Hong Kong Day 54: My Last Hours in Hong Kong

Hong Kong Day 53 continuted:
After the “adventure” we walked back to lok fu. Oh wait, before that I gave the boys gifts I had made. I gave most of the boys who came picture frames with a photo of them with me or them with me and a group. I hope it was ok with them and I hope that they know they can take the photo out and replace it with any picture they want. Of course sean’s picture was the best =) but that is because he is sooooooo handsome =P anywho, I also made them cds from music I like. I hope they like them. I made one that was the same for each of them and then I made a cd specific to what I thought that friend would like. If I remember I will post the list on my livejournal. Oh and some of the boys got me gifts too. Kinnex and pui got me a nice soccer jersey with “manda” written on the back and #9. isn’t that sooo nice. And sean got me a cute little magnetic photo frame which of course I will have to put a photo of the two of us!! and he wrote me a lovely little farewell note. Jayson after the bbq stayed up late and drew a wonderfully delightful caricature of me playing soccer. It was done so well that I think I will frame it and hang it on my wall. I will post of photo of it later, it is amazing and better than what you can pay 50 dollars for at an amusement park. So that was very awesome indeed.

Anyways then we went to lok fu. Kinnex told me that he, Pui, and basketball girl wanted to go to my hotel and hang out with me and help me pack, but that the other guys would probably go home. He said that a few of them would go to the airport but the others would not and so I would have to say goodbye to them then. Up until now, I had been pretty composed, but I couldn’t really say much to the group and just started to cry. I didn’t want them to see my tears so I just said goodbye or waved or did both –I cant really remember--- and started walking back to my hotel. Basketball girl ran up and gave me tissues. I tried to compose myself but I was very sad. Kinnex and pui came up to see how I was doing and then I noticed that all the other guys were following us. I asked kinnex what they were doing and he said that they were walking me to my hotel with them. Hehe how nice and cute. So we made it back to the hotel and I showed some of them my hotel room –just to peek in because it was soo messy because I was halfway packed. Then I was able to be composed enough to say goodbye and give hugs…although they were rather awkward hugs because I do not think that hugging is a normal goodbye response in hk. Maybe I am wrong though. Dennis made me feel so good because instead of me having to initiate the hug, he came to me to give me a hug. That made me feel not as weird and definitely did my heart good. Once everyone left, it was just me, pui, kinnex and bball girl. Oh and Chelsea and andrea were in my room too so bball girl got to meet them. And she wanted to take a photo with any American she saw. Even when I knocked on mike’s door to tell him that I would not be taking a taxi with him, she asked to take a photo with him. It was very adorable. Chelsea liked her too because she seemed so outgoing and friendly. After a while though, they left so that I could really get some packing done. I was up until 3am packing and somehow got all my suitcases to close. Now that was a miracle!! Then I tried to sleep, but I could not sleep very well because I was nervous about the flight and saying goodbye to my friends the next day.

Hong Kong Day 54: My last few hours in Hong Kong
I woke up at 6:45am because I was going to meet some of my friends to go to the airport at 7:30. (if I had not done this, and just taken the taxi with mike, I would not have had to leave until 9:45, but this was definitely worth waking up and going with my friends to the airport –and it was so incredibly nice of them to do this for me!!) I finished up the last bit of my packing. And was surprised when ives stopped by my hotel at like 7am to say goodbye. That was nice of him, a little strange and unexpected, but nice. Anyways I said goodbye to Chelsea. I was really thankful that she was my roommate and partner in work. She was so nice and I enjoyed spending 8 weeks with her and I did not even get sick of her!! =) and I dont think she got too sick of me either –at least not a lot I hope!! =P anyways Jayson, Cindy, Kinnex, Pui, Sean, and even Dennis (!!) all came to my hotel to take me to the airport. And Henry met us at the airport. I was soo shocked by how many wanted to come and it was so nice!! And they were soo incredible tired too. I was impressed that they came! We took the bus and they helped me roll my suitcases. We got on the Expo bus and it only cost 18 hk dollars. If I had taken the taxi with mike it would have been around 300 hk dollars!! So I saved dr. fairweather some money!! We got to the airport around 9am and then had breakfast. It was my last meal in hong kong –at least until I go back (hopefully!). It was some scrambled egg and sausage thing which was not too bad. And I had my last hong kong cup of tea. Oh how I will miss having all the tea that they give you in hong kong!! Anyways after that we just sat around and waited until I had to leave for the terminal. I was able to choke back most of my tears even when I was standing in line to get my ticket. It was funny because as I was standing in the United line, my friends were making a big show about comforting sean –acting like he was soo distraught, etc. it was very funny to me!! =) –actually it still makes me laugh now. after that we walked around a bit and I picked up some name tags for Dr. DeLong that he had asked me to get for him at the airport. And then it was time to say good bye.
As we were walking to where I would leave them, pui kept telling me that he was so upset –as was I! Then it was time to say goodbye. There was no holding back my tears this time. It was very sorrowful and they cried too. They cried for me!! That made me feel glad that I meant something to them, but it also broke my heart because I did not want them to be sad and also because I was sad for my loss. I think I felt more upset than them perhaps because as I think kinnex told me before, by leaving I lose many friends and each of them only lose me. I agree with him, although I have no way of knowing. It was very sad. Kinnex didn’t cry when I was there but I heard he did later. Only sean did not cry. He is sooo strong =P or just does not like me that much. I will pretend it is the first option. I gave them all hugs…they were good hugs too. And it was so sad to walk away from them behind the walls knowing that I may never ever see them again. Although I really hope I will see them. I am going to save my money so that I can go back hopefully and see them. But anyways I go to the airplane and we boarded and everything went smoothly –well mostly. Mike and I rearranged our seats so we could sit next to each other, not that it mattered that much since I just tried to sleep the whole ride –no wonder too since I had only gotten 3 hours of sleep the night before! It was hard to sleep though because there were two kids behind me that kept kicking my seat =/ but overall, the flight was just as expected. LONG and BORING, but I managed and slept during most of it. So that was good. It was nice to have mike to chat with a little and for him to help me put my ridiculously large backpack up in the overhead bin.

