here means that instead of paying the equivalent of US$2.50 for a big lunch, you pay about US$4. Surely, at this rate, I'll go broke...in a decade or two. Last but not least is the place we ate last night, the Sailing Boat Cafe and Catering Company. That's really just a fancy name for the United College Cafeteria. By the way, I think we might be living at United College for the school year. It looks like we're moving to International House at the end of the summer and that's where it's located.
Just for kicks and giggles, look closely. Vitasoy strikes again! At first I thought it was another one of those ungodly Australian concoctions that are so prevalent here, but it turns out the Vitasoy company is based in Hong Kong. Yes, I did look it up out of morbid curiosity. Oh well, Hong Kong was my second guess. There is some seriously weird stuff here, but like anything else, some of it's good and some of it's not.
Unfortunately, those are all the pictures for now, but I can describe some of the other highlights from this week.
Firstly, it turns out Zhu Laoshi isn't our only morning teacher like I originally thought. She's actually just there on Mondays (and she fills in when the full-time teacher can't make it). The full-time teacher is Han Laoshi. She's not as quirky as Zhu, but I really like the way she teaches. She's an incredibly sweet lady, but she has a little bit of a mean sense of humor. Oh, and I think I will always associate her with apples. She keeps bringing us apples to eat, and hard apple-juice candies to munch on in class. She even found me in my afternoon class, and tried to give me apples from her office saying "Wo you hen duo de pingguo! Ni xiang yao yi ge pingguo ma?" Come to think of it, I don't think I've heard her speak any English other "OK" and "bye-bye." I know she speaks it, though.
Secondly, I'll tell you how the afternoon classes work. Monday afternoons, everyone in Level 2 meets in a big group (the same as in the morning class), but we have a different teacher--Liu Laoshi. She's probably the strictest teacher, and she's almost always dead-serious. However, she is very efficient as a teacher. For the rest of the afternoons that week, though, we meet in small groups. My group consists of Cameron, Rachel, Javi, and myself. We have the two most awesome teachers ever: Xia Laoshi and Yang Laoshi. Both of them are pretty young, and they seem like good friends. Yang Laoshi is a quiet petite lady with glasses and a really long ponytail. She has to jump a little to reach the top of the whiteboard, and to be honest, she looks like she's 14 years old. Xia Laoshi has to be my favorite. She's around the same age as Yang, but she likes to wear camouflage pants and combat boots. She also has glasses and a HUGE smile. She looks like the friendliest person on the planet, and she always has cartoon characters like Betty Boop or Charlie Brown on her shirt.
In their class, we hardly ever take the books out because we just sit around and talk...in Chinese...for 2 hours. Their class is "Chinese for Business" so we do a lot of acting, like taking a client to dinner at a nice restaurant, or trying to sell a product to Chinese-speaking investors. Of course, we also get to act out funnier stuff. So far my favorite has been acting out a daughter introducing her boyfriend to her parents. Cameron and Rachel were the parents, and it was pre-determined that the father (Cameron) would disapprove of the boyfriend. As a fun twist, Javi was the daughter and I was the boyfriend. Cameron's reason, as the father, for disliking me: I'm not a man, and therefore I can't marry his feminine little daughter, Javier. Yeah...I had to defend my "masculinity" in Chinese. Things got a little silly and ironically passionate.
Xia and Yang are definitely pushing us, though. I feel like I'm learning a lot in their class. They're even making each and every one of us sing in Chinese next week...individually. Xia Laoshi sent me an MP3 of my song, and it's called "Tian Mi Mi." It's a famous Chinese song. Just look it up on Youtube and listen; it's really catchy. Of course, it won't be when I sing it. I don't sing until Tuesday, though, so I have all weekend to practice. Nicole, I apologize in advance.
Lastly, the next thing that makes these two the coolest teachers on the planet, they're cooking us lunch on Sunday! That's right...lunch...Sunday...just the six of us...and they're COOKING it. We're meeting Xia and Yang at the Train Station at 10:30am Sunday morning and taking the bus to Xia Laoshi's house. They said they're going to show us how to cook gungbao jiding (kung pao chicken), mapo doufu (ma po tofu), and a few other dishes. I can hardly wait! I really didn't expect to eat any home-made meals here, other than what I can make for myself. You can believe that I will be diligently making notes on how to cook this stuff. Needless to say, I also plan to take lots of pictures and make a blog post about it.
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