Sorry to disappoint, but no pictures yet from the fantabulous new camera. I haven't had many opportunities for photography of late and, to be honest, the subject matter has also been lacking. No worries, though! I've got 10 days from the purchase to give my toy a test run and it's only Day 6. I don't anticipate any issues, but to be on the safe side I'm taking my new baby to Victoria Peak (finally!) this Sunday. I've been here over 4 months now and I'm just getting around to visiting Hong Kong's #1 tourist attraction.
Truth be told, I've waited on purpose. From what I understand, the Peak is rather...outdoorsy. In my humble opinion, nature is best enjoyed when the heat index is not 120 degrees Fahrenheit with 100% humidity. Level 8 typhoons are another good way to ruin an otherwise pleasant outing. Thankfully, the weather has changed drastically in the past week, which explains why I spent all last weekend with a runny nose, sore throat, and no voice (I was literally mute). I'm over all that now so it would seem that my allergies have decided that this "Fall" thing is here to stay. I understand now what Zhu Laoshi (my USC Chinese teacher from freshman year--not my summer teacher from Taiwan) meant when she said autumn was the best time to visit Hong Kong. The weather right now is beautiful! For the first time since arriving here, it is cooler outside than it is inside. I can comfortable wear long pants and, in the evening, a light jacket. Even more disconcerting is the recent dryness. I was warned about rainy summers and rainy winters, but no one mentioned to me this whole "dry in-between" business. It's nice, feels great, but I won't get my hopes up about Fall foliage.
So, items of interest from this week: Sunday. Nothing in particular happened Sunday that doesn't usually occur, except that (as I mentioned before) my powers of speech had devolved into breathing with my mouth open. Anyone unfortunate enough to have lived with me knows how much I talk...and talk...and talk. Even when writing my blog, I never seem to shut up, do I? Well, to all you people who ever wished to duct-tape my mouth shut, rejoice! Schadenfreude has come at last. Even I have to laugh a little looking back.
Once people realized I couldn't talk, I was immediately given a crash-course in Chinese medicine. Following the advice of friends, I alternated between drinking hot tea and cold water, sucked on preserved lemon-ginger, ate boiled vegetables, and practically hibernated the rest of the day. After all that, though, my voice came back in full-force by Monday morning. I think the lemon-ginger is what did it, but who knows?
As for the hot tea, I am reminded of a random factoid that might be interesting to all the guailo who read this blog: While Chinese people do enjoy cold drinks, they seldom drink them with meals. This is because, according to Chinese medicine, cold liquids will solidify the fat from the food you're eating. Therefore, you should drink hot tea or hot water to melt the fat as you eat so that your body absorbs less of it. I'd take that advice with a pinch of salt (which is apparently good for me as well), but it's worth trying.
Monday and Tuesday were, by far, some of the most uninteresting days I've spent here at CUHK. Want to know what I was doing instead of trying to snap pictures of the campus monkeys? I was studying statistics. Not just statistics, either, "Statistical Analysis for Business Decision I." Oh goody! Echoes from Dr. Bill's infamous Stat-Lab came back to haunt me nearly 3 years after the fact. While I knew deep down that I was fated to once again come face-to-face with Standard Deviations and Correlation Coefficients, it was a day that, in vain, I hoped would never come. Dr. Jiang scheduled her Mid-Term Test for this last Wednesday so, on Monday and Tuesday, all those formulas and esoteric terminology went from being old acquaintances to the academic equivalent of a 9-lb tumor. There was just no getting away from it.
Well, I learned those 6 chapters better than I ever wanted or expected to. By Wednesday, I was decidedly in an I-either-have-it-or-I-don't mindset and, thankfully, I seemed to have it. The test was hard, don't get me wrong, but I expected it to be harder. Not only that, but what really matters is how I perform compared to the other students. For better or for worse, the teachers at CUHK grade on a bell-curve. For former govies, it's not a Bill curve, or a Wagner curve, or even an Eykyn curve. This is straight up BELL-CURVE. That means that, regardless of how well each individual does, there is a pre-set number of As, Bs, Cs, Ds, and yes, Fs that will be given out as final grades. I don't have to be Mike Tyson. I just have to be the biggest meanest kid on my playground. The only problem is that I have no idea what level of competition to expect from the local students. Only time will tell.