Anyways I got back and it was easy to find Benjamin and my parents and it was soooooo goood to see them. On our way back to my house, we stopped at Chipotle (http://www.chipotle.com/) because I had been craving it when I was in HK. I think this is because there are not many Mexican restaurants in hk, and although I am not a huge fan of Mexican, I do love the burrito I like to get at Chipotle!! I am still a little jet lagged because I get so tired in the evenings and midafternoons, but I think I am doing well. I have enjoyed going to see Pirates of the Caribbean and going to church and the duneland health center and of course eating at dairy queen. I especially loved driving my little car again!! YIPPEEEE!! But it is strange to be back. I am happy to be back and it almost seems as though I have not even left and that hong kong was all just a lovely dream with some mathematic nightmares =P but I still cry sometimes because I miss my friends. But at least I still have msn to talk to them with. Anyways I am soo beat right now I need to go to sleep so goodnight all.
Here are photos of me eating a delicious burrito of chicken, corn, cheese, rice, and beans...I know it may not look that good, but it is amazingly yummy!

This will be my last official post for this blog. I will start another one that will not be as specific as this. You can email me or IM me or msn me and ask me what the new address is. But for all of you who read this, I apologize for my “long windedness” and the rambling I did. Words cannot describe my feelings about this trip, but I tried. But to you who have read this faithfully or even not so faithfully, I thank you and hope you have gotten to see a glimpse of the amazing experiences that I had in hong kong. I really loved it and I cannot believe that I almost didn’t go!! Thank you for all of you who encouraged me to take this exciting trip!! And a special thanks to all my hong kong friends who befriended me and showed me so much kindness when I deserved none of it. Without you, my trip would not have been as amazing. Thank you so much. I love you all and will never forget you or our time together this summer.

-Amanda Marie Harsy
July 26, 2006 1:30am

Hong Kong Days 52 & 53

I have not wanted to update this for many reasons. First of all, my last few days in Hong Kong were very busy between finishing up work and getting last minute things done in hk. Second, I was in a long airplane ride and then wanted to enjoy the time I had with Benjamin (my boyfriend) and my family while I was here. And thirdly, I miss Hong Kong and writing about it will make me sad as well. But here I am and Im going to suck it up! I hope I make some sense as I write because I am watching Sin City as I write. I really like the movie, but I have seen it before so hopefully I can get this done. =) my favorite characters are Miho and Marv. And Nancy (Jessica alba) is sooo hot in it =D

Hong Kong Day 52: Thursday July 20th
Last night I could not sleep. This whole week has been rough on my sleeping schedule. I just cannot seem to relax at night. But last night was very bad. I went to bed around midnight and was still awake at 3:30am. I was nervous about our presentation in the morning and the longer it took me to sleep the more nervous I got because I knew I would be so tired when I got there. Well I must have finally fallen asleep, and the morning was really rough, but I managed to get myself dressed and all set for our final presentation.
The presentation went well enough. It wasn’t great but it wasn’t horrible, but it sure was boring! The other presentations seemed somewhat boring too, so Chelsea and I were in good company. They surprised Chelsea with a delicious chocolate birthday cake (since her birthday was the previous Saturday). That was so cute and nice of everyone. After the presentations, we had a nice little dim sum lunch at the refrew restaurant. Well it was dim sum, so I didn’t really enjoy it all that much, but I enjoyed the vegetables. Finally around 2 we were done and I could try to take a nap. I didn’t fall asleep, but after the nap I felt better and Andrea, Chelsea, Nick, and I went to temple street market to get last minute gifts. I then worked on finishing cds and other gifts for my hong kong friends. Speaking of which it was fun going to jussco –a department store that seemed to have everything kinda like walmart—to get the frames. They did not have a big selection nor many kinds of the frames so I kinda cleaned them out and couldn’t get similar frames. Oh well I think it all worked out. It was a late night because somehow even though I had only slept a few hours, I was not so tired.

Hong Kong Day 53: Friday July 21st, I slept in way too late Friday morning because I didn’t wake up when the hotel construction started. But I got to it and did some shopping around town. It took longer than expected and I didn’t really eat much except little bits of food here and there because I was preparing for my long flight. At 6:30 I met kinnex and henry at mcdonalds near the lok fu mtr station. They and my other hong kong friends all got together for a farewell bbq. It was so nice of them to go. We went to lion rock county park which is somewhat near lok fu. I enjoyed it a lot. There were places for grills and the guys had bought some charcoal and Tony seemed to be the official fire fanner. He would periodically fan the fire so that it wouldn’t go out. They couldn’t use wood because it is so humid and wet there that the branches wouldn’t work well for fire fuel. They use skewers like how we use in the usa, but some of the food was different. They had hotdogs or as they call it “sausage.” They also had chicken wings and chunk of beef, chicken, and fish balls. They had no ketchup and only had a jar of honey that they used to flavor the meats. Here is a photo of some of them bbqing.
















They also had slices of bread and marshmallows that they roasted. It was strange to roast a slice of bread. It was also strange because they were worried about my eating habits. This is because when I am roasting hot dogs in a fire, I like to burn then. I dunno, maybe I am weird, but I like how they taste when they are overcooked –perhaps this is because I don’t normally like the taste of hotdogs, so burning it disguises the taste. Anyways I burned my hot dog, just how I like it, but Tony came up to me and was like, “You cannot eat that because it is carcinogenic –causes cancer!” How considerate!! But actually I have never heard of it, although it makes sense that it should be true. Still I ate it anyways, telling them that I like to eat the cancer, it tastes good to me ---or as jared would say, “it feels good to me!” hehe. (PS I am excited to see him hopefully soon!!) so I ate the cancerous hotdog. And it did taste good. I missed ketchup though. =/ overall the food was yummy and the company was just as good. Some girls who were bbqing near us came up and asked if they could take a photo with me. I am always surprised when this happens, but the girls were very nice. They were there celebrating one of their birfdays (the birfday girl’s name was wendy by the by). Oh I also met Basketbal girl, a the girl kinnex was worrying about seeing because of his lip a few days earlier. She was really nice and her real name is Elaine. I just call her basketball girl because that is what kinnex and pui call her. She was very friendly and wanted to take a lot of photos (so we hit it off pretty well hehe). That was cool to talk to her and enjoy everyone’s company. We walked around in the dark walking path of the park. They called it “having an adventure.” It was fun but not scary because we did not leave the path –not that we really could. It made me want to show them the woods in my backyard or at taylor. That would have been a lot more adventure-like, but this was still good. After that we left. And right now I am going to stop updating because I am dead tired –I think I am still jet lagged! All I want to do is sleep and I suppose it is good not to have too long of a post. Anyways I will finish the update on the rest of Friday night and Saturday tomorrow. Goodnight all! and goodmorning in hong kong!
here is a photo of the people who went to the bbq. =)

front: Elaine (basketball girl) and me.
back: Cindy, Jayson, Kenneth, Kinnex, Sean, Pui, Paul, Dennis, Henry, Tony, and Ho (oh and william is hiding behind tony)

And it is all over...

made it back in the usa all in one piece! I will update on the last few days in hong kong soon.

