According to my IBCE 4-year plan that USC so kindly drew up for me, this next semester I'm supposed to take 3 business classes, 1 Chinese class, and 1 social science. I think I can manage that, especially since it's only 15 credit hours. However, I only know the meeting times for 2 out of the 3 business classes, I haven't been reevaluated to determine what Chinese class I should take, and none of the social science classes have meeting times yet. Even better, these classes won't have meeting times until much later. Oh, and I'm not getting reevaluated in Chinese for quite a while either. Well, that makes registering for classes much more interesting. Needless to say, I tried to find a time to talk with Yammy Lai. Unfortunately, she told me that today would be best and I told her tomorrow would be best. Houston, we have a problem. More on that later.
If you were wondering why today was bad for me to meet with the lovely Ms. Yammy Lai, it's because today we Level 2 CLC students reverted back into 2nd graders on a field trip to the museum. And, yes, I do mean that literally. OK, we didn't really turn into 2nd graders, but there were a whole bunch of them running around all over the place (and they all spoke better Chinese than me).
So, yeah, we went to the museum--the Hong Kong Heritage Museum, to be exact. Tomorrow we even have to give a presentation in Chinese about our visit. Hooray for 3-person groups. Anyway, we met at the classroom and hung around for about an hour. Then we made our way over to the MTR station. The distance was literally 2 blocks, but Han Laoshi offered to drive some of the girls. Who can turn down a chance to be that lazy? Not me, that's who. We piled into her car and she drove us for about 15 seconds before we got there and waited on everyone else. We all swiped our Octopus Cards and took the train to everyone's favorite (or at least most common) destination: Sha Tin!
Once there, we followed Han Laoshi through the mall for maybe 5 minutes or so before she led us outside. Just a little further down the road, I caught my first glimpse of the museum:
But soon I could see the whole thing. It's actually quite large, but we were there only to see a small portion of it. Here's the museum:
And the sign outside:
I must say that CLC planned this trip pretty well because there's free admission every Wednesday. I might come back and check out the "History of Cantonese Opera" section that we neglected to visit this time around. Unfortunately, this was the last picture they allowed me to take because, alas, it was a museum. No photos.
The museum was fun, but I would have liked to spend more time there. However, everyone was pretty anxious to get a move on because we had been promised a Chinese lunch. By the way, even though we do eat Chinese food all the time, Chinese lunch is a whole different culinary species. Chinese lunch means going to a "family-style" restaurant (as we say in America) and ordering a whole bunch of dishes. All the dishes get put on a lazy-susan and people use chopsticks to grab what they want.
Han Laoshi ordered for us because this kind of thing takes a certain kind of skill. We ended up with many of my favorites, so I admit that I overate--and not by just a little. We had siu mai, bbq pork buns, flowering cabbage, shrimp dumplings, and all kinds of other delicious things. I particularly liked the cow stomach, and I really sincerely mean that. That stuff was good, and I wouldn't hesitate to order it again in another restaurant. The bill was for everything all-together so Han Laoshi paid and we're all paying her back tomorrow in class.
As for the location of the Chinese lunch, we originally planned to eat in Sha Tin, which is why I told Yammy Lai that I wouldn't be able to meet with her today. I was going to spend the whole day off-campus. However, we had a change of plans and just went to one of the Chinese restaurants on campus. Afterwards, I went to Yammy Lai's office in the hope that she would be able to meet with me anyway--and she did!
I got my questions about class registration answered. Apparently, we'll be able to change classes around pretty much any way we want at the end of August, which is when the CUHK students register. Right now is just a "preliminary" kind of thing for international students. She told me to wait on business classes because she's registering all of those for us, and to wait on Chinese because we need to wait for advice from CLC. As for the social science, she told me to register for 2 of them in case I had a schedule clash. OK, sounds good to me.
With that out of the way, I headed over to Sha Tin to find a travel agency where I could submit my Mainland China Visa Application. I got the name of the place where Rachel got hers, and she even gave me directions on how to find it. Thanks, Rachel! I ended up at China Travel Service H.K., Limited. The people there were especially kind and helpful, and I'll be able to pick up my Mainland Visa in 5 working days. That's fine because next Wednesday (5 working days from now), I also have to pick up my permanent Student Octopus Card in Tai Wai. I'll just plan for errand-running time that day. Sadly, because I have never been to China before, I could only get a Double Entry Visa. After I use up my 2 entries I can apply for a Multi-Entry Visa, and then it'll be "Hello, Shenzhen!" because, guess what? If there's anywhere cheaper than Hong Kong, it's mainland China. Wow.
Speaking of cheap, I made good use of my time in Sha Tin by shopping for a birthday gift. Mom, you are seriously hard to shop for. I found 2 shirts and a pair of shoes for me (about US$25, heck yes), and I still am having trouble finding the right present for you! I'm looking for some lovely CUHK stuff, but it's scarce. Anyway, the next picture is for Sarah. I stopped in a Mannings Store (like a Hong Kong CVS) to buy more bug-spray, and I saw this in the Children's Medicine aisle. I know, I'm very mature. Here's for the person(s) who still enjoy a little potty humor:
Quickly, I took myself over to the cheap part of the mall. You know you've reached the cheap part when you stop seeing names you recognize, and you know you've reached the really cheap part when all the signs are in Chinese characters. That's right, I went to Shatin Plaza:
This is where I got my new stuff. I couldn't read the name of the place where I bought the shirts, and I bought the shoes at "Happy Rainbow." Oh boy. I'll try to remember to post pictures of my new stuff so Mom and Meme can evaluate my fashion choices. I know this is always an amusing, if painful, experience because of my...unique? sense of style.
I got back to campus around 6:30pm, and I think I can safely say that I walked off that enormous lunch. I still wasn't hungry for dinner, but I had a little rice with stir-fried beef and celery. Mmm, comfort food. I swear it's like eating mashed potatoes.
One more quick update, and then I'll let everyone go. I finished Edogawa Rampo's "Japanese Tales of Mystery and Imagination," so I went back to the library and checked out "Death on the Nile" by Agatha Christie. Laugh all you want, Mom, I'm reading a murder mystery. I do enjoy them, but it is my firm belief that modern forensics takes all the fun out of a good detective novel. Give me Holmes or Poirot any day.
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