Beijing trip

1st day (Mon)

As we departed early in the morning for the airport, we were all feeling the excitement of reaching Beijing. I've been waiting for this trip for a while. As we get to the airport we grab our tickets and look around as we have about a 2-hour wait until we board. In our search I found that they had a Popeye’s chicken. Needless to say I went crazy, I had been talking about craving Popeye’s for a long time and out of the blue, there one was. Of course I ordered a meal set as soon as it changed to the lunch menu (first in line) and it was as good as I remember.  I was impatient because after I bought it I remembered that I had to still go through security. Everyone else waited to get Popeye’s when they got to the other side but I just wanted it right then and there so yes, my Popeye’s went though security and into the x-ray. After we got across I convinced everyone else to get Popeye’s as well. With our belly’s full we got on the plane and took off, after a little while I dosed off, as everyone else did, and was woken up by a flight attendant trying to hand me the in-flight meal. Even though I wasn’t hungry, I wasn’t going to say no to food. It wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t very good (it was just pork with rice). After landing, we had a delay on the next flight, so we tried to find an ATM but that was unsuccessful so we just sat next to our terminal and waited for it to arrive. Once it came we were finally off to Beijing. We landed and the terminal in Beijing was very impressive. After finding an ATM there we headed outside to get a cab to take us to the 5 star hotel that our school had put us up in. one of the first guys that came up to us asked if we needed a ride and offered $100PRC per person (which was INSANLY EXPENSIVE) considering a pop is only $3PRC and a 20 piece meal of McDonalds chicken nuggets was only $24PRC (the exchange rate is not as strong, while Hong Kong is around 7.8 per US dollar the PRC is about 5 or 6, but things are a lot cheaper so it balances out).

We find a regular taxi that we get in and it takes us to the hotel. We walk in and obviously it’s beautiful, with bellhops coming up to you to take your bags. As we go to the check out we have a little difficultly but after a while we finally got checked into our rooms.

It felt nice to be in a good room for once this semester, as well as a real bed and a real shower.  One thing that was interesting was we went out to get some dinner and we were randomly walking around and found a street ally to go down that looked like it had some food shops, as we walked down it we found some of our good friends from Hong Kong Baptist eating there. Ryan, the Australian, the Italians and Cecile, from France. So we ate some noodles with them as all the shops were trying to close. They all stood watching us eat so that once we were finished they could close up and go home. Well tomorrow we are going to the Embassy so ill let you know how that goes.

2nd day (Tues)

Had to wake up early today to go to the embassy, put on my new suit and let me tell you, I LOOK GOOD. So we all met downstairs and waited about 30 min to get a cab. But we only ended up about 5 min late to the embassy. It was pretty cool bc there was a massive line outside the gate leading into the building but we got to go around to the side and went up to a gate, waved our passport and he let us in. We went through multiple levels of security and through multiple doors that were at least half a foot thick. We sat down with a few diplomats, one specialized in economic affairs, one in political affairs, and the last one was from the defense department. They told us what they do and gave us some good advice as well as cleared up some culture barriers for us. We got to ask some questions, which they were all extremely knowledgeable. All in all it was very interesting and the US embassy was very nice.

After we went back to the hotel to change and went back out with Dr. Bennion, the one who is in charge of the exchange program, and he took us to a street alley that sold a lot of different kind of foods. The first thing I had was scorpion (fried) on a stick. They put a salty coating on it but it was actually really good, just very crunchy (and salty). Then I had something that was unbelievable, pineapple dipped in sugar (much like a caramel apple). THIS WAS AMAZING!!! They had so many types, strawberries, kiwi, and melon. Some just had one kind of fruit on a stick while others had a mix off all. This was just a snack bc none of us ate breakfast, so Bennion to us to this really awesome dim sum restaurant and had more dumplings then I have ever had in my life. I even tried donkey dumplings. We walked around some more and then went for a quick glance and Tiananmen square and the forbidden city. Since we are taking the whole tour on Friday we just looked around and did not go all the way into the palace. It was very interesting, and really all about show. It’s all about an intimidation and giving the appearance of power, which they obviously had but it was really built to show off. 

I’m looking forward to getting the whole tour on Friday though. We went back to the hotel and we all took a nap before going out for dinner. As we woke up and got changed we found that Bennion was not feeling to good so he told us a spot of street vendors that we could go to and get some good food for real cheap. So we headed that direction and saw some bizarre food and tried a lot of different things. They had snake, lizards on sticks, bugs and intestines, sheep’s penis, dog and many other things. After we filled our stomachs with a variety of different things we continued to look around the area near our hotel. We are now back and watching TV, having a few drinks and relaxing for our next adventure tomorrow, which none of us know what we are doing as of yet, we just know we need to be up and ready to do something by noon.

3rd day (Wed)

The day starts off with an early phone call, Dr Cartwright had fell and broken her ankle. The day’s activities were off. So we went to McDonalds to get breakfast before 11. We made it there around 10:45, however they had switched to lunch already. This was pretty disappointing but we ordered anyways. After we ate an early lunch we headed back and rested before meeting Bennion at noon. Once we all meet up Bennion told us that we were going to have a private tour of the Birds Nest (where the Olympics was held) because he knew one of the people that were in charge of Marketing the Olympics. As we waited for confirmation we went back out to get lunch with Bennion, we found a subway and talk for a long time but about a lot of important things that we were going to do in the future and what the school has been planning for the future. Unfortunately the Birds Nest did not work out but we went to Beihai park and walked around. This was an amazing cite because this was a park meant only for government officials and the emperor. So needless to say this place was beautiful. 

After we did that for a few hours we met up with the Dean Rogers and he took Bennion and the rest of us out for dinner. We talked about our experiences in Hong Kong and how things have been going. It was a great dinner and a blast to catch up with Dean Rogers and all that he’s been doing. Once we were finished we went into the mall to get some DQ. After the DQ we headed back to the hotel to go swim and hit the hot tub. Unfortunately the heat in the pool was not working and the hot tub was not very hot, but it still felt good. So know I am back in my room watching HBO and cant wait to go to sleep because I have a very busy day tomorrow. We are going to wake up early at 5:30 go work out a 6, get done around 7/7:30 take a quick shower and get changed to go meet Bennion for some McDonalds breakfast. Then we head out to the Ming Tombs and the Great Wall. Cant wait to tell you all about it, goodnight.