I am sad to leave

Hong Kong Day 50 & 51

Yesterday and today Chelsea and I have been working hard on our final paper and presentation, so i wont go into too much detail. yesterday was my last soccer game in hong kong. The inevitable happened, i lost my soccer ball...well actually steve lost it. bastard! --and later he called me a pig --he said i looked like one!! --now my self-confidence is lost! oh well there are worse things that can happen. anyways i was very tired because the night before i could not sleep..i laid in bed for three hours and still could never fall asleep. but i was also in a foul mood because i was playing like crap at soccer. but later i did a little better and had a good time. i will miss playing soccer with my friends here. =( oh and it was nice of pui to stop by, talking with him made me not as much of a grouch. after soccer we went to mcdonalds and then i went back to my hotel to sleep. although i had not slept much the night before, it still took forever for me to sleep i think because playing soccer wound me all up. oh well today i felt good.

speaking of today, i worked constantly on the paper and presentation except for walking to festival walk to get lunch and then meeting pui and kinnex for dinner --which i was very glad to do because work is so very boring!! kinnex was all worried because he was going to meet a girl he likes, but he had a cut on his lip which he was very self-conscious about. hehe, he is very vain and pui and i enjoyed making fun of him. he even wore a mask over his mouth to try to protect it. and he talked funny haha. i told him to have more confidence in his personality and not assume all he has is his looks --after all beauty is fleeting and we will all get old and ugly...except for my grandparents ---they are sooooo cute!! =D i hope when i get old that i am cute and not too ugly. pui told me a look like a racoon sometimes after i told him that at soccer camp some of the girls nicknamed me "Meeko" (like the racoon in pocohauntas). what is with me and and asian guys thinking i look like animals. anways i have talked too much and must try to sleep and prepare myself for tomorrow's presentations...=/

Hong Kong Day 49: All by mysellllffff

Today I worked hard on our paper. Then went and did some shopping, but I cannot talk about it---it is a surprise –unfortunately I think I totally got ripped off. Pooface! After that I had no one to eat with because henry and his friends could not meet me. I almost called sean, but was too shy so I went to the grocery store (the Taste) and bought myself some sushi. Oh yes, Chelsea and andrea and the others had already eaten, so I just took my sushi to CityU and ate at a table there. While I was eating, it suddenly started to downpour. Even though I was sad to eat alone, I actually enjoyed the chance to have some time to myself and enjoy the beauty of the rain storm. I really felt close to God during the storm. It was so incredibly magnificent!! And the sushi was good too =) After shopping, I went running and it was nice even though it was raining. Hehe many toads almost lost their life today because I kept almost stepping on toads as they were wandering along the running path. Then I went back here and have been working on making cds for my hong kong friends. And most of you know how much time that takes for me. Sooo many super awesome songs…. Not enough room on a CD-R! tomorrow I hope we can finish our paper, but I think that is too much to hope for.

Hong Kong Day 48

Today was a day full of shopping. I woke up at 9:30…thanks to the construction. Then I went to the jade market and bought some more gifts for family and I bought myself a black necklace with matching earrings and bracelet. Then Sam and I met Mike and we walked along the bird market and flower market (of course mike bought some flowers!). It was amazing how many flowers there were. And it was also amazing how many birds there were! All of it was very scrunched together too. But other than that, it was not worth looking at for very long. After that I was so gross that I went back with them and took a shower.

Here I am at the flower market

Because Chelsea slept most of the day and was just going to eat leftovers, I did not have plans for dinner. So since Ives and I had talked about meeting for dinner, I left him a message with my cell number and told him that if he was free, I could meet him for dinner. So while I was shopping he called me and so we met and ate at a Japanese restaurant in TST. It was delicious! But he did not let me pay =/ it was very nice of him. He also was so generous and bought me a traditional style Chinese jacket. It is very cool!! After dinner we walked around TST and went to Victoria harbor. Then we went to mong kok and took photos in this game arcade place. It was so crowded with everyone getting photos in the little photo-booth thing. We have them in the usa, but not as many. You can get stickers and also a card thing. It was crazy because you can write on them and add things to them. It was fun. I think we looked good. I especially liked the photos we took for the sticker ones. Anyways after that he walked me back to my hotel and showed me his school from when he was young. Now I am very tired so I will finally go to bed. goodnight everyone!
Here I am with Ives!














PS I think that I forgot to mention, the reason hk people do not like Disney as much as ocean park I think mostly is because they have not watched the Disney movies…so how are they supposed to get the references or jokes? They cannot appreciate Disney even though it is for children! Hehe. Anyways I think that is interesting and I believe that hk people are missing out by not seeing all the Disney movies =P

Hong Kong Day 47: Disneyland

Here we are in front of cinderella's castle: from left to right: ho, kenneth, me, henry, jayson, kinnex, justin, sean, chenny, keith, tony, and kenneth

So today I had a super cool opportunity to go to Disneyland for free! I had no interest in going to Disney because it is not as large or extensive as the disneys in the usa. Here is how I got this opportunity. Today is Justin’s birfday –Justin is one of my soccer friends here by the by. His best friend, Keith who I had not met,…well keith’s sister works at Disney and was able to get him 12 free tickets. Henry asked keith if I could come too. He said it was ok, and I really hope it was because it was an amazing deal and I had a good time. The other people from the reu group went to see the temple with 10,000 buddhas, but I have seen way tooo many temples while being here, I would have wondered the streets of hong kong alone rather than go to that temple. Anywho… I met them at the mtr. Tony had a pink shirt with a marijuana leaf on it. I asked him if he knew what it was… he said no and that this symbol is not universally known in hong kong. I though this was funny so I took a picture of us.

