Tasha's Study Abroad Adventures: First Time Gambling Winnings = $675HK

So we didn’t end up making it to Shenzhen this weekend because Macau took up most of our time. We left the International House on Friday at around 3:00pm and a stop at McDonalds and one wavy ferry ride later ended up in Macau at around 7:30pm. Right before we left CUHK, we booked one room at the Presidente hotel for the eight of us that went. When we got there we checked in and dropped off our things, then went to dinner at this very good Portuguese restaurant. After dinner we went to the Venetian, which is the second largest building in the world. Some of the boys did some gambling while the rest of us just walked around the hotel. It was very cool inside! I am told it looks just like the one in Vegas.

After leaving the Venetian, we wandered the streets and found a bar to sit at for a while. By bar, I really mean a 7 Eleven type store with some outdoor seating. We hung out there for a bit and then went to check out the MGM. We didn’t stay there long because the minimum bets were too high so we ended up going back to the Presidente to gamble. I got talked into playing some black jack and ended up winning $675HK which pretty much paid for my whole trip (round trip ferry, hotel, food, etc.). We left casino around 3am because Erik wanted to go clubbing. He had been reading about this club in a travel book called D2 so some of us went there. Right when we walked in, I could have swore we were in a gay club from all the house music and the buff man dancing on stage. It ended up not being a gay club so we danced for a bit before we headed back to the hotel. Erik ended up sleeping in the bathtub, three guys on the floor, and the girls of course got one of the beds.

The next day after we checked out we did some site seeing. Having been a Portuguese colony, all of the architecture in Macau is very European. It reminded me a lot of some of the places I have been to in Spain. We left Macau in the late afternoon and headed back to CUHK.

The rest of the weekend, my mom and Mark were in town so I took them up to the Peak and told them some things to do for the rest of their time here since I was in school. Before they left, we made it out the Cheng Chao Island which is a small fishing town. There are no cars allowed on the island, but it is so small it doesn’t really matter. We then went back to Mongkok and had a huge hot pot dinner which was probably the best dinner I have had since being here. Hot pot is fun because you get to cook your own food, just like Korean Barbeque but in boiling broth.

Mom and Mark left today and tomorrow is my last day of school this week. The plan for the weekend is to make it the Shenzhen on Friday with my Swedish friend Cornelia. On Saturday a bunch of us are going on a school planned excursion to Po Toi and Lamma Island which are both in Hong Kong! For now, I am just waiting for the International House Orientation Party to start where apparently the warden is going to cook us some good food!