                                                                                   4th day (Thur)

So today we went to see the Ming Tombs. We had our own private tour bus and tour guide. It was amazing that our school had set us up with so much. It was also good that the Dean Rogers joined us in our expedition for the day. As we started the day early once again our first stop was the Tombs. This was an impressive sight as guide said it took over 6 years to find this location. Each tomb that was built could not be bigger than the fathers. So obviously the first tomb is the largest and it get progressively smaller for each emperor after. Only one of the tombs has ever be excavated because we they first attempted it they did not have the skill or knowledge of how to go about the process and they lost a lot of the artifacts, not to mention that they dragged the emperor out of his coffin, denounced him and then burned the body. This was a very tragic archeological expedition so the government has not allowed another one to take place. There is so much that I have learned for this trip about the Ming tombs but I would have an extremely long post and not to mention I would never be able to get to the other stuff that I did today. 

So after going through the tombs we headed out lunch at this jade market. It was a beautiful place full of high end jade that costs thousands of dollars but they had some things that were reasonably priced for us college students as well. Lunch was very good and after we had something to eat we were off to the great wall. As we got closer to the mountains you could see some stretches of the wall in the distance. Some interesting facts that I learned were: the wall was once 4000 miles long but only 800 miles have survived the test of time, the second is that the great wall can not be seen from space, it follows a natural ridge line, not to mention the wall is not tall at all.

 That was the biggest shocker for me, I was expecting the massive intimidating wall, what was intimidating was the length of the wall not the height. It must have only stood about one and a half stories high, 2 at most, or it at least looked that way. Also one thing I did not expect use how uneven the steps were. It was so messed up, I understand you have to work with what you were given and the fact that its going up a mountain, but you would be walking and have one big step up followed by another then all of a sudden it would be a baby step and then a few regular steps followed abruptly by another large step. I can’t imagine how many guards fell down or got injured just walking that thing at night; there was no organization to it, not to mention the insane slops. But never the less it truly was an amazing site to see. After all the site seeing we headed back to the hotel to relax for a little while before we went out to eat with Bennion. After a quick power nap we headed for Din Tai Fung, which was voted by New York Times as one of the top 10 restaurant chains in the world. The food was amazing for dessert we have this strawberry shaved ice. It was a large bowl of sweetened shaved ice with strawberries on the top and bottoms toped with a sweet strawberry glaze the melted some of the shaved ice, It was INCREDIBLE! Hard to describe but it was a dessert to remember. Bennion treated us to this dinner so a thousand thanks to him and the school for setting up such an amazing trip that I truly will never forget. THANK YOU SO MUCH BOWLING GREEN!

5th day (Friday)

Wow, how to describe to day: a lot of walking! We went to the temple of heaven (the most sacred place in all of china) then proceeded to the forbidden city for a grand Bennion Tour. So the day started off with us waking up early to go get breakfast, fun fact; every time I order something in McDonalds here in Beijing there is a complication, there are many examples but I will describe this mornings one, I went to the counter to order a breakfast sandwich and a hash brown, not difficult. I wanted orange juice instead of coffee because I was craving orange juice. So I order the sandwich and asked if I could have orange juice instead of coffee. She looked at me weird and said no. She said it only comes with coffee and that I could not get orange juice. After around 3 min of arguing with her on how stupid it was that they could not just put orange juice in the cup instead of coffee I said ok, I will just take the sandwich and buy and orange juice. She again said that I could not buy just the sandwich, the sandwich CAME WITH COFFEE. Semi mad I said fine I’ll take the sandwich and coffee and I want a side order of juice. McDonalds aside now, after breakfast we got in the cab and headed to the Temple of Heaven.

 This was a very beautiful place with a lot of importance behind it. I can tell you all about it when I return. After walking through a place that was the most important spot in all of china, some say more important that the forbidden city because the forbidden city was where the Emperor lived but the Temple of Heaven was where the prayers were sent by the emperor to bring a good harvest and good weather. It was this place that directly impacted the lives of the people of China. We directly headed to the Forbidden City after. This was another amazing site to behold, the sheer size and grandeur of a palace such as this being built in 1420 is unbelievable. To walk down the whole thing in a straight path will take about 2 hours (reference to how big the palace is). However we took Bennions tour so he showed us a bit more. Since he has been there before many times, he knows everything about the history and traditions as well as all the weird and interesting facts. He truly could be a tour guide. After going through the whole thing our feet were killing us so we headed back to the hotel to nap and hit the hot tub before going out to dinner. Once rested, we hit the streets to find dinner. We ended up going into the mall and finding a small restaurant that was really cheap. I can't recall the name of the place but I do remember that you could pick up gum at the front desk on your way out. It had the name on the gum, which I thought was pretty interesting given that most places always serve mints. We then hit the food venders again. Tried a few other things got bought more glazed pineapple on a stick (I must have bought at least 2 day, I loved these things). We then walked around some more as it was our last night in Beijing. We had a lot of fun going into different shops trying to buy things for super cheap. We took a lot of weird, funny pictures too, or at least I did.  Going to sleep, need to wake up early to more to get on our flight to Hong Kong. I can’t wait to get back; I miss Hong Kong a lot.

6th day (Sat)

Ok so things are not going so well. I am writing in a hotel in some crappy city called Wen Zhou. We left Beijing and were sitting on the plane and we were delayed. We sat in the plane for over an hour. Obviously not good when you have a transfer time to the next plane of an hour and 30 min. So we took off hoping we were not going to miss our plane. We landed and we had to take a bus to the terminal, which did not save us any time, then we had to find our luggage with 20 min before the plane took off, we had no clue what gate we had arrive at to get our tickets give them our luggage and go back through security. Obviously none of this happened, as we had to be checking our bags 30 mines before the plane takes off. So we were arguing with the people at the desk, who did not speak much English, because they said that it was our fault for missing the flight by booking two flight with a 1 hour and thirty min wait between the two.