We got to go on a separate mtr line to get to Disney and it was cute. I had fun at Disney because it was fun to be with the guys. I met Keith and Kenneth and they were very nice. Kenneth had just gotten back from the united kingdom after studying there. His English was good and I enjoyed chatting with him about Great Britain. The weather was sucky because there is typhoon coming towards hong kong –I hope it clears up by the end of next week. So because the weather was not that good, I don’t think it was that crowded at Disney even though it was a Saturday.

Ho, Sean, Me, and Henry on mtr (not the disney one though)

Here is a photo of me with Jayson(on the left) and Kenneth the kid who went to G.B (on the right)Disney as a whole was more what I expected than ocean park. Yes, it is very childish…but that was expected…Disney is mostly for children. Disneyland was smaller than other disneylands, but the quality of it was better than ocean park…ocean park tried to do too many things. Disneyland HK only tried to mimic Disney in the usa, and did a rather decent job. I don’t know which one I liked better between ocean park and Disneyland. They are different the jellyfish and pandas were so fun in ocean park, but the rides were not as intense as a park with rollarcoasters should be. Disney did not have as intense rides, but they should not have had them because it was for children. It had more shows and story line rides. And those were childish and a little boring, but still nice. It was ok overall and worth going because it was free and fun to be with my friends. I had fun listening to the guys laugh at Disney and the childishness of it. They especially liked to play in this water play area. Here is a photo of it.
Here is a photo of me with Justin (the birfday boy) in Adventureland

It was strange watching the parades and having everyone be asian though! =) even Ariel had an asian face with a red wig. My favorite thing was this 3d show. It was done well and referenced many of my favorite Disney movies. Space mountain was fun to go on with sean because he hates rollarcoasters. =D his face was soo funny on the photo the ride took of us! it was strange because a woman asked me to take a picture with her. I thought she meant to take a picture of her and her husband, but I was wrong. She just wanted a picture of her with me. How strange!. I thought maybe it was because I put my hair up in mini-pigtails. But sam told me that in Beijing people asked to take a picture of her a lot. She said it is because we have blond hair and are white. Still a strange concept. I hope it was not because she thought I looked so funny! I will probably think of other interesting things to write about, but it is getting late so I will continue with my night. But first a few photos:

Here is Henry and I doing a buzzlightyear ride in which we shoot bad guys, i just made our car spin around. Don't I look so scary?
Here i am with sean and jayson after the ride: they are so funny!
After Disney, we left around 6 or 6:30. So I had no problem making it to Mong Kok to meet chelsea and the rest of them (except Guangming—but does he ever go anywhere with us? haha). Tomorrow is Chelsea’s birfday so she wanted us to celebrate and go out to eat at the Spaghetti House. I was so glad that I was not too late. The food was ok, nothing special. Chelsea liked it though so that was good. It was a good time. Then we all came back and I went running. That was a BAD decision because I still had fettuccini all in my stomach. I stopped after 30 mins because I began to feel sick. Everyone was in my room when I got back and they had champagne for chelsea’s birfday and some other drinks. I tried a sip of champagne because I have never had it…and in honor of chelsea’s birfday. It was not that good. I don’t understand why people bother to acquire the taste for alcohol. I will be happy to leave it. I guess it was a good enough reason to have my first taste of alcohol since turning 21. It was fun because it was Chelsea, Mike, Andrea, Sam, Meghan, Michael, and Dr, Fairweather all partying in my room. Very cute. =) anyways tomorrow I think I will spend most of it shopping for gifts for people. I will wear my crazy new baggy pants. =) hehe.
Hmm also benjamin’s brother is getting married at about this time I think. That is strange to think about. Hehe.

To see more photos from Disneyland go here: http://tayloru.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2006748&l=fcf5f&id=179200873

Hong Kong Days 45 & 46

Thursday: we went to lunch with Dr. Sun and Dr. Fairweather at the staff restaurant at CityU. We had the salad and dessert buffet. It was ok with some of the dishes being delicious and others being well not as good. Then we met some famous mathematician from Stanford. His name is Dr. Golub and he is one of the most distinguished and influential numerical analysts in the world. (In the photo, he is the one in the blue in the back. To the right is Dr. Ng of hkbu and to the left is Dr. Chang of chinese university). He was very personable. He came in to the room and immediately wanted to know our names and had us talk a little about ourselves. It was very cool and he seemed like a very nice man –and very active too. He is 75 years old and still actively travelling the world and doing math. Impressive. All day I worked on the paper –chelsea had a late night the night before and was sick most of the day, so I was working alone, but I actually think that is better because it is easier to get things accomplished via writing a paper alone. I felt sorry that she was so sick though. =/
Friday: Chelsea went to ocean park so I worked alone again. I met sean and kinnex for lunch, so that was very nice of them to do so that I did not have to eat alone. After work, I went running because I wasn’t sure when Chelsea was getting back. I wanted to go shopping, but by the time Chelsea came back, it was too late. She and andrea wanted to eat at the Singapore restaurant near Mong Kok. We ended up waiting a while for it…this was probably the first time I had to wait for a restaurant since being here. Then since it was almost 10 by the time we got finished and I did not have a lot of time to go shopping anywhere and sean had not called me, I went back to my hotel. It was actually a good night. I worked on making playlists for my soccer friends (most of you know how much I love doing that even though it takes so much time). And I had fun talking about music to Pui…that kid has good taste ---even likes modest mouse (after I sent him Devil’s Workday) =). It will be hard to figure out and finalize playlists for everyone. I have one week.

Here we are with Prof. Golub who is one of the most distinguished and influential numerical analysts in the world. He is the one in the blue in the back. To the right is Dr. Ng and to the left is Dr. Chang

And to the right, I am with Andrea and Chelsea after waiting forever to eat at this restaurant

below is a pic of me with Henry, Kurt, and Steve (Sun). One is with flash, the other is without...which looks better...i can never decide.

