Hong Kong Day 5

My legs ache!! I just finished playing 3 hrs of soccer. My shins are killing me. It is so hard to play on cement, it is just like really fast indoor. I think the ball is slightly weighted. I was worried about if they were going to play because it rained pretty hard all day. There was evening a red thunderstorm warning which means elementary schools let out early. It wasn’t raining at 7 when I left to go to the park, but it definitely was puddley. I was 5 mins early and all of them were there waiting for me. Right when I got there, Kinnex took me to get shoes to play. They are very strange, they are very small and cheap ~only 10 HK dollars, which is a little over 1 american dollar. They are so cheap, my soccer friends replace them after 5 games or so. So I got those at a mall even closer to festival wok, I think the prices are a lot cheaper there… anyways then we played. It was a lot of fun even though it rained 70% of the time, and thundered and lighteninged (I don’t think that is a word). At one point it totally downpoured. And yet they still played. I asked them if they were worried about the lightening. They said no because there are such tall buildings with lightening rods and that people who get struck by lightening have done something so bad that they deserve it… or something I couldn’t totally get it. The guys do speak good English. Early in the first game, I showed the other team that I had skill when I stole the ball and beat 2 defenders and scored. The guys I play with are very skilled, but a little lazy so it is fun. They are definitely better than most Americans –except maybe club and college kids, and even then if they really put themselves to the test, it may be a good battle. Anywho, it was a lot of fun. They are all very polite for the most part especially to me. Hehe they do like to say shit a lot. Its funny. Justin said that they curse in Cantonese too. I tried to get them to teach me a swear word in Cantonese, but they were pretty reluctant. Finally they told me one, not that I pronounce it correctly, but it was funny for me. Anyways it was really fun, but tiring. I gave them my email and phone number and Kinnex gave me his email and msn name, so hopefully I will be able to know when they play, though it seems like everyday. They also invited me and my roommate to hang out with them and go to the beach and such. That sounds like fun and I am very proud to have some local buddies =)

Work on the other hand was not good. It is frustrating because we don’t really know what we are doing and it is hard to get the professor to help us. we can definitely tell that there is some language and cultural barriers. But I am a pretty optimistic because research is hard and frustrating. And it was only the first day. Monday will be better.

The others are back from the bars. I much prefer to play soccer than go bar hopping =) so this has been good. Tomorrow we are supposedly going to Victoria peak. I dunno when, since it is almost 1am and no one is back from the bars. It doesn’t really matter to me because I plan on waking in the morning to either do some running or lifting, if my legs allow me that is. I think I will go to bed soon or at least relax and read in bed. Im out.