However it was there company that we booked this flight through and it was there fault for the delay. As we were trying to explain all of this other locals were coming up, pushing us out of the way and shoving their tickets into the peoples faces and shouting, as if they were first in line. The ones behind the desk would then ignore us and move onto help those who spoke Chinese, since they did not want to try to communicate with us. We were all getting really mad because we had next to no money and were going to have to stay in some random crappy city that we knew nothing about. So after about 2 hours in the air terminal complaining we they finally set us up in a decent hotel for free with free lunch and dinner and free rides from and back to the airport in the morning. So we took the deal hoped in a bus that took us to the hotel. Wen Zhou is a very strange place. There are massive buildings being built (more like the skeleton of the building, just the frame) everywhere. Huge construction project but right across the rode was a small river with run down shacks that you see on the discover channel when they talk about third world countries. There is no way this city had the population nor did the people in the area have the capital to stay in places like these. I have heard of these ghost cities built by the government that our completely abandoned, huge shopping malls, the biggest in the world, with no shops in them. It looked like this place was similar to those in some sense. Once we got to the hotel we were curious if they spoke English because it was important that they understood what time we needed to have a taxi by to get us to the airport. As we walk up to the front counter we say hello, and they start laughing and speak in Chinese. We all look at each other and without saying anything we all had the same expression on our face "shit." So using my artistic abilities I drew a crude drawing of a taxi and an airplane and pointed to them and wrote down the time we needed to be there by. She nodded with a look that she understood what I was getting at.  Relieved we figured out rooming and went up to see what they looked like. They were not bad, could be a lot worse, but they would certainly do for one night. Turned on the TV and there is only one English speaking channel and its some British news station. There was one movie on that had English subtitles that was pretty good. I couldn’t tell you the name of the movie if I tried but it was pretty good. After eating the free lunch which consisted of us and another group of 3 Chinese people that must have been in a similar situation, we went up to take a nap, which we were all woken up by knocking. It was one of the managers telling us to come down for dinner. It had only been like 3 hours and as me and clay walked out of our room we saw everyone else come out of there rooms half asleep too. So we slowly walked downstairs and ate, after we decided to take a walk around the city, or as much as we could. We bought some supplies at a local store with what little money we could combine to give us something to eat for the morning and sat around a large fountain, or giant cesspool, and talked for a little bit on what a strange day it had been. As we walked back we received so many stairs and people taking our picture, as many of them have never seen a white man before.  Some teenagers walked by and tried to say hello, the girls in the group got nervous and laughed and smacked the ones that said hello so we just smiled and said hi back. You could tell that was the only word in English that they knew as they had repeated it about 3 times. Once we got back to the hotel we said goodnight to each other and went to our rooms. Me and clay stayed up watching weird Chinese TV and attempted to play Chinese hacky sack (it was a toy that we bought the Temple of Heaven, it is the coolest thing ever. it like one of the fake golf tees on the driving range with feathers coming out to keep it stable, with washers to provide weight and a soft rubber tip so you didn’t get hurt when you kicked it) we did this in our room for about 20 min (we were sweating pretty bad haha it was a good work out). After that we went to bed just to wake up in about 4 hours.

7th day

Traveled during Easter. Got on the plane and slept most of the time. It felt so good to be back in Hong Kong! Once I got back to my room me and Greg unpacked, sent some emails and skyped, and then headed off to the gym for about 2 hours. Came back cleaned up went out for BK Sunday. Just got back from the grocery store, with Cadbury eggs, and finishing up some last min things. Off to bed for a good night sleep then waking up early to go work out again. Last week of classes then one more week off. Maybe backpack across southern china for some really cheap things (things in southern china are insanely cheap) plus studying for finals. Wow this trip is almost over...weird.

A lot of new updates

Sunday, April 17th

I thought I should write one more blog before I leave to Beijing. The past few weeks have been very strenuous with all the presentations and stuff. All in all, I have been doing very good grade wise here. I received perfect scores on my Business-to-Business presentation as well as my Global Marketing presentation. For the mid term in business to business I received the 2nd highest grade in the class but with the perfect score (which was the only one given) I am pretty sure I am top in the class. Representing America! As for the other classes I positive I have an A in each one except for the entrepreneurship class (we had a group project which received a B on, in fact everyone in the class received the exact same grade, so I am curious about what the teacher was thinking)

As a last little trip before we leave for Beijing (tomorrow) we decided to go on a hike this weekend. We were certainly not prepared because we did not bring nearly enough water or any food because we thought it was going to be an easy trail, although it was difficult, it was a lot of fun. 

The hike comprised of us walking to a series of waterfalls called, Ng Tung Chai Falls. We didn't know that it was a hike to the very top of a mountain though a path that only consisted of a bunch of jagged rocks that was only about 3 feet wide with a steep drop the whole way down. After hiking up to two smaller waterfalls we finally made it to the top. 

The scenery was amazing and although we (Clay, Senny (friend from Florida) and Greg) were drenched in sweat it was a blast and a great time. It was a great work out. Well I will let you know how Beijing goes. We leave tomorrow a 1:30 pm. We have a lot planned including the Great Wall and the Forbidden City. Talk to you all again soon!

April 4th

We started the week off nicely by celebrating our friends (Laura) birthday. They took a couple of us to a really nice restaurant, even though it was price pretty well for where it was located. The place was called The Backyard. It was a rooftop restaurant attached to the Langham Place Hotel. This place even used ipads for the menus so that’s something. Then on Wed. we had another interesting item on our agenda. It was the Soon Hall Singing Contest. It was composed of many of the locals on the 14th floor but also was made up of us foreigners (Chris, Greg, Ricardo and I). This was actually the first time foreigners had ever participated in the singing contest. The song that we had to learn was called Xiao Xiao Xiaoniao (or small small small bird), which we added our own moves to. This song is basically about when you feel like a small bird trapped in a cage and all you want to do is be free. All of the moves we made to go with the song were learned the night before and most other teams put weeks of practice some over a month. The funny thing was we ended up winning the contest for best floor.

During the weekend we ended up going hiking and camping to enjoy one of the last weekends we had before all the projects and presentations were due. So early on Saturday morning we left to get to the Sai Kung Peninsula where we would hike to our camping destination at Tai Wan beach. After half way to the beach there was a point in the path that split up, one way was another 45 minute walk on a paved path and the other was a 4 hour hike over the top of the highest mountain in the area.

