Eleanor's Birthday in Kowloon

Hi guys, just a quick apology that there are currently no photos for this update.  It completely slipped my mind...whoops!  Well, pictures were indeed taken so perhaps I'll swipe them from facebook when they emerge.  Maybe not, though.  I guess it depends on just how lazy I am at the time.  But I digress.

So Eleanor's birthday was today, Monday, but we decided to celebrate on Saturday.  A lot of the exchange students went home after last semester, but thankfully there are still plenty of us who are here for the long haul.  Eleanor, Teresita, and Jennie are all exchanging for one year so I knew them already, but some of the new exchange students got invited along for the ride too.

Jennie planned the birthday celebration and she and Teresita sent out invitations to the "private event" on facebook.  For those who are unacquainted with the ways of facebook, you can create an event and make it so that only the people invited can see it.  The idea was for Eleanor to have no clue until the last minute.  That part of it worked out fantastically, and she found herself kidnapped early Saturday evening.

10 people showed up altogether, a mix of locals and exchange students, and we headed out for Yau Ma Tei.  Unfortunately, Jennie (who can't keep a secret) spilled half the beans on the MTR by telling Eleanor about the dinner destination:  Mr. Wong's Kitchen.  This is a place really popular with both locals and exchange students--the ones who have been here long enough to know it exists--and is a rather typical Dai Pai Dong.  The restaurant itself is about the size of my dorm room, but there are tons of wobbly tables and plastic stools outside to accommodate the nightly crowd of over 100 people (more on the weekends).  We paid HK$40--US$5.15 for unlimited food and drinks.  Mr. Wong himself is quite the character.  He wanted to talk and get to know everyone a little bit, and really tried to get us to order beer.  No one took the bait and, in regards to the dishes, we just asked him to give us an assortment of local favorites.  The food was good, and the company was better.  Cheap eats at a sketchy-looking outdoor restaurant without an English word in sight usually makes for a good time.

We left around 9:00pm for Destination #2:  Bowling.  Now I have no idea who decided on that, but it seems kind of random, especially considering that half the people had never bowled before.  Myself, I haven't been since my 8th grade PE field trip.  Nonetheless, we took the MTR to Kowloon City and then took a bus to the bowling alley.  We paid less than US$4 for shoe rental and an hour of playing.  Overall, I think we played terribly.  In that whole hour, only one person broke 50.  Ironically, one of the local students who had never played before won, and he was sick!  Even so, we had more fun laughing at ourselves than we would have had clapping for each other.  On top of that, the people at the bowling alley messed up half our names on the scoreboard.  Examples include the following:  Treesita, Chirs, and Ei.  They got my name right at least.  It was so quiet on the ride back than I know everyone must have been extremely tired.  I arrived back at my dorm at midnight and was in bed by 1:00am.

I was tired at church the next day, but it was worth it.  Ruby, Magda, and I talked about our plans for this coming weekend, which include the Phantom Macau Trip that keeps getting rescheduled.  I think this is really it, though, so it looks like I'll be spending this Friday in Macau.  Look forward to amazing pictures!