Hong Kong Day 43

Today I got crazy baggy pants. Hehe we shall see if I can pull them off without looking too much like a dork! Jayson says that I should wear them tomorrow, but I look so silly! And I do not know if I have a good shirt to go with it. Today at work we tried to download latex and it took a long time. I am glad Dr. sun will be back tomorrow because we are very stuck on our project right now. After work, Chelsea and I went shopping and I got myself those crazy baggy pants and another pair of pants that are a little strange. I plan to take them back to the usa so I can show my friends some of the crazy fashions here =) I was glad it was just Chelsea and I because it went faster. Then I went running. I will miss running here because the weather is so nice. Tomorrow I will get to play soccer!! Yay! Other than that there is not much to say. Sorry I enjoyed having a more relaxed day =) oh and I will take a picture of myself with my crazy pants so you people back home can see what strange styles they have here!!

Hong Kong Days 39, 40, 41, and 42

I am so incredibly annoyed. Our hotel is doing construction on rooms right above ours, so from 9:30am to 6:00pm we get to hear a nice BBBBBBBBBBBRRRRRRRRRRRAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHH BBBBBBBBBBBBBRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM POW POW POW. Sometimes we even get to hear a nice little fire alarm go off. =/ -blurgh- how aggravating. Anyways I should stop complaining and keep up with my “oh so incredible journaling skills.” Yeah right. Anywho, my parents did in fact make it safely back to the usa (for those of you wondering), but I will get to that later.

On Friday, I worked. The things we are doing at work is annoying because it is a lot of manual computational work. We are taking a large large function and trying to simplify it as well as we can using trigonometry. When you are dealing with 16 terms similar to “a(Sin((n-1)y)Cos((m+n+1)y)Sin(m*v)” etc. it is easy to make stupid errors when you rewrite the terms or multiply them or add them or try to simplify them. ---real annoying folks, real annoying---- but we finally got that going. It is a little frustrating because we have finally (to some extent) gotten the hang of our project, and we are running out of time. We only have gotten to half of what Dr. Sun wanted. Oh well, guess that is research.

Ok enough boring math info. Chelsea and I met my parents and sister for lunch at a little Singapore restaurant. I have been there 3 times now and each time it has been very delicious. But today when I was there I was a huge huge klutz! I kept dropping my sister’s spoons and straws. And spilled my tea all over the table. I figured that the waiters were all thinking, “wow what an incompetent american moron!” I know that is what my family was thinking. Anyways then we went back to work and later I met Kinnex and some others for soccer. Soon my parents joined us. it was unfortunate that people had booked the courts from 6-8 and then 8:20-10. So we did a lot of waiting until 8. I was worried that my parents would be bored while we waited, but Kinnex, Henry, and Steve all talked with my family and me. That helped pass the time. Then at 8, we went out and scrimmaged against this older team for a bit. But soon we were kicked off the courts again. Boo! So we decided to eat first and then come back at 10. That was fine, but I refused to eat dinner in my smelly soccer shirt (sports bras after you have sweated in them and then sit around in them ---begin to itch really bad) and since I had only brought other nice clothes, I wanted to at least change into them. So then we all went to what they called “the dirty restaurant” –the same place a while ago I had gone with them to watch some of the korea world cup game. I was sad because steve and henry did not eat with us. I think steve wanted to smoke and was afraid of annoying or insulting or making our family uncomfortable because “brilliant” I told Luna that I do not like smoke and it makes me feel ill. I can handle it for a little though and usually Hong Kong is pretty open –I mean I have to sit in a little room while my grandparents smoke and that often gives me a headache (no offense grandma if you are reading this---I love you lots!), I can handle steve’s smoking especially in as open a room as our restaurant. Oh well it was nice and considerate of them, but I still wish they had come (and henry if you are reading this please note that next time I expect you and steve to eat with us!).

anyways dinner wasn’t too bad. My dad and I are definitely have the worst chop stick skills, and he kept dropping his food everywhere. They first set out some nice cow and/or chicken intestines for us to munch on. YUM YUM! Hahahahha….that was very strange and well chewy. After that we ate some other stuff, I felt a little strange because many of the other soccer guys did not eat much and just ate rice. I think they were trying to be polite and allow my family to eat first. They were very nice and talked a lot with them. It made me happy. I tried not to eat too much since we were going to play again and after dinner we took a picture of all of us. Since the bill was not that expensive, my parents wanted to treat my soccer friends to dinner and take care of the bill. This is normal in the usa –for the older person to do. But in Hong Kong, I guess it is not. I think we offended my friends. Kolman took me aside and said that since they are students their parents give them money for dinner and food and that they cannot accept someone else paying for them. So that was awkward. I hope they don’t think badly on me and my family, but I cannot help that now. After dinner, we went and played more soccer. That was fun and my sister didn’t do sooo poorly. Then since my parents were leaving the next day and my parents didn’t stay to watch us play soccer, I and my sister went back to my hotel and showered and then went and I stayed at my parent’s hotel. It was kinda annoying, but still good.

The next morning I woke early and ate breakfast with my family before they left. I was sad –especially later, but it was still fun. Then Chelsea, John and I went to Stanley market and I bought some gifts for my family and friends. I also bought myself a cool lamp and a pretty pearly necklace and matching bracelet. Then we ate at the lion rock bistro and played cards and dirty minds. I stayed up too late because I thought that our hotel would not have construction work in the morning. I was wrong –I was woken at 9:30 with a loud BBBBBBBBBBBBRRRRRRRRRRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA. Oh so annoying. And it is all on our floor too. Bah! Stupid hotel. =( I hope they finish soon! Then after people finally got all going, me, Chelsea, andrea, nick, meghan, and Michael all went to the jade market. I got some more gifts for my family and friends. We were all going to go to the bird and flower and goldfish market, but kinnex called me and I didn’t have time before I was going to meet pui and we both were going to go to kinnex’s house for dinner. So I left and took a quick shower before meeting pui at shim sham po.

We got on a bus that would take us to kinnex’s place which is located in the new territories. He lives on the 22nd floor of his building and it was much bigger than I expected. It was also very clean. His and his sister’s rooms are small like closets. We took a picture of me pui and kinnex in his small room. His mom and dad didn’t know much English, but they were very nice. We watched a silly soap opera/drama thing in which Sean’s friend is in. I did not understand it but it looked ridiculous hehe. Dinner was very delicious although I wonder how typical of a meal it was. Because I am scared to eat the chicken with the bone on it, kinnex told his mom to not buy that kind. That was so considerate of her. We had chicken, pork, squid and broccoli, the really yummy local veggie and some shrimps. They were very nice to me and helped me cut the pork and kinnex’s mom helped and peeled the shrimp for me and kinnex and pui. It was very cute. She was very hospitable. Then we had some soup with something like a sweet potato. It was very good. Then we had watermelon and orange for dessert. It was very good and I hope I didn’t embarrass anyone too much =) including myself! Kinnex’s mom complimented my chop stick skills (she was being too kind) and she also liked my teeth.