 Needless to say I had a lot of thing in my book bag and I was in no mood to walk another 4 hours. So as most of us took the 45 min trail we learned that it was a bit longer. Since the girls needed to stop so much (no offense but with all the stops it added another 30 min easy to our time) it was kind of funny because Bjorn (one of our friends that was leading us to the spot) kept saying just 10 more mins, 30 minutes later we hear, just 10 more minutes. Finally we get to the beach and go to a small village to pick up some tents and other supplies. It felt great to sit on the beach and relax in such a beautiful area. As it got darker we made a large fire and all sat around it eating and drinking. Needless to say to was a long but fun night.

When I woke up there was only about four others awake. It was amazing to wake up and look out of the tent and you’re right on the sand next the ocean. To start my day I went for a swim in the ocean, which was cold but felt great since it was really warm out. After the swim we decided to go up to the village and rent a few surfboards since Ryan (the Australian) knows how to surf and was going to teach us. After getting the boards we decided to start trying to surf but it took awhile to learn, not to mention the waves were not that great. After spending a lot of time in the water and the fact that most had left already, we decided to pack our things and head back. 

For this hike we took a different path that one of the girls said was fast and easy, however she was wrong and it ended up being pretty grueling. We seemed to always be climbing up and since the sun was out in full force it was extremely hot. Eventually we made it to the bus station at the end of the trail (had to wait for a few busses because the Chinese do not believe in lines, they will get in front of you even if you have been standing there before they came) and made it home after a few bus rides and of course, the MTR.

With so much school working coming up we will see when my next post is. Talk to you soon

March 27th

Since the last post a few more things have happened. On March 17th it was the Germans birthday (Chris) so the floor got him a cake and threw him a surprise party in the lounge. The surprise came while Chris was taking a nap, all the guys in the floor rushed into his room and picked him up and carried him out and into the lounge (that’s a strange way to be woken up). After the Happy Birthday song we ate the chocolate cake with chopsticks(that’s a first) in a first come first serve manner haha. After the party we went to a local restaurant called Mr. Wong’s. Mr. Wong like us because we go they’re so often and he gives us a great deal, all you can eat and all you can drink (beer) for $40HK, which is around $5 USD.  After a few hours of eating and drinking and having a blast we went to an Irish Pub since it was St. Patrick’s Day, We stayed there for a while but not to long as it was a Thursday.

Last week Clay, Greg  and I went to the most famous tailor in Hong Kong (Sam's Tailor) to get suits and shirts for our trip to Beijing. This guy has made suits for everyone, from Bill Clinton and George Bush to Pavarotti, Michael Jackson, Bruce Willis, Price Henry and Prince William, and many more. Since I love suits, this was like heaven to me.

I also cooked for the floor, since there was over 20 people I made spaghetti and meatballs from scratch. Although it took hours to make it turned out great.

This weekend was Hong Kong Rugby Sevens, which is a huge deal in Hong Kong. People from all over the world were out drinking in their crazy costumes. It was very interesting to see how serious people took it.

Another weekend, Senny, Clay, Greg, and I went to a very interesting place. It was called Noah's Arc. I was an amusement park/zoo/museum based off of, you guessed it Noah's Arc. We took a ferry to get there but I was actually very interesting and one of those things you can say you've been to. Since our semester is half  over we are doing some more site seeing. I'll keep you posted

Peak Tram March 13

with school and midterms going on, blogging  hasn’t been my top concern but I will fill you in on what’s been happening. Friday night a lot of exchange students went on the peak tram in central to go up to Victoria Peak. It’s the highest point in Hong Kong. We went there at the begging of our semester here but this is the first time we went at night.  We stayed there for a while and got some food at a Thai restaurant. After, we went to Billy Boozer to relax for our trip the next day.

On Saturday a small group of us exchange students went to Peng Chau Island. Its a small village about 45 min from the harbor. We walked around for a while and climbed some rocks to get better views. While some continued to climb the rocks the rest of use went up to the tallest point of the island called finger hill, which had a very impressive view of the whole island. It was truly a nice day for this because it was a clear warm day so it made it just that much better

Also I was involved in the hall sports. I was the goalkeeper for the team which was split up, team A and Team B, since we hade so many people. It was a great game however we lost in goal shoot out since we had tied in the match 2-2. Although we lost it was a blast. I also bought my plan ticket to Beijing with Greg and Clay as well as the other BG students. I’m really excited for this trip, Great Wall and the Forbidden City.

Address

Hey if you would like to send me something (I WOULD LOVE IT IF YOU DID) my address here is:

Room 1408 R North Tower,
The Hongkong Bank Foundation Building,
Student Residence Halls,
Hong Kong Baptist University,
5 Baptist University Road,
Kowloon Tong, Hong Kong

yes its long but you have to write the whole thing. Thanks

the Philippines and more

alright its been a while but let me catch you up on what i've been doing. The group and I left for the Philippines. Our flight was scheduled to leave at 10:15 but we were delayed till 12:15. This actually worked out well because the airline gave us a meal pass that we could use pretty much anywhere. So i spent it on some pizza. The airport was so massive that we spent the rest of the time looking around and exploring until our flight was delayed again. Even though we were kind of up set it wasnt to bad since we were going to sleep in the airport once we got to the Philippines anyway. Finally our flight took off and we made it to Manila where we just stayed up the whole night (just me, i was reading and watching everyones stuff as they all slept) and then got on our next flight to Kalibo. Once there we took a one and a half hour drive to Caticlan where we got on a boat to take us to Boracy. If you think that was an adventure, once we landed we had to take a tricycle. Yes a tricycle, which basically consisted of a small motor bike with a box cart attached to it, to get to out hostel. It was pretty interesting and we received even more interesting stares when we fit 6 people onto one (as seen here).

