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