Then we left and went met some of our friends and went to a café to watch the world cup. By the time we got there, it was like 11pm. I was very tired, but it was fun until I got a headache from being too tired. I met a new friend named Ives –he likes to fence. The café was exactly like the ones in the usa and they had lots of board games. I taught them how to play a few including twister which was a lot of fun. Then I tried to sleep for an hour because I began to feel sick. I didn’t actually sleep but I was so tired it was alright. As I was watching the game my eyes kept crossing because I was so tired, so at half time I laid down. I thought that I should maybe leave at half time because I felt very sick and wanted to sleep but I was afraid that if I went to get a taxi, kinnex or sean would try to come with because they are afraid of me traveling alone. So I stayed and had to close my eyes during most of the 2nd half and all of overtime. It was so sad, I wanted to watch and it was an exciting game, but I could not stay awake and then at one point I almost threw up right there in the café, that was not good so I tried to stay still and sleep. I felt bad for sleeping because I felt like a dork, but not too much because I felt too sick to care that much. They woke me for the PKs so that was good. I was glad it was a good game and italy won, although if france had won, that would have been good. . After that we were waiting to take the elevator down to the ground floor and I almost threw up again, but I closed my mouth and swallowed it down. That was so gross. And then we walked down the stairs which had lots of bags of smelly garbage…which was great for my headache. Then it took a while to get a taxi but it was crazy. It was 5am and the whole city was alive with people. =) that was cool. But I was too sick to really enjoy it. Sean and vic went with me in the taxi and got me back safely. This was at about 5:15am. Then I got back to my hotel and threw up a lot in my toilet –thank goodness I didn’t do it in front of my friends. And then I showered, took a pill for sleeping, and went to bed. I only slept for a few hours before waking at 9:15 to the construction and to go to work a little late. Lucky for me, Chelsea accidently slept in too. Work was very hard because I was still under the sleeping pill, but after lunch it wore off and I felt better. We had to present today and that went well too. I was awake for that because I took a short 30 min nap from 3:30-4 and then presented at 4:30.

After work, Dr. Fairweather, Chelsea, andrea, sam (who came back from Beijing), nick, john and I went to an Indian restaurant. The atmosphere was very cool, but the food was a little to spicy for me. I had a mango yogart drink thing with dr. fairweather. Then I came back here and typed this because I was so behind. I think that is all I will say tonight though because I am soo soo tired. so good night everyone. =)

indian restaurant

mmm mango drinks with dr. fairweather!










Here we are at the indian restaurant....see the singers in the background. they were very cool and sang nice trance music!

Pics from Kinnex's House

pics

Here I am at my MTR stop!
and my new long hk style shorts!



























here i am in the city...wooo!











Here we are with our bus to stanley...woo

my soccer friends and my parents

I put both pics up just in case one of you likes one better than the other:
front row: courts, me, dad, mom, last row: German, Nick, Ho, Kenneth, Tony, Dennis, Kinnex, Sean, Kolman

Tough Soccer Players: Steve, Henry, Me, Kinnex, Courts



we are soo good at chopsticks

soccer pictures

Sean, Dennis, Kenneth and Ho














German and me

I fixed the links to the pictures of the beaches....

http://tayloru.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2006493&l=cb52b&id=179200873

http://tayloru.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2006494&l=b009e&id=179200873

stop and look at them!

Hong Kong Day 38: "Si Si"

So yesterday was the best hong kong day so far (and probably for the whole trip). A friend of dr. fairweather’s planned a boat tour of some of the remote beaches in hong kong. This was an outing for his research and graduate students and he invited dr. fairweather and the rest of our group to join them. Since my parents are around during this trip, I half joking/half seriously emailed dr. fairweather and asked if my parents and sister could go with. He asked and dr. moon said yes =D So during this whole trip I kept thinking how lucky I was that my family could join me on this wonderful trip. Our trip first started with us meeting my parents and dr. moon at the Chinese university kcr (train) exit. Then we walked to Holo Harbour and boarded a boat there that took us out through the tolo channel and out to a magnificent beach. I think the name of it was Nam Shea Bay. There seemed to be no way to get there except by boat. Even our boat was too big (it held about 40 people including 3 crew members) to go up to the beach. We either had to swim to the beach or there was a small little boat attached to our boat that would take people to the beach. I and most of the reu kids and my sister all jumped in to the water and swam to the beach –which was long, but a lot of fun. The water is the perfect temperature here and the water is so clear that even before I could touch the bottom of the beach, I could see the sand on the floor =) there was no one on this beach except for our group. It was amazing. It was like we were in the movies. There were tiny fish in the water and man…words cannot describe it. It was so blue and green and gorgeous. The only thing I wished for were bigger waves to body surf on. =) I had my mom take my camera over in the boat so I took pictures there. I was the official photographer of the group. Most of the pictures were fantastic –although I tried this beach setting that made some of the pictures look strange. We stayed and played some volleyball and just frolicked around the beach. Then we came back and traveled back to a small fishing village called grass island. There we ate a local restaurant. It was pretty good –especially the fish and vegetables. The Chinese/hong kong students were so courteous of the women on the trip. They helped serve us in the restaurant and helped us get on and off the boat. It was very nice of them. I have found that often male hk people are very nice to the women here. We walked to the village nearby after dinner and there was not much to see other than an old woman and some doors with little temples outside to keep away bad spirits I think. Mike bought a funny fishing hat here to wear for the rest of the trip.

After leaving grass island we traveled to Sai Wan (or a beach near there –maybe Sai Wan is the name of the beach). Anyways I think I was told that supposedly this was the best beach in Hong Kong. There were only 2 other people there (and as we were leaving some army people came by with a dog. They were climbing a nearby mountain it seemed, but I was very confused. Anyways this beach was even prettier than the other –well they were very comparable and this was breathtaking! Again it was amazing that no one was there ---I think partly because they are hard to get to, and partly because it was on a Wednesday. Dr. Moon told my dad that he has been to these beaches 3 times. The first time he came, he had to walk 6 hours to get there. Isn’t that amazing? Anyways this was a lot of fun. Courtney dad and I were able to do a little bit of pathetic body surfing. The waves just were not big enough.