Once we finally got to our hostel everyone was happy to put their stuff away and relax for a little bit. The hostel was like a small village comprised for multiple huts. As far as the price goes it wasnt to bad. It was a bamboo room with 4 beds (6 people, the girls had rented a room at a different hostel) and the bathroom comprised of a sink with water that smell like crap, a toilet what the seat was kind of loose and a shower head right next to the toilet, with a drain in the middle of the floor. Even worse there was only cold water so that didnt make showering fun. but since we were only going to be there to sleep and change it didn't really matter. It also seemed like the ones who owned it lived there as well as their cousins or something of the sort. Every morning they would all be outside eating a mixture of different things for breakfast (a family feast). We were about a 2 min walk from the beach so after about an hour power nap we all got up and went out to explore in the 85 degree weather.


The next day we meet up with the girls and had breakfast and laid out on the beach most of the day. Tanning, making sand castles ( I made an alligator) and throwing the Frisbee around. Most of use got sun burnt this day. Clement got burnt the worse, he was only out for about an hour and he looked like a french cherry. He was soooo red. but that didn't stop clement from doing anything. That night we went out and found a nice place to eat right on the beach. While we eat there was live concerts going on (local singers and stuff) so the entertainment was a good addition to the amazing and cheap seafood we had. There was fire dancing later that night which was incredible too.


The next day was another beach day, relaxed, explored more of the island, went to a few bars. That night we to another awesome restaurant and later went to a bar on the other side of the island called the Jungle


The next day, we did some more exploring, some went snorkeling while some of us took ATV's to the top of a mountain to see a birds eye view of the islands. In all we had alot of fun on the beach and had some amazing seafood, but i was starting to miss Hong Kong. I was going to feel good to take a real shower.


Our last day in the Philippines we stayed a night in Manila in a nice hotel close to the airport. We explored the city a little and went to one of the malls (which was very big and had a lot of nice shops) but me and clement had no desire to explore a mall so we left and went into a taxi that took us to the financial district. Everyone said that manila was  nasty place thats very dangerous, but where clement and i went to was far from that stereotype. It was beautiful, with very nice buildings and a huge park in the middle that everyone was running around and doing stretches in. 


Now that i am back in Hong Kong and survived the Philippines, im just going to my classes and relaxing. Still exploring the city and going to some new areas. I will keep you all posted with whats going on. We have some big trips coming up later such as the great wall and the forbidden city but until then, its going to be class and going out occasionally on the weekends. until i post again, take care and i'll talk to you all soon

Sorry

so i lost the password to my blog and since everytime i tried to long in it was in chinese, it didnt help me very much to figure out how to solve the problem. Until i figure it out i will be writing in Microsoft Word to remember what i did.

 Anyways to go back about a week and talk about what all we did may be a little difficult but i will do my best. For the most part not to much went on. Now that school is up and running and all classes are final (no more add/drop) we have for the most part slowed down some. We still go out to different restaurants most nights and go to the bars here and there. We went back to the horse track  last week and i didnt gamble since I lost money in Macau. After the race we went to this sushi place called sushi one. it was a very nice restaurant with amazing sushi. We had ordered so much that

the whole table was covered with food and its was all for under $100 HK or  like $12 american.

Saturday we went to the Big Buddha, its was pretty amazing even though it was really touristic. took a lot of good pictures. we were going to walk to the Big buddha but the trip would have taken easily 4-5hours or more with non stop walking. You have to go over three mountains to get to it. So we decided to take the  cable car there and walk back. After about an 2 hours we decided to get ready to head back, as we were finishing the last of our pictures a small group of us (me, greg, clay, and alyssa) decided we were going to take a bus back since it was so cheap.

On monday the group of us went to the flower market to do a project for our entreprenuership class. There was a lot of kids and games for the whole family. It was kind of interesting and many of the flowers were nice but they were, for the most part, all the same. they had around 10 different kinds but with all the venders selling the same thing it got kind of boring fast. we interviewed a few of the shop keepers for our project but we always had to talk with the younger people bc none of the parents or older generation speaks english. We were having conversations with 8-10 year olds while there parents didnt understand a word, so it was a little strange.

for not posting in such a long time im sorry for not having more detailed things up but its hard to always remember an entire day for a whole week.

next stop is the Phillippines and i leave tomorrow night.for Boracay, the famous White Beach. Should be amazing, and i should have a lot to talk about.

Monday 24th

No class on mondays and tuesdays, so it was a pretty relaxed day again, hung out with the group and went to GNC to get some protein when we go lift. But the most exciting part of the day was when we left for a floor dinner. Everyone on the 14th floor including clement and clay (they are on different floors but they came with us) went out to this hot pot restaurant. Our floor is the greatest, everyone is crazy so going out to eat with them all was going to be interesting. This place was an all you can eat and drink for like $86HK or like $12 American. The guys on the floor said that we would be eating some weird things (local food as they called it) when i saw the check sheet menu I knew this was going to be different from anything I have ever eaten before. But me, greg, clay, chris, and clement were going to try it all. so the food started coming plate after plate and in the center of the table were two large bowls with different kinds of soups to put the meat in to cook it. So first came some thinly sliced raw beef to put in the soup, then came some mushrooms and then came the chicken kidneys, followed by goose intestines, pig skin, cows stomach, pigs neck and pig liver, of course there was normal food to like sliced lamb and beef rib meat, eel and duck. All for $12. of course we really appreciated the "all you can drink" especially with what we were eating. But truthfully it was all really good. Everyone of us really enjoyed the food and although it was strange, it was a great experience and a hell of alot of fun.

wed 19th - sunday 23rd

Went to the race tracks and it was incredible. I won too. Bet $20 on horse #4 to win and bet $20 on horse #7 to place (in the top 3). Horse #4 won and horse #7 came in second place. So went up and collected $140. HK dollars of course. Then we had quite an adventure that night trying to find food. Took some pictures and videos.

Thursday and Friday were relaxed day. Went to the grocery store and got a few items for the room so we dont eat out to much. Every night we usually go to a different restaurant (sounds expensive but a good place might cost you about $10 american and thats kind of expensive for here) The worst thing of all though is that we will go to a nice place to eat and literally go across the street, as soon as we are done, to go to McDonalds. Sadly we have done this on more than one occasion. Its just the food has like no flavor. They do not even salt and pepper the meat. Another side note about the meat:

It always has bones in it. If you order chicken or duck, they chop the bird up with the bone, so you may get a slice of chicken but it will have part of the rib cage still attached. You get more bone than you do meat. And its like they dont believe in serving it all at the same temp. I ordered this meat dish from a nice restaurant and it came with duck, chicken, and pork. However the chicken, like i said, was mostly bone, skin and fat comes second most and actual meat is in last place. Also like i said they do not salt and pepper or add really any spices or herbs so the chicken was bland, worst of all it seemed like it was sitting out for a while because it was cold to touch, but not like refrigerator cold, it was room temp cold. The duck was similar, warm in some places and cold in others. Pork has usually been the safest bet.

