Literally 5 minutes after I finished last time's post, it was time for my first "dorm activity." My dorm is one of the smallest on campus so instead of having "hall activities," the norm here is to just involve the whole residence. Our activity began around 9:30pm, and had been advertised as Hong Kong Style "Pizza" Party. As you can probably guess, no pizza was involved (which is nice considering I wasn't in the mood for tuna sauce). When I read the flyer before, I saw the traditional characters for "tong sui"--Cantonese--which is (unless you count Hong Kong's strange obsession with tiramisu) the most popular dessert in the region. Here's Wikipedia's take on the many different kinds of tong sui (I suggest reading some of the more specific descriptions, especially gotfan and hasma if you need a chuckle):
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tong_sui
I've had the hasma before, by the way, and it is (no joke) one of my favorites. Of course, I ate it without knowing about the dried frog fallopian tubes, but I'd still order it again.
Anyway, the whole thing was just a big tong sui party with a BYOB (Bring Your Own Bowl) policy. Both Menglu and Yiyun had had to go to the library to do group-work or study so I just went all by my lonesome. After I got a nice big helping of douhua (made from tofu skins, which is the part you skim off the top when the tofu is made), I met a few nice people: Kenneth the RA, Dawn from Guangdong Province, and Haiku (ironically his English name) from Shanghai. I hit it off with a lot of different people, made some new friends, all that jazz.
Friday I had only one class, and that was Putonghua 3323 with Chen Chen Laoshi. As homework on Wednesday she had told us to bring in an item representing a part of Chinese culture. We then had to talk about why we chose it and what it meant to us. Sound like 1st grade show-and-tell? Maybe this is why I love language class; it's like being in elementary school again! I guess that's what happens when you have the vocabulary and speaking skills of (at best) a 5 year old. Class went by quickly, though, and I was free for the afternoon around 3:30pm.
I made a quick run over to Shatin to pick up some things. I stopped in YATA (one of many Japanese department stores, and home to a MOS Burger) to see if they had anything like a Foreman Grill, only tiny and cheap. I found exactly what I was looking for in my brand-new Tefal Sandwich Ultracompact. Yay! It's this itty-bitty gray thing with a big handle and a power cord. I've got a year-long warranty so, if I break it, they'll give me a new one. It was about US$25. Technically USC bought it for me. Thanks, Cocky!
I also picked up some groceries to do a very basic cooking experiment. At Shaw College this summer, I had the misfortune to discover that the pot and the frying pan that I had bought at IKEA were both the wrong size to use with the hot-plate. Before then, I hadn't even realized that that was a potential problem. I guess that kind of thing is just one of the silly mistakes made by international students. To make a long story short, I kept the pot and the pan all summer just in case I could use them in my new dorm. The fact that the Adam Schall Residence has actual stove-tops (not ovens, but just stove-tops) instead of hot-plates looked promising.
For my experiment I decided to keep things super simple with one of my favorite easy recipes: Basil Tomato Chicken Skillet. I cut the recipe down a lot but, if you're curious, here's the link: http://www.diabeticlivingonline.com/recipe/chicken/basil-tomato-chicken-skillet/. Unfortunately, it turns out the stove-top didn't approve of my cookware either. My backup plan was to (with her permission) borrow Yiyun's pot. I got things cooked and, if I say so myself, the result was quite delicious.
Saturday I didn't do very much--mostly because the rain outside was worthy of a Level 3 Typhoon. There weren't any high winds, though, so it was just rain, according to the Hong Kong Observatory. Sunday also went according to usual: church, dim sum, and Bible study.
Unfortunately, though, it was still raining buckets on Sunday. When I opened my umbrella, there was no problem, just a lot of rain. However, when I closed it, this is what I got:
See that big black piece of metal sticking up as if to give me the finger? Yeah, that's my umbrella suddenly being broken. Yikes! I must say this, though: if it had to break, it broke in a good place. I was at the train station, which meant that 7-Eleven was just around the corner. This is my brand-new 7-Eleven umbrella (we'll see how long it lasts):
Monday nothing special happened, except that I paid my student fees at Hang Seng Bank. The transaction itself was very simple and straightforward, but waiting in line for an hour was just plain aggravating. People in Hong Kong (and apparently all through China) are notorious line-cutters. My training at the Long Middle School canteen served me much better than any World Expo line experience every could. Nobody got in front of me...nobody. I didn't have to be aggressive, thank goodness, because (unlike the line-cutters at Long Middle) people here usually stop and look embarrassed if you call them out--especially if you do it in Cantonese or even Mandarin.
I got my fees paid, and spent my 2 hours before class beginning another Neil Gaiman book: "Neverwhere." I think I'll have to end my Gaiman kick after this because CUHK doesn't have that many of his books. Class was Business Statistics, 2 hours long, all Powerpoint slides...infer what you will.
Finally, today was Tuesday! I love Tuesdays--always have--because, for some reason, my Tuesday schedule has always been my best. This semester, I have only one class on Tuesday (Principles of Management, which is fun), and it's from 10:30am--12:15pm. I don't have to start too early and I still have the whole afternoon off. I had CUHK's best attempt at Chicken Caesar Salad for lunch, after which I placed a call to the Shatin branch of the Salvation Army. Besides my useless pot and frying pan, I also had some too-small socks and a shirt that shrunk in the wash. Since all those items were still perfectly good, I packed them up in a box and set them aside for donation.
According to the telephone operator at the Salvation Army, the store was located quite some distance from the MTR station. However, a representative could be sent to Shatin Wai Station to pick up the donation from me there. Even though it's the Salvation Army we're talking about, I'm still paranoid about meeting up with strangers. For safety reasons, I suggested meeting the representative just outside the Security Guard Office.
I took the East Rail Line to Tai Wai and then the Ma On Shan Line to Shatin Wai--altogether a short ride considering that I didn't have to leave the New Territories. I went to the Security Guard Office and explained what I was doing there. The Security Guard (thankfully) understood me, and said he would stay put until my donation had been picked up. I called the Salvation Army back and, in no time, a person in a Salvation Army T-shirt came to pick up my donation. I gave her the box, gave the Security Guard the OK, and we all went our separate ways.
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