I met a new friend on the trip. His name is Louis and he is from mainland china…somewhere in the center of china. He is here getting his PhD in computer science at Chinese University. He was very friendly to my parents and my sister and me and very talkative. He told me things about china and hong kong. He also taught me some mandarin and Cantonese. He gave me his cell phone number and offered to take me (and my parents but they are leaving so not really) to china one day. He also said I could come to Chinese university and visit and he would show me around hk a bit. I don’t know if I will be able to do this though because I am only here for another 2 weeks…and I have so much I want to do!! He told me that my family seemed so nice and happy together. He said he only sees his family around new year, and that his dad is very strict. His girlfriend works in Beijing and he only sees her every few months too. I asked him if it was hard to keep such a long distance relationship, but he said no. that is good I think and shows that they have a good relationship. Anyways we taught louis how to body surf –somewhat. He said in china they do not swim much and that he likes to play basketball in his free time. And of course he likes soccer. I liked him, he was very nice and it was fun to make a new friend.

Dad, courts, and I went along this rocky path because we wanted to explore it and also dad wanted to see if he could dive off the edge. The rocks were so painful to walk on!! And at the end, the water was too shallow to dive from and instead had sharp rocks on the bottom too. Oh well! Anyways after this beach we went along the Pacific Ocean –I think—and came back and ended up in Sai Kung. Here my parents and I stayed and ate at a seafood restaurant here. There were many of them along the dock, but we chose one because the woman who came up to us about the restaurant told us that we could eat the 2-person set dinner because the 4-person would be too much. All the other people kept trying to get us to spend the extra money for the 4 person sets. The lady was right, we had no problem finishing the food. It was delish! We had lobstar, crab, scallops, and yummy fish. After this we were very full and we got on a bus and traveled back to the train and then I went to my hotel. Oh yes at some point in our trip the water was so clear that we could see lots of white jellyfish in the water from our boat as we went along. it was very cool! =)

And thus ended a wonderful day.
Today, Chelsea and I worked and met kinnex, pui, and I new boy I had not met before named German (although at first I thought they were saying Jammin). German plays soccer and is a soccer friend of kinnex although they have different groups of friends. I liked him he was very fun to talk to. We ate some yummy tai food and they ordered me a pretty good coconut drink with strange jellies in it. We were talking about how Chelsea and I know Spanish…at least somewhat. And they asked, “really, you know Spanish?” and I said, “yes…although I guess I should say, si si (pronounced “see see”).” Well german and kinnex looked behind them confusedly. I didn’t really understand what they were doing but luckily Chelsea came to the rescue. She said they think you are telling them to look behind them. It was true they thought I was trying to tell them to “see see” behind them and see a pretty girl. =) they didn’t know that “si si” means “yes yes” in Spanish. I think almost everyone in the usa knows that si means yes in Spanish. it is very strange that people here do not know hola or si. =) anyways after work I went with my parents back to the revolving restaurant which again was so delicious and gorgeous. They liked it and so it was good. We were too tired to go to temple street and I did not complain. We just hung out at the hotel for a bit and they told me their funny stories from the day. Maybe I will talk about that later, but now I must go to bed. tomorrow I will play soccer and my parents will meet some of my hk friends =) wooo!

Amazing Beaches

Here is my family at the beach near Sai Wan.














Here is Nick, Guangming, Me, Chelsea, Andrea (looking like a model i might add =P), meghan, and michael...we are at the Nam Shea Bay beach.

more pics!

Hey look at the nice mountains around me! Weee!


Here i am with my sister and mike with his funny hat....this was a rare moment when mike actually agreed to get his picture taken... most of the trip he just threatened to throw my camera overboard!

Boat pics

Here are some of the group on the top deck of the boat. Dr. Fairweather's wife, Dr. Fairweather, chelsea, andrea, me, john, and nick and mike in the front row.














Here is Louis, the graduate student from Chinese University who befriended me and my parents.

HOng Kong Day 37: AWESOME REMOTE BEACHES!

I am too tired to blog tonight, but today we did the best thing i have done in hong kong. we went on a boat trip to some remote beaches in HK (on the east side near the pacific) it was so amazing!! i will tell you all about it later...i uploaded some pics though...


http://tayloru.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2006493%26l=cb52b%26id=179200873

http://tayloru.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2006494%26l=b009e%26id=179200873

goodnight all

Hong Kong Day 36: Happy Fourth Of July!!

Today was the fourth of July. i did not miss it. i hate fireworks. they are overrated. maybe it is because my dad had an accident witha firework and had to go to the hospital when i was young, but i just find fireworks somewhat boring. anywho, it was fun bringing in the holiday with Victor...i got to chat with him on gmail. i miss that guy! anyways i worked hard and then chelsea, Andrea, and I went to "fashion street" this is where the markets get their clothes, we cannot enter the stores but along the roads there are racks and bins with extra clothes that are very inexpensive. i got 2 shirts for 20 hk dollars. they look decent. but i am tired of market type clothes! so i went to festival walk and shopped there. most of the clothes there are too expensive though...i miss my malls at home! but i did find a good pair of long HK style jean shorts. they are kinda pricey, but i like them a lot. i didnt buy them yet ---i will try them on during lunch on thursday and make sure i still like them. the people in the stores are very helpful. one lady kept bringing me more and more pants to try on. also when you ask them what size they think you are...they are nicer and tell you one size that i think is smaller than they really think ---but maybe not the ones they recommended to me usually fit, but is a little tight but the next size was alittle too large...so whatever. anyways then i went running and now i am tired and must go to bed. we have a boat tour tomorrow. weee!

here are my post recent photo albums:

Macau:http://tayloru.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2006450&l=d515a&id=179200873
Family fun:http://tayloru.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2006395&l=292f1&id=179200873

fam fun2: http://tayloru.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2006452&l=ac20f&id=179200873

Benjamin's Visit (1):http://tayloru.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2006332&l=ca8df&id=179200873
Benjamin's visit (2):http://tayloru.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2006343&l=4a24b&id=179200873