Saturday we went to Macau, Basically the Chinese Las Vegas. It had the Wynn, and the Venetian. The Venetian was like three times bigger than the one in Las Vegas but, L.Vegas was much nicer. I think its because they went so big they could not put all the fine detail into the buildings. There was some other casino's that would blow your mind in sheer size. All in all it was alot of fun. And yes we checked out the Playboy club that was in Macau. We got there early so not many people were there. It wasn't that impressive but it was interesting.

Sunday was another laid back day, went out go some books and just hung out. Booked our flight to the Philippines and the place to stay in Boracay, amazing prices!

mon-wed (17th-19th)

Monday was the first day of class, business statistics. since it was at 4:30pm i had plenty of time to get some things done, such as filling out some paper work and setting up forms to get student subway passes and to get access to use the school gym. Once it came time for class i got my things together and headed off. once i got into the classroom there was a few people there already so i introduced myself. everyone was nice then the teacher walked in and we took are seats. it took him a while to set up and people continued to walk into the class. (side note: I guess they dont believe being on time is important when it comes to class bc people would walk into class 20min, 30min, even an hour late and sit down like nothing was wrong. Everyone else that i know has had the same things happen in their classes.) So the teacher puts up a power point on the projector and begins the lesson. If you thought you ever had a teacher that you couldnt understand, i can bet you my guy was worse. he kept saying umm. and his teaching had no organization to it at all. He kept moving the slide up and down going from one thing to another, and then going back because he missed something. I knew right away what i was doing, dropping that class.
That night we went to the mall again. I found an awesome store and got 3 shirts, and a flannel for $40 american. UNBELIEVABLE.

Tuesday i dont have any classes. now that i dropped the statistics course i have mon. and tues. free. 4 day weekend! but wed i have one class in the morning and done. thursday i have two classes and friday i have two courses also. Went to Billy Boozer again. Great night once again.

Today-wed.
had my business to business class. Its awesome and goin to be, i think, i pretty easy class. Thank god english is my native tongue. this course truly demands understanding it especially for the reading. a few people i know are in the class (3 french girls 2 german girls) and so when he told us there was a big project and we had to get in groups we looked at each other and agreed we would be in a group. I was the only american in the class so when the teacher said find a group i could see all the asians looking at me to be in their group. Going to get some lunch with people from the group, and later tonight we are going to the horse tracks. should be interesting

sunday-1/16/11

Not to much went on but it was a fun day, got breakfast with some people from the group, and we went our looking for school supplies and something to eat, went to a plaza and found an awesome supermarket inside that i will have to go back to. After the market we went back to the room and set up some things for school and organized somethings. We then called some people from the group, me greg, clay, clement, christophe, and chris, to go play basketball. Shorts weather here. we played for and hour or two and since we were all craving a hamburger, we decided to find a Burger King, I don't always eat fast food and when i do i really prefer Arby's, but you really dont appreciate the small things until they are gone. Lets just say BK never tasted so good. Dont get me wrong i love the food here but, they all use the same spices and for the most part is all tastes the same. We in the states are use to so much variety and different flavors at any time. Truly a luxury. I am goin to share with you a few things i have picked up here so far about the culture. some i have already said but im making a list so.

1. Pedestrians do NOT have the right of way, if u get hit it is your fault and that is why most cars will speed up if they see u trying to cut them off.

2. Taxi Drivers are F-ing insane here! enough said (just like in the movies where they slam on the gas and almost hit like 10 people on the way to your stop, and you pray you survive)

3. The food for the most part tastes the same, not a wide range of different flavors (the food is great, but after a while you need something to mix it up, we have been to many high end restaurants since we have been here and even their tastes the same as the rest.

4. If you are american or basically not asian, you get stared at....alot...could be for the fact that we are all about 2 feet taller than everyone else. they are very interested in us and think americans are cool and stuff, this is what alot of the locals we know tell us, but its the older generation that dont think that way. For example if we sit down at a table, they will move to another haha, not all but a few.

5. Ice is a very rare thing, u always get tea or just plain boiling water. you can buy water (bottled) still wont give u ice. and if its a nice restaurant they will have water but its room temp.

6. Since its a big city, like new york people need to get places and dont have time for manners. But its still pretty bad here, your walking the will push right though you, goin up the escalator-if they think you are goin to be to slow the will cut you off even as you are taking your first step on, they even do it to the elderly. I saw people cut this old guy off as he was trying to get on the escalator. its just their culture but i have had to hold my tongue because its hard not to say something when people are being so rude.

7. Even though there are irons and dryers, they prefer to hang dry their cloths so inside the laundry room is a door that leads to a deck with wires hanging above it so they can hang them up.

8. I have only seen two American candy bars, they have m&m's but im talking about candy bars here, there are snickers (the only one they sell in most places) and i have seen a twix occasionally but that is very rare, i think i have only seen two places that sell them. some places do have the fun sizes packages of them. but twix is expensive compared to the american price. snickers is about the same

9. almost every bathroom i have been in has been different in some way, many different kinds of urinals, there is even a large metal wall that has water coming down it that you pee on.

10. there is alot of signs that say be friendly to the environment , bathrooms usually only have those air dryers for you hands, if you go to the store u have to pay for a bag, but it like 5cents American. And alot of signs saying turn off light, save power, use less water. etc, but walk around the city and all that goes out the window, not to mention Hong Kong has a light show ever night at 8pm. so....

11. What ever the price says it is, it is. which is awesome, any tax i guess is already in the price. ex. $199HK you give them $200HK u get $1HK back.

