一天

We finally made it onto the plane yesterday, and about 15 hours later we arrived in Hong Kong. The plane ride kind of sucked; because of the security issues we were ordered by the FAA to not have any electricity on the plane—this meant no movies or music for the whole flight. Megan and I both only slept for about two hours and we read a lot. She read a whole book that was about 500 pages and I studied some Chinese and read a travel book that Bryce gave me which I learned a ton from. Once in Hong Kong, we made it through immigration pretty easily, but I was really overwhelmed with the lack of English and some of the people (there was a man behind us in the immigration line who hocked a loogie on the carpet and then wiped it with his foot…it was nasty!) I got some pretty cool stamps on my passport though. After we got all of our bags, we hopped in a taxi and headed off to our hotel. The taxi was pretty small and I was afraid my luggage was going to fall out of the trunk because the man couldn’t shut it all the way. They also drive on the opposite side of the road and the drivers seat is on the opposite side so that was kind of fun. The airport is on an island so on our way into the city we got to drive over one of the biggest suspension bridges in the world, it was massive!

We checked into our hotel around 8:00pm. At first, they gave us the room 1404, but Megan and I made them give us a new room because in China four is very very bad and means death. We think that they planned on giving it to us because of my American sounding name that the reservation was made under—Megan’s mom said they would have probably never given that room to any Chinese person. Once we got to our new room though it was such a shock. At a whopping 100 square feet, we had two twin beds and a bathroom where the shower head was right over the toilet/sink. This meant that when we showered the toilet and everything in the bathroom got wet. The bathroom was probably smaller than a coat closet, and the entire room was smaller than the pantry at my house. I guess that is what you get for being on a budget during the holidays and staying at a one star hotel. After we brought all of our stuff to the room (which it barely fit) we went to the 7 Eleven—there is basically one on every corner—and bought some bottled water. We then walked around a bit in the rain and witnessed some guy trying to shoplift. This was very scary for me because I couldn’t understand the people in the store yelling “did he pay” and “police” in Cantonese. When the shoplifter tried to run pass me and the people were grabbing him it was scary.

This morning we both woke up around 4:00am and then forced ourselves to go back to sleep so the jet lag wouldn’t kill us during the day. We slept for a few more hours and then once it was light outside we planned on what we were going to do. First off, we wanted to find a new room. The one we were in smelled, and the window seals had puddles from all the condensation, and something leaked on me during the night. We called a few places in the city, and then we remembered that we could stay at the Chinese University of Hong Kong (which is where I am going to school) in Sha Tin. Shat Tin is a ways out of the city so we would have to take a train to get places. We called and booked a room and then ate some breakfast at Café de Coral which is Megan’s favorite restaurant. It was crazy how fast the service was. After breakfast we went to the 7 Eleven and Megan bought a sim card for her phone so she could make international calls. For about $68 HK (about $9 American), she got 300 international minutes and unlimited texting. When she leaves she is just going to give the sim card to me and I will just add on minutes when I need them, but now I have an HK phone number!

Moving to our new hotel was such a relief. The people at the university are so nice! We are in a suite for two nights and then moving to a room with two twin beds. The suite is a little more expensive, but it was the only room open for these two nights. We have a king size bed, a big bathroom with a tub, and a small little living room area, and it is clean! Since the university is on a mountain side, the view is amazing too! After settling in a bit, we went to the Hang Seng Bank on campus and I opened a local bank account. Then we headed to the train and met Megan’s uncle, aunt, and two cousins for a late lunch.

For lunch we went to this place where nothing was in English and I couldn’t read the menu. Megan’s family doesn’t speak English so she had to translate everything for me. Her family is sooooooo nice though, and her uncle gave me these two jade necklaces with different Chinese Gods on them. We walked around after lunch and went to a few different street markets where I bough some Pumas for about $40 that would have probably cost around $85 back in the states! We saw a lot of fake designer things which was cool, and it seemed like a lot of people liked me because I am blatantly America. In a lot of stores, they will greet you and then follow a foot behind you while you walk around until you leave. Some of the streets smell really really bad because of the “stinky tofu” that is sold by street vendors. The smell makes me want to throw up! After some more walking around we went to get some desert. I tried dao fu fa (bean curd (or tofu) pudding). It is served hot and is like the texture of pudding but sticks together like jello. You can either get it with sauce on top or just plain and put sugar on it. I got the plain one and the sugar at the restaurant was like brown sugar but yellow. Megan got the ginger and it was really spicy. I didn’t really like it and my stomach hurt a little bit afterward.

We headed back to the hotel after that and now are just hanging out. Tomorrow we are planning on getting dim sum with Megan’s family, shopping some more, maybe seeing Avatar in 3D, and watching the light show that they have every night.
I am very aware of how white I am here, and believe it or not, but I am taller then most of the people! I feel like a giant. It is going to take a little more time for me to get used to all of the staring though. Today was much better than yesterday. I am not going to lie, I was really freaked out and scared at first and almost cried because I missed home and I didn’t really know what I was getting myself into. Now, I am a lot more relaxed that I am getting more familiar with the city and excited for the next six months.

Our first room.  I view from the bathroom.

Our bathroom.  You can see the shower head and the toilet paper is right next to the toilet.

Our room now.  To the left is a desk and widow with a view that you can't see in this picture.

This is one of the streets downtown.  All of them are like this but most have a lot more signs.

This is a scary Christmas decoration that was in a mall.