After 8:00pm Wednesday evening, my academic tumor was finally removed and I felt great. True, I was dead-tired, brain-beat, and had a killer Thursday class schedule, but the 2-3 hours of freedom I enjoyed before hitting the sack from exhaustion were awesome.
Thursday, though, begins for me at 7:30am, which is just one reason my roommates have dubbed it my "Black Thursday." I have class starting at 8:30am but, thankfully, it's my favorite class. I absolutely love Dr. Hok and "Political Economy of Southeast Asia." We're studying Vietnam right now. Poor Vietnam. It's free from China for almost 1000 years only to become a colony of France...all because France wants a gateway to CHINA! Talk about bad luck. After studying this unit, I'm surprised to find I have a few more choice words for Ngo Dinh Diem than I do for Ho Chi Minh. I suppose that's what happens when you come into class with an open mind--all kinds of stuff seeps in. So, long story short, I love the class. I don't, however, love having it all morning. After the class ends at 10:15am, I have a "tutorial" from 10:30am to 12:15pm, during which we do presentations and have discussions about what we learned in class.
Once tutorial ends, I get one hour for lunch then it's back to the grindstone with a double whammy of International Management and Corporate Finance. I don't get out of class until 5:30pm. That said, I could probably count my still-firing neurons on one hand.
Finally free from class, I made my next destination the campus Park 'n' Shop. As usual, I came in wanting to cook one thing, couldn't find an ingredient (water spinach does not equal baby spinach), and improvised something on the spot. Sale on ground beef? Leftover dry pasta at the dorm? I ended up with spaghetti on my mind. For the life of me, I just knew I was forgetting one ingredient but, since I couldn't figure out what it was, I made my purchase and went back to cook the whole thing up. Surprisingly, even though it was prime dinner-cooking time, no one was using the kitchen. I made up the sauce pretty quickly while a few people who strolled in for water or a snack watched me with curiosity. Most people use the kitchen to boil ramen noodles so I'm one of the few on my hall that actually cooks food that requires...cooking. Also, as a foreign student, I have a tendency to cook up all that "weird Western food."
My favorite encounter while I was cooking on Thursday goes as follows: A girl walks in and watches me a little bit. I explain that I'm cooking spaghetti. Her first question: "Are you Italian?" Um, no. I didn't realize that was a prerequisite. People are apparently surprised that Americans eat more than just hamburgers. I let her try the sauce, which she liked, but since she still looked confused I asked her what was the matter. Her answer: "I think you forgot to add the noodles." Who'd have thought a college student who wouldn't know how to cook noodles. I just said: "You boil those in a separate pot." and that was that. My mission is apparently to bring real Western food to Hong Kong.
The spaghetti, by the way, was right tasty, but I quickly realized that my hunch about a missing ingredient was well-founded. I had forgotten the tomato paste. Next time (and there will be a next time considering the fascination with Western cooking that exists on this hallway), I will definitely do things up the right way and not butcher my mom's recipe.
Today, Friday, was a nice change from the rest of my week in that I was completely and totally lazy. I spent a good portion of my morning skyping with Dad, which (of course) was also the highlight of my day. Love you, Dad! I had a char siu lunch, followed by 4 hours of Putonghua with Chen Chen Laoshi. Remember how she accidentally missed class a couple weeks back? Karma finally caught up with us. It was make-up class time. So, I was in class until 5:30pm again, but at least Putonghua is more fun. We just talk about Chinese culture in Chinese and get the elementary school treatment--complete with abundant snack- and potty-breaks. Nap-time would be appreciated too, but I believe negotiations are currently underway.
The final and, indeed, the most important event of this week was the finalization of my end-of-semester exam schedule. It's official folks, I'm flying back to America on December 11th, arriving (of course) on the same day due to the time difference. Classes don't resume at CUHK until January 10th so I have almost a month back in the States. I'm really looking forward to seeing my friends and family back home but, oddly enough, I can already sense that I'll miss my friends here in Hong Kong while I'm gone. Thank goodness for Skype and Facebook!
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