12. They have many different bills. There is like 4 different looks for each bill, i have like 3 different types of $100's in my wallet. And they have alot of coins, $10 pieces $5 pieces, $2, $1, and so on

There is some more but i have to get going, ill keep informing if you keep reading

the trip and the first week

So after finding our terminal at O'hare and getting ready to say our goodbyes, Vince Vaugh walked right up next to us to go through the security checkout (which they opened a separate terminal for). To be blunt, he is freakin tall. After goin through TSA me and greg grabbed some snacks and waited for clay to arrive at the airport. Once we finally meet up we saw that our tickets had me and greg sitting together and clay separate. Even though it was bad that we were separated for such a long trip, the airline was amazing. I have always heard that the Japanese were renowned for customer service but that was the best plane ride i have ever taken. The first meal we had was really good. We had many options but i went for grilled teriyaki chicken with rice, soup, steamed veg. and fresh fruit. The each seat had its own fold up tv screen and could play video games, watch the video camera under the plane to see what was below you, or watch some of the latest movies, so that made the flight go fast. To make things go faster im skipping the details of the next flight but basically it sucked because i could not get any sleep. Getting into Hong Kong airport was nice and people from the school meet up with us to take us to the school. Since we got in at around 12pm stores were closed so we could get any pillows. As we were driving to the school we asked about how rooms were set up and they told us that they always try to put and exchange with a local to help with culture differences and things and told us that it was rare that u would get paired with another american. As we drove on you could see all the mountains and the buildings that mesh with them. The weather although is the coldest its been in ten's of years was still somewhat warm. They have palm trees here so...once we got to campus we got are things to check in and get are roomkeys (to get into your room you have card like in a hotel). As we were waiting for are keys we were telling the students who picked us up how me and greg were separated from clay each flight. As i looked down at the room number me and greg looked at each other and laughed. Me and greg were roommates and clay was separated once again. luckily we were all in the same tower (north and south towers, since the campus is somewhat small, it has to be built up). As we went up the elevator we just laughed as clay walked out to go to his room, we felt bad so we followed him since we didnt know if his roommate was in his room or not. As he opened the door and turned on the light, there was nothing but some scattered papers on a desk with a few books, no roommate. Tired, me and greg said bye and went back up to our room. we got in, put some of our things away and sleep on a very hard mattress pad with two very thin sheets,, no pillow and no blanket. Needless to say, to it was goin to be a shitty sleep but being so tired i didnt care at the time. - First night in Hong Kong 01/11/11

As my alarm went off to get us up to start our orientation, i realized i have never been so cold in my life. I was shaking, my teeth were clattering together, and my neck felt like i got hit with baseball bat. I turned to greg and with what little strength i had, i said, "well this sucks."  As we got changed and headed to orientation with clay, still some what jet lagged and on only 4 hours of miserable sleep, we looked around campus and found the room we need to go into, and saw alot of other exchange students. they had us in different groups randomly assigned to take a tour of campus. I met some awesome people in my group including a german named chris, who lives in the room next to us and who we hang out all the time with now. We also met clement a really cool french guy, who we always hang out with now too, and several more germans and others from italy, france, austria, the UK, korea, mainland china, and many more.

for lunch our group ate at a Korean restaurant near a shopping plaza. The food was great and for 8 people the bill was $345HK, which i thought sounded expensive just from see $345 but with the exchange rate it came out to like $46 american ( FOR EIGHT PEOPLE, big portions too). After the tour  me, greg, clay, and a few others went to IKEA to get some essentials for the room. We were going to meet with the exchange group to go out to eat dinner with all of them at 8pm but we didnt get back to the school until 9:30. Side note: the subway stations here are awesome, they have this thing called an octopus card which you put money in and scan to pass through the gates instead of always buying a ticket, but the cool thing is that the card can be used in places all over the city from buying coffee, and vending machines, to even some restaurants all by a quick tap of the card to the scanning pad.
Since we got back late we were goin to find something close bc we had done so much walking and other things throughout the day and we were still jet lagged and are going on only 4 hours of sleep. As me and greg were waiting for clay to meet us outside one of the guys who picked us up from the airport (his name is Freedman) and to guys from the UK (matt and jeremy) were going to get something to eat also and asked if we wanted to join. So we agreed and when clay came downstairs we left for what we thought was going to be a nearby chill place. Once we walked back to the sub station me, greg, and clay knew it wasnt going to be a quick trip, so going on fumes we got back on the train and headed back into the city. We came to a place called Mong kok, a very large shopping district with everything. Thousands  of street venders on this one road that was blocked off to cars, and pass that was thousands of store shops from adidas to Armani and Rolex. The night life in this place was unbelievable and we luckily had a few locals that went with us showing us the way to this hole in the wall restaurant. We sat down at a large round table with a lazy susan (most places have these as everyone usually gets many different dishes and everyone shares) The waiter comes up and pours us tea and brings another tea pot full of just boiling water. Another side note: there is like no ice, if you are lucky to find water thats not boiling, it is room temp. The menu was not in english at all so we trusted the locals to pick what they thought was good. As i enjoy eating weird things i ask one of them to get something different on the menu, he said this place doesnt really have anything to bizarre but he would find something for me. as dish after dish came to the table he pointed to one that looked like thin strips of chicken and said "pig stomach,"So i scooped some on my bowl and happily tried it. It was really good, it was sauteed with onions and garlic and some other spices in a cream sauce. It tasted just like chicken but like a mix between chicken meat and fat, since its was kinda chewy. After the food we walked around some more and went to a seven eleven for some beers (there is no open container laws, you can walk around the city with a beer in ur hand and even go into stores with alcohol in your hands and its perfectly normal. It took some time to get use to bc i felt like an officer was goin to come out of nowhere and arrest me or something. We left and went back to the school where we passed out from sheer exhaustion, but this time we had pillows. - wed. 1/12/11.

Thursday-1/13/11

library tour and learning how to log into our account through HKBU. had lunch with the whole exchange group at this seafood restaurant bought for us by the HKBU. After the tour me greg and clay were hanging out with chris and clement and two girls from america (laura and aylssa). That day the rest of the group from Bowling Green got in and so our advisor from BG took us out to explore and have dinner at a nice place all paid for by the dean of the college of business at BG. I know... i said BG a lot, but one more time. So the whole group form BG got on the subway and we went to Mong Kok, even though me, greg, and clay already went there the day b4. After much searching we found the place that Dr. Bennion told us about, the food was amazing and it was a very fancy place, are bill was over $1000. HK that is haha. so for the eight of use that were there in a high end restaurant was somewhere around $160 american total. So chambers (our advisor) also wanted to take us to a market place around the area that Bennion told him about, so we took out the map and started walking. Long story short, we got lost. We walked to what looked like the slums, it was run down, there was trash everywhere and there was no one around us. it was scary quiet, bc you could hear the city sounds in the background but it felt like we were in a ghost town, every once in a while u saw a person walking around or sitting on the ground next to s shack. so we all looked at each other and we didnt say a word but knew exactly what we needed to do. Get the hell out of there! We finally made it back to civilization and agreed to go back to the market where the three of us were at the night before. when we were done with that we headed back to the school. said our goodbyes to chambers and met up with chris, clement, laura, and aylssa at a place called Billy Boozer. chris and clement had gone there before and told us about the owner and how he loved foreigners. so when we got there, we bought a few pints and the had a blast. the owner came over and talked with us for a while and we have all become good friends with him. he even gave us free drinks and free shots too. we tried to pay him but he wouldnt accept. Plus he gave us insane deals like, whenever we want 150 HK all you can drink. the sign had something about free drinks but for like 3x the price he gave us. After getting back to the dorm late that night or i should say early the next morning, we saw some of the locals that live on the floor. they were all sitting in the multi purpose room on our floor, so we introduced our selves and had a few laughs.

Friday- 1/14/11

Hong Kong tour. the school had brought a group of tour buses for us to take into the city and around it. I am going to call the people that we are always hanging out with "the group" from now on since i dont feel like writing each name out again and again, so for reference the group consists of me, greg, clay, chris, clement, laura, aylssa, frank(another german), christophe( french), and tom (german). that is the group that we always do stuff with now. Great group of people, love them all haha. Back to the story. so the group of us got on, for the most part, the same bus and the first stop we went to the tallest mountain in hong kong to see a beautiful view of the whole city. then we went down to one of the beach's. It was amazing! the weather is perfect even though its winter its like in the high 60's so it made for a perfect day on the beach. the view was beautiful, when u look out you could see all these really small islands close to the shore and the massive mountains behind us with a beautiful town behind us. Jackie Chan lives in that area and his house was huge and sitting on the mountain over looking the ocean. I will have to add some photos and videos i took, words dont do justice. Then we left and ate on the worlds largest floating restaurant, then we went to the jade market and then a beautiful temple that was located in the middle of this town we went to. Like i said ill try to add pictures and videos to show you. After the tour was over it was around 6pm so the group went our to dinner where a girl named shae know a bar tender in Hong Kong and got our tickets from her. After dinner we got changed and went out with all the exchange students to the bar in Hong Kong. The place was crazy, im talking cages with poles in them and open bars. This was the first night we cheated and ate american food. we went to McDonalds, which didnt taste very similar, i was kinda disappointed.

Sat- 1/15/11

so we waked up kinda late as did everyone that went out that night. I needed to get cloths bc i didnt pack very many shirts or anything so, the group of us went to the mall that is close to us. This mall is crazy, there is no such thing as gap, or macy's or any of that here. Nothing but high end top of the like designs, hundreds of the best of the best, Polo Ralph, Coach, Armani, Japanese designers, Famous designs from france and germany. It was crazy but so were some of the prices, Not all  of it was good deals as they are the top designers but i did get a polo sweater that looks really nice for $350 HK or like $46 american. U cant beat that deal, this wasnt a regualr shirt either it was a full sweater and everything so, there are amazing prices. We went back to our rooms and got changed and then headed out to one of the areas called victoria peek which had a perfect view of the city from the lake, where we saw the Hong Kong light show which plays every night at 8. We then went to an Italian restaurant bc none of us wanted chinese food. It was great, comfort food always is. when we got close to the school me, greg, clement, chris and frank went to Billy Boozer for one beer. We knew it wasnt going to be one beer but we told ourselves that in the belief that it would justify our going there. so we ordered our drinks and talked with the owner again. He asked us if we wanted to play a drinking game and we said sure, u know got to learn about the culture, he brought over about 12 shots of this chinese alcohol, like i said before all for free. And we played this really fun dice game, when we were finished with those 12 he brought over another 12 of rum. clement and greg had the majority of those 2 trays with me in 3rd, the others never lost so its was for the most part us drinking them, clement couldnt do anymore straight shots, he throat was bothering him, it had been earlier that day, so to make it easier for us he made us 16 chocolate shots, a mix of chocolate and rum (AMAZING)!  thats a total of 40 shots for free. I know this sounds bad with all the drinking but it was pretty much clement and greg who got screwed with drinking most of them, i had lost a few times but clement was a trooper and lost more than any of us and was the one who drank most of them, it was funny listening to a drunk frenchman speaking english haha

sorry for any misspelled words or weird sentences I did this all in one sitting and am sick of writing so i could care less about goin through to re read and fix anything

Last Day in the States (1-9-11)

Im in Evanston, Chicago and for the first time I have started a blog after constant hammering from my family too do so. Greg Blinn is also with us as we are heading to the airport tomorrow morning at 8 to meet up with Clay. The three of us will be flying out of O'Hare at 10:45AM monday morning. Since Greg has not seen much of Chicago we took him to around and showed him some famous hot spots. From the "Bean" to the spot where the Saint Valentines Day Massacre took place. With it being so cold out, we were not able to do much waking around, which only means another visit when we get back from Hong Kong when its warm out. As for food, we ate at the always good Celtic Knot for dinner on saturday. Breakfast today at Bennison's Bakery and Hawaiian food for lunch at Aloha Eats, then got back to my sisters apartment were me and greg walked around Evanston and made our way to Joy Yee's to get some bubble tea and crab rangoon. Now im just sitting here typing next to the whole family and greg who all have their laptops out blogging. Maybe i should have just bought a journal? We havent decided where we are eating for dinner yet but it should be good, as its our last supper in America. Next stop Tokyo and then Hong Kong