Hong Kong Day 35: SoHo treats

I am getting sick of eating out, but tonight’s dinner at a Cuban restaurant on SoHo was very delicious. Still right now all I want to eat tomorrow is a simple peanutbutter and jelly sandwich. Mmmm. Anyways, my family went to Stanley market today and had a really good time. After work, I went running =) which I really needed! And then I met them so that we could go to SoHo –a place on HKI in which you have to ride supposedly the world’s largest escalator to get to. It definitely was big and we had not even gone that far up it. We decided to go here because on Mondays it is a 2 for 1 deal. It was rather pricey, but everyone really enjoyed their food. I got some delicious steak and a delicious blueberry drink (in honor of benjamin’s love for blueberries). My sister is already sick of me taking so many pictures (which is why she has now stopped smiling in the pictures unless she is laughing) –she reminds me of mike because he always seems to say, “GGGIIIRRLLL you and your pictures!” sorry I just want to be like vic! Anywho after eating, we walked to the star fairy ahem ferry…wow I am getting tired. after 5 weeks, I have still not rode the star ferry. It was nice, but the boat ride I took at night with Benjamin was much prettier…but that cost more than the 2.2 HK dollars it took to take this ferry =) Then we walked back to Jordan and on my way I got some yummy ice cream ---because I am a big fat American tourist! There are pictures of us below and here is my update on Sunday’s trip to Macau (I wrote half of it Sunday night and the rest tonight)

Hong Kong Day 34: Macau Trip

Today we went to macau. I was soo tired though. We went on a ferry that was more comfortable than the one yesterday and I tried to sleep on it. It was not a long trip. Once we were there we had to go through customs because it is separate from china, even though it is china. Kinda like hong kong I guess. So I got another stamp on my passport woo! Anyways it was fun reading the warning signs about how the boat will have 7 short bursts and then one long burst to signal an emergency. (my dad said that he understands that signal in the bathroom sometime haha=) ) then we will be told by the captain verbally to abandon ship. Do not wear shoes on the inflatable raft. After getting off at macau and going through customs, we got a map of macau and decided to go find this place with supposed “pornographic” pictures of cows and their utters. –at least that is what the tour book mentioned. I was intrigued. We got a taxi and took it to largo street or something –where their town square is with the senate building I think and the ruins of st. peter’s church nearby. As we drove in we passed many casinos which looked like they were trying to act all Vegas-y. I have not been to Vegas, but dad said they were trying to give the same atmosphere as Vegas. Anywho, this island looks a lot more European than HK, which kinda makes sense since it belonged to Portugal for so long. It reminded me of pictures I have seen of spain from my Spanish classes. It was cool to see –even though as a whole there was not much to do at macau ---but really is there anything to do anywhere? –not really! So it was still an interesting experience. We were pretty hot and sweaty as we searched for a small shop with a cow on the door. Finally we found it and it was packed. We found a table though –that had not been cleared yet, but it was the only table so we took it. Now I am used to the HK restaurants and how they do not really clean the tables and in general don’t give the best service. I haven’t really realized that I have somewhat grown accustomed to it…it still kinda annoys me but it is alright. They were busy and the only menu was in Chinese, so we just kinda sat there looking like our typical stupid American tourist selves. Just one look at my mom and you could see she was uncomfortable. She kept getting pushed in the back by people coming into the café and she was a little grossed out by the fact that we were not getting any service, English menus, or our table cleared. I felt uncomfortable because I wanted to make my mom happy but I still wanted to try some of this strange custard milk and flavored milk. My biggest disappointment was the lack of porn in the cow pictures. Sure there were lots of pics of cows, but man none of them were that dirty!! =) anywho after I finally asked the waiter for an English menu, I asked my mom if she wanted to leave and she said yes, so we left as the waiter gave me an English menu, I felt bad as I handed it back and left, but not too much because our seats were quickly re-occupied. My dad and I were a little annoyed, but overall we were just cranky and hot so it was ok. it is hard to be a family in this intense heat =) anywho we walked up and saw the church ruins –that was alright. Dad was pretty hot though so we decided to get a taxi (ac!) and go down to a restaurant called Fernandos which was recommended to us by a man at the airport and the guidebook. The trip there was fun and we got to see a lot of macau as we went through 2 of the smaller islands near macau.

We finally got to fernandos and after a little wait got to eat. I was starved! We each got a delicious looking entrée. Unfortunately we did not really look around us as other people were sharing entrees between at least 2 people. So we definitely felt like huge American heifers! It was funny though and still delicious, we just didn’t finish all of the food. Then we walked over to the black sand beach. The sand seemed blackish but it was so dirty! There was trash everywhere. I felt that if I did go into the water I would have came out of the water covered in tampons, condoms, and diapers. Yyyeeauuuughck! But it was still kinda fun to walk around it and look at all the interesting trash hehe. It made Lake Michigan look like a spa that is for sure. I will quote a little of my sister’s reaction:

“In fact, it looked as if there was a really bad pollution/trash problem that had turned the beach's sand a dark brown color and the people of Macau said, "Oh, no! Our beaches are so dirty! How are we going to get tourists to visit us now?" and another Macau-ian said, "I know! We'll call it 'black sand'! That way it'll be exotic, and even more tourists will visit!" and everyone yelled, "Yay!" and danced about in exuberance.”

Anyways after that we decided to go back to HK. On the ferry ride back, it was so noisy and a baby kept crying, but I got to read some of my book –it seems to be getting more interesting. Right now I am reading Jane Erye. Anyways we didn’t eat dinner because lunch was so late and big, but instead we walked along Temple street all the way up to ladies market just to look around. We did not buy much. My family does not like how they hassle you at the markets, but they enjoyed Stanley market, so that is good. Anyways im exhausted so I better get to sleep. Goodnight all you people.

More pics

after four yoga classes you can break your limbs like this man!











Don't i look so happy on the star fairy? my hair sure is!

Pics from soho and star ferry

to the left of this picture is the large escalator, it looks like mom and i are laughing at a joke, but in reality i am picking out a blueberry seed from my teeth and she is laughing at me!























here we are on the star ferry. as courtney would say, "big woot"












Here is my family in the middle of central on hki, you cant see the big buildings in the background because it is too dark and i used the flash

oh soo hot!

black sand beach in macau

from here, it looks like the beach is not that bad. and the black sand is kinda cool...





























But the sand